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Shane Mac Says...

I, @shanemacsays, write my thoughts here...

Life. Is. A. Secret. Game.

I sit. Thinking. Smiling. Reflecting. Wondering. Thinking about all of the people, the moments, the times that have changed my life. How did my path lead to where I am? Why do I feel so fortunate for everything that I have? Why am I typing and smiling so cheesy that the coffee shop barista probably thinks I am in love with this crack box called a computer? Because it is incredible, but it is a game.

Read the full post at TheSquab.com. 

 

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Filed under  //   career   game   life   secret  
Posted February 6, 2010
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What Is The Next Step?

I spent over 16 years of my life going to school and always striving to achieve the next step, the next goal, the next level.  You spend countless nights cramming for some deadline, all in hopes to get to the next step.  Then you make it.  You graduate.  You can see clearly the path that was laid out for you and now you stand so close to the top.  At this moment you have one more step, the step we have been trying to get to this entire time, a career. 

It has been forever in the back of your mind yet forgotten so easily throughout the years.  The last step.  That's what I thought.  I thought it was the last step and once I got to the step we call a career, what's next?  Am I shooting to climb the corporate ladder to the top?  Do I want to start my own business?  Do I want to crunch numbers all day as an accountant?  It really doesn't matter what you strive to be but for many of us, like myself, we think it is the last step before we "start" our life, and that is the problem.  The real story is that we can't see the next staircase.  For our entire life the staircase was built by someone else, a system of guidance to help us get to what we thought was the top.  It was easy to see it and had a yearly break point where we could stop for a few months before taking the next step.  Now, as I stand at the top, I can't even see a step, let alone a staircase.  Is this it?  What's Next?  The truth is that we have to build the next staircase and realize that it will be longer, harder, and not as clear as the first, but the key is that you need to build it, build something, one step at a time and realize that the staircase is not a straight line to the top, if there even is a top.

Know that the world is to big for one's mind to comprehend all that is possible within it.  It is too complicated to solve all of the problems so think small.  It is too overwhelming to even know where to begin so pick one thing.  So where do I start?  How do I start climbing the next set of stairs when we can't even see the top? Just start, as Thomas Edison famously said,

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”  

This is not about finding a new job, new career, or even changing where you are at today.  I truly enjoy my career and the people that I work with every day.  This is about aspiring to do more, build something greater, and discover like minded people that can help you get to the next step.  Start looking, start connecting, start searching for people, companies, and causes with values that you believe in.  Take it one step at a time and work to build relationships on a level that is greater than a Facebook friend or a Twitter follower.  Know that the second staircase will be much taller than the one you have already climbed and instead of looking for the top, just look for the next step.  Realize that in a world where we can have 5000 followers on twitter and a 1000 friends facebook know that it is no longer about who you know, it is about who CAN you know and as my friend Matt Sage says, "HOW you know them."  Who you know means that you are looking backwards whereas who CAN you know if looking to the future.  Big difference.  You have to work to build new relationships and do more than is asked of you.  Technology and Social Media are not the answer to better relationships, rather they are the channel.  A powerful channel, but if anything it may be more difficult to make a lasting connecting nowadays because of the multitude of connections we now have and it may require more effort to build lasting relationships.  

So if you find yourself thinking about doing more and wanting to give more, what are you waiting for?  To get started, make a goal for today and then worry about what happens tomorrow, well, tomorrow.  Search a new topic on google that interests you.  Find someone who is talking about it on Twitter and reach out to them with a simple, "hello."  The power of connection in this newly connected world is greater than one can imagine and it can help you find people and causes that would have never been possible 5, 10, or 15 years ago.  The ability to search the words that anyone has written is remarkable to say the least.  In the end it is all about a person's word. It can help you become a part of projects that you didn't know existed.  It can steer you in a direction that was never on your roadmap.  It can help you with your career, life, or just finding like minded people that can help you get to or find that next step.  Right now, go to search.twitter.com and search for something that you really enjoy.  A phrase, a person, a company.  Connect with the first person who says something that you agree with.  Who knows when a simple relationship you make will be a life long one?  Always remember that you might not be able to see the next step and instead just build them as you climb.  It is not about what the next step will be, it is about looking back on all of the steps you have built.  

Not sure where this "inspirational" post came from but it may be due to the projects, people, and steps that I have built over the past year.  It is truly humbling.  Thank you.

-Shane Mac

You can follow me on Twitter Here.

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Filed under  //   build   career   facebook   inspire   shane mac   twitter  
Posted December 13, 2009
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"Personal Brand" or "Personal BS"

Yesterday I read a post by Andrew Swenson which lead me to write this. His post was talking about all the hype around personal branding. 

I commented on his post and was then contacted by Carlos Miceli who wrote this raw and bashing post on personal branding as well.

After reading their posts here is what I think.

If you haven't heard people talking about personal branding lately then you probably haven't been listening.  All this talk of creating a brand for yourself and all the "experts" who tell us how we should look, act, and communicate online.  It seems to me like what many thought of as Corporate America not so long ago is exactly what we are preaching for our personal brand.  It seems as if the experts are saying we should paint a false perception of who you truly are.  I agree you need to be careful not to offend, harm, and be disrespectful online, but isn't that true in all aspects of life?  You shouldn't be afraid to be different, unique, or stand up for what you believe in.  If doing those things get you in trouble with your "brand" well then find a new sponsor that believes in what you do. 

As far as I can tell, the Personal Branding talk that I hear about today seems to be all about "fitting in," and "creating a perception, rather than a reality of who you truly are." As Dan Schwabel, the Gen Y personal branding expert states in one of his videos, 

"If one person is connected to 10,000 people on twitter and another only 50, who are  you going to hire?"

He also argues that,

"Although a person may not be friends with the 10,000 people, nobody knows that. Perception is more important than reality, online."

What Dan just stated is exactly the reason I believe "personal branding," is pretty much B.S and any employer who hires someone based on the two credentials he states would be ignorant.  Dan does say that it takes a lot more than just these 2 examples and he offers a lot of other good advice on his blog for building your career, but I just don't understand why someone should paint a perception online that differs from their perception offline. It shouldn't be a game of painting some online "perception" of yourself, rather a window for others to see in.  What they see through that window is what you should be more focused on.  As far as the number of followers you have and who a company will hire, I believe it is not about "who" or "how many" people you know, rather, as my friend Matt Sage says, "it is about HOW you know them."  So think about your brand and maybe it isn't about changing your brand's perception rather changing what your brand does.  


-Shane Mac 

You can follow me on twitter here.

 

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Filed under  //   business   career job   dan schwabel   jobs   owlsparks   personal brand   wordpost  
Posted December 9, 2009
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Great quotes compiled by @jasonfried of 37signals.

This post was created by Jason Fried at http://jf.backpackit.com/pub/29-favorite-quotes

These quotes were compiled from many sources by Jason Fried. Thanks to everyone who’s shared one of these with me over the years.

Betty Reese 31 Oct 2005

If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.

John Rawls 10 Mar 2005

The fairest rules are those to which everyone would agree if they did not know how much power they would have.

Aristotle 2 Aug 2007

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut 1 Feb 2008

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.

Thomas Sowell

Life does not ask what we want. It presents us with options.

Michael McFaul

In retrospect, all revolutions seem inevitable. Beforehand, all revolutions seem impossible.

George Patton

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.

Thomas Edison

There ain’t no rules around here. We’re trying to accomplish something.

William Zinsser

Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes.

Theodore Roosevelt 14 Jul 2006

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

Margaret Thatcher

The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money.

Albert Einstein

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

George Orwell 3 Jan 2008

To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.

Henry David Thoreau

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.

Warren Buffet

Beware the investment activity that produces applause; the great moves are usually greeted by yawns.

Lin Yutang

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

Thomas Jefferson 26 Jun 2007

The hole and the patch should be commensurate.

Bertrand Russel

In all affairs, it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

Thomas Jefferson

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

Steve Jobs

We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we’ve chosen to do with our life. We could be sitting in a monastery somewhere in Japan. We could be out sailing. Some of the [executive team] could be playing golf. They could be running other companies. And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it. And we think it is.

Gilbert Chesterton 24 Sep 2007

It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem.

Henry Ford 21 Sep 2007

If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.

Margaret Young 28 Oct 2007

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.

Reinhold Niebuhr

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Thomas Jefferson 4 Jan 2007

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

Andy Warhol

Don’t read what they write about you, just measure it in inches.

Albert Einstein 13 Jan 2008

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

Wang Yangming

Knowledge is the beginning of practice; doing is the completion of knowing.

Winston Churchill 12 Sep 2007

The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.

Ricardo Semler 28 Sep 2007

Every one of us has learned how to send emails on Sunday night. But how many of us know how to go a movie on Monday afternoon. You’ve unbalanced your life without balancing it with someone else.

Peter F. Drucker 18 Oct 2007

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

Charles Mingus 19 Nov 2007

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.

Walter Chrysler 26 Oct 2007

Whenever there is a hard job to be done I assign it to a lazy man; he is sure to find an easy way of doing it.

Stephen Hawking

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but illusion of knowledge.

Paul Giambarba

You know long it takes to do simple? About ten times longer than fast and dirty.

Emerson 11 Sep 2007

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

Albert Einstein 11 Aug 2007

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

Eric Hoffer

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.

Alan Kay 10 Mar 2005

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

Stewart Brand 10 Mar 2005

Style is time’s fool. Form is time’s student.

Warren Buffett 10 Mar 2005

The real fortunes in this country have been made by people who have been right about the business they invested in, and not right about the timing of the stock market.

Albert Schweitzer

In the hopes of reaching the moon men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet.

Sam Brown

Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance.

Daniel Burnham 10 Mar 2005

Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.

Dr. E. E. Peacock, Jr 10 Mar 2005

One day when I was a junior medical student, a very important Boston surgeon visited the school and delivered a great treatise on a large number of patients who had undergone successful operations for vascular reconstruction. At the end of the lecture, a young student at the back of the room timidly asked, “Do you have any controls?” Well, the great surgeon drew himself up to his full height, hit the desk, and said, “Do you mean did I not operate on half of the patients?” The hall grew very quiet then. The voice at the back of the room very hesitantly replied, “Yes, that’s what I had in mind.” Then the visitor’s fist really came down as he thundered, “Of course not. That would have doomed half of them to their death.” God, it was quiet then, and one could scarcely hear the small voice ask, “Which half?”

Howard Aiken 10 Mar 2005

Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.

Harry S Truman 10 Mar 2005

You can accomplish anything you want in life provided you don’t mind who gets the credit.

The Economist Editors 10 Mar 2005

The cynics may be proved right; they usually are. [From “Resign, Rumsfeld,” May 8, 2004.]

Robert H. Frank 10 Mar 2005

If the search is for examples that contradict the predictions of standard economic models, a good rule of thumb is to start in France.

Bill Gates 10 Mar 2005

Microsoft has had clear competitors in the past. It’s good that we have museums to document them.

The Red Herring 10 Mar 2005

The Red Herring: Is [Pixar] a hits business, then?
Steve Jobs: Oh, absolutely. But I will put forth my theory to you, because, of course, I get asked this question a lot. My response is very simple—I can only look back at my own history. The Apple 2 was a hit. The Apple 3 was a miss. Lisa was a miss. The Macintosh was a hit. Silicon Valley is a hits business. It’s no less of a hits business than I see in the film business. At least Pixar’s second film doesn’t have to be backwards compatible with its first. So that’s my answer. Life is a hits business as best as I can tell.

The New Yorker 10 Mar 2005

A videogame aficionado interviewed for J.C. Herz’s book “Joystick Nation” complains: “Nowadays, there’s no imagination required, the realism is so advanced.”

John F. Kennedy 10 Mar 2005

Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.

H.L. Mencken 10 Mar 2005

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.

David Ogilvy 10 Mar 2005

Don’t hire a dog, and then bark yourself.

Stanford Professor Bob Sutton 10 Mar 2005

When Chuck House wanted to develop the oscilloscope for HP, David Packard told him to abandon the project. Chuck went on “vacation” and came back with $2MM in orders. Packard later gave him an award inscribed with an accolade for “extraordinary contempt and defiance beyond the normal call of engineering.”

Chinese proverb 10 Mar 2005

The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.

Donald Rumsfeld 10 Mar 2005

As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery 10 Mar 2005

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Harry Lime (Orson Welles), The Third Man 10 Mar 2005

Remember what the fellow said: In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed, but they produced Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. And in Switzerland they had brotherly love and 500 years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.

Bob Woodward 10 Mar 2005

All good work is done in defiance of management.

Barry Diller 14 Oct 2005

Put one dumb foot in front of the other and course-correct as you go.

Oscar Wilde 30 Oct 2005

A cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

J. Gall 3 Nov 2005

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked….A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.

Patton 7 Nov 2005

A good plan violently executed today, is far and away better than a perfect plan next week.

Stephen Hawking 18 Nov 2005

People who boast about their IQ are losers.

Chef Philippe Legendre 27 Nov 2005

If you don’t love others you can’t cook. People who have no love to share eat poorly, and they don’t cook. If you love cooking, you will cook, at whatever level. People who like to be around a table, who like to share—they’ll try to cook, even if it’s only an egg. I would much prefer to eat an egg with friends than caviar with strangers.

Benjamin Franklin 19 Jan 2006

Well done is better than well said.

Danny O’Brien 29 Jan 2006

They th

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Filed under  //   37signals   inspiration   jason fried   quotes  
Posted December 7, 2009
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Bridging the Gap. My Personal Story.

Sometimes when you think something is lost you actually can't see how much you have gained.

I was a Junior in high school and I had just walked to the locker room to check the cut board and get ready for this years baseball season. There was one minor problem. My name which had been right there on the list every year, wasn't there. At first I thought it was a mistake and something must of been wrong with the list. A guy, me, who the previous year had led the team with a .397 batting average and only 7 strikeouts in 107 at bats didn't make the baseball team the following year. The coach's motto of, "If you hit you'll play," just didn't make any sense with those stats. Mad, sad, pissed, I just didn't get it. I spent a few days walking around with a cloud over my head and hating any couch who I crossed paths with. But then, I crossed paths with someone else, someone I would consider the "weird people" in my ignorant jock headed mind, the choir teacher. She was behind me in the lunch line, with a bright charming smile, and she looked at me (like she knew I was some x-jock) and very politely asked me if I would come to her office after school to try and sing a song while she played piano. Why did she ask me, why would I join some choir, why would I spend my afternoons singing with the "weird people." Well for starters, I didn't have much else to do since I got cut from the baseball team, and I really didn't like the class that I had 6th hour anyways, so I thought what the hell and I went. I showed up early to her office and there I was trying to sing. I was embarrassed, nervous, and having second thoughts about why I had even decided to come. Lets get this straight right now, I really sucked. I could not hold a note for the life of me. So for any of you out there who think you can't be taught how to sing (not that I am much better now but can at least stay in tune) I am telling you that it can be done. Even though I was horrible she kept pushing, encouraging, and hinting that I should join the 6th hour choir. I had already stepped outside of my "comfort zone" so after a couple of days I gave in. I remember that first day I walked into the choir room with the entire class looking down on me. No longer was I running around the halls getting homecoming court, class flirt, or the other nonsense I got, no, I was just some guy that didn't belong, wasn't "in." I was the "weird people."

I spent the next few months finding friendships, relationships, and experiences that I never could have imagined. My ignorant views on sub cultures, groups, choir, almost everything, were demolished and I had a burning curiosity to learn more about people, life, and music. But even with all these new experiences, I still had my "other" group of friends, the "cool but really no different than anyone else group," and I started bringing back ideas, stories, and new people to break the walls and stereotypes down that were lying between our blinded worlds. I would see two groups of people who don't like the other yet they have no idea what the other is doing and then come to find out they are doing they exact same thing. (Sound familiar?) It takes certain individuals to be influencers and help bridge the gaps that people are afraid to jump but once the bridge is built it makes it much easier for others to follow. As my choir teacher was, I strive to be that type of individual. She can talk you into anything, in a good way. I would never have imagined myself being in a musical, ever. Not only did I land the role of Willard in Footloose that year in High School, I was able to convince 2 of my close "athlete" friends to try out as well. Not just athletes, these were guys that had scholarships to play college sports. They tried out though, and they too landed roles. I think we all agree that it was a pretty incredible time. I believe it is the ability to inspire and create commonalities between groups of individuals that help bridge gaps that shouldn't exist. It is the foundation for life, business, getting a job, etc. It is something that I truly believe can help solve micro and macro problems in our society today.

I would have never started singing, playing guitar, stepped outside of my "accepted norms," started my own company, this blog, charity work, moved to Seattle, or who knows what else if it wasn't for that one day, one moment, one person, who helped shape my life and beliefs while helping bridge the gap that I didn't see. Like my choir teacher, I strive to be the person to build the bridge. I thank her for being that person.

So maybe it is not you holding yourself back, maybe you just need that moment, that inspiration, that time, that person that will help you walk a different path, play a different game, and strive to always do better. It are those critical feelings of embarrassment, nervousness, and excitement that are needed to help you get better and you should strive to put yourself in those types of situations if you want to build yourself. If not then you are not striving to be the best and do your best, you are simply settling. I write this as the person trying to bridge the gap for you and maybe from reading this you will decide to walk a different path tomorrow, look for a different job, talk to someone new, or just pick up the phone and say hi to an old friend.

I learned something from the day I was cut from the baseball team.  It is sometimes the things we don't get that can show us what is out there and keep us working harder to find more.

I dedicate this story to the Limestone Community High School Baseball Coach. I thank you, truly. One decision to cut me from the baseball team has had an everlasting effect on my life in the way I think about business, people, and everything I do, whereas if I would have made the team it would have all ended at 18 when I graduated and I would still be talking about my highlight reel from my senior year.

The funny thing about writing stuff like this is that I still have close friends who will give me a hard time and make cracks about "stuff" I do, but there still my good friends and you will have those too. Don't let that hold you back because most of the time insults come from those who are wishing they would have done that.

So I ask. What is holding you back? Are you where you want to be?

P.S. I never returned my baseball jersey.

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Filed under  //   baseball   business   choir   inspiration   limestone community high school   m2volt   music   shane mac  
Posted November 26, 2009
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Been to Vegas? Been to the NY, NY Piano Bar? Somehow I got to sing there!

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Filed under  //   music   new york new york   piano bar   singing   vegas  
Posted November 21, 2009
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Am I really betting $5K on a ping pong match? Yup, with your help!

 

I have been thinking of ways to help out charity: water for the past couple of months and while I was planning something completely different (which I am still working on), I had some crazy idea hit me while I was sitting at the coffee shop on Thursday night. It all started because of a tweet that said "Rt @lanewood Watching an epic ping pong game between @charitywater and @tomsshoes founders: http://twitpic.com/q64cw," and I thought to myself, I wonder if I could challenge the founder of @charitywater to a match and if I win then we all get to build a well! That was it. I made a campaign, http://mycharitywater.org/shanevsscott, and asked Scott if he would be willing to play me for $5000 and by the next day we were well on our way with $210 donated on the first day and Scott personally agreeing to the match with a Tweet (I have attached a screenshot). So here we go on day 2 with $75 already donated and slowly working to make a difference in the world. If you make a bet on me just know that together we will build 1 well and help over 250 people. Thank you in advance. Check out the campaign here http://mycharitywater.org/shanevsscott

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Filed under  //   charity: water   non-profit   ping pong   scott harrison  
Posted November 21, 2009
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I really need someone to spot me $5000. Please.

Have you ever wanted to place a bet that you knew you couldn't lose? Don't worry, it is finally here.. Check it out and do something incredible this holiday season.
http://mycharitywater.org/p/campaign?campaign_id=2080

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Filed under  //   cause   charity: water   non-profit   ping pong   shane mac   water  
Posted November 19, 2009
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So I play the guitar and you donated over $400 to #StJude!?

I have been playing bars, weddings, and coffee shops for almost 3 years now and getting paid to drink, party, and play music.  I never thought I should get paid to do something I love and have a great time but it was pretty awesome.  That is when I thought, could I play an online show and raise over 400 dollars for St. Jude?  Having someone close to me get cancer (read below) it was the least I can do and was worth a shot!  You didn't let me down and over 50 people watched the show online at livestream.com and we did it together.  Raised $410 dollars for St. Jude!  I took a picture of the actual donation I sent tonight. 

Why did I do it?

It was winter break 2005 and I had just came back from college.  Just 2 months before this, the news had came through the phone line to our dorm room that my best friend/roommate’s sister was diagnosed with Cancer.  It was that moment, that word, that brought about all the thoughts and prayers one could imagine into that small box of a room.  All you can do is sit and wonder about life, dreams, and all the other things you were planning for the future.  It is this moment you realize that all the other “things” about life don’t really matter all that much.  “Things can be replaced.”

This project, “Songs 4 St. Jude” came from a personal request from my roommate’s sister to play a song for her on Christmas.  Little did I know that the song, “Skin” by Rascal Flatts is about a young girl with cancer and I also didn’t know how to play piano.  I had a week and a half until this day.  A week and a half to learn Piano, Skin, and play it at our Christmas gathering.  Let’s say it was the best, most difficult, inspiring feeling that I have ever experienced and to this day gives me goosebumps thinking about that moment when I played the song for our families.  (Here’s a picture of that day, before the song)

CIMG0086

It was that story, that girl, that inspiration, that makes me start this project.  The live shows are just a way to let people know what I plan to do while helping to support St. Jude at the same time.  My goal is to head to St. Jude and write songs with the kids that we can then record, sell, and hopefully play live with the children someday.  While this will raise money for the families and the hospital, it can be a lot more of an intrinsic motivator to help children fight this disease.  I do this because I still have a true family friend around and can say that a big part of this is credited to St. Jude.

PROJECT IDEA

Here’s the deal… I want to go to St. Jude… In the meantime I am going to raise money with online concerts/shows…. Read below

Hopefully soon I want to go to St. Jude and help kids with cancer stay strong by showing them that they can write songs, create music, and sell the songs they write, then together we can help both the children and St. Jude.  I can show each child that if they can write a song, then I can help them see the bigger dream that they can do anything.  This is a project inspired from being personally affected by this terrible disease.  This project goes out to Michelle Roberts.

UPDATE:

THANK YOU EVERYONE!  WE RAISED OVER $400 in 30 minutes for St. Jude!

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Filed under  //   dreams   hope   music   shane mac   songs for st. jude   st jude  
Posted November 19, 2009
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A Homeless Marketing idea turned, Inspirational...?

**UPDATE

Saturday, June 27th 2009.  I woke up with plans in the afternoon and nothing to do for a few hours in the morning.  I set out with the signs to one of the busiest corner’s in Seattle, where I always see the same group of guys hanging out.  (In what I now know is called “The Yard.” )  I thought I would pay them some money and then be on my way, never did I expect to leave “the yard” with a completely different outlook.  I had some marketing idea that I wanted to try and see if I could pay a couple homeless guys to hold a sign for me.  I never would have imagined what happened next... 

The first man I ran into was Charlie, a small gray bearded man who seemed to be the “father” of the group.  I had ripped pants on with a dirty white T-Shirt but they instantly called me out on not looking “homeless.”  I never realized how competitive this way of life is and I really didn’t realize that what I saw as an always busy intersection, they see as the prime real estate in Seattle.  The other 2 guys in the yard, Mike and Bob, were not so accepting to my presence but after $10 and a lot of trying to explain what I was doing, they let me stay.  At this time is when I showed them the signs and realized that “Don’t Suck” was a horrible idea.  Even though most people think of these guys as homeless, they are definitely not ignorant, at all.  Charlie looks at me and says, “what if a 7 year old kid is in the back seat of one of these cars and sees that sign, how will that make them or their parents feel?”  At that moment I had respect of these men.  If there is one word in life that will get you “somewhere” in business, life, or relationships, it’s Respect.  One word that is more important than any other.  Now I was just intrigued to talk with these men and realize how 3 guys on a corner are running a business just like any other, tax free.

First I want to talk about the “Business” that these guys are running and how similar it is to your everyday company.  Laugh.  Trust me, I was too until I stopped for a second and thought about it.  Check it out.  These three guys work 30 minute shifts or 20 Red lights.  That is their schedule.  This is a full blown competition and pretty hilarious at that.  The other 2 men are shouting, “COME ON, WARM UP THE CORNER FOR US NEXT!”  You know when you see that guy on the corner and you get the feeling of sorrow when you see that smiley face on the sign, I do sometimes but not always.  Some signs make me feel a different attitude towards that person than others.  You think they don’t understand this?  Think again.  Each one of them had over 10 different signs ranging from the “lost my job,” “hungry please help,” to “Smile!”  They would change signs after about 5 green lights if one wasn’t working that day.  I think this is what we call A/B testing at my company.  If a marketing message ins’t working try something else.  Wait, a lot of companies don’t do this though, so these guys are smarter?  Maybe not, but they are finding what works and trying different things to see what works best.

Now it’s my turn to work the corner.  This is where you have to just put yourself in character and just do some acting. (which I am not good at.)  This is where I never expected to be writing what I am about to write.  I worked the corner for an hour.  The only way I could get them to let me work their corner was to give them all of the money I made at the end of my “shift.”  I laughed and said, “sure.”  An hour later, $53 in my hand, I almost had that quick moment of, what the hell am I doing?  I just made $53 in an hour, tax free because it is all gifts, and I make nothing close to that at my real job.  I had to stop and think that it was probably a good day and it would not always be like this, nor would I want to stand on a corner, but it was pretty surreal.  This hour of standing on the corner was also a kind of interaction with people that you don’t usually have.  I saw more people smile in an hour and had full scale conversations with complete strangers than I ever have in my life.  I would slip them a card with a link to this story at the end so they could read this story.  I did have a lot of people that don’t look at you at all, but it was the people that you make smile that can really make you enjoy the day.  I was starting to see what these guy’s were doing.  The traffic for www.beawesome.me went up 50% today from yesterday because of that sign!

Here is what it is from Courtney’s eyes. (I took notes sitting on the yard on the only thing I had to write with, my iPhone…I know, it totally ruins the “Homelessness,” but I couldn’t miss his words, if they are true or not, who knows, but it was a telling story.

75 degrees, grass yard, listening to “Proud Mary” by CCR.  I asked Courtney, “How did you end up here after 50 years? (His birthday was yesterday.)

Sean: How did you end up here after 50 years?

Courtney: Well Sean, (I told him Shane a couple times but as I say most of the time, names really don’t matter, we didn’t usually get to choose them so call me whatever you like, doesn’t make me who I am. Damn I ramble.) Well Sean, I have been on this yard, this intersection, this city for 10 years.  I love living outdoors, I really do.  People think that I am homeless but they are the only ones who think that.  Us here at this corner have chosen this life because of the life we had and don’t want to have anymore.  The funniest part of this, Sean, is that we all come from what most people think of as the “normal” life, with kids, family, and debt payments. We choose to be homeless and have no intentions on ever going back.  There’s nothing like living free and being polite to every person you don’t know. Not everyone chooses to be homeless, but as soon as they except it they will be happier.  I wonder what it was that made everyone think a car, house, and other stuff that involves such a burden of debt that most people know that they probably won’t pay off for most of their life is normal.  People think we’re crazy for not having any debt…Huh?

Sean: I hear ya.  Going back to you having lived here for 10 years, what does a typical day involve?

Courtney: Just livin, listening to music, hanging in the yard with the crew, and drinking.  I drink from dawn till dusk.  Everyday.

Sean: Holy shit.  Everyday?

Courtney: Ya, for the last six years at least.  It is the only thing that makes the pain go away.

Sean: The pain?

Courtney: I have cancer.  Bad cancer in my stomach.  I can only eat a couple bites a day, and it hurts to breathe.  It is getting worse and I think the end is near but I know where I’m going.  That’s all the matters.  The hardest part is leaving my family behind.  I don’t want any treatment because I know what Chemo makes you feel like and I don’t want that either.

Sean: I’m sorry, that’s horrible.  You said your family… Do you have brother’s, sister’s, kids, or a wife?

Courtney: Had 2 wives, have 3 kids, and a slew of brothers and sisters.  I mostly just miss my kids.  They have all turned their back on me to my new life.  I used to be an art professor that made over 6 figures a year teaching art and literature.  That 6 figures was a number and life that led me into bankruptcy with a house I couldn’t afford, a car that was half of my yearly income, and a weight on my shoulders that just kept getting heavier.  I just hope to see my kids before my last day.

Sean: How can we make that happen?  Is there any way we could get in touch with them?

Courtney: What’s today?  (I say June 27, 2009) It has been 7 years, 3 months, and 10 days since I have heard from them.  (He was really good at math)  I don’t think I could find them if I tried.  Let’s not talk about this anymore.

Sean: Alright, sorry bout that subject.  What kind of music do you like?

Courtney: All.  I am open to anything and love all types of music and love writing lyrics to songs or changing the words to them.  Listen to this, “Hey Jude, don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better, remember to let her in to your heart, then she will “fart” and make it better!  I love just feeling good and art does that for me.  Check out this wood medallion I have been working on for a month or so.  Do you want me to go get some of my art?

Sean: (LOL)  Awesome.  I actually have to get going but thanks for everything today.  I will be back to talk with you soon and take a look at the art then, maybe even come write a song with you.  I am writing an album called “Song’s from a Coffee shop,” and could do the same thing here with you guys too.”  Here’s $20 but don’t spend it all on booze and cigarettes even though I know you will!  Have a great day.

As I leave, I hear Mike in the street signing, “Saturday, in the park, feeling like the 4th of July,” I smiled and thought wow, what a day.  On my way home, carrying at this point only one sign, Be Awesome, that was given some “flavor” by Courtney, I come across two kids on the next corner holding a sign that says, “2400 miles from home, anything helps.”  I couldn’t help but stop and see if they were in the same situation as Courtney and his crew.  Come to find out, not at all.

Their story was straight out of “Into the Wild,” and they left Louisville, KY 6 months ago with no destination or plan.  They both had jobs they hated and now were in Seattle with under a dollar in pennies.  The looked depressed and said they were just trying to find money to eat and hated holding this damn sign because people were horrible to them.  One of them said they had glass a bottle thrown at them and had a bruise for over a week.  One of them says, “I hated my old life, but I’m not sure if this is what I was looking for either.”  After a 10 minutes of conversation I realized these 2 young guys, who didn’t look homeless just a little beat up, really were scrapping for food, unlike the chosen life of the last guys I met.  How did I just make $53 dollars on the busy street corner but these guys can’t make $5?  I had forgotten how I was able to work the “best real estate,” in Seattle, by giving all the money I made to the guys who “claimed” the corner.  They said they tried to go there but were chased out by the 3 guys that I was just hanging with.  The territory war that I talked about earlier had slipped my mind.  Anyways, after hearing there story, like I did with Courtney, gave them my phone number and $20 and said, “Don’t blow it all on cigarettes assholes, and call me if you ever need anything” in a joking tone.  You would have thought I gave them a million dollars.  They said, “your a God send.”  All I could say was, no, I’m just helping.  It’s crazy how what one person thinks of as just $20 bucks can be something that someone could never imagine. I took off on my bike and headed home.  I had just made $53 dollars on a corner, given $50 of my own money away, now had an empty wallet in my pocket, but couldn’t stop smiling and thinking, what a great day.

marketing14906_610383769175_30401110_35645754_2918978_ndontsucktiredofsuckingU R Awesome

**So this story started as a Marketing Concept, which is the rest of the story below but once I actually went a day acting like I was homeless and doing this project, my original plan changed completely.  Read below to hear what I intended to do.

Marketing.  A simple word and a simple concept.  Someone has something that they want to tell someone else about.  That’s it.  Every Day I drive home and pass the same homeless guys holding a different sign.  Every day I read that sign.  Marketing.  But in today’s world more money is spent on marketing and advertising than ever before which wouldn’t be a problem if all the money spent was actually selling the product or service that is being marketed.

Welcome to Homeless marketing.(Sounds bad, but not meant too)  Companies always have a marketing budget and the biggest problem I find is that companies feel that they have to spend their entire “marketing budget.”  If I could find a way to put your advertisement in front of 100% more people at a quarter of the price AND it converted to a successful campaign, would you tell me NO?  Welcome to the ERA of true marketing and finding marketing that works.  All I want to do is ask why and help you prove what doesn’t work or open your eyes to what does.  Marketing is no longer something that needs to be paid for and the faster companies find this out, the quicker they can begin placing their money into the parts of their company that make the product or service they are trying to market better.

Here’s where it came from.

Every day I drive home from work and every day at the same intersection I see the same group of homeless guys holding a different sign each day.  Every day I read that sign.  There is the entire point of this story.  Marketing is putting something in front of people.  If every car that drives by this intersection (which by the way, always has a line of cars) reads this homeless guys sign, (whether they pay him is not the point), isn’t that a great place to put some advertising?  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a big fan of sign advertising where we make someone have to remember something and then look it up later (Billboards, posters, etc) but it does make sense if I can give this guy $20 to hold a sign that every person that drives by it reads, rather than pay a billboard company to put a billboard up which hardly anyone reads and cost a fortune in comparison to results. (No facts on that, just a personal thought. I don’t read that shit, do you.)

Here’s the story.

I used 2 different concepts of signs.  A negative/funny message and a positive message.  These were the signs I originally thought I was going to use but after I went and spent the day with Charlie and Mike (the living outdoors guys) I realized that what I saw was something completely different than what they saw.  A great eye opener to life and that our perspective is only one way to look at something and we should all realize that what seems “normal” in one person’s eyes is just because they have been taught to think that.  What I saw as “www.dontsuck.me,” they saw as “Don’t Suck Me.”  At that moment, we threw out all of the negative signs and went with “Be Awesome.”  Read the update at the bottom to find out what happened.**

Direct and Bold.  The main point here is if I can pay a homeless guy to hold a sign, and people think its funny so a person who usually wouldn’t give him money does, and then that person goes to the website (which by the way is just a URL that forwards to this story and then tracked by google analytics to give us an exact number of people who typed in that URL) and also gets myself a few more eyes reading my blog, and hopefully from them landing on my site I can help them with something…. I call that successful marketing.  That’s it. I started this story and idea with a negative message and after talking to my brother I decided to try a positive message as well.  I bought www.beawesome.me and had a sign that told you that “You” were awesome and drove traffic to that site.  With this piece of the puzzle we can also take a look at what concept worked not just the presentation of the message.  The numbers at the top of this page are tracking the amount of people that read the signs and then went to either of the URL’s, “www.dontsuck.me” or “www.beawesome.me

So what did I do.

I took an old marketing technique of sign advertising (which like I said I don’t think works and companies waste huge amounts of money on, I mean really everyone is online…market online) anyways, I took an old technique and spent $20 bucks to get a homeless guy to hold my sign and show that you don’t have to spend your bank to advertise something that you cant track.  I drove all of the traffic to a specific URL which forwarded to this article.

In the recent years we have seen companies try this method, sort of.  You have seen the Little Ceasar’s man standing on the corner with a sign saying “$5 pizza.”  This may spark someone to be like “O ya, I want a pizza,” but what doesn’t work is that he looks like he is advertising.  This is a lesson for life.  If you look like you are trying to sale, advertise, or hit on someone for that matter, it won’t work to what it could if you couch it in something that people perceive as “normal.”  If you are trying to meet someone at a bar, and you walk up with all of your pick up lines, I bet you don’t get to far, well…., maybe with a few.  Rather if you approach it as putting yourself in the position to cross paths with someone in what would be a “normal” situation it would be a much better time and place to just stike conversation.  Marketing is the same thing.  Putting your message in front of people in what they see as a “normal” situation or your not trying to sell them something.  What’s perceived as “normal” is the question. This is a much larger message which I discuss in another article, “Normality.”

So what am I saying?

I’m not saying that this “Homeless Marketing” should be a method to marketing but rather open people’s eyes to doing things a little different and only doing marketing that actually in the end is an “effective” marketing campaign.  However success is determined is not my call.  Think about the person being paid to hold the $5 pizza sign and making minimum wage to do it.  As you will read later, I made $53 in an hour holding a sign acting homeless.  Who would want to act homeless though?  I can’t believe companies even make people stand on corners with those signs dancing all over the street.  If that person would be holding a different sign they could make more money than most of us in our real jobs, but they don’t think about it like that, nor am I saying they should.  The biggest priority is to try and track marketing dollars to find out if they are working and to always say there is NO for certain way to market anything or no certain way to live life for that matter.  If it does not work, try something new.  If it does work, try something new because it might work better and if not go back to what you were doing.  The main concept here is to always ask why, never say never, and never say always.  My biggest thing is that no one knows for certain about anything and the minute you stop saying “This is what will happen” or “That will never happen” and just saying “This Could/May happen” is the minute your company will find new ways that will work.  I don’t know what will work but, I know what isn’t working and we can find another way to go about it.

**Sign advertising is not always bad... there is a place for it I suppose. PR is better!

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Posted November 19, 2009
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