Rockfish Day #0

Yeah man, this is my kinda place. Reminds me of the breakneck pace of all the technology start-ups that I've worked for; same pros and same cons. On one hand, a high-energy team of motivated, dedicated, family-like individuals working and playing hard, and on the other hand, a great volume of opportunity, which presents resource decisions and demands a willy-nilly environment of decision-making on the fly... I wouldn't have it any other way, neither would the Rockstars at Rockfish Interactive.

I was fortunate to be present for the All-Staff meeting today, where the leadership team did a fine job of kicking off 2010 goals, delineated down to actual, measurable tasks (Dr. Rapaille would be proud!). I could see the passion on each and every face that sat listening, eager to start contributing to the organization's goals in their own ways, and cognizant of the bright future that they have in front of them.

We discussed my joining the team to help them tell fish stories... real ones... true ones... that are real BIG ones because they are doing such tremendous work and getting fantastic recognition for it!

I like what I saw and the conversations I had. Ay yup. Dusting off my rod and reel...

Evolution of Blog

I archived my blog posts the other night, backing them up in word documents that serve as storage for poetry, -isms, dreams, and quips. Someday, should I want to turn them into books, they will be much easier to work on from those docs. While doing so, I noticed that it has undergone quite a change from my first post, which took place on March 18, 2004. It said:

"Aces in the world, but sometimes difficult to find and sometimes the ace you find is 'The Bullet.'"

At the time, it was an anomaly, most of the posts following it were funny things on the web, marketing articles, or thoughts about ad campaigns that I saw in the world. Now, I'm actually writing, not pointing at other places.

My new passion, not my old passion.

And, I must say, I like it this way--thoughts on life and love--so much more than the old way.

Thank you for your continued reading!

I am the Water

There's a nice view from the dock. The planks are aged, but not unstable; they creak in greeting

Image via Wikipedia

and in parting, happy to have my company. I've been sitting on the dock now for nearly two years. Seasons pass, animals come to quench their thirst at the water's edge, birds come to bear and raise their young before returning back to their home in the sky. Everything changes, everything renews, everything grows, except for me and this dock--all we do is age, a motionless, emotionless aging.

Right below us rests the unknown. In the depths of the water there are things never before seen, at least by me. I wonder what's down there. I wonder what it feels like to swim again, hold my breath and count, expunge all of the air in my body and sink to the bottom for a tea party, "MARCO!"

For the two years that I've been sitting on the dock, nothing has disturbed the water aside from the slurp of a deer here, an arrival or departure of a bird there, the flap of a curious fish, or the dance of a water bug. No great force has fallen from the sky to splash down into the lake. No water nymph or Kraken has emerged from beneath the surface. It's quiet. Very quiet.

I am the water: quiet, undisturbed, watchful, waiting, hiding a massive wealth of treasure beneath my own surface.

This past week, I stood up from my cross-legged posture on the dock. I stood up, closed my eyes and took a huge breath of air, several of them actually, for I don't know how long I'll have to hold my breath once I make the leap. Yesteryear I was one thing, tomorrow I will be something else. I'll be something frolicking in the water, floating on my back to feel the sun upon my face, playing like a breaching whale while I explore a new world.

Yesterday I was a marketer, tomorrow I will be a writer.

My toes are gripping the edge of the wooden dock, twiddling up and down with anticipation, and the animals have gathered on the shore to watch the show, even the sun has stopped its course across the sky so as not to miss this leap. Breath. Deep breath.

I whisper, "Marco."

3... 2... 1...

Things of Me

In a call with my favorite executive recruiter this week, it dawned on me how to easily define my affinity for marketing and writing.

Image by Kristian D. via Flickr

She asked, "What do you want to be right now?" Her explanation stemming from the fact that if you look around at the stuff that's publicly available about me, it sure looks like I really want to be a writer instead of a marketer. My response was simple enough, with no one paying me to be a marketer, I'm spending a lot of time writing.

But, I thought, what makes them so similar?

To me:

• Marketing is a strategy with some composition.
• Writing is composition with some strategy.
  

They are the same ingredients, different recipe, made up of things that I truly love. My ability to find creative, unique ways to operate within the set of rules defined for a project or for a world of fiction that I've created from scratch both feed my soul. Yummy goodness.

Speaking of the book, we are sooooo close. Three more chapters to rewrite and they are tough, tough, emotional ones where I must... oh, wait, I'm not gonna give it away. ;-) I've got a core group of friends that are hammering on the draft--blowing through it actually--and keeping me focused on getting through this project. Y'all are the best.

Keep reading, I love it when I hear from all of you in comments or email or Twitter!

Thank you!

To My Friends Who Hid & Unfollowed

This is a public service announcement to all of my friends on Twitter and Facebook that unfollowed and hid me, respectively, during my time when:

• I was RTing like a zealot for the #hunkalert & #followfriday thing on Twitter.
• I had Twitter auto-updating in my Facebook status.

I'm sure those experiences were annoying and I apologize for filling up your news feeds with gibberish.

Now that I've figured out some things about those tools, namely to take better care of my follows in both places, I invite you to return to my normal programming, unhide and follow me back... I'd love to have your input and comments during my quest to become a successful writer.

Thank you,
bobroth
@zamees

The PSA for Hand Washing?

As I entered Midway this afternoon for my return flight to KC (home, finally!), I was repeated reminded to cover my mouth when I cough/sneeze and to wash my hands after using the restroom.

Seriously?

I don't disagree that more people need to cover and wash, but do you really think that an audio PSA in a busy, noisy airport is going to help? No, I don't either. People need to, first of all, identify with the problem. When the swine flu first broke the news, I happened to be traveling that weekend and literally everyone that I saw in an airport bathroom washed their hands. I'd never seen a line to wash before, it was great!

I even sent a tweet (follow me @zamees) to welcome all the new hand washers to the world!

So, we know that we can create a connection with people, but swine flu isn't in the news much anymore and there aren't long lines at the wash basin either. Though we connected with people, there wasn't a long-lasting emotional that brought about a permanent change in behavior.

How can we make an emotional connection about hand washing?

We need to make the connection with people as they are in the act of hand washing... and, perhaps, make the walk past the walk basin as part of the process as opposed to an offshoot between the toilets/urinals and the exit. I guarantee that the unspoken peer pressure of being "that guy" who walked past and didn't wash would get more people to cave and wash.

Except that only addresses the public bathrooms. In order to create a permanent behavior change, we'd need to change behavior at home so that washing simply became second nature. I'll have to think on this one a bit more since I'd rather not enter a police state of hand washing at airports anytime soon.

What do ya think?

OK, back to the beatings...

I'm not one for negative campaigns ads, but I'm posting this one as an example of how an organization can successfully use video to achieve their goals (repost from The Agitators).

DISCLAIMER: I'm always hesitant to believe what I see because I'm too much of a relativist... there may have been reasons (or earmarks) to support action or inaction. First, watch the video:

The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund has done well to tell their story:

1. GET ATTENTION: The headline does a good job of that, "Put Palin's Awful Wolf-Killing Record on Television."
2. STIMULATE EMOTION: The word "killing" always draws emotion. Killing animals even draws more ire. Their word selection is excellent: gunning, brutal, needless, indisputable.
3. REINFORCE WITH REASON: They use bullets (pun intended) to cover exactly why this is necessary. The bullets (pun intended) are the logical alibi for the emotional reaction that they've already created within the viewer. The bullets also reiterate what is said in the video.
4. CALL TO ACTION: It's simple and you can do it NOW. Now is always important and you'd be amazed at how many entities forget to ask for what they want. In this case, donate NOW!

At the time of this writing, I think they'd raised more than $600,000 even though their goal was $100,000. Now that's good use of marketing!

If you'd like to see the appeal, please visit the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund page.

TailDating: Update #2 (Wednesday Morning)

A flurry of activity took place late last night in regard to this TailDating thing where I'm trying to find a date for this weekend's Chiefs game (9/14). Several new inquiries came in via email, new comments were placed on a few local KC blogs and I received an information request from a local TV station.

This morning I'll be sending the TV station a quick brief and updating the web site to make for an easier branding opportunity, i.e. easier to remember where to tell people to go to find out more information.

If you'd like to read about this from the beginning or decide whether you'd like to meet me, please start here.