Pride Cometh Before the Fall

Seeking ideas for the upcoming holiday season, my wife recently delved into her stash of old “Family Fun” magazines she keeps on a shelf in the garage. As she was flipping through the fall-themed pages, she came across an ad on the back page of the October 2004 issue that caught her attention.

She said, “Take a look at this,” which diverted my attention from a lame attempt to work on a story and watch the World Series at the same time.

The ad she held was striking and simple – dominated by a huge company logo on top. It was the kind of ad that rock-solid, trusted and well-branded corporations use to drive home their position as an industry leader.

The ad copy was minimal and direct.

“THE FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION
TO CHOOSE FOR YOUR
GREAT-
GREAT-
GREAT-
GREAT-
GREAT-
GRANDCHILD.

Over $700 billion in assets, 50 million customers and 85 years of experience say we’ll be around. For her and her grandchildren, too.”

The ad was for AIG.

I guess they were unable to foresee a $100 billion federal bailout as part of the plan for keeping that promise.

Given today’s economic outlook, it might be best to promise stability and great service for only this generation – two generations tops. Long gone are the days of tradition-based arrogance. Instead, we should be focused on what we are doing now to best serve our precious customers and survive in a rapidly changing world. Kind of exciting, huh?

On a lighter note, keep those blogs coming. Send me yours or your local favorites and I will include them on this page for all to ponder.

Finally, Dave’s Presidential Poll Tracker remains open for another week. So be sure to vote. If you have already voted, you can vote again from another computer – ACORN style!

Send Me Your Blogs, Yearning to Breathe Free…

My two boys, ages 3 and 8, enjoy doing many things together – including battling with lightsabers and watching sports with their dad (for a little while anyway). But what they enjoy most lately is taking hundreds of tiny plastic pieces of varying sizes, shapes and colors and turning them into amazing and creative Lego masterpieces.

They build things that roll, fly and shoot with an ingenuity that both impresses and makes me jealous. I usually end up building things like walls and towers. They are always kind, though, and encourage me with a “Wow, Dad, that’s cool,” as they buzz around me with a reasonable facsimile of the Millennium Falcon.

What is incredible to me about their creations is how a pile of seemingly random pieces can be combined to create something that inspires a young imagination. As we learned in high school, it is the principle of Gestalt in action – that the whole of something can be greater than the sum of its parts.

It is that principle that is driving my desire to create a Web site that serves as a launching pad for our area’s many blogs, most of which are relegated to relative obscurity. I would offer this blog as an example. With a regular readership of around 100, it is reaching some people, but I have received just enough positive feedback to convince me that more might be interested if they knew about it.

And I am not alone. There are local blogs on life as a state worker, movies, Seminole sports, clipping coupons, politics, raising children, marketing tips, recipes and many more. But how do people find them? For most bloggers, readership remains stagnate because they barely have enough time to write them, much less aggressively promote them.

My idea is simple. I am creating a Web site that connects Tallahassee-area residents to the dozens of smart, insightful and creative bloggers in our area. The concept is based on the idea that the collective strength of the small, faithful readerships of each blog listed will create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Readers will be exposed to a new universe of possibilities on the site, which will increase readership for all.

To be fair, the Tallahassee Democrat offers blogging opportunities on its site, but there is a fundamental difference. I am not asking anyone to create a new blog on this site, only to allow me to point people to your already existing blog. You don’t have to change anything. I will even give you some advice on using one of the free services to start a new blog, if you are interested. Just email me. Blogs are a great way for business people to share expertise, comment on timely issues and offer best practices – all while building your brand and increasing awareness of what you do.

What I ask in return for being listed is that bloggers encourage their readers to check out the mother ship with a link that I will be providing so they can read other local blogs of interest.

As of today, everything will start from here while we work on building the site, which will be at www.blogahassee.com. I will let you know when the new site is up and running. So please send me your blogs (dave@salestouches.com) and forward this to your blogging friends. I am willing to consider all blogs that are written in good taste and are appropriate for a family-friendly site.

Thank you in advance for your help in making blogahassee.com a success.

'Keep Swinging' is Good Advice

Yesterday morning, I had the pleasure of attending the Chamber’s Annual Breakfast Meeting at the Civic Center. It was an informative and entertaining blend of speakers and workshops as well as a delightful introduction to incoming chairperson Glenda Thornton.

Set against the unignorable backdrop of collapsing economic conditions across the globe, the tone of the meeting was realistic, but upbeat and optimistic. Thornton quoted childhood hero and former home run king Hank Aaron who said that no matter the conditions, the only way to move forward is to “keep swinging.” It is solid advice, especially since the alternative is to hide in the dugout.

And if your wish was to hide, yesterday’s breakfast was the wrong place to be. The Chamber was expecting 400, and they were setting up extra tables to handle the overflow. There was excitement in the air that would seem ridiculous given the current environment if not for the reality that the business leaders in this community are not ready to give up. In fact, it appears that there has never been a better time to network, share ideas and learn more about each other.

When times are tough, it is important to get back to basics, and there is nothing more basic than a handshake, a smile and scrambled eggs.

Speaking of networking, I experienced my first large gathering since being sucked into the Facebook vortex. I was greeted by a number of acquaintances and colleagues in a manner that was much more familiar than would have occurred pre-online connection. It remains an interesting concept to me that people you don’t talk to with your voice can know so much about you. In events like the Chamber meeting, it allows a warmer hello and a skipping of the default “what have you been up to” questions.

It reminds me of my time as editor of Tallahassee Magazine in the early ‘90s. I would often write about my children and things going on in my life, and people I barely knew would ask me how they were doing or how something worked out. Now, everyone can do that through online networking, or even more so with a business or personal blog.

Blogs are actually what I wanted to talk about this week, but I somehow got off course, so it will have to wait. But as a preview, you will notice some new categories in the right sidebar column. I am convinced that there are a lot of really cool blogs in this town that not enough people are reading. I would love your help in finding and sharing them.

Again, more on that next week, but in the meantime, feel free to forward me the URLs of any local blogs you like – or write – and I will include them on this page. I think there is great potential in this and I am excited to share my ideas.

I can sense your anticipation.