Let the people fix it themselves

In the past week I have seen or read about two instances where, when left to determine it themselves, the people turn out just fine... reminding me that even though we are human, we can surprise ourselves.

Two instances: Homelessness and the Budget Deficit.

In an article in the Economist a recent study was done on a small sample group in London wherein homeless people were given funds directly and helped acquire the goods or services they needed. Guess what? It actually worked in 11 of 13 cases, people are off the streets. Now, again- not a large sample size, but inspiring. You can read more in the article here.

In a flurry among my facebook friends over the weekend, I had a solid handful of people re-post a bit in the NYT that encourages the people to fix the national budget. By clicking off options from spending cuts to tax increases you can fix the short term and long term budgets and see your progress throughout the entire process.


Both of these instances are illustrations of handing power to the people in order to hopefully come up with some creative ideas about how to fix real problems. I LOVE it. LOVE it. This is the kind of thing that not only our government, but many organizations need. A fresh set of eyes. I do hope that more organizations and local governments start to do it. Because sometimes the people who know and really live in the organizations have some great insights about how things might be done better.

Democrat CEO & a Republican CFO please

I just read an article about poverty being at its highest rate since 1994 (16 years for those who lost count). For working adults ages 18-64 it's the highest since 1965 (45 years). This is super frustrating for someone who has always been a social democrat but is slowly becoming a fiscal republican. I believe that as a "world power" the US should be able to support people in our own society because part of being a "world power" is being smart enough to take care of your own and then helping others. That's the democrat part. I have also worked my entire career in the high tech sales and marketing world. And I have been with companies that have had to close doors, I have see friends let go because budgets dried up. I have had to annually beg for budget to do what I think is right, but had to justify for the business. Based on all of that, my bipolar existence, this is what I suggest:

Democrat CEO: The person who is in charge, the one that has the final say, the one that leads the team to success through organic and strategic growth. Making sure that everyone is taken care of, that people are working productively to continue to help the economy grow.

Keep in mind, great CEO's do one thing really well. Hire great people. So, our Democrat CEO hires the smartest CFO who will drive the organization to operational excellence by cutting costs and analyzing what's working, getting the most out of contracts and vendors all while making sure that the CEO still sees growth. And, I gotta be honest, the smartest CFO is probably a Republican.

Let's make it happen. The time has come. Because we should be able to afford to take care of our people and keep them out of poverty.

Economy, Education and a Method to Marketing- All in One Post!

I am going to blatantly steal this post from Craigslist because it's funny, a little crass but mostly because it's SPOT ON! It covers two of the three passions of this blog, and another personal passion: Education, the Economy, and Marketing.

Economy:
Short version, this person from Seattle is telling her former university that they are wasting their money on glossy brochures asking her for money because their endowment is down to a meager $500 million... when she doesn't even have a job. Waste of time and money all around.

"You know, maybe if you wanted a little bit of money from me (and these days you'd get about $3) maybe you should send me a fancy color brochure admitting your role in the bubble economics that got us all in to this mess.

For example, since 1987, higher education expenses have gone up 450 percent, while personal income in this country has gone up 87 percent, making tuition IMPOSSIBLE to afford without special financing. But, during this time, you were thriving because people could come up with the cash in two ways:

1. Get a home equity loan and use the inflated value of their house to pay for their kid to get drunk at your school and then lose the house when the market crashed.
2. Get a federal loan.

HAD IT OCCURRED TO YOU THAT NEITHER OF THESE SOURCES OF MONEY ACTUALLY EXIST? THAT IT WAS BEING MANUFACTURED BECAUSE YOU MADE PEOPLE THINK THAT ONE OF YOUR DEGREES WAS NECESSARY TO CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THE BUBBLE?"

Education:
A few points here that I have to highlight. Education expenses are up 450% while income is only up 87%. And to think I used to dream of making sure my children didn't end up with north of $50k in debt after school. Pipedream realized. Great. Sad statement about the goals of our country. Almost as sad as the healthcare disaster.

Marketing:
Another point noted: educational institutions might want to consider a marketing automation tool or at least a theory. You signed their loans, you have to know they aren't paid off for a while. Don't put them on the mailing list for the glossy brochure for at least 10 years. If they didn't take a loan out at your institution, do a bit more profiling, find out if they are living at home, do it under the guise of a survey for goodness sake. Guess what? You are turning them off. BIG TIME! Speak to people like they are humans, not just numbers and all the same.

I am amazed at how behind our institutions are when it comes to marketing and revenue generation. Huge opportunity for marketing automation, lead generation and nurture campaigns all around. Hell, huge opportunity for me, since this is what I do...

Best of Craigslist was insipiring today. Awesome way to end a week. Have a good one!

Little Decisions Big Impact

I went to see 180 South at the local Patagonia store last week and was again blown away at just how unaware I find myself sometimes. I listen, I love to learn, I am constantly trying to be a better human, partner, employee, sister, daughter, etc. But, then I see things like this movie and am just shocked at how some of my little decisions make a big impact that I may never see.

In the movie Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia and Doug Tompkins, founder of The North Face and The Conservation Land Trust talk about what they are doing in South America to make a difference. Including purchasing millions of acres of land to keep in a preserve. They fight to prevent these countries from selling very rich and ecologically unique lands to various power and pulp companies, that essentially do to the Earth what 90 days of McDonald's does to your body- breaks you down physically and mentally.

Guess where these power and pulp companies are selling their products? The U.S. Why? Because I forgot to turn off the overhead fans before I left the house last week. Because I NEED the AC unit to run when it gets above 85 degrees outside. Because I still like to wrap presents instead of wrapping them in recycled newspaper or something similar.

Little things, easily fixed. The scientists have been saying it for years. If we all make LITTLE changes, it makes a BIG impact. But remember, that works in both directions.

Pay attention people!

I grew up golfing. I played Jr. Golf starting at age 7 and went into retirement at 17. At 21 I realized that if I was going to work in technology sales in the bay area, I was probably going to have to play again. So, now, 9 years later, I play 1-2 times a year, max. Golfing or anything about golfing should matter a LOT less than Healthcare.

But all the sudden our country cares more about a golfers extracurricular activities than they do about the way that we receive health care in this country. Tiger isn't going to affect the doctors you can see for the rest of your life. His sluts aren't going to be the nurses that care for you as you recover from your heart attack, at least you better hope not. Elin doesn't care if you have to pay 50% of your income to pay off hospital bills, she's going back to Sweden, which has government funded healtcare if you care.

We all need a little gut check on our priorities. We need to quit clicking on the tiger stories and instead tune into CSPAN to see what's going to make a difference in our lives.

COME ON PEOPLE!!!!

Being really good at what you do...

I was always taught to be proud of whatever you produce. This requires work. It means that you work hard to put something together that you are actually proud of. I know when I don't do things 100%. I can feel it. I try to make excuses, but deep down I know.

side note: it's why this wedding thing and lack of control over production quality (multiple vendors that I don't have experience with) is kinda freaking me out!

And the people close to me are the first to say "I know you can do better than that." But keeping people like that near you makes you better. They force you to give 100% all the time.

Based on where things are with the economy I would bet that only the 100% companies and people will end up on top...

PUSH it Folks! It's the only way you will make it!

Unemployment rises again

I just read on NPR that unemployment is up to 9.8% nationally. It's the highest in 26 years... I am surprised by this because people have been whispering for the past month or so about how we might be coming out of this. I guess that's not quite the case.

NPR also put together a great map of foreclosure rates, unemployment rates and median household income across the US.

I really think that it's going to take a new year to turn this around. It's not just about people feeling better, but about a new beginning.

My gut says: Q1 2010

Passion makes an influencer

I have heard it from @aaronstrout @garyvee, @gwenbell, @chrisbrogan, @danschawbel etc. The list of social influencers goes on and on. "It's all about you providing meaningful value to the world."

M-E-A-N-I-N-G-F-U-L V-A-L-U-E

It means different things to everyone. But I would suggest that meaningful value means at least:
1. you care about others
2. you want to make something better (the world, a user experience, your kids' lives)

When blogging first started people didn't understand others' need to get on their soap box and shout at the world, and then people started taking an interest because people started commenting and conversing about issues. Great, now we are talking... phew!

And then came twitter, it became a shorter way to converse about things that matter to you. And all of the above mentioned social influencers preach about the importance of conversing, and not shouting. And this is the MEANINGFUL VALUE I was talking about.

So the value is YOU, but a thoughtful one, not a soap-box one. Your brand, your recommendations, your opinions, your passion. It's like everyone is a celebrity, and if you have done the conversing right, you probably have an entourage of people who care about what you care about. And you listen to what they say, and they listen to what you say.

And I get it. I am on board people! But the biggest hole for me is- what is my passion? I am passionate about my three things: education, the economy and the environment, but that's a lot to be passionate about. And should I focus on something that I can change? I can't change the countries public education system, I wouldn't know where to start, I just know when something clearly doesn't work, but that's not rocket science, that's common sense. Same thing goes for the environment and the economy.

Until I figure it out, I am going to keep watching and reading things like this to keep me motivated to find my passion!

• Gary Vaynerchuck Mediabistro Keynote
• Gwen Bell's Blog
• White Hot Truth: because self-realization rocks
• Chris Brogan
  
• Social Web Guide
  

I would like to thank Aaron Strout for pushing me off the ledge so long ago when I was scared to say anything at all...

The business of higher education

It's been quite a few years, 13 to be exact, since I seriously looked at undergraduate programs. This week my cousin came to visit Boston with my aunt and it all came flooding back- the test scores, the pressure of writing the perfect essay, the lists of pros and cons, etc. And as I was sitting there discussing everything with them I realized how much work has to be put in not only from the student but the parents.

My cousin is responsible for figuring out what she wants to study, researching schools, ranking schools based on compatibility and then requesting visits for her top places. But someone needs to put up the airline miles, arrange the hotel stays, get the car rental figured out, and be realistic about matching her expectations with her desires when it comes to financing an education.

My Aunt and Uncle run Best Crystal, a online store for fine crystal. So, they aren't slackers. And as we were eating dinner I realized that this is essentially a part time job for her and her husband. I joked with her that she can excuse the decrease in profits over the next 6 months to "Daughter 1 was looking at colleges." Probably not the best business model, but life happens and this is an important decision, not only for the student but parents as well.

According to the NYTimes, "published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, adjusted for inflation, while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families."

I don't envy any student or parent looking at funding or attending college anytime in the next 10 years. I can only hope that we as a country figure out a way to make higher education a priority and therefore a reasonable expense.

Customer Service in a recession

Customer Service is in existence because customers are people and people can't always be serviced by machines. Don't get me wrong, the machines are great, but sometimes you need a little human thoughtfulness and maybe an actual person who can think outside of the box, machines are boxes, they certainly don't think outside of them.

In the past week I have encountered two very different kinds of customer service and I believe that good customer service directly correlates to increased revenues. That is not a novel idea, people have been saying that for years. I do think that sadly, in a recession even normally good companies let their customer service values fall by the wayside, and that is the real tragedy.

Customer Experience Number One: Banana Republic
I was an AVID Banana fan. I have been buying clothes from them on a very regular basis since I got out of college. I know my sizes, everything fits perfectly, the style is perfect for me- classic and conservative, but not my mom's conservative.

And then this weekend happened. I had purchased 6 items via bananarepublic.com at the end of June. They arrived and didn't like 2 of them. I planned to return them, and then of course, life happens. I moved, I started a new job, spent weekends in Maine, etc. In the back of my mind, I always thought I had 60 days to return these items, so I wasn't worried.

So last weekend I brought my items to the store at the Cambridgeside Galleria I was rudely informed that I needed to have returned it within 30 days. I thought to myself, "you know, I think I would have read that somewhere on the return slip." So I walked away from the counter reading the slip and found no time limits were noted on the returns so I walked back up and asked... "it doesn't say anything about a 30-day return policy on here." I was quickly told by the manager (they weren't busy so all the women were just milling around the register) that it is clearly stated in the online checkout process that its a new 30-day return policy.

This is now 50 days later and I can't say I remember where I put my car last week let alone what the check out process said on an online form I filled out 50 days ago... I digress. I am used to a 60 day return policy or none at all, especially since I am a Banana Republic Card Holder and have been shopping there for years.

I asked to speak to someone who could help me and the manager had to get on the phone with bananarepublic.com in order to find Kerry who supposedly said they could make a "one time exception" for this case and will let me return it.

Many of you are probably saying, "Thereasa, stop your whining and get it in the mail." And don't worry, it's in the mail. But, I think that people on the front lines should be given more power to so whatever they can to make the customer happy, especially in a recession. Right now customers have all the power, why not do everything to keep them coming back rather than give them even one reason to never return. It's in times of need when you find out who your friends really are, the same can be said about any service or company you purchase things from.

Customer Experience Number Two: L.L.Bean
L.L. Bean on the other hand has been a beacon of exception customer service for years. Spending most of my summer in Maine my fiance and I have done a fair amount of fishing and a month ago the top piece on his fly rod broke in 1/2. He's had this L.L Bean rod for over 10 years, and he loves it.

So, we drive to Freeport in the hopes of finding a piece that might replace the broken one. At the customer service desk the cashier proceeds to say he can take just that piece back but he's worried that they might not have just that single piece so they might just have to replace the whole fly rod. He says that the service dept will look at it within 2 days and he will get a call telling him what they will be doing and they will ship him either a replacement piece or a whole new rod within 10 days. Now that's the kind of service that you would get from a good friend.

L.L Bean's Customer and quality guarantee is listed here. It's probably why they have been in business since 1912. Here is a screen shot from their website, where they preach the importance of customer service.



Banana Republic on the other hand has only been in business since 1978 and was purchased by the Gap in 1983. I will be interested to see what happens to Banana as they continue to treat their customers with such disregard during times like these and in the many years to come...

I truly believe that exceptional customer service comes from treating your customers like friends and that will lead to a long life, not only as a business but as a person.

Plastic bottles hurt more than the environment

When I was a camp counselor at the St. Mary's Summer Camps my friend ErinRose started telling me that I shouldn't re-fill old plastic water bottles with new water. She claimed the plastic would produce a residue that would leak into the new water. It made sense to me, so I quit re-using water bottles. But that lead to more plastic being wasted, so the next logical step in 1999 was to get a Nalgene bottle, it cut down on the plastic bottle waste. But it turns out, I was probably doing as much damage to myself as re-using the original plastic bottles.

This great article in the Boston Globe talks about the toxins that leak from hard plastic bottles.

About a year ago I bought a Klean Kanteen, which I swear by. It's an easy replacement for a Nalgene bottle, and I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a viable alternative to hard plastic water bottles.

Renting for life

I was recently lamenting the joys of apartment living to my mother and mother in law to be and neither one of them had any advice about how to deal with noisy neighbors. It occurred to me that they had never lived in apartments. They went from their parents homes, to college dorms, to houses with their husbands. Houses that they were actually able to afford. The money they put down on their houses amounts to what I spend on my annual student loan payments.

And I am sitting here thinking, what in the world do you need these days to get a house in a decent urban area (think Boston, SF, Portland)? The answer is 20% down. And that's what the difference is. The average home value in these urban areas in 1960 was $58k Today the average is $169k Even though the average income has only increased $33k. And this doesn't count for the mounting debt brought on by the cost of college educations...

There is a great article from the Times Online from the UK "Generation Rent: is home ownership falling out of favour?"

Now I know there are a lot of people out there who were living beyond their means who are now losing houses they could never afford in the first place, but for those of us who have yet to get into the market. It's not an easy task...

Lost Generation Video from AARP

Trust is the crux of the matter

Trust has come up a lot for me lately. It comes up all the time at work. We talk about how a good compensation strategy and plan that pays correctly and on time will build trust between sales reps and the organization. I also hear it on NPR in the morning when we are talking about banks and lending.

I think the real problem with our economy is trust. We don't have it. No one has true trust. And it's been missing for a while. Reflect with me, and I am reflecting not based on experience, but on what I have heard, so correct me if I am wrong, but remember back to the 1950's when you shopped at your local market, you knew the butcher by name, you had a florist and a dry cleaners and you KNEW them. They KNEW you, and guess what? You TRUSTED them to do their jobs and provide you with good service and quality products. They TRUSTED you to pay them on time if you were using credit, or return to them on a regular basis if you liked their goods and service.

Today, things are different. You can't trust big chain stores, they are just looking out for their bottom line, do you think the butcher at Stop and Shop cares if you come back? He might care if everyone stopped going to Stop and Shop, because he would lose his job, but one person isn't going to make a difference.

Today banks won't lend because they don't trust people will pay back their money, because people haven't been paying back their mortgages. They haven't been paying back their mortgages because they weren't purchased through the local bank, they were purchased on line and now when they are close to defaulting, people don't know who to call and they can't work out a payment schedule because not even the original bank knows who owns the loan anymore.

I am not saying that we need to excuse the people who took the money or the people that lent the money, but I think that had we stuck to our roots and borrowed from people we trusted and lent to people we trusted, we might be in a better place.

So, do the economy a favor and find people and businesses you trust and repay them with your trust and business.

What industry is booming in this recession?

I don't get it. But being newly engaged, I am intrigued. Sunday morning while in Maine I read that the wedding industry in Maine is booming, and it's not just Maine. I guess the recession causes people to celebrate big occasions even more than normal? I think it might be a sign of the class division that is becoming more and more clear across the country. There is no way that middle-class Americans can afford a $28,800 day. Yes, that's the average cost of an American Wedding for 2007.

There is something wrong with our country when we want/need to spend $28,800 on a single event and we can't pay off our mortgages!

The Evolution of the American Household

This is a great article about how the American Household has changed in the past 50 years...

http://www.womansday.com/wd2/Content/Family-Lifestyle/Evolution-of-the-Household

We are eating a TON more chicken these days...

Peace, Hope and Love

I haven't felt much peace in this country the past eight years, I certainly haven't felt much hope the past 4 years. I rarely hear of acts of love among strangers, but lots of stories of violence. I hope that today will begin a new American Tradition of more Faith in our leaders Hope in our own abilities to do great things and Love among all Americans as we begin this new adventure together... 

Unemployment

I know at least seven people that are unemployed. I can't think of another time in my life when I have known this many people that are out of work. I am blessed enough to have landed another job, and I really look forward to getting started on Monday. But in the mean time, I am still amazed by the depth and breadth of this unemployment. It's not just older people, it's not just managers, it's not just new employees. It's everyone. It's cheap recent college grads, it's expensive and bright managers, it's people at large companies, small companies...


I am sure it will turn. As I have said in earlier posts, our country is built on new ideas and innovation, and our drive. I do think for a while we have been sitting back enjoying ourselves, now and I would say at least for the next decade hopefully we will see it turn and our country will reap the benefits of a highly productive and happy society. I just hope we can all find a little balance with all the work we have ahead of ourselves.

Global Warming doesn't always mean warmer

I know that the term global warming makes it sound like we are all going to warm up, but in fact this climate change doesn't always mean warmer, it just means more extreme. It's probably why it took an extra 2 days to get from Boston to Central Oregon for my holiday break, snow and ice on both coasts.

These extremes are coming at a time when cities and counties are already strapped for cash and the inability to clean up after these storms means only more federal aide requests. It's a cycle this global warming/climate change thing, and as much as our soon to be previous leaders wanted to believe it wouldn't affect their country, they were wrong... and now, we pay...

I hope we learned from the lessons of the past and learn not to turn a blind eye when very smart people come to the table with really difficult news, we should listen. Just because it's hard doesn't mean it shouldn't be talked about or researched more. With the new administration I hope there will be a pile of money available to help with the research and possible innovation that might have prevented the continual increase in greenhouse gasses. And maybe that pile of money will also help local governments when they can't help after some of this extreme weather reeks havoc across the country.

How ironic would it be if the bailout went unaccounted for

I was at the gym yesterday and I was watching CNBC or something like that and they were talking about how they contacted all the banks that got more than $2m from the bailout money and asked where it went. The guy at the bank basically said, they lent some, they kept some and that no one had told them to keep track of it. I find it highly entertaining and even more highly disturbing that with all the talk about how de-regulation was the cause of all these problems in the first place, it seems to me that the first thing that should have happened when we started handing out some of our hard earned tax dollars was that we actually learned from our mistakes and asked where it was going... doesn't look like that happened.

This is why making a hasty decision like the bailout wasn't and isn't right. If those banks were so far in the hole that they were going to go out of business in less than a month then they deserved to go out of business and we would be better off without them. But, I am guessing that most of them could have figured out a few ways to un-burden themselves long enough to give the Congress, House of Reps and even our President a month to figure out a constructive way to help them out, that might not have cost the tax payers as much, only to have no account as to where things are...

I struggle with my need as an American to get everything the minute that I need it. That's why so many people have made so much money on fad diet pills and, pyramid schemes in this country, because even though history tells us different, we want to believe that it's just that easy.

And if there's one thing that I've learned unless you are a billion dollar bank who begs the government for money and cries wolf the minute the interest rates drop, it's not that easy...