This Blog Is Relocating

If you're a reader or subscriber of this blog, first of all, thank you. Secondly, if you'd like to keep receiving updates, please follow me over on my new site & blog.

Years ago, I started Cafe Witness as an outlet for my casual observations. (I've always considered myself to be an armchair sociologist who just happens to make a living producing media.) But since my "personal brand" (if we must use that term) includes all aspects of my personality -- including the cynical, sarcastic and idiosyncratic side most often on display here -- I feel comfortable merging this POV with my allegedly more "professional" side.

(Also, many wise people tell me it's good SEO to merge my two sites, and I prefer to merge them into the domain I own, rather than this one that's owned by Goooooogle.)

So please, follow me here (and update your RSS subscriptions accordingly). I can't say Cafe Witness will never be updated again, but for now, let's consolidate our efforts and see where that gets us.

I'm Bored With Your Brand

I'm bored with everything about your brand. I'm bored with your logo, I'm bored with your public outreach, and I'm bored with the endless obsession over what your brand means to others.

In fact, if I never hear another word about your brand again, I'll sleep better at night. (And I say this as someone who works in marketing.)

Stop worrying about your brand -- and, more importantly, stop making me (and everyone else you don't really know) worry about your brand.

Just do something.

Do something amazing, innovative, world-changing. Start small but aim big. Or not; small is hard, too. Just get it right. Or try to get it right, relentlessly.

The more amazing, innovative or world-changing your actions, the more likely other people will start talking about you. And they won't be talking about your brand because you want them to; they'll be talking about your brand because they want to.

Except they won't be talking about your brand, really. They'll be talking about your actions. And actions are a lot bigger than a brand.

Image by Tambako the Jaguar.

10 Ways to Become a Thought Leader

When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up and become an artist, a chef or (in one bout of misplaced humanism) a farmer. Today, kids grow up wanting to be social media rockstars and thought leaders. (And by "kids," I mean "thirty-five year-old desk jockeys," but I digress...)

Why the newfound passion for "thought leadership"? Because in uncertain economies, one thing still counts: influence. You may not have two dimes to rub together, but if you can convince the guy next to you that You Have Ideas, he'll probably buy you a cup of coffee just to hear you out. And that's how people without real jobs can stay alive when the depression comes.

So, without further ado, here are 10 Ways YOU Can Become a Thought Leader:

1. Get It Out There. History is littered with the corpses of people who put off sharing their big ideas because they "weren't ready yet." Do you have an idea? Share it. If it sucks, people will tell you. If it's good, people will steal it. And if it's great, people will tell you it sucks and THEN steal it. (Watch for this; it means you're on to something...)

2. Be Controversial. No one quotes the moderate, and even when they do, no one remembers what he said. If you want to be remembered, be extreme. If you want to be influential, be extreme AND easy to read. No one likes long-winded crackpots.

3. Make It All About You. Human beings have a natural tendency to cast the spotlight off themselves and onto other people, especially when they ask things like "How are you?" and "What do you think?" Be resilient. That spotlight was made for you, and the longer it's cast across your luminescent talents, the longer an opportunity the world will have to bask in the shadow of your genius. Thus, never miss an opportunity to turn any conversation into a time-worn anecdote about A Lesson You Learned (Preferably In Three Acts).

4. Start a Religion. Hey, it worked for L. Ron Hubbard and Jesus.

5. Influence the Influencers. Remember Basquiat? He was forever surrounded by low-level starmakers, but it wasn't until he literally threw himself at Andy Warhol that he got "discovered." Who's the Andy Warhol of your field? Get on that person's radar, and then don't leave -- at least not until you're bigger then he is. (Then run, because he'll probably want something.)

6. Repeat Things. This is a fast-paced world. People often completely ignore the best advice, even when it's right in front of them, because they're distracted. Or skimming. Or both. Don't let them miss out on your gems of wisdom.

7. Be Vague. If you give people a 10-step plan to upright the economy, you're a policy wank. If you tell people that "Savers Are Losers", you're a thought leader. Go with that.

8. Repeat Things. This is a fast-paced world. People often completely ignore the best advice, even when it's right in front of them, because they're distracted. Or skimming. Or both. Don't let them miss out on your gems of wisdom.

9. Be Prolific. It's not enough to have one good idea. Have dozens. Because if you're capable of being a genius once, people will expect you to be a genius in all cases. DO NOT DISAPPOINT THEM.

10. Preach Common Sense. Because life isn't all that hard, when you stop and think about it. In fact, it can be summed up pretty easily: say, think and do the things that make your life, and the lives of those around you, as fulfilling and rewarding as possible. But these days, no one actually has the time to stop and think; they need YOU to do that for them.

And they'll pay you for it.

(Photo by farlyj)

The Culture Gap

Last week, I saw a play that was written by an African-American playwright. It dealt with issues of gender, race and identity. It tackled sensitive subjects like sexual abuse and racism. And it was framed around an iconic myth of nature, hope and redemption.

And I hated it.

Not because the play was heavy-handed, unsurprising or obvious (which it was), but because it was being lauded despite these shortcomings. Lauded, I felt, *because* it was a play about a different cultural experience than what the theatregoers in Pittsburgh are used to. In this particular case, I felt quality (or its absence) was being ignored in favor of political correctness -- of the NEED to champion a work of art that presented a less-omnipresent POV than that of the Straight White Male that governs so much of American society.

My continued evaluation of that play, and of my experience with it, have prompted numerous questions over the past week, including:

* Am I unable to connect with art created by artists from different cultural backgrounds because we lack the same shared experiences?

* Does our cultural background directly impact our ability to emotionally or intellectually evaluate art?

* Is mediocre art from underexposed cultures given a "pass" by the cultural gatekeepers simply because they feel obligated to promote any voice from within those cultures that are willing to step forward?

* Does allowing mediocre art to flourish do a disservice to the potential artists from within a specific culture by lowering the bar of expectations?

* Is it fair to compare art from various cultural backgrounds? Is it racist NOT to?

* How profoundly does a difference in gender impact one's ability to understand another?

* What larger cultural or social implications arise when art created for "shock value" ceases to provoke a "shocked" experience in its audience? Does that mean we've diverged too far from a "norm" of behavior, or does it mean we've simply assimilated that previously "extreme" behavior into our larger frame of reference and nullified its impact?

I don't have answers to any of these questions, but I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.

A Sobering Thought

As I was laying in bed yesterday, it occurred to me that, in all likelihood, I'll be dead in 60 years.

I'm 30 now, so -- at best -- that means I'm 1/3 of the way to my grave.

Not that it bothers me. But it does get me thinking...

When I go, will I have lived a life I can be proud of?

Will I have accomplished most of the goals I pursued?

Will I have seen and done things that made my life worthwhile?

I suppose the answer to those questions will be up to me, in my final hours. But I'm also aware that the fuel for those answers will be found over the next 60 years or so. That means every choice suddenly takes on a bit more weight.

Suddenly, "just getting by" doesn't seem worthwhile.

Suddenly, "living comfortably" doesn't seem good enough.

Instead, I'm well aware that I have a LOT to do on the road to a life I can remember with pleasure and contentment in my final hours, instead of frustration and regret.

Seasonal cliché? Possibly. But nonetheless relevant.

How are YOU doing on your road toward the Great Unknown?

What Does Success Mean to You?

I've been creating Something to Be Desired for four years now. I consider us to be "successful" in that we've kept the show online and interesting despite numerous hurdles.

And yet, whenever someone asks me what my goals are... I realize I can't articulate them, because I haven't defined them for myself.

Things Are Changing

I've been having a lot of conversations lately with social media folks -- and reading a lot of blogs and Twitters -- that lead me to believe the bulk of the people in this space have a hard time defining what success means for them, and therefore understanding the steps they need to take in order to get there.

Last year, PodCamp Boston exceeded expectations because it had never been done. This year, although attendance was up, it was still about 50% of the registered total. Was that a "success"? It depends on whom you ask.

Most of the no-shows were people "outside the fishbowl" -- those interested parties who weren't yet creating content and therefore weren't 100% invested in having a conversation about it.

"How do we get those people involved?" was the question a lot of us have been asking for a long time, and there still aren't clear-cut answers.

Maybe that's because we're not demonstrating that social media is a "successful" investment of OUR time and resources yet, simply because so few of us know whether or not we ARE successful. It's hard to lead by example when you're not sure where you're headed.

What Constitutes Success For You?

Are you a creator? Does the thrill of making something from nothing give you an unequaled charge?

Are you a collaborator? Do you prefer working with others to make something greater than any of you could have done independently?

Are you seeking an audience? What kind of audience? Is it more important for you to have a wide, "mainstream" appeal in your work, or a smaller, highly-engaged readership / listenership / viewership?

Are you seeking investment? What kind of investment? How much money / resources? From whom? What would you do with it if you had it?

Are you seeking to make a living at what you're doing? To become profitable? What's your break-even point? Where will that money come from?

What do you want to be doing in a year? In three years?

Very few of us seem to know the answers to these questions, which therefore prevents us from being able to take the steps to accomplish them. As a result, I see a lot of rudderlessness throughout the medium. I see disinterest, worry, cynicism and frustration. (I should know - I'm the generator of a significant amount of it.)

So, if that's the case, why don't we refocus for a moment and ask ourselves, honestly: What does success mean to you?

And, to kick-start the conversation, I'll list my POV. To me, success would be:

* Being out of debt
* Making a comfortable living
* Having health insurance
* Working as a writer / director / producer
* Having STBD viewed by 10,000+ people per episode
* Earning enough money from STBD to pay the cast
* Seeing STBD become one of the top shows in modern media
* Collaborating with creative people from multiple fields
* Helping shepherd other people's ideas to fruition
* Investing in / growing other small businesses
* Being able to donate time / resources to charities
* Being able to travel

Yours?

Newsvine Loves Irony

The front page story on Newsvine just now was about a self-described pedophile, Jack McClellan, who says he finds young girls attractive but does not molest them. McClellan has been issued a temporary restraining order, insisting he stay 30 feet away from everyone under the age of 18 in the state of California.

Meanwhile, the ad on the Newsvine article page was the graphic to your left: the nubile, pseudo-pubescent Snorg tees girl.

Either Newsvine loves irony, or I think we just got a snapshot of some larger sociological problems in this country...

Fishbowls and Treehouses

Quick: who's your audience?

Most of us know who our TARGET audience is. We know who we're EXPECTING to interact with our product / service / message ("PSM"). We may even have demographics that PROVE whom our audience actually IS...

What we're forgetting is everyone ELSE who may stumble across our PSM by accident... or through the back door... or on referral... or any of a million ways we didn't plan for.

Does your PSM "work" for the people OUTSIDE the fishbowl?

Even The Pros Get It Wrong

To wit, the photo above. How many of you noticed that "Vanilla" is misspelled on the Glade packaging? Apparently, no one at Glade did, either...*

Odds are, no one at Glade lost their job over that gaffe. The people who already buy Glade vanilla spray know what the canister looks like. They don't even stop to read the label.

But what about potential new users? Will they be dubious of a product from an industry leader who can't even spell the product's name right?

Industrial Shorthand

At my old job, I edited industrial safety videos. Due to time constraints, these videos are pumped out quickly, which means it's vital to get the information across as CLEARLY and QUICKLY (in regard to production time) as possible.

While on a recent visit to the old office, I realized just how UNCLEAR some of the information in these videos would be to anyone without a working foreknowledge of the subject covered.

With a few extra graphics, more explanatory video clips and some clarification of the actual script -- all very small investments in actual production time -- that video would be FAR more valuable as a learning tool.

But why make those changes? After all, their target audience is already paying for them as-is.

A Ladder to the Treehouse

Very often, we as creators of social media -- whether we're writing text, making graphics, shooting video or communicating in general -- make presumptions about our audience.

If we're proactive, we assume they know at least as much about our subject as we do.

If we're cynical, we presume the general public doesn't CARE about our subject as much as we do.

And if we're ignorant, we presume our audience will stick with us even when we sell them short, take them for granted or deliver less than our best.

In all cases, we don't take the trouble to make our conversations accessible beyond the immediate, expected audience -- our personal fishbowl.

We might therefore blame the audience when they can't follow our line of thinking. We might accuse them of being lazy, or having short attention spans, or simply bad taste.

What we're losing sight of is that our audience, by and large, WANTS to like what we do. People who stumble across us WANT to be entertained, WANT to be informed, WANT to be pleasantly surprised. If all we do is reinforce THEIR presumption -- that we're of a treehouse mentality, uninterested in admitting them because they're "not as cool" -- then we certainly can't complain when they don't take an interest in what we do... or tell their friends... or subscribe to our RSS feeds... or pay our bills.

Granted, your existing audience may love what you do despite -- or even BECAUSE OF -- the fishbowl you've created. But for everyone who blindly follows your lead because they've become complacent in your fishbowl, there's another person who actually knows how to spell "vanilla" -- and they'll do business with someone else who bothers to do the same.

* UPDATE: As has been mentioned to me off-blog, "vainilla" is a Spanish spelling of "vanilla," and "spray" translates bilingually as well. Fair enough. But, by that rationale, if "spray" translates bilingually, why doesn't "vanilla"?... Someone find me a bilingual French canister that says "chocolat spray," please...

Being Indie Is Hard Work

The Tazza D'Oro cafe is closed for renovations this week, and will reopen tomorrow.

Overheard, from a guy who drove up and learned that lesson the hard way, then turned to his business associate:

Is there a Starbucks near [their destination]?

Notice he didn't say, "Is there another independently owned, green-minded, fair trade-driven coffee shop" nearby?

Apparently, the desire to support independent businesses only works when it's convenient.

5 Ways to Positively Disconnect

I'm overwhelmed with media buzz 24 hours a day. I wake up to email and go to sleep with video games. Very little in my day is spent outside the thrall of media consumption.

When I need to clear my head and re-attune myself to what REALLY needs to be done -- or, just as important, what my subconscious tells me I want / ought to be doing -- I need to unplug; sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for a couple days. If you have trouble doing the same, here are five tips to help you disconnect:

1. Commute in Silence

The drive / ride to work may be a great to time listen to podcasts or the radio, or catch up on phone calls / email. It's also a good chance to disconnect your mind (for a regulated period of time) and let it wander.

Observe your surroundings. People-watch. Listen to the sounds of your car. Maybe you'll notice something you overlooked before, or stumble upon a new idea.

2. Eat Alone

For all the business wisdom associated with NOT eating alone, sometimes a quick lunch or lengthy dinner on your own terms is enough to reset the vibe. Find a window seat. Eat at your own pace. Have dessert. Then return to the issue at hand.

3. Leave the Cell Phone at Home

Blasphemy? Hardly. When I volunteer at the Animal Rescue League in the evenings, I rarely take my cell phone with me. The hour or two that I spend walking dogs is made even more pleasant knowing I won't be interrupted by telemarketers or arbitrary texts.

4. Meditate

Reserve a small portion of your day -- in the morning, after lunch, in the evening -- for voluntary solitary confinement. Find a quiet place where you won't be interrupted. Turn off distractions -- except an alarm clock, if you tend to fall asleep in such circumstances.

Allow your mind to wander freely. Focus on the positives, both real and desired, in your life. Then return to your daily routine with renewed clarity and vigor -- and, perhaps, a few new ideas.

5. Take a Tech-Free Vacation

Unless you're on a business trip, the best thing that can happen to you is to be booked into a hotel with no internet connection. The harder you have to work to stay connected -- where is the nearest internet cafe? -- the easier it is to allow yourself to become disconnected.

When I went to Paris last April, I had no working cell phone and no laptop. We relied on maps, a guidebook and a basic understanding of the French language to get around. And the fact that I couldn't check my mail for three days made me forget why I ever wanted to check it in the first place.

Getting Past the Fear of Seclusion

Society has trained us to believe that we're only experiencing life if we're connected. That's entirely dependent on what your "life" consists of. For most of us, it could (and should) involve a lot more activities without keypads and screens.

Don't think of disconnecting as a negative. Think of it as a way of getting back to that larger life we keep forgetting we're part of.

The Value of Doing Nothing

We wrapped up our fourth season of Something to Be Desired this week, and suddenly, I'm faced with the situation I've dreamed of for weeks:

I have nothing to do.

And it's simultaneously rapturous and alarming.

Semantics, Baby

Of course, I don't have nothing to do. I've been juggling several freelance projects, with a few more on tap. I have an upcoming PodCamp Pittsburgh 2 to plan for. I have numerous financial situations to improve, rectify and otherwise attend to.

But, for all intents and purposes, the primary focus of my life for the past year is over -- temporarily, at least.

Now I have the complete freedom to organize my days any way I see fit. I can compartmentalize my workflow differently. I can go out in the evening, spend time with family and friends, and remind myself I have a girlfriend again.

I can read.

The Downside to Freedom

Like most people, I tend to get a lot of great ideas at precisely the wrong time to work on them.

I'll be staring down a hard deadline for one project and suddenly see the answer to a problem in another project that I'd completely forgotten about -- but I don't have time to implement it.

I'll be Googling for information about one project and invariably find something I know I can use in another capacity -- but I don't have time to explore it.

Now all I have is time.

Of course, the cynics among you have seen this point coming: with no excuses, I now suddenly have no recourse but to follow through on all these other grand ideas.

Will my subconscious mind, which tends to generate far more material than I ever seem to be able to act upon, be as fertile when I now actually HAVE the capacity to take action? Or will I suffer from psychosomatic stage fright? Time will tell. And time is something I have plenty of...

What about you? Do you find a wealth of free time to be a blessing or a curse? How do you maximize your freedom?

Failure Junkies

How often do you come SO CLOSE to what you want to accomplish... only to let it slip away?

Not that you meant to fail. You just didn't plan properly. Or you forgot an element of the process. Or you misunderstood the directions. Or you overslept.

If this happens to you once or twice, it's an aberration. If it happens enough that it becomes synonymous with your personality, it's a problem.

Some people might call this kind of chronic shortfall "self-sabotage" -- a fear of success. I'd counter that argument: it's not fear of success that sends people stumbling en route to the finish line; it's complacency with failure.

Simply put, if you fail often enough, you learn how to do it really well. You subconsciously understand how NOT to get the job done. And that kind of perpetual second (or third, or thirtieth) place finish becomes a bizarre version of a safety blanket.

Once you learn how to handle failure, you realize it's not so bad. Once you fail enough, you realize it might not even matter.

Sure, you're not planning to fail, but you're not necessarily concerned about winning either. Because you know failing won't kill you, and -- in a best case scenario -- it might even allow you to prolong your current lifestyle, which you've become accustomed to.

In short, you've become a failure junkie.

I understand this kind of behavior because I live it more often than I'd like to admit. Odds are, so do you.

So, what do we do about it?

The first step to recovery is admitting we have a problem...

Think for Yourself

As information becomes available in increasing amounts and at ever more rapid speeds, it becomes more and more difficult to draw our own conclusions.

How many hours a day do you spend online -- surfing the web, reading blogs, checking news sites, social networking, answering email, etc.?

Add to that the amount of time you spend with traditional media -- the radio on your morning commute, the paper in a cafe, the evening news on TV.

THEN add in the time you spend talking with other people -- friends, family, spouse, coworkers, the small talk you make with the barista or bartender...

That ENTIRE time, you're intaking information. Your mind is categorizing it into various sub-compartments -- true / false, possible / impossible, good / bad, right / wrong -- as fast as it can, so you can formulate a new opinion and feed it back into the conversation at the next possible opportunity.

No one wants to be left out of the information loop. No one wants to ONLY be a receiver; we want to be HEARD.

But when do you make time to THINK?

It (Didn't) Work[ed] in Guyana

I saw a documentary yesterday called Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. For those who don't know, Jim Jones was an evangelist with a powerful cult of personality. He mobilized over 2,000 people to leave their homes and families and come to live with him in his equal opportunity commune in the '60s and '70s, moving first to Redwood Valley, California, then to San Francisco.

When the going got tough -- and ex-members of the Peoples Temple started telling their stories of brainwashing and abuse to the media -- Jones mobilized his troops once again... to Guyana. Essentially overnight, he uprooted several hundred followers and left for a village he'd had built in a jungle in Guyana called Jonestown. There, the people lived in harmony, apart from the "real world"... even as suspicion of Jones's activities rose to a boiling point here in America, and family members of those who'd left began asking the government to get involved and help bring them home.

The part of the story most of us know is the "Kool-Aid." When Congressman Leo Ryan and a camera crew visited Jonestown in 1978, they were gunned down on the tarmac before they could bring the willing deserters home to America. Realizing his time was up, Jones insisted that it was better to "die in peace" than to live in oppression, and so he suggested / cajoled / ordered his followers to drink cyanide. Over 900 people, including children and infants, died -- voluntarily -- in one day.

The documentary is narrated by ex-members of the Peoples Temple, including a few survivors of that day in November -- the ones who suddenly realized none of it made sense.

As their stories reveal, Jones was able to maintain his sway over his followers through a potent mix of personality, sexuality, disinformation, sleep deprivation, guilt, fear and mandated ignorance. Temple members were encouraged to work up to 20 hours a day, were ridiculed if they slept or had intimate relations with others ( both of which were referred to as "selfish"), and were routinely chastised and beaten for transgressions.

But, because Jones convinced them that they could not leave because the world would never welcome them back, few of them attempted to.

In Jonestown, the only media that was permitted was Jones's own voice, which played on a loudspeaker throughout the village, 24 hours a day. No matter what time it was, you could hear "news updates" on the outside world from Jones. This helped cultivate a nonstop aura of paranoia and fear, that someone was always "out to get them."

In the end, the only one who was out to get them was Jones himself. And he did.

And yet... all of this could have been avoided if any of the Peoples Temple members had stopped and taken the time to think for themselves.

Evaluate the Data

Scientists don't jump to conclusions.

They formulate theories, conduct rigorous tests and base their conclusions upon the best evaluations of that data. If they didn't, we'd have laws and theories that could be disproven at the drop of a hat, and the world would still be in the Dark Ages.

There's a reason they're called the Dark Ages: it's because the concept of public knowledge was considered dangerous. The less the peple knew, the more easily they could be controlled.

Today, we have the opposite problem: there's so MUCH information available, we barely have time to make sense of it all before there's more to search through.

But endlessly absorbing information without taking due time to process and comprehend it -- to accept or reject it -- is almost as bad as having no information at all.

Don't get caught up in the information tidal wave. Grant yourself the right to take a break in the day -- several breaks, if needed -- and take a walk. Take a drive. Have a drink. Take a nap. Clean the garage.

Do whatever you need to do in order to allow your mind the time it needs to finish processing what you already know -- or what you think you know. You owe it to the world to put that information to its best possible use. More importantly, you owe it to yourself to understand where you're going and why.