Rory McIlroy won the 2011 US Open in record breaking fashion.  His ability to focus and stayed consistent under pressure is wonderful to watch.  I’ve never swung a golf club, but I know swinging a golf club is a lot like kicking a football.  Every kicking coach I had would parallel my practice sessions to golf.  ”Keep your head down, don’t look up, follow through…then adapt…enjoy,” they would say. I repeated these steps each time I practiced.

Many people would ask me how I was able to maintain my composure on the field during a kick with so much pressure.  The truth is that the hardest part for me was the hours and days I spent preparing in the off-season or practices leading up to game-day.  Before each kick, I checked which upright I wanted to hit; and then I’d take my steps back…2.5 back, 1.5 left. Once the ball was snapped, my internal clock told me that I had exactly 1.3 seconds or less to get the ball into the air or risk having it blocked.  The crazy thing is that in less than 1 second so much can happen.  The snap can be high.  The holder could mess up his handle; or the grass could be soaked and my plant foot could shift mid-stride.  And in that one second (that most people never see), I had to adapt to the game.

Successful people know how to adapt to their surroundings quickly.  Their core set of principles help guide them down a path; but as that path adjusts they need the survival skills to adapt.  Years of hard work and dedication can be deemed a success or failure with one split-second decision; and it happens every day.

“Keep your head down, don’t look up, follow through…then adapt…enjoy,”

Within the past 10 days, I’ve had 2 people come to me about their relationship issues…1 man, 1 woman…both about 29.

The common theme from both was that they were ready to quit social media as a whole.  My immediate thought was actually wish I could too.  Neither of them works in a realm that relies on active participation in social media; but, like many, they joined to keep tabs on their friends and to stay trendy.  They both have Facebook accounts, LinkedIn and nothing more.

The woman has a dream job as the behind the scenes person for a rather large Chicago based motivational speaker (basically, if you want the speaker, then you have to go through her).  The other is a BPO consultant for one of the major firms, and he spends an insane amount of time on the road.

Her Issue: The guy she’s dating is trying to move very fast with her (level jump), and she’s tying to take it slow.  The complication is that her friend’s love him and are constantly getting involved.  Basically, if he can’t find her, then he can IM/SMS/FB her friends to find out where she is.

Her Solution: She broke up with him, and is now MIA on Facebook.  She somehow privatized her account to virgin status again.  In fact, the only reason I touched base with her recently was because I noticed there had been a lack of status updates.

His Issue: The girl he’s dating basically dumped him to take a higher position in Germany (they work for the same firm).  She had a chance to move up, and she took it.  He was promoted shortly thereafter but chose to remain stateside.  The complication is that his friends, mostly ladies, were constantly asking him “what happened?, what are you going to do?, do you still love her?”…And on.

His Solution: He straight up deleted his Facebook account.  All 856 friends, 1,032 pictures and personal contact information pulverized!

Hearing these 2 speak, I was actually a little envious of their abilities to delete themselves from the social media universe and not miss a beat.  For what many of us do, it’s simply the most efficient tool we have to stay ahead in our careers.  Social media is not the only avenue, but it’s certainly the most efficient; however, it can get tiring trying to figure out all the gray areas that exist between personal and professional.

My questions:

-At what point does social media meet its Judgement Day?

-Will there be a core few core platforms like Facebook, Google, Tumblr or maybe even AOL one day and then the rest die?

-Facebook aside, I would venture to guess that mass creation of ideas on social media is a very low figure like 1% of the population; so what happens when the early adopters lose their lust for new social media platforms?

-Will Facebook and Google just become utilitarian where most people simply keep them just to keep up?

Last week several pieces came about physical media dying off, the Roku box in killing cable TV & Blockbuster filing for Chapter 11.   I’ve long been considering a transformation to a no cable household that streams only the media I want and does so when I want it.  I’ve been piecemealing this system over the past year…a PS3 here, a HuluPlus subscription there and so on.  For the past two years, I’ve invested a whole $21.95* in physical media because since the HD format wars began I have had no interest in committing to content on a format that I may have to repurchase at a later date.  I also travel a lot, so I want my media to be easily accessible to me wherever I go.

I put together a spreadsheet that breaks down my traditional costs versus my new costs.  I will save nearly $1,000 a year using the new system (downloadable spreadsheet below). Aside from saving mucho dinero, I’ve also learned in the process that 1) the NFL owns the cable industry and 2) that women just really don’t like learning about technology.  Here’s why…

Cable Industry & the NFL

The cable industry (Comcast, DirecTV, Time Warner, Cox) better get busy adapting or get busy dying.  The NFL as a whole is just a rockstar.  Their entire business model and popularity is like genius on repeat, and they have a legal monopoly to boot.  The NFL doesn’t care a lick about ticket sales.  They care about TV, licensing and advertising revenue. Total ticket sales for all 32 NFL teams are down for the 3^rd straight year and currently make-up just over $1.5 billion in revenue**.  Current TV contracts for the rights to broadcast NFL games is in excess of $20 billion dollars.  The NFL on TV is for the fans, and the NFL stadiums are for the corporations.

After putting together this spreadsheet, I realized that there are only 3 reasons that I still pay DirecTV for service.  The NFL, HBO and Showtime are those reasons.  As much as I love True Blood, Dexter, Treme, Californication and Weeds, I could honestly live without HBO and Showtime.  They’re both testing on-demand models now similar to HuluPlus, so I’ll be good when that happens.  But, I don’t think I could go without seeing the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.  The only way I can watch them living in Atlanta is by having NFL Sunday Ticket via DirecTV***.  This may not hold me much longer either because using NFL GameAccess, I can watch the game in its entirety commercial free online as soon as the final whistle to the live game blows.  If I’ve waited 165 hours since the previous Sunday’s game, then what are 3 more?

Women (and Casual Users)

The ladies will be key.  Men will be the early adopters of all of this streaming technology, but they won’t drive the market the way that women will.  When women start demanding it, then it will be the real deal. Case and point: growth of Ninetendo Wii versus Playstation 3.

Once a household is developed, women pretty much rule the roost regardless of what my male friends and me tell you.  Marketers, brands and ad agencies all know it.  I’ve been married for a whopping 18 months, but I learned quickly that if she isn’t happy then no one is happy.  Which means I can have whomever I wish for a content provider, but it better have The Bachelor Pad and Dancing with the Stars available for her to watch.

As far as adapting to technology goes, women are every bit as capable as men are of adapting to it.  They just don’t care.  Their inner desire to learn about it is what is lacking.  By and large, their attitude is A) will it make my life easier? and B) show me how to use it.

My mentality on new technology such as GoogleTV is the same as my wife’s is about buying a new pair of Prada sandals.  Which is, “Oh it’s new! I can’t wait to try it to see how it integrates with my other accessories and paraphernalia!  I hope I can get a good deal on it too!  If not, I still need it!”

Her mentality on new technology is the same as mine is about buying new shoes, which is, “There are too many options, and will they accomplish what I want when I want with relatively little to no effort?”

It’s just the way it is.  If you want to jump down my throat on the generalization about women in tech, check out this post and this post saying the same thing.

Anyway…

Which new media methods, devices and gizmos that you are trying out?  What do you think the future of media will look like?

Copy of my worksheet: Entertainment Expense Worksheet

*Fight Club on BluRay

**(Average ticket sales per game=65,000 * Number of Home Games=10)*(Number of NFL Teams=32)*(Average Ticket Price for 2010=76.47)

***I didn’t recommend it in my spreadsheet, but I could simply get a Slingbox.  This would add $200 to my hardware costs, and I’d give a family member or a friend so much per month to cover their subscription costs.  I could then watch all NFL, HBO and SHO.

The past two years of my life have been somewhat hectic to say the least.  I was involved in a full-time MBA program, got married to a beautiful woman and worked in a high pressure/performance environment that innately stems from spearheading the sales element for a start-up technology firm.  While I take a great deal of pride in the time and effort I put into my life over that 24 month period, I really owe a HUGE “thank you” to so many individuals.

On a recent flight, I took out my Evernote and started to make a list of the people that needed to be thanked.  My immediate family was an easy one to jot down; but then I realized I had missed a few family reunions, many drinks with friends in Atlanta, tailgating at LSU/Saints games and even a soccer/basketball game or two.  The list began to pile-up, and I soon realized the inefficiencies (newly acquired MBA term) of sending out an individual note to each person.  If I sent you this note in an email or you took the time to click this link, then you’re someone that needs to be thanked.  I sincerely thank you for believing in me and not becoming too discouraged about the relationship that we have.  I’m not sure words can express how much I appreciate your support.  As part of my thanks, I want to give you a little glimpse into some of the wisdom that I picked up along the way.

I think Ferris Beuller said it best back in 1986, “Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

All of us live in a very fast paced world today for so many reasons.  Technology gives birth to all of those reasons.  In some respects, you could argue that nothing really changes, we just evolve and endure.  It’s doubtful anyone would look back to 1986 and think, “Wow, remember how fast life moved back in 1986!!” But back then it was.  In 20 years, my son will make fun of me for being old school because I just tagged his grandmother on Facebook; and I’ll think how amazing he is for tagging me in his brain using the implanted RFID chip in my forearm.

Our world is flattening out, as we become a more and more mobile society.  It means that we have access to more information on any topic at any given time.  As consumers of that information, it’s our personal responsibility to decide how much to consume and when.  The purveyors of that information will always be irresponsible because it’s an arms race for them.  A few weeks ago a national news outlet invited a young couple on-set for an interview because they were hit with a foul ball at a Houston Astros baseball game.  The next day a JetBlue flight attendant became a hero and a celebrity to 1000s of people.  Our attention spans have become virtually non-existent.

Takeaway: Give people a real chance to succeed and shine.  People that would’ve never been able to shine in today’s world:

-Jack Welch (took 8 years for his plan to turnaround GE)

-Tom Landry (has one of the worst coaching records ever during his first 5 years)

-J.K. Rowling (finally got published while living on welfare, divorced with 1 child).

Lesson #1: PAUSE

I love social media because it has become an enabler in so many ways.  Ways that I remember dreaming about as a high school kid in the 90’s.  Social media represents a microcosm of how we yearn and consumer information, and it has its pitfalls.  One of those pitfalls is that it has stripped away our ability to pause.  No matter how much technology has evolved over the years, the basics of being a human have remained strong and constant because we are all just a bunch of well-constructed molecules driven by emotion and less logic than we lead ourselves to believe.

A great example of this is teenagers in high school now have to deal with their personal first time romances in an open-world in places such as Facebook.  Everyone on John’s friend list knows that he’s dating Susan and vice versa because of the infamous Facebook relationship status “In a Relationship.”  Susan breaks John’s heart one day by breaking up with him.  She didn’t call him, write him or even text him.  John simply logged onto Facebook one day saw the he was no longer “In a Relationship.”  He’ll be all right, eventually, because he will evolve to deal with such occurrences; but the basic emotion and hurt that comes from a breakup still remains true inside him.   And while you may be feeling bad for young John, you should feel worse for the adult couples that understand relationships but not social media.  I’ve seen knockdown, drag-out weekend long fights from fellow adult couples.  It’s even worse for them because they have to re-evolve to the new era of being “In a Relationship.”

Takeaway: Next time you feel the need to comment on your friend’s Facebook status or article that you just read.  Take a few minutes, hours or days to comprehend how one action affects another.

Lesson #2: FOCUS

Many times during the past 24 months friends and family would comment that they didn’t know how I was able to do it all.  I don’t think it was always meant as a compliment as I knew a few family members that actually meant it in a concerning manner.  I did do it, and I did it well.  I’m proud of that.  However, many times , I would take a step back and realize how much energy I was expending trying to do everything that I wanted to do at a high level.  It was a tough pill to swallow when I realized that I could possibly be performing at an even higher level at certain things in my life if I focused on a few things rather than ten.

The one basic of running a successful business and life is the 80/20 rule; but sometimes people get down a path and don’t realize how far they’ve gone until they look back, pause and reflect on what is the best decision.

Takeaway: Use your energy to block out as much excess noise as possible, so you can focus on what will make you successful.

Lesson #3: LIVE YOUR LIFE

Pause & focus so you can live your life.  It’s not hard.  Focus on creating some silence for yourself.

-Wakeup 5 minutes earlier than normal so you can spend some time clearing your mind in the shower.

-When you stop at a red light or stuck in traffic, avoid dialing your next business call.  Call your mom, crank up your favorite mp3 (no talk radio or news) or just drive in silence.

-Stop worrying about what Tiger Woods or Lindsay Lohan are doing on a daily basis.  Realize that you can’t possibly understand or comprehend the lives of others unless you are actually involved in them regardless of what CNN, FOX or ESPN would lead you to believe.  You have a life too…live yours.

-People in LA wonder how people can sanely live below sea level in New Orleans while people in New Orleans wonder how people can sanely live on a cliff in LA; and people in NYC wonder how anyone can possibly live outside NYC.  Tribes in Africa wonder how Americans can drink milk from a cow, and Europeans think we’re crazy for working more than 40 hours in a week.  Unless it threatens your livelihood, embrace cultural stereotypes and differences…don’t question or judge them…it will teach you respect which plants the seed for love.

Takeaway: Stop assuming all people should or want to live the same life you do.  The world is becoming flat, but I hope we’re not forced to all become robots one day.   Acceptance is when amazing happens.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of this.

“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” – Harry S. Truman

Do you want to be the best in your field?

People are inherently good, which in turn makes them dishonest because everyone walks on eggshells today for fear they might offend someone. The hypersensitivity of my generation (Y) has made it even worse.   Criticism is seen as a four-letter word; but if you want to be the best at what you do, then you better learn to ask for criticism, accept it and then fix it.

Real Coaching

I remember during my prime athletic days when everyone would tell me what a great job I had done, regardless of my performance quality; and I’d always take it with a huge grain of salt.  I learned quickly not to read the papers (blogs weren’t relevant yet) because they can only see 2 sides to any issue.  Plus, they only offer problems and never solutions.   Until college, the only person that I always felt gave me a real assessment of my performance was my dad.  The great thing about it is that he never offered it to me.  If I asked (which I always did), then he told me what he thought.

When I was first invited to be an author on Brazen Careerist, I was fortunate enough to get some 1-on-1 coaching with Penelope Trunk.  She told me straight up that the only people that care what you write about are your family and the person you’re currently sleeping with.  She was right because now I have people that write to me from all over the country.

While at LSU, I was fortunate enough to spend time playing under Nick Saban.  Saban’s reputation is not a sparkling one, but I hold immense respect for him because I learned a great deal about my mental toughness.  I was a back-up kicker on a field of 21 future NFL draft picks, and he tore into me with the same fervor that he did all the others.  At the end of the day, he made me better.

Driven

Most reading this blog are hungry people, but sometimes you need to get out of your own head and gain some perspective.  Everyone sees a performance in their own way, so an outsider’s view should always be welcomed.  Good coaches and critics are hard to find, but if you want to rise above the rest in life, then you need to find a few.   They’ll be honest with you.

Photo: tdub303 via flickr

So now you have your Innovation Dream Team.  Are you being as effective as possible using your current tools to communicate and collaborate with your team?

I’ve written about the importance of communication when it comes to change management and/or innovation.  Below, I’ve listed some of the tools that I use because of their ease and effectiveness.

1. Google Talk – I send very little email because it’s time consuming and too formal for the majority of conversations.  Aside from instant messaging, the best features of Google Talk are: On / Off-the-Record Chatting, Free Voice and Video Chat & Instant File Transfers.  Also, Google Talk has mobile apps for the most popular mobile OSes including iPhone, Blackberry and of course Android.  If your group doesn’t have Gmail accounts, then you can easily sign up for one.
2. Basecamp – 37signals has a nice package of collaborative tools that are perfect for any organization from bootstrapped to venture funded.  Basecamp is their project management platform.  It allows you to manage multiple projects, assign certain users to certain projects and milestones.  The dashboard provides an easy to follow snapshot of everything that is going on within a project.  My favorite part is that I can subscribe via RSS or email to the reminders, so I always know where everyone stands.
3. Food / Drinks – Not “hi-tech,” but I’m a firm believer in getting away from my static habitat to increase productivity.  With my laptop and a mobile phone, there is nothing I can’t get done from a coffee shop that I can’t get done from my office.  Besides a change of scenery, it does 2 important things for my teams and me: 1) It provides an opportunity to talk one-on-one with team members about their concerns and/or accomplishments.  People like to be known other than a name on a screen and this helps achieve buy-in. 2) Change management requires innovation and innovation requires new perspectives.  A change of scenery always stirs my creative juices simply by having new surroundings.

What other tools are vital to your organization’s success?

Photo: liz burnunzio via flikr

If you read my blog, then you know I’m a big fan of the Nike brand and their commercials.  They’ve been there with me through all my days as an athlete in soccer, basketball and football.  At all levels whether it was all-star teams or the powerhouse that is LSU football, I more often than not chose Nike gear.  I figured they ought to be with me on one of the most important days of my life too.

During my wedding reception (5.9.2009), I will need that extra confidence and bounce to make sure I can make it to each food station with ease as they unveil new dishes throughout the night, meet n’ greet my guests with grace and, more importantly, glide with elegance and style on the dance floor.  I will only be able to perform at my maximum in a set of Nike Shox.  Using this reasoning and my superb litigation skills, I convinced my fiancee to let me wear a pair of Nike Shox during the wedding reception!!

The best part: I’ve chosen the shoe, but YOU get to choose the style and have a chance to win $50!!!  It’s quite simple to compete and win, so here are the rules:

1)    Go to NIKEiD and design a pair of Nike Shox for me to wear at the wedding reception.

2)    The model has to be a running shoe, which are the “Turbo+ iD,” “Experience+ iD,” “ NZ iD” or the “Turbo+ VI iD.”

3)    Save the design to your Nike profile (aka “myLocker”), use the “share” feature at the bottom right to copy the hyperlink to the design and then comment on this post with your design and hyperlink for all to see.

4)    The winner, chosen by us, will receive a $50 Nike gift card!

5)    Pictures of the shoes in action will be posted upon return from the honeymoon.

You can read the backstory on this contest here.

Considerations…

1)    My groomsmen and ring bearer will have the option to wear these shoes as well, so your design could be on eight pairs of feet!!

2)    Feel free to comment on the blog with questions or check here regarding anything about the wedding so you can better tailor your design. e.g. What are your colors?

3)    Feel free to email me the wallpaper download, so I can put a copy in my Flickr Stream.

4)    This is a subjective contest, so if you like someone’s design, please leave a comment saying so.  It may influence the results.  Also, my wonderful fiancée gets the final say-so.

5)    Even if you’re not competing, pass along the link to this blog.  Increased competition yields better results.  That’s what Nike and I are all about.

6)    Feel free to ask me any questions about the NIKEiD site or this contest.  Contest ends when my bachelor party begins at Midnight EST on  April 1, 2009!!

Over a year ago, my friend Darren Herman wrote a post about the social networks Facebook and LinkedIn colliding.  I saw this happening on a small scale at the time but not on the major scale it is now.  I now have clients, MBA classmates, colleagues, friends, family, Michael Phelps, dogs, cats, etc. all in one place!  This is NOT why I signed up for Facebook!  I signed up because I wanted to have easier access to my family as well as friends of past and present.  Also, when I was single, I could see if that girl I just met was crazy or not.  Anyway, like Darren, I wanted a place that I could keep in touch with real people or friends that I’ve actually met.

I have another acquaintance Ryan Coleman, a successful entrepreneur, that runs NextForce and argues (in short) that it shouldn’t matter what picture, videos, etc. are on your site because if your culture lines up with a prospective employer’s culture, then it’s all “gravy.”   I agree and disagree with him, and this is where my aggravation with Facebook comes into play.

Gen-Y understands Facebook…the new business networkers (largely Gen-X and beyond) do not understand it beyond having an electronic organizer.  I can tell they don’t get it because they have no picture or one, most likely from their company website, and then there is nothing else on their Facebook page.  People are becoming scared to put things up about themselves.  I have friends looking for jobs that feel the need to take down their walls, delist their relationship status and disassociate themselves with groups their passionate about.  I don’t blame them.  I would do the same…now.

Facebook is about to become LinkedIn Part 2.  It’s going to become a contact tool instead of a place to share things.  Facebook isn’t going to be the only one dying off.  This cycle will repeat until a solution is found.  Maybe an invite-only Ning is the way to go or the ever-elusive ASW.   Maybe Web 3.0 is all about tagging people as entities or degrees of separation.  i.e. Darren Herman (email, facebook, linkedin, mobile, AIM, in-person) or Ryan Coleman (email, facebook, mobile).

Gen-Y is still another 10 years from being the majority in hiring roles.  Until then, I can’t fully buy into Ryan’s way of thinking.

BTW, ONLY add me to Facebook here if you meet any of the following criteria:

1)    I have no idea who you are.
2)    You have 1 or 0 pictures of yourself up.
3)    You are reading my blog for the first time.

I’ve always tried to do things a little different than the person next to me.

This world is so competitive that you have to do things to set yourself apart if you want to get noticed.  While this holds true for careers, it also holds true for life.  Stop watching ticker tapes all day.  Forget that the Dow is plummeting (You do realize it’s only 30 stocks right?).  Forget about what certain candidates have to say about it (You don’t think you’re going to get a real answer until after election day do you?).

It’s easy to go along with the crowd; but it’s harder but more fulfilling to go against the grain.  We’re Gen-Y, and by our nature that’s what we’re about.  Improve your personal brand by being the person that others look to for a light in the darkness.

Here are 5 ways to be part of the solution instead of the problem:

Take a Vacation
Grab a friend so you can spread some joy.  You don’t have to go to a tropical island.  Head down south with a buddy for a powerful SEC football game, hit a local beach or just go visit a friend you haven’t seen for awhile in another town.

Buy Some Stock
Undergraduate finance: buy low, sell high.  Do your part to help with the $700B buyout.  If you have a little extra cash, buy a little extra stock.  All I know is if RIMM drops a bit below $50, I have Chuck all over it!

Break Your Horn
Before you go cranking on your horn because you’re stuck in traffic, sit back and crank up your iPod.  Horns release middle fingers.  Music releases pheromones.

Grab a Drink
Finding friends to grab a drink right now shouldn’t be hard.  However, don’t let the talk steer towards the economy or politics.  Talk sports, sex or TV shows.

Breathe
It’s fall right now, which means it’s beautiful outside.  Find a spot in the park, sit on your balcony or lie down in front of a window with nothing on and take a breath or two or three.  Clear your mind and try to focus on what you have instead of what you don’t.

My point is not that you become this corny person that’s one-step away from working at Disney.  However, enough is going on right now to make everyone think the apocalypse is upon us.  Be a little different.  Try to be the light, and maybe it will be a little contagious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7iaM82P8bE

BTW, hometown (New Orleans) featured in this V-Dub Spot.

With the job market following suit of the economy, it is hyper-competitive to land a great job.  If you believe that you are the best of the best, then you better have a solid resume that will drive that point home.

I have been working on a project for a client, which required research of thousands (probably hundreds) of resumes.  Now, I truly understand why HR professionals spend less than 10 seconds reading each resume that floats across their desk.   Aside from reading many generic resumes that looked like they came straight from a Microsoft Word template, I noticed that the “objective” part of the resume is the biggest waste of precious space.  The resumes that stood out to me had no objective but instead contained a “personal brand statement.”

The PBS doesn’t have its own section or bold highlight that reads, “Personal Brand Statement.” It is simply the first statement that the reader sees below the header.  The PBS is a quick but powerful definition of who the candidate is.

Why the objective is irrelevant?

1)    If you’re applying for a specific job, then the hiring manager knows what your objective is.
2)    It looks like everyone else in the database.
3)    Each resume gets viewed for 10 to 30 seconds and a generic objective isn’t going to stop anyone in their tracks.

What should be in my “personal brand statement”?

1)    Quantify what you can bring to the table.  Use experience, goals achieved or both…people like numbers because they relate easily.
2)    Once quantified, briefly highlight the steps you made getting to that point.
3)    Immediately below your PBS, list (horizontally) 5 (not 6) or 7 keywords that describe you.

I have been listening to my iPod relentlessly all week to rid the voices in my head that repeat phrases such as, “seeking a mutually beneficial position” and “seeking a rewarding and educational career.”  Blah!!