If you think the economy is skidding towards the blink, think again and meet Rowan and Trevor - a lemonade stand sister-brother team that will rock your taste buds, bring joy to your heart and remind your soul to awaken to the creative gifts the Divine embedded in your DNA.
Here is the version on Vimeo:
And here is the same clip but on Google Video:
“Be ye like children …” Perhaps this Biblical Wisdom Is Reminder to Tap Into One’s Entrepreneurial Inner-Child And Profit Joyfully by Serving the Rest of Us …
“When I Work, I Play. When I Play, I Work.” - Pablo Picasso
“Go Play Hard at Work And Have a Good Time!” - Kasha Scott
Tiz the season and lemonade stands are in full swing around these summer New England parts, specifically Ridgefield Connecticut and Main Street.
I was first hit with this lemonade season reminder a couple of weeks back when walking Kasha around the neighborhood.
At the commencement of our walk, we first started to spy various hand-drawn flyers posted on the light poles with scotch tape promoting neighborhood lemonade availability.
And then we soon started to hear the audio ripples of lemonade barker-cries via a chorus of children off in the distant background, “Lemonade. Lemonade! Get Your Ice Cold Lemonade. Lemonade. Ice Cold Lemonade Here. Lemonade.”
All of which was quickly followed by a boy on a bicycle who approached us while engaged in the lemonade sales promotion route for his sister’s lemonade enterprise, whom Kasha and I would soon go on to meet and interview but more on that later.
Okay, I know many high powered business types and serious economists who might shrug, as well as everyday folk, and say, “Yea, so what! What’s the point of reflecting on the economics of local lemonade entrepreneurs?”
To which I think I have a good reply: First in consideration of the big media backdrop of economic headlines of bad news; and second, with regards to Karl Marx and how all the collectivists economists have got it fundamentally wrong and how the lemonade entrepreneurs have got it fundamentally right.
But first, the media headlines.
Big media is in the business of big headlines and they do it well. After all, if they can’t grab us, they can’t hold our attention or sell us on their agenda(s) let alone promote the agendas of the people who buy their advertising space.
And it seems to me that currently big media would have us believe in all their negative economic press that they get paid to sell. Not that we do not love the press but with business models like, “If it bleeds, it leads” how can we blame them for selling us negativity when they know full well we only buy what grabs our attention, including killer negative headlines that cut through the clutter in supermarket checkout lines.
So while the press and ourselves might be to blame for buying in on the collective consciousness of economic woes, part of this post is about the other economic story not being told. Well actually the story is being told and shared but not in headlines or by big media, at least not yet. Bare with me, and you’ll see my point and why lemonade entrepreneurs hold the keys to understanding long term economic successes.
A couple weeks after Kasha and I encountered our first neighborhood lemonade entrepreneurs, I was driving through Main Street Ridgefield and came across another lemonade stand and snapped the pics you see here. In this case, these entrepreneurs were closed for business so I did not get to interview them or sample their brew(s), but the spirit of their humble endeavor was yet another reminder of how the keys to our fundamental economic success in this country lie among the spirit of budding lemonade entrepreneurs.
Now I’ve traveled the world and while not hit every corner, I have yet to see an entrepreneurial front-yard lemonade stand in any other country. Sure, I’ve seen young people selling crafts, fruits, performing for coins, but somehow the young lemonade entrepreneur and their humble neighborhood lemonade stand seems uniquely red-white-n-blue and I’m not positive why but I have some theories.
When growing up as a teenager in Argentina as a Rotary exchange student in 1978, I always seemed to win when playing monopoly with my new Argentinean friends. At the time they would often chide me and prod me with, “Oh! You Capitalists! You Yankees! You Gringos! You are all the same! You take everything! You win at all costs! You yada yada …”
But it was also during those loved South American times that I enjoyed many a debate about the evils and merits of Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, and other ism’s. But somehow that despite the debates, I knew that they too were capitalists at heart no matter what their official ism was that they subscribed to publicly. My capitalistic proof of innate free-trade was the flourishing of black markets in every corner of the globe that I’ve ever traveled to. Which supports my theory: That left alone, all humans will trade in a manner that is win-win for them and those they trade with, but the key point is “left alone.”
Governments are necessary and good governments that serve the people and individual freedoms first with state second are an amazing blessing. Yet governments often get over-run by special interests, collectivists, Leninists, and others who quietely delight in chipping away at personal freedoms by advocating more tariffs, trade barriers, licensing, laws, obfuscation of agendas, etc. - all of which is fertilizer for big business and big corruption.
The lemonade entrepreneur is a noble example of the balance of supply and demand when left alone - no town permits, no labor laws, no minimum wages, no sales tax, no use taxes, no mandatory state licensing, certification or registration, etc.
“Be ye like little children” is Biblical wisdom that should perhaps be extended to commercial affairs ala the example of seasonal lemonade entrepreneurs.
Consider Adam Smith and his groundbreaking 1776 book, The Wealth of Nations, that cemented the principles of laissez-faire and the “invisible hand” of balance naturally occurring from supply and demand cycles that find equilibrium over time.
These same laissez-faire economic principles were also confirmed in more modern times by Milton Friedman’s groundbreaking book, Freedom to Choose - a book I would argue that anybody running for any office (e.g., state, local, federal and/or condo board) should be required to read and take a standarized test to confirm they can pass and exhibit a certain mastery of the message but I jest (although, I’m serious if you are).
Even today in 2008, those economies with the least amount of government intervention are the ones on the fast track. But back to my friendly conversations with Argentineans about economic policies, merits and pitfalls of isms.
All economic models are based on cycles - boom and bust, followed by more boom and bust, etc. It is the length of cycles which most isms and economists disagree with - e.g., some say these economic cycles are every 5-10 years, others say every 35 years, and others say every 50 or 75 years. Some also argue (i.e., the collectivists) that it is the role of government to “soften” these cycles so they are not so “forceful” on the masses, ala rationale for recent Federal Reserve to bailout Bear Stearns - what a joke and a true tragedy.
Yet my favorite debate about economic cycles took place in college during a Western Civ class when we were asked to read Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto and support or defend his economic ideas.
Karl had relatively good reasoning and essentially said, “Hey look. Each society pretty much boils down to two primary classes - the haves and the have-nots - and with each turn of the economic cycles of bust periods, some of the haves lose their economic power and become members of the have-nots. Thus it is only a matter of time, a number of economic cycles, that will ultimately reduce all the haves to have-nots, so let’s cut to the chase, save everybody the drama of enduring all these awful cycles and just get there (a flat collectivist society that is ruled by the state). After all, in the end there will only be one class, so let’s get there now and save everybody the grief and plan accordingly.”
Sounds like a great concept but for one big commercial blunder on Mr. Marx’s reasoning, and that is, he totally forgot and left out the concept of entrepreneurs - that enterprising group that somehow seems to spring forth despite the odds and replinshes the class of haves with every economic down turn.
America has lived an economic history of ups and downs. And, we know in this country that with every bust cycle, there are those who find ways to make it work and often go on to great fortune by finding opportunity when others see only failure.
Our culture is also one of “Yankee ingenuity” whereby we tend to invent things for ourselves that solve our own problems, even if less than perfect; but then continue to perfect said inventions and spin out improved inventions for sale to neighbors and thereby give birth to new markets.
Consider the Lightning Rod invented by Benjamin Franklin or Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin. In both cases, these men sought to solve a problem and were looking for solutions. In the process of inventing their own solutions, they both went on to give birth to new markets and efficiencies - all of which had positive economic impacts on the greatest good for all of us. Note: some economic historians will even argue that Whitney’s Cotton Gin was the birth of the American industrialized revolution — and yet his path of intellectual property rights via his Cotton Gin patent and the realities of enforcing said patent are chapters for another post.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that there isn’t great innovation coming from other parts of the world, certainly there is. Even in governmental entrepreneurship, perhaps England’s greatest gift to the world was the invention of the Magna Carta, which was essentially a balancing of power between Nobles and the Crown, and became the genesis for many of our principles today re:rights to private property, habeas corpus, etc.
Back to my walk with Kasha.
So right around the time I enjoyed my interview with the local lemonade entrepreneurs, I also read the May 2008 edition of Imprimis - see www.Hillsdale.edu. They have over 1.6 million monthly readers and their publication is free to subscribe to, and each month is very thought provoking so yes, I would encourage you to get your free copies.
In the May edition they featured adapted text from a January speech at Hillsdale College given by Mr. Patrick Toomey, President of the Club for Growth. The title of this article was, “The Greatest Story Never Told: Today’s Economy in Perspective.”
In that article, some of what Mr. Toomey stated included, “Over the last 25 years, more wealth has been created, more people have been lifted out of poverty, standards of living have been elevated more dramatically, and the quality and length of the life have improved, more than ever before in the recorded history.”
That’s a mighty tall claim but consider some of the stats he provided to support his premise:
Our nation’s total economic output in 1982 was $5.1 trillion; In 2007 it was $11.3 trillion (in real 2000 dollars)
Per capita economic output in 1982 was $22,400; In 2007 it was $37,807 (in real 2000 dollars)
Unemployment in the 1970s was nearly seven percent; During the last decade it has remained below five percent
The service sector was $1 trillion in 1982; It was $5.5 trillion in 2006
In 2007, US factories produced more than in any previous year in our history
The Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1980 was at 825; Today (despite its ups and downs) remains above 11,000
In 1983, 19 percent of households owned stocks; In 2005 50% were investors
In 1989 median family net worth was $69,000; In 2004 it was $93,000
And regarding American families living below the official poverty line in the 1970s - Less than 40 percent had a car, almost none had color televisions, and air conditioning was almost unheard of; In 2004, 46 percent owned their own homes, 75% owned a car (indeed 30 percent owned two or more cars), 97 percent had color TVs, 67% had air conditioning
With respect to technology - In 1975 there were 9.8 million cable TV subscribers and in 2006 there were 65 million; In 1985 there were 2.1 million personal computers and in 2007 there was 243 million; In 1985 there were 340 cell phone subscribers and 243 million in 2007
On health fronts - In 1970 infant mortality was 20 deaths per 1000 people and in 2002 it was seven deaths per 1000; In 1980 life expectancy was 74 years, today it is 78
And this growth has been occurring around the globe - between 1999 and 2004 some 135 million people emerged from destitution and there are twice as many countries with fast-growing economies as there were in 1980
In the end, Mr. Toomey credits these massive economic growths from several factors, namely - economic freedoms, the Recovery Tax Act of 1981 which reduced marginal tax rate from 70 percent to 28%, and a series of major deregulation and broad expansion of trade.
These are some of the innate principles American Lemonade Entrepreneurs know instinctively, but they probably won’t be making any big headlines in traditional media, yet perhaps they will make it BIG around the Blogosphere.
Lemonade Here. Get Your Lemonade. 50 Cents. Sugar Free. Tax Free. And Always Served with a Smile.
Viva the entrepreneurs who progress to make life better for all of us and keep Karl rolling in his grave!
The following is an account of a missing office chair and happy customer service ending … the essence of which can be enjoyed per the following letter and here is the pdf version
22 April 2008
Mr. Ronald L. Sargent
Chairman & CEO Staples.com
500 Staples Drive
Framingham, MA 01702
Re: Take a Seat and Sit on This - Herculean Customer Service in Danbury CT
Dear Mr. Sargent and Team Staples:
As I pen this thank you note, I am happily sitting on my new cushy, replacement Global Task Chair courtesy of many honorable customer service efforts on behalf of store personnel at your Staples Mill Plain Road, Danbury Connecticut location.
My ordeal started several years ago when I first started hunting for office chair replacements. My multimedia studio had several beautiful Herman Miller Aeron chairs that I spent dearly for but since a car accident and new found titanium-infused bones, the Aeron’s rounded hard-plastic sculpting at the bottom of the sitting surface dug into my left femur bone such that I needed to find replacement chairs effective immediately.
Enter Staples and your line of Global Task chairs.
My initial customer-buying sales reasoning echoed , “Hey, the cushioning is right, the grey color pleasing, and the multi-directional levers to tilt in almost any manner were all very exciting options, but it was the lifetime warranty that sealed the deal.”
My Staples Global Task chair enjoyed a pleasant average life in my studio - bouncing between video edit station, adjusting nicely for 88-weighted musical keyboard station, plus wheeling over to the office station.
A couple of puppy-dog bite marks and scratches here-and-there on the wheel base, and a plastic right arm rest requiring duck tape given some of the repeated desk bumps over the years, all said and done it was a good trusty chair.
But then one day the back broke - just snapped as I leaned back. Screws, or at least partial pieces along with wood shavings fell to the floor and I immediately knew another office chair adventure was in the cards.
None of the Staples store personnel where thrilled to see me when I came wheeling through the automatic glass sliding doors with my broken chair in the lead. An announcement from the customer service counter was made that could be heard throughout the store’s PA, and soon a young gentleman approached offering to help. I showed him the guarantee and the Staples product bar codes under the sitting-part of the chair, and he asked for time to confer with store management.
When he returned, I was given two options - I could either get a store credit for the current retail value of the chair ($125 versus the $300-plus I initially paid), or I could leave the chair there and see if they could order the replacement parts.
Neither of us had been down this path before so I asked him what his preference would be, and he said, “Chuck, your warranty does state that we have first option to replace defective parts. The guy who services our furniture is gonna be in here tomorrow, so if it’s all right with you, I’d prefer we see if we can get the replacement parts, and I’ll give you a call once I hear back.”
Fair enough. I left without my chair but felt great that a warranty / guarantee effort was set in motion. I wasn’t sure going in if I would be tossed out because the manufacturer went out of business, lack of store receipt, etc., so just knowing that options were on deck was a breath of fresh air in our seemingly time crunched, often unresponsive, mega-store, impersonal, not-my-problem, hurried culture of ours but I digress.
Two days went by when a voicemail was left, “Mr. Scott, we spoke to the Global rep. Your new chair back is on order. We are also going to replace your tape-ducked arm rest as a professional courtesy. Parts should be in during the next couple of weeks, so I’ll call you when it’s ready.”
Yippee! My old, trusty chair that had been with me during so many late night editing sessions and played the seat to many a musical performance would be returned, to be somewhat akin to the comfort of a favorite old shoe.
For several weeks I sat on a hard metal fold-up chair. Then after four weeks I decided to call to check on the status. My Staples customer service champion was not in, so I asked to leave a message for him, which they reluctantly took down. I could almost hear his inner voice say to me over the phone, “Dude - I’m busy. Why do I have to write down this message, and why can’t you just call back tomorrow morning when he’s in?”
The next day I was about to follow-up until I played back the morning voice mails, and there was one of panic from my Staples customer service hero. “Mr. Scott. Can you please call me at your earliest convenience. It’s Important.”
With that I thought, “Okay - here we go, they changed their mind and the parts were never ordered, not available, or management changed their mind about supporting the guarantee.”
It turned out that parts arrived, but during the waiting process my chair was mistaken as junk and tossed out.
Then the drama started to play out. Apparently a frustrated management team mused, “How could we let this happen. Now we owe the guy a new chair. Somebody is gonna have to buy this guy a new chair, and it’s not me. I just hope he doesn’t want one of those $600 leather chairs. How the heck …”
When my hero replied and chimed in during management huddle, ” … but he’s the customer. He had a guarantee. We promised.” Said hero was promptly told to leave work effective immediately hence the cell phone call I got from him as he was driving home per management request.
I asked if this was just bad timing and if better picked up another day or two once management cooled down. I asked if he would prefer I support his suggested next steps or if he’d prefer I deal with management directly, which is what happened next.
I was given the name and number for head manager. I called and got directed to his office when an assistant picked up, claimed the manager was busy, and asked if he could take a message.
At this point, I started to laugh at what kind of message to leave given all the twists and turns, so I started at the top,
“This is Chuck Scott, and I’m the guy with the missing chair.”
“Oh, yea! We know who you are. How can I help you?”
I asked if my customer service hero’s job was in trouble and what could we reasonably work out given all that went on.
Suffice it to say, I drove up there that afternoon before the assistant manager’s shift ended and rolled away with a floor demo model that is very close in style to my original trusted old one.
Without naming names, Jonathan, Jim and Rob at Team Staples know who they are, and I just wanted to go on record of appreciation for all of your Danbury CT Staples customer service efforts.
Cordially,
Chuck Scott
PS - On the way out, I did purchase an extra padded memory foam cushion. Now, only if you sold designer foot-stoles to accompany said chairs!
On February 4th 2008, legendary audio recording engineer Elliott Scheiner (Beck, The Eagles, Steely Dan, Van Morrison, Fleetwood Mac, Natalie Cole, Bruce Hornsby, plus others) spoke at East Coast Music Mall about his record producing experience and take on the music industry today.
I was lucky enough to attend this free recording workshop and had my trusty portable recorder with me hence the following four clips from that evening - enjoy!
Part 1 - The Music Business Industry and Trends
This audio clip is 10 minutes in length and 4.9 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip … Some of the points Elliott discusses in this clip include: How he got started as New York’s first freelance recording engineer; Where to find the most work; Why The Eagles did not release their album on iTunes but went with Walmart instead; The reality of copy protection; Radio Head’s experience selling albums; and, How our culture has completely failed musicians and artists.
Part 2 - Working with Recording Artists
This audio clip is 12 minutes in length and 5.7 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip … Some of the points Elliott discusses in this clip include: Common denominator in working with great artists; Getting the unique piano sound for Bruce Hornsby; Tracking vocals for Toto and how technology has made artist lazy; Crazy guitar players and their signature sounds; and, Getting work that is just fine vs good or great.
In my opinion, the story Elliott shares about Bruce Hornsby is really powerful lesson for all business people - it is one about the power of creative-tension, working with people who don’t get along, and the difficulty in selling something new - in this case, a new piano sound - and one that would go on to break the charts!
Part 3 - Mixing, Mastering and Surround Sound
This audio clip is 14 minutes in length and 6.8 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip … Some of the points Elliott discusses in this clip include: The amount of time it takes to mix a record; Working with samples; Mixing Steely Dan’s Gaucho in surround sound; Mixing with satellite speakers; XM and Sirius codecs changing the surround mix changes the copyright; Monitoring levels and speakers; Kids and bass today; Loudness wars; Getting country music to sound great; Order of mixing instruments; and, the importance of hiring mastering engineers.
Part 4 - Audio Recording Tools, Technology and Techniques
This audio clip is 20 minutes in length and 9.5 meg mp3 file - click here to download the clip … Some of the points Elliott discusses in this clip include: Going digital vs analog; Software effects and EQ vs their hardware equivalents; Being a minimalist and using mics properly; Not depending on compressors and having the artist work the mic; Salvaging old reel-to-reel tape recordings; Consoles; Tips for people running project studios; Watching the levels in a mix; Cost of building analog room vs digital room; and, the cost and risks when working in new rooms.
To those who are concerned about a “global big brother” resulting from all our digital and global village connectedness, I say humbug and let the global standards roll forth.
I say this partly in jest as I believe there is already a Universal All-knowing being, one who is loving and graceful but really really smart and ever expanding who already knows everything there is to know about each one of us, and on a more serious grounded earthly level, I was reminded recently of the glory of universal standards that come from collective agreements among men.
This reminder came by way of processing international credit cards for Tele-Vision DVDs. Up to now, most of my e.commerce exposure has been with processing Canadian and US credit cards.
As running start fyi, early on most of CoolTea’s credit card sales were for event tickets, thus we didn’t care too much about what your billing or shipping address was as you had to come to the event to get the deliverable.
But along the way, Mastercard and Visa started charging bill backs for merchants who failed to run AVS (address verification system). One day, six months after a big event where we had charged $5,000 worth of tickets, I was aghast to see an additional charge to our bank account in the way of several hundred dollars.
I called my Merchant bank and said, “What gives - where are these charges coming from?” and as politely and professionally clean as any large institution can do, they did their best to explain that these were billback charges from Mastercard and Visa because CoolTea did not pass the billing address information to the banks during the real-time credit card transactions.
I tried to explain that CoolTea was in the event business, and the likelihood of some hacker buying tickets with a fraudulent card and then showing up at the event was very unlikely, but they just laughed at me and said, “Sorry - take it or leave it. If you want to accept Mastercard and Visa, gotta play by their rules.”
CoolTea had been capturing your address info just-in-case we needed to call you or send mail but had not been passing this info along during the transaction.
Okay, ouch to bill back lesson ,and when we started passing the address info to banks, double ouch. Our customer service calls started to climb.
“Hey Chuck, why was my card declined?”
It turned out that most of the cards were valid but did not pass the AVS code verification - e.g., most of the time it was a simple faux pax by a customer in that they were at work using their personal cards but entered their work address; or it was the reverse - people working at home using their corporate cards but entering their home address. Most of this got cleared up when we changed our online forms and improved the language about billing address entered needing to match 100% with what is on file with banks.
I should also mention we were always getting your card’s three digit security code but Mastercard and Visa didn’t give us a break - they still wanted to see matching billing addresses, otherwise they would charge us more points.
There is nothing more frustrating than looking at accounting statements and thinking it was all settled and done, only to find a couple of months later that Mastercard and Visa decided to penalize us.
So fast forward and CoolTea has a wonderful e.commerce system, no more charge backs, almost no customer services calls, and all is good, until we ventured into the international scene.
First it was funny stuff like different characters for other languages - e.g., Norwegians have some funny characters, and no, I’m not talking about people, but literal text characters that are considered “high level ASCII” - you know, the E’s with the funny slants on top, the O’s with double dots, etc.
So these funny characters wrecked some havoc with our banking transactions. We got around this with some data scrubbing before passing the variables to the banks, but then AVS bit us again.
In particular, our German customers started complaining, “Hey I know my card is valid, my address is valid, my 3-digit code is valid, so why are you bouncing my card and transaction?”
This triggered my auto neurosis of “Now what have I done and missed” but alas, I came to find out after much technical digging with gateways and banks that there is no AVS with most of the international banks.
It’s not my fault that most international banking systems cannot confirm their customers billing address in real-time, so now what? Don’t do AVS and pay more points, don’t accept international customers, or ..??..
Suffice it to say we found a solution - some logic under the hood that says, “if US/Canada customer go this way, otherwise process it this way”, and now the international cards from around the world are going through the system without hiccups - at least for now until somebody changes the systems or rules, etc. - a reminder of the golden rule, “those with the gold rule” and since CoolTea is not on par with Mastercard/Visa’s gold, so be it and let’s learn to flow.
Which brings me full circle to standards.
The 1980s IBM PC is a great example of the explosion of growth that can occur when we collectively agree to open standards.
MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) is perhaps the most profound example of benefits from standards, but unless you are musically inclined and want to gig and share your music with other like-minded creative folks, it is perhaps a tad esoteric for the average person who is not musically inclined, so let me jump to open standards we all can relate to.
Without the alphabet (e.g., here are 26 symbols that mean this) and grammar (e.g., here is how we arrange the alphabetic symbols) and other open source frameworks like musical chords, notes and scales, what kind of a planet would we have, and how enriching would our lives be?
Thus I say, standards, especially open source, collectively agreed upon ones, are a good thing - even a beneficial thing and necessary for free, open democracies that win with growing markets.
After all, and looping back to credit card processing, I am grateful for the service that Mastercard and Visa provide. I am mindful of the thieves, scoundrels, and risks that the likes of Mastercard and Visa endure. And yet I am committed to providing our customers with the most efficient shopping experience possible that balances et al.
In summary - viva the open standards enthusiasts - and back to my opening point about already being known by some other intelligence - double bravo to accountability and transparency!
Below is a ten minute video clip I produced for Saint Patrick’s Church that features their Bible Camp 2007 - A Quest for Truth. The clip is currently hosted at YouTube and originally I wanted to share this as a heart-warming, intimate look of the children and families who participated with this year’s camp.
It is truly an Americana inspiration and gives hope to the soul - especially when we are bombarded with negative news from so many corners of the globe, this humble clip shows youth from all walks of life singing, playing, building, learning, and sharing in manner that gives me hope for the upcoming generation - a generation I’ve heard referenced as “The Rainbow Generation.”
It is also a great example of Church Marketing and the power of today’s multimedia technology. The Pastor shot the footage with a simple, handheld video camera - nothing fancy - no lighting, no staging, no separate sound team, etc. He handed me approx 6 or 7 mpeg-1 clips, each of which varied in length from 5 minutes to 15 minutes.
The hardest part for me was finding “The Arch of the Story” and how best to present these clips. Knowing I was limited to 100 meg file and 10 minutes max per YouTube, I started with the end in mind. Showing a strong finish, with professionally recorded patriotic music - Thank You Katie - timed to a slide show of higher resolution pictures taken from one of the Religious Ed leaders per the Pastor’s permission, I then worked backwards.
I also knew that the kids signing the Americana medley was also a strong start, even though that section occurred toward the end of the bible camp week, I put it upfront to give a sense of the “stars of the show.” With beginning and ending in place, I then edited the clips for those scenes that reflected the week’s activities - including making their Resurrection Butterflies, FBI Badges (firm believers in Christ), plus sundry other crafts.
Once I had a story board in mind, the next issue was of Sonic Branding - e.g., what kind of opening sound and visual theme could we create to help brand the church and use as opener for the other videos in development? Thus I found some funkee orchestral flute-guitar rock clip that was in my sound library that I had created over seven years ago with Acid Loops, and put this sonic bed to a beat with the lead images from their web site and voila - opening sonic / visual branding bug :>)
Lastly, I had to decide on project settings with Vegas. I started with Square Pixel 640×480 1.0 PAR (pixel aspect ratio) thinking we were just going to distribute the finished clip on the web, but as I got into it, I realized that some of the families might want a VideoCD or DVD version for their family archives, thus backed up and created the Rectangular Pixel (720×480 .909 PAR) version required for TV sets. In the end, I created two versions so that no black bars would appear in either version and both would display correctly - e.g., TV version on TVs and the squared computer version on monitors.
This audio interview is approximately 16 minutes in length and the file is a 3.7 meg mp3 file
About the Interview
Here we feature Zuhair Suidan as he presents Success as a Consultant - Making the Break from Employee to Consultant and going from W2’s to 1099’s
Special thanks to Mike Eastland from ESBN Radio for permission to use this audio interview which first aired on his program.
Zuhair talks about what it takes to be a consultant, the 8 P’s to Consulting Success (e.g., preparation, phantasize, plan, productize offerings, promote, perform, persist) and suggests all of us, even those employed, to think of ourselves as consultants and ask, “Would my current boss/team/stakeholders hire me again?”
This audio interview is approximately 18 minutes in length and the file is a 4.5 meg mp3 file
About the Interview
Here we talk with Dr. Janet Kiehl - an expert in career dynamics and organizational change.
This interview covers the spectrum of finding meaningful work - not just another job, but work that truly sustains for life and taps the soul.
Dr. Kiehl starts by recounting her own career transition from an unhappy software engineer to leading a 750 person team which went from zero to 1/2 billion in sales within twelve months, during a time period which also required each of her team members to change at their fundamental levels.
Janet then moves on to explain why over 70 percent of today’s workplace is in dislocation and is status-ficing - a word that captures those who are just hanging on - not quite satisfied but stuck with the status quo.
The journey of Dani is a wonderful illustration of a Research Scientist who migtrates thru the complex issues of career dynamics and how she moved through her fears, her cultural biases, abandoned her skill investments, and how Dani ultimately found the courage to find meaningful work.
Janet also touches on the power of groups, group dynamics and why just reading a book is not enough to ignite a chain reaction for meaningful career change.
This audio interview is approximately 15 minutes in length and the file is a 3.7 meg mp3 file
Note the sound is a tad scratchy for the first minute or two but soon levels out - we apologize and as fyi, have since upgraded to a digital hybrid/broadcast radio host for better sound quality
About the Interview
Here we talk with Julie Jansen - a speaker, coach, trainer and consultant who helps individuals and organizations reach their fullest potential in today’s chaotic business world.
Julie is also the author of:
I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This: A Step-By-Step Guide to Finding Gratifying Work
You Want Me to Work With Who? Eleven Keys to a Stress-Free, Satisfying and Successful Worklife…No Matter Who You Work With … which will go on sale February 28, 2006.
Some of the Themes Discussed with Julie Include:
Believe you can work and be happy - you don’t have to get everything from your work but if you get a lot that makes a huge difference in your life and with those who love you…
Case study of woman going from IT Project Management to mobile dog grooming business, selling franchises, making more money than ever, and never looking back …
Are you bored or stuck ..??.. even when you like where you work, get paid well, enjoy the people, the perks, have flex time, etc., sometimes it is not the pain that forces us to move on but the lack of challenging work …
You don’t have to get everything from your work … just figure out what would make you happier than you are now - e.g., more travel, more interesting people, different challenges to solve, etc., then go for the next level …
Resume writing can be fun … and put your creative energy into them even though they require a sense of formulaic structure, you can still capture your essence in unique, captivating ways …
This audio interview is approximately 18 minutes in length and the file is a 4.3 meg mp3 file
Links to Wilder’s Web Site
Here we talk with Wilder Baker, Principle of GPS 4 Management and Chairman of American Advertising Federation (AAF - advertising’s largest trade association)
Some of the Themes Discussed in This Interview with Wilder Include:
How advertising relates to marketing …
The ultimate marketing lessons learned from package goods companies like Proctor & Gamble, Kraft and others…
How big companies lose their way and marketing ROI …
Growth of internet as advertising medium …
How even consumer products are really business to business products …
Global marketing trends - e.g., visual first in Europe then followed by copy, whereas in US, copy usually first then visual …
A case study of success - $50 million in two years …
How to get in touch with your customers and critical importance of doing so …
A David Ogilvy story …
Driving home improtance Customer Focus vs Marketing - e.g., being in tune with your client and their needs and making that your priority …
To those who are concerned about a “global big brother” resulting from all our digital and global village connectedness, I say humbug and let the global standards roll forth.
Note the sound is a tad scratchy for the first minute or two but soon levels out - we apologize and as fyi, have since upgraded to a digital hybrid/broadcast radio host for better sound quality 
