I keep nodding my head like “yeah” as I’m reading updates from people like Chris, that are referencing a great quote to remember:

“Do or do not. There is no try.”
- Yoda

Tonight, I watched a segment that aired on 60-minutes, that made me think of the quote that sits at the top of my personal blog.

“If at first the idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it.”

This quote, is there for a very personal reason. It’s a motto that I strongly believe in because several things I’ve experienced or accomplished in life, at first- were just crazy thoughts or seemingly unattainable notions. Tonight, when I watched this interview, I couldn’t help imagine what it was like for K.R. Sridhar, and his team when they first set goals and expectations for his company, Bloom Energy. Even now, with as much progress as they’ve made with the technology, some of his predictions sound 100%, completely, and utterly absurd.

I even found myself laughing out loud at some of the things Sridhar spoke of, it sounded so unbelievable.

But I love it.

His challenging aspirations to change the energy industry had me captivated and motivated just listening to him.

So what is it? This company is a startup, that has developed the “Bloom Box”, a fuel cell technology that provides clean electricity. Google, Bank of America, and Wal-Mart are already testing the devices. Over $400 million has been invested and their goal is to have this device sitting in your backyard, powering your house.

Sridhar who used to work for NASA, and is someone who refuses to live with the results of other people’s thinking. He’s blazing his own trail and redefining everything you know.

Do yourself a favor and watch the segment. You’ll enjoy it.

Let me know your comments, what do you think about this? Did this get your attention?

I came across an article that declared, “…your brain can’t handle all 5,000 of your Facebook friends, humans’ brains are capable of managing a maximum of only 150 friendships.” It’s an interesting study revelation right? I think so. However, I want to point out the benefit of using a technology like Facebook.

Even if 150 friendships is all the ‘ol noggin can hold, I don’t think that means you have to limit the social circle of friends you have. This doesn’t mean you should start deleting friends and limiting who you’re connected with online. One of the benefits of social media is while we might be physically limited in managing the number of friends we have in our head, using tools like Facebook, we can stay ambiently connected to everyone else. Furthermore, as situations are relevant and of interest to us, we can then choose to interact with friends.

This notion, is what’s called “ambient intimacy“, I’ve discussed before on my blog. Ambient intimacy is about being able to keep in touch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible.

For example:

• Facebook helps me see what my friends are thinking, doing, projects they’re working on and what they did this weekend.

• Twitter tells me what websites to check out and the opinions people have about news and current events.

• Flickr lets me see the latest family photos or pics from a recent trip. And it also shows me their latest haircut.

• Friendfeed tells me their activity stream of my friends online, what they’re looking at, what they’re reading and videos they’ve favorited on YouTube.

So while, yes Robin Dunbar, the professor of Anthropology at Oxford is probably right, 150 friends is the max for your brain, utilizing tools like Facebook and Twitter allows you to “feel closer to people we care for but in whose lives we’re not able to participate as closely as we’d like. Knowing these details creates intimacy (via @leisa).

And the best part about all this is …we don’t have to store it in that ‘ol noggin resting between our shoulders. After all, I have a hard enough time remembering to pick up my dry cleaning.
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I’m awestruck when it snows. Even as a grown adult, I’m captivated by it. This is a short, simple video blog, that I filmed of the snowfall this weekend here in Kansas City (direct link here).

Be sure to increase the “HD” button to see the full details of the video. Or watch it in HD on Vimeo.

Note: this style of video is different than the “event casting” video blogs I film. This is intentional. As part of my goals for 2010, experimenting + learning with this style is what I want to get better at.

…inspiration can strike us in the strangest ways (like looking down at a sweetheart, sitting on your desk.).

This one happened to catch my attention, at work, when I was eating some leftover candy from Valentine’s Day. I believe you can never be to busy to search for inspiration.

Your elementary teachers and mom & dad had it right when they told you, “have the right attitude.” Adding to that, I say; have the right attitude about inspiration.

Inspiration can’t be episodic. Find a way to be inspired frequently.
Read books, blogs, listen to speeches, podcasts, TV programs of people that truly motivate you.  Surround yourself with friends that motivate you. That moment of inspiration you get when your neurons “spark” you to do something or take action is what life is all about. Whatever it is that ignites that, do it.

You can never be to busy to search for inspiration. Make sure you are not only inspired, but frequently. It can’t be every other month, strive to make it daily or at least weekly. Make post-it notes, put quotes on your bathroom mirror, send yourself reminders, setup alerts — you must foster the right environment. I personally have a fear of mediocrity and you should too.

Each dose of inspiration fades, but once you figure out how to continual reignite that spark — it’s addictive… in a GREAT way.

So that’s my take… what’s yours? How do you get motivated?
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My last blog post mentioned online influence. I explained that your influence offline vs. online doesn’t always transcend and cited an example of Bill Gates tweeting vs. the power that Ryan Seacrest has online. So it got me to thinking, why not compare recent tweets between Gates vs. Seacrest to see who really has “pull” online. Who would really win? The results were surprising and not what I had guessed.

(BTW, I never thought I’d ever write the phrase in a blog post, “Gates vs. Seacrest” …which come to think of it- would make for an awesome pay-per-view boxing fight).

In this unscientific comparison for online influence, I first wanted to establish and compare # of followers:

Bill Gates has 477,645 followers.
Ryan Seacrest has 2,952,473 followers.

As you can see, by measurement of pure followers, Seacrest easily overpowers Gates by 2,474,828 followers. You could say based on these numbers, the perceived reach and influence is much greater for Ryan Seacrest.

Measurement Methodology
My next step was to reviewed both Twitter streams to find a Tweet, older than 7 days, with a bit.ly URL, paired with verbiage from Gates or Seacrest that was along the lines of “i created this, and I want you to check it out by clicking the bit.ly link”. My intent was to find an older Tweet that isn’t active (so the numbers are fairly static), and the Tweet must be persuasive with a clear please “click my link” call-to-action.

Bill Gates:

Ryan Seacrest:

Initial thoughts: case closed?

Seacrest had 15,181 more click-throughs than Gates. My point is proven! Right? Bill Gates who arguably has more influence offline than Ryan Seacrest, has less infleunce online. Case closed?

This was the first comparison of many. When I performed other comparisons of bit.ly URLs between the two, the results were much different…

Bill Gates:

Ryan Seacrest:

What’s going on here?

The more links I tested and compared, I noticed that even with Ryan Seacrest’s 2,474,828 more followers …his click-through numbers weren’t that much more significant than Bill Gates (who has only 400,000+ followers). Most of the link comparisons placed them fairly comparable in terms of numbers.

• Does this mean followers counts don’t matter? (some people say to ignore #followers)
• What’s the right messaging/ communication for a conversion click?
• Does the time of day matter in which these tweets are being sent?
• Is there be a better “quality” or high signal to noise ratio for Gate’s followers?

What’s your opinion? What are your thoughts on online influence? What’s going on here between Gates and Seacrest? Make a comment.
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Many of the blog posts you’re likely reading about Kevin Smith (the dude in Mall Rats) getting kicked off the plane for “being to fat” are centered around discussion if the policy is fair or possible to objectively make the decision that someone is too fat …I’d rather not talk about that (the full story / tweet recap is here).

I want to make 3 points about things you might not have considered when tracking this story:

1.) Kevin Smith, is a C-list actor offline, but online, he’s got major influence (over 1.6 million followers on Twitter). My point is your influence offline vs. online doesn’t always transcend (e.g. even when people like Bill Gates tweet, he doesn’t have the influence that Ryan Seacrest has online).

2.) When you read the official corporate response -then- the blog post from Southwest, it’s interesting to note the tone, language and style difference used between the official corporate communication response vs. the blog post- which is written from a “human” (not legal speak), it’s opinionated, self-deprecating and translates the situation to the lowest common denominator. The blog post just uses common sense towards the situation. Southwest has a clear understanding of the tools and how to communicate with them.

2a.) If you review the comments on the blog, what’s evident is their efforts of engagement directly with their fans is playing to their advantage. MANY of the fans are speaking on their behalf, coming first to the defense of Southwest …all because of their loyalty and connection to the brand.

3.) There is something is to be said about the powerful effect of building relationships and connections online. In this case, Southwest’s online community was quick to assemble and defend them even in the mix of a PR mess. If Southwest wanted 1 proof-point ROI on social media, they could take this one incident and just measure the positive sentiment from it’s fans, it’s incredible to watch (so is the exchange between fellow loyalists).

What’s your opinion? Do you think Southwest is handling this properly?
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I dragged my friends outside for 10-minutes during the snow this weekend to take some quick pictures. I wanted to practice, practice and practice. This is one of the many things a friend of mine, Rebecca Peters has taught me. I’m thankful of her +other great friends who motivate me to get better and better and the things I love to do. The photos I took are on my flickr account.

One of my best friends, Adam, gets serious for a photo.

My roommate, wears these boots- and I like the colors on them- so i wanted to try using them as a focus for a shot.

Self portrait. I’m pretty sure the neighbors thought I was crazy when I was out standing in the snow taking this shot.

Recently, I’ve been getting emails and messages from friends telling me, “HEY, you’re on the first page of Google when I searched for X or Y. I see your photo and a link to your blog”. In my opinion, this is a big darn deal for anyone who creates content online AND is well connected online. Let me explain why…

This feature that people are seeing on their search results page is called, “social search“. And, people like my sister and my mom, who aren’t tech savvy, are likely missing the heading that explains “results from my social circle”. See below.

Google explains what “social search” in more detail:
With Social Search, when we search for [baby sleep patterns], [swaddling] or [best cribs], not only do we get the usual websites with expert opinions, we also find relevant pages from our friends and contacts. For example, if one of my friends has written a blog where he talks about a great baby shop he found in Mountain View, this might appear in my social results. I could probably find other reviews, but my friend’s blog is more relevant because I know and trust the author.

This seemingly small change is smart for Google and more importantly aligned with people’s behavior and the shift in our culture. When you perform a search, you are asking Google to give you back, relevant, credible information. That said…

…consider the following about trust + influence:

• More than ever, people do NOT trust businesses, corporations, government and institutions (2009 Edelman)
• More than ever, we highly trust the opinions of our friends and family.
• Trust in news media is down in double digits (2009 Edelman)
• Strangers are trusted more than celebrities and advertising (2008 McCann Survey).
• 85% of people who sit down at a computer are likely to first perform a search on Google

Do you get where I’m going with this? I make a point to tell you 85% of activity on a computer for any given person is searching for something on Google. AND now Google is placing links to your friend’s content based on the keywords you’re searching for, which is inline with the status quo of trust and influence shifting to individuals and strangers.

So, back to my original point at the beginning of my blog post: this change is a big darn deal for anyone who creates a lot of content AND is well connected online …because your visibility online just increased exponentially.

Every time a friend performs a search on Google, your content is eligible to appear if it’s relevant to their search …on the first page of their search results.

This is big.

What content do you have published, created, or exists that will place you on the first page of search results for free? Those that have content will benefit- and with little to no effort required.
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I gave a presentation on Personal Branding at the IABC Business Communicators Summit last week. Instead of just regurgitating all of the long-winded points I rambled about in my presentation, I’ll just give you the short and sweet version in 10 easy digestible points.

If you still have questions or want to complain about something after reading these (below) or viewing the PowerPoint …tell me in the comments. I’ll reply with answers to anything you ask. I promise.

1.) Personal branding, if understood and practiced well- can establish trust, credibility and more importantly define and distinguish you among your friends, family and work colleagues.

2.) Everything you do communicates a message- the first step is to recognize and be cognitive of that- the second is to provide definitive, consistent positioning with that message so people understand what you’re noteworthy and remarkable at.

3.) Consistency facilitates recognition. Don’t forget that. Be consistent.

4.) Step #1, Understand how your friends, family and work colleges perceive you.

5.) Step #2, Do a search, find out how Google perceives you.

6.) Step #3, Define your objectives and mission statement for your personal brand (what do you want to be famous for?).

7.) Step #4, Get to work and make a plan with how you can achieve those objectives.

8.) Some of the objectives you set for yourself might be really hard- and require you give up your free time to do your homework to achieve them. Stop watching Lost. You must be willing to make sacrifices.

9.) Step #5, Share right (don’t brag) and share often. Tell the story, so someone else isn’t telling it for you.

10.) Step #6, Water the trees in your social graph / network. Be helpful and feed social capital. Have real interactions with real people online, don’t just publish content (via social media).

Note: To achieve success you need to continuously learn, evaluate, and adapt. IMHO, you should repeat steps 1 – 10 at least x3 times a year.

I’m a sucker for great quotes. And sometimes it’s the simplest of quotes that resonate the most. The simple things, often overlooked, are the most important.

This past weekend, my roommates + friends got together to watch the Kansas game at Johnny’s Tavern downtown here in Kansas City. I grabbed my camera and snapped some photos (below). This was the first time I had a chance to use my Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens, which is fixed and has no zoom. I have fun with this lens because you’ve gotta work to get the shot. Literally, you you must move those feet to get the right distance on the shot. You can see the full slideshow on my flickr stream.

I digg photography. I really digg photo apps that run on my iPhone. I wanted to share with you an app called TiltShift which I recently downloaded that I think is awesome.

What does “tilt shift” mean? Basically it’s selective focus. The super-fancy definition = Tilt shift comprises of two parts, the tilt and the shift. Both of these involve moving the lens in relation to the film plane. The main historical use was for architectural photography- the lens could be tilted to also tilt the focal plane, meaning that the photographer could have things both near and far in focus at the same time (source).

Anyways, back to how cool this app is. First, it’s cheap- priced at $0.99. It allows you to take any photo you’ve snapped with your iPhone and drag, stretch, pivot a red circle to indicate which portion of the photo you’d like in focus. The app will take care of blurring the rest of the photo for you. You can even choose the intensity of the blur. Take a look at the before and after photos (below). This app is great for getting creative with your photos- without even having to launch photoshop! I’ve started using it and love it. If you’re following my flickr stream or me on Facebook, you’ll see photos upped using this app in the near future …it’s awesome! You can download it here.

Do you use any other great iPhone photo applications? Share it! Tell me in the comments.

BEFORE photo

AFTER photo

I wanted to share a “year in review” video that I help cut, produce and film. This video was presented at our annual office holiday party (@Digital Evolution Group). I’m a web consultant and social marketing specialist (which is fancy words for: “a geek at heart who loves his job”).

While you might not know anyone in the video, I wanted to share the video with you. This will give you a glimpse inside the walls of where I work and what it’s like. If you only watch 1 thing- jump to the 6:40 minute marker of the video, it’s fun to watch (make sure you have your speakers cranked)

OK, I’ll admit it. I was the disappointed with the launch of the Apple iPad. It didn’t change the face of computing as we know it today. And it doesn’t revolutionize your life either (or fold your laundry).

But, that’s exactly the problem.

The expectation that this device would do exactly that made for huge buzz-kill for most of us techy-geek-heads. But, again- that’s exactly the problem.

Perhaps this device isn’t for techy-geek-heads.

Has anyone considered that since this is an “instant on” device (no startup waiting) the many practicalities and convenience of being able to instantly browse the web or open media files. There isn’t a netbook out there that performs as quick or as beautifully as the iPad.

Perhaps there many practical uses for this device we have yet to consider, take for example; graphic designers showing their portfolio at a coffee shop meeting, real-estate agents working with clients using it to show photos and their properties, photographers portfolios, or anyone who sells anything could use this device in a meeting (I already show friends and clients photos and portfolios with my iPhone and I’m confident the iPad likely does it better).

Perhaps everyone has “office space syndrome” and we are just hopping on the jump-to-conclusions mat before anyone really actually has used the device besides the techy-geek-heads out there.

The verdict is still out in my book until I actually get to physically hold it- touch it- use it and put it through my own tests. And for the record, I would still camp out for this device. I want it.

What do you think? What was your reaction to the iPad? Do you want to buy an iPad? Leave a comment.

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