The amazing adventures of Doug Hughes

Posts tagged ‘Alagad’

Change, Fear, Life After Death

Back in 2009 my company, Alagad, had what I think of as The Big Layoff.  We went from about 13 employees and contractors down to three people in a matter of a fifteen minute phone call.  This wasn’t the first round of layoffs I’ve had to do, but it was the hardest.  I loved the people who worked with me.  I cared about them and their families and I felt as though I had personally failed them. Frankly, I did.  I’m sure that I could have done more to protect them, their jobs, and their families.  That said, they’ve all gone on to bigger and better things and I’m extremely happy for them.

In the year or so leading up to these layoffs I was constantly assaulted with panic attacks. My chest would seise, I’d get tunnel vision, my mind would shut down everything except worry.  White hot worry. I worried about the people who worked for me and the overwhelming responsibility I had to them.  I worried about paying my bills.  I worried about my family.  Through the support of my family, the remaining employees, and the miracle of modern pharmacology I somehow made it through that period.

Sometimes I wonder if I didn’t completely fry my nerves. I wonder this because I am again tearing Alagad down.  Three weeks ago we were faced with the very real fact that we would likely go out of business.  Both my personal and business accounts were overdrawn and we couldn’t make payroll.  Again.  We had to leave the PEO that provided our health benefits and payroll service.  The walls were coming down.

So I held a call with all four of us, three family members and one employee who may as well be family at this point.  We talked about shutting down and what that would mean.  Throughout this experience I felt calm.  Not happy, but calm, collected.  Worried too, but not like in 2009.  I sincerely felt as though I had done everything I could and that, if we failed, no one could blame me for not trying.

What’s interesting to me is that I don’t feel the same panic I did in 2009.  I don’t feel like a hole is being burrowed in my chest.  I can breath and sleep. I’m not entirely sure why.

I imagine that when death is imminent – when you are terminally ill – that a certain peace and calmness comes from that knowledge.  I imagine that you release your desperate grip on everything that holds you to the physical world. Nothing can harm you now.  There are no more consequences. You transcend fear.

That’s where I am. Nothing can hurt me now. And strangely, because of this, I am free.  I can do anything I want.  I can take tremendous risks without fear.  I am like the terminally ill patient who decides to live each day as if it were their last, because it might be.

Much to my surprise, out of that phone meeting was born an entirely new strategy we’re calling Alagad 2.0.  I’ve detailed it on an all-new Alagad.com website and will spare you the details here.  Suffice it to say it’s not the traditional way of running a software company.

I feel like the terminally ill patent who is given experimental treatment.  It might save their life, but might just kill them even faster.  There’s only one way to find out and I’m comfortable with this.

I can’t lie and say that I’m entirely at peace.  I still worry.  We don’t currently have health insurance and we depend on our prescriptions for our mental well being.  Many have criticized our new approach saying that we don’t understand the business.  But others have suggested it’s might actually be a good idea.

Maybe I’m just delaying the inevitable, but I’m ok with that. The picture that has emerged to me is that there is in fact life after death.  It’s a rebirth of some sort – a renaissance.  A new start. I look forward to it with an open and calm mind.

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All Hat, No Cattle

I think I’ve finally made an important mental leap, as far as business and startups are concerned.  It’s not just the idea I need, it’s the execution of the idea.  So far, with the exception of Alagad, my execution on my various ideas has been less than stellar.

What brought this realization on was a post I saw on Reddit the other day.  This image was posted to /r/entrepreneur:

Ideas are just a multiplier of execution 2009-07-28 It's so funny when I hear people being so protective of ideas. (People who want me to sign an NDA to tell me the simplest idea.) To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions. Explanation: AWFUL IDEA = -1 WEAK IDEA = 1 SO-SO IDEA = 5 GOOD IDEA = 10 GREAT IDEA = 15 BRILLIANT IDEA = 20 NO EXECUTION = $1 WEAK EXECUTION = $1000 SO-SO EXECUTION = $10,000 GOOD EXECUTION = $100,000 GREAT EXECUTION = $1,000,000 BRILLIANT EXECUTION = $10,000,000 To make a business, you need to multiply the two. The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000. That's why I don't want to hear people's ideas. I'm not interested until I see their execution.

This screencap was taken from Derek Sivers blog. Why the poster posted an image and not a link to the blog, I don’t know.

I’ve ranted in the past about how many brilliant ideas I have.  And, in all seriousness, I do think some of them are pretty good.  But it would seem that my execution has been pretty weak.  Truth be told, I already knew this, but this image really crystalized the idea for me.

In fact, I don’t even technically run my own company, Alagad, any more.  Randy Miller, my father in law, took over as CEO about a year ago.  I still drive the company’s concepts and technical direction.  But, when it comes down to making sure we get stuff done that we need to, I’ve handed that off to Randy. For Randy, this must be like herding cats.

To a degree, I think the fact that Alagad grew to what it was at its’ peak (13 people and 7 figures of income) was almost luck and perseverance more than a good execution.  I had the passion for what we were doing, but I pretty much was clueless on how to generate leads and make sales.  To a degree, I think that’s because Alagad has always tried to be everything to everyone.  I’d say “If it can be done on the internet, we can do it.”  True though this may be, it’s not the easiest thing to sell.

So, with all these ideas I’ve worked on over the years (TaskForce, urate.it, Supporting.us, Respondin.gs, CouponHor.se, and many, many, more), I’ve failed to get anywhere because my execution sucks.  That a fun realization to have, isn’t it?  (No.)

I was talking with my psychiatrist the other day about ADHD, which I’ve recently learned I have.  I was lamenting how many half finished projects I have.  I’ll be working on one of my ideas diligently, and then suddenly come up with some brilliant new idea that I’m totally incapable of ignoring.  It’s so easy for me to get knocked off track and feel like my latest idea cannot be ignored!  It’ll be quicker, easier, bigger, and when it’s done, it will finance all these other ideas I want to do!

This is actually why I started ProjectSpark! last week.  I’m really hoping to find some people who can help me overcome some of my weaknesses, such as execution.  Because, frankly, I don’t want to flop around like a fish out of water forever.

For those who don’t know, ADHD is essentially an impairment of working memory.  What that means is I don’t have as much storage as other people do in the part of my brain where I work with information.  So, when I come up with an exciting new idea I essentially can’t remember why my previous ideas shouldn’t be immediately usurped.  I’m always seeing the world from a new perspective.  This might also explain why I can’t remember names to save my frickin’ life.

To help overcome this, my psychiatrist assigned some homework to me.  She wants me to create a flow chart of my decision making process.  Basically, I need to draw up how I decide what I should be doing at any given time, and where that will lead me.  The idea being that I can constantly refer back to this flowchart to go through a decision making process that doesn’t change every time I make a choice.  This should help me prioritize my work and keep my eye on the prize.  Frankly, I have no idea how the hell to do this.  I’m going to draw something up and probably share it here.  And then later I’ll revise it with her assistance.  I see the value in this, but I’ve got no idea how to do it.

So, now I know I need to improve my execution.  (Not that kind, sorry to disappoint.)  Figuring out how is the next big challenge.  Any ideas?

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ProjectSpark! #1: CouponHor.se

I just announced that I’m starting what I’m calling ProjectSpark!  As a quick summary, ProjectSpark! is my attempt to publicly describe business ideas I’ve come up with that I think have merit.  My intent is to collect feedback on the idea and, if I’m lucky, to try to build a team of partners with complementary skills to work together to bring the idea to market and to share in its guidance, ownership, and profits. Without further ado, here is my first ProjectSpark! idea:

CouponHor.se

What the heck is CouponHor.se, you may ask? And why the heck is there a period in the middle of the word horse?  Well, the answers are forthcoming, I promise.  But first, some backstory…

I am pretty much addicted to NPR’s Planet Money podcast.  I discovered it recently and have been working my way through last year’s shows. Today I listened to episode #265: Groupon! Monty Python! Price Discrimination! which “aired” Apr 09, 2011.  In this podcast the Planet Money team explains how Groupon is just a recent way that people apply the economic principal of price discrimination.

What is price discrimination? This is essentially what happens when a seller sells the same thing for different prices to different people.  Historically, people have price discriminated through haggling.  Perhaps you are selling a trinket on the street that I think is attractive.  I might make you an offer, you counter offer, and I counter-counter offer.  This goes on for a while until we find a price that I’m willing to pay that you are willing to sell for.  The final price may be higher or lower than what any other customer may pay.

However, in today’s fast paced mass consumption society, this just isn’t practical any more.  Harris Teeter can’t bargain with every customer over the price of every product in their shopping cart.  However, this price inflexibility naturally causes some people who might otherwise buy something to not buy it.  For example, if Harris Teeter makes $1.00 profit from every box of frozen pizzas it sells, it might be able to afford to knock $0.50 off the price via a coupon.  This may encourage someone who otherwise would not pay full price to buy the product.  IE: The price is different for different people.

Groupon was 2011’s darling of price differentiation.  Or at least it was for a while.  It certainly took it’s lumps last year too.  The concept behind Groupon is essentially the same as any other coupon or discount offer.  Namely, consumers hope to get a discounted price and sellers hope to get increased awareness, increased traffic, increased sales, and, if they’re lucky, sell some add-ons to go with the deal.  For example, a glass of beer to go with a discounted meal sold to someone who hadn’t heard of the establishment before a Groupon email.

Groupon is only one of several hundred companies offering similar deal-a-day offers. LivingSocial is another well known example.  In fact, there are so many of these companies that they’ve been dubbed the Daily Deal industry and there are even conferences tending to this industry’s every need.

Now, at last, to explain what CouponHor.se is!  CouponHor.se is a Daily Deal website turned on its head.  Rather than a seller offering a given product at some discount to a certain number of people, a group of people offer to buy a product from any seller for a specified price.

To elaborate, what if I wanted to buy, say, a Nikon D3100 14.2MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 VR & 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lenses.  Let’s also assume that the market price of approximately $700 was too rich for me.  What if I wanted to pay, say, $600 max for it?  Maybe there is a retailer out there who would entertain that offer, especially if enough people bought into it?  That’s where CouponHor.se comes in!

As a buyer, I would be able to go to CouponHor.se and find this product (or list it if it’s not already there).  I can then set a price I will pay for this product along with a date that my offer is good through.  For example, I could say that I’m willing to pay $600 for a Nikon D3100 and that my offer is good for, say, two weeks.  I then put a certain amount of money down on this offer as a potentially refundable deposit.  I’m thinking 10% of the offer.  The buyer has now backed up their word with cold hard cash.

Now, this buyer goes off and promotes the heck out of their offer via Facebook, Twitter, and any other way they want. The goal is to get as many potential buyers to make their own offer.  So, let’s say I post to Facebook that I’m making this offer and a few other people see this, they can join in on the offer.  These people can make their own variations on the offer as well.  For example, maybe one of my friends is only willing to pay $550, but is willing to wait a month instead of two weeks.  Perhaps another friend is willing to pay $650.  The point being that for any given product any potential buyer can set their own offer price and how long they are willing to wait to make a deal.

The other side of CouponHor.se is for sellers.  Sellers can watch CouponHor.se for offers on products which they sell.  For example, a camera dealer may see that 1000 people have made offers for the Nikon D310.  500 of those are offering $600 or more.  They may then decide to accept all offers over $600.

To be clear, sellers would be able to choose a minimum price on offers that they’ll accept.  So those buyers who offered too low of a price would miss out on the opportunity and those who offered too high wouldn’t necessarily get as good of a deal as they could have.  However, the seller makes a large number of sales for the optimal price for each individual customer.  Furthermore, they can avoid making sales where they would otherwise loose money.  They can also wait for a certain number of offers above their cutoff threshold before they close the deal, assuming no other sellers close the deal first.

CouponHor.se would, of course, take a percentage of these sales for this service. I’m thinking that CouponHor.se would simply keep the 10% deposit that the buyer made and that the buyers would pay the seller directly.  This avoids potential Third Party Payment Processing problems that have plagued other businesses I’ve tried to start.

Those people whose offers were not accepted could elect to raise their offer and/or hold out for a future seller who will meet their price.  If a buyer’s offer is not accepted within the time frame they specified they would get a refund of all of their money, less a small fee.  I’m thinking 10% of the deposit.  So, if I offer $600 for the Nikon D3100, I have to pony 10%, $60, up front.  Now say my specified time period passes without my offer being accepted, I would get back $54 and CouponHor.se would keep $6 (10% of the deposit).  Ideally CouponHor.se would also have been collecting interest on the $60 while we held onto it for the buyer.  This provides an incentive for the buyer to make the best offer they’re willing to accept.  If they make a ridiculous offer they won’t get what they want and they’ll loose a small amount of money off of it.  Again, they’ve got skin in the game.

So, what happens if the buyer doesn’t follow through on their commitment to buy at the price they offered when a seller agrees?  This is entirely possible and may actually the best possible outcome for the seller.  Why?  Because the seller get the buyers deposit and don’t have to deliver any product!

And now to explain where the name CouponHor.se comes from.  Firstly, to me at least, the name invokes a mental image of a noble steed working for his master.  This horse could conceivably be the mascot and animated spokesperson of this business.

Secondly, the industry’s somewhat derogatory term for people who clip coupons and make use of daily deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial is “Coupon Whore”.  IE: Someone who will do anything for a coupon.  My thinking is, why is this a bad thing?  Consumers should wear this title with pride!  And, as luck would have it, Sweden’s top level domain name is “.se”.  I’ve recently been enamored with domain names that make use of the TLD as part of the name.  I submit to you some of my recent domain purchases: uAnswer.us, inItToWin.it, Supporting.us, and now CouponHor.se.

I think CouponHor.se is a unique name that stands out, clearly says what it is and what it’s for, and it is memorable.

And so now, dear reader, I turn this idea over to you. Please comment below and tell me what you think of this idea.  Is it a good idea or a crappy one?  What would make it better?  Also, do you want to be a part of the team that builds and owns this idea?  Do you want to invest in this idea to get it going?  Do you know someone who might be interested that I (or any other hypothetical team members) should talk to?  Basically, I request humbly that you brain dump in the comment area below.

Thanks for reading and look forward to your feedback!

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Introducing: ProjectSpark!

My major goal in life is to get rich – or at least make a comfortable living – by starting up new businesses.  I’ve talked about this a bit in the past.  In fact, I famously (to me) blogged about how I was looking for someone to invest in me on the Alagad blog.  For a while, I was tweeting a new business idea every day via @dougsIdeas.

I really enjoy taking an idea from concept to reality.  However, the problem is that I’m just one person.  There’s only so much I can do in a day.  Furthermore, I’m not skilled at every little thing that any project may require. I’m not a designer (I submit http://supporting.us as evidence).  I’m not a copy writer (but I play one on TV).  I’m not a user experience guru.  I’m not an information architect.  I’m not a mechanical or electrical engineer.  My ideas cross a many boundaries and there’s only so much I can personally do.

My other problem is that I lack contacts, or at least the knowledge of how to leverage the contacts I do have in my network.  I don’t have a rich uncle who will be an angel for every little idea I have.  I don’t have money to pay people to do things that I may not do well.

Most successful projects and businesses don’t come about from the lone efforts of a single person.  It takes a village, so to speak.  (I volunteer to be the village idiot!)  So, I’ve decided that perhaps I can build a team of like minded people.  What if a programmer (me), an MBA, a designer, a writer, a social media expert, a sales specialist, and an angel all came to work together? Why does it have to be just one of each? Why not more? What if they all worked together really well and enjoyed the experience, while remaining focused on the ultimate goal?

So, here’s my concept:  I’ll start detailing what I think are unique and compelling business ideas here on this blog as often as I can. Maybe one a week? Maybe more or less often, time will tell.  I’m thinking I could add a poll to the post to gauge general interest in the idea.  Perhaps readers who think an idea is good, who think they can help out, and who want to own part of the business can offer to join a team to build the idea.

The idea would be to build a team to create the business.  Anyhow who participates would get a reasonably large share of the company.  Ideally, if four people work together, they’d each get 25% of the company, assuming they all put in roughly proportional effort.  The group would share in creating the company, running the company, and reaping any benefits and profits that may bring.

Obviously there are a lot of details that are completely undefined at this point.  For example, what happens if someone joins the team but doesn’t deliver or under delivers?  How are potential team members filtered for quality and fit?  How should compensation be handled? How about failure?  And what happens if no one ever wants to join any team?

For now I’m going to ignore that last question and let my optimism cary me.  I can’t be the only person who wants to work with a great team to accomplish something awesome. If I put these ideas out there, maybe these people will find me.  And, failing that, maybe this will lead to a future job as a Conceptual Idea Guy™ for some lucky company. Who knows?

I currently invision that participants would all be putting in sweat equity and paying for things we need however we can.  So, for example, I’d put in hours and throw in money as I can and I’d hope others would too.  The goal, of course, would be to generate income for either a big ultimate pay off or, at least, a steady stream of income. Once one project gets its sea legs we could put a management team in place and act as directors.  Profits could potentially be reinvested in whatever the next project would be.

In the end, I’m hoping to build a close-knit team of entrepreneurs with complementary skills and who work together well and thrive in a startup environment.  Perhaps this is a pipe dream, but it can’t hurt to try!

And so, with that, I hereby commence what I shall now call ProjectSpark! Interested? Comment below or end me an email at doug@doughughes.net.

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My Goal, Revised

A couple of weeks back, while trying to inspire myself, I made a rather bold goal.  My goal was to publish one KickStarter project a month until one was actually funded.  I’m supposed to have published my first project by Febuary 17th.  Well, that’s not going to happen.  Not because of inaction, but because I now realize that this goal is totally ridiculous.

Not long after stating this goal, I submitted my first project proposal to KickStarter.  The way it works is you write up a proposal for a project and submit it to KickStarter.  The KickStarter folks review the proposal and decide if it falls within their guidelines or not.  The following are KickStarter’s guidelines, meticulously copied off of their site:

  • I am creating a project. Kickstarter is for the funding of projects – albums, films, specific works – that have clearly defined goals and expectations.
  • My project fits within one of Kickstarter’s categories. Kickstarter can be used to fund projects from the creative fields of Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology, and Theater. We currently only support projects from these categories.
  • My project does not incorporate charity or cause funding. Examples of prohibited use include raising money for the Red Cross, funding an awareness campaign, funding a scholarship, or donating a portion of funds raised on Kickstarter to a charity or cause.
  • My project is not a “fund my life” project. Examples include projects to pay tuition or bills, go on vacation, or buy a new camera.
  • My project offers rewards, not financial incentives. The Kickstarter economy is based on the offering of rewards – copies of the work, limited editions, fun experiences. Offering financial incentives, such as ownership, financial returns (for example, a share of profits), or repayment (loans) is prohibited.

The project I submitted was Supporting.us.  Supporting.us is a non-profit that will facilitate making mobile donations to charities.  This is a work in progress created by myself and the rest of the team here at Alagad (Chris Peterson, Liz Hughes, and Randy Miller).  You can visit Supporting.us to learn more about it, but be warned that I’ve not yet completed the content on the site, I’m not happy with the design, and there are a few features left to implement.  That said, I’d love to get any feedback you may have on the overall concept.

What I was asking KickStarter for was funds to complete the development, improve the design, and generally push this app over the finish line.  Unfortunately, I was declined by KickStarter.  For those who wonder how KickStarter rejects you, this is what I received from them:

Kickstarter Staff commented on your Kickstarter submission:

Thank you for taking the time to share your idea. Unfortunately, this isn’t the right fit for Kickstarter. We receive many project proposals daily and review them all with great care and appreciation. We see a wide variety of inspiring ideas, and while we value each one’s uniqueness and creativity, Kickstarter is not the right platform for all of them. We wish you the best of luck as you continue to pursue your endeavor.

Best,
Kickstarter

It’s pretty straightforward.  I can’t say I was terribly surprised either.  Reviewing the guidelines, I think Supporting.us fell into a gray area.  Specifically, Supporting.us does incorporate charity or cause funding.  If Supporting.us itself wasn’t a non-profit (which was our original intent, but won’t work – that’s a whole other story) I think this would have been more likely to be approved.  But, giving us funds would be, well, making a donation to a non-profit.

Another challenge with KickStarter is that they require projects to offer rewards to the people who make donations.  With a physical project this is easier than with a web app, you can simply reward them with the product they’re supporting.  But this isn’t as easy with something intangible like a web app.  For Supporting.us I proposed having Chris Peterson, one of our developers, make a set of one of a kind turned pens to give out as rewards.  While the pens are beautiful, they are unrelated to the project at hand.  Overall, it was an awkward proposal and I understand why it was declined.

This rejection puy my goal into perspective.  It’s going to be hard to get a project onto KickStarter unless it’s for a physical product.  Perhaps open source projects would have better chances.  Pretty much everything I know in this world is web (and now some mobile) development.  Looking through KickStarter, there just aren’t many projects of this type.  I’ll have to be creative.

I’ve decided to update my goal. Instead of trying to publish a new project every month, I just want to publish one project this year.  I don’t care if it gets funded, though I’ll do my best to see that it is!  I simply want to have the experience of publishing a project on KickStarter. Wish me luck and give me suggestions!

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If You Are Not Doing What You Love, You Are Wasting Your Time

I woke up this morning to see this lovely inspirational quote in my twitter feed:

If you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time.
– Billy Joel

Don’t you just love quotes like this?  The implication, of course, is that you can always do what you want to be doing.  While I believe this is essentially true, it’s just not that easy.  There’s this pesky thing called “life” which has a tendency to get in the way.  And one also needs to account for self doubt and more practical roadblocks like money and time.

Over the last few days I’ve written about how I want to switch up my life somehow.  Essentially, I want to make a new job for myself as serial entrepreneur.  I am always having ideas for businesses and some of them actually seem good.  Even better, some of them are doable by me. I love developing these ideas and making something out of them.

My question for myself is, if I love doing this stuff so much, why don’t I just freakin’ do it?! My wife would argue that I do.  I spend way too much time in my office working on my idea du jure.  Why don’t I ever feel like I accomplish anything?

I have a particular pattern I follow when it comes to this.  I suspect I may not be the only one who has this pattern.

My Workflow

Basically, something happens while I’m working to make me have second thoughts about whether I should be doing this work or not.  Someone might have a negative opinion that hits a nerve.  Maybe there’s work that I don’t want to do.  For example, pretty much anything not-technical.

Once you run into something you don’t want to (or can’t) deal with, love begins to fade.  That may well be one of the most cynical things I’ve ever written, but there’s truth to it.

So, what can I do about this?  Are all my various ideas and projects doomed to failure, half done?  I sure as hell hope not!

I have to remind myself that it took me about seven years to figure out how to make Alagad, my consulting business, into something worth talking about.  I spent years flailing around more or less randomly until something actually worked.

My wife has a story she likes to tell that probably came from Dr. Phil or someone simular.  There was a man who was lamenting falling out of love with his wife.  He used to love her, but he just didn’t have the feeling any more, though he wanted to.  What did Dr. Phil (or whoever) say to this man?  He reminded him that love isn’t just a noun, it’s a verb.  Love isn’t just a thing you feel, it’s a thing you do.

Since I’m no Dr. Phil, I’m going to have to simply say that in my case I’m going to have to try to love what I’m working on, even if I run into self doubt, naysayers, or whatever.  From experience, I can say this is easier said than done.  I’ve always been a doubter.  Without evidence I am always skeptical.

The thing about patterns, especially behavior patterns such as the one I outlined above, is that they’re hard to break.  Those who have ever struggled with weight loss or addiction know what I mean.  To break a behavior pattern you have to do something different, which I’m trying to do.

Yesterday I announced a goal of mine publicly:

I will publish 12 KickStarter projects in the next 13 months, one a month, starting 30 days from now, until all 12 have failed or one has been funded successfully! I will have my first KickStarter proposal submitted by February 16th!

This publicly stated goal (any actually following through on it) is the first thing I’m trying to do to break my patterns.  I’m hoping that if I work publicly, talk about what I’m trying to do and the challenges I run into, that I’ll find a way to keep working and reach my goal.

I’d like to end this article by updating the Billy Joel quote above with a few edits of my own:

If you are only half doing what you love you are truly wasting your time.
– Doug Hughes

What are your experiences in this area?

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And Now for Something Completely Different

I’ve decided to enroll in an improv class at DSI Comedy Theater in nearby Carrboro.  There are a few reasons why I decided to do this, but the initial inspiration came from a video clip I watched recently about QR Codes.  I’m working with a few other people from Alagad to launch a new non-profit that will make use of QR Codes to facilitate charitable donations.  While researching the idea I came across this clip from a presentation by a guy named Scott Stratten from a company called UnMarketing about where to use QR Codes.

I give talks a couple times a year.  Mostly these are on technical topics like building mobile applications or the finner points of web development frameworks, etc.  I’ve also given the odd Pecha Kucha talk.  I’ve been known to sneak the occasional one-liner into a presentation and love getting a laugh from the audience.

But, improve is supposedly much more than that.  Here’s how DSI Comedy Theater sells the classes to business people:

You won’t survive the business world unless you are able to communicate and collaborate in the workplace. Key improvisation techniques help business people to think on their feet, creating new ideas effortlessly, actively listening to others, and working productively inside team environments. Workshops will help you learn to read any audience and will heighten your professional flexibility, making it easier for you to accomodate clients, customers and manage conflicts in the workplace. You will make more money.

And that’s… The Bottom Line!

I like to think I’m pretty good at thinking on my feet and coming up with new ideas and interesting connections between not-obviously related things.  But it can’t hurt to practice and learn more.  And, maybe this will help improve my presentations.

Beyond that, I’ve been a bit of a cynical curmudgeon lately and avoid doing anything out of my tiny little comfort zone.  I used to pride myself on doing things I wasn’t comfortable with.  So I’m hoping I can find a way to let down my (remaining) hair and relax a little bit and have some fun.

I’ll post updates here and rehashes of the classes here as I take them.

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