Looking for Input!

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We are currently running on online survey to better understand the needs and desires of collectors with regards to online software for managing collections. The survey is very short and takes no more than a couple of minutes. We are trying to get as much feedback as we can in a relatively short period of time. Any assistance that people give would be appreciated.

One important note: MOST PEOPLE are collectors even if they don’t classify themselves as such. If you have Art, Comics, Sports Equipment, Electronics, or anything else that you value and buy/sell/or trade for then you are a collector. We’re interested in your feedback as well.

To take the survey Click Here. The survey is hosted by Zoomerang, a leading provider of online survey tools.

Thanks for your assistance, feel free to pass the link on to others as well: http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB226HU69JRKM

Getting old but still feeling young

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This week I turned the ripe old age of 46. That’s an age that older, middle aged people get to, not me. I’m still feeling like I am still in college (which, incidentally, I am for another 3 weeks!). I’ve been told that 40 is the new 20 (probably a rumor started by 40 year olds that control the media…).

There is a strange phenomenon that the generations ARE getting closer together in interests, lifestyles, and even politics. This presents some huge challenges – I fight with my kids over CDs, iTune downloads, and computer time.

There are also huge benefits – we usually agree on movies, how to spend weekends, and enjoy our time together.

I have had a very interesting 46 years. Can’t wait to see what the next 46 years look like!

It’s Lonely on the Edge

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I was observing my 12 year old daughter as she was going through the tribulations of a middle school student council election this week and realized an important thing about leadership. It’s challenging when you are doing something that is groundbreaking and public and you don’t have peers that you can talk to about the ‘thing’.

This was brought home when my daughter was having challenges with the competitive part of campaigning and was getting down. This was a case where the people that were experiencing this were three – her and her two challengers, yet the whole school was watching what was going on in the campaign between them. Very public yet a very private experience.

As her energy was starting to wear down from the negativity her sister called her and gave her a pep talk. The talk went along the lines of – ‘you’re doing great, this is normal, and you are taking the high road and learning from the experience, keep going’. This little talk from someone that she respects seems to have done wonders for her efforts and psyche and she is back in the fight.

How often does this parallel happen in the workplace and how often do we not pay attention to the needs and challenges of those that are trying to ‘push the edge’. Often people believe that those in leadership positions or on leading, tough projects are strong enough to do it on their own. It’s important to realize that a true leader (including leaders that aren’t managers) remembers to pay attention to those working at the edge and reinforce their efforts. It’s even more true when those efforts are groundbreaking, public, and difficult to do.

Starting to realize a dream

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Got to school today (Kellogg School of Management) and the office had our graduation announcements ready for us. While I intellectually know that graduation is near, it wasn’t real to me until I saw the announcements. To get these from the school office underscored the point that we are close to the end.

I started looking at Kellogg in the early 90s and I was actually accepted into the Kellogg TMP MBA Program for the 1994 class and ended up not going because I took a position with Dell in ’94. I never lost the ‘dream’ to go to school there and applied for the MBA program in 2005. On June 9th, I’ll walk across the stage and get my graduate degree from one of the top Executive MBA universities in the entire world.

Dreams are important and they aren’t bound by the confines of time. While you may need to delay the pursuit of the dream you should never give up on them. I’m graduating at 46 years old. Never too late. The term ‘don’t give up on your dreams’ is NOT a cliche!

American Venture Magazine on iTaggit

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iTaggit, The Place for Every Thing, was covered in the May issue of American Venture Magazine. The author did a pretty good job of understanding what iTaggit is all about. Read it and pass it along!

iTaggit in the New York Times!

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The New York Times covered online collecting in their Monday edition last week and highlighted iTaggit as one of three collecting websites. The article was very good and pointed out that iTaggit is bridging the gap of providing tools for deep collectors.

The article also covers two other sites; zebo.com and mythings.com. Zebo is actually a site for young people to share and shop together. mythings.com is based off of a business that has been around for several years which had listings of stolen items. Mythings’ stated goal is very different from iTaggit’s but they are definitely in our competitive set.

Take a peek at the article! The article is two pages and most of the iTaggit coverage is on the second page. Not bad for a young company!

To go to iTaggit go to http://www.itaggit.com and check us out.

Economics of sports marketing

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One of my lives is as the Chief Marketing Officer for an Arena Football team. I started in this role after some friends convinced me to invest in the team and become a minority owner. Sports marketing has been something that I had been aware of but didn’t really have deep knowledge of and this opportunity allowed me to get some experience in it. After shadowing the marketing people and Front Office GM of the team last year, and spending time with the sales and marketing heads at the Chicago Rush and LA Avengers offices, I agreed to step in as acting CMO beginning last June.

Here’s what I’ve learned about sports marketing so far – and while it is on a much smaller scale for an emerging team or league – the economics are still the same:

1) a team has to have local relevance and has to get fans interest. There needs to be people interested in seeing the team, getting updates via news and media, and interest in connecting with other fans. Whether it’s from great plays, good season record, exciting and interesting athletes, or drama;
2) a team has to have an exciting game ops program to make people want to come to see a game – feet to the seat are important;
3) based on interest from fans and attendance to games, building good partnerships and sponsorships from the community are critical;
4) revenue sharing partnerships round out the model – from TV revenue to stadium/arena revenue to licensing deals – all of these are important and all are based on #1 and #2.

The bottom line is this – a team has to put an exciting product on the field, fans have to care, and the business and media community have to respond. If any of those breakdown a sports team has some real business challenges. At least that’s what I’ve learned so far.

Glad April’s over…

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One of the things that I frequently deal with is the overpersonalization of issues. I know that I’m not alone in this. It’s very easy when things go awry to look at each issue as a ‘me’ thing such as ‘why did this happen to me’ or ‘what did I do to make this happen’. Another manifestation of this is the proverbial luck or karma thought – ‘are the moons in some weird pattern’ or ‘who did I wrong that cursed me’.

I have been learning that this overpersonalization is a real challenge that can lead to bad reactions and has to be dealt with. Things Happen. Good things happen and bad things happen. The trick is in how you deal with them, how fast you address them, and making sure that the reaction to the event is proportionate to the impact/need. Separating the ‘me’ from the response (the world DOESN’T revolve around you) is important to helping make good decisions.

This doesn’t take away from the fact that issues CAN have a personal impact. Some things are very personal and painful such as a family member getting sick, a valued employee quits, etc. and some are not personal at all such as a new competitor coming into the market, a customer issue, your favorite sports team losing a game.

Recognizing the personal reaction and separating it from the responding action is important to making sure that rational decisions are being made. It’s a really difficult thing to do and to learn but it’s critical in a leader. I hope that I’m making strides in this area.

The challenges of focus

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Today was one of those days that I really dislike. I woke up at 5AM with a horrible pit in my stomach – the one that usually warns me that I either a) forgot to do something really critical, or b) had something ominous about to happen.

In the past I used to obsess about that feeling and would get so distracted that my day would go to hell. The problem with obsessing is that every little problem DOES become the ominous thing that I worried about. The stress begat more stress until I really did create or have a problem. Over time I’ve come to realize that the feeling is just the manifestation of being over-extended and it’s my brain and my body telling me that I’ve got too many balls in the air. I’ve fairly recently learned a little trick that I’ve used to help me get through days like today and, as I write this at 6:30PM, it’s proven to work once again.

I learned this trick from Jack Groeppel, who is the author of a great book, The Corporate Athlete, at a class he taught at Kellogg School of Management. What Jack pointed out was that humans are not really true ‘multitaskers’ and that we need to focus on doing one thing really well at a time.

What I do to get through days and feelings like today is that I concentrate on a single task at a time and push myself to fully concentrate on that task until it’s done and I move to the next one. When I get a phone call I turn away from the computer and focus on the call. When I’m working on a mail I focus on the mail and don’t get on the phone or respond to other mails that come up. What this does is reset me to focus AND it actually makes the tasks that I’m doing go better. With the single exception today that I forgot my computer on my desk when I left for the airport I had an extremely productive and positive day and the funk went away.

It’s not enough to casually say that you want to focus on a task at a time, to make this trick work you have to push yourself to concentrate on the task and ignore everything else. For me this removes the obsessive behaviors and allows me to stop worrying. It’s proven to be a fantastic trick and I give kudos to Jack for his great class!

Some good business tools that I’ve found

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There are two books that I would highly recommend for people looking to develop sharper business skills. One is a book on interpersonal relationships (targeted at business styles) and the other is on marketing and branding.

The first, Alpha Male Syndrome, by Kate Ludeman and Eddie Erlander, is an excellent book. A description of the book reads, “In Alpha Male Syndrome, Kate Ludeman and Eddie Erlandson build on their Harvard Business Review article “Coaching the Alpha Male”—sounding a wake-up call to all alphas and the companies they work for. The authors show alphas how to leverage their unique strengths while confronting their destructive “flip side risks”….”

Additionally, the authors offer a free online assessment to measure your Alpha Traits. It’s worth it just to take the test. The instant feedback is very powerful and will provide quick insights that you may find amazing.

The second treasure is Duh! Marketing which is the brainchild of Liz Goodgold. She has books and CDs that are very helpful but one of the really neat things that Liz has is the monthly DUH! Award emails where she details information on good marketing campaigns and dumb marketing campaigns. They are funny and informative and, most importantly, free.

Check both of these tools out, I think that you’ll like them.