I guess that’s not entirely accurate, since our house has been a cat shelter for over five years, with a back room and a basement room dedicated to Guardian Angels Cat Rescue, the cat shelter organization my wife runs with a few of [...]]]> Late last month, our house turned into a cat shelter.

I guess that’s not entirely accurate, since our house has been a cat shelter for over five years, with a back room and a basement room dedicated to Guardian Angels Cat Rescue, the cat shelter organization my wife runs with a few of her fellow cat ladies.

But what is accurate is that a few weeks ago, my wife hosted a “thank you” brunch for about two dozen of her shelter volunteers.  Tireless volunteers who help shelter kittens in their homes, provide significant funding, help with the Saturday adoption days, or provide medical care as needed.

My wife’s an amazing cook, especially for brunches.  Brunches are a well-publicized treat in our household, with enough food to typically feed twice as many guests, regardless of the number of visitors.  At least no one ever leaves hungry, and everybody leaves with doggie bags (kitty bags?).  Anyway, I digress.

So picture two dozen cat volunteers with plenty of food and drink sitting down for a meal.  Guess what they talk about?  You guessed it — cats.  Herewith are the top lines I heard while sitting there amongst the cat ladies (there was actually one guy present, but he was basically silent.  As was I.  We’re not stupid, you know.)

• “The European Persians have a more normal face.  It’s the Americans who have been cross-breeding.”
• “Years ago I used to go trap cats every Thursday night.”   “Really?  You sure know how to have fun.”
• “She is always happy to help, even when she is asked to take a bag of crap to the trash.  ‘Oh, I’ll do that’ she always says.”

And then this exchange around an apparently sick kitten:

• “She doesn’t look right.  She’s sleeping in the litterbox.”
• “I agree.  I think she’s depressed.”
• “Well, how do her nipples look?”

How about a few more?

• “You know, since you’re six months pregnant we could have you nursing kittens out there.  It will get you some practice.  Just be careful, because some of them have teeth and some don’t.”
• “In my next life I want to be a cat.”  “Really?  I don’t believe in the after life, but I do love Church fairs.”

And finally, this discussion around why a kitten won’t eat.

• Cat Lady #1:  “Well, have you given it a choice?  Maybe it doesn’t like that kind of food.”
• Cat Lady #2:  “I put 12 cans of food out.”
• Cat Lady #3:  “Did you show it the food?”
• Cat Lady #2:  “I put the food on its nose.”
• Cat Lady #4:  “I’d put it out by the dog food.  They’ll want it more.”
• Cat Lady #2:  “I haven’t tried that before.”
• Cat Lady #5:  “Have you tried chewing it first?  Maybe that would help.  Chew it, and then spit it out.”

This was the exact moment when I excused myself, cleared my plate, and went far, far away.

(Note:  They may be a bit crazy, but they are tireless defenders of the kittens.  And I’ve been married for 27 years to one of the most dedicated crazies of all so I’m a bit biased.  Hop on board and help if you can — volunteer or donate money HERE.  Every little bit helps.)

Maybe I’m just more aware of these things, but the past 24 hours have been perplexing in terms of annoyance in the world of communication — written, oral, digital, social, in person, over the phone…everything.  In fact, the sheer volume has me wondering whether it’s been a steady stream for quite some time and [...]]]> Wow.

Maybe I’m just more aware of these things, but the past 24 hours have been perplexing in terms of annoyance in the world of communication — written, oral, digital, social, in person, over the phone…everything.  In fact, the sheer volume has me wondering whether it’s been a steady stream for quite some time and something else set me off.  Regardless, after the first few things popped, I started wondering if there was enough fodder for a post.

And then this morning I received an email with a subject line of “This is Awkward.”  I was working on a presentation, but the email header popped up on the bottom right hand corner of my Mac.  My brain said “don’t click over to it, you need to get this done.”  But then my brain disagreed, and said “if you don’t click over, you’ll be wondering — and you are now officially less productive.”  As I clicked over, I thought “it’s pure spam, with a hook — just like those stupid tweets trying to get you to click on them; you’re smart enough to avoid those, why are you thinking about email?”

But I clicked over.  And it was a frustrating, badly written email offering employee survey services, because “a company’s most important asset is its employees.”  Wait, are employees one asset, or plural?  They didn’t say “group of employees.”  And then there was lots of verbiage, a long email, and a badly written form letter with an unclear offer;  thank you kind sir — you are now in my Spam folder and will be blocked going forward.

Which got me recalling the other stuff from the last 24 hours.  Let’s see.  I received:

• A horribly written email telling me that “your digital assets are the single most important part of your marketing, and we can help you build a powerful website and email communications.”   Of course, I thought employees were the most important.  And besides, last I checked, I run an agency that is focused on digital marketing and social media.
• I got a request to connect with someone who has the title of “Chief Internet Officer” — I am not making that up.  Internet.  I’m guessing that title was created in 2007 at this place to show they are on the leading edge of that thing called “The World Wide Web.”  And if you’re the Chief, does that mean everybody else works on TV and print and brings you in to be the expert on that thang called the internet?  Oh man — you have no idea how quickly you will get filed in the out-of-touch bin if you’re not careful.  Obviously, you still think this is a good title.  File under really?
• I have Sirius XM in my car, and love it.  Last year, I converted my free trial into an annual subscription, and paid it upfront because they offered me a great deal.  Having had XM for years, both on prior cars and in the office, I’ve been a fan.  And, they were a client.  But over the past month I’ve received two bills in the mail, the last one saying my bill was overdue.  It pointed me to the website, which was impossible to figure out, so I called the 866 number.  Long story short, I got someone who didn’t really speak English well, who kept asking me which subscription I was talking about (he said I had 5 in the system, but 4 were closed — umm, I think that means I’m talking about the only active one), then told me I could add another radio if I wanted.  I kept telling him I wasn’t interested, and actually wanted him to make this bill go away.  He confirmed I had paid in full and should not be receiving any bills.  When I asked him why I keep getting them, he said “you shouldn’t be receiving any bills.”  I think we’re now, finally, settled, but it took 25 minutes and I have little confidence it’s cleared up.  Beyond Really.
• “Oops, I may have charged you three times.”  Ok, at least you admitted it, lady-behind-the-counter.  But how about my money back for the wrong two charges?  “Well, since you used LevelUp, I can’t credit you.  You’ll need to..” and then continued on for 5 minutes telling me everything I needed to do.  Excellent — seems as if I just got stuck with several tasks based upon someone else’s mistake.  No problem — I’ve got nothing else going on.  Umm, really?
• I received a dozen LinkedIn invitations, half of which were from people looking for jobs with spelling mistakes in their invitation, and 3 others trying to sell something.  Really?
• As I wrote in an earlier post, I spoke at Tufts University’s version of the TEDx forum.  I had a blast, and the kids who presented were amazing, as I outlined in the post.  Since I’ve been guest lecturing at a undergraduate and graduate schools in the area, including Tufts, I invariably get asked for job leads, internships, and career advice.  I’ve made it a point to help, and give out my email freely, and encourage connections via Twitter and LinkedIn.  Yesterday, I got one through Twitter, and noticed the description in the header of this individual’s Twitter page had a huge typo.  C’mon, you gotta pay closer attention — really?
• There were a half dozen “stop-and-ponder moments” as well, from the $7.01 charge at the store when I didn’t have a penny, and the refusal to just charge me $7, so I got the $0.99 back in change; to getting yelled at in Cosi because I apparently used the wrong cash register; to trying to get through to a live person on an airline, and not only getting tossed all over the place, but completely getting trapped by the multiple steps put in place to avoid allowing me to have any human interaction — when I needed a human; to getting the finger flipped at me as I drove home on the MassPike last night.  By an elderly woman.  In a Buick.  Wearing sunglasses.  In the evening.

You can’t make that up.  To all of those “a-happenings” I simply say — Really?

PS — there’s a happy ending.  I saw some great work coming out of the agency, several new business opportunities are popping, and we have a steady stream of candidates wanting to work with us vs. bigger agencies in the Boston area.  Oh, and it’s Friday afternoon, with the weekend beckoning.

(Image from Healthyguts)

Last night I had the privilege of attending, and speaking at Tufts University’s 4th Tufts Idea Exchange, their version of the TEDx program.  The room was packed with over 300 students, faculty, and a few parents.  There was a lot of energy in the auditorium, awaiting the [...]]]>

Last night I had the privilege of attending, and speaking at Tufts University’s 4th Tufts Idea Exchange, their version of the TEDx program.  The room was packed with over 300 students, faculty, and a few parents.  There was a lot of energy in the auditorium, awaiting the speakers.

The first speaker, Dr. Sujata Bhatia, is a professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Tufts, and is also a professor of Biomedical Engineering at Harvard.  She worked for 8 years at Dow Chemical, taught at the University of Delaware, and then made her way to Tufts.  Her topic was all about how Sustainable Materials should be used as Biomedical materials in developing countries around the world.  Her command of the subject was astounding, and I absolutely struggled with roughly half of the words on each slide.  Some of the pictures of the colon, eyeball, and other internal organs received the requisite groans, but her message was clear:  It’s all about biopolymers.  She even referenced the famous line from The Graduate, replacing the word “Plastics” with “Biopolymers.”  Methinks only about 10 people in the audience got the reference, as the rest, being college students, have clearly never seen the movie.

The other speakers were current students, mostly seniors.  Let’s just say these kids were amazing.  Thought-provoking, articulate, passionate, and engaging.  20-21 year olds, in front of 300 of their peers, in the bright lights, telling their story.  There is no way I had everything together when I was their age on the Tufts Campus.  These kids were incredible.

First up was Michael Grant.  Yup, mention that you’re the music director of the Beelzebubs, and you’re welcomed with screams of delight from the audience.  Clearly beloved, Michael backed up the adulation with a brilliant presentation.  Basically, he proved through music theory that our musical biases get in the way, and if we opened up our minds, we would appreciate everything — even Nickleback.  Michael was good — captivating, humble, humorous, engaging.  And by pulling apart the Justin Bieber song and playing back the pieces, he showed its connection to Radiohead, despite everybody’s inherent biases one way or the other.  Impressive.

David Schwartz, he of the perfect radio voice, spoke about design and how it designs each of us.  His slides were crisp, and fueled his story.  In fact, he clearly gets how to present on stage — his time in an improv group clearly made a difference.  It reminded me of Nancy Duarte and her brilliant storytelling skills; and he’s 21.  I so want to hire him into the agency.

Molly Wallace took to the stage with a very different message, namely that the crush of academics and internships and success at Tufts is removing the Arts from Liberal Arts.  What started with a complaint about access to music quickly moved to a very powerful and subtle perspective that Freshmen are the key to the culture.  They are the ones that if captivated will pass on the culture to the next generation.  She used several examples of events and organizations run solely by seniors with no clue where it would go next.  And she highlighted everything from poetry to writing to music getting pushed off campus, and missing out on the opportunity to create a tradition, like the music scene in the basement of a building at Columbia.  It was very well stated, with a blueprint on how to fix it.

Mary Sypek confronted the audience with a question:  “How many of you have ever been bullied, or felt verbally abused, or extremely uncomfortable in a situation?”  The entire audience raised their hands.  Then she asked how many had ever sought counseling for that situation, and roughly 20% kept their hands raised.  Then she asked how many were comfortable sharing that they sought counseling, and very few hands were raised.  Her entire premise was that counseling occurs too late — after a tricky or difficult situation.  And the coping tools needed to be introduced much earlier, when the students were kids in elementary school, so that the tools became preventative measures to anticipate difficult situations.  She painted a very clear roadmap for changing the mindset and overcoming the stigma, and shared personal stories.  It was extremely powerful.

Mark Rafferty then talked about civilization on Mars.  Man oh man, was it deep.  He shared that it will happen, but based on how humans are dealing with civilization on earth, it’s destined for failure without an incredibly planful approach.  He expertly weaved together anthropology, human behavior, science, space travel, and economics to make his case.  Super smart, focused, and passionate.

I finished up the evening with a discussion about how Brands are built or destroyed in seconds in the social media space.  I shared a couple of big brand examples, both good and bad, and then turned the attention to the students in their ultimate desire to land internships and jobs.  And I told them that while their parents are right about social media (like, don’t post those pictures on Facebook), they probably missed the message of its power — for storytelling and for networking.  And then I ended with a surprise offer — connect with Digital Influence Group via Twitter, and the best social media storytelling person will get an offer to join us in a paid internship this summer.  Based on the buzz and the questions afterwards, it seemed to go over pretty well.

Most of all?  These kids were amazing.  I’m blown away.  And proud to be a Tufts alum.

Here’s the link to the site…keep a close watch on that site, since the presentations and slides will be uploaded shortly.

Special shout-outs to Valerie Cleland and Anisha Wadhwa for their amazing leadership skills pulling this event together.