Friday on my mind

Gary Moore aside, it's Friday and I'm finally looking forward to the weekend. This was one hell of a productive one--
-we're 1 week ahead of schedule on the new 'site release.
-we're on track for the June 5th initial group meeting for the PDG
-all business management and marketing management client accounts are on schedule or ahead of schedule
-the political candidates are building momentum and filling up the next 45 days with fund-raisers and more events than they can handle.
-getting ready to go to the FFBR summit next weekend for networking and development pitches.
-Gary's nearly done setting up the Chamber's Leads Group's first Green Construction Meet & Greet in St. Cloud for June 10th.
-We signed two more business management clients within the last 10 days

And the Yankees won in the bottom of the 9th inning last night.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

-Shawn

FCATS

Here's a link to the Sentinel's FCAT reporting page. Interesting reading fr any central Floridian.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/orl-fcat-reading-writing-scores-2008-searchpage,0,6067469.htmlstory


-Shawn

Community Building

We all want to live in communities we're proud of. We all want to live in a nice home, with a short trip to work and a place close-by where our children can play without fear of danger or disease. We all want safety and security. We all want food for our plates and a roof over our heads. And we all want hope.

Unfortunately, this is the real world. Things go scarce. Budgets run tight. The sun doesn't always shine and the crops don't always grow.

But we can plan for a better future. Right now, we can plan for communities that grow into wonderful places to live. That provide engines for job development. That churn out decent schools for our children. That have streets that are safe to walk down.

Business doesn't have to mean population growth. Business doesn't have to mean low-income wages for most with few reaping the creme at the top. Planned business opportunity can mean job growth that utilizes a community's natural strengths, to work to bring in businesses that work with a community, to partner with a community for the betterment of all.

Historically, the next generation could always look back at their parents and know what their future held. But it is our moral obligation to do better by our children. They are our responsibility. We brought them into this world and we owe them nothing less than a brighter future and a better quality of life.

-Shawn

More like it

As I told anyone who listened, last January's Amendment 1 was a bass-ackward idea that didn't go far enough in cutting taxes while blowing the opportunity to force spending caps. Well, the TBRC's back with a better version: cutting 25% off our property taxes to the tune of $8B in the state's budget. That's a number large enough to force budgetary cutbacks throughout the state's budget. It's about damn time.

-Shawn

Hot

It's hot down here. Not just 'my, it's a nice day' hot but 'holy crap! will it EVER get below 60 degrees for more than 30 seconds?' Don't get me wrong, Florida is a great place to live and work. My daughter can play outside year-round. My wife and I can go for evening walks. I threw out our old ice-scrapers (and if you don't know what they are, you're lucky). And we never have to shovel snow. But some days...

One thing about most of the USA--change is constant. If you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes and the sun will come back. But Mid-Southern Florida's different. It's sunny. Every day. It's warm and sunny. Every day. There's no break ever. Imagine listening to your favorite playlist. Now imagine if you could only listen to that playlist until the end of time. That's what it's like living in Florida. Beautiful, but monotonous.

Of course, down here the alternative to monotonous is a hurricane. So it could be worse.

-Shawn

The Internet and Elections

From personal experience, I can tell you that this post will be an unpopular one. The internet is only good for 2 things when dealing with political elections.

1. Raising funds. As had been amply demonstrated by any number of local, state and national campaigns, people will donate money in staggeringly large quantities to campaigns that are packaged properly. Never forget this.

2. Leaking information. It's an old adage that if you want something leaked, start a rumor denying it. There's no better place for rumor-mongering than the on-line world, and no better way to dish the dirt on your opponents than through on-line connections.

And that's it. I have yet to see internet activity, forums, chat rooms, postings, vmobs, conferences or even good-old-fashioned web sites sway votes. For all the sound and fury roaring from the under-30 on-line crowd, it has yet to convert into real-world votes.

But that will change in time.

(more later)
-Shawn

What's forgotten can't be remembered

And along those lines, I've just rediscovered Caro's The Power Broker. What a sad, uplifting, horrifying ,etc. story. And it doesn't even come close to how ugly it can get in the real political world.

Enjoy the rest of your night and I'll be back tomorrow with some longer posts about economic gardening, networking and the value of time.


-Shawn

Ad Information - Sales Ratios

Fro those looking for current ad ratio information broken down by the top 200 most active industries, here's a link from Chris Gibbons (EG):

http://adage.com/datacenter/article?article_id=106575

Happy mining!

-Shawn

Politics

Politics. The art of perception and achieving the possible. At the end of the day, 99% politics is marketing. Be it a politician selling the public on why he or she should capture their allegiance (And vote) or be it a business convincing a governing body to support their efforts. On a personal level, a politician needs a few distinct characteristics:
1. Socially dominant. The ability to walk into a room and dominate the space.
2. Quick wit. The best pol's can banter and barter with the best of them.
3. Body language. The ability to read a room's emotional state and reach accordingly.
4. Empathy. Everyone likes to be listened to and made to feel like they matter--the best pol's can do that to anyone at any level.
5. Thick skin. You win some and you lose some. The best pol's can ignore the slings of defeat (or the press or opponents) and move forward. Short lived politicians can't.



Have a great Tuesday--

-Shawn

In like a Lamb, out like a Lion

Change is the one constant. No matter where you are in life, no matter what job you have, no matter how big or small your family is, no matter what you like to do, CHANGE is inevitable. (Yes, Leonard, that one's for you.)

I just learned that a business that has been in the family for three generations was finally sold. Actually, I just learned that the business was placed on the market and sold--bit of a surprise there, even if we've all been waiting for it to finally happen. The one remaining business, the one remaining commercial tie to small, dilapidated hometown is at last gone. It would be easy to get maudlin about the memories, the work, the hours spent, the familiar sounds and smells, the people and the equipment, everything that has now moved on. But life moves on. Finally, my family is out from under the back-breaking, never-ending all-consuming beast that was The Business (my father wisely decided to go his own route 40 years ago and we've been thankful for that ever since). But it's a piece of life that's ended, a constant that's gone. Will there be others to replace it? Sure. Is it a piece of my history, my childhood that's gone. Sure.

But change is inevitable.

I had a conversation with a meth-addict last week. (He was doing community service at a political rally where I was working.) He knew he was in trouble. He knew that he wasn't likely to make it through rehab. He'd lost his children, his jobs, his homes and he knew that he probably didn't have much left of a future. He didn't even have much left from his past. But rambling through the winding turns in his brain, he spit out one bit of 'wisdom:' no matter where he was, no matter that he wasn't ever going to see his family again, no-one, nothing could take away his memories. (OK, heavy drug use will kills those pretty quickly, but I got his point.) Basically, shut up, get back to work, and know that you can always close your eyes and remember the happy times of the past.

Now get back to work, slackers!


CYA-
Shawn

Baby News

It's that time again. Sometime over the course of the next 8 months, there will descend to Earth a new, shiny bouncing baby Van Dusen. All hail the next generation--and just when you thought you were still young, this news hits the 'net: Ryan Giggs will be retiring as his best days 'are behind him.' He's 34. Ugh. THAT makes me feel ooooollllllddddd.


But next fall I'll be holding our newest addition on my lap, so I could really care less. Have a great evening y'all and if you're in Florida, don't forget to Vote tomorrow!

-Shawn

WHAT A DAY!

More on Thursday...

-Shawn

History Nerd Alert

Read the above article and realize that not only is there nothing new under the sun, but the odds are 'nothing new' was actually invented a long, long time ago.

-Shawn

Nerdly nerd nerd

So if you've been following along for the ride, you should remember that last week a new cell phone was rammed down my throat. Woo-hoo. Yes, script-kiddies, you could cut the excitement with a very rusty knife. I ended up with Verizon VX6800 (8600? who can keep track).

Meh. Yes it has a slick interface. Yes it has a nice, big, readable screen. Yes it has (FINALLY) buttons that are large enough that someone over 25 can use them. But when it's all said and done: meh.

You know what excites me the most: it's supposed to be more reliable than my old Treo. Yup, that's it. Just make a damn phone that works and I'll be happy. Not a single 'new thing' (play movies or music???? BFD.) helps out the business case for the phone at all (yet).

I'm officially old. Now, get off my lawn and get me a glass of iced tea.

-Shawn

Technology Blows

We all budget for emergencies. Businesses allocate a reserve fund. Households have their savings accounts. Individuals sock money away under mattresses. All so they can cope when something unexpected happens. After all, when your car dies unexpectedly, it's a financial expenditure that you have to deal with RIGHT NOW.

But what about the time cost? It's nearly impossible to allocate or reserve 'emergency time' to deal with the unexpected. Businesses, if they're large enough, have support staff on-hand to cope with the day-to-day emergencies that crop up (Assuming there's enough volume of them to justify having staff to be on hand to fix them). But what about small businesses, homes and individuals?

Let me give you an example: yesterday morning, my cell phone died. Big deal. Sure, I was off the 'net for 2 hours while I went to the Verizon store and picked up an immediate replacement. 2 hours I can deal with--just work later at night (and I was up until 1:15am, so pardon my grammar!). But then, it took 3 hours to get the phone to sync with my laptop. And my cell's my mobile office--without my contacts and calendar, I might as well be toting around a brick.

It was the extra 3 hours, the unexpected 3 hours, that killed my productivity yesterday. Meetings were postponed and work was moved until the wee hours of the night. We had the 'tech. emergency' fund that covered the expense of the replacement phone (estimate each phone will last 2 years, each computer will last 3 years, most other hardware 2 years, etc...) but there was no way that I could have budgeted 'emergency time,' or was there?

There's a business model in here to be exploited.

-Shawn

Social Networking

If you're here, you already know what social networking is. But lately we've seen a significant rise in the number of customers who have 'exhausted traditional marketing outlets' and are looking to 'maximize marketing ROI' (i.e. they want to market their stuff on-line at low cost).

And there goes the bandwagon.

But has it really passed there merchants by? No-one in their area is using the internet to connect to customers (i.e. no local competition) and their services are geographically bound. There are many (still) immature on-line markets that can be segmented down. The start-up and ongoing costs are minimal compared to comparable 'real-world' efforts (where comparable r/l channels exist).

What kills me is that it's only 10 years (ten flippin' years) that we started on-line community building and marketing that customers are actually ASKING for these tools. Must be we didn't market our (At the time) new products and services well enough.


-Shawn

Music

Really, and what music to you have piped through the office? Is your place a relaxed, classical music suite? Or do your troops work better to light rock? What about the company I visited this morning--all country music, all the time? (And I couldn't wait to get out of there!)

We're eclectic--and quiet. Everyone in an office can play their own tunes. The cubical staff can listen to headphones. And I refuse to pollute the foyer with Enya.

But we will be using country music in the negotiating room in the future.

Later-
Shawn

Customer Management

Yes, it all comes down to this. Know your customers. Manage your customers.

And I don't mean date them or stalk them, but know their needs and behavior patterns. What motivates them? What factors of influence most strongly affect them? How can you structure your product and services lines in conjunction with your pricing and marketing strategies and tactics to exploit (which is quite the pejorative word) their perceived needs?

SWOT and needs assess. Those two elements will move you closer to your goals than any other element.

later-
Shawn

Another Day

Just another day in sunny Florida. I learned something today--which, by my grandfather's reasoning means that it was a good day--and that was the level of activity which a political party will work with candidates at the various levels within Florida. For example, everyone knows that unless you're in a large metro area, parties really could care less about city commissioners. Sorry kids, them's the breaks.

But unless you're in Dade or Orange or the other SIZABLE counties, the major parties really could give a rat's ass about county commissioners or the other constitutional positions.

Which is moronic.

And here's why. Campaigns live on two things. Money and information. Money can buy the information, educate voters, get your candidate in front of the targeted voters, etc. But it's information that rules the roost. It's information that lets you know WHO are the most effective and motivatable voter blocs. What are their profiles (Demo, psycho, behavioral, etc.)? What are the issues that mater the most to those blocs? Who are the players in those blocs? etc, etc, etc. The tighter you can target each bloc, the more effective your campaigning (marketing) will be.

And that information, my friends, is already in the hands of the major parties. So, spread the love. Grow your roots and work with your local districts. At least, dispense enough information (don't bring up training) to make the local campaigns effective. Information horded and not properly dispensed is opportunity lost.

And get off my lawn. Damn kids.

-Shawn

Robert Moses

Read 'The Power Broker' by Robert Caro. It's the biography of Robert Moses, one of the most influential and powerful men to control New York State's government apparatus during the twentieth century. It's a study in administrative power, how to find it, grasp it, use it and keep it.

It's also a horrifying example of what the long-range effects can be where there is 'too much' power in one man's hands.

-Shawn