More Sophie Video

You can’t ever get enough “pet” videos. Ok, I was bored and decided to try out the video camera function on my new iPhone 3GS. It is way nice and you can upload your videos directly to YouTube. It is amazing.

Internet Video in Under Five Minutes

I broke down and purchased a Flip video camera to use for work and play. It is an amazing device. I shot the video above and uploaded it to YouTube all in under five minutes. The video quality is great.

I’ll admit that the topic of the video super cute (that’s Sophie, our very cute cat).

I am definitely looking forward to actually getting out and using this thing in the real world.

Zions National Park

Follow this link to check out a few photos from my trip to Zions National Park (May 2009).

Capital Reef Photos

Check out some of the photos I shot while down in Capital Reef National Park this last spring (link).

Word-of-Mouth Marketing: A Wonderful How-To Guide

How do you get your customers talking about you and take advantage of the most power form a marketing around?

Andy Semovitz’s book, “Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking,” is an excellent book. It is filled with a ton of practical, cost-effective, easy-to-implement ways to market to your customers in a way that will start conversations and keep them growing.

Follow this link to Amazon (I like Amazon a lot) to get your copy: http://tinyurl.com/lwne6e.

What? No MMS!

Here’s my only rant about my new iPhone 3G S – Apple finally released an iPhone that will support MMS. I can’t tell you how excited I was about this feature when I heard about. Then I got my phone and found out there was a glitch. AT&T isn’t quite ready to support MMS (there’s some vague date being shared – sometime late this summer).

Here’s my plea – Apple, please lean on your beloved partner, AT&T, and force them to get their MMS capabilities inline with the rest of the industry!

Lessons Learned…

Traveling and presenting/consulting with the various groups of people that I meet presents a series of challenges. The challenge is magnified by the fact that the industry I work in has not fully embraced the benefits the great branding, marketing and advertising can bring to their businesses. I work in the grocery industry and, in case you had not noticed, most grocery stores today tend to use their printed ad as their main form of marketing and advertising.

Throw a store team into a room and attempt to discuss the importance of customer loyalty, in-store experience and branding with them. Try it, I dare you. But it can be done. What it comes down to is understanding your audience and having the will and patience to rework your presentation as much as you have to in order to make it stick.

My beautiful and intelligent fiancé, Cassie, helped me to understand this just the other day (she’s great at offering different perspectives into a discussion).

The moral to the story is simple, if you want to get your point across then you have to be willing to craft the appropriate message for the audience you are talking to. It’s a basic point, yet is one that we all forget on a frequent basis.

The iPhone 3G S

I received my iphone 3G S yesterday. The worst part of the day was having to wait to go home and switch it over from my original iPhone.

The 3G S is incredibly fast. I love it. Here’s my recommendation. I upgraded from the original iPhone. Right now mms and tethering are not enabled. You might want to wait until those features are enabled before upgrading.

Regardless, it is an amazing phone. It is faster. Apps load very quickly. The compass is odd, interesting and fun. The camera and video is spectacular.

Potentially the Worst Idea Ever

The Intended Proposal Spot

Above is the view from the top of Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park. This was the spot that I had intended to ask Cassie to marry me. For weeks, I had planned out the journey to the top of the high, desert peak where I would propose to the most beautiful, kind, talented, and intelligent woman ever. About a week before leaving for the trip, my plan began to unravel.

First, I shared some of the details about our upcoming trip and Cassie started doing a little research about Angel’s Landing. The first site she looked up warned of drop off that were thousands of feet high, winds, narrow ledges, chains that you held on to as you made the final assent, and a few more spine tingling details. I’ve hiked to the top several times and though I have never had any difficulty, the descriptions she was reading online left an impression.

She then admitted that she wasn’t much of a hiker and tended to get a little grumpy on long, steep hikes. Angel’s Landing is a long, steep hike.

The final realization occured about a day before we left for the trip. I suddenly remembered a very important detail about hiking. When you hike, your hands swell. It’s a minor detail that I had overlooked.

Add all of this up in your head for a moment. The intention was good; however, after considering all of the negatives, I went to plan B – a proposal on the balcony of our very cute B&B. Though my planning skills failed me on this rather important venture, my ability to adapt won the day. It was a beautiful night and she definitely said yes. A new chapter begins…

No, this isn't us. We plan on hiking it next year!

Your Fans Are Your Biggest Source of Marketing

Tonight I had a chance to go and see Calixico and Neco Case perform at Red Butte. The show was amazing and I even found out about a couple albums I missed out at some point. Something odd happened prior to the show.

Right before Neco Case went on stage, an announcement was made: “Absolutely no pictures or video can be taken. If you are caught, your recording device will be confiscated.”

Really? So if I love your music, record some low quality video and upload it to my YouTube account, would you really shut that down too? Why? I am your fan and I want to brag about you to my friends, family and coworkers, yet you won’t let me. I guess your still stuck in the music world of yesterday. It’s too bad that you don’t realize that your fans can help spread the word about you if you would only give then the tools to do so.