My apologies in advance to any of my associates that might be offended by this post. I’ll be ripping on inefficient, unproductive, and poor conduct during business meetings. Here goes:

Today I found myself getting called into a meeting on very short notice. About an hour’s notice. First off, this tells me from the start that the meeting was a last minute thing and probably wasn’t planned very well. Sure enough, when I arrived (albeit a bit late) there was of course no agenda or structure, and we were still waiting on several other individuals to arrive.

As if that weren’t bad enough, cell phones were not turned off and people were actually answering phones, thus interrupting the meeting. But the real kicker? One of the salesmen pitching demo design services actually got up during the pitch citing that they “had to take this call.” I couldn’t believe it. Being on the sales end many times in my career, this was very unprofessional and quite shocking. Though I’m not on the decision team to select the service, if I were, this design group would in no way win my business.

Now I myself don’t posses the best meeting etiquette. I tend to have my laptop out so I can “work” during an inefficient meeting. But I honestly would not be opposed to turning off all electronics and resorting to my trusty pen and paper portfolio that I’m notoriously known for using during client meetings. So please turn off your cell phones during a meeting. Contrary to what you might think, you’re not that important. Can you hear me now?

My wife Lindsey has become quite the chef. As a preface, she used to be somewhat of a finicky eater (and still is at times), but now seems to experiment with a variety of recipes. She takes risks now with her meals and I for one truly appreciate it. Tonight she made Shepherd’s Pie which is a casserole of sorts that contains ground beef, green beans, tomato soup, mashed potatoes and corn topped with cheddar cheese and slow cooked in a crock pot. It was delicious.

So what do new recipes and Shepherd’s Pie have to do with anything? The point is that trying new things and taking risks is a great way to learn and progress in this life, be it personally, professionally, or in what you eat. So don’t be afraid to try something new.

When’s the last time you took a risk and were happy with the outcome?

Well, the latest issue of Business 2.0 is in, and as always serves up the best business, entrepreneurship articles around. Best one from the recent issue? The business of monetizing a microchunk, or in otherwords, content snippits of a whole. Here’s how it works:

1. “Microchunk it: Reduce entertainment to its simplest discrete form, be it a blog post, a music track, or a skit.”
2. “Free it: Let people download, view, read or listen without charge.”
3. “Share it: Let consumers subscribe to content through RSS- and podcast-style feeds so they can enjoy it wherever and whenever they like.”
4. “Moneymake it: Put ads [next to] and tracking systems into the digital content itself.”

This definitely works for blogs and the few small sites that I run. In the web 2.0 world, convenience will be the selling point, not the content.

Jason Kottke, who is somewhat of a celebrity blogger, decided to become a full-time blogger during the 2005 calendar year as a “social experiment.” The idea would be that he solely solicited contributions from readers for his principle livelihood while bloggin. The site has no advertising. So what did he rake in last year? What seemed like an average of about 1-2 posts per week on his site, Mr. Kottke received $39,900 from about 1450 contributors, or micropatrons. 99.9% of that was received in his 3-week fund drive last February. That’s an average of a little over $27/contributor.

The irony in all this is that his fund raising announcement last year really put his site on the map and opened up a window of opportunities for him. He is now writing a book and is actively performing speaking engagements around the country. He is looked upon by many as the de-facto blogger. $40k was only the start.

What’s the big deal? It is a reminder to me of just how fascinating the internet has made the economics of monetization. My grandma still can’t believe I work from home.

Not only does Bruce Judson, Author of Go It Alone! understand how to use free online content to increase his exposure and success, he also has some good thoughts on starting a business. From the book: “Today, the conventional wisdom about how to start a substantial business is just plain wrong. Now, you don’t need to raise a lot of money first, you don’t need a team of employees, and you don’t need limitless financial resources.”

I started my first company, Griffio, almost three years ago with $100. I put in $50 and my partner put in $50. We purchased a crappy hosting plan, bought griffio.com, built our site, and worked our tails off to land new business which we did some two months after starting. Though Griffio is not huge today, that initial $100 combined with a lot of time spent has made for an exponential return on investment. Entrepreneurship has made work my passion and a part of my life rather than something I do. It’s good to like going into work on Monday.

Blogging on blogging seems so passe. Still, I can’t believe the numerous benefits that blogging has had on my life in the past year. It seems as if posting my personal thoughts and ideas onto the Information Super Highway has been the sole provider of new opportunities for me. Blogging has landed me new clients, opened up new business ventures, helped me find new developers, landed me new jobs, increased my network, discovered new friends, helped me better connect with family and friends, helped me become a better writer, and increased my level of learning. Someday, I’d like to send a fat check to the person credited for inventing the weblog. Either that or give him big hug, lovecat style.

So what good fortunes have blogs brought into your life?

Regardless of your thoughts on the company that is trying to index everything in the world to place relevant ads next to them, Google makes some fine web products. I’ve recently switched from the much beloved Microsoft Outlook to Gmail after five years of using the former product for my email, contacts, and calendaring. Here’s how I made the switch:

Imports. I’ve imported all my Outlook contacts into Google. Done. Next, I’ve linked my (9) email accounts to be able to send from Gmail. I’ve also forwarded all my accounts to one consolidated gmail account that makes the whole process that much easier. I created a ton of labels and filters to keep my inbox organized with the several projects I have going on. Very nice.

That seems easy enough, but what about calendaring? Well, I use a little program called ShootMeAnEmail for all my appointments, alerts, and to-do’s. My inbox is like my multi-list. It’s for mail, communication, appointments, and to-do lists. If something is in my default inbox, it’s priority. The best thing about my full switch to Gmail, is that I’m not tied to one computer and don’t have to mess with syncing. Now if I can only find an online service for my many webpage bookmarks…

Also, looks like Google will integrate Google Talk with voicemail into Gmail too. Add another to list, and look out for a world take over.

My sister just sent me a link to this cool website called Instructables that features a user generated database of how-to’s. From the site: “Instructables is a step-by-step collaboration system that helps you record and share your projects with a mixture of images, text, ingredient lists, CAD files, and more. We hope to make documentation simple and fast. Show your colleagues how to operate a machine, show your friends how to build a kayak, show the world how to make cool stuff. “

This index is still a bit small, so I guess I’ll submit how to become extremely rich and good looking with respective images.

I’m a big fan of the “Blank” for Dummies books. They are entertaining and written by prominent authors on a wide variety of subjects. Well today in church I was citing a recent fact I learned from one of the books, and my source sounded something like this: “So according to Dummies, this statistic is true.”

The room exploded in laughter in response to my “source.” Regardless of the book’s credibility, the name will always leave the reference sounding a little under qualified. The point of this post? Use discretion when citing the excellent Dummy books.

If you need good stock photography, I would always recommend iStockPhoto, Stock Exchange, or Flickr. Follow the link for a full, comprehensive list for all your photo needs.

From the article: “Based on information found buried deep within the javascript source, we can start to see the bigger picture for GMail… Their next big move will likely be GMail for domains Â? a powerful way for anybody who owns a domain to utilize GMail as a mail server, not just a client. Yahoo has their own small business mail product which does precisely this, and now evidence suggests Google is planning the same.”

Although I currently run several accounts through my Gmail, this isdefiantlyy a big plus. Gmail has done withconversationss what email should have originally been.

I’m constantly amazed by the quality of applicable posts over at Life Hacker. Today, the site has posted two excellent tools: the first is a FireFox extension that let’s you highlight any name on a web page and right click to see Linked In, Wikipedia, and more search results. Very useful. The second is an application that let’s you email files up to one gig to any person. Always needed that!

I’m a sucker for good photography. I had no idea just how beautiful China was until viewing the sourced photos. From the article: “Few people in the Western world know about the hidden beauty of China. Well….. of course it helps to have an ace photographer who can capture this land of enchantment as no other has. But these are some truly inspiring photos.”

From the directory of Napoleon Dynamite… comes Nacho Libre starring Jack Black. Follow the link for the new trailer.

I’ve always wanted to post what books have helped define myself as an entrepreneur, have provided valuable business advice that fits my management style, or just like the way they are written. I heretofore present Smooth Harold’s current booklist of suggested reading in no particular order:

• Don’t Make Me Think – Easy read on web usability and why it matters.
• Million Dollar Consulting – The author is a little arrogant at times, but the book is filled with best business practices that are applicable and that have worked for me in the services business.
• The McKinsey Way – Easy read on great presentation, recommendation, and delivering message skills.
• Pele, My Life and the Beautiful Game – Entertaining insight into the worlds greatest “footy” player.
• You Cannot Be Serious – best line from the book: “Always move forward.”
• Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game – calculating ROI in both baseball and the business world.
• Love Is The Killer App – Networking. It’s all about freely giving knowledge and service.
• Building the IT Consulting Practice – Good read on IT service firms.
• Mafia to Mormon – Very entertaining read on sacrifice, change, and overcoming challenges.
• Business 2.0 – Okay, not a book, but arguably the best business magazine in print, straight out of Silicon Valley. I can’t use the terms “reading” and “business” in the same sentence without this publication popping up in my evoked set.

Steve Wozniak regarding Ronald Gerald Wayne, Apple Computer’s forgotten “third founder”: “Ron Wayne was a third partner for the Apple I ‘side’ business we started. Steve had 45%, I had 45%, and Ron had 10%. He wrote manuals and could decide things if Steve and I differed. He drew a picture of Newton under an Apple tree that we used on our first tiny manual. He also worked on the manual and wrote our partnership agreement.

When Steve worked out 30 days credit on parts like chips, and we were able to build and deliver Apple I’s and get paid in that 30 days, it was the start of things. But Ron was worried that some day we wouldn’t get paid and would owe thousands of dollars on the parts. Steve and I had no money and Ron had gold hidden in his mattress (or some such thing) and they’d try to get it from him. So he sold out for $300 or $800 or some such amount.”

Apple vs. Microsoft [A History]

Last I checked, Mario was in the plumbing, not flooring business. Follow the link for more rip-offs.

Business 2.0 has a great read on why it doesn’t matter if you’re not the first mover in an industry. Most convincing evidence from the article: “Some of the biggest successes in business are new takes on old ideas.

• 1973 – FEDERAL EXPRESS swipes the jet idea from DHL and trumps UPS by starting overnight deliveries in the United States.
• 1981 – IBM launches its PC, made from off-the-shelf parts and an OS from Bill Gates, to beat Apple and Atari.
• 1990 – TARGET opens its first Greatland, jumping on the megastore trend that worked so well for Kmart and Wal-Mart.
• 2000 – GOOGLE begins to capitalize on paid search with AdWords, now a $6 billion moneymaker–but Overture was there first, in 1998.”

A perspective client of mine is convinced they should rush the software development of their product at the expense of quality in favor of being the first mover. The above data proves my recommendation that “it doesn’t matter if the product isn’t usable.”

See Also: Uncommonly Common

A List Apart has a great read on design methodologies for website homepages. From the article: “Designing for good user experience is about communicating clearly, setting expectations early, and then delivering what you’ve promised. Think of your home page as the opening verse of a song. All you have to do is make sure you stay in tune throughout the user’?s entire listening experience.”

Here’s a taste if you haven’t already…

I have been meaning to post on this for quite sometime. I got a new job! We’ll, sorta. I’ll still be working on Griffio (my baby), but I’ve started work with a local business incubator dubbed Provo Labs coming in as a web strategist (or Assistant Janitor maybe, I’m not sure). I’ll be heading up various projects including online marketing and distribution for the group’s several start-up companies, mainly through the ever so popular blogosphere, as well as building good ole fashioned websites.

The new company was founded by Paul Allen. Not Bill Gate’s sidekick but a famed Utah entrepreneur that also co-founded Myfamily.com back in the day. The team I work with is top-notch, and I’m very excited to help out where I can. The first project I’ve been working on is a beta company dubbed Blastyx (pictured). All I can say is that it’s some of the freshest video production hitting “cyberspace” right now. Very cool stuff, and we’re excited to get it off the ground.

I’m also in talks to have a part of Griffio acquired by the incubator. It will allow me to take my growing little company to places it’s never been. Bigger. Faster. Harder. Stronger. I will remain “chief” something as we hope to become Utah’s premier Web 2.0 company, developing sites that Mr. Tim Berners-Lee originally intended for when the web was first created back in ’95. We’re already off to a great start leveraging solid site markup, fresh scripting (AJAX), community content, and proven web usability.

To slightly paraphrase the renowned Sir Isaac Newton (1642-–1727), if I get anywhere in life, it will be by “standing upon the shoulders of giants.” Many thanks to my wife, family, friends, former business partner Robert, the clients that put their trust in me, teachers, and anyone else that has supported and/or challenged me.

Believe it son. Though Apple doesn’t want this to happen, it was bound to now that the company switched to the same technology PC’s have used for years. I’ll opt for running windows, though, on the superiorly engineered PowerBooks.

Though mostly a buzz word rather than entirely new web technology, Web 2.0 is a much more personable place to “surf.” Wikipedia writes: “The term ‘Web 2.0’ refers to what some people see as a second phase of development of the World Wide Web, including its architecture and its applications… Many recently developed concepts and technologies are seen as contributing to Web 2.0, including weblogs, linklogs, podcasts, RSS feeds and other forms of many to many publishing; social software, web APIs, web standards, online web services, Ajax, and others.”

It’s exciting to be a part of the continued development of the web. My team is currently working with a large majority of the above listed technologies, and I can already see the positive results it’s had on our clients sites, software, and systems.

In short, Web 2.0 is like hearing “You’ve got mail!” all over again for the first time. Bad analogy, but hopefully you get the gist.

Upon logging into my online publishing system for my freelance writing gig at Weblogs Inc, the following stats regarding my writing appeared.

Your Stats:
You have written 61,942 words on 428 posts.

I never thought of writing 62,000 words, let alone having them read (or at least looked at) by the 250,000 daily visitors that Joystiq receives. Though I’m the most under qualified blogger on our team, I thought that was a pretty good start towards becoming the writer that I hope to be someday.

For those who know me, I’m always up for creating a new concoction in the kitchen. Well this time, I give to you the delicious home-made honey almond (pictured above). Lindsey bought this huge bag of almonds from Costco, and I’ve been steadily downing them covered with tasty honey over the past couple of weeks. They’re gone now.

Mmmmm. Delicious honey almonds…

“Web designers have as little as 50 milliseconds to capture the interest of potential customers, according a new report by researchers at Carleton University. Through the halo effect, first impressions can influence subsequent judgments of website credibility and buying decisions.”

There you have it.

Ad Age looks into the true meaning of the word blogger. From the article: “There is no such thing as a blogger. Blogging is just writing — writing using a particularly efficient type of publishing technology. Even though I tend to first use Microsoft Word on the way to being published, I am not, say, a Worder or Wordder.”

I too have asked myself if I’m a blogger or a writer. For some reason I esteem the term writer with a higher regard, mostly because I think a writer reverts to more research, thesis checking, etc. Over the past year I have written over 1,100 articles or posts for a variety of sites. Some are full length editorials while others are more straight news aggregation with a quick comment on the side.

In a way I do consider the terms blogger and writer to be different. When I’m writing an editorial piece, I’d hope to consider myself a writer, at lest an amateur one. When I’m posting an news topic while throwing my two cents in, I would consider that an act of blogging. As for this post, you be the judge…

Sunrise over Bagan.

Regarding the human desire for distinction, Martin Luther King Jr said: “And so Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important—wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s a new definition of greatness.

And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.”

Lindsey and I periodically like to go to Borders or Barns & Noble for hot chocolate, cheesecake, and free reading. She opts for the celebrity trash mags while yours truly hits the business and game periodicals. It’s nice to get away now and then, and for some reason we both enjoy being around strangers in public.

Well last Friday we went to Borders. About an hour into our free reading, and two cups of the best hot chocolate later, a one-man band started setting up shop in the corner of the lounge. “Okay,” I thought, thinking it would be cool if he sounded like Iron & Wine, but he didn’t. No offense to the dude playing, but bands and bookstores don’t seem to have the same target audience. Rarely do they mesh well. No one in the lounge came to listen to music, and a band usually appreciates if the audience is digging their sound.

So are bands and bookstore/coffee shop affiliations just tradition, or does the shop and musician both benefit from the relationship? I know Lindsey and I left early cause we couldn’t get the peace we sought after with a band playing in front of us.

Digg vs. Slashdot (or, traffic vs. influence)

In comparing traffic generation between the year-old Digg community with the trusted Slashdot one, Kottke.org writes: “There’s been lots of talk on the web lately about Digg being the new Slashdot. Two months ago, a Digg reader noted that according to Alexa, Digg’s traffic was catching up to that of Slashdot, even though Slashdot has been around for several years and Digg is just over a year old. The brash newcomer vs. the reigning champ, an intriguing matchup.”

Great insight into link building trends. Highly recommended for web geeks like myself (anyone..?)

I’ve always wanted to read How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie, well now I might not have to. Notes of Intelligence has put together both a simple summary (5 min to read) and comprehensive summary (15 min to read) of the book’s core ideas.

Highly recommended.

Not only is he on Technorati’s 100 most popular blogs ranking 22nd, Jason Kottke is apparently a model for Defunker Tees (pictured left). They guy is all over the place despite averaging only a few posts a week to his blog and making a livelihood off contributing readers.

Welcome to 2006.

As if professional sports weren’t bad enough, tennis went out and bought instant replay. Starting this year, the game will have a challenge system and ready to use instant reply that will only make tennis players that much more snoby. From the article: “Oh, there will be some technical glitches. And no one will grasp the challenge system, which bears similarities to the NFL’s model of contesting officials’ calls, for the first few months. But it sure beats the alternative.”

What alternative is that? Leaving human error in an imperfect game that makes it more personable, exciting, and keeps it just a game. Heaven forbid, we still have human error and mistakes in this world.

Another reason why instant-replay-free baseball is still the best (minus the roids, of course).

My former partner and still great friend Robert Bradford posted one of the best articles I’ve read in a very long time. He writes: “I have lots of opportunity and lots of choices. Some are harder to make than others–especially when it’s deciding between two good things. But I’m grateful to have options.”

Very inspiring read on options, and I look forward to many more posts of this caliber from you bobby.

Our DVD player died a couple of weeks ago. It’s still dead. We’ve had it for right about two years courtesy of my little sister Sara as a Christmas gift. She’s been a good one, but we really need it to work for our Seinfeld DVD fix and Baby Einstein DVD’s that Sadie’s Nanna bought her for Christmas. That’s where Walmart comes in.

Here’s to the next two, hopefully 4-5 years of “divida” madness.

During the Christmas break, I was driving behind what was obviously a plumbing service truck. On the back of the vehicle read the following:

“We’re number 1 in the number 2 business.”

Now I’m sure there are a thousand plumbers with this tagline, and I’m not one for clever slogans, but If I were a plumber, that would be my motto. I couldn’t help but laugh.

It’s been a really great year. Learned lots, had a baby, and grew in my marriage with the wife. It’s been almost two weeks since a Smooth Harold update, but I’ll be posting a year in review in the coming days citing the best of the site along with my favorite posts.

Hope all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The King Kong story hasn’t aged well. It was originally released in 1933, and it shows. The film has very little dialog, and the story seems as primitive as the movie’s protagonist. Director Peter Jackson is ambitious and does a fine job with the presentation, albeit a couple of hours too long, but he just didn’t have a story to work with. Shouldn’t the story be the foundation of a good movie? That being the case, it’s hard to score the production on any type of scale. “IN” for incomplete would better suite it. Jack Black did pull off a very convincing and greedy producer though.

Best part of the movie: Watching my little daughter’s eyes follow the big screen and sit quietly for mommy and daddy during the whole 3.5 hour ordeal. What a little trooper (she’s only 2.5 months old).

Bloggers are a daring bunch. Many can’t decide whether they host a non-profit or for-profit website, using both strategies in an effort to maximize their income. Problem is, by using both strategies simultaneously, they are more likely hurting their take-home.

For example, many bloggers place ads on their website. This is an obvious for-profit strategy that works well given high site traffic. But many of those same sites also solicit donations or contributions via PayPal for the sole purposes of “investing directly back into the site for hosting and maintenance purposes.” Wait a minute. You mean you can use your ad revenue to do that and then subtract your costs from revenue to get your profit? That’s like Google making money off their ads but still asking people for donations to help with their costs.

Here’s an idea bloggers, pick one. Either go the kottke.org route and ask for donations only (non-profit), or go the ad route (for-profit) and make money that way. It doesn’t work both ways, and you’re only fooling yourself if you believe individuals can’t read between the lines.

I got sick late yesterday afternoon. It’s either a really bad cold or a mild flu. Regardless, I’m not feeling on top of my game, but I’m thankful for the human body principally the whole fever bit.

A fever is the body’s reaction to disease or infection. It is a self defense mechanism. The body raises its internal body heat in an effort to kill off the infection. It obviously can get dangerous when reaching high levels, but usually the fever will break.

Mine broke early this morning at about 5am. Other than waking up soaked in sweat, I felt extremely better. I have no idea why a fever finally decides to “break” or if it’s just a wives tale, but I’m grateful for the human body and its inherent defense mechanisms. Now back to sleep…

The mullet: “All business in front, nothing but a party in the back.”

(Source: VH1 – I love the 80’s)

Sao Paulo, Brazil is ginormous. Though it’s ranked second in population only to Seol, Korea from the world’s largest cities rankings, I’m convinced it has the most number of skyscrapers. They may not be the biggest but they go on forever.

If that isn’t convincing enough, New York City is ranked as the largest metropolitan area in the world with just over 20 million people. Having been to both New York and Sao Paulo, the former looks tiny in comparison to the latter. This is mostly due to Sao Paulo’s lack of distant suburbs and its compressed nature. The city redefines the word vast, and is truly a sight to see.

CMO Magazine has a nice introduction to anyone new to search engine optimization (SEO) . All-in-all, the article does a good of explaining the basics. Juan Perez writes: “SEO is the attempt to modify something about your website to improve the quality of your organic or algorithmic rankings at the big search engines.”

If I may add my two cents, SEO has nothing to do with meta tags, link building, or even pay-per-click advertising. In short, it’s coding your website in a manner than computers can understand and better archive your site content for searching.

(Source: CMO)

From the article: “According to circulation figures, newspaper subscriptions are declining. Logically, the Web gets much of the blame. However, a closer look indicates that this is part of a twenty-year trend – quite a bit longer than the average person has had easy Internet access. Some industry analysts believe the real culprit (or at least the one that started it all) is twenty-four hour cable news. Others say changes in the rules governing telemarketing (the means by which major papers gained up to 65 percent of their home delivery subscribers in the past) have had the greatest impact of all.”

Lindsey and I get nearly all our news via RSS feeds and an occasional website. How has the internet changed your news and do you think it’s killing newspapers, or changing them?

(Source: WXP news)

Two of my very talented sisters, Summer and Sara, met/hugged Will Smith backstage at his concert in Atlanta last night. Strike up another Snow Family celebrity citing. For the full story including dialogs, follow the jump.

Summer meets the Prince of Bel Aire

(via Busy Nothings)

You’ve heard my rant on so-called disruptive technology, but that’s not the last of bad business cliches and buzz words to wow venture capitalists. Smithsonian Magazine writes: “Business people have a lot to learn from the animal world. But there are at least two problems here: one is that they trot out the same tired analogies over and over. Their companies spend millions developing iconic logos and otherwise polishing the corporate image, and then they go around prattling about lions, foxes and sharks.”

What bad business cliches make you roll your eyes?

(Source: Smithsonian Magazine)