From Left to Right: My Nana, me, Sarah (with Rose), and Mom!
Happy Mothers Day!
How do we measure success in the classroom? Well, here is a little moment for me that made it all worth it! Wednesday of last week, it all came together. I teach Hybrid Entrepreneurship at Clemson…I also teach a business writing class, both classes are wrapped around entrepreneurship. Wednesday was the day of success.
I teach both of these classes back to back. The Business Writing class at 2:30pm and the Hybrid Entrepreneurship class at 4pm. When I walked into the Business Writing class, one of my students had a huge smile on her face. It was a smile of passion. This semester, they are writing about their passion, their business idea, and putting it in a business plan. Each class, a new piece of the puzzle is due then inserted into their business plan notebook. She had an idea.
As I made my way to the front of the class, she began pitching her idea. She explained the vision, the customers, the market, and how much it would cost. She had the entrepreneurial spirit and looked at me and asked, “Do you think I can do it?” I said…”What is stopping you?” She sat and thought…she said…”The money and the time.” The more we talked, the more I realized the idea was great and expensive. I told her to take what we learned in this class and write the plan. You could see she could not wait to get out the door and put her thoughts on paper. The spirit was alive.
As class ended, I made my way to Sirrine Hall for Hybrid Entrepreneurship. This class has to create a business idea that would solve a social problem yet generate profit. We are almost done with the project and I have been encouraging each group to not stop at the end of the semester. Each of the five groups have viable business ideas solving real social problems. Each could start a business immediately.
Two members of a group came to class early to find me. They had a question, “How do we actually make this a business?” They wanted to know about creating a LLC and they also wanted to know about how to manage the finances. They wanted to know about partner agreements. They were serious. They have a great business idea and they were ready to make the leap of faith into the world of entrepreneurship.
My goal with these classes, to teach the culture of entrepreneurship. I wanted to find and unlock the hidden passion and potential. These bright students are the leaders and innovators of tomorrow, they are the creative class. This day was a day of success, they are beginning to think beyond the A’s and B’s…and how to convert ideas into viable business ideas. Regardless if they succeed, they wanted to get up to the plate and take a swing at that fast ball.
This big ole movement for open source development is great…yeah. But really what is this movement? I was exposed to the idea of open source development about 4 years ago. It was when I joined a start-up company and every dollar was important. We were distributing video messages via email and needed a cost effective solution to manage the email distribution. So PHPlist was used as an open source solution. It was available to download, tailor to our needs, and provided the framework for the core part of the business. As a part of the GPL license, we had to “give back” to the community to make this community based software solution a richer offering. What do I mean by giving back, well offer findings, new code, ideas for updates, etc. that would allow others to adapt and improve this software.
So…from this software, I was exposed to other pieces of open source, web-based platforms like Joomla, WordPress, Moodle, Drupal, PHPlist, and the list goes on. All available to download and install in our server based environments to use. Numerous projects, numerous solutions, free software, open source software…maybe?
So…how many of us that download this open source software give back to the community. How many of us are takers and not givers?
I hear all the time, large companies trying to find new ways to save dollars…tired of paying large dollars for word processing and other office-based solutions. Oh yeah, there is Open Office by Sun Microsystems. Free to download, free to install, free to use, open-source software? But is it open and are we giving back to keep the community alive?
So does open source mean community?
Many people are touting the Android mobile market because of the open-source offering. What they mean is they want the flexibility to alter the source code to fit their needs. Maybe people interpret open source software as the means to alter the source code to fit their needs. But I thought the idea was to alter the source code and share this with the community. Are people sharing in this movement to make the community better or is it just leverage free software…to hack Motorola products in order to avoid paying fees for access. It is happening on Apple products as well, accessing and altering the base code to fit our wants. But what is the point? Oh yeah, for personal gain.
OK…I am not getting on a soap box, I speak from experience. But how many of us are just downloading this open-source software and not adding the the community project?
So is this open source movement really an open source movement? Are we really educated about the open source movement, the benefits, the burden, and the commitment to further the movement. Well, education is key. The point of this little post, there are places out there talking about open source software, talking about the community. Interested in learning more? POSSCON 2011 is in Columbia, SC on March 23, 24, and 25 and you can register here: http://posscon.org/register/
If you want a discount code, read this blog post and request a discount code. Yes…I did not mean to try to sell you a conference…but to raise your awareness about my thoughts and offer a logical solution. I will be there learning more about this community of open source.
So yes…the big announcement. The anticipation to speak freely about this announcement comes with the anxiousness of talking too freely. Yes…we are pregnant, as you can see in the little video above. We are 12 weeks and 4 days pregnant and we are so scared to get excited, fearful that something might happen to take this little bundle of joy away. But this anxious is soon to move to relief…it is finally our turn.
After 3 years and 3 miscarriages, Z4 has overcome all the odds. This is the furthest along we have ever made it. The 4 in Z4 stands for number four. Well…the Z comes from starting out as what clinical terms would call the little bundle of joy a Zygote. We are past the Zygote stage…but Z4 kind of has a ring to it. Ole Z4 is just keeps on growing, giving us more reasons each day to have faith…faith to see this little bundle of happiness bless us with his/her presence on September 13th. Yes…we have a due date.
Where did it all begin, well on our way home from our Christmas Vacation…January 1st to be exact, Sarah peed on the stick. For some crazy reason, Sarah has been peeing on sticks for three months previous like a mad woman. We could now invest in this technology. Do you know how expensive those little jokers are? She just happened to have one, and when we stopped on the way through Atlanta…the McDonalds bathroom provided the perfect venue to let us know that 2011 is going to be a good one.
For the next two months, we have been visiting a Reproductive Endocrinologist every two weeks, watching ultrasound after ultrasound. The little booger was growing and I recorded each one on my iPhone, sharing the video with close family. I missed the first one because the doc was so efficient, he did not give me time to get the phone out and capture the moment. He had us mesmerized with ultrasound technology and the thumping of a little heart. Sarah made me swear to never miss a video capture opportunity again. My close friend Patti wrote me after watching one of the videos stating that this little one will be the most video’d child she has ever seen.
So here we are…and we finally want to share. We are still a bit anxious, praying nothing happens. The little one has us attached, excited…it is our hope that you will share in our excitement. Z4’s heart rate is 154 b/m…my brother-in-law is making fun of me…saying it will be a girl. “Ole Wives Tales”…who believes in them. Especially since a fast heart rate by 12 weeks indicating a girl cannot be an “Old Wives Tale.” Why? Well, ultrasound technology has only been around scanning pregnancies since 1987. That is not old!
Anyways…not that I am opposed to a girl, but Sarah is one of three girls and her sister has two girls herself. Five women in this family, other than me and my brother-in-law…we need some testosterone in this family. But, if Z4 proves to be a stubborn little lady…well, I am just fine with her being daddy’s little girl.
So life is changing. Here I am…37 years old. My first child on the way. Self employed, entrepreneur, getting ready to be a sole supporter. Life is crazy, fun, exciting, and I love it. To my clients, get ready…might have a business meeting with my little one. Z4 is proving to be a college football child…gonna be born in the heart of Clemson Football season. Happy Birthday to myself…today is my birthday, and this day marks the beginning of the 2nd trimester. Apparently for couples like Sarah and I, that is a big step.
For many young bloggers and writers, the discovery phase of writing online is so new and confusing. There is a huge perception that what we write is going to be viewed as the gospel, and those comments can negatively impact our message. It is my humble opinion in that discovery phase of writing and blogging, that content is king.
It is important to create a focus for the content; learning how to communicate the message clearly. As bloggers/writers begin to find their niche, writing with a community takes it’s focus. It is this discovery phase that allows our internal engines to see what responses we receive and allow community driven content to naturally take shape. Obviously the joy is that we are using analytics to see where we engage certain audiences.
Here is what concerns me, so many times we read there is a heuristic or model to become a successful blogger/writer. Evverywhere we look, there is the “five steps” for this or that. To me, blogging is like an entrepreneurial experience.
I have two friends that have very good definitions of entrepreneurship:
- “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.” – John Warner quoting Peter F. Drucker
- “Entrepreneurship is an activity that involves the discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities to introduce new goods and services, ways of organizing markets, processes, and raw materials through organizing efforts that previously had not existed.” Sean Williams, Ph.D
If you read these two viewpoints, this to me parallels the blogging world. Bloggers specifically can become innovators with a capacity to create wealth. Bloggers find a need in the market place and focus their writing. This discovery engages that market place.
But…with writing and entrepreneurship, there is not always a clear path to the end and so we have to leverage our communities, and focus on our content. We also have to be passionate about our “product” and write about that passion. Even if the community is going in one direction, we have to be willing to explore new avenues to write about passionately…which engages thought leadership.
I think that there is more than a one stop model for each person in the writing process. Yes, if we a blogging for business…we need focus. But I do think we have look beyond reach, action items, and engagement; and allow ourselves to write in way that allows more of that discovery phase to shine. Writing and blogging can be a place to explore new ideas, new strategies, and empower people to find the voice they never knew they had.
This post was inspired by Mack Collier’s Post: The 3 Critical Content Creation Questions You Must Ask (And Answer!).
I a few months ago, I took a course from Nancy Eichstadt of Leadership Management Institute. She has helped me to become better organized and focused in my business and commitments. Each day she sends out a daily motivational. Some skip over my daily beat, but today this hits home.
I normally do not like to post content from other individuals, but today is a bit different. She sends out these notes via email, so I could not post a link to this note on Twitter or Facebook for my friends to enjoy. So here is to you Nancy Eichstadt and thanks for giving me a breath of fresh air today, enjoy friends!
YOUR DAILY MOTIVATION
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
YOU CLIMB A MOUNTAIN ONE STEP AT A TIME
Everyone who got where they are, had to begin where they were.
Your opportunity for success is right in front of you.
To attain success or to reach your goal,
don’t worry about having all the answers in advance.
You just need to have a clear idea of your goal and move toward it.
Don’t procrastinate when faced with a difficult problem.
Break your problems into parts and handle one part at a time.
Develop a tendency toward action.
You can make something happen today.
Break your big plan for success into small steps
and take the first step right away.
Success starts with beginning.
As I woke-up Christmas Even morning, I was checking my email before starting the holiday communication shutdown. As I was looking through my personal email account, I noticed an email from Honda. Apparently, there was “an unauthorized access to an email list used by a vendor of customers who receive special offers and newsletters from Acura.” They went on to state that, “As a company, we believe that all customer relationships must be built on trust.” Honda, you are right! It is about “Trust”! Then they stated, “That is why we believe it is important to inform you of this incident.” You can click here to read the whole email.
My Holiday Message
Now this is not a mere examination of the the Honda email practices, but something that I experienced yesterday. Yesterday, I sent out a short video holiday message to my friends, family, and clients. It was not necessarily just a Holiday Message, it was a reminder to a select group of people that I will be out of town the week after Christmas. As I was putting together the email, I choose each person that will receive this email carefully based on the message. I also chose to send it out yesterday because I knew most of the recepients would still be in the office to open the email or would open it upon their return on Monday, December 27th. The purpose once again, a reminder. So far, %81 of the people have opened the message, which is about what I expected.
During the day, I received little notes from many people thanking me for the reminder, and also some that just enjoyed the funny video. Each person I know on a first name basis, and can honestly subscribe them to my Mail Client (MailChimp) because we email each other, each and everyday. We not only have a personal relationship in person but also a digital communication relationship based on information transaction.
Misuse of Email Addresses
Late Thursday afternoon, I received a Holiday Message where someone had sent an email to every email address they had in their address book. How do I know this, because all 1181 individual email addresses were in the “To:” field. This person has shared their whole client list, personal relationships, basically every email address they have with each of the 1181 people that received this note. This is a scary proposition. Two of my email addresses were in that distribution, so now I am subject to anyone who wants to use my email list for ill will. I do not know all of the 1181 people, so I have no idea if each of them is trust worthy enough to not use my email address properly. Email is about trust.
When we hand out our business cards or share our email address with someone, what are we “opting-in” to receive? How do we set expectations with the person whom we share our email address? I have four email address each with a specific purpose. I have one business email account, one personal account, one for my students at Clemson, and one for purchasing. Each has a specific purpose. I also ask people who send me business emails to my personal account to send to my business account. I also ask my students not to send class email to my personal or business account. I even ask my family to refrain from sending funny joke emails to my business account. So, when a person who has two of my email accounts sends a bulk email to all of their contacts, that is a violation of my email policy. Now I sound a little harsh, but this is how I have to manage my email.
Clemson University’s Email
Recently, at the end of the semester, some of my students were complaining about the amount of email Clemson sends to them. I have to agree…as a part time employee, I receive more email in one day from Clemson than I receive in one week from my busiest client. I am actually a bit overwhelmed. I on average receive 30 plus emails a day about a server problem, parking reminder, poetry exhibit, and the list goes on. I just hit delete, delete, delete. It is so bad, that I miss important email buried in the tons of email I receive daily from the university. Chartjunk as Tufte would say! “Chartjunk refers to all visual elements in charts and graphs that are not necessary to comprehend the information represented on the graph, or that distract the viewer from this information.” I think it applies here!
So I asked the students to write a paper to make recommendations to the university, to use email as a better resource to engage and inform the audiences at Clemson. I found some interesting responses, but the unified answer is do a better job delivering the proper email information to the person that is the actual consumer of this information.
Digital Communication
I have so many different ways I communicate with people digitally. I use Facebook, Twitter, Email, Mobile Phone Texting, and even Skype. I use email as a more formal form of communication, more of a contractual way to document conversations. But I use email based on the relationship with the recipient. This is a mutual proposition that allows us to interact in a private environment where we understand that we will not share information unless it is a part of the communication agreement. To me, Email is about Trust.
A few weeks ago, I heard a colleague chastising someone for putting the disclaimers in the bottom of their email signature. You know, the part that explains this is a communication between the above parties and not to share this confidential information. My colleague was saying that this is too much information for people to read and understand. But it is the actions I list above that have led to individuals being forced to set expectations with the recipient. Why…well, there are those who abuse our trust and share our private information with others.
Communication is about trust. I know we can just hit delete…but should we respond to those who abuse this transaction, informing them of our expectations, educating them of how we view our “address” should be used. Would you do so if that same person walked in your house without knocking…I think this is the same thing.
To learn about the MailChimp’s Email Terms of Use Policy, CLICK HERE.
To learn about SPAM and the CAN-SPAM Act of 2004, CLICK HERE.
So we are off…off to enjoy some time with family. It is Christmas and it’s that time of year when we take some time to enjoy a cabin out in the middle of NOWHERE. Well actually, the mountains of Georgia. For the fourth year, Sarah and I, along with Sarah’s two sisters (Jennifer and Susanna), and Jennifer’s husband Tom & their two kids (Maggie and Sadie), take to the the holiday travel and enjoy the mountains of Georgia. Sometimes, Sarah’s father Marty tags along…but it is sporadic. BTW, Sarah’s birthday is the day after Christmas…so this is also a birthday weekend as well!
So bottomline…I am out of pocket from Christmas Day until Monday, January 3rd of the new year. Yes, can you believe it is almost 2011, close to 20 years since I graduated from good ole Daniel High School. So this little note is to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I will not be seeing you until my return…no offense. Do not worry, my family is watching the house and my awesome assistant and partner in crime is monitoring everything. Thanks Wendi…she ROCKS!
I will be enjoying the get away of a log cabin and nothing but woods. My job…make sure the fire in the fireplace does not die. That is it! Oh, yes I will be watching tons of football.
So bottom-line, I am not sure if I will have good/any cell phone reception and I will have an auto-responder set-up on my email. I will monitor just in-case of an emergency. If you like to mess around on Facebook and Twitter, well I will be Tweeting and updating Facebook. Here is my updated contact information:
Bobby Rettew
864-209-1467
http://twitter.com/bobbyrettew
http://Facebook.com/bobbyrettew (personal page)
http://Facebook.com/brllc (business page – “Like Me” if you like!)
So…Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and GO TIGERS!
Bobby
So…this holiday season, I have been trying to take the time to write holiday cards. For the past three years, I have been creating a little holiday video that is from me to all my clients, friends, and family. One message to all of these people. Typically I would have about a 85% open rate, and about 90% of those who open would enjoy close to a minute of the video. These stats told me…that this was an impersonal way of saying Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays.
I have had this little bird singing in my head, telling me to do something a bit different. It is something that I remember John Warner saying in the first NetworkBash a few years ago. He was talking to the audience, explaining how after his yearly event called InnoVenture….he would write each person a thankyou note. This note was handwritten. I would bet he probably had a 100% open rate and 100% of those who opened the letter actually read the note. I don’t know about you, but when I receive a hand written thank you note, I read it!
The other day, I received a hand written thank you note from a very important public figure…I was humbled and honored. This busy person took just a few moments out of his busy, public policy day to write me a thank you note! WOW! His written words inspired me this holiday season.
What many people do not know about me is that I love buying cards. I like to find funny, off color cards that make people laugh. Each birthday, I typically buy two or three birthday cards for each person and number them in order for the recipient to open. I have been known to find a store with good cards and buy them out. I actually made a lady mad in Beaufort for buying all of her funny cards…I think I spend about $150.00 that day. I have a good collection for the perfect moment.
So this Christmas…I went out and bought cards. Funny cards, professional cards, thank you note cards, and generic holiday cards. I sat down and wrote to each person, each client, each friend a personal thank you note. I wrote to each client thanking them for their business and friendship. Some were sent off-color cards, some more professional cards, and some a typical holiday cards. But to each person, I wrote a personal thank you note. I let them know why I wrote and let them know that appreciated their relationship.
It got to be one fun little task. I got through the list of 100+ plus and kept on finding more funny cards, more appropriate cards. So I wrote to more people. It was therapeutic! I did not write to my close family members because I will be seeing this a lot during this holiday season, but I tried to write to as many people as I could. Some I did not, because I could not track down their address, so I will hand deliver. Some…I am still remembering and writing as fast as I can.
So this holiday season, how are you letting those you care about…know you care? Sometimes a hand written note says a lot…I know it does for me!
Hello friends, here are my links for the week. As you can see…they include doctors tweeting, social media, medical social media, Elizabeth Edwards, and Leadership. I hope you enjoy and let me know your thoughts about any of these articles!
December 8, 2010 | Michael Moore-Jones
I’m 16 and, unusually, I use Twitter quite a bit. I say unusually because perhaps you’ve heard that teens don’t tweet. This first came to light last year when a 15-year-old Morgan Stanley intern wrote a report [PDF] where he explained that teens “realize they are not going to update it,” and that “no one is viewing their profile, so their ‘tweets’ are pointless.” CLICK HERE to read more.
December 8, 2010 | Meghan O’Rourke
It wasn’t her political career but the window she gave us into the reality—and illusions—of dying. CLICK HERE to read more.
December 9, 2010 | Bryan Vartabedian, MD
I learned this only recently: people vary in how they like to consume their content. For the longest time I managed the distribution of my blog content passively: push it out on RSS and Twitter. Then let the chips fall where they may. CLICK HERE to read more.
I learned this only recently: people vary in how they like to consume their content. For the longest time I managed the distribution of my blog content passively: push it out on RSS and Twitter. Then let the chips fall where they may. CLICK HERE to read more.
December 10, 2010 | Thornton Kirby
I’m frustrated. Finally, after nearly a year of relentless campaign promises and bickering about everything except the real challenges facing our nation, this campaign is over. CLICK HERE to read more.
December 12, 2010 | Stefan Lindegaard
A legendary story about Tom Watson Jr., who guided IBM in its glory days, bears repeating in any discussion about smartfailing. According to the story, a vice president who had lost the corporation $10 million on an experiment that failed was called to Watson’s office. CLICK HERE to read more.