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News Random Thoughts

The Twitter feature the world desperately needs

Disclaimer: This is not a job application, I am perfectly happy with my job at ServiceNow.

Back before the 2020 election, I had an idea for a post that as of yet, hasn’t come to fruition titled, “Apparently, I’m President”. Who knows if that post will ever come to see the light of day, as of right now it is entirely in my head (and as you can tell by the fact it’s been over a year since I last posted it may never see the light of day, life’s been busy). I won’t get into a ton of detail but the main premise of the post but there were several items I would pursue if I all of a sudden found myself as the president of the United States.

Honestly, most of the ideas that would make up that post if it ever comes to be would be quite a stretch to see become a reality. There’s one idea, however, with the recent Twitter takeover by Elon Musk could actually happen. Whether you agree with his tactics or not, he is definitely making things happen on/at Twitter.

The idea came to me when I was listening to Brené Brown’s podcast. I’m not going to get the quote exactly right, however, the gist of what she said was that the average person no longer had the ability to tell the difference between fact and opinion which in my opinion is largely due to social media and the advent of the 24-hour news cycle (there’s another blog post in there titled “The Day the Music Died” for those keeping score in the back).

Some of the ideas I had were to use advances in technology and apply them to the way our government works because we’re finally getting to a tipping point when it comes to technology and the speed at which technology can be delivered to the average person. My idea is this: there should be a way for a user to watch a live broadcast with real-time fact-checking taking place. An example of how this would work is shown below.

Mock up of a Twitter Fact checker overlaid on mocked up news broadcast.
Mock-up of how real-time fact-checking could occur.

There are two sections to this image:

  1. Main viewing pane [left-hand side]: this pane would allow the user to view a live TV stream (they’d have to log into their service provider to view the live broadcast)
  2. Twitter Fact-Checking Bot [right-hand side]: this pane would provide a real-time transcript overlaid with indicators of whether the statement being made is factually accurate or not.

In order to make something like this happen we would need to have a repository of transcripts of public statements made by public figures, items that were spoken publicly or posted online publicly, and cross-referenced with the public figure. This repository would also need to account for statements that were made where the public figure later publicly apologized (and not a typical “I’m sorry how my statement affected person X” but a true apology where admission of guilt and a sincere promise of remediation is given). In the short term, this fact-checking could even be crowdsourced from reputable sources where users could submit evidence of the veracity of a statement in real time with monitors checking the credibility of the sources cited. In reality, we’re already pretty close to this version being a reality with the number of folks who live-tweet broadcasts.

What are your thoughts? Continue the conversation on Twitter here.

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Random Thoughts

Grandpa, you wouldn’t believe…

(that’s me in the bottom left, my grandfather is in the top right)

My paternal grandfather passed away in the summer of 2001, the year I graduated from Drake University and began my professional career. Thankfully, I was able to see him a few weeks before he passed away. He was a BRILLIANT man. There wasn’t a problem that man couldn’t solve if he put his mind to it. I’m pretty sure my, “there has got to be a better way of doing this” attitude was passed down to me from him. He was also a rascally old cuss as well and was more than willing to tell you how he felt about anything he had an opinion on. I have caught myself several times since he passed away wondering what he would think about the world we live in today. This is my letter to him, explaining where we find ourselves in 2021…

Grandpa,
You wouldn’t believe what the world has become like since you left…

Remember how you used to work for Phillips Petroleum as an electrician, even working on Frank Phillps’ electric model train? You won’t believe it, but I work for Phillips 66 now.

Remember those things called computers? You never had one in your house, but would you believe my phone is more powerful than any computer you ever encountered and it fits in my pocket? I can now have a video chat with anyone I want to anywhere in the world instantaneously because of the internet that was just gaining traction while you were still alive. It was my daughter’s birthday this week and mom got to watch Abbie unwrap her presents even though we are in Owasso and she’s in St. Louis! When I was in India back in 2019 I could video call with my wife (I wish you would have gotten to meet her!) even though there was an 11.5 hour time difference between us and I was half a world away.

Remember how Jason and I used to have to be so quiet during the drive through Tulsa when we went to visit you because you were super cautious about our safety? You wouldn’t believe it, but we’re starting to see cars that can drive themselves so that people don’t even have to pay attention.

You used to watch the news every night, now between the major news networks broadcasting 24 hours a day, the internet, and these apps (computer programs that run on our phones) called Facebook, Twitter, and others we now have “news” (really, a lot of it is just someone spouting off their opinion) constantly at our fingertips. You would think it would make us more informed but really it just makes everyone frustrated all the time with people they don’t agree with.

Grandpa, you wouldn’t believe it, but shortly after you died, I went to work for a medical software company that has helped advance patient care drastically, yet in 2020 and into 2021 a new virus has ravaged the world and created a global pandemic like the 1918 flu pandemic you learned about in school. The pandemic forced the world to shut down which meant for a lot of the last year my kids have done a significant portion of their schooling completely virtual (through a computer screen, a video call with their whole classroom).

The pandemic started with a worldwide “kumbaya, we can get through anything” moment as the world banded together to beat this virus, but you wouldn’t believe how isolated people became because of it, sitting alone or with just their family watching movies or working completely remotely over the internet and gobbling up news and opinions all day long. Partner the isolation with the fact that 2020 was an election year in the United States and we were sitting on a powder keg ready to explode.

Then, the world watched as a white police officer knelt on a black man’s neck for nine minutes while he cried out for his momma and the fuse ignited and the world cried out, “WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH!” George Floyd was not the only person of color to tragically lose their life unjustly last year but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back and has led to some really good and VERY necessary conversations about systemic racism and the way our society’s laws and policies are stacked against people who are not white. The really sad part is, as time progressed the conversations and the fact we were having then became another issue that divided us as a country.

As November rolled around bringing with it the US presidential election things got even dicier. Fueled by misinformation and wild accusations on both sides tempers flared even hotter and on January 6th, 2021 the unthinkable happened, a mob of people, in the name of patriotism, stormed the US Capitol during a sitting session of Congress, all while the world watched.

We’ve got several vaccines now to help us fight the virus and some people are projecting that things might be back to normal soon, but grandpa, you wouldn’t believe where we’re at and how we got ourselves into this mess, too many people talking and definitely not enough people listening. I could really use your wisdom right now. I’m trying to be a voice of reason and banding together with like-minded folks looking for solutions instead of just complaining about all of the problems, but sometimes it’s just hard grandpa. I’m trying to make you proud, but I’m also trying to make this world a place I’m proud to hand over to my children and their generation.

I miss you, grandpa,

Jeff

I’ve often heard it said, “if you wouldn’t treat your grandmother like that, don’t treat anyone else that way either,” but honestly a better question might be, “would your grandparents be proud of who you are online, would your children be proud when they’re older if they saw the things you post online and the way you talk to/about other people?”

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Random Thoughts

Looking back on 2020 & forward to 2021

I don’t know who the originator of the image above is but when I saw Will Smith post it to his Instagram I thought it perfectly captured how 2021 has started.

I intentionally held off on any sort of 2020 lookback post due to a sneaking suspicion that 2020 wasn’t going to ride quietly off into the sunset. As I suspected, folks are already giving 2021 the side-eye due to the events of last week and asking if the return policy is still valid.

Looking back at 2020…

There are a couple of ways for me to look back at 2020. First, if I look at the numbers from a goals perspective I did really well on some goals, but not as well on others. From a weight perspective, I started the year strong, faltered a little mid-year as the stress of the pandemic and managing two major projects with a team completely remotely took hold, then started getting it back together as you can see from the graph below. Overall, I lost 18 pounds, so not quite what I wanted, but still a partial win in my book.

From a mental standpoint, I have had a goal to continue learning Spanish & German and I did ok on that goal, definitely something to focus more on in 2021.

Also on the mental front, due to my discovery and a new love for audiobooks, I blew my “reading” goal out of the water (by 15 books).

On the less tangible/measurable/soft-skills front, there was A LOT of growth in 2020. Navigating the pandemic with kids starting the pivot-to-home strategy of online learning (and being quarantined an additional 2 times) while my team delivered on two major capital projects at work while completely remote (Gray Oak & Sweeny Hub Expansion – my team is completely responsible for the back office systems related to our pipelines and terminals) was a major growth time for me personally. 2020 was also a big year for me in terms of growth in empathy & vulnerability. The near-constant need to be keeping my finger on the pulse of my team’s emotional, mental, and physical health stretched me in ways I could never have imagined before 2020, stretching that I am extremely grateful for because it made me an even better leader.

On the family front, each year except for a few years after Michael passed away, Mandy has created photo books to document what the Miles family did each year. This year, she determined that we were going to have a 2020 book done in time for Christmas. As she reviewed the book for the year she commented that our motto for 2020 must have been, “I’m so quarantined I’m going to be intentional.” Since we weren’t allowed to go and be around people, we went to the great outdoors, so much so that if you look at all of the pictures, it’s hard to believe we were actually quarantined. We did a great job getting out and exploring as a family. Here’s a picture from our trip to North Carolina where we went and hiked to find a waterfall (no masks because there were no people around 😁).

Social Upheaval…

2020 was a very hard year and it wouldn’t be fair to talk about 2020 without mentioning the social upheaval that happened in 2020. I’m currently reading Atomic Habits by James Clear and it had a section that had I read it at any other point in time it would probably not have hit me quite as hard. He’s talking about how habits can either compound for you or against you.

Outrage compounds. Riots, protests, and mass movements are rarely the result of a single event. Instead, a long series of microaggressions and daily aggravations slowly multiply until one event tips the scales and outrage spreads like wildfire.

Atomic Habits – p. 19 – James Clear

On June 1st, 2020, I wrote a post titled We make better music together… and I stand by everything I wrote in that post. The sad thing is that we are even more divided now than we were then, largely in part in my mind due to the backfire effect. The theme of diversity and inclusion has taken front and center stage as we roll into 2021 and I fully intend on writing about my thoughts in D&I very soon. In Jesse Andersen’s Listening Session episode with Brie Davis on The Art of Understanding podcast, Brie mentioned that due to the pandemic we didn’t have anything else to do so when the atrocities against Ahmad Arbury, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd were committed, the world could do nothing but watch and respond. My immediate response was to become very reflective on my behavior and I immediately reached out to the folks who had previously been on my team as well as the folks currently on my team to check on them as well as ask the very probing question, “Did I ever do anything as your supervisor that was racist?” I asked the same question of my current female employees replacing “racist” with “misogynistic”. If 2020 taught me anything as a leader and human being it was to be extremely vulnerable with others as well as very self-reflective and ensure there were no planks in my own eye.

Looking forward to 2021…

The subject line of one of my email newsletters as 2021 rolled around…

As I look forward to 2021, there’s nothing intrinsic to 2021 that is going to make it any different than 2020. I had a really hard time keeping my mouth shut when people would say they couldn’t wait till 2020 was over. I know from a mental standpoint, there’s a natural mental break between 2021, but we’re the folks that got ourselves into the 2020 mess and we’re the ones that in 2021, with God’s help, will have to get ourselves out of this mess.

From a pure numbers standpoint, I have a goal to lose weight and get down to and maintain at 280 pounds, read/listen to 50 books, get 2 Duolingo Spanish & German lessons under my belt for at least 292 of the 365 days this year (80%), and get through the entire list of 5,412 articles saved to Pocket (either by reading the article or deciding that I don’t really need to read it anymore because the moment has passed) as well as make major strides on an application I want to write once I am finished getting my blog healthy again and am blogging regularly.

On the less tangible side, my goals are to be a better leader, helping others navigate the cycles of grief, and find meaning, that they’re inevitably going to be going through this year (Brené Brown had a great podcast interview with David Kessler that I need to brush up on and I recommend you listen to as well where David explores the 6th stage of grief). I also plan to share quite a bit on my blog. The impetus for me restarting/refocusing on my blog was through my 40+ years on this rock I have learned A LOT of lessons the hard way and gained a lot of perspectives and I have felt a need to share those lessons with others as a way to give back.

Finally, my goal is to continue to Love, Lead, & Build.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

John 13:35 (NIV)

If there’s any way I can help you, please connect with me and reach out. I really want 2021 to be a year where I continue to invest in others and build others up.

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Faith Family Random Thoughts

We make better music together…

We make better music together…

Together – For King and Country featuring Kirk Franklin & Tori Kelly

As an introvert, there is something about music that has always been a retreat for me. Without a doubt though, I love collaborations more than anything. Two (or more) artists taking their unique style and blending it together into something greater than either one of them can achieve on their own has always been magical to me.

As I look around at what is happening in our world right now it breaks my heart. The dissonance and discord are deafening.

I have struggled with what to say because the last thing I want to do to my black brothers and sisters is to insult you with more ‘whitesplaining’, we don’t need any more of that. The most important thing we need right now is white people willing to listen and hope to understand because whether we want to recognize or admit it or not, we’re the ones with the privilege and with that privilege comes responsibility.

I am a large, bald, strong man with tattoos on both arms that can be very intimidating if you don’t know me. When my son was born I made a promise to myself that he would know that strength (or in this case privilege) was never to be used to your advantage. Since he was a little guy, I would ask him “why are we strong?” to which the appropriate response was always and will always be, “to protect other people.” Even with the looks that I get like the “I’m going to eat someone’s children,” looks (direct quote from someone who finally got to know me), I can’t even fathom what my black brothers deal with on a daily basis. My heart breaks for the mothers raising young black boys knowing they are raising beautiful young boys that will one day be looked at with distrust and fear.

To the people in my circle asking, “why the riots and looting? What does it accomplish?” We were warned over 50 years ago and we still didn’t listen or change.

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

John F. Kennedy – March 13, 1962

“… But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense, our nation’s summer of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again.”

Martin Luther King Jr. – “The Other America” – April 4, 1967

And to those who would say that Dr. King protested peacefully and others should follow suit, remember, we killed him too.

To my black brothers and sisters, I know that talk is cheap, “what am I doing about it?”, you have every right to ask.

First, my children will know that hate or discrimination in any form is unacceptable. On the night the George Floyd protests were starting I shared an open letter from the mother of a black boy to his white friends’ parents so we could have the discussion that their friends of color were not growing up in the same world they experienced and it was their responsibility to stand up for and stand with them.

Second, I work for an amazing company that strongly encourages diversity & inclusion and I will continue to support and encourage the employee resource groups that represent minority populations.

Finally, I promise to listen. Forgive me for my ignorance. Please, tell me how to help and stand with you.

I’m not black, but I see you.
I’m not black, but I hear you.
I’m not black, but I mourn with you.
I’m not black, but I will fight for you.
I’m not black, and I love you!

On May 4, 2020, the following collaboration video premiered amid the COVID-19 crisis and is more relevant now than ever. We make better music together…

Please, tell us how to stand with you.

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Faith Family Fitness Fun Functions Random Thoughts What's up

I don’t have birthdays, I level up!

birthday-level-upFor those of you who know me, you know that the month of October is pretty crazy for my family…we have 4 birthdays during the month of October, including mine… I have decided that I’m not going to see it as a birthday though. I loved video games growing up and my favorite one was Final Fantasy (I still have it on my Gameboy Advanced). Final Fantasy was a role playing game where your team of four Warriors of Light, each carrying an orb representing one of the four elements, travelled the world defeating the enemies that were keeping the orbs dark and thus saving the world. Like most role playing games, as your characters fought battles and beat enemies they gained experience points. When they had accumulated enough experience points, they would “level up” which would result in them becoming stronger, more intelligent, and for those with magical abilities, more magical abilities. I made a decision this year when I had my birthday, I would no longer see it as getting older. I see that every day in the new gray hairs in my beard and hair that greet me anew each morning and the hairline making that slow, painful march towards the back of my head. What I want to focus on is this, “How did I “level up” with regards to Faith, Family, Fitness, Fun, & Functions?” After thinking about it, here is what I have come up with. This year I leveled up in the following ways:

  • Faith: While I have always tried to have an active devotional life, this year, I figured out what works for me. Thanks to the Bible App, I have found plans that work for me to get a good dose of the word (almost) every morning. I have always tried the route of reading through the Bible in a year, but most of the time it just wouldn’t sink in the way I wanted it to, the chunks were too big. This year, I started with a Joyce Meyer devotional plan and a Billy Graham devotional plan that were offered within the Bible App and I love it. I get a daily dose of Word along with the opinion and insights from people I greatly respect. In addition to this, I have been listening to the Church on the Move podcast on a regular basis. A few years ago, my in-laws bought me a 160 GB iPod and I filled that sucker up…I have sermons and podcasts going back to 2009 from Church on the Move and I figured out a nifty little trick on my iPod to be able to listen to them in chronological order so what I do is just start the first sermon and the let them go while I am working, mowing, or doing other things…it is awesome!
  • Family: Our family continues to get better and better. Caleb is reading like a champ and his teacher says he is just doing amazingly. Carrie is blossoming more and more each day. Abbie is coming full force into her personality and it is amazing getting to know this little fireball that is our third child. Mandy and I are more united than we have ever been, we don’t even fight over finances anymore :-). That is huge! The interesting thing about our finances and the stress it used to cause and how we resolved it was that it was one small change that we made to how we budgeted that got us on the same page and revolutionized how we communicated about our finances. It wasn’t a huge revelation, it was tweaking the way one piece of our finances was represented on our budgeting spreadsheet that helped us see exactly where we were with our money and with that one little clarification, we got it and we were able to see things eye to eye.
  • Fitness: If you have been reading my blog or known me for any length of time, you know I struggle with my weight and have been trying to lose weight for a long time. This year I had a revelation in how to structure my workouts so that they were actually doable. Previously, I had been trying to do P90X either in my morning or in the evenings but with 3 kids and running a business on the side I was very sporadic in my workouts and wasn’t seeing the results that I wanted. I tried working out at work by running on the elliptical but the frustrating thing was it took me 45 minutes to an hour during work to get a 30 minute run in, then I remembered that our workout facility at Phillips 66 has a pool…light bulb…if I go down and swim for 20 to 30 minutes, it only takes me a minimal amount of time to get from work to the pool and from the pool back to work…bingo…and the pool is open enough in the morning that I an get there almost every day because I can almost always find 30 minutes to get down to the pool. By getting consistent with the pool workouts it took the pressure off me trying to get an hour workout at home so I was able to cut my lifting routine down to 30 minutes a night which makes it so much easier to do.
  • Fun: The big win for Mandy and I this year was that we took the kids to Disney World. While that was the highlight, we have also tried to make sure that we do something fun on a regular basis. We just recently had a staycation where we went to Incredible Pizza, the Tulsa Children’s Museum, and had a movie night. We have fun. We also like to win and right now Caleb’s soccer team (the one I coach) is one win away from being undefeated this season. Carrie started dance lessons this past summer and absolutely loved them.
  • Functions: I hit a major career milestone this year. The interesting thing about it was that it came with very little fanfare through an IM from one of my co-workers and I didn’t even realize it was that much of a goal for me until I hit it. In my side business I also have a major announcement coming very soon which will be very cool for us and become a great avenue of blessing for us in addition to my main job at Phillips 66. I need to keep quiet on these things right now but will let you know as soon as I can.

Overall, this has been a great year, I’m looking forward to how I will level up next year and what God has in store for me and my family. Sound off in the comments below with how this year has been a great year for you!

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Random Thoughts

Seven Questions about the last year

On December 29th, 2009 Michael Hyatt posted a very thought provoking article on processing what the last year has contained.  You can read it here.  The gist is that there are 7 questions you should ask yourself about the last year.  This post is my attempt to process these questions for myself from a business perspective.   I will be doing resolution/goal setting posts next week, but here is a look back.

  1. If the last year were a movie of your life, what would the genre be?
    I would have to say suspense.  Two Miles Solutions, LLC will be celebrating its 3rd birthday in March of 2010 so we are still on that upward curve where you don’t know sometimes where that next paycheck is coming from.  This is especially true given what the economic climate in our country was this year.  All that being said, Two Miles Solutions, LLC is ending the year on a great foot and things look very good for 2010.
  2. What were the two or three major themes that kept recurring?
    – Gaining a deeper understanding…this was a year where I grew a lot as an individual, from a business owner perspective, I have learned quite a lot about the politics that you have to play as a business owner sometimes and as much as you try and stay out of the BS, it finds you.  I have learned how to use a lot of cool tools this year and have developed quite the toolbox for myself to help other customers.
    –  Survival of the Fittest…as most of you know this was a tough year economically for a lot of people because of the recession, many businesses shut down, but Two Miles Solutions, LLC is still alive and kicking and looking forward to what 2010 will contain.
  3. What did you accomplish this past year that you are the most proud of?
    I think the first thing I have to say is that I survived.  A lot of business owners I know had to close shop this year.  I am proud to say that Two Miles Solutions, LLC is right on the verge of some really cool things that look to be shaping up for the 2010 calendar year.
  4. What do you feel you should have been acknowledged for but weren’t?
    This one is a personal question that I don’t feel I should post for the world to see.
  5. What disappointments or regrets did you experience this last year?
    There are a few projects that I worked on this year that should have gained traction but for one reason or another didn’t.  All four projects hold the promise of residual income that will allow me to spend less time working and more time with my family, but for reasons I can’t elaborate to the entire world (most if not all of them completely out of my control) none of them turned out the way we expected.  Things are looking better for 2010 on all four projects, but we will see.
  6. What was missing from last year as you look back?
    Sleep.  Most people who know me know that I don’t get a whole lot of sleep.  I hope to change this in 2010 and going forward.
  7. What were major life-lessons you learned this past year?
    When with your family, you need to disconnect from the office.  This is a huge thing for me given that I work from home.  What this means for me is that sometimes I leave my cell phone in my office so that I am not checking my email at the dinner table.
    – Sometimes you just need a break.  As much as I would like to think that I am superman, I am not, sometimes I just need to stop and relax.

Hopefully, you found this post insightful, I would recommend doing the same as you get ready to start the new year and set goals for the upcoming year.  You can’t figure out where you are going if you don’t know where you have been.

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Random Thoughts

Did it have to be?

I read an article today on facebook while I was browsing through status updates that the government is thinking that the recession is finally over.  They gave the concession that life is still going to be hard for people affected by the recession.

I also read different blog posts postulating what it would have been like on 9/11/2001 if we would have had twitter, facebook, and all the other social media that we have today…and in the light of what happened with the recent recession, the thought scares me…

My status update on my facebook profile caused a discussion where I felt like I might have offended some people and that was not my intent, I didn’t express my opinion very well so this post is an attempt to clarify what I meant.  Carin, I’m sorry if I in any way made you feel like the recession is over for everyone and that people are not still being affected by what happened in our economy.

Did our country just go through the largest recession since the 1930’s?  We did, some would argue that, but that is not my point with this post.  My point is asking the question, did it have to be this way?  My answer is no, but with the combination of the national news networks and social media proliferation a situation that could have been turned around was blown way out of proportion and people started reacting out of fear which is never a good thing.

Let me make a confession, I haven’t watched CNN, Fox, MSNBC, or any other national news station since January.  Before the election last year I did watch the news because I wanted to stay informed about the candidates and have as much knowledge about who was running so that I could do my civic (and biblical I might add) duty and in the most informed way that I could possible.  In my mind there really wasn’t a good candidate, both of the major party candidates had some things right, but also had some pretty major things wrong, but I voted the best way I could.  Anyway, back on track.  After the election, I shut off the news because I was sick of hearing about the economy.  I turned the TV on for about half an hour while I was working one day in January and shut it off after about 30 minutes because I still didn’t want to be hearing about the economy, the national news networks were feeding the fear.

Let’s look at the national news networks for a second, what are they in business for?  Take a second to think about it…

They are a business, which means they are in business to make money, regardless of what your product is (in their case it is reporting the news) a person goes into business to make money.  They sit around tables planning how they are going to make money and what will make them money.  If this wasn’t the case, then the news networks would be non-profit organizations.  How does a news network keep people watching their news network?  They make people afraid.  That’s it.

My mother in law gets my wife a Reader’s Digest subscription every year for Christmas and the issue covers just make me laugh.  If you are a RD subscriber, participate in an exercise with me…grab your stack of RD magazines…now ask yourself the question, what sells magazines?  Look at your RD covers…

8/1/2009 – Brad Paisley “I’d like to beat up the guy who says…”, The best way to avoid scams… (playing on fear)
7/1/2009 – 50 Secrets your Dentist Won’t Tell You (playing on fear)
5/1/2009 – not too bad, but there is the cancer risk you can switch off…(playing on fear)
4/1/2009 – the shocking truth about cancer tests (playing on fear)
2/1/2009 – keep more of your cash! 29 tips to put YOU back in control (playing on fear)
1/1/2009 – Beat the Cheaters! 9 new scams to avoid. (playing on fear)
12/1/2008 – another not too bad one…maybe they took a break from the fear for the holidays.
11/1/2008 – election issue, health care related…another fearful subject for a lot of people (playing on fear)
10/1/2008 – 13 things your pharmacist won’t tell you (playing on fear)
9/1/2008 – Election ’08 Who’s best for our future, on the bottom 13 things your computer guy won’t tell you…(playing on fear)
8/1/2008 – TEEN DRIVERS AT RISK, Smart Fixes That Save Lives (playing on fear)
7/1/2008 – 41 (WOW) Things Doctors Never Tell You (playing on fear)

Hmm…fluffy the happy dog didn’t make any of the covers…

The point is, news networks make their money by scaring people…that’s what keeps people watching…I remember back in October, Ali Velshi on CNN was backpedaling because people were starting to freak out about the economy.  He was telling people to stop freaking out, the problem is he was talking out of both sides of his mouth.  On one hand he was talking about the financial collapse, preaching doom and gloom…by the time he told people to stop freaking out, it was too late, the snowball was already rolling.

My theory is that if people would have shot their TVs and stopped littering (I mean twittering) their fear, things wouldn’t have gotten nearly as bad as they did.  Dave Ramsey said on his Fox Business show (I don’t know where he got his numbers) that only 4% of the US was affected by the housing “collapse” and it was primarily in areas that were already too inflated to begin with.  He went on to say that 68% of the US population thought they were on the verge of losing everything.  A 64% gap between reality and perception…where in the world did this gap come from…any guesses?  You got it, the national news networks (and everyone facebook and twittering their fear to all the people around them).  So now we have 64% of the American population making decisions based on fear, which is never a good thing…Other companies just used the recession as an excuse to trim things they should have trimmed a long time ago.  But the end result was panic in the American population because a majority of the population was thinking they were going to lose everything and twittering and facebooking it to everyone they knew causing even more panic.

So now we are dealing with recovering from a recession where too many people lost their jobs because of fear.  America will do it, we always do.  I just hope we learned our lesson.  We’ll see.

My answer to the question what would it have been like on 9/11/2001 (and following) without belittling how bad it was is that it would have been hell on Earth.  The fear would have been overpowering.  To use a social marketing term, like it did during this recession, fear would have gone viral, but the degree to which it would have gone viral is horrifying…you thought this recession was bad…

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Random Thoughts

Thoughts on the Recession from a Business Owner…

Let me make a confession, I haven’t watched CNN, Fox, MSNBC, or any other national news station since January. Before the election last year I did watch the news because I wanted to stay informed about the candidates and have as much knowledge about who was running so that I could do my civic (and biblical I might add) duty and in the most informed way that I could possible. In my mind there really wasn’t a good candidate, both of the major party candidates had some things right, but also had some pretty major things wrong, but I voted the best way I could. Anyway, back on track. After the election, I shut off the news because I was sick of hearing about the economy. I turned the TV on for about half an hour while I was working one day in January and shut it off after about 30 minutes because I still didn’t want to be hearing about the economy, the national news networks were feeding the fear.

I heard today that the government is saying that the recession is over…that’s good to know…it will be a long recovery but America will do it.

I don’t know when the official start of the recession was, but I started my business right before the recession hit, so I have weathered the recession. If you want to see my thoughts on the recession and how I wonder if it needed to be as bad as it was, head on over to my personal blog.  In this post, I am going to discuss lessons I learned while weathering the recession.

  1. Never make decisions out of fear. This one seems like common sense, but a lot of Americans made decisions based on fear that they felt and now we are hurting a lot more as a country than if we would have kept level heads and just ridden out the storm.
  2. Trim the fat. I know I just said not to make decisions based on fear, but to keep a level head and this is a continuation on that.  Take a serious look at what you are doing and make sure you aren’t doing anything you don’t need to be doing.  I was in serious money making mode because every dollar counted and that is part of the reason my blogging dwindled for so long.  Also, as I mentioned in a previous post, I found things like a library card where I could have free access to a wealth of great information and inspiration invaluable.
  3. Automate/Batch as much as possible. This is similar to the item above, but just slightly different.  I have a forthcoming book review on The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich one of the ideas that I like in his book is the idea of automation.  While I don’t feel like people should take things to the extremes that he takes them.  Automation is a good thing.  Don’t do things you don’t need to be doing and make things as efficient as possible.
  4. You don’t have to take every job that comes your way. I made this mistake early and took a job with a client that I never should have taken.  There is still an outstanding invoice for $169.00 that I am chalking up to learning experience (I should frame the invoice).  Because I was just starting out my business, I took a job without thoroughly investigating the situation and walked into a complete mess.  Do your research and screen your clients.
  5. Treat your customer like you would treat your grandmother and everything will be great. I don’t know anyone who would treat their grandmother poorly.  Most people would actually go above and beyond for their grandma, you just do that for your grandma.  Michael Hyatt (CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers) wrote a great blog post on this title The Total Customer Experience that really gets at what I am trying to say here.  Check it out.
  6. Stick to your guns, only the strong survive. You went out on your own for a reason.  Stick with it.  Don’t cave in.  If you can weather this recession, you can weather anything.  Keep going.  Sometimes it just sucks and that’s OK, you aren’ t working for today are you?  I know I’m not.  I’m putting in my time now so I can take it easy later.

I learned a lot more than this during the recession, like how I have an amazing wife and family that has stuck with me through some really tough times and for that I am forever grateful.  I also learned that I have some great friends and colleagues who have helped me along the way.  I also have some great customers and I hope we can continue to help each other make our businesses the best they can be.

Now it is time for your thoughts.  What have you learned during this recession?

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Books Random Thoughts

The Best Business Investment I Ever Made

Updated 9/8/2009 to include links to amazon.com

OK, with that title, I know the room just got silent as you eagerly await this knowledge that will revolutionize your business and your life.

The best business investment I ever made was to get a library card.

WHAT? I hear you screaming…but it is true…especially if you are a creative person or any person for that matter who has to have their mind engaged.

I have recently joined a BNI group and as a part of being a member of the group you try to get to know the other members of your chapter by having what they call one on ones.  The sole purpose of these one on ones is for one member of the chapter to spend an entire hour learning about the other person so they can better understand who that person is and what they do. They ask questions about both your personal and your business life because they want to get to know you as a person, this is not just some business card passing group, they are truly and genuinely interested in getting to know you. Anyway, being the new guy on the block I have people coming out of the woodwork all over the place wanting to get to know me and one of the things that I ended up talking about a lot is that I love to read. My wife laughs at me but I usually have more than one book going at a time. Usually, a business book, a fun book, and a personal enrichment/enlightenment book. At the rate I go, I read about a book a week. I think I developed the habit from my dad who also loves to read. My dad always has a book with him. It just makes sense, especially when you are a parent and you always have to wait to pick them up. Why not use that time to read?

Now that I have digressed, I will bring this post back to why a library card is such a great investment. Many people will say that with the advent of the internet books are irrelevant, but I would disagree (obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this post). My main reason that books are not irrelevant given that the internet is so prevalent now is that the internet doesn’t lend itself to the discipline of deep concentration. Many people don’t actually read webpages…they skim them and are off to the next page or site. When people read a book, they don’t skim, they usually devote all of their attention to the information on the pages, you just can’t replace that. One of the main things that productivity books focus on is our ability to focus and how to best create an environment that allows us to do so. A lot of us in the business world have a strain of ADD that I believe could be cured if we would only spend time reading because of the nature of reading. I am not talking about reading magazines, they fuel our ADD because the articles are so short.

A second reason that reading books is so important is that it causes you to create images or scenarios in your mind which gets the creative juices flowing. This is especially true of fiction books, but is really true for any book. With fiction books you are required to create the image of the characters in your head. Every book requires you to interact with it, a business book causes you to think about how the content of the book applies to your business, a book about programming causes you to think about how what you are learning in the book applies to the problems you have to solve on a daily basis.  Non-fiction books are seen in the light of your present or upcoming circumstances and cause you to visualize putting the principles contained within the book into practice, TV or movies just don’t do this (don’t get me wrong, I love movies, but some of the fun in watching a movie that is based on a book is comparing how my view of the characters is similar or different than the view of the creator of the movie).

Finally, the last benefit I will talk about in this post is that the right books help us to relax. Relaxation is somewhat of a lost art in our culture. We are always on the go and we are always reachable via cell phone but sometimes we just need to come to a complete stop and relax, shut off our cell phones, email, pagers (Does anyone actually use pagers anymore other than doctors?), and whatever other noise maker you have (this could include your children so find some time after they go to bed) and just read, you will be amazed at how refreshed you can feel after reading for awhile in a really good book.

If you are not an avid reader at this point or you have forgotten the art I will give a couple of tips.

  1. Start with a fiction book. This may sound counter-intuitive to the business person who has a stack of business books they want to read but never has the time for, but the reason I suggest fiction books to start with is that you are less likely to give up on a good fiction book. Ask your friends what they are reading (if they aren’t reading anything, I suggest adding a few more people to your friendship circle) or go to the library and ask your librarian what their favorite fiction book is.
  2. Don’t be afraid to give up on a book. Some books just aren’t your cup of tea, and that is ok, that is why there are so many of them. If you don’t like a book get a different one. This is really easy if you are using your library card because you haven’t wasted any money on the book because it was free for you to borrow from the library. What you may find with some books is that it is just not the right time in your life to read that particular book and you will be able to come back to it in the future.
  3. If you are really having trouble getting in the habit of reading, ask a friend to join you in your endeavor. Meet with them once a week to catch up and talk about what you are reading and to encourage each other to continue to read and interact with what you are reading.

Before, I close the post, many of you will probably ask what I have read recently.  Here is the list of what I have read in the last few months or am currently reading (all links point to amazon.com in a new window/tab).

Good luck on your journey, stop by soon…

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Random Thoughts

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2009 from the Miles family. We hope you have a great

year!