The thing is...

Totally cool tool called "The Conversation Prism"

Someone from this agency (http://jess3.com/)  has taken the effort to categorize the different types of social media, which in and of itself would have been an important piece of intellectual property, but he took the next step and created a clickable visual (go for "fullscreen" mode).   
 

    I first saw this tool here

There's more to it than meets the ear

Please read this post by Tim Stock, my friend and a brilliant mind. Then join in the discussion.

Tim,

  As usual, you have found the perfect insight to poke a hole in the latest cacophany that masquerades as "prevailing wisdom."  Everyone is smarter than everyone else, yet few people seem to be able to approach the substance of people like Ogilvy.

  I particularly like your discussion of Phyllis Sweed, the editor.  During the many years I spent at Reader's Digest (fact checker, editor, interactive guy), I discovered that one of the best "inventions" (so to speak) in the world of American business is a good editor.  A good editor knows his or her audience, but REALLY KNOWS them.  What they want, what they don't want.  They know the audience through connections, through taling to them, but also through the incohate processes of non-conscious thought and gut-feel.  Malcom Gladwell wrote about gut-feel in "Blink" and Guy Claxton wrote about non-conscious thought in "Hare Brain: Tortoise Mind."  Those editors can capture ideas, movements, in moments and make judgements that create great stories (and avoid wasting time on others).   Save your market research budgets, and get your self a smart editor.

A Eulogy for Syd Levy

This was delivered by one of my dad's best friends, Marty Groveman, three and a half years ago.  For those of you who knew my dad, you'll appreciate it. 

Eulogy of Marty Groveman 

For me, 3 aspects of Syd’s persona are vividly illuminated:

1.      He was a mensch—an all around terrific person;

2.      He was exasperating, which I’ll describe; and

3.      And he was oh so funny—a wild and wacky sense of humor—that at times was subtle, at times self-deprecating, and occasionally slapstick.

 

A large part of his “menschness” was his caring and loyalty to his friends.  He was so there for me, a few years ago, when I had some sudden difficulties.  His caring, support and love helped me greatly to get back to myself.  And he did this for so many other friends.

 

Regarding the “exasperating” aspect of Syd’s behavior, I refer mainly to his tendency to fixate and review past negative experiences.  Almost all of these “stuck in the mud” rehashings pertained to work related situations and his disappointments with less than frank employers.  It took me a while to get the essence of Syd’s persavarativeness but it became so clear to me.  As honest and forthright as he was, it was so hard for him to accept that others would not be that way.  He simply agonized over people with less than honorable agendas.  He was haunted by deceptive and unethical behavior by otherwise intelligent people. 

 

And now for a wonderful illustration of Syd’s unique sense of humor:  I’ll always remember the good times and the laughter whenever thinking of Syd.  Syd and I would get together almost every weekend to play ball.  I’m referring to after we were out of college.  One of our favorite summer places to play was

Manhattan Beach

.  In the 60s and 70s it was a mecca.  On a weekend the courts would draw hundreds of players and an even g greater number of spectators.  We would get there early, plant Elaine and my wife Helene on the beach—along with our cooler of beer, and head to the basketball action.

 

ON one Saturday when we were finished playing and went to join the girls on the beach, we noticed a friend of ours talking to a group of ten or so girls.  This guy was Merv Stofsky—better known by his nickname “Shopper”.  It was given to him because he frequently shopped and knew the prices of all the specials in the supermarkets.  Shopper at that time was a teacher at

Walt

Whitman

Junior High School

.  He was a good looking fellow with a well toned body.  There he was on the beach, encircled by his former students, young women on the rise, students at Erasmus H.S.  All four of us noticed Shopper and his youthful admirers, but only Syd sprang into action.

 

What I didn’t say is that only Howard was born at the time of the incidents, and he was a month away from his first birthday.  Syd scooped Howard up, marched over to Shopper and said, “Merv, I’m sick and tired of watching your kid.  Here, take him.”  With that said he handed Howard to the astonished and embarrassed Shopper and walked away.  An interesting aside is that Howard wasn’t the least bit upset.

 

In everything he did he was an achiever.  Much of it is a result of his being such a hard worker.  He never gave up.  This is the way it was with basketball.  We all know his eventual accomplishments—an inductee into the CCNY Athletic Hall of Fame and a Maccabiah Games gold medal winner.  This is not, however, the way it was in the beginning.  As a basketball neophyte, he wasn’t particularly graceful or coordinated.  He had the extra burden of dragging around a bad leg.  He didn’t play for Boy’s High, a

Brooklyn

school with a legendary basketball tradition; although it’s great coach Mickey Fisher offered to put him on the team.  From that point he willed himself to become a player.  He went from a “stiff”, a term used to describe many tall guys, to an outstanding player.  His sweat and toil paid off.  He became a terrific team player; so fundamentally sound, excellent on defense, a shot blocker, an intimidator, strong rebounder and a quality shooter.

 

He was proud to play for CCNY.  Those were great years, and he maintained his connections to the college to the very end.  His teammates and those who both preceded and followed him at the school remained his friends.  We see this link so clearly this morning, a day after a mammoth snow storm.  Present today are former CCNY players—the great Jerry Domershick, Joe Bernardo, Marv Rose and Stan Friedman.  I add myself to this group along with present coach Andy Stampfel.  CCNY Hall of Famers Floyd Lane, Ted Hurwitz and Leroy Watkins were kept away due to the weather and send their regrets.

 

Syd was loved by contemporaries within the great

New York

basketball community.  So many of those he played with and against in leagues, playgrounds and gyms became his friend.  In particular, he was tremendously popular among Afro American hoopsters.  He developed close relationships with fellow employees and teammates at Tuck Tape and with the guys at the HES (Hebrew Educational Society), Union Temple, and the interestingly named Brownsville parks—Lincoln Terrace, Betsey Head and Nanny Goat.  Prior to his departure to

Florida

, each October, the two of us would attend the annual Brooklyn

USA

“Old-timers” dinner and awards program.  The attendees consisted of about 300 black basketball players and their escorts and no more than 10 Caucasians.  Syd felt as welcomed and at home as he did at CCNY.

 

Most of his coaches also become lifelong friends.  This group included George “Red” Wolfe, Syd’s freshman coach at CCNY; Julie Bender, former LIU All American and the coach at the HES; and of course Dave Polansky of CCNY, with whom Syd enjoyed the closest father/son relationship; and last, but not least Nat Holman, legendary CCNY mentor.  Nat actually heaped much verbal abuse upon Syd in the early days, but grew to admire and respect Syd as a player and a person:  Holman just couldn’t remember Syd’s name.  He was close when he called him “Cindy”, but eventually played it safe and used the term “Big Fella.”

 

Of all the funny Syd stories, it’s hard to beat this one.  Syd, Elaine, Helene and I were at the Nevele hotel for a weekend visit.  We were at the indoor pool and Syd was standing in the water.  In fact he was at the 6 foot mark in the deep end of the pool.  Along came a short enthusiastic gentleman of about 60 years old.  He cheerfully asked, in a thick Yiddish accent, shouted to Syd, “How’s the Vater?”  Syd replied, “It’s fine.”  His follow up question was, “Is it deep?”  Without any hesitation Syd responded, “I’m standing.”  With that the man sped to the edge of the pool and jumped in.  The expression on his face, as he sunk beneath the surface is indescribable.  We stood in awe as Syd, with deadpanned gaze, gently lifted the man to safety.

 

Along with his genuine “goodness” it’s stories like this that will keep Syd so vivid in our minds.  I know, for myself, he’ll never die.  For his friends and finally, I’m certain that whenever we think of him a warm feeling and a smile will be brought to our lips.

 

Thinking about how I wanted to conclude my tribute to Syd, my thoughts drifted to a singer who died about two years ago.  This person was Warren Zevon, a  folk-rock writer/singer who had a strong following among the intellectual and socially conscious set.  Zevon, too, succumbed to lung cancer.  After his diagnosis he wrote a wonderful song entitled “Keep Me in Your Heart for a While.”  A short time before his death he appeared as a guest on Letterman.  He was amazingly upbeat about the accomplishments of his life and was prepared to accept his cruel fate.  He ended his appearance by singing his new song.  It touched me deeply as it also did to the teary eyed audience.  It’s applicability to Syd, both in concept and strength of lyrics, is dramatic and so meaningful.  I have changed the order of some of the words and taken out the “sha-la-las”.  Here it is:

 

Shadows and falling and I’m running out of breath.

Keep me in your heart for a while.

If I leave you it doesn’t mean I love you any less.

Keep me in your heart for a while.

Sometimes when you’re doing simple things around the house,

Maybe you’ll think of me and smile.

Hold me in your thoughts.  Take me to your dreams.  Touch me as I fall out of view.

When the winter comes keep the fire lit

And I will be right next to you.

And when you get up in the morning and you see that crazy sun,

Keep me in your heart for a while.

Keep me in your heart for a while.

 

Rest well big guy.

 

Performing at Weston Farmers' Market, Saturday June 27, 2009, 10 - 11:30am

Did you know I play guitar, write songs and sing?  Check me out this Saturday when I'll be performing at the Weston Farmers' Market between 10 and 11:30am.  The market is located at the Weston Historical Society’s Coley Homestead on Weston Road.   I'll  be playing a mix of original tunes, kids music and classic covers (The Band, The Boss, etc.).  May even do a request or two. 

Bring a guitar, a bongo or our voice if you want to join in.

Come support the local farmers.  Bring the kids.  Buy some peaches.

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Now my wife is whining

Check THIS out.

I'm a whiner...and ECONOWHINER, that is.

Check this out.

If you're not listening, you won't hear

This was sent to me today.  While it's ostensibly a social experiment, this story also gets to a key aspect of storytelling, namely that it doesn't matter how great you are, if no one is prepared to listen, no one will hear. 

The thing is...To put it into a marketing context, a great story, any great content, any advertisement, when delivered through the wrong channel and to the wrong audience just DOES NOT work. 

The summary appears below.  But click through to the story to see the video feed.

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

 

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to  walk.

 

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time.

 

This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on. In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished  playing and silence took over, no one noticed it.

 

No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars. Two days before his playing in the subway, tickets for Joshua  Bell's performance at a theater in Boston were sold out and the seats averaged $100.

 

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we  perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context? One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing???

New job, new contact information

David Levy
Senior Vice President, Digital

SINGERDIRECT
800 Westchester Ave.
Rye Brook, NY 10573
Tel: 212.209.1909 | Fax: 646.264.2409
david.levy@singerdirect.com
www.SingerDirect.com

Thank you for your support

I wanted to thank several people who helped me during this job search.  It’s a testament to your character and commitment to our friendship and professional relationships. 

If anyone looking for smart, ethical, sincere people to network with, or to join your company, you may want to start your search with these people listed below—forgive me if I’ve missed some of you:

• Michael Perry
• Michael Lebeau
• Julian Gross
• Erica DiPalma
• Scheron Brown
• Stacey Deering
• Adrienne W Hayward
• Jacqueline Brini
• Richard Aponte
• Dave Fiore
• Chris Parker
• Kim Hewson
• Jen Ross
• Christopher Boynton
• Josh Drew
• Ryan Saghir
• David Betz
• Bonnie Hagen
• Stephanie Hellenbroich
• Ariane Hunter
• Alex Roda
• Steve Hartzell
• Steve Solomon
• Ellen Hurwich
• Rebecca Ashcraft
• Cicely Poggi-Gedacht
• Simon Kelly
• DJ Egerton
• Bob Knapp
• Leann Taylor
• Barry Goldberg
• Phoebe Myers
• Kevin Hill
• Drew Seath
• Michael Lintell
• Jason Brennan
• Jennifer Daniels
• Rebecca Wayland
• Jason Guttman
• John Nardone
• Jeff Glick
• Brian Leiken
• Mark Lipson
• Melissa Beal
• Steven Gold
• Dan Kaiser
• David Walner
• Audrey Lidsky
• Suman Dutta
• Jevon Powel
• Scot Beck
• Karen Reutlinger
• Lori Weiman
• Danielle Brown
• Paige Soltano
• Michael Speaker
• Dave Lokes
• Julie Biber
• Mike Drexler
• David Barner
• Dave Lynch
• Kate Berg
• Cathy Swift
• Glen Mehn
• Rob Powers
• Jen Mathissen
• Mark Galley
• Bryan Owens
• Tim Stock
• John Sabino
• Jen Selverian
• Joann Abbate
• Steve Roberts
• Barb Ettington
• Doug Charles
• Glen McKlencic
• Ben Von Wormb
• Fran Quittel
• Billy Clark
• Ann Marshman
• John Karrel
• Chris Greco
• Bonnie Hassan
• Karen Finckenour

And, of course, my family

• The Pemberton clan: Adam, Julia, Andy, Margaret, Jeff, Jenny, Holly, Tom, Chris, Elizabeth and Nero

• The Levy clan:  Elaine, Howard, Debra, Dan, Sandy, Iris, all the Freierman’s and everyone else in the Family Circle

But most of all to my kids, Charlie and Sophie and my wife Heather Levy.

Happy Holidays everyone, and good luck in the New Year.

The job search is over: Success!

For those of you who may have been following this journey, I wanted to let you know that it has ended successfully (Thank you for your support...see here).  I accepted an offer at a local agency, Singer Direct, to be their new SVP of Digital.  I start in 2009.

In my initial blog post, I described a few types of situations for which I would be a good fit.  This position hits on components of several, highlighted below:

• Creating and leading an interactive or direct marketing department
• Leading business strategy
• Providing experienced leadership to a firm that needs to establish processes and operations to maintain growth, reduce costs or increase profit margins

Until recently, Singer was a family run business that Omincom purchased a couple of years back.  It’s small yet growing, and offers a value proposition that should be compelling during a down economy.

The thing is…that’s not the only thing that was successful.  As a totally biased jury, I’d declare this experiment in social media a success as well (Please offer your verdict/comments) for several reasons.

Social media expanded my reach and exposure
When I started the search, one of the first things I did was to expand my network on Facebook, LinkedIn and Plaxo.  Most people accepted the connection requests.  Each new connection expanded the web of RSS feeds.  Think of each link as another set of eyes that could participate in the search.  Moreover, the web of connections from each additional connection expanded my reach exponentially. 

Efficient distribution for my credentials
By using my blog, Facebook and LinkedIn as content platforms, I made sure that everyone who was connected to me was informed about the search and received updates without having to send a mass email (see next)

Simple call to action
In my initial post, I tried to make it very easy for people to get informed and to take action, reflected in the post title “I’m looking for work; here’s how you can help.”  At that post, there were three specific things I asked of readers: 

1. Review LinkedIn and recommend me
2. Pass the link on to people you know
3. Say a prayer

Now I don’t have the data on item #3, but I can report that many MANY of  you acted on items 1 and 2, and traffic to the blog hit its highest levels starting from the date of the first post. 

Made it easy for recruiters
Recruiters are being VERY AGGRESSIVE in this economy.  There are a LOT of candidates and few jobs (i.e., more demand than supply).   I liken it to five seagulls fighting for that last French fry in the parking lot of McDonald’s. 

Anything you can do to make it easy for them to help you is a good idea.  Sending emails to recruiters became easy.  Rather than write a long cover letter explaining my situation, I simply was able to write a few sentences and point people to my blog post and LinkedIn profiles. 

By reading my blog posts and reviewing my LinkedIn profile, recruiters were able to determine whether or not I was a good potential fit for their open positions.  That’s one may reason why recommendations on LinkedIn are so important.

Emotional support
This result was very interesting, and unexpected.  Losing a job, and then trying to find another one flat out sucks.  It can be very frustrating and isolating.  By reaching out to people via social media, I opened connections between me and friends, colleagues and acquaintances, some of whom I hadn’t heard from in twenty five years.   Exchanging notes with them and getting the occasional “hang in there” message really really helped.

There are a number of tips in this message.  If you think they have any value, please pass them on to your friends who are looking for work.

In an upcoming post, I will offer some do's and don't's for recruiters.

Another business maxim: Seek skills you can take with you

There was a point in time when I recognized that in order for me to succeed at Reader's Digest I would have to learn to "work the system" that governed the place.  I could have stayed but what would I get out of it?  Not much.  Maybe I'd have picked up some things that would be useful, but more likely I would spent months upon months learning "Reader's Digest skills." 

The thing is...You can't take "Reader's Digest skills" with you.  They only help you succeed there, no where else. 

    Now I'm not talking about general getting-around-a-big-corporation skills.  Those skills are insanely important and can help you wherever you go, even if you move to smaller work environments"

• Understanding the levers of power

• Identifying the movers and shakers in an organization

• Negotiating resources with colleagues and the IT department are all incredibly valuable

They teach you to listen.  They teach you how to persuade.  They teach you how to build coalitions.

Let me put it this way.  You'd better learn those things somewhere, somehow in your career. 

    Conversely, specific skills that are less valuable include,

• Mastering an arcane budgeting process that is based on historical knowledge (e.g., "That's how we do things here" mentality) 

• Working a proprietary IT system that exists in no other enterprise (HINT:  Lots of middleware)

• Catering to a single individual who is not leaving any time soon 

Those are too specific.  You can't take those with you.

In any situation, when it looks as though you're learning more firm-specific skills than transferrable skills, it's time to rosin up the resume.