We just saved 15 seconds. But what about our coworker? They have to stop what they’re doing, answer your question, then try to get back to being productive. The problem is that it can take 15 minutes to get back into “the zone.” We just cost them 15 minutes of productivity to save us 15 seconds. Add up all these little interruptions throughout the day and you can lose hours of productivity just by being lazy.

Next time you have a simple question for the person sitting next to you in the office (or across the country via IM), try finding the answer yourself first. Be resourceful. Ssearch Google. Check the documentation. Go through basic troubleshooting steps. Don’t ask for help until you’ve exhausted all your other options. And then, if it’s not an emergency, send an email instead of interrupting them.

I’ve often thought about him, wondered what he was doing. I even Googled his name, and searched for him on Facebook a time or two. But I never really tried to find him. I never really tried to reconnect.

Tonight his mom, who was like a mother to me, found me on Facebook and soon after I learned that Andrew had passed away. Wow.

What Will You Regret?

I don’t regret many things I’ve done in my life. In fact, the only things that I truly regret are the things I haven’t done. Today, I just added one more to that list. I wish I had reconnected with my old friend before it was too late. I regret not being a better friend.

This has reminded me to never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. Hug your parents. Tell your children you love them. Reconnect with an old friend. Do it today, because you may not be able to tomorrow.

Don’t Waste Time

Andrew was my age and died suddenly, before his time. That is incredibly sobering news. I am not one to spend much time watching TV or playing video games, but honestly I do my share of time-wasting. We all do, in our own ways.

I don’t want to waste my life… I want it to mean something. A few days ago, I wondered aloud on Twitter:

I don’t know what it was I was put here to do, but I do know I am going to figure it out. I’m not going to wait until next year, next month, or even tomorrow. I’m starting right now. I am going to make a promise to myself to not only figure out how I want to make a difference, but start doing it.

Don’t Wait For Your Wake-Up Call

We all get wake-up calls from time to time. Sometimes it’s a small one… something someone says just resonates with us or we barely escape a car accident. But from time to time, we get big wake-up calls. I got one tonight.

Don’t wait for your own wake-up call to make changes in your life. Let this little reminder be a wake-up call for you too. Now is the perfect time to take a look at your dreams, your career, your life. Do you wish you spent more time with your family? Do you wish you could start your own business? Do you really wish you could go back to school, but “don’t have time?”

Don’t put it off anymore, because life is short and you may wake up one day and realize your whole life has passed you by. Or you may not wake up at all.

Often times we are so busy with the daily grind that we forget the basics. We forget how to be gentlemen. All it requires is a friendly reminder (the book above is an excellent refresher).

Getting Back to the Basics

Sometimes we get off-course in business, too. In our haste, we sometimes forget how to act. I have always thought of businessmen in very much the same way I think of gentlemen. Handshakes. Principles. Honesty.

Yes, business is about making profits, but it’s much more important to do something you love. To make a difference. To do something your children will be proud of.

Businessmen don’t abdicate responsibility by saying “I just work here” – they take responsibility and show initiative. They choose not to complain, because complaining doesn’t do anyone any good. Real businessmen take pride in their work, and make sure it’s done right. They truly enjoy what they do.

I think it’s about time we got back to the basics of business. I think it’s about time we acted like businessmen (and women).

There isn’t a book titled “How to Be a Businessman,” but maybe there should be.

The problem with this kind of opportunism is that in a very short time, you can find yourself overloaded and spread too thin. I’m talking about literally overloaded, in terms of the shear amount of time devoted to different projects and priorities.

You might find that your mind is also overloaded. With too many parallel initiatives, it can be difficult to focus and think critically about them. They all suffer individually because of the mental weight of the collective.

But opportunism also has another, even higher, price. The opportunity cost of taking every great opportunity that comes along, is that you will soon be confronted with one you simply cannot take because you are overcommitted. And it may be the one opportunity that could have meant the most to your career or life goals.

So next time you are presented with an opportunity, think carefully about your other obligations before jumping in and saying “yes.” Although it’s difficult, sometimes the most valuable opportunities are the ones we said no to.

But somehow, a break of a few weeks turned into a few months. I stopped focusing on finding speaking engagements, and as a result, by the time I speak again it will have been almost 3 months. A lot can happen in three months! Every professional speaker I know says that you have to keep practicing, keep working on your craft.

There’s also the loss of momentum that comes from slowing down or stopping for a few months. When my book published last June, promotion started out a little slow. The more I traveled and spoke, the more momentum I built up. Toward the end I was speaking 2-3 times per month (which is a lot considering my full-time job and other commitments). Then nothing. For three months.

It’s going to be tough, but I’m already working on getting that momentum back. I do have several speaking engagements already in October (and am still interested in speaking in September if the right opportunity presents). Going forward, I’m going to be sure to not get lazy and lose too much momentum.

What have you gotten complacent about lately?

So, how did turning 30 affect me?

30 is Just a Number

I’ve never been one to get hung up on age. Part of that is because I started my first real business at 19, and saw age discrimination first-hand. I had friends, family, bankers, and vendors treat it as if it were just a big joke. I didn’t act young, but I was and had too much of a baby face to pass for much older than early twenties.

Now that business, 2BigFeet.com, is over 10 years old and still going strong. A lot of people told me it would never work and that I should get a good education and a good, “stable job.” I strongly feel if I was 30 or 40 when I started that business I would’ve gotten a very different reaction from people.

I never really liked being “young.” It was always a challenge for me, because I am a very “driven” person and it seemed like my age and youthful appearance often cast a first impression on people about me. It took a long time to prove otherwise — time I feel could have been better spent, honestly.

After spending the better part of my twenties being asked “So, how old are you?” I’m honestly looking forward to my 30′s. I look much older than I did when I turned 20… but it doesn’t bother me. I’m just glad that I don’t get asked “How old are you?” every time I meet someone and tell them I’m an entrepreneur, published author, or professional speaker.

My Life So Far

I’m very proud of what I’ve accomplished so far. I’ve been working for 15 years now. In that time I have started several businesses, some of which have been very successful. I have taught myself web development and online marketing, built a career and a name for myself in this industry, and even published a book on the subject. I’ve traveled all over the country and abroad speaking professionally about my industry.

I also fell in love, got married, and had two amazing children who are growing up faster than I can keep up with. I went to college, became a Kappa Sigma Brother, and made friendships I am sure will last my entire lifetime.

I can’t express in words how fortunate I feel to be where I am right now. I wouldn’t change a thing about my life.

My Next 30 Years

I heard a song by Tim McGraw the other day – “My Next 30 Years.” It is a very moving song and struck a chord with me. It starts:

I think I’ll take a moment, celebrate my age
The ending of an era and the turning of a page
Now it’s time to focus in on where I go from here

Those words really resonated with me… about my life and how I want to spend it. In 30 more years, I’ll be 60. In all reality, I’ll be in my final act by then.

I figure I have 30 good years left (maybe more). The next 30 years are quite possibly the most important years of my life.

What do I want to do? What kind of person do I want to be? How do I want to leave my mark on this world? I don’t have all the answers — nobody does — but I know that every day that passes is an opportunity.

I plan to make the best of my next 30 years…

Business is Just Like Poker

People who can’t play the game will tell you it’s all the luck of the draw, but it’s really much more about skill, practice and knowledge of the game.

So are you the type of person that just complains about not being lucky enough, or are you the one that gets in there and learns the game?

I always thought something was wrong with that. I had better grades than most of the students and spent only half the time there. Sure, if I was there every day I might have made a 4.0, but who cares? Is the difference between a 4.0 and a 3.66 really worth half a year?

You might say I was just lazy. Why spend all your time sitting in class when you can find better things to do? While others were sitting in class, I was learning to design, running a printing press, or something else I thought was interesting.

I didn’t do well in college either. By the time I graduated high school, I was already dabbling in different business ventures. My senior year I took an internship and the only thing that saved me was that my boss (one of the coolest bosses I’ve ever had) made it pretty simple… as long as I did my job and met my deadlines I could come and go as I pleased. No set hours.

I was in heaven. I would work until 3am some nights, and not show up for days. For a Fortune 500 company, this was odd to say the least. I think my boss got a good bit of push back from management when HR noticed my odd time logs. She didn’t care, I was getting the job done. After the internship was over I was offered a full-time job in another department, but it quickly turned downhill. I was expected to be there “8 to 5″ and was punching a clock whether there was work to be done or not. I was miserable, and quit to start 2BigFeet.com shortly after that.

I started 2BigFeet and college at roughly the same time. It was obvious which I was more interested in, because I’d excuse myself from class to take calls from vendors or just miss class altogether because I was busy. It didn’t last long, and I left college after just over 2 years. (Side note: 2BigFeet just turned 10 years old in April)

I’ve always thought I was an oddity… I know I’m intelligent but I never quite fit in to the stereotypical mold. Society tells us to do well in school, go to college, and get a “good job.” I always thought that was bullshit… who wants to work for “the man” for 30 years and retire with nothing to show for it?

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought that way. I found this Ted talk by Cameron Herald about education and entrepreneurship. I got chills down my spine watching it. It’s nice to know there are others like me out there…

I know I’ll be giving a lot of thought to what I teach my children (now 4 and 6) about business, finances and entrepreneurship. They’re already earning money (I don’t believe in an allowance) and they’re required to save some and give some away. It’ll be interesting to see if they get the E-gene like I did.

If your children don’t fit the stereotypical mold in school, instead of disciplining them or labeling them as “ADHD” why not take a step back and think about how you can nurture their differences?

But what do you do when you really love everything that you’ve committed yourself to do? How do you choose what to give up when everything that you’re doing is in line with your career goals?

I’ve been struggling with this for a few months now, and I don’t really have an answer. I don’t really want to give up any of the things I’m doing, but I need more time with my family and more time for myself.

So for the next few months, I’m going to try something new. I’m the work on being more productive, and I’m not cut out everything in my life that doesn’t help me reach the goals I’ve set for myself. No TV, movies, video games (not that I was into gaming anyway), or other distractions. I’m going to really focus on the things that are important to me, and try to forget about things that don’t really matter. In 10 years, I won’t miss the TV show I never watched or the time I didn’t spend on Facebook or Twitter…

I’m not going to ignore my family or friends. I want to spend time with my them, but will try to make them productive activities. For instance, instead of watching a movie or TV show with the kids, we can all go outside and work in the yard together. That way we spend quality time together, and also get things done around the house, killing two birds with one stone.

So as of right now, I’m cutting out all television, movies, games (not that I played many anyway), and general web surfing and social media. I’ll still check into Twitter and Facebook once or twice a day but it will be to just manage my account, post something, then get off.

I’m going to limit my meetups and association meetings too – for the forseeable future I’m only going to meetings where I am the speaker. It takes a considerable amount of time between the travel, the meetup itself, and the mingling afterward. I could be spending that time working on projects or with my family.

I’ll also be limiting email to checking 3 or 4 times a day, at set intervals. If you happen to email me or message me on a social networking site like Facebook or Twitter and I don’t respond, pick up the phone and give me a call.

Like Gary Vaynerchuk also said recently, I feel like I’ve lost my focus… like I’ve said “yes” to too many things. Before I start saying “no” to anything, I need to take a step back from all of the things I know aren’t priorities in my life.

We’ll see how it goes over the next few months. With a busy speaking schedule, and even busier list of projects at Kelsey, it’ll be a interesting experiment.

The conference is huge, the parties are over the top, the venue is amazing (who doesn’t love Austin?) and the people are what it’s all about.

This was the first year I was speaking at SxSWi, I had a book reading for Online Marketing Inside Out on Saturday, March 13 at 11 AM (well, a little later because the previous speaker ran into my time slot). So I was incredibly excited about going this year, but decided to take a slightly different approach.

Instead of trying to go to a lot of panels and sessions, and trying to hit all the big parties, I would just take it as it came. The last two years at SxSW seemed to fly by so quickly and it seemed like I never had time to just sit down and enjoy the company of friends or really connect with people. This year I was determined to really make the most of it.

So what follows is a daily recap of my SxSW experience (with many thanks to Foursquare for the helpful history tool!). Be forewarned… it’s long and incredibly detailed. If you’d rather skip all the minute details and just read my takeaways, you can jump to the conclusion.

Thursday

We have a client in Austin, and it was actually a trip to meet with them that led me to my first SxSW in 2008. It just so happened that our client meeting and the conference were extremely close, so we got tickets to the conference. For the past two years we’ve repeated that coincidence by scheduling our meeting around the conference.

We flew into Austin pretty early, and Donna (our client) picked us up from the airport. We went to their offices for a short time and then went to Rudy’s BBQ for lunch. We stuffed ourselves, then headed back to the office to get some work done.

Went out to The Salt Lick for dinner, one of my favorite places in Austin to eat. It’s located in a dry county, but you can take a cooler filled with beer. It’s got a great atmosphere and even better Texas BBQ.

After dinner I hitched a ride to the hotel and checked in. It was 9:45 PM when I got to my room and dropped my bags, so I decided to run over to the convention center to try to get a badge. I ran past Jim Caruso in the Hilton lobby, and he walked with me to the convention center. I barely got my badge before they closed at 10, then Jim and I went to the lounge in the Hilton and had a drink. Chrispian Burks met us there and we hung out for a few before calling it a night.

Friday

I went back over to our client’s office for a while and wrapped things there, then had Mighty Fine Burgers for lunch (owned by the same folks as Rudy’s). We finished up around 4 PM and I headed to the hotel and convention center. I went up to the day stage for Darren Rowse’s book reading of the second edition of his ProBlogger book co-authored by Chris Garrett. I met up with Julie Taylor, Josh Coffee, Patrick O’Keefe, Chrispian Burks, Deb Ng, and Chris.

Someone pulled the fire alarm right in the middle of Darren’s book reading and the entire convention center was evacuated. It was a little funny how slowly people were evacuating. If there was a real fire, I think half the world’s bloggers would have been lost. When we got the all-clear, we went back to the book reading and Darren finished. After the reading, Darren and Chris had a book signing at the SxSW Bookstore. I bought another copy of Problogger Book and got them to sign it.

I went back to the room briefly and then went downstairs to meet up with Jeremy Wright and head to dinner with some friends. He was in the Hilton lounge with a few friends. I grabbed a drink and he introduced me to Loren Feldman of 1938 Media. Loren seems like a pretty cool guy, the kind of guy that’d be fun to just hang out and have a few drinks with. We threw down our drink pretty fast because we were running late and then headed to Roy’s where we met Darren Rowse, Deb, Chris, Patrick, Chrispian, and some others. The food was great, but it was a little dark.

After dinner, we went to Emo’s and I saw Jim Caruso, Courtenay Bird, Scott Lockhart and a few others. The scene at Emo’s was a little… err… different. We didn’t stay there all that long.

We headed to the Driskill Hotel (that’s where all the cool kids said the party was at) and it was packed. I saw lots of cewebrities there like Gary Vaynerchuk, Robert Scoble, Brian Solis, etc. Whoohooo! (note the sarcasm). I stayed at the bar upstairs for a while but then heard a few friends were downstairs at the 1886 Cafe and Bakery. I headed down and the atmosphere was much better. We could actually hear each other talk. We stayed there for a bit then I headed back to the hotel to get some sleep because I had a book reading Saturday.

Saturday

I woke up early to prepare for my book reading, and as I was going over my notes and slides I decided to completely change my talk. Instead of going through several chapters in the book giving tips and tricks, I decided to tell a few stories about our experience at 2BigFeet.com over the years. I frantically retooled my slides to be much simpler and prepared some notes for the talk at 11am.

I got to the Day Stage around 10 minutes before 11, and the presenter before me was still going strong. Book reading presentations are supposed to be 20 minutes, but the time slot is 30 minutes. This gives the AV team time to get the next presenter setup and gives the people in the audience time to get up and leave or new arrivals time to find a seat. The guy before me ran really long, cutting well into my time. At 11am, I looked at the AV folks and they said he was wrapping up. 5 minutes later, still talking. Playing videos. Talking more. 10 minutes… STILL talking. Then as he was playing a video he told us he’d take ONE question after it was over. As soon as the video stopped, he said “I’ve got time for a couple questions” and proceeded to take two, and give extremely long-winded answers.

If people came at 11am for my book reading, I can only imagine what they were thinking. Did it get cancelled? Was it already over?

He finally got off the stage, and we setup the AV and I started. I was a little worked up about going on late and the previous presenter’s lack of respect, so I stumbled a bit over the first few slides. I think it went well as soon as I got into the three stories, and my talk was even covered on HubSpot’s Internet Marketing Blog.

Immediately after the book reading, I walked over to the SxSW Bookstore (a few tables across from the Day Stage) for a book signing. I sold lots of books and met some really cool people… and some really great friends like Patrick, Josh, Julie, Chrispian, Deb and Taryn Pisaneschi were there to support me.

Then we went to Patrick O’Keefe and Twanna Hines’ core conversation, “Shameless Self Promotion Without Looking Like an @#$%^&!“. It was originally submitted as a panel with Patric, Twanna, Darren Rowse and me, but was converted to a core conversation so Darren and I just attended and participated from the audience.

We were pretty hungry after Patrick’s panel, and one of my friends James Paden and Deb Ng had never had Texas BBQ, so I took a group of friends to Rudy’s BBQ (worst bbq in texas) for some brisket and beef ribs. It was me, Josh Coffee, Julie Taylor, Deb Ng, James Paden and Chrispian Burks. We had a blast, and have photos to prove it! We had to take a couple cabs out there, but it was worth it. Next year I’m taking them to The Salt Lick though!

It took a while to get there and back, so not much was accomplished that afternoon. We had RSVP’d for the Old Timers meetup so Patrick, Jared Smtih and I headed over there. We met some great folks like Alyce Lindquist from the Silicon Valley Social Media Club and Brian O’Shaughnessy from Skype.

We left there with intentions of finding a place to eat, but had trouble getting a cab back to the convention center area. When we finally got there we saw Lucretia Pruitt and Allison Worthington in the Hilton lobby. We were all hungry, so we just decided to get something to eat in the Hilton Lounge (food by Finn & Porter). The group ended up being me, Lucretia, Allison, Patrick, Josh, Julie and Chrispian. I had a great time talking to Allison about her BlissDom conference.

From there, we tried to go to the TechKaraoke party but the line wrapped all the way around the building. One of my goals this year was to not stand in any lines… you can waste so much time waiting to get in and there are so many parties going on. Why wait to get into that one cool party? We eventually ended up at the Bellmont bar and had a great time. They had live music and the weather was great, so we stayed outside on the roof most of the time. We closed it down, then went to Jimmy Johns for a late night snack.

Got back to the hotel really late, and suddenly remembered I was going to have to be up early because Patrick and I had RSVP’d for something Sunday morning. I set my alarm and tried to get a few hours of sleep.

Sunday

I had to wake up early for Social Media Breakfast… but of course slept late. I woke up at 9, and was supposed to meet Patrick in the lobby at 9:30 to grab a cab. I jumped in the shower and threw on some clothes as fast as I could. We left the hotel by cab at 9:45, got there, got some grub and sat down at a table with Deb Ng, Chris Garrett and later Dave Barger. The presentations were very interesting and I met a few people afterward. I even scored a free Skype headset they were giving away. We snagged a ride with Patrick’s friend Nathan Wright back to the hotel.

The breakfast lasted until noon, and we were pretty hungry by the time we got back to the hotel. I went to Champions for lunch with Patrick, Chrispian, Julie, Josh and Jared. After lunch I dropped by the blogger lounge and said hello to a few people. Outside the blogger lounge Patrick introduced me to Rafael Marquez of MarketingLatinos.com and he interviewed me for his blog. Then I headed to the Interactive Agency Workflow session. The session started out great, going from requirements gathering and wireframing but seemed to linger about wireframes way too long. Most of the people got up and left about halfway through.

We skipped out a few minutes early and went over to the Twitter Dating panel at the Courtyard Mariott supporting Jeremy Wright (one of the speakers). The panel was hilarious… there was lots of participation and interesting online dating stories (probably helped by the free beer).

After the panel I went back to the Hilton and met up with Joe Hamm and the usual Patrick, Julie, Josh and Chrispian and headed to dinner at Cantina Laredo. We had some awesome gourmet mexican food and then headed to Lanai for the Big Omaha party. Nathan Wright was a sponsor and we spoke to him for a moment when we got there. It wasn’t very busy at all, nice group of people until Gary Vaynerchuk announced his “secret” wine party was there (about midnight). It packed out with hundreds more people and they cranked up the music. I got a pretty bad headache and decided to call it a night… went back to the hotel and got some sleep.

Monday

I think my body was trying to tell me I needed some rest, because I woke up around 7 and felt much better. I got ready and headed to the Blogger Lounge to catch up on some email and work before the sessions. Jeremy came in and sat next to me and we caught up on our SxSW adventures to that point — I think he had much more eventful time than I had at that point! I also talked to Rohit Bhargava and Patrick about professional speaking.

For lunch, Julie wanted to find some gluen-free pizza. She’s gluten-intolerant so she’d been just eating a little of this and that wherever we went. She did some research and found a couple of pizza places in Austin, but none of them close enough to walk to. We took a cab to one of the restaurants she found but it had closed down. We were sitting in two cabs with meters running so we decided to just go to Conan’s Pizza. We original and thought they had gluten-free pizza, but it turns out they didn’t. We decided to eat there anyway, and it turned out to be a very interesting place.

After lunch, we took a few cabs back to the convention center. As Patrick and I were walking through the convention center floor, we ran into Thom Singer and had a great conversation about professional speaking. Thom is a professional speaker and spoke over 50 times last year. He is a wealth of information about speaking and presenting, so I picked his brain for a while and asked a ton of questions.

Patrick and I walked back over to the Hilton and saw Jacqui Chew, who I had met earlier (but when and where is escaping me right now). We decided to head over to the Frost Tower for Gary Vaynerchuk and Brian Solis’ joint wine tasting and book signing. I saw a lot of people there including Courtenay, Taryn, and Jim. Taryn introduced me to Stephanie Lichtenstein and Lindsay Burck.

We were getting hungry, so we decided to find a place to eat. We had a decent sized party, and went to one restaurant that wasn’t going to be able to seat us for 30-45 minutes. They recommended Sullivan’s Steak House which was right down the street, and we got a table there almost immediately. Me, Patrick, Jacqui, Jim, Julie, Josh and Chris all had dinner, and it was great. The service and food were excellent, and they got us in and out relatively quickly. After dinner, Patrick went to watch the premier of MacGruber. We all went to the TechSet party but several of us weren’t on “the list” so we couldn’t get in. Josh, Julie and Chrispian decided to call it a night.

Jim, Jacqui, and I decided to go to the Rackspace Revolutions party, since Jim and I are both customers. When we got there, Jim spotted the chairman and he and Jackie ran off to find him and take a picture with him. I hung around the bar area, and ran into several people like Robert Scoble, who is now working with RackSpace. I also bumped into James Paden, Taryn, Stephanie and several others.

Later that evening, I noticed a crowd gathering around a table. They have hired someone to hand-roll cigars. After waiting in line for about 30 minutes I finally got a hand rolled cigar. After enjoying my cigar, I met up with Taryn and Lindsay. We stayed at the party until closing, when I walked them back to Lindsay’s car. Her car was dead so we asked someone else who just left the party if they could jump start her car. They just got in the car and left. I called AAA and they sent someone out to give us a hand. After waiting about an hour, a tow truck showed up and helped us get her car started. They gave me a ride back to the Hilton and I called it a night.

Tuesday

I went to a few sessions about mobile development and had lunch again at Champions with Patrick, Chris, Josh and Jared Smith. After lunch we went to the Press Lounge to wait for Abby Johnson of WebProNews who had scheduled an interview with Patrick.

After their interview, she asked if I’d like to interview again (of course I would!) so I talked about my book reading a bit. Afterward, I went to one final session on mobile advertising and then went back to the hotel to work a bit. Later that evening I joined Jim, Stephanie Frost, Chris Turner and Jackui for dinner at Eddie V’s. I had Ahi Tuna (rare, of course) and it was amazing.

I decided to go back to my room and work, forgoing the closing party since I had an early flight.

Wednesday

I originally thought my flight back to Atlanta was at 5am, but fortunately that was when I needed to be at the airport. My flight was at 6:55 and I was joined on the flight by lots of Atlantans heading home from SxSW. I sat with Joe Hamm and Stephanie Frost waiting to board.

The Big Picture Takeaways

SxSW was epic as usual. This blog post is a testament to that. This was my third South-by and was by far the most productive. My first year I tried to attend ALL the sessions and ALL the parties. As a result, I was always running around like crazy and can barely remember who I met or what I did. Last year I took it a little easier, but still tried to go to all the parties and meet as many people as possible.

This year I just decided to go with the flow. We made dinner plans at the last minute, hung out in the halls, went to meetups, and generally just bummed around the conference. If you just looked at my schedule, you might think I completely wasted my conference pass… maybe I did. But I got more from this year at SxSW than the two previous years combined.

I spent time with great friends (including some new ones like Deb and Chris), met some truly awesome people, and made some connections that I am sure will be extremely valuable. I stuck by my original goal and didn’t wait in lines to get into a party (with the exception of a short line to have my ID checked).

The overall takeaway for me is to experience SxSW like you’d experience a great little city you’ve never been to. If you’ve never been, you don’t know all the cool places to go see, you just go exploring, meeting people as you go. Not only is it much more fun, but I think you get a lot more out of it that way.

People that Made SxSW Rawk

I met literally hundreds of people at SxSW. I had great conversations, learned a lot, and really had a great time. But there were some people who really stood out and helped made SxSW 2010 really special. In no particular order…

• Patrick O’Keefe
• Chrispian Burks
• Josh Coffee
• Julie Taylor
• Jeremy Wright
• Jim Caruso
• Stephanie Frost
• Darren Rowse
• Chris Garrett
• Jacqui Chew
• Taryn Pisaneschi
• Thom Singer

As you might remember from my post last year, I don’t really make New Years resolutions. I am constantly reviewing my goals… I do it weekly, monthly, quarterly and yes, annually. A year is a good time frame by which to set larger goals, though, so I do like to take a little time every year to review my progress and look at what’s in store for the next year.

Looking Back

Looking back on 2009, here are a few of the highlights…

I Wrote a Book

I coauthored “Online Marketing Inside Out” with Shayne Tilley. What a great way to start the year… on January 14, Shayne Tilley (marketing manager at SitePoint) contacted me about the possibility of me coauthoring a book with him (then tentatively titled “The Art & Science of Online Marketing”).

It came as a complete shock but was a great start to the year. Of course, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. I never could have imagined I’d have to have all my first drafts in by the end of February! After a few gruelling months of edits and impatiently waiting, Online Marketing Inside Out hit the shelves at the end of May.

I Really Started Speaking

After the book launched, I started looking for opportunities to speak about online marketing, both to help promote the book and because professional speaking has been a long-time goal of mine. With the help of some friends and colleagues, I was able to quickly find several opportunities and kick-started my professional speaking career.

My speaking engagements included a book signing at Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas, several American Advertising Federation chapters, a few trade organizations, and a private college. All in all, I traveled 12,000 miles from June to November (I took December to myself to wrap up projects and spend time with my family and catch up on some projects I’d been neglecting).

Although I do have experience speaking at conferences, it’s been almost 10 years since I’ve spoken to more than 10 people. It took a few times to get back in the swing of things, but once I got used to it I really started to enjoy it.

I’ve already lined up several speaking engagements for 2010 and am still looking for conferences and industry associations looking for online marketing speakers (check out my speaking page for more information).

3 Years at Kelsey

November 13 marked my 3-year anniversary at Kelsey Advertising and Design. When I sold my consulting company to Brant Kelsey in 2006, I never thought I would stay on board for over 3 years.

I’m kind of a rebel… I don’t really fit into the corporate culture. I’ve worked for a few small businesses (less than 25 employees) and it’s easier, but I’m still not comfortable taking orders or conforming.

I’m definitely more of an entrepreneur at heart (obvious by all my other endeavors I guess). Fortunately, the work at Kelsey is extremely exciting and I’m free to do things however I see fit, as long as the job gets done. It’s been extremely rewarding so far and I’m looking forward to many more anniversaries.

I Became Editor of the SitePoint Tribune Newsletter

After five years as editor of the SitePoint Tribune, Brendon Sinclair stepped down. His coauthor, Miles Burke, continued to write issues every other week and SitePoint asked several people to be guest authors to fill in until a permanent replacement could be found.

I wrote a guest issue for October 22, 2009. I enjoyed it so much, I dropped a few hints that if they ever needed someone for a more permanent commitment, I’d be extremely interested. I was extremely excited when SitePoint asked me to be an editor of the SitePoint Tribune and penn issues alternating with Miles.

My first official issue was published on November 23, 2009.

I’m Speaking at SxSW

I found out that I would be doing an official book reading and book signing at South by Southwest in March 2010 in November 2009, but couldn’t announce anything until December 2. I’ve been to SxSW twice now, and it’s been a goal of mine to speak there since I first discovered the conference.

2BigFeet Had Another Record-Breaking Year

In 2007, Tracy (my wife) and I took over sole ownership of 2BigFeet, our e-commerce retailer of big shoes. 2007 was a rebuilding year… we replenished depleted inventory, cut unnecessary expenses and paid off debt. In 2008 we kicked into high gear and more than doubled 2007 sales.

I didn’t think we’d be able to come close to repeating that, but from early estimates (we haven’t really taken a good look at the books yet) it seems we’ve still had a 25% increase over 2008… amazing in this economic climate. We had an amazing holiday season, and are still going strong the first week in January.

Looking Forward

2010 is sure to be an amazing year. Unlike hoards of A-list bloggers, I’m not writing a “predictions” post. I think they’re a crapshoot at best, anyway. As selfish as it sounds, I’m more concerned about what I’m going to do in 2010 than what everyone else is working on.

So what do I have in store for next year?

More Speaking

I’m really interested in more speaking opportunities. I have several speaking engagements lined up already (like a book reading/presentation at SxSW in March) but am looking for more. If you know of any conferences that have a call for online marketing speakers, let me know!

Podcasting Time

I’m starting a podcast about e-commerce and online marketing. I’ve already acquired all the equipment I need… microphone, software, video camera, etc. I’m lining up a few interviews for the first episode and testing out my editing skills (anyone offering video editing services?).

Hopefully by the end of January I’ll have the first episode ready to publish.

My Next Book

By the end of 2010 I’d like to be pitching my next book. I already know what it’s going to be about (mostly business, not just online marketing). I don’t think it’s feasible to have a contract by the end of the year, but it’s not impossible either.

I’m going to be hitting up all my friends who are published and will be asking for tons of advice, introductions to agents, etc. It’ll be a fun and interesting process pitching a book idea, since I was approached for my first book.

I really think the idea is unique… something that hasn’t been done before and yet something that people need to know. I’m excited about both pitching the idea and writing the book.

Unknown Projects

Well, if I gave away all my ideas for 2010, where would that leave me? I need to keep a few aces in the hole so I can have a few surprises for next years post.

Seriously, I have a few ideas that I’m working on that aren’t even close to the point of realization (doesn’t everybody?). They’re exciting, somewhat risky and a little different (at least to me). I’m sure some will be hits, and some will completely flops… only time will tell.

All in all, I couldn’t be more excited about 2010. It’s sure to be my most exciting year yet. I’m most excited about the opportunities that haven’t even presented themselves yet. Looking back at last year, so many things that were the highlights of my year weren’t in my “roadmap” or predictions. They were a complete surprise.

You have to keep your eyes open for opportunities and seize them when they present themselves… After all, we make our own luck.

Have a great 2010!

I really enjoyed writing the newsletter and told SitePoint if they ever needed another guest author, or had a more regular position come available, I’d be very interested and would like to be considered.

I’m excited that SitePoint has asked me to coauthor the Tribune with the current host, Miles Burke. I’ll be writing every other weekly issue, starting with the very next issue, coming out this Thursday.

I’ll be writing about the business side of our industry, client dealings, productivity and anything else that comes to mind. If you’re not already getting the Tribune, go subscribe now.

As I was reading Darren Rowse’s post about a loving fan that virtually attacked him at Blogworld, I realized there’s nothing wrong with having heroes.

I’ll tell you right now that I practically stalk Chris Brogan (he even said so in my signed copy of Trust Agents). I’d drive half a day or fly halfway across the country to hear him speak. Is it because he’s a web celebrity? Because he has 100,000 followers? Because he’s a “social media expert”? No, it’s because he went out of his way to be a friend to me, for no other reason than he is a good person who truly wants to help people.

I feel the same about Darren Rowse, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jason Falls, Ted Murphy and many others. I’d rather hang out with these guys than a superstar celebrity any day of the week.

I’d drive my car coast to coast to be able to spend a few hours with Stephen Covey. His philosophy and book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” literally changed the course of my life. I read his book over ten years ago when I was 18, and it completely changed my outlook on life and priorities.

It’s not just people in this industry either… My biggest hero of all time was my grandfather. When I was a young boy I spent the summers with him and worked in his body shop for $1/day (which wasn’t even decent money way back then!). He was so much more concerned with helping people than with making money. I vividly remember one time when a single mother wrecked her car–her only method of transportation. She didn’t have the money to repair the car, so my grandfather paid for the parts and fixed her car. Free of charge. He told her she could pay him back when she had the money (which he never expected, he just didn’t want her to feel like she was getting a hand-out). I admire his strength of character, his compassion. He was never rich or famous… but he was my hero.

Don’t idolize people because they pretend on camera for a living. Don’t idolize singers because they’re the next pop superstar. Don’t idolize people because they’re popular or rich, idolize them because they help people or do something worthwhile with their life. If you’re going to admire someone, if you’re going to have a hero, make sure you pick them for the right reasons.

I don’t know what company Seth is talking about in his post, but I’ve heard that a number of times myself. It’s not uncommon for employees who know something is wrong to simply cop out by saying “Ah, I can’t do anything, I just work here.”

Well, I completely agree with Seth. If you cash your paycheck then you are responsible. You are as much at fault by saying and doing nothing as the people who are driving your brand into the ground.

Take responsibility for your brand, especially when things get bad. If you care so little about the company you work for and its culture to step in when things are bad, quit. Find a new job. But don’t continue to work there all the while refusing to acknowledge you’re a part of the problem.

UPDATE: Both presentations and slides are now embedded and linked below.

This was my first ever Barcamp, so I wasn’t too sure about what to expect. I was traveling to Atlanta on Friday with work, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to make it to Barcamp Birmingham because we were leaving for the beach on Sunday. My friend Chris talked me into going (and then bailed on me, no hard feelings tho!)

If you’re not familiar with Barcamps, they are a conference without a pre-arranged agenda. Everyone just shows up, some people propose a few topics they’d like to present on, and people decide which sessions they want to see.

I left from Atlanta Friday afternoon and headed straight to Birmingham; it’s about 2 1/2 hours from Atlanta. When I got to Birmingham, I checked into the DoubleTree hotel and got some dinner. I crashed pretty early; I had a really long day. I woke up early at 5 AM and was ready to get going, so I went ahead and showered, checked out of my room, and headed out to find some coffee and breakfast. After a while of searching, it seems there wasn’t much to choose from in the area of coffee shops downtown (none that were open at 6-7 AM anyway) so I ended up getting coffee at McDonald’s and heading on over to Innovation Depot, the host of Barcamp Birmingham ’09.

I helped load in some chairs and setup for registration, then started working on my proposed presentations. I proposed two sessions: “Selling Mobile”, about getting clients to say yes to mobile, and “Online Marketing Inside Out”, a discussion about online marketing, specifically social media and PR, with topics from my book.

I was missing a mini-displayport to VGA adapter, so I couldn’t connect my laptop to the projectors. I asked Jeremy Flint, one of the coordinators of Barcamp B’Ham, and tweeted to see if anyone had an adapter I could borrow. Unfortunately, I spent most of the morning trying to round up an adapter and didn’t adequately prepare for my talk, which ended up being scheduled for 9:45 AM. I managed to throw some slides together while sitting in the Podcasting session at 9AM, and borrowed a laptop for the presentation.

I personally think this was my worst presentation ever. I didn’t have time to rehearse or go over my notes, and I rushed through the presenation in about half the time. I missed a few key points and had to go back and try to explain them, making it a little awkward to follow. Still, I got really positive feedback from the people who attended, so I guess I didn’t bomb that badly. I guess you truly are your worst critic.

After presenting on Mobile, I went to an Introduction to Social Media panel. Not that I need an introduction to social media, but with only three concurrent tracks sometimes it was hard to pick a session to go to. I figured I may get some ideas for my own presentations by going to some similar presentations.

The last session I attended during the morning segment was Tammy Hart’s “Converting a Static Site into a WordPress Theme.” Tammy’s currently authoring a book on WordPress with Packt… she’s a WordPress ninja.

Lunch was catered in and was pretty good. I enjoyed just hanging out and talking to people. After lunch, the afternoon schedule was posted and my online marketing panel was scheduled for 2PM. I decided to run to the Apple Store and grab a video adapter for my presentation. I barely made it back. I think I walked in at about 2:01 PM and setup for my presentation in about 30 seconds.

Online Marketing – BarCampBirmingham3 from Jeremy Flint on Vimeo. My slides from the presentation are also online.

I think the Online Marketing session went extremely well, filled the time slot and covered a lot of material from the book. I was much more relaxed and felt it was generally a much better presentation… which is great considering that’s a variant of the presentation I’ll be giving several times throughout May and June.

After the Online Marketing session, I went to Mitch Canter’s session on integrating social media tools with WordPress. Mitch is a very engaging presenter. While I knew about half of the plugins and tools he mentioned in his presentation, I got far more from his presentation than most of the others, just in terms of mental notes and tips for my future presentations.

My last panel for the day was another talk about Twitter and social media by Wade Kwon. Wade is also an excellent presenter and really engages the audience, making it fun. Towards the end of his presentation we were told we had to cut it short and get out… the security was apparently only paid through 4PM, and we had to all exit the building. We quickly got together for a group photo (see top) and scattered.

Some of us went over to Shift Workplace for the after party (a little early, it was supposed to start at 6PM). They were nice enough to let us in a bit early, and we mingled there for a while. I was originally going to head out as soon as Barcamp was over, but ended up staying through the whole after party. I finally left Birmingham at around 9 PM to head back to LaGrange. I got home after 1 AM EST.

Overall, Barcamp Birmingham was awesome. I met a ton of great people and really enjoyed the sessions. I also really enjoyed presenting… it’s always good to get practice and with several speaking engagements coming up I needed it!

I’m guilty… I catch myself whining about my life from time to time. But then I remember how great I really have it… I’m married to the love of my life, and have two wonderful children. I have an amazing career–I love getting up and going to work in the morning. I have a successful business and so many great opportunities presenting themselves.

Sure, I could be whining about working long hours, bitching about all the stuff I haven’t gotten done but where would that get me? Instead you know what I’m doing? As Gary Vaynerchuk would say, I’m killing it. I’m buckling down and getting stuff done.

Next time you start to whine and complain, instead think of what you could be doing to change your situation. If you want something out of your life you’re going to have to make it happen.

“Your BEST? Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and f**k the prom queen!” – Sean Connery

I should probably have written a SxSW recap when it was still fresh in my mind, but after being out of the office for more than a week I was swamped. I also came back to a few small changes for the book, which didn’t take long but still added to the overall workflow.

Four of us from Kelsey Advertising & Design trekked down to Austin this year, up from just two last year. It was myself, Brant Kelsey (Principal and owner of Kelsey), Brian Handley (illustrator and web developer), and Roman Alvarado (graphic and web designer). Overall, I would consider South by Southwest to be a big success. I really didn’t feel the conference itself was as energized or had the impact it had on me last year, but the people and parties definitely made up for it. I spent a lot of time just hanging out and meeting people, one on one in small personal settings.

I met a ton of people, and saw a ton of friends and acquaintances from other conferences. Some of the highlites are below… I’m sure I’m forgetting someone (it has been over a month). If we met at SxSW, drop me an email! I probably just didn’t have your card and my memory is aweful.

I spent a lot of time hanging out with Brant Kelsey, Patrick O’Keefe, and James Dasher, especially in between sessions and at lunches. I met up with James, who I knew back in the early days of SitePoint, and ended up hanging with him for a good part of the trip. Patrick introduced me to Wayne Sutton at Mohawk at one of the first parties. Wayne’s a cool guy, and I’m looking forward to seeing him speak at future conferences.

I saw Wendy Piersall of Sparkplugging at a party, and even though we’ve met twice at other conventions, last year at SxSW on the Chitika Beer Bus and again at Blogworld, she still didn’t remember me! It was actually pretty funny, and I don’t think she’ll have as hard of a time remembering me at the next one… I actually think Wendy felt pretty bad about not remembering me. At any rate, I enjoyed talking to Wendy as usual, and look forward to seeing her again at Blogworld in October. I saw Rick Calvert of Blog World Expo at the same party, and also met him at SxSW last year. Rick talked me into going to Blog World Expo last year when I met him, and I was glad he did! I only spoke to him briefly, but look forward to talking to him more at Blog World this year again.

I saw Jason Falls at one of the many parties at Mohawk (a bar in downtown Austin). He threw a small unofficial party for Maker’s Mark. I said hello, but it was nearly impossible to hear due to the loud music. I did run into Jason later in the Blogger Lounge at the conference, and enjoyed talking with him about social media and picked his brain for a few minutes about the best way to “pitch” a blogger. I’m hoping his tips will come in handy as we promote the book in the months to come.

One day at lunch, Ted Murphy, founder of IZEA, tweeted that he was looking to grab some lunch. After a series of tweets and DM’s back and forth, we finally met up with him and Ashley Edwards of IZEA for lunch. We tried two or three different locations (one closed, others packed) and ended up at Buffalo Billiards. Ted’s a really cool guy, and also runs IZEAFest conference, which I’m seriously considering for this year.

After an amazing panel, I spoke to Gary Vaynerchuk who was kind enough to give me a quick 30 second video interview. I still haven’t gotten the video up, though remembering it now I think I’ll go do that… I also met Gary at Blog World Expo where he was keynoting. Gary is an amazing speaker, but he’s a more amazing person. See him on camera? That’s Gary, all the time. I met him in the halls of BWE and walked with him to his keynote. He’s truly one of the most down to earth “superstars” I’ve met, and I wish I had 10% of his DNA. I’d love to be able to stay that positive and always “kill it” as he says.

I almost got through the entire conference without meeting up with Aaron Brazell or Jeremy Wright, two old friends from SitePoint. There are so many different panels and parties, it’s entirely possible to never even be in the same place at the same time. Fortunately, the last day of the conference I ran into both Jeremy and Aaron in the Blogger Lounge. Though it was a hectic day with people in meetings and such, I really enjoyed talking to both Jeremy and Aaron. I was able to pick Jeremy’s brain for a bit about book marketing, a subject he knows well having published Blog Marketing way back in 2005.

Chris Brogan was hanging out at the Pepsi Podcast Lounge one morning and sat down next to me at the bar. I think I met Chris last year at Blog World, but I can’t remember for sure. Anyway, he’s a very approachable guy

I’ve been an author, member and Community Advisor of SitePoint for 8 years now, so when I heard Matt Mickiewicz, the founder of SitePoint, was coming to SxSW I was pretty excited. For some reason, we just couldn’t seem to hook up at the conference. I’d see Matt tweet that he was at one room, and I’d be on the exact opposite side of the convention center. On the last day of the conference, I heard someone talking on a mobile phone… he said “This is Matt with SitePoint.com…” He was sitting right next to me. It couldn’t have worked out better. Matt didn’t have a lot of time, he was running off to a scheduled appointment in about 10 mintues, but we talked for a few minutes and he introduced me to Jason Aiken of 99designs. Matt also interviewed me about my new book coming out in May, published by SitePoint, “The Art & Science of Online Marketing,” co-authored with Shayne Tilley. It was great to finally meet Matt in person.

I almost met Guy Kawasaki. I’ve seen him at several conferences, and he’s a very engaging and entertaining speaker. When we were at the airport waiting on our flight home, Guy was sitting at a terminal just down the way from ours. He was on a phone call when I walked past to grab some lunch, and when I came back he was already boarding the plane. I would’ve loved to have met him, but I’m sure I’ll get a chance at another conference or event. My favorite quote from his keynote, “If you live for the weekends and vacations, your shit is broken!”

In addition to all the great people I met, we also had a few funny or embarrassing, all captured on Twitter for posterity of course! The first full night of parties (which included the Madison and Mohawk) we ended up at Stubs. I don’t remember it all too well, and not because it’s been a month since SxSW. I do remember eating the best smoked wings I’ve ever tasted, which seemed to arrive 30 seconds after we ordered. I also vaguely remember offering to take a photo of two ladies with their camera… and apparently I couldn’t even figure it out because after about 5 tries they just took their camera back. I think Brant may have gotten it on tape, too, but fortunately I haven’t seen the footage.

The next night after a few hours at the Google party, I ventured out alone and ended up at the Pure Volume Lounge. I made it back to the VIP area without a VIP pass, just wandered back not knowing what it was. The second time I tried to walk back I was stopped by a security guard. He was really cool and gave an interesting perspective about how locals perceive SxSW’ers. I did manage to find my way back to the VIP area again, just before someone apparently sprayed a fire extinguisher, ending the party early (at 3:20 AM). I walked about a block before realizing it was really late. Fortunately the cabbies were out in full force, so I made it back to the hotel fast and safe.

Brant rode a mechanical bull at the closing party, which was caught on video! Unfortunately, I’ve been told I can’t post it on YouTube, but it is posted on my Facebook. All you have to do is friend me to see it… The closing party was a pretty good closing to the trip. We had a great time, even though I had a lot of party left in me it’s probably best that I called it quits a little early (i.e. 2 AM). Travel days are no fun.

I was pretty excited about this particular trip to South by Southwest because it couldn’t have come at a better time. With my book being released in May, it was a great chance to talk to people who’ve done it before and get some advice. I’m extremely thankful to everyone that stopped for a few minutes to answer a question or just lend a word of wisdom. I learned so much and met so many great people! We had just a blast, and every day (and night) was an adventure.

So far I haven’t attended many panels, but have met a lot of great people in the halls and at the parties at night (the real reason for coming). I’ll write a follow-up post reviewing the conference and all the people I’ve met, but just wanted to throw out what I was up to…

What is a Qualified Google Advertising Professional?

A Google AdWords professional is an individual that has met the following requirements:

• Managed an Adwords account for at least 90 days
• Met a minimum spending requirement by Google for at least 90 days
• Passed the Qualified Google Advertising Professional exam

The certification program is meant to show potential clients and employers that you have a solid understanding of Google AdWords and pay-per-click marketing.

Why Get Certified?

I wanted to get certified for two reasons:

1. Learn more about Google AdWords so I can better manage client’s and my own accounts
2. Use the certification as a marketing tool to show off our skill set and competency with online marketing

I’m not sure how many accounts we’ll land because we’re certified, but I think it will reinforce our expertise with our current clients and maybe even help to drive home the fact that online advertising continues to grow and become more prominent.

Other Certifications

Google has two other certifications I would like to get this year:

• Google Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant (WOAC)
• Google Analytics Authorized Consultant (GAAC)

Those will be a little more difficult to acheive. They don’t require a formal exam, but do require individual verification by Google (and require that you are a Qualified Google Advertising Professional). I’m looking forward to the challenge.

New Year’s Resolutions are made in good faith, really. Most people think they’re doing something positive by making a goal to get something done (or stop doing something, or start) in a new year. The problem is simply that life moves at you so fast, things change and you may be in a completely different place in another 365 days.

Ever year I do revisit my goals… I revisit the same short and long-term goals that I had in the previous year and re-evaluate whether they’re still appropriate moving forward. Maybe I don’t really want to keep learning the guitar, or maybe I want to start kickboxing instead of running a marathon. So what? You shouldn’t feel bad about breaking a “resolution” you made with yourself just because you changed your mind, or because life threw a curveball at you.

So around the beginning of each year I like to look back at the previous year, review my successes and failures, goals and accomplishments. And I look forward to the next year to see what might be in store.

A Look Back at 2008: Pure Awesomeness

2008 was a great year. In the words of Po, it was “Pure Awesomeness.” New Year’s Eve marked 10 years since I met my beautiful wife. After a decade together, and 6 years of being married I have to say I’m the luckiest man on the planet. I’m fortunate enough to be married to my best friend and have two wonderful children.

We more than doubled revenues in our big shoe business 2BigFeet.com, smashing record after record, and hired our first employee, Katie.

I was promoted to Interactive Director at Kelsey Advertising & Design, along with increased responsibilities and exciting challenges. I developed a mobile web application for McDonald’s and was invited to Orlando to show it off to owners from all over the world. And in just a few months, it has been adopted as the official mobile website of McDonald’s.

We went to SXSW and Blog World Expo, had an absolute blast, and I was able to finally meet two good friends, Patrick and Chris, in person. I won the “E-Commerce Guru of the Year” award in the 2008 SitePoint Community Awards. I really started using Twitter.

Of course there were some downs too. I made the difficult decision to stop writing for The Apple Blog. I just had to cut back on my commitments. I also didn’t complete several of the sites and projects I had planned to work on this year. Some I just decided needed to be postponed, some I decided not to do at all. Others I really wish I’d have had more time to work on, but that’s that.

My Thoughts on 2009 and Beyond

I’m so excited about 2009 I can’t stand it. I just have so many great projects I want to work on, so many ideas. I’ve always been an “idea man” though, and I know, realistically, I won’t get half of them done. That’s okay, though. If it’s anything like 2008, even completing one of them will be wildly fulfilling.

Some of the things I’m looking forward to in 2009… 

• Steady Growth. We have big goals for 2BigFeet.com this year, but I know we can grow steadily in 2009 despite a slowing economy. We’ve set really challenging goals and I’m looking forward to smashing them again.
• Challenging Projects. We have some really interesting projects at Kelsey this year and I’m excited about working on them. I’ll be pushed to be both an innovator and a leader, and that excites me.
• Getting Out of Debt. We’ve realized that consumer debt is crippling, and the only way to build true wealth is to earn interest, not pay it. We won’t be completely out of debt in 2009, but we’re on the path. I look forward to paying off the credit cards and auto loans, and only having a mortgage left!
• SXSW. I can’t wait… it was an absolute blast and I can’t wait to see all my friends and colleagues again.
• Opportunities. 2009 is going to be the year of opportunity. We aren’t given opportunities, you have to find them and take them! Keep your eyes peeled for them, because I have a feeling they’ll be everywhere this year!
• Family. I’m looking forward to spending time with my wife and kids, and all my family and friends this year. They’re why I do all this.

Words of Wisdom

You can get depressed about the future (especially looking at the news media) but it’s important to take it all in perspective. According to some, 2009 will be the worst year ever… and if you listen to them it will be. Forget all the drivel about the economy and think about what you can do in 2009. Think about what you can change.

I can’t do anything about the economy, the weather or world politics. But I can work on being a better person. I can always strive for perfection, and learn from my mistakes when I fail at it. 

I’m looking forward to an awesome 2009. If I were to make a “New Year’s Resolution” I think it would be to try to take 2009 one day at a time. Loving, learning, living life. Okay, so maybe resolutions don’t sound so bad after all…

There were some great presentations and keynotes, and the Expo had a lot of great companies represented. I have to say my favorite booth was the B5 booth with their poker game and giveaways. And what was up with the cement mixer??

My friends Patrick, Jeremy and Darren all spoke in panels at this year’s convention and all were great. I learned a lot about blogging and social networking and am excited about applying that information to both my websites and clients’ sites.

The parties rocked, but I think I missed the best party of all… I heard there was Backstreet Boys karaoke going on at the MGM! I’m sorry we missed it.

I also participated in the Digital Photography School Photowalk, and will be posting the photos to Flickr as soon as possible.

All in all, it was a great trip. I learned a lot and can’t wait to apply what I’ve learned. I’d also like to thank Rick Calvert and Blogworld – looking forward to next year!

I’ll be posting updates to Twitter, Pownce and Qik throughout the conference and expo.

If you’ve got a community on your website, then you need to read Patrick O’Keefe’s book, Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards. I have started a handful of (rather unsuccessful) communities in the last few years, and wish I’d had Patrick’s book then. Maybe I would have done a better job.

Patrick pours years of community management experience and firsthand real-world examples into what could be called the manual for online community managers or owners.

The book is broken down into chapters in almost the same order as the lifecycle of a community… planning & development, guidelines, promotion, staff & user issues, keeping it all running, and (finally), making money. In each section, he outlines best practices while also giving personal advice just as he would if he were talking to you face-to-face. His candid, personal writing style makes you feel like you’re reading advice from a friend more than a typical management book.

The chapters are broken down into sub-headers, which make it an excellent reference book later, when an issue comes up and you just need a little advice. Just flip to the index and you’ll instantly find out how to deal with vulgar language or find an interesting idea for promoting your community.

Managing Online Forums also has numerous examples of forms, guidelines, notifications and more and they are all downloadable from the book’s website.

If you run or are thinking of running an online community, you owe it to yourself to buy Patrick’s book.

As I began doing research into financial management (which has always fascinated me), I thought of so many ideas and tips that could help our family get out of debt, build savings for retirement and kids’ college education, and eventually build wealth for our children after we’re gone.

DebtFreeBlog.net is a blog about these ideas, tips & resources. I’ll be posting book reviews, tips and tricks, resources and more. Check it out!

So, I came by for a much needed cup of joe and was intending to use my Verizon Wireless EVDO Expresscard to connect to the Internet and get some work done. After trying to access a few websites and email, disconnecting and reconnecting several times, I realized something was wrong. I have had my card since around November of last year and have been very happy with it so far. The service has been very reliable and though not really “broadband” speeds, it does everything I need.

I called Verizon from my iPhone and talked with two very nice support representatives. Neither knew much (if anything) about Macs (they actually called them “Macintoshes” — how long has it’s been since you’ve heard them referred to as that?) and I had a feeling it was going to be a rough night. The first rep suggested I upgrade my software, which I did. The new software was touted as being compatible with 10.5 (according to the website, not the rep) so I thought it might help. Nope. Still couldn’t actually download pages or email… though it would connect just fine.

The second rep walked me through much the same troubleshooting steps as the first, but also tried a few speed tests and other tricks. None worked, and so he offered to enter a trouble ticket with the network team. After another hour on the phone, he finally had all the information about my system, card, software, network problem, address, etc. he needed and I got off the phone. I spent roughly 3 1/2 hours tonight dealing with this, and of course have gotten zero work done.

There are a lot of “tools” and “things” out there that offer “increased productivity.” Be leery of them, however. Spending 3 1/2 hours on NOTHING productive has drained my will to do anything now. I can barely finish this post! I would have been much more productive (though thirsty and craving caffeine) if I had just stayed at the office or gone home instead.

BTW, it seems after spending all that time opening the trouble ticket my internet is working (though sporadically) and hopefully this post will make it through.

I’m back from Austin and while I definitely have enough catchup work to keep me busy, I thought I’d post a quick review since it was my first time at the conference.

First, I finally got to meet a lot of people in person that I’ve known for years… Patrick O’Keefe, Chrispian Burks, Jeremy Wright, Aaron Brazell, Stephan Segraves and more. It was great hanging out with you guys.

This was my first trip to Austin and my first SXSW conference. I had a great time, and wish I could have stayed for the whole week, but we stayed only for the Interactive portion. I learned one thing almost immediately — SXSW has two worlds — the panels and conference during the day and the parties and networking events at night. I’ll give a brief review of each.

The SXSW Conference and Expo

All of the panels and discussions were between 30 minutes and 1 hour long. It seemed like in many of the discussions we were really just getting started and it was over. In a way, this is good because it gets you thinking about a subject and asking yourself questions, and leaves you to finish on your own. Hopefully you go back with some unanswered questions and continue the discussion online and with colleagues back home.

The layout of the convention center made it difficult to get from one room to another. Several times we just could not physically make it to another panel in time because it required walking clear across the convention center (which was big).

The trade show itself was a bit smaller than I expected. Since it is an Interactive, Film and Music conference I expected to see a fairly large trade show, maybe divided into sections for each. The exhibitors had fairly small booths and were giving out schwag like t-shirts, pins, stickers, etc. I saw companies like O’Reilly, Opera, Mapquest, Google, and Yahoo. A few people I expected to see but didn’t: Mozilla/Firefox, Microsoft, Apple.

Overall it was very organized and the panels discussed interesting topics related to our industry. I learned a good bit and enjoyed bumping into interesting people on the show floor.

The Parties and Networking Events

I was fortunate to know a good number of people going to Austin for SXSW, many whom I have never met in person. Several of us got together Friday night to meet and have dinner, and had some discussions on industry topics and generally just hang out.

Every night after that it seems there was a party or networking event planned that seemed interesting. There were a few blog-specific events that I enjoyed in particular, including the Chitika/ProBlogger Beer Bus and the b5media Blog Network Camp. I learned a lot about blogging and met some great people.

I realized quickly that the sessions and panels are great but they just spark your creativity and get your wheels turning. It’s the Austin night life that really makes SXSW what it is. I had a great time at SXSW and can’t wait for next year.

When Starbucks first opened several weeks ago I didn’t even stop by, instead opting to support local business. But then, local business dried up and withered away. Slowly, as I went into the locally owned coffee shop, I found shelves and drink cases empty. Then one day I went by to find them closed at 2PM on a Saturday afternoon.

Instead of pumping up marketing prior to Starbuck’s opening, they did nothing. So many small business owners chastise chains for putting them out of business. Starbucks’ brand recognition may have had a small effect on the local business, but it didn’t drive the nail in the coffin. So what killed the local coffee shop? They should’ve taken a class in Business 101.

Never get comfortable – being the only substantial coffee shop in town, they were always afforded the luxury of not having to advertise to get business. They were never really busy, but they “made ends meet” as some business owners would put it. Instead of spending money on marketing and promoting their business, and building their own brand, they chose to hire help to man the store and do other things.

Unfortunately, all it took to knock them off their pedestal was a company that knows how it’s done. Starbucks didn’t start out taking all the business away from the local shop, but when people did try Starbucks they never went back. Why?

Easy. Starbucks masters personal service and delivers the perfect experience every single time you walk in. Within days they knew me by name, knew what drink I ordered and every time it was consistent – perfect temperature and perfect flavor. The store is always clean (impeccably so most of the time) and the staff is always courteous and helpful.

You might say that all businesses should be consistent and friendly. You’re right, but that doesn’t mean they are. Starbucks drives it home to employees again and again that the customer experience is all that matters. Make them happy, period.

Had the locally owned coffee shop had this attitude they might still be open today, because none of the customers would have dared to try another shop.

Unfortunately between the Starbucks opening and other factors (poor management of years past, possibly) the local coffee shop is closed for good, and I’ve converted into another Starbucks fanatic.

Don’t worry, it’s not hard. “Networking” and building relationships is as easy as sending a birthday card or referring someone business. It comes down to one principle: Think of how you can help them, not how they can help you.

It’s really that simple. Instead of going to business functions looking to hand out 100 business cards, or sell your services, think of all the people you can help in some way.

Basically, people know when you’re just out for yourself. We all have agendas, businesses to run, things to do. No one wants to be “sold” on something. But when you talk to people for the first time, many of them do just that. They “sell” themselves.

Next time you meet someone, don’t say one thing about yourself (other than your name) unsolicited. Instead, ask questions about the person you are meeting. Learn everything you can about them and see if there is a way you can help them out, either by referring them business or just by getting a card and keeping them in mind.

One thing I’ve found about networking is that it’s much easier (and more effective) when you focus on them and not yourself. Try it.

Well, if you know me at all you know I’ve been a partner in an e-commerce company, 2BigFeet.com, since late 1999. I just bought out my business partner and now my wife and I are the new sole owners of 2BigFeet. Tracy will be handling the day-to-day operations and customer service, and I will still handle the web development, marketing and overall strategic planning.

There’s a lot of work to be done, but I’m excited about bringing in new lines of shoes in extremely large sizes and taking 2BigFeet to the next level.

A few months ago, I came across a help-wanted ad on a competitor’s website. I have thoroughly enjoyed owning a small web development company, but it was time to move on to the next level. I really only saw two ways to do that. I could hire full-time employees and expand my company. We’d need a new location, marketing and a lot of business. Or, I could grow quickly by acquiring or being acquired.

I initiated a dialog with BKD, and with Brant Kelsey, the owner. From the start it was clear that we would make a good team and our companies had many complimenting strengths. Their focus and a great deal of their experience has been in branding, print design and traditional marketing. Our focus was web development, e-commerce and online marketing. Together we could offer a full-range of services to our clients.

After several successful meetings and negotiations, BKD acquired EleyTech in November of 2006. In addition to acquiring the business and clients, BKD hired me full-time.

As a full-service ad agency, design firm and web development company, we now have the capabilities in-house to tackle just about any project, large or small. We have a full-time staff of 6, which includes award-winning graphic designers, programmers, and a marketing and e-commerce
consultant.

I’m excited to be a part of such a talented and diverse team, and look forward to providing our clients with amazing service and proven results.

I plan on using my personal blog to write about my experiences at a growing advertising and design firm, about personal productivity, and about building businesses. I will share experiences from the field, and from my personal endeavors. I will continue to build my own websites, as I always have, and will continue to write. In fact, I hope that I will have more time to focus on my writing and personal ventures now that I do not have the responsibility of running a business atop developing successful websites for our clients.

So stay tuned… I’m embarking on a new and interesting journey. It has been a long time since I’ve been gainfully employed, and I’m looking forward to the potential for growth and positive change that this brings.

I have been “settled in” to my current lifestyle and career for some time and I think it’s about time for a change. So I’m in the process of making that change and look forward to the directions it takes me. I’ll be outlining it here, so stay tuned (all 2 of you)!

So what is my definition of success? Not having to work.

Don’t laugh, I’m serious. I’ve realized that the only way to build a growing, sustainable business is to not do the work yourself. In addition I want to spend time with my family, go on vacations, possibly go back to school and still make a comfortable living for me and my family.

So how do you make a comfortable living without working?

It was up above if you were paying attention – don’t do the work yourself. Oxymoron? No. Most self-employed people I know (notice I didn’t use “entrepreneur”) are really just owners of a job (including me most of the time). We do all the work we used to do, plus accounting, bookeeping, receivables, marketing, filing, secretarial work and more. The only way to get out of that cycle is to break out.

I’ve been trying for a few years to break out of the cycle, but keep getting pulled back in to doing more and more work. I’ve recently found myself working 60-70 hours a week trying to make deadlines and please clients. I realized that there were two things wrong with what I’m doing:

1. I’m doing client work. It makes much more sense to work on sites that will generate long-term recurring revenue for me than to work on projects that will make clients money.
2. I’m doing all the work myself. I’ve recently found myself doing almost all the work myself… mostly just because I’m trying to meet deadlines and occasionally because I think I’m the only one that can do it right.

Of course, I’m not the only one who can do it (nor the only one who can do it in time to make the deadline). To move to the next level, I’m going to have to break that mindset and start outsourcing more work and start working on more internal projects.

I’m making it a point to not take on any more client work where I will have to work 50% or more of the billable hours. I’m also going to find some competent designers, programmers and developers to subcontract some of our client work to so I can focus on finishing some of our internal projects that can generate some long-term residual income.

With so much to do, how are we supposed to effectively manage the information overload? I constantly have 5-10 projects for clients, 5-10 internal projects, writing, and all the personal projects like clean out the garage or pressure wash the porch. In addition, I get hundreds of emails a day and at least 10-20 phone calls and voicemail messages.

If I don’t respond for a single day, I’ve overloaded and feel buried under a pile of catch-up work. So how do you effectively manage projects and still find time to have a personal life?

I don’t know, but over time I have been getting better at prioritizing exactly what I really need to be doing. The first step, I believe, is to determine if it’s really even worth your time at all. If it isn’t, don’t do it. If it is, then you  move on to managing all the important things on your to-do lists.

I have read some of the big productivity books such as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The E-Myth Revisited, and while the concepts in these books is sound, there is no practical information on how to apply them.

My wife just gave me Getting Things Done by David Allen. I have been wanting to read it for some time, and from what I have read so far it has some solid, practical advice on how to actually get stuff done. I’ll post a more thorough review once I’ve read and applied some of the principles and recommendations.

Online “Web 2.0″ Software (yeah, I said “Web 2.0″)

Basecamp by 37 Signals

Simple, effective project management software. It works, and works well. I use it for all my projects, internal and with clients.

Writeboard also by 37 Signals

Online document collaboration software – lets you write (or paste) a document and keep track of revisions by you or multiple authors.

Google Customized

I have this customized to show my favorite blogs, Gmail account, local weather and even a few frequently visited website URL’s. Very customizeable; very cool. Quite possibly the best thing that’s come out of Google since, well, Google.

WordPress

Blogging software that is beautifully simple yet has all the features I need. I’ve tried just about every blog software, including the hosted solutions. WordPress is the easiest and nicest I’ve seen. And it’s free.

Blogs & Websites I read

I have an RSS feed coming to my customized Google home page for every one of these sites. There’s some good insight here.

• Signal vs. Noise by 37 Signals
• SimpleBits
• SitePoint Blogs (yes, all of ‘em)
• Authentic Boredom
• ParticleTree
• Whitespace
• A List Apart
• Slashdot

Not all of them are “blogs” but they are all worth visiting daily… or at least subscribe to the RSS feed so you know when a new post is made.

Productivity Tips and Tricks

Okay, here are a few bits of insight from my short time on this Earth. Take them for what they are – I’m constantly reading new books and trying a new approach. But over the years a few things have remained consistent no matter what.

Base Everything on Solid Principles

Read Steven Covey’s ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ and ‘The 8th Habit – From Effectiveness to Greatness.’ They aren’t just good – they’re great. I’ve had ‘The 7 Habits’ since around 1998 and have read it cover to cover more times than I have fingers (and maybe toes). Its basic message is that there are certain fundamental principles (like trustworthiness, honesty and integrity) that are self evident, and that living life by those principles is a great step toward effectiveness and greatness. Great business and life advice.

Franklin Covey Planning System

I’ve been using a Franklin Covey planner since I was 18 years old. My first employer sent me to a seminar and gave me my first planner. I’ve had the same binder for almost 7 years now, and it’s old leather look is aging nicely. But it’s not the soft leather binder that I want to draw attention to – it’s the methods of planning. Instead of just making a “to-do list,” Franklin Covey has a system of determining what is really important and urgent – and prioritizing our life around those things that matter the most. Goes hand in hand with the books above.

Put Family First

Building a business is hard; so is climing the corporate ladder. No matter what your profession, it’s easy to put family on the back burner with an eye on “success.” Take a step back and think about what you really want – and what’s really important. You might find that ladder is up against the wrong building. Family is the most important thing in my life – and spending time with my wife and children trumps everything else. I could put in 80 hour weeks growing my company to a “success” but at what cost? You can’t “put off” time with family… once it’s gone it’s gone.

Take Care of Yourself

Somewhat in line with the tip above – take care of yourself. Life is short, and we don’t need to make it shorter. Eat well, exercise and get outside once and a while! Treat your body right and it will reward you with clearer thought, more energy and more effectiveness. Don’t and not only will your health suffer – but you’ll be sluggish, you won’t think clearly, and you’ll likely cause long term health problems.

Read Everything

Read business magazines, industry publications, blogs, books, manuals, and anything else that can give you an edge. Read when you’re on the plane, instead of watching TV, taking a break from work, or anytime you have 5 minutes. In our fast paced society knowledge is everything, and keeping up with it is almost impossible. Pick a few publications to read regularly, subscribe to a few blog feeds, and try to read a book at least every few weeks (every month minimum). Not only will you be smarter, but studies show that the more you use your brain now, the longer it keeps working.

Set Goals, and Deadlines

I’ve heard people suggest to set unrealistic “dream” goals. That’s just silly. Set attainable goals and then determine the best coarse of action to acheive them. Make deadlines and work to accomplish them, one at a time. By the time you know it, you will have acheived your goal. Repeat.

Backup Everything, All the Time

Backup your family photos, your business documents and files, your email. Backup everything because it’s not a matter of if, its a matter of . Computers and hard drives are just mechanical devices, like a car’s engine. Use them enough, and they’ll eventually die. They can die anytime, even brand new. Take it from someone who’s been there – backup everything you want to save.

Conclusion

Well, I could probably find a few more points, software, or l inks to share. But that’ll do for now – my small piece of advice and insight into productivity for the next year. All the best for 2006; may you acheive true success.