Archive for November, 2007

The TV show Dancing With The Stars was a great study in crowd reaction and judging dynamics. From week to week you could see some of the top dance performers try different things to get a top score. From colorful outfits to intense music, plain was out and excitement was in.

I really enjoyed the colorful costumes and the incredible dance moves, yet it was also important to get all the steps right. A performer could wow the crowd with a jump or spin yet be marked off for lifting a foot off the ground. It was really important to put the entire package together.

Marie Osmond and her partner Jonathan Roberts, put together many incredible performances over the many weeks of the show. Marie is an entertainer pure and simple. What she lacked in dancing skill she made up for with flash and personality. At 48 years old she did an amazing job with jumps, spins and other very difficult dance moves.

What struck me though was her freestyle dance in the final round. Marie played a doll in her dance, and went from lifeless and limp to semi animated. Only in the final few seconds did she come fully alive. While the dance was creative and different, it just didn’t work. The audience and judges panned the performance. Instead of using costumes and excitement to reach outside the box, she used acting skill and emotion.

Marie’s dance was too different.

The judges didn’t know what to do with it and the audience had a hard time understanding the context. Marie put the dance together to reach out to her many fans that like her doll collection, but the general audience was lost. Her dance would have been perfect in a stage play where the context could be fully explored, but it didn’t make much sense in the 90 seconds she had in her stage performance.

I have had similar experiences myself. As a speaker in Toastmasters, I have competed in many speech contests. I always like to add some creativity to my presentations, yet sometimes I go too far and lose my audience. My presentation makes perfect sense to me, yet the audience becomes quickly lost.

This phenomenon can be referred to as The Curse of Knowledge.

This is actually a pretty simple concept. You know all about a subject or item and in your mind your facts and performance makes sense. Unfortunately your audience does not have the same knowledge and the performance fails to connect.

Chip & Dan Heath explore this fascinating concept in their book, Made To Stick. They make the point that instead of dumbing down a message, you need to find a universal language to reach your audience. And this language needs to speak quickly.

Dancing With The Stars was a great example of that. Many of the costumes that performers wore were instantly recognizable. As an audience member you quickly recognized the context and could understand what was going on. Marie did an great dance a few weeks earlier dressed in a 1940’s uniform. The dance came alive immediately, because everyone in the audience could relate.

Unfortunately, When Marie played a doll, it was difficult to fully understand what was going on. The dance started off slow and only came to life in the last few seconds. The performance lacked excitement and left you saying to yourself… what was that all about?

The bottom line is simple… For a speech, a dance, or other live performance, put yourself in the audience’s shoes and make sure you can understand what is going on. If you can’t tell immediately, you might want to consider something more universal.

Riddle me this… What is scarier?…

1. Driving an Indy Race Car at 230 miles per hour
2. Dancing on TV in front of millions of viewers

While both are scary, only Indy car racing can kill you on any lap. Yet for me I would rather take my chances in a race car than humiliate myself in front of millions of people with my two left feet.

Helio Castroneves has overcome both to become a two time Indianapolis 500 race winner and now the winner of the Dancing with the Stars dance competition. Helio is an amazing person and his performance on this popular TV show these last few weeks has been a real inspiration to millions of viewers.

Helio, a 32 year old Brazilian race car driver, showed what it takes to overcome fear, both on the track and now on the stage. He faced fear in the eye and focused instead on winning.

Helio showed…

1. Vision: He knew what he wanted and he figured out a path to get there. In racing it was the coveted Indy 500 trophy and kissing the bricks at that famous racetrack. In dancing, it was the Mirrorball trophy. In short… Helio wanted to win!
2. Passion: Helio showed that he wanted to become the best he could be. Whether it is driving or dancing he exhibited incredible passion every step of the way. That is what makes him so exciting to watch. Without passion, he would have been just another dancer. From his bright yellow suit to his huge jump across the stage he showed he had the passion to win.
3. Determination: Dancing and driving are full of setbacks, and winning means overcoming them and learning from them. Helio and his dance partner, Julianne Hough, showed they had the determination to overcome a bad dance or a stubborn judge. Instead of getting down or letting fear overtake him, Helio pushed on with his signature smile and the attitude to do whatever it would take to make the next dance better.
4. Personality: Helio showed that winning is about being the best you can be… not trying to be someone else. With his smiling personality and glowing attitude the fans really got behind him. One week, he tried to play the bad guy, with a serious look and a bad attitude… it didn’t work. The judges scores reflected this. He learned from this and during the rest of the competition his true personality came out.

I really enjoyed the Dancing with The Stars program this year. Every week was about people showing what passion, practice, and determination can produce. Marie Osmond showed incredible courage after she fainted on stage one week and experienced the death of her father a few weeks later. At 48 years old, she made it to the finals and truly showed that age is not a factor to true greatness.

Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls showed what practice and determination can produce. With almost perfect moves dance after dance, her and her partner Maksim had the highest judges scores throughout the competition. Her performances were truly inspiring and they took her to the final round.

Cheetah girl, Sabrina Bryan, brought some amazing talent to the competition but showed how important personality and communication is to winning. One week her fans took it for granted that she would be in the finals and didn’t bother to call in and vote. Since the fan vote was half of the score, she was eliminated that week of the competition in the biggest upset of the series.

Fear and a negative attitude can keep us from trying different things and truly becoming the person we were meant to be. This show is a great example of what can happen when we face fear in the eye and forge ahead! Truly amazing things can happen!

I love iPods. They allow me to take my music and audio books wherever I go. They make a great learning tool and have really helped me with my personal productivity. I have had a Video model for over a year and it is a daily companion, mainly for playing audio books in the car.

I stopped in to my local Apple store last week to see the new products that have been recently released. What caught my eye immediately was the new iPod Touch. This device looks like an iPhone but a little smaller. It has wireless internet access and an amazing touch interface. Everything is done with your finger on the touch screen interface.

The salesman in the store demonstrated the device for me, showing me the built-in safari web-browser and the amazing way the browser window resizes when you turn the unit in a horizontal position. It only got better from there.

He then pushed the main menu button and the device returned to the main interface screen. He pushed the You-Tube button and within seconds there was the latest You-Tube video streaming on the device in full dynamic color. I was impressed with the speed and the clarity of the screen when playing video.

Back to the main menu he went and then he pulled up the iTunes interface and scrolled with one finger effortlessly through the stored music files. WOW! The album cover interface was fast and you could tell instantly what was available for listening.

Another click of the menu button and the built in calendar popped up, ready to synchronize with the calendar app on your computer. Another click brought up the contacts screen, organized by phone number, e-mail, and web addresses.

He didn’t have to go much further until I could see some amazing productivity uses for this device. I had him bring out an 8-gig model and I was soon the owner of this amazing device.

After bring this unit home and putting it through its paces I find that it works very well. The interface is very intuitive. The screen is very sharp and bright and you can easily use the device in different lighting conditions including the car and outdoors.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be testing this as a personal productivity tool. This looks to take the iPod to a whole new level, with video learning applications, collaborative tools, and video podcasting as just a few of the new uses that will be available.

This holiday season, be sure to stop into your local Apple store and take one for a test drive. You can also order one online from Apple or pick one up with no shipping from Amazon.com. Make 2008 your most productive year yet!

In a previous post I talked about my adventures of shopping on Black Friday. This year I had an enjoyable time and I did most of my shopping early Friday morning. I found a short line at Office Depot at 5am and spent about an hour in line. Not bad to save hundreds of dollars on a computer system. From there it was down the street to Staples to pick up some technology gifts and then off to the outlet mall for clothes shopping. Almost all of my shopping done in four hours.

The interesting and almost unbelievable thing this year was the line at our local Best Buy store. People had started to line up on Wednesday, two days before the sale. By Thanksgiving night there was a whole tent city in front of the store. I could not believe my eyes when I drove by at 9 in the evening. There were at least 20 tents or canvas awnings setup and people sprawled on the sidewalk in beach chairs and sleeping bags.

Maybe I’m missing something but the deals were not that great. You could save about $300 on a low-end Sony laptop, or get a flat panel TV for $899. There were deals like this at all the stores. I can’t imagine camping out for days for any of the deals in their ad. My time is much more valuable than that.

As I was standing in the short line at Office depot, I struck up a conversation with some of the people in line behind me. We wondered aloud why people would camp out for days for just so-so deals at Best Buy. What we came up with is a great business opportunity for some budding travel entrepreneurs.

Here is how it would work… Two days before the sale…

Offer free RV parking in the Best Buy parking lot.
Offer to stand in line while the RV’s are getting setup
Offer local catered meals delivered from local Pizza Restaurants
Offer Starbucks delivery service
Provide custom awnings for sun relief
Provide custom beach chairs with the latest wireless technology
Provide a party atmosphere with great music into the night.
Offer portable bathroom facilities.
Offer to sell the purchased items on E-Bay for a small commission.

This whole package could be sold for Best Buy’s all over the country. It wouldn’t take much time to get things setup and coordinated and if you had multiple customers you could make a tidy profit.

You could run a simple ad in the travel magazines such as…

Discover Beautiful Downtown Seattle
Camp at the Best Buy Store Downtown.
Three days -two nights.
Full accommodations, including high tech comfort chair, wireless internet, fully loaded video iPod, sun awning, as well as three fully catered meals including the best pizza in town and Famous Starbuck’s coffee. Come enjoy free RV parking and some of the most friendly folks in town. Party late at night. To top it off, you’ll save big on the latest technology!
Make your reservations today… only $295

This deal is just waiting to be setup… Success Begins at Best Buy

Thanksgiving is always a special day for me. It’s a time of reflection about what is truly important in life. It’s a time to think of those special people that make a difference in the world and the lives of others. (It’s so ironic that Thanksgiving comes the day before one of the most commercial and crazy days of the year, Black Friday.)

Here are some of the things I’m very thankful for this year.

• I’m thankful that I live in a free country.
• I’m thankful I can freely worship God and that he has a presence in my life.
• I’m thankful for my wife, my daughter, my son-in-law, along with the rest of our families, who make life worth living.
• I’m thankful for my friends and co-workers, that put up with me.
• I’m thankful to have two amazing and loving dogs who are always there for me no matter what.
• I’m thankful for the 100’s of blogger’s that brighten my day, challenge me to be a better person, and encourage me to reach for the stars. (Here is a short list of blogger’s you should definitely visit. Here is another group I’m very thankful to be associated with.)
• I’m thankful for all of the support and encouragement from our local Toastmaster clubs
• I’m thankful for turkey, bread stuffing, and corn pudding (I can’t wait!)
• I’m thankful for parades, football games, and the family time that make this day special.
• I’m thankful for all of you that stop by from time to time and make this blog a community. Thank you for your support; your comments; and most of all your encouragement to keep this thing called blogging going…

Happy Thanksgiving!

John Richardson

I love Black Friday (The Friday after Thanksgiving). Every year I get up early and get in line at one of our local shopping centers. I pick the store with the best deals to start with. As soon as the doors open I’m in power shopping mode. I have my list and I strategically move through the store picking up sale items. Speed is of the essence as I need to get out of the store in less than 15 minutes or I’ll be entombed in line.

Once I have my purchases I head to the checkout. I have a variety of payment options including cash. In the past few years I’ve been able to get out of a Best Buy or Circuit City in under 15 minutes. Once I’m out of the store it’s off to a Staples or Office Depot in the same shopping center to finish my shopping. The second store may take a little longer, but the hot buys are usually still available.

After the rush, I usually head to the outlet mall or other less frequented center to finish off my shopping. Having strategic coupons here can save a ton of money. I usually have a 40% off of the entire store coupon for the Haggar outlet which lets me clothes shop for all of the guys on our list. The prices are so low it’s like being at a garage sale.

Usually in a couple of hours I have done about 80% of my Holiday shopping for most of my family and friends. The prices on Black Friday are the best they are all year. I usually save hundreds of dollars in this short spree and I can enjoy the rest of the season, knowing that most of my shopping is done.

Here are 15 quick tips that I use to maneuver this crazy but rewarding day.

1. A few days before Black Friday, I peruse the sale lists on the popular Black Friday web sites. I find a single store with the best overall list of items that fit on my shopping list.
2. I’ll visit that store on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to get the lay of the land. I usually ask a clerk or two where the items that I want to buy will be placed. I also try to find out the quantity they will have on hand.
3. I look at the shopping center and find a second store within walking distance. I’ll make a list of sale items and add them to my list.
4. The early bird gets the worm. If you want the deals you have to get up early. Depending on the items on my list and the quantity on hand it may be necessary to get in line at the store before 4am.
5. Here in Southern California it can be very chilly in the early morning. Layering clothes is a must. You need to be light and nimble to get through the store. I usually stay away from big jackets or other bulky clothes that will cause you to roast when you get inside. Layering sweat shirts or a light jacket usually works best.
6. Bring along an iPod or other music player to help you pass the time. I usually fire up an audio book and the time flies by.
7. Get the newspaper the day before (and get up early to make sure you get one) so you will have a list of the deals. Even though I make a list from the Black Friday sites, it’s nice to have the actual ad so you can refer to it in the store if you need assistance from a salesperson.
8. Carry a cell phone and coordinate with other family members to allow you to take bathroom breaks while in line. If you have kids, they can be very helpful once you get in the store to pickup those harder to find items.
9. Make conversation while in line. I’ve met some of the most interesting people while waiting. It also helps you pass the time. If you find a techie type you might learn something about the items you want to buy.
10. Once inside pick up items on your list as you come across them. Depending on the store, you will probably want to stay away from shopping carts unless you are after very large items. I usually try to find a hand basket for smaller items. If you are after a computer or TV which will require assistance, grab a cart and head directly for that department.
11. Many of the stores in our area will hand out vouchers for large items while people are in line outside. This can really save time and let you know up front if you will be able to get the sale item or not. This is one reason it is really important to get in line early. How much is your time worth? Is it worth getting up an extra hour early to save $200?
12. Most Important! Get out early. Don’t waste time trying to find that last CD or DVD for cousin George. Make sure you get in line within 5-10 minutes or you’ll be stuck in the store for hours. I made the mistake of trying to get one more item at a Fry’s computer store one year. In the extra five minutes it took, the checkout line filled up all the way to the back of the store. Never again!
13. Make sure you get rebate receipts and coupons. That great deal you just got will not save you anything unless you get the rebate!
14. Ultra Important! As soon as you get home, go directly to your office or table and fill out any rebates!!! If you don’t do them right then, you will certainly misplace the receipts and lose out on the savings. If you need to cut out a UPC code from the box, use a razor blade and make a clean cut.
15. Shop at stores that offer online rebates. You can do them in just a few minutes and you can track them online. Online rebates usually get back to you faster too.

If you have never ventured out on Black Friday, give it a try sometime. Using the tips above can help you make this a fun and exciting adventure. And your checkbook will get a break too!

P.S. Shop Responsibly. Only buy what’s on your list and realize it may be months before you see the rebate money. A credit card charge while waiting for a rebate will wipe out any savings you may have had.

Have Fun!