Reading Is Like Your 401(k)

I got into the habit of reading when I was fairly young. My Mom suggested The Richest Man in Babylon and How to Win Friends and Influence Others. I devoured both and have been reading ever since. After years of reading I have learned quite a bit. I enjoy reading autobiographies and other non-fiction books (mostly categorized in the broad genres of Business or Leadership). Reading opens my mind to new ways of thinking. I consider it my greatest source of creativity.

After many years I have determined that reading is analogous with saving for retirement:

▪ Although it has great benefits, and many people want to do it, some just don’t do it. ▪ The trick is to start small. ▪ For best results, do it regularly, consistently, over a long period of time. ▪ After doing it for a week (or a month, or a year) don’t expect to be wealthy. ▪ It’s never too late to start. Start now. Create the habit now.

Happy reading.

How Many Business Cards Do You Give?

I recently met with a consultant and, as many consultants do, he handed me his business card as he left. To be precise, he handed me three of his business cards.

Did he think I would lose them? When I asked why he gave me three he said he hoped I would share them with people I knew.

This consultant and I had just met and I felt like he had assigned work for me to do. Asking me to make a referral after just one brief meeting seemed a bit pre-mature.

If you’re meeting someone for the first time, and you feel the need to give someone your business card, don’t give more than one. Work on building a relationship before asking for a referral.

You Need a Resume

If you have a job, need a job, or believe someday you will need a job, you need a resume. Really, you do.

I see a lot of resumes. And, yet, I still meet a lot of people that don’t have one. They have many reasons for not having an up-to-date resume. Frankly, none of them are good reasons.

Recent unemployment numbers show California with the third highest unemployment rate in the US (12.4%, higher than anytime in the last 30+ years) behind only Michigan (12.8%) and Nevada (14.2%). Recent reports show Stockton with a 16.6% unemployment rate. Additionally, for every job opening there are 5 unemployed people. I’m sure you don’t need those statistics to tell you that we are in a tight job market.

In this economy, with record unemployment, a resume is crucial. You might think that the only way to get a job is to “know someone on the inside”, someone in your target company that can help get your foot in the door. Your foot is a metaphor for your resume.

An opportunity to talk with a hiring manager may pop up at any time. The last thing you want to be doing is scrambling to put together a resume at the last minute.

A well crafted resume that highlights your accomplishments and how they can benefit your prospective employer is a good first step. Keep in mind, the only purpose your resume serves is to get you an interview.

Links: http://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_unemployment_statistics http://www.bls.gov/web/jolts/jlt_labstatgraphs.pdf http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/metro_11032010.pdf http://manager-tools.com/

Apple TV

The Apple TV is awesome! I considered leaving this blog post as just that one short sentence but, alas, I’ll elaborate.

I was never excited about the previous version of the Apple TV. First, until recently, we only owned a very old (and pretty small) standard definition television for almost 18 years. Second, I was always turned off by the on-board storage. We have a couple of computers in the house, and plenty of external storage. I didn’t care to fuss with syncing yet another device. When I first heard that the new incarnation of Steve Job’s pet project would be streaming only, I had to have one.

We picked one up from the Apple Store in Modesto a couple days after they hit store shelves and after a little help from my friend Manny, we were good to go. For the record, it couldn’t be more simple to connect. Just takes an HDMI cable between the device and the TV. My audio setup was a little wonky between the cable box, TV and surround sound receiver.

Ok, that’s enough back story.

Music - this was the primary reason I wanted an Apple TV. We’ve had the iTunes Express for years but lack of TV interface meant we hardly ever used it. On Apple TV, there’s an awesome interface to browse and listen to music from our primary computer in the house.

Podcasts - I listen to a lot of podcasts. The Apple TV allows browsing to the iTunes podcast directory. And what’s even better, I can mark one as favorite and listen just as soon as a new show is released. Having podcasts play on the TV make me wish Stump the Chef would come back; that video podcast is perfectly suited for this device!

iTunes Store content - In addition to streaming all of the content in my iTunes, I can also rent movies and TV shows directly from the Apple TV. I probably won’t be doing that at all, more on that later.

YouTube - Videos, especially those available in HD, look amazing from the Apple TV. Being able to login to my YouTube account is great for keeping up with my subscriptions.

Flickr - Photo slide shows look great using the Apple TV. The only downside is that I cannot sign-in to Flickr from the Apple TV like I can with YouTube. Still great for catching up on my Flickr friends.

Netflix - Lastly, the hidden gem inside the Apple TV! We waited years before getting cable (2005) and we might be the last family in America to get a flat screen television (2010). We don’t watch a lot of television and never saw the appeal of Netflix. Well, not until now. The same day we brought home the Apple TV we signed up for the free 30-day trial of Netflix. I don’t care much about getting a disc mailed to us but for 9 dollars per month, we can stream as much of their content as we want. I know this technology is not new but I am still amazed that we can stream TV shows and movies, in amazing quality, to our TV. Since we usually rent a few movies from On Demand each month, the Netflix option will save us some money.

For all the Apple critics that complain because Apple “forces” consumers to buy content through iTunes, strange how the Apple TV comes Netflix ready. And Netflix is far more valuable than any iTunes offering. Doesn’t seem to bother the Cupertino crew.

As an added bonus, to watch Netflix content from any computer, iPad or iPhone.

The Apple TV comes with a power cable and a very thin remote. Besides turning on the Apple TV, we typically use our iPhones as remotes, using the Remote app. This comes in handy when searching since you can use a real keyboard rather than hunting for each individual letter on screen.

The Apple TV is one of the coolest tech toys we own. If you rent 2 movies (or more) a month, adding an unlimited streaming Netflix account makes it even better! It has worked better than expected and we are getting a lot of use out of it.

I am still in awe that the Apple TV sells for only $99. For that price, I would have bought it just for music and podcast listening. The rest is gravy, and there is A LOT of gravy!

Links: Apple TV Manuel Montes blog Apple Airport Express Freakonomics Radio Podcast Stump the Chef Netflix

Customer Service Week 2010

As a call center manager, Customer Service Week is a lot of fun! Celebrated every year during the first full week of October, this is a chance to show my appreciation to the people that take calls and, often, get closer to our customers than anywhere else in the business. Call center representatives are often the lifeblood of an organization. I enjoy being part of the festivities during Customer Service Week and hearing what other call center leaders do in their centers. I do my best to show my appreciation to my staff the other 51 weeks every year but find this week a special time.

Even if you don’t have money to spend, there are simple things you can do during Customer Service Week.

How about clearing your calendar (or much of it) and spend time talking with your call center team members. Schedule time to be out on the floor, with your people. If you don’t do this very often you may even find that you’ll pick up some great ideas on how to improve service. Time is a precious commodity for leaders. Want your staff to know you value them? Spend time with them. Listen to them.

Thank you cards never go out of style. Hand write thank you cards to everyone in your organization. This year I wrote out over 100 personalized thank you cards. Hand written thank you cards mean something. Well, to me they do. Hopefully my employees won’t throw them all in a bonfire.

Happy Customer Service Week.

Outsourced

My first call center job was 16 years ago, as a 411 operator for Pacific Bell (before they were acquired by SBC and then bought, and re-branded itself as, AT&T). Through the years, I’ve always thought that a call center would make for entertaining TV. So, I was pretty excited when I first saw the preview for Outsourced on NBC. The pilot episode was funny. Although I’ve never travelled overseas for work, I have been involved with vendors in India, Philippines, Costa Rica and Panama. The “cultural immersion” aspect of the show brought back memories of stories my team members would share when they returned to the US after opening a call center abroad.

Running a call center, in any country, is a delicate balance between art and science (to steal a phrase from a very smart colleague of mine). It continues to be very challenging and rewarding work. I am looking forward to seeing if this show gains mass appeal. I know all of my call center friends are watching.

Links: Outsourced trailer on Hulu

Why I Like Ping

Last week, Apple announced Ping, calling it “a social network for music”. Like a lot of comments I read online, I thought, “great, do I really need another social network?”. After downloading iTunes 10 and setting up my Ping, I realized I do need (or should I say, want) another social network.

I like Ping. Here’s why.

• It lives within iTunes. I care most about what music my friends are buying, listening to, recommending, when I am in iTunes
• It’s focus is narrow. Very narrow. I am interested in music and learning about other styles of music. I can see Ping helping me discover music I would’ve not otherwise discovered
• I actually enjoy reading reviews, they may not sway me, but I like them nonetheless. When the reviewer is also a friend of mine it helps put the review in better context for me. Being able to easily read friends’ reviews is a big plus

As a first generation social network, Ping has promise. Some improvements I hope Apple makes are:

• Greater delineation of genres. This goes for iTunes as a whole. Rock and Pop are pretty wide. And there is no category for Bluegrass. I don’t consider Sam Bush country
• Should have custom URL that will forward to iTunes app (rather than telling people to go to iTunes and search for... )
• The ability to “Like” and “Post” about podcasts and audio books
• Re-activate the Facebook friend finder. I saw it there when I first signed up but it seems it might’ve since been removed
• Allow me to change my user name to be different than my billing name; “Matthew” is too formal for me

Interested in what music I am buying or recommending? Look for me on Ping, as Matthew Beckwith.

Color The Skies

This morning, very early for a Sunday morning I might add, we went out to Ripon for Color the Skies, a hot air balloon festival to raise money for the Children’s Hospital Central California. We got out there a little after 6. Lucky for us, they were behind schedule and were in the midst of having all of the ballooners move from one side of the park to the other. One by one, the colossal balloons inflated to enormous heights. I can’t ever remember seeing giant hot air balloons up close before and was amazed at their size.

Sadly, the festival organizers announced that weather would prevent them from taking flight. Although it would’ve been cool to see them launch, having them on the ground was still cool. Plus, made for some good photo opportunities.

Speaking of photos, I learned a valuable lesson. Or should I say, a lesson I already learned was reinforced. Since the sun was rising right behind us the lighting was tricky. I started shooting in aperture priority mode, with my shutter speed on auto. A lot of my shots were too bright though so I switched to manual mode and increased the shutter speed. My shots in the 1/125 - 1/640 range in AE mode were greatly improved by shooting 1/1250 - 1/3200 in manual.

(first: AE, 1/125, f/4.0 ISO 100; second: man, 1/1250, f/4.5, ISO 400)

See the rest of the pictures here.

Beep Baseball #3

After get out butts handed to us in May, we decided to take the field again against the Stockton Stingrays! Same result. We got beat. But this time, we hit much better.

Some more pics here.

It's Been A While

My “place” on the web has been pretty quiet lately. Not surprisingly, visits to the site have gone down by quite a bit (except the everyday searches for Blackie Lawless’s daughter). The lack of posts here, one of the longest gaps in all the years I’ve kept the blog alive, is due to the software I use.

Years ago, after using FrontPage to manually update my site, I moved to RapidWeaver for Mac. I loved the software and recommended it to anyone that would listen to me.

After many problems with my RapidWeaver on this site, our daughter’s and our family podcast, it just became too much work to update the site. Then, the comment system used in the application, Haloscan, went out of business. The comments were moved to Echo but that service leaves a lot to be desired. It mixed up comments between this site and Makenzy’s and made it difficult to find out on what post comments were made.

I would prefer to use WordPress, a platform I have become much more comfortable. Being able to update via my iPhone and from any computer is very appealing. With 1000s of themes available and tons of custimization options, WordPress is my favorite blogging service.

Sadly, though, moving to WordPress will take a considerable amount of time and effort. I wish there was a magic wand to move this site to WP but there are some obstacles:

- mattbeckwith.com is hosted on a Windows machine (my host’s, not mine) that won’t support WP - with my current hosting service, I have to move this domain to a Linux box (and boy, I’d love to) - I have more than 75,000 files / 300GB+ of data to pull down before moving - there is no utility to convert my blog posts to a format that I can import into WordPress

So, I’m not sure when, if ever, I’ll move this site over to WordPress, but I am going to start writing more.