blah blah meow meow

Separated at birth!

Tue, 06 May 2008 20:15:12 -0400

Separated at birth!

Um...

Mon, 05 May 2008 12:53:07 -0400

When did confessionizer become the jumbotron of the online world?

confessionizer:

Dear Lia,
You are so beautiful. It scares me.

Beautiful Sunday.

Sun, 04 May 2008 17:24:00 -0400

Today it is amazing in NYC - I took a long stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge with the crew and then came home to do a little work before going to grab some food with Jason.

Casey has been on my mind more lately as she is dealing with the stress of choosing a clinical trial. She is one of the bravest people I know, constantly she amazes me with her ability to keep looking sarcoma in the face and staring it down. We chatted and I shared a video and quote with her and thought I would share with you:

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things. Because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” Walt Disney

Don’t lose that child-like wonder. I daily have to remind myself it isn’t where I want to be it is how I am getting there.

Obvious barriers in others.

Sat, 03 May 2008 12:36:00 -0400

A funny thing happened last night- after getting home and taking care of a few things I got a phone call in the middle of the night from an ex. Now this ex is one where when you break-up there is a lot of respect and admiration (not one where the other person is supposed to cease existing), one of those relationships where the timing just wasn’t right and was exactly where it needed to be at that time in my life.

That last line is the key to this post. There is a time and place for everyone and everything. We chatted for about 15 minutes, he was just calling to say hi and see how I was- I was happy to hear how his life is going and the terrific career and relationship he has. It was a touch base call- when people shift your life profoundly you have a bond with them for eternity. There is nothing relationship oriented or sexual about it, it is just a fondness or tie that never dissipates.

Somewhere in the conversation he briefly mentioned another ex (whom we both know) and that piece of the conversation made me sad. Now immediately you can think it is sadness due to feelings for the other ex but no, it is sadness that the other ex (as I will now refer to him) has not yet transcended a place in his life I thought he would pass in his mid-twenties and hearing about it makes me sad.

See when you break up with someone that you go out with for a while you want, no matter what, to believe there is some respect and admiration for what you once had. Not in a “God, I hope we get back together” way, but in that “Man, what we had at that time was great for my growth. I walked away with a fondness for that person”. When you hear that your ex still crafts stories and scenarios about you- well it just makes me sad. Get over it. It’s over (and has been for a number of years).

It also leads me to believe that the person years later who continues to create things in their head is still the same person that they were years ago, and that makes me sad.

My passion in life is to facilitate growth in others and see people expand beyond their limits- you can see this in everything I do whether it is my career, relationships, friendships, or family- it is my calling. So when someone you once cared about has shown little to no growth or development in self-assurance or the ability to be “straight” about things, well that just makes me feel bad that they got nothing and selfishly happy it is no longer my issue, all at the same time. See, it is easier to take the road of them vs. you, it is easier to resist growth and keep what you think is true. On the other side of my beliefs and my walls is the truly defining moments of my life and I am grateful each day that I will never stop questioning what I think is “true” or what I hold onto with conviction.

It is in these moments that I can choose who Tim Allen is- Vice President of a Fortune 500 company or Tim Allen, human, explorer, contributor. Those out there who stay in what they really believe they are or in the conviction of your truths, I implore you- let it go, try something else on. You don’t have to put who you are in a box and store it away forever, it can still be a piece of you. It can still exist but don’t let it define all you are. So many people go through life defining themselves in their careers- “I am an architect”. This is why when people retire they face a huge identity crisis. The same holds true when you are “right” about something, the other person must be wrong. But really- what is your “rightness” for, who would you really be if you didn’t have to be right all the time? You have decades ahead of you. Life is too short to not keep growing and exploring all the different possible ways of who you are.

Yoda is done with his wax-poetic.

Vimeo Vimeo Vimeo- where do the creative genius minds come from?

Sat, 03 May 2008 12:02:02 -0400

Now that I am GM of Vimeo (along with the eighteen other properties I have), I feel compelled to share the crazy but very creative stuff that I come across. I am in awe at the talent that exists in the world. Some of the videos I watch are mind-blowing.

Video

Sat, 03 May 2008 12:00:12 -0400

If you don't know Tegan and Sarah...

Sat, 03 May 2008 02:09:04 -0400

If you don't know Tegan and Sarah...

A lot of content without substance (or how Direct Marketing needs to stop loving the bomb).

Fri, 02 May 2008 11:24:00 -0400

My inbox has a lot going on at one time. Interspersed are marketing messages that I have dubbed “noise”. Has anyone noticed that as the economy starts to slow, the amount of advertising emails have steadily increased? I am not a Direct Marketer by training but have in some regards become fully versed in Direct Marketing over the last eight years throughout my career.

While it is typically a smart move for organizations to hit the send button immediately when they start to feel the wheels of economic growth slow down, they are missing the obvious. If you are sending a 20% offer or some other ridiculous marketing message, so are your competitors. There is nothing differentiated in coupons and discount offers; in fact they at some point they hit the peak of “noise” that I refer to above. When e-commerce sites that don’t typically send messages send me “reminders” I just bow and shake my head. Don’t they see the diminishing return from saturation they are facing?

What about a creative email that checks in with the last purchase I made? For example a good subject line would be “Hey Tim, How is that blender working out for you?” or “We wanted to give you a few recipes to try with that new toaster oven”. See that is an email I would open- that is an email that would make me go, wow rather than trying to sell me something or entice me to buy more crap than I need there is value in having this in my inbox.

It is not limited to just email marketing- I see it in product offering on the web as well. Marketers, Product Managers, Brand Managers, Direct Marketers, whoever are losing focus on this vital piece of the business. They are no longer asking how you can make the offering mutually beneficial for both the organization and the consumer. See it’s in the consumption that success is defined not in the pure berating of the message.

For your enjoyment a recent Amazon email that added to the noise:

"We experience our moments of purest joy at precisely those moments when we are causing it in..."

Thu, 01 May 2008 17:39:23 -0400

“We experience our moments of purest joy at precisely those moments when we are causing it in others.”

So I am going public with my TV obsession, otherwise known as...

Thu, 01 May 2008 10:59:00 -0400

So I am going public with my TV obsession, otherwise known as The Bad Girls Club. People who know me know that I watch the most awkward television known to mankind, my Tivo resembles what I think Perez Hilton’s would look like. To make my point when I shared some of my television tastes at a round-table recently there was a range of emotions from disbelief to utter laughter.

I digress, the whole intention of this post is to spread the word on one of my guilty pleasures (soon to be yours as well I am sure)- The Bad Girls Club. This gem can be found on that little known station call Oxygen but tune-in, trust me it is so worth the time. It is a group of 7 “bad” girls who are put in a house to do nothing but be bad. It goes down hill from there.

Online Advertising: LinkedIn's CPM rates lower than reported $75, but still impressive

Thu, 01 May 2008 10:52:14 -0400

Online Advertising: LinkedIn's CPM rates lower than reported $75, but still impressive:

soxiam:

pile mentioned this during our meeting today. i find it simply amazing. also mentioned during the same meeting was general perception on what facebook’s cpm was running at (cents), and that coupled with their payroll and infrastructure cost, how long they can afford to keep their “we ain’t selling” stance. i still think microsoft will buy them someday.

What a blah day…

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:25:58 -0400

What a blah day…

De la guardia!!

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:08:45 -0400

De la guardia!!

Great interview

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:40:42 -0400

Not a huge fan of Tiger myself but my buddy Eric passed this along. I really dug what he said at about 11 minutes in:

SVP: “You have 64 wins on the PGA Tour, a fortune in the bank, how do you fight the human nature that says ‘I’m going to hit the snooze button today, I’m gonna take my foot off the gas, I’m just gonna coast for a while.’ Where does the hunger inside of you come from?”

Tiger: “I don’t know how you can think any other way”.

SVP: “There’s no….what would allow you to be satisfied?”

Tiger: “Hmm - win more.”

SVP: “So the 64th is…it feels as good, as fulfilling, as the 1st, the 2nd, the 33rd?”

Tiger: “God yes. Oh yeah”.

SVP: “So there’s no point when you can sort of put the feet up on a Tuesday afternoon and say ‘Today I’m not going to the gym’.?

Tiger: “No. Because the next…that’s…I look at life as: the greatest thing about tomorrow is that I will be better than I am today. And that’s the way I’ve always lived my life. So I have no understanding why people do hit the snooze button because you have a chance to become a better person, become - for me - a better athlete…all the different things you can do to become better for tomorrow. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of that?”

"Whatever does not destroy me makes me stronger"

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:47:23 -0400

“Whatever does not destroy me makes me stronger”

- Friedrich Nietzsche

nevver: ShaderLab / TightGrip

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:10:53 -0400

nevver:

ShaderLab / TightGrip

Daddy is very upset about that.

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:54:57 -0400

postcardsfromyomomma:

Well you don’t want to get married. Daddy is very upset about that. Do you want me to look around for you. I met this guy from Canada when Auntie [Redacted] died and he’s her brother son. As soon as I saw him I thought of you. He’s very religious, but he’s nice looking. But I don’t know if he will be interested either. He emailed me this morning because he promised me and Auntie [Redacted] to send us Quranic lectures on Cd’s so he said he’s sorry he’s been busy at work. I have no idea how old he is He looks like upper twenties but could be more like early thirties. You need to find someone, do you know anyone?

The Vimeo Team's April Fool's joke- great.

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:13:12 -0400

The Vimeo Team's April Fool's joke- great.

Aruba for my 30th birthday

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 10:23:12 -0400

Aruba for my 30th birthday

Going into the wind...

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:53:21 -0400

Aruba is beautiful. Let’s just get that out of the way in the case there were any questions. I had dinner on the beach, flew into beautiful 85 degree weather, and got a lot of time to reflect on what has happened in my life.

First, let me say that 30 feels a lot like 25. It is a milestone but only from a cerebral level, not from a physical level. You don’t begin to grow grey hairs out of your nose in the moment you hit your birthday. You do though get to reflect on all the things in your life that either passed by or were fully experienced. I have to say that while sitting at dinner a calm overcame me. My twenties were all about identity and my thirties are starting to look at really investing in exploring the difference in myself and others.

I sat on the plane and put down my top three highlights so far in life, I thought I would share them unedited:

1. Having the first adult conversation with my mom and dad: It was in this moment December 2007 that I realized we are all just trying to be and do the best we possible can. My parents are no exception (and neither am I).

2. Loving and being loved: I have created life-long friendships that have provided some of the most amazing experiences in my life. Through romantic love I am able to filter what I do and do not want- I am forever grateful that at 29 I can see what I would or would not put up with in my relationship. I owe every person I have dated or loved a thank you for that one. Without you I would never have experienced “the dance” and been prepared for what lies ahead.

3. Learning more about me- In my twenties I would say I was insecure (hell even now I would say that exists on some level). I can safely say that most of that went away at 25 and since then I have been cleaning up the mess of understanding who and what I am and why I do what I do. It is a journey of a couple thousand miles and I have most likely traveled 20 miles of it. I may never reach the end, or find the solution (if there is even one), but I can say for sure that self-discovery is the most important thing I can do for myself and what I have discovered has been pretty great. Integrity is what seems to be a variable throughout some experiences (either mine or others) and now in my 30’s I am excited to blaze the path with authenticity.

So that’s a wrap up of being 30. Thank you to everyone who sent me a text, email or left a message- the amount of love was moving. I am keeping a semi radio silent approach to this holiday (with some blog posts) and will return all the messages when I get back. Much love.