OK, Twitter is great, but the 140 character limit is driving me nutz today as well as all of the breakdowns, but none the less that’s not what this post is about. Currently Eden Spodek, Connie Crosby, Whiney Hoffman, and others are having a discussion about a post that Laura Fitton (Pistachio) put on her blog just a little while ago.

Now we might have goten off the actual topic, but in it’s essence we are talking about monetization. When I went to Podcamp Toronto I heard a lot of different views from a lot of different people about monetizing their website, blog, or podcast. Some people had the sole intention of monetizing while others thought is was a downright crime.

I want to pull this apart from the vantage point of an artist and the vantage point of someone who like in their artistic process just lets things sort of flow.

Viewpoint One - I think if your sole concern is “making money”
and that phrase really doesn’t make sense anyway, that chances are you might get lucky and make a few bucks, and you might just put so much pressure on the “making money” that you will find there is a block there. Those folks that come off desperate for a thing usually don’t recieve it.

Viewpoint Two - “Let things be” The web is known for it’s oranic growth. If you as an artist, blogger, Podcaster, Business owner are adding value to the community it is almost hard not to monetize in some way. This does not always equal money, but many times money flows to you so that you may build on that value, and increase service to others. Those that look at monetizing as just down right bad block that flow. Nothing flows in and eventually in my belief their personal river of information or service will eventuially run dry. Again, monetization is not always money. It can be a flow of information, barter, or just plain old good will.

Viewpoint Three - So what about money??? Is money something that we “Make”? Nope, Money is just a piece of paper that represents energy. This flow of energy from one person to the next helps keep the world turning.  If someone offers you website services because they think you have an amazing blog or offers to generate a graphic for nothing, what they are really saying is “Because you have added so much value to my life I would like to somehow pay you in return” By telling that person “No thanks” or that they don’t have to do that blocks the flow of energy from one to another.  (Damming the River)  All of these things equal money. If you had to go out and hire a designer they would charge you money. If they didn’t they would be out of business. If I gave away every wood turning I did, I would no longer be able to sustain or innovate further.

This is more a rant than a post, but I guess a post can be a rant, and I am sure I will maybe even add to it as things come to me. Bottom line for me……Add “LOVE”, if something gives you a good feeling and you are adding “LOVE” you can never go wrong. Don’t stop the flow to you whether it be money, gifts, or whatever as long as it is coming to you from a position of “Love”. You will know when things are right to accept money, you will know when it’s ok to start charging for services when your heart tells you. Listen to your inner guidance system! Adding love will take you to the promised land. Enjoy every minute of your process, put out love and receive love…..in whatever form it shows up.

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I would like to share with you a book that I have been reading. The book is Joseph Jaffe’s “Join the Conversation”.  As a bit of an amateur to the social media space, I have found Jaffe’s book to be enlightening, fresh and extremely educational. For full transparency I have been interested in the “Marketing” space for many years. Jaffe Juice was my first venture into social media through his podcast, and I requested an opportunity to review this book.

Join the Conversation to me was a book that offered not only Josephs view on social media, marketing and conversational marketing, but offered real life stories based on real companies in real situations using what Jaffe calls New Marketing. “At the end of the day”, as Joseph always says….anyone can use this book from the mom and pop store owner to the huge multi national corporation. Conversation, and conversational marketing really drops the barriers between companies that speak at us and tell consumers what to think versus the consumers being able to talk back at the companies with their own opinion. As Jaffe says in his book, “Companies large and small can no longer hide under a rock”.  True engagement with consumers is essential to building brand trust and awareness.

Jaffe, owner of company Crayon has set up his own site to engage with the community through the pages of his book. The site www.jointheconversation.us lets anyone become an author of their own opinions and Jaffe talks his walk enabling people to share opinions about the book and the media landscape while of course joining the conversation. Jaffe’s UNM2PNM marketing effort explains how he is “Using New Media to Prove New Media” by marketing his book in the social media channels. What I love about this is that not only is he learning through his endeavors, but we all get to learn along side him.

I have many questions for Jaffe including, “When will Consumer Generated Content and traditional 30 second spots just become one in the same?” Meaning, when will consumers no longer differentiate between the two? Also, “Do we want all of the large Madison Avenue Companies figuring this out? When all of the larger brands figure out strategic ways to Join the Conversation, will this water down effectiveness the same way the 30 second spot has become a blatant waste of money?”  You can look for these future posts on www.jointheconversation.us .

I think, I mean I know the game is changing. Marketing is changing. The way consumers ultimately consume is changing. For me as a woodturner, blogger, and social media buff this all seems very grass roots. Listen to your customers, offer amazing service, join in on their conversations, and be honest with them. Jaffe offers up ways to do this using Wiki’s, Blogs, Podcasts, and even traditional spots to generate these conversations. If you are a small business looking to play on the big field of a global economy or you are a massive Global company looking to use grass roots techniques you have to purchase this book. Purchase this book from Jaffe and all of the affiliate money generated by the sales will go to the One Laptop per Child fund a beautiful organization trying to use technology in third world countries. Get the book, I can personally guarantee you’ll get a ton out of it.

On a personal note, my “Social Miracle” was achieved through the channels of social media by using my blog, and twitter as a posting platform for my goals. The community rallied around me to help make my miracle come true. This included Jaffe who’s segment on his podcast, along with the purchase of a bowl made specific for his company “Crayon” helped in this endeavor. Read more about my “Social Miracle” and take a look at the “Crayon of many Colors” Bowl #5 made for Jaffe Juice.

Check out “Join the Conversation” and by all means jump in….the water is warm.

This is me with the “Crayon of many Colors” Bowl Made for Joeseph Jaffe and his company Crayon. 

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This past weekend will go down as one of the best ever for me as a person, a professional, and a newly engaged future husband to my love Michelle. For anyone that might not know the “Social Miracle” pre-weekend story the fairy tale came to a beautiful ending and I got my princess to the ball.

The week before Podcamp Toronto was filled with woodturning, blogging, tweeting over twitter, and posting photos of finished art to my “Social Miracle” page where pieces were being bought before I could even get them online! I am not only amazed at the community that helped, but I am also eternally grateful….for my dream of getting married to the one I love most will be coming true!

So the story continues with Friday evening when Michelle and I arrived in Toronto for Podcamp Toronto and a bit of R & R. Michelle and I arrived at the Hotel, the Comfort Suites City Center at about 5:30PM and we were very hungry so I proceeded down to the desk to ask for a quaint romantic place to eat. The attendant suggested the Keg Mansion at 515 Jarvis street, Toronto. If I could have hand picked a place, this would have been it. The food was amazing, the service was astounding, and of course the company was perfect!

Just after dinner I pulled out a gift bag filled with tissue paper at the top all taped together with some rocks in the bottom. I told her that I had gotten her something special for the trip and that she should open it.

When Michelle opened the package she tore through the tissue saying “There is nothing in here” I said “Look further” Michelle pulled out a couple of rocks and looked at them in quite a weird way in somewhat disbelief …I guess not wanting to hurt my feelings. She must have thought these rocks had some significant meaning….little did she know. After she looked at the rocks I pulled a box from my hand and asked her “Is this the rock you were really looking for?” and the tears started flowing. I wasn’t sure if she was crying tears of happiness or tears of sadness! Thank God they were tears of happiness. I asked Michelle to “Marry me” and she said, “Yes!”

Within a few moments she was on the phone with her mother, still in tears, while the waitress was bringing a desert with sparklers. Quite overwhelming, but very excited Michelle and I had a great time!

With the help of some skilled woodturning, some very special podcasters, bloggers, and social media mavens I was able to pull of the miracle of my life and Michelle and I are happily engaged. In my next blog post I am going to thank personally every person involved that I can drum up from memory and emails.

Pic 1 - Michelle Glowing with ring on.

Pic 2 - Michelle with Whitney Hoffman

Pic 3 - Michelle in the City

Sorry no close up of the ring yet….Soon.

Thanks to all who played a part in my Miracle!

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I guess by the title of the post you figure…cool he’s gonna tell us how he does it. He’s going to give us the formula behind his artistic process. The fact is …I’m not that nice, and in all actuality…I’m not that good. I have many processes that lead me to an end result. I have many things that inspire me, and I have no real science behind the “process” except for one thing that is always in common with every piece I make.

“The Letting go of Things”

(mentioned in my photo documentary)

I talk to many artists that do what they do because they love it. They are not worried about the time in production, and they don’t really care if you like what they are producing. The fact is…they are producing for themselves. They produce from the heart and are not worried about the saleability of an item. Like Emeril Lagasse says in his popular cooking show….”It’s a food of love thing”

Then you have the other artist who is always concerned that every painting they make, or every page they write must be perfect. They are concerned about the way others will account for their work. They ask themselves, will anyone buy it, will anyone publish it, will they, will they, will they????

Which one sounds like the better situation to you. Thats what I thought, number one…..but is number two really the wrong way about going about it?

Number two will tell you that their livelihood is based on the fact that they sell their work. They sell you on the belief that their work has to have a commercial flare. They will tell you anything too weird, or too off the wall is just taking a risk. This sounds to me like they have taken the “inner child” out of the mix and added way too much practicality.

Hey, those are all valid points, but I would like to counter with this:

Have fun with your work…all the time.

Dont watch the clock except at the start and finish of a project

Don’t worry about “selling the piece”

Tune into your gut, your happy place. Create from a place of peace.

If your body tells you tonight isn’t the night….take a day off.

Don’t pressure yourself to produce more, faster, quicker, more, more, more.

Take yourself for art breaks, creative time with your thoughts. Walk through the woods or down a path.

Don’t be afraid to see art in everything you see, everything you read, and people you come in contact with.

When someone tells you a story…listen.

Last but not least “Let Go” Let your art flow through your heart. Don’t hold on so tight. There are no rules here.

I have heard of this thing called an artist block, or writers block. What in the world is that anyway? Please tell me? Or maybe you shouldn’t. The fact is this, I lie awake at night with enough ideas flowing than I could ever actually produce. This is not to come off as pithy, or snobby. I just don’t get those creative blocks, and I think I know why, but that is another blog post all together. For now, if you are an artist, a podcaster, a writer, a creative being….and you are stressing yourself out over production, what people might think, or what people might say….quit it. Take five minutes to yourself to meditate. Breathe from your solarplexus, and just tap into that gap between the notes. You’ll find that when the art is flowing from your heart rather than flowing from your ego, that you’ll produce better work, in less time, that is more salable to the end buyer because they will feel the love you put into your pieces.

Like that ole 80’s song goes by Bobby McFarren

“Don’t worry be happy”

For more out check out my flickr Pics

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Recently I purchased an Ipod classic 60 Gig. I love it. As long as I keep it protected in it’s neoprene case, and stashed away in a hiking pack around my waist, I can turn and turn and turn, with the ultimate of pleasure. I am a podcast fanatic, but I tend to listen to more music with my Ipod than a chatty Podcast while I am in “Creative” mode.

My music of choice these days us Matthew Ebel’s “Goodbye Planet Earth” I absolutly love it. If you have been hiding under a rock in the web 2.0 world and you dont know who Matthew Ebel is, I would dare to say “shame on you”

Matthew’s style in “Goodbye Planet Earth” is very sort of classic rock piano player meets robot new age twang! He uses digital sound effects to enhance the futuristic sound of his newest tracks. Matthew has amazing piano riffs, and an awesome voice that while I am turning away I love to sing along with.

If you dont trust me, check out his MP3 Samples on his site, as well as one of his many video’s on YouTube.
As for full disclosure I am not promoting this for any other reason that I love the CD and it seemed like the right thing to do. Now I’m off to go crank up “Join the Conversation” and turn some wood. C-Ya

Keith

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Twitter, Facebook, Link’d In, Bogging, Jaiku, Pownce, Digg, all of these sites, applications, and meeting places are all meant to basically link people together. Give us…the consumer….the marketer…the whatever a place to be recognized and connect with others on a friend to friend or peer to peer basis.

I have to be honest and say that I have created what I know to be genuine relationships using these channels, but I cant help but wonder when “The Man” will infiltrate the situation and blow the whole thing to bits.

I am currently reading Joseph Jaffe’s “Join the Conversation” and he is speaking about conversation as a form of marketing. This marketing is especially good for not only the producer, but the consumer as well. In fact the consumer is often times or even most often the main conduit to other “Like minded” consumers. These days “Sally” across the street carrys more marketing power than the big ad agencies when it comes to marketing a vacuum cleaner.

Lets take the interactive T-shirt company Tee Tonic for instance. They build a complete busines around consumer generated content. The shirts are designed by the consumer, the shirts are voted on by the consumer, and then all the company becomes is a listen and produce company. Customers want X…we produce X. Very cool, I love the idea, and I love the model.

There is one problem though. Not all companies fit into the Tee Tonic model. So what do these businesses and corporations do to increase “Conversation” and more to the point positive “Conversation” or “Buzz” to increase their brand awareness and ultimately add to the bottom line?

This is what scares me.

Right now we seem to be able to make pretty genuine relationships through means of Web 2.0 tools. When does it get to the point where the large corporations are jumping in and buying up these small companies to basically “melt down” the information and hoard it for themselves. When do the corporations begin to “Join the Conversation” and you or I can not tell if we are being fed a line of absolute crap? When do these companies start hiring “evangalists” to just spew good content about themselves.

In this community we speak about being transparent and honest with our friends, peers, and customers. When do these lines begin to blur into traditional marketing…ala the thirty second spot?

I’d love to think that this is not going to happen and that companies will begin to see the value of being transparent and honest with their customers, but when was the last time a company decided to just let go of “control?”

As a woodturning artist, I am always trying to be open about my work, my creative process, and ultimately my goals. I believe in the power of community, but I believe that honesty is the best policy. I think consumers, friends, whoever can sniff out a rat in a mere nanosecond and I hope that the web 2.0 model never ceases to exist in light of people being dishonest and ruining it for the rest. So I guess if I had one question to ask my community it would be this.

“If I was building a business around my wood turned art, my bottle stoppers, my bowls, my art……how would I leverage communal marketing in a transparent and honest way to help build my business, keeping in mind that everything is handmade, and that I am not a machine in China spewing out pieces by the thousands a day?”

I would love any feedback you could give me(us), and Joseph Jaffe I would love your expert contribution as well……hey guys “Join the Conversation“

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Recently, I got involved in a social media experiment being hosted by Joseph Jaffe, at the Jaffe Juice Blog and Podcast.The book “Join the Conversation“  is the catalyst for his newest social media experiment.  His experiment long hand is called “Use New Media to prove New Media; UNM2PNM” All that was required was to agree to review his book on my blog, and I couldn’t possibly say no. Joseph is the main source of inspiration for me being in this space and Jaffe Juice was the first podcast I ever listened too. As an artist trying to gain a bit of traction on the internet and social media space this book is timely for me. (I will be trying to review one book per month on my blog over the next year.)
I am about two chapters into the book now, and Joe has me hooked on his witty banter, great writing, and amazing case studies.

Crayon, Jaffe’s company name is a digital marketing company promoting conversation as a means of marketing to a targeted “Permission based” audience. The successful release of Crayon in the virtual world of Second Life was a world first, and Jaffe loves to be the first on the block. He has clients such as Coke that have used this virtual world for such marketing campaigns as Virtual Thirst.

Joe Jaffe has inspired me to really play around with the social media space and although I have not finished the book completely yet, I would recomend buying this book as Joseph not only provides you with a wealth of information on social media marketing but is giving all of the affiliate proceeds to One Laptop Per Child, his chosen charity. Anyone that reads my blog regularly knows that I am a huge proponent of giving back.

So check out the book, the blog, and the UNM2PNM experiment, and help give back in the process. Thanks for your support.

-Keith

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