China Week: Lessons in Line Breaking (A Story)

Below is a short story that was posted to our travel blog from Shanghai.  Almost any visitor to China is likely to experience a higher-than-expected level of competiion while standing in line for something like a subway ticket. In the case below, I had made up my mind to be a competitor.  Unfortunately things didn't work out as planned.

From the post: Lessons in Line Breaking

I had made a decision and I was going to act on it.  Gone were the days of standing passively in line while Chinese people wedge themselves in front of me and place an order before I could react.  I was going stand up for myself and try to be a little more Chinese.

This is not the kind of thing you can plan – it just has to happen and just last night, I had my chance.  We were in the Shanghai subway terminal in line for our first subway card at a vending machine, as we’ve done so many times before in other cities.  Just as the couple in front of me at the machine received their card and turned away, a young Chinese guy stepped directly in front of me.  So, with great determination, I stepped in front of him enough to place my right shoulder at about his eye level and in a single motion stepped directly in front of the vending machine.   It was mine!  HAHA!  I’ll show you line breaker!  I’m no push-over tourist softy!

So there I was, with this foreign and unfamiliar machine staring me in the face.  It was mine, yes, but I realized all too quickly that I had no idea how to use it.  The instructions were in English and the #1 read “Select Fare”.  Scratching my head with waves of embarrassment pending, I searched the machine for anything that said “Fare”.  Nothing.  I inquisitively pressed a couple of random buttons in the hopes that something would happen. Nothing.  My pride was on the line here and I was blowing it!  Thoughts of fleeing in shame entered my mind when I heard a voice over my shoulder, “Where do you need to go?”  It was the line breaker politely asking a simple question that I couldn’t answer completely.  All we knew was that we needed to go two stops on Line 2.  He ended up doing the whole transaction for me and after many “thank yous” I left with our subway cards in hand and my pride more than a little crushed.

The moral here is that if you’re going to try to act like a local, be prepared for the entire event.  Going off half-cocked is a good way to shoot yourself in the foot. 

China Week: Strange Translations

If making signs in Chinese characters was my job, I would be very, very bad at it.  However, I might hire someone who knows the language well before erecting a permanent sign at a major tourist destination.  For a long time, this didn't happen in China and we snapped the photos below before they invested in changing the signs for the Olympics. 

 The guy in this photo is one of the most interesting people I've ever met.  He's the blind adventurer Miles Hilton-Barber.(notice the broken cane, his favorite schtick) Photo is from the Three Gorges Dam. He did not turn over.

I never could figure out why they wanted to protect the railings. This was at the Summer Palace, where I felt compelled to write a rant about tourism and tour groups. 

An earnest request at Yellow Mountain. Most tourist travel in China (outside the cities) is controlled.  Most people are herded onto busses and kept in a group, led by a flag-bearing guide who speaks English and may use a megaphone. We are very independent travelers and grew quite tired of these guides. 

 At the Three Gorges Dam.

I didn't take it as a compliment.

I think they meant "crab"

4 Stars!

And finally, not a sign, but an illustration of a difference in culture.  I present to you, on the busy streets of Beijing - a car-to-car turtle salesman.

Reading back through this, it may appear that we didn't like China.  I would say that the tourist experience in China, compared to other places, was not as enjoyable.  We were only there a month, which is far too short of a time to know if we really like it or not.  We left the country wondering what would change before the Olympics and what Westerners would say upon returning. 

China Week: It All Started In China

In honor of the start of the Beijing Olympics, we've decided to make it "China Week" here on the Common Craft blog. 

In a lot of ways, China was where we first started to experiment with video.  We bought our first video camera (a Sony DCR - PC 1000) in Hong Kong, just before spending about a month in mainland China in 2006.  Over the time in China, we edited and posted our first "real" videos.   

This week, we'll share a few of those videos and some stories from our time there.  It's stuff you won't see on NBC, I promise.

To get us started, here is a 3 minute video that focuses on local food from Chongqing, a giant city in the Sichuan Province. Please note that what I call "rodent heads" may actually be rabbit heads (rabbits aren't rodents).  Anyway, enjoy...

Interview for IT Conversations by Jon Udell

Recently I spent some time with Jon Udell for an episode of IT Conversations.  Jon posted the interview today.  I just listened to it and nothing I said made me cringe, so I thought I'd share it here with you. :)

We talked about the evolution of the Common Craft format, different learning styles, off board brains and explanation problems, among other things.

Have a listen or download it on the IT Conversations blog post. 

Thanks a lot for the opportunity Jon! I think it came out really well.

Kansas, We Owe You One (Updated Election Video)

I'm not sure how this happened, but there is an error in the original version of the "Electing a US President" video.  The original version says that there are 3 congressional districts in Kansas.  As we discovered today, via a nice email from Gerry Deman of Kansas, there are actually 4 districts.

Here's what we're doing about it:

We have created a new, corrected version of the video. It's embedded below and we have replaced the video on the original blog entry (and embed code) with this new version.  We've also replaced the downloadable versions in the Store and other places where it is shared.

Unfortunately, this means that two versions will exist on YouTube, because it's impossible to replace a video.  By deleting the original version, we break the connections to the You Tube players on blogs that embedded it. If you embedded the original version, please do replace the video with this new version.

It's a good thing that folks like you keep us in check so we can limit the potential confusion.  We'll count better next time, I promise.

Please Help Us Break In Common Craft's New Digs

This evening we've taken the wraps off the new CommonCraft.com and we'd love your feedback and help.

The biggest change is the new and improved video Store, which is fashioned after the shopping experience on sites like NetFlix. As I've said before, we see the Store as the centerpiece of our future business and we're so excited to have a foundation on which we can build.

To go with the new Store, we've made a video (below) that explains the way our video licensing works.  "Common Craft Licensing in Plain English" also appears on the Store's front page.

Share this video using this code:
<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fIeRH8uYdIA&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fIeRH8uYdIA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></object>

You'll also see that the site has a similar but improved interface.

We'd love your help!

With Reporting Problems...

As you know, we don't have "testers" or "QA professionals."  If you see anything unexpected or erroneous, please do report it.  You can leave a comment here or contact us.

With Building Awareness...

We've heard positive feedback from Store customers and we're very confident in our product, but awareness remains as our biggest challenge.  People know the videos, but few understand that we offer them for licensed use in the workplace.

This is where you can help.  We would be forever indebted if you could help us spread the word.  The next time you talk to someone who says "I need an easy way to teach people at my company about social media", you might mention our Store.  Of course, blog posts and tweets help too. :)

Ultimately, our potential rides on the Store's success.  As it succeeds, we can devote more and more of our time to creating a growing library videos that are useful for non-commercial purposes on the Web and licensed use in the workplace.

Being Lightweight: Business Design

This is the third in a series of posts about Being Lightweight.  The first two were about Working with Clients and Tools We Use.

We are lucky to have a product that people like. Our challenge is to experiment and find the best ways to build a business around this product. To be successful we need the business to be profitable, but also work within the life we want to live.

We see this process as "business design" and as this series outlines,  being lightweight is a big priority.  Below are a number of ideas and thoughts about creating a lightweight business.

Two People - We are dedicated to being a two person company without employees. This is a fundamental constraint that guides nearly every decision. By making our size the priority, we have been forced to think hard about what is possible for two people and be prepared to focus on opportunities that work within this constraint.

Employees - We may work with contractors and short-term help, but we do not plan to hire employees.  In the last article in the series I talked about the heavy nature of stress and anxiety. Growing the business by hiring would add potential revenue, but also add significant stress and loss of focus on our work in order to manage those folks.

Business Model -  We ask ourselves - What business do we really want to be in?  What do we want to be doing on a day-to-day basis? Consulting? Custom Videos? Licensing? Ads? Commercial? To be lightweight, we need to bring focus to the 1-2 models that get us closer to our goals and put others on the back burner.

Scalability - We are small, but we do want to scale the business.  How? We consider business models.  The custom video model does not scale - we would have to hire employees to make more videos each month. A more scalable model is selling licensed versions of our videos in the Common Craft Store.  In this model, potential revenue is not tied directly to production time.  

Not Doing it All - When opportunity knocks, it's hard not to answer.  The problem is that we can't do it all and we've learned to say no, even if it hurts sometimes.  The key is being clear about our future goals.  If an opportunity doesn't take us there, then it's creating drag.

Marketing -  We don't spend time on brochures, fliers or ads of any traditional sort. We believe that the best marketing doesn't always come from a campaign - it comes from the users of our products.  We focus on making free versions of the videos easy to share.

Agility - About a year ago, a few companies started to become interested in our custom videos.  We literally woke up one morning and decided to focus 100% of our business on these videos. The same thing happened when we decided to focus on the Store. Our goal is to retain this freedom to react to changes and opportunities efficiently, and avoid the need to seek approval from others.  A beauty of being small and lightweight is the ability to react.

People Philosophy - We believe that people are essentially good and given limited resources, we'd rather focus attention on being open and helping them do the right things rather than trying to make the wrong things impossible.

Balance - We don't believe in working 80 hours a week, 51 weeks a year so that you can vacation when you're old.  We work more hours than most, but we're not bashful about making sure that we live a fun, interesting and balanced life. Lightweight businesses make this easier.

Investors and Partnerships - Often, these are required for business growth. The problem comes when the requirements and expectations of others become a part of the business. We've been careful not to form agreements with investors or partners because the baggage these relationships create may not balance with the benefits they provide.  It's added stress and anxiety that creates weight we would rather not have.  Advice is great, but financial relationships weight a lot.

Limited Middlemen - Each person who handles a product on the way to the consumer adds weight and removes reward.  We look for the best ways to get our product from an idea to the customer as directly as possible.  Outside of us, The Common Craft Store doesn't have salespeople, distributors, marketers or support.  We do it all, A-to-Z, using products like PayPal and e-junkie.

Contact Points - As our visibility on the web has increased, so too has our time managing communication. We recently decided to make email our most public source of contact and have removed our phone number from the web site. It's nothing personal, it just allows us to do a better job managing communications as lightweight as possible.

Supporting Two People - At the end of the day, we remember that we are two people.  Sure, our model may not enable us to dominate markets or become a Fortune 500 company, but that's not our goal.  We need our business to support us and the life we want to live.  

So, you might be wondering about the result of all these ideas.  Well, we've made a number of decisions lately.  Our future is devoted to building a library of videos for the Common Craft Store.  We are phasing out custom videos and devoting time to videos we can license to influencers and educators for use in the workplace.  This model enables us to be lightweight and 100% independent.

Ultimately, we want to wake up each morning and know we are choosing what we do that day. For us, that's lightweight.

Beachcombers and Making the Lightweight Choice

I suppose some would say it's downright un-American, but we worked on July 4th and 5th.  It was our choice - a choice that enabled us to take the 7th and 8th and go camping without the hordes of people.  It's something we do often - work when others aren't so we can play without crowds.  It's a choice we make.

On this camping trip, we met someone whose attitude reminds us a little of our own.  She runs the tiny "Beachcomber Cafe" at Fort Flagler State Park .  Fort Flagler is situated on the Strait of Juan de Fuca - the waterway that creates the entrance to Puget Sound from the Pacific. In war time, it was a strategic location and now has decaying, 100 year old bunkers, turrets and battlements.  An interesting and beautiful place to explore.

We camped up on a bluff and a short walk down the hill was the cold, windy beach and Beachcomber Cafe.  The first thing we noticed on the approach was the chalkboard outside that said "free wifi". 

Free wifi out here in the far reaches of the country.  Cool!  We walked in and talked a bit.

Me: So, is the wifi on during business hours?
Her: Nope, 24 hours. I'd probably forget to turn it off anyway.

Me: Is there a password?
Her: No, it's not worth keeping up with a password

Me:  It's really great that you offer it way out here
Her: Yeah, you know, it would be a pain to try to make money on it.  My little shop here may cost a little more than other places, but if you use the wifi, you might consider buying a little something.   It's up to you.

Me:  What hours are you open?
Her: 8 to 8

Me (to Sachi):  See Sachi, she even figured out how to make the hours easy.
Her:  Hah!  Now you're getting to know me!

We figured that Common Craft and the Beachcomber Cafe have some things in common.  The Beachcomber Cafe has made choices in how the business is run.  Sure, they have the potential to try to squeeze every dollar out of people who need wifi, but they don't.  They provide wifi as a worry-free service and rely on the good nature of people to support the business in other ways. 

Further, they put a priority on the lightweight choice - the wifi is always on, always free and open to everyone.  Any other way would create more hassle than she needs. The store hours are even easy to remember. 

I'm not talking about business practices, but philosophy - a philosophy that's built on shedding unneeded administration and focusing on providing opportunities that give people ways to feel good about the relationship.

The first step is realizing you have a choice.  Your business doesn't have to operate like others.  Sure, you can make 8 dollars a day on wifi, or you can smile at your customers and tell them the wifi is free and goes great with today's paper and a candy bar. 

Here's a photo set from the trip, if you're interested.

SSPR - Please Stop Spamming Bloggers (Updated with SSPR Response)

Dear SSPR,
You have been sending me emails for months now, apparently from someone named Sarah who always has a "Story Idea:" for me. Since then I have asked three times (including a voicemail) to be removed from your distribution list. What happened today?  I received another email from Sarah about another awesome "STORY IDEA".

I've given up trying to stop your emails. You obviously don't care about my requests, or care that you're proving to me and a lot of others that you accomplish the opposite effect of PR - you demean your clients in front of the very people you're trying to reach. I would never write a story after receiving a pitch from you.

I know that stories from bloggers mean a lot to your clients. Do they know your tactics?  Do they know that you don't respect requests from the very people you are asking to write stories?  Do they know people like me consider you spammers?

I think the PR industry has a place in the online world and there are hordes of smart people in PR who have found the right ways to work with bloggers. I just received a pitch today from someone who had read this site and personalized their message. I respect them for taking the time.

You, SSPR, have a very long way to go. Like any relationship, your efforts must be built on honesty and respect. It has to be built on personal connections.  Every time you send an unwanted email and ignore removal requests, you are insulting me, yourselves and PR industry as a whole.  It's called spam and no one wants more of it.

What I want is for you to understand what is wrong with what you're doing.   Here are a number of resources and perspectives for understanding how to pitch bloggers.

Matt Haughey: How to Pitch Bloggers

Getting to First Base: Social Media Marketing Playbook (e-book)

Pro Blogger: 21 Tips on Pitching Bloggers

Stowe Boyd: The Growing Backlash Against PR Spam

I suppose I should be thankful in some ways, you've suceeded in giving me a "STORY IDEA", though I doubt it's what you wanted.

PS - I see you've made it onto the PR Spammers wiki.  Congrats on that.

Updated:

Just after posting this entry, I was contacted by Belinda Banks, Executive Vice President at SSPR, who was apologetic and said that change is happening in the company. From her message:

We have addressed this situation internally, not only with Sarah but with our entire staff, especially all of our new team members. Inaccurate pitching is a personal pet peeve of mine and we are striving for each staff member to resonate that same theme.
I appreciate Belinda's response, but at the same time, the proof is in the pudding.  I hope we'll see real change from them and others in the industry.