Maybe it was:
Either way, the above MacLeod got stuck in my head this morning.
I quickly searched GapingVoid.com for anything similar. Came up empty.
As part of my work with Joe Urban, I was invited to the Minnesota Chapter of the Urban Land Institute Young Leaders Group’s panel discussion on attracting and retaining young, creative people in Minnesota.
On the panel:
My notes from the conversation:
Ryan Bradshaw pointed me to Future of Music Book. The entire first chapter is on how music is like water and how some of the richest companies in the world are water utilities.
Hmmmm – reminds me of something I wrote.
As a follow-up to How to Build a Business from Podcasting I thought I’d share this with you:
Only the Ice Mountain bottles have advertising.
The wife and I spent this past weekend in the middle of Wisconsin. We’re both particular about our coffee and we both enjoy joking about measuring distance in Starbucks. At home, we prefer local roasters like Dunn Bros or White Rock.
But you don’t know the relief we sighed when Wausau got their first Starbucks. Like McDonalds, Starbucks’ offering are consistently mediocre. Yet, they are still leagues above the native coffee shops in terms of quality, they’re the only place in town with a wireless network, and the only coffee shop open on Sundays.
This makes Starbucks the obvious answer for grabbing a decent morning cup while out of town. As much as I’d prefer a quirkly, quaint, local roaster.
Now, with 2 Starbucks in the area, we also had our first “Best in Show” moment – meeting people at Starbucks…just not the same Starbucks.
This post was inspired by The Excess of Access over at Brand Autopsy
A while back, Fast Company published Keith Hammonds’ Why We Hate HR. Like myself, I’m sure you have some remarkable ‘Everything was going great, then HR…’ stories. Whether it’s ridiculous, time-wasting hoops (asking candidates to complete an application even though you have their resume) or just not doing a simple Google search on a candidate (Microsoft Recruits Eric S. Raymond). Both of these examples betray a dysfunctional disconnection between HR and the rest of the organization.
This excerpt from the letter ESR posted exemplifies HR arrogance (emphasis mine):
“Your name and contact info was brought to my attention as someone who could potentially be a contributor at Microsoft. I would love an opportunity to speak with you in detail about your interest in a career at Microsoft, along with your experience, background and qualifications.”
If this was a cover letter, the candidate wouldn’t have a chance. A complete boilerplate message without any thought or tangible specifics as to why it was sent. Yet, not only is the recruiter unfamiliar with candidate’s qualifications and background (otherwise this letter would not have been sent), they take for granted that the candidate wants to work at Microsoft. Plus, it’s exactly opposite how Google is recruiting.
With company benefits continually cut, employees having to supplement employer-based health insurance, and staff directories as fluid as football rosters, this assumption can’t be made.
Until organizations can again provide the stability and security they once promised, it’s a seller’s market or a Free Agent Nation
Here’s an example of a low-risk, mutually-respectful hiring process
A few years back, the company I worked for described their hiring process, similar to this, as “deliberate.” That description stuck with me. It was one also of the best places I’ve worked for.
This is what Seth Godin means when he talks about dating your prospects. Give the audio from Seth’s London Marketing Soiree a listen for more. Thanks Hugh
Over the weekend we set up and launched the CollegeRecruiter.com podcast using BetDirCaster.
Integration into their existing site went quickly. More quickly than I anticipated. I’m excited about podcasts like this; timeless information to a niche audience in 10 minutes or less.
If you’re using BetDirCaster and having problems with the track description displaying correctly, download the latest BetDirCaster. Progress has been made on that bug, and I could use some feedback on how far along we are.
Had another conversation yesterday about how podcasting can help business communicate and connect both internally and externally. One thing coming out of these conversations – there’s probably audio or video somewhere in your organization that is collecting dust and could be more used and more useful in an RSS feed. Aside from the convenience, there’s an accessibility aspect to podcasting.
Steve Rubel at Micro Persuasion pointed to News@Cisco Podcast the podcast from Cisco’s PR team.
Rob over at Business Pundit posts on How Broken Windows Can Kill a Business. As always, insightful.
I’m a big fan of fixing the small things. Not only does it make a change easier to implement, all big things are made of small things, so the big things start to take care of themselves.
The first comment, from David Lorenzo offers insight as compelling as Rob’s original post:
“When I was in the hotel industry and I was faced with a troubled property I would always clean up the ‘back of the house’ first. I would scrub and paint all the areas that the guests wouldn’t see. I would upgrade the meals in the employee cafeteria and I would re-stripe the employee parking lot….I would explain that we were going to improve every detail of our hotel guests’ experience and we were going to start from the inside out.”
Greg Lindsay over at Business 2.0 linked to the Working Pathways’ economics of podcasting post in his Podcasting’s Nonstar System article.
The big media podcasts on iTunes main page are in direct competition with your best friend’s podcast, the podcast on your favorite avocation, and your own. In that list, who’s the star?
This weekend, I discussed podcasting with someone in the public radio business. As much of a win podcasting is for public radio to maintain the relationship with members (it’s the only way I can listen to On the Media) it very directly pits WNYC against KCRW against WBEZ against KNOW against the local NPR affiliate in your neighborhood. Now when I’m driving through Wisconsin, I can get my public radio fix without listening to Calling All Pets.
I’m excited for public radio to podcast more, their experience in donation collection could be extremely helpful to podcasters interested in covering their costs. I also think it’ll be a great way for some of the smaller affiliates, like Wisconsin Public Radio to attract members outside the reach of their broadcast antenna.
There’s very little preventing listeners rewarding all the public radio stations I listed above with membership. Though, the rewarding will be in response to a specific program that resonates with a specific listener, not just because the station exists.
The playing field is level, so this is true for all podcasts – big media, public radio, and 8,000+ others.