The thing is...

Introducing my blog - "The thing is..." to Facebook friends

I've been doing this for a few years now.  Enjoy.

Facebook is bigger than Germany

Facebook has 100 million members. To put the size of the membership in perspective, 

• Only eleven countries on the planet have more citizens (China, India, the US, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Russia, Japan and Mexico)
• 97.5 million people watched last year’s Super Bowl; 106 million people watched the last episode of MASH.   These are the top two rated TV shows in history. 

The thing is...if that's not a mass medium, I don't know what one is.

Hillary's speech: The winner on a missed serve

Do you play tennis?  The most important shot of any point is the serve.  The second most important shot of any point is the return of serve.  Returning is harder.  You're under pressure.  You have to guess where the serve will go, and at what pace, and with what spin...and if you are too tight, too fast, too slow, too ANYTHING in fact, you're probably going to blow it, putting you at a disadvantage.

But here's what happens a LOT when you return serve:  The first serve comes in and it's clearly out of the service box (long or wide).  Even though you see the serve going out, you still take a swing at it.

More often than not, on that swing, you absolutely crank it.   You hit the perfect return.  Top spin, cross court, and that sucker buzzes over the middle of the net by just an inch, descending rapidly to where the feet of the server would be, had the serve gone in, and had he come into net behind it.   And you think for a moment, "Shit, I can play this game!"

The thing is...the reason you can hit that return is because the serve was out.  Because the point doesn't count.  For that one split-second, you relax just a bit, stop over-thinking it, and just play.  It's a moment of zen.   Lots of people perform their best when the outcome has been decided. 

Hillary Clinton did that last night.  Unencumbered by the pressures to win the primary campaign, she just cranked it.  Not only was that just about the perfect speech for the moment, I think it's one of the best political speeches of my lifetime. Thoughts?

The power of listening: Keener on Keen

A couple of months ago I had a very positive customer service experience with Keen, the company that makes the hiking sandals (short version: A pair was falling apart; they replaced them).  I blogged about it here. 

Yesterday I received a note (full text below) from Gillian Kennedy, Web Marketing Manager at Keen, inviting me to participate in the development in a Keen community.  Her note to me is personal—she obviously read my blog and picked up on the fact that I spoke to a particular customer service rep named “Ash.” I’ve agreed to participate to see what the touchpoints are going to be.

From a marketing standpoint, Keen is getting some free market research and feedback from an interested audience.  If any of the bloggers help Keen avoid a major blunder of some kind in building this community, well so much the better for them.  From a cost perspective, doing this kind of thing is pretty cheap. It could not have taken Gillian too long to track me down (I’ve sent a note to her to ask her if they have any contact with their customer service reps) and writing the email took minutes.  Often, simple is effective.

The thing is...I must admit that this offer had an interesting effect on me. I felt flattered by the request and also happy to know that someone besides my wife actually reads my blog (it would help if I updated that damned thing).  The invitation did, I’d say, deepen my regard for Keen as a brand, and one might say the “relationship” I have with them, which began with the product, continued this summer with the sandal exchange, and now with this acknowledgment of my efforts. So what does that “deeper relationship” mean?

• Will I become more of an      advocate for the brand? Maybe. We’ll see. 
• Will I buy another pair of      Keens for myself or others? Probably.   
• Will I remain “loyal” to Keen,      meaning that I’d never buy another brand of sandals?  Again, we’ll see the next time I’m in the      market for a pair.

 But, the fact that I’m now even considering these aspects of my relationship--a word that I would not typically use to describe my interactions with a shoe company--speaks to the power of what Keen has done here and that’s this: Listen.  They listened to what I had to say. They read my post, took the time to learn the details, and responded in a unique and sincere manner. And it was a person, Gillian, who did it.  

Listening, and keeping it simple.  Not bad advice .

Best Lasagna EVER!

A long time since I've blogged, but I thought it was important to point out that the lasagna at Coco Pazzo on N. St. Clair Street in Chicago is the best lasagna I've ever had.

Keen on Keen

It's not often that I have a customer service experience that I am thrilled about, so when it happens I will blog it from the rooftops.  So here we go.

I'm 6'6" and have narrow feet, with one foot narrower than the other, and one having a higher arch than the other.  Thus, finding shoes is pretty much a pain; but, when I find a brand of shoes that that I like (read: they fit, are comfortable) I stick with them for life.  For instance, I have a pair of Kenneth Cole shoes--black oxfords--that I've re-soled at least six times over the last ten years.  No other shoe feels as good.  I also have a couple pairs of Timberlands and Nike Equalon is my running shoe of choice.

I also LOVE Keen footwear. The tension cord on their leather sandals snug those puppies right to my dogs, compensating for their odd shapes (my feet, not the sandals).  Keens are comfortable, durable and you can throw them in the washing machine without damaging them.  I bought a pair about a year and a half ago, and it was love at first wear.

The things is...well, the honeymoon is over: My Keen's are falling apart.  The toe is coming off the shoe and the tension cord is broken.  No more snug fit.

So I brought my foot plight to the attention of Keen's customer service, and THEY ARE SENDING ME A NEW PAIR!  Below I have included the correspondence with Keen (two emails from me, two from them).  Note how Keen, or "Ash" in particular, was prompt, clear and courteous.   The entire process took me about twenty minutes, including taking pictures of the shoes, uploading them and sending both messages.  It looks like it took Ash mere seconds to respond to me.

So, once again, I LOVE KEEN.

Boy, the Los Angeles Lakers hate each other.

Did you WATCH that game?  I knew, and said to my wife with about 3 minutes left in the first quarter when the Lakers were up by 18, "The Lakers are gong to lose this game."  LA is one of the mentally weakest teams I've ever seen.  They are too satisfied with mini-victories:  We came back in game two!!  We won game three!  We built a big lead in game 4!!  Odom was done after he hit that jumper from inside the circle.  Tongue hanging out; a smirk on his face.  No recognition that the toughest player in the NBA this side of Tim Duncan, Paul Pierce was about to take over and go medieval on the boys in yellow..

Kobe...boy the Lakers must really HATE his guts to not care as little as they care.   

Doc Rivers is a GREAT coach by the way, and his lineup changes in the third quarter are what NBA coaches are supposed to get paid for. Powe?  House?  Posey?  Unbelievable.  Gasol is making Garnett look tough.

And you gotta love Ray Allen.

A moment in our two-faith home

My wife Heather is Episcopalian.  I am Jewish.  She has been a minister of communion and facilitates the "D.O.C.C." program (Disciples of Christ in Community).  I attend Torah Study and am on the board of trustees of my temple.  Our two children are being brought up in both faiths, whatever that means (in a future post I can get into it). A couple of weekends ago we went to Palm Sunday services at church, followed by the Purim Carnival at temple. 

Let's just say that we have some interesting dinner table conversations.

But at Easter services, the following excerpt appeared in our program...read more.

The "We" inside of "me"

If you have not seen Jill Bolte  Taylor's speech at TED this year, watch it now.

Another Jewish Presidential candidate bites the dust....

in the context of "historic  elections." 

A couple of years ago, it seemed as thought there were two Jewish politicians who were real and viable candidates--by "real" and "viable" I mean the fact that people were actually TALKING about them as possibilities-- for President of the United States.  One, Joe Lieberman, was actually elected Vice President (we know what happened there).  The other, Eliot Spitzer, was a crusading Attorney General for the State of New York.

The thing is...one sold his soul; the other lost control.    Oy vey.