You Boys Like Mexico!

Name the movie and I’ll give you props. (Have a feeling most won’t be able to nail it.) But the line stands true this week as I prepare to head down to Guadalajara, Mexico for the Society of American Travel Writers annual conference. I’ll be speaking again this year on multimedia and will also be launching my new company Plus Ten Media. It’s going to prove to be quite the trip I’m sure, but like all things, I’ve come to realize I won’t now it’s full power for many years to come.

Creative Zen

Equipment may ultimately help the creative type succeed, but there is no equipment in the world that knows the precise moment when to click the shutter and capture art.

Colorado is on Fire: Aspens in Aspen

Few shots from this past weekend in Aspen, Colorado. True to it’s name, the town was awash in color as thousands of Aspens lit up the towering hillsides.

Think Good Journalism is Dead? You’re Wrong – Two Must-See Economic Pieces

A lot can be said about the way the press covered this year’s past economic meltdown, but all shortcomings aside a select few outlets have been publishing deep investigated pieces analyzing and deconstructing the past year’s events. Two stories in particular stick out and I would highly suggest taking the time to read and watch them.

Eight Days ~ New Yorker

Found in the September 21, 2009 issue of the New Yorker, Columbia Journalism Professor James B. Stewart, painstakingly reconstructs the eight day period from Lehman Brothers demise to the government creation of TARP funds and the brash A.I.G. government bailout. The story, just over 23 pages, is full of quotes, high-level opinions, and insider access only attained by the best journalistic research methods. Plan on taking at least a few hours to read and process this piece.

Inside the Meltdown ~ PBS Frontline

In this sure to be award winning investigative hour, Frontline breaks down and dissects Ben Bernake’s decision to let Lehman Brothers fail. The online site also has high-level analysis, added interviews, extra videos, and an interactive timeline. Plan on taking at least an hour to view the full piece and then another hour to poke around the site and experience what is sure to be some of the best online journalism out there.

Two Friends, Two Beers and Moment of Reflection

Sometimes it’s best to just stop and stare out into space soaking up the view, looking at the task ahead and remembering just how beautiful life can be.

Pic is from Joe Piccola’s wedding this past weekend in Lake Tahoe. Joe and his freshman year roommate take a moment to reflect and look ahead.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

One Book, 200,000 blinks of an eye and two minutes a word.

It was Junior year of college during an anthropology course on the narrative structure of disease that I first read The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. By the end of that semester my book was marked up with notes, thoughts, observations, literary critiques and the occasional stain from a falling tear. My teacher, a whisper of a women struggling with her own deadly disease, took no pity on our emotional struggles. She pushed and pried our emotions apart until we stripped back the literal meaning and wove into the complex narrative of a man’s free mind trapped in a worthless shell of a body.

Over the years I have picked up the book and leafed through looking at my notes, remembering the intense gut-wrenching class discussions and paralleling the metaphors with my own personal pain. I’ve even sent the book to several people who I thought would benefit from the story. Now as I pick up the book with the fear of learning my teacher may have passed away I can’t help but reflect on the intense message at hand: Just because you lose your perceived freedom doesn’t mean you have to stop living. It just means you have to change your perspective and throw everything else to hell.

When Life and Friends Collide: A Wedding Speech

Took a few minutes to speak at my good friend’s wedding this weekend. Though the speech was off the cuff, I’ve decided to write a bit of it out by memory. Obviously it’s not verbatim, but you get the idea.

Some quick context: I met Joe in college and lived with him for two years. His grandmother, Evelyn, was an awesomely senile and loving Jewish woman who loved to speak on the phone with us during our college years. She passed away last year and sadly never got to see Joe and Erin get married. We relived her life and some of our favorite stories the night before the rehearsal dinner.

The Speech
Joe and Erin, with the exception of the wonderful speeches before me, I find that wedding speeches usually fall into the same boring narrative. First there is a story: One day Joe left on the stove and almost burnt the house down. Then there is a bigger theme: It was obvious Joe couldn’t cook and he would have to find someone to marry that could. Then the lesson: Joe thank God you found Erin, now don’t forget to always do the dishes, she will love you for it.

And as much as I wanted to pull myself out of that narrative structure I just couldn’t. But what I could do was talk to you and Erin as a friend. You see guys, I’m talking to you and 75 of your closest friends and I want you to think about something. Last night while we all sat in the living room something amazing and wonderful happened. For about 35 to 45 minutes, we remembered, laughed, bonded and told the stories of your loving grandmother Evelyn. We sat there, laughing about the WalMart employee and that damn bird that almost got killed, and it was as if life stopped. It was one of those moments when a life gets boiled down to a few stories, intense laughter, and an overwhelming amount of love.

Joe and Erin I want you to do something. In this world of hyper-connectedness, Facebook, Twitter, email, and cell phones, I want you to take a moment every day and stop. Stop everything and look around. We too many times miss the small things that make our lives amazing. I know this because I do it all the time. Just look at where we are now. Sitting here next to beautiful Lake Tahoe next to a sunset most people only experience through a promotional photograph. We should take a second and soak this in. It’s a moment that will define your lives.

So as you go forward building your life, I want you to remember to improve the lives of others and strive for what Evelyn gave us: Roughly 45 minutes of joy and laughter that took a special night to tears, overwhelming happiness and a life remembered.

May God Grant You Many Years

(Pics of the groomsmen and Joe on the lake during the rehearsal dinner)

The Backyard

Went for a short hike Tuesday morning to iron out some details with a potential business partner. Like all things Colorado, we decided to skip the coffee shop and meet at 5 a.m. instead. Our destination was nothing more than a short hike through the Rockies. Needless to say the chat was successful on multiple levels.

Shots are from Indian Peaks. Enjoy.

Social Media vs. Traditional Media: The Wrong Argument

After reading a well thought out post on assessing ROI in a social media world, I responded with a comment. To see the original post go here. I have pasted in my comment below, which I think stands for itself.

Great post Jason, I can’t agree more with the Kool-Aid references. From a young professionals standpoint who grew up with both traditional marketing and new media marketing I can’t help but get frustrated with a majority of the conversation today about social media and how businesses are being told to pick “one or the other.”

Social media in my opinion is a tool, albeit a very powerful tool, but nevertheless a tool within a marketer’s toolbox. Too many times I feel we forget marketing is a 360-degree experience. Customers can be anywhere today – TV, print, online, mobile – and it is a companies job to effectively target and reach their selected customers through each of these mediums utilizing a variety of distribution methods.

When I explain marketing to potential clients I draw a circle and put their brand in the middle. Each part of the circle represents a different part of the pie, and in order to reach each section the company has to push their message out in that direction. Media once it reaches the edge can then flow in a circular pattern – say someone retweets and blogs about a message they saw in print and suddenly customers are reached across the circle – but it’s a complex web that must be built up over time and with the understanding that there is no one simple one answer.

Many times I find companies look at social media as a powerful tool, but then opt to place an Intern or entry-level employee at the helm. A senior executive might oversee the strategy, but the lack of economic investment means the “saving grace” of the companies marketing program is left up to an employee with potentially little allegiance. This makes me wonder: just what value do you really see in this? When I speak to companies I make it a point to not paint a social media vs. traditional media picture, but rather one that involves everyone in a form considered non-traditional.

The other large piece of the puzzle, and one that I consider equally if not more important, is the rise of content creation and understanding how content can be utilized in multiple mediums for the same purpose, but that I’m afraid is another topic.

Risk, Failure, and Success

Read them. Print them. Post them where you can see them.

It’s too easy to forget in this hyper-connected world, where celebrities’ reputations die in seconds and commentators spew loud opinions from their talking heads in pressed suits, that the world isn’t about reaching perfection, but about striving to be better. Those who push boundaries, take risk, help others, and most importantly leave nothing on the table are the ones who lay down at night and smile. They might be broke, out of a job, at a loss for direction, but they are the innovators, the creators, and the brave few who challenge the impossible and try try again.

• “If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative.” – Woody Allen
• The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become. – Charles Dubois
• Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it. – Ella Williams
• A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing. – George Bernard Shaw
• Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain