Posted by Chris Walbert on April 4th, 2010 and has 1 comment.
I haven’t been writing much lately, and when I do, it’s because there is a thought or idea stuck in my head. One that won’t leave unless I explore it and write it down. Such is the case with the subject of this post.
A few weeks ago, a friend and I were discussing the new artistic project of another friend. This person has received serious praise for previous artistic endeavors, and for good reason. He is extremely talented and his work has been featured and adored in nationally known and respected publications. His most recent project is just as amazing and has already garnered similar praise.
One critic, apparently not his biggest fan, however, trashed his latest work. My initial reaction was to shrug and say, “Well, who cares what that guy says.” Of course, it wasn’t my hard work that the man was criticizing, so it was much easier for me to have this reaction. The artist, to my surprise, was taking this critique extremely hard and was seemingly devastated by it.
For some reason, this reaction really surprised me and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It occurred to me, that it wasn’t only criticism that he took to heart, but praise as well. All of those positive reviews meant a lot to him, perhaps more than they should.
One cannot relish and love praise, without also being devastated by criticism. This is true of us all. See, praise and criticism are intrinsically linked. They both stem from another’s thoughts about us or our work. And placing too much value on another’s opinion of us, whether that opinion be positive or negative, gives that person control over our feelings and self-value.
I don’t want it to seem that I am singling this man out, because I have been guilty of the same thing. This conversation just brought this truth to light for me and made me see the same fault in myself. It is all too easy to love praise, and it usually happens without us even knowing. But we must be careful not to give others the power to determine how we feel about our work or ourselves. We are all flawed and one man’s opinion should never create the value of another.
We hear so much in our culture today about how you have to work hard to be successful. Which is true. However, what usually goes unsaid is the implication that you must succeed at all costs. The end justifies the means. If you need to step on people to get ahead, then that’s just part of the game.
Conan is the first person in the spotlight I have heard in a long time defy that idea. Not only should you work hard, but you also need to treat people with dignity and respect. It sounds simple, but so many people in positions of power don’t hold this belief.
The means matter. How we live and how we treat people matters. Our fortunes will vary and we all will go through good times and tough times. The important thing is to stay true to our beliefs no matter what and to continually treat others with the dignity and respect they deserve.
Posted by Chris Walbert on January 22nd, 2010 and has 3 comments.
Today is officially my last day working at Media Works. After much thought, prayer and discussion with friends and family, I have decided to leave my beloved Baltimore and take a job at Blueliner Marketing in New York City.
I am extremely excited about embarking on this adventure. Blueliner is a great agency made up of a lot of smart and interesting people and I know we will do big things in the coming months and years. I’m also really looking forward to living and working in New York. Having spent a good amount of time there in the past year, I know that it is going to be a really amazing life experience.
As I’m sure anyone reading this knows, my girlfriend Lauren and I have been dating long-distance for the past year and a half. We have done amazingly well dealing with long Megabus rides, weeks of not seeing each other, and all of the issues that go along with a long-distance relationship. With that said, I cannot wait to actually live in the same city as her.
But with the excitement and anticipation of a new experience undoubtedly comes the downside of leaving the people and places that you know so well. My family and lifelong friends live in Baltimore and I know it’s going to be hard, at times, not being able to drive over to their houses or grab dinner together on a weeknight. Baltimore has always been my home and a city that I love. There is something about Baltimore that cannot be replicated in any other city.
I am also truly going to miss all of the people at Media Works and our amazing clients. I have gained an incredible amount of knowledge over the past 3 years and have developed some really great relationships that I am sure will continue through the years. I owe a special thank you to Jody Berg for giving me the opportunity to be a part of Media Works and for much guidance and support during my time there.
The more I think and talk about the move, though, the more excited I get. Thanks to all of my friends, family, and maybe some strangers who read this blog. I hope you will keep reading and stick with me throughout this next stage of my life. And next time you’re in New York, give me a call.
So, here’s to new challenges and experiences. Stay tuned.
Posted by Chris Walbert on January 21st, 2010 and has no comments.
Today I placed my second order with Dogfunk.com. I had already received free 7-14 day shipping , but when I received the confirmation email I noticed the line,
“We know this isn’t your first time. By now you’re practically family, so we bumped your order to the front of the line. Your order will ship free UPS Ground. Most items ship within 24 hours.”
Wow. Talk about an amazing way to engender customer loyalty and surprise your frequent customers with great service.
Posted by Chris Walbert on December 23rd, 2009 and has 2 comments.
I have been thinking a lot lately about premium content on the web. Initially, I dismissed the developments by companies like AOL and Demand Media to create mass amounts of timely and mostly disposable content as trite and completely uninspired. The more I think about it, though, the important question isn’t whether this content will be premium (it won’t), but whether people even want premium content on the web.
What is premium content anyway?
Let’s look at an offline example first.
This past Saturday during the blizzard, I watched nearly all of season 3 of The Wire. This is some of the most inspired, well-written, intelligent television ever created. The Wire is premium content at it’s finest. What The Wire was not, however, was quick, easy, or cheap to produce. Additionally, while the show has developed a sizable cult following in recent years, it was not instantly popular or loved by a mass audience. In the same way that The Wire was not easy or quick to produce, it also wasn’t always easy to watch or digest for some people. Watching this show took a desire to pay attention and a certain commitment to be emotionally involved in each episode for a full 60 minutes. It also required a subscription to a premium TV channel.
On the other end of the television content spectrum, are countless garbage shows that millions of people watch every week. But why? Why do we watch these shows? Just like they are cheap and easy to produce and have mass appeal, these shows offer a simple, cheap viewing experience. We don’t become invested in the characters and when the show ends we don’t care what happens to these people. Cheap television gives us a quick laugh, an escape from real life and doesn’t ask anything more from us.
So what does any of this have to do with the web? Well, just like HBO struggled to keep The Wire on air as long as it did, content producers on the web are struggling to monetize their work and keep their sites alive and profitable. Right now there is a chasm developing between sites like WSJ and Reuters who want to charge for premium content and producers like AOL and Demand Media who are focused on churning out cheap content, ad nauseum. And somewhere in the middle are news sites, entertainment sites, and bloggers who are trying to eek out a living based on the ever-eroding CPM.
Posted by Chris Walbert on December 16th, 2009 and has no comments.
The annual favorite-albums-of-the-year post is always the most fun to work on. Not only does it lend itself to lots of discussion and arguments, but I always discover albums that I overlooked during the past year. I hate ranking albums, but have attempted to do so below. All of these are great and worth listening to. Special shout-out to Amy who set-up a Google Wave for a bunch of people to discuss their top albums of the year lists. This was the best use of Wave I have seen to this point and it was a lot of fun to see other people’s lists.
Posted by Chris Walbert on December 8th, 2009 and has 1 comment.
Yesterday, Google announced that they were introducing real-time search. Essentially this means that Google results pages will now include information from Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc. as these updates are being posted. While Bing has already been including real-time information in their search results, it’s always big news when the market leader introduces a feature.
Perhaps the most important thing to note is that Google real-time search will differ from Twitter’s own search in that it will apply Google’s technology to deliver relevant results. This is key. It’s not just about delivering the latest updates, but about delivering the most relevant results to users. Google’s success has always and will always hinge on delivering the most relevant information possible.
I want to spend some time using real-time search before offering my full thoughts on it. In the meantime, Wired gives more details and insights on real-time search as well as some of the other products Google has announced recently. You can also read Google’s official statements about the need for real-time search coupled with Google technology.
Google’s example of how Real-Time Search functions:
Posted by Chris Walbert on December 8th, 2009 and has no comments.
Since I started writing on ChrisWalbert.com a few years ago, I have been focused on only providing original content that was interesting to me and hopefully interesting to anyone who was reading. There is so much disposable content on the web and I don’t ever want this site to fall into that category. While I think I have accomplished this goal, it has also been an impediment to sharing fresh content on a regular basis.
So, in that vain, I want to add to what I do here. The main focus of ChrisWalbert.com will always be for this to be a place to explore ideas and get feedback from others who are interested in the same things. Sometimes, however, another writer has already covered a topic in great detail and this blog will simply be used to share those posts.
Whether it is a post written by me or a link to another post, my goal will still be to provide content that is interesting today, but could also be interesting six months later.
Don’t worry. I will not be posting any Tiger Woods stories.
Posted by Chris Walbert on November 24th, 2009 and has no comments.
Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. Coming from a big extended family, Thanksgiving has traditionally been the holiday that we all spend together, relaxing and enjoying each others’ company. As the years pass, I find myself even more excited about this holiday. During this week leading up to Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a few minutes and remember what I am thankful for.
I heard something this past weekend that really made me stop and think. It was something to the effect of, Are we spending more time complaining about the things we don’t have and what’s not going as planned, or being grateful and thankful for all of the blessings we do have?
If you really think about it, are you actively being thankful for things throughout the day or spending your time and energy complaining? Obviously there are times when it’s hard to feel thankful and times when you need to address the things that are not going well. But for most of us, most of the time, life is pretty good.
There are so many things to be thankful for, but as of late I have been thinking about one thing more than the rest. I am surrounded by amazing and supportive people. My family, friends, and girlfriend have been there for me so many times in so many ways and I am eternally grateful to them. I only hope that they receive the same type of support from me. To all of you, thank you.
My challenge to all of us this week is to intentionally spend some time being thankful. Especially when things aren’t going well, step back and think of something that you’re thankful for. It really does help put things back in perspective. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you enjoy it as much as I will.
Posted by Chris Walbert on October 9th, 2009 and has no comments.
This week, the FTC issued updated guidelines governing how companies use endorsements and testimonials in their advertising and marketing. The FTC press release cites three specific groups that will be most affected by these changes. Let’s take a look at these groups and how the changes may affect certain businesses.
Testimonial Advertisers:
From the FTC , “Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.”
This change will have a significant and immediate impact on diet/exercise/weight loss advertisers. Where as before they could include the simple disclaimer of “results not typical”, they now have to tell you the average results that you can expect.
The headline will go from, “Becky lost 40 pounds in 2 months!” (Results not typical); to “Becky lost 40 pounds in 2 months!” (You can expect to lose 5-10 pounds in 2 months based on average user results). As you can see, this is a change that could have a serious impact on businesses in this industry. Continue Reading FTC Issues Updated Guidelines for Endorsements
