Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

This is not fog

We live up on a ridge next to the Blue Ridge Parkway and we enjoy some of the most beautiful and unusual weather in Virginia.

Today, we are surrounded by a low-flying cloud which is moving through at a good clip. This mass of dense water vapor is being driven by a stiff breeze, so you don't want to spend much time outside.

We get these clouds many times during the year and they can last all day. When they are accompanied by a good breeze, the wind chill is considerable.

Fortunately, we have a warm fire burning in the wood stove, so all is well at our home here in Floyd.

When the cloud moves on, we will probably spend some time splitting wood for the stove.

We've had one of Santa's helpers working on the task for the past few days. She has been a great help. Every household needs a helper like this one!

We need more Swiftboating, not less

In 2004, a determined group of veterans and POWs used the power of the Internet to set the record straight about John Kerry's false portrait of American veterans as misfits, drug addicts and baby killers.

John Kerry is now history, but the major TV networks, PBS, and the New York Times who played a major part in the demonizing of Vietnam veterans are still hard at work creating their version of history.

This new book "To Set the Record Straight" is an extremely well-documented look at the machinations of Kerry's media allies during the 2004 Presidential campaign.

In 2004, television networks and newspapers were able to dominate public opinion to an extent that is no longer possible today. What the media covered then was news and what they chose to ignore was not.

In one sense 2004 was a watershed moment for mass media and those organizations failed the test, big time!

The unmasking of Dan Rather by bloggers and the fact-checking of almost every story of significance since then has created a new playing field for the practice of journalism and the final story has not been written.

Swiftboating is exposing the lies, deceit and fraud of self-glorifying public officials or candidates for office who exaggerate their military service by lying about their feats of heroism and combat wounds.

Those who are exposed have other definitions, of course.

The media that supported Kerry and suppressed information that showed him in an unfavorable light is still losing ground because media bias is so clearly visible to an educated and vociferous audience.

If you wish to see how mass media played the disinformation game in 2004, "To Set The Record Straight" will give you hours of fascinating reading. It is a step-by step recounting of how ordinary people can mobilize to reach out to the public and publicize their side of history when it has been deliberately suppressed.

It should be required reading for all candidates for office and for those interested in changing history...

Happy Holidays!

As Gretchen and I end this sixth year of our post corporate careers, we have a lot to be thankful for and even more to look forward to.

Thanks to all who have encouraged us in so many ways. Thanks to those who have found our work meaningful and have purchased products and services from us.

Your support and encouragement have enabled us to realize goals that were only distant dreams for many years.

The dream of supporting ourselves as a family after corporate life by writing, creating art, and through craftsmanship and design ability has become a reality and we can see that it offers opportunity for years to come.

We all go through phases in life and it is reassuring to know that there is a viable future after corporate life.

For us it was not retirement, although that possibility exists for those who plan well for it. Our plans called for active engagement in the community and for income-producing work.

On both counts, we were able to find activities that met every expectation and connected us to people in our community who have become good friends.

We wish you all a happy holiday season and the chance to find opportunities to enhance your lives and find meaningful ways to share your talents with others.

May you flourish and prosper.
The world needs more of that.

The kind of occupation I've always dreamed of...

Doing custom framing for artists and photographers to achieve a superior presentation for their art is one of the most rewarding activities I can think of.

To work with a photographer and to come up with a unique presentation which honors the intention of the original photograph is a challenge which offers many rewards.

This photo by Jeri Rogers could have been framed in a dozen different ways, but this frame and mat created an unforgettable impression that seemed right for the particular purpose. You can visit Jeri's website to see more of her fine work.

Whether art is produced by a professional or by a child, it can be given a unique and memorable presentation by respecting the intention that went into creating the artwork.

I find that there always seems to be a way to achieve the results intended if I keep looking for affordable alternatives if our first choices exceed the budget available.

There is as much satisfaction in achieving an affordable result as there is in spending top dollar to get a specific result.

Believe it or not, well designed framing solutions can produce a "wow" reaction with a wide range of mouldings and mats. When the final result is also affordable, it makes everyone happy.

This horse painting in Valentin Soto's El Charro restaurant in downtown Floyd adds the right touch of elegance to this popular dining spot. The painting came to me as a loose piece of canvas rolled up in paper.  Valentin had a vision of what he wanted and I was able to produce the result that you see here. Now you can admire Valentin's horse while you enjoy the tasty food at El Charro.

Like almost every other kind of design activity, affordable results encourage continuing customer interest.  That is a direction worth following, especially in Floyd County, Virginia where you will find me working in my shop almost every day of the week.

Our cats are exhibiting "tribal" behaviour

I have written at length about the interaction of house cats when families move in together, but I recently saw an unusual and quite encouraging organizational development in our four-cat family.

Gretchen and I were trimming our female cat's claws. This is not major surgery, nor is it painful, but Buffy is well-skilled at playing the victim card. After the first few seconds, she gave out an outraged squall that sounded like the sound track of a horror movie. I was holding Buffy and splaying her paws while Gretchen was doing the actual clipping. I might add here that Gretchen was only clipping the very extremities of the claws, where they were curling back on themselves from lack of wear.

We kept on clipping as the rest of the cats gathered worriedly around us. I tried to reassure them that we meant well, but they would not have it. The two male cats started clawing at us as we were trimming the last of Buffy's claws. Buffy was now alternating growling and hissing furiously as the other cats moved in. (I was ready for feline levitation with an accompanying 360 degree revolution of the head at any minute)

Gretchen's daughter Marjorie reached to remove her large black and white male from the scene and it bit her!

Meanwhile, Sherman, our male cat, was sinking claws in Gretchen's leg in response to Buffy's squalling.

All calmed down quickly when we put Buffy down on the floor with nothing damaged but her dignity. She was not grateful for the support of the other cats, in fact, she spat at them, probably thinking they were out to get her.

We, on the other hand, had never seen this kind of behavior in house cats and were very impressed that the large black and white male cat, who is visiting, would have taken responsibility for the protection of one of our cats. It looks like the organizational consolidation is complete and the cats now consider themselves to be a group and they act in unison when faced with danger. The cats have a new leader and fortunately he is protective of his flock, as opposed to being a bully.

We gave him a lot of praise for his actions.

By the way, just to give you some perspective on the claw-clipping, Marjorie had just completed clipping her Black and White cat's claws only minutes before and he sat unconcernedly all through the process while Buffy looked on.

She is a drama queen of the highest order. If she could use the Internet, we would have gotten calls from PETA, I am sure.

Hurtling headlong toward year end...

Our little house on the ridge and even the entire town of Floyd seems to be busy these days. All this stuff you read about a quiet country life seems to be about somewhere else. In addition to a challenging work schedule, there are several house parties and business parties every week.

I am still so busy doing custom framing that it has cut into my blogging. This is a shame because the action of creating custom framing solutions with clients is an inspiring and rewarding activity that is definitely worth sharing with readers. I promise that I will do some posts on this in the near future.

Gretchen is being commissioned to do pet portraits by people all across the country. She is experiencing her first Christmas rush and it is keeping her very busy in her studio at the other end of the house.

Since I am in the workshop at all hours and Gretchen is spending hours drawing in her studio, we are very appreciative that Gretchen's daughter Marjorie has taken time from her job interviews to pitch in and help with meals and chores.

The nuclear family may have its advantages, like privacy, independence, and all that, but an extended family is a hell of a lot more fun and there are always free hands to help with daily chores and design work when needed.

One of the unexpected benefits I receive from having others working here almost every day is that I can easily call a design conference and get family to act as sounding boards for articles I am writing or framing decisions I am reviewing.

We drive into town several times a week for meetings and I notice that we seem to have more tourists this year then ever before, and they seem to be coming from all directions. It isn't like tour buses pull up and discharge passengers. It's more like seeing new people in town every day and it's long past tourist season.

With the revitalization of Floyd well underway, we have more parking spaces in town than ever before and the parking lots seem to fill up almost every day. Perhaps it's cause and effect. Now that you can easily find parking places in town, there is less reason to go elsewhere for shopping and for lunch.

This convenience factor is a subtle thing. I have always tried to buy locally whenever possible but I notice that I do more shopping in town now that I can park in a central location and carry out several errands without having to drive around and find new parking spaces.

The presence of new businesses and studios at the Village Green is definitely contributing to an increased energy level in the town of Floyd. It may even be causing the town to reach critical mass as a shopping destination for more people.

It is certainly an interesting process to watch. More later...

Dickens of a Night in Floyd

It was a crisp, cold Friday night and the sound of Christmas caroling filled the air. Almost every merchant in Floyd was open late with holiday treats for visitors.

The Town of Floyd was holding its 8th annual Dickens of a Night with hayrides and Christmas carolers in period costume.

I spent much of the evening with fellow bloggers Colleen Redman and Fred First at a book signing at NoteBooks, 117 S. Locust St. across the street from the Floyd Country Store.

There is no lack of conversation when you have six authors and a falcon in one room.

The falcon, CJ to his closest friends, was being handled by Lee Chichester, author and falcon handler.

Cj held up his end of the conversation once his handler took his hood off.

At the same time, Gretchen and her fellow artists were holding open house at Art Under the Sun. Business is brisk now that the El Charro Mexican restaurant is open seven days a week.

I enjoy the El Charro and really appreciate that it offers good food and is open when other restaurants are closed.

Here's to the start of another holiday season. I hope that yours brings you the opportunities you seek.

Make Life Easier for Yourself

Find out what people need and want - that you can and are willing to provide.

This is the simplest solution for many of life's challenging problems. All four elements are vital. It applies if you are looking for a new job or relationship, creating a website or a weblog, or starting a business. .

In any of these areas, getting in communication with people to find out what they need and want and deciding what you can and are willing to provide will give you almost everything you need to develop a meaningful relationship going forward.

Doing only one or two is a recipe for wasting vast amounts of time and money and sets you up for a loss. Understand and do every part of this:

Find out what people need and want - that you can and are willing to provide.

Very few people do this, possibly because it means finding out things they do not want to know.

Two typical situations where this applies

1. Let's say you are creating a storefront or a website to promote your business after several years of success through referrals alone. Do you know what people are saying about you that makes other people want to do business with you?

If you understand what is being said about you and why people want to rely on that and do business with you, all you have to decide is how you can provide what is already being promised by others.

Your promotion, store or site design, and your branding should align with the good things that people are already saying about you. It is a matter of meeting the expectation that have already been set up through your successful transactions with others.

2. How about that upcoming job interview? Are you concentrating on making a good impression and smoothly presenting your qualifications?

This can lead to an interview where someone leads off with, "Tell me about yourself" and a half hour later you are still running down the list of marvelous things you have done - most of which do not apply to what they are looking for.

Get in communication with the interviewer, just like he or she is a potential customer. If they ask you about yourself, make it a 20 second pitch like:

"I have xx years of experience including my time in the service. I have developed products, put on major events , and managed call centers.

"What are you looking for in this position?"

Keep the focus on what they need and want and are willing to pay for and you will have a most enjoyable interview and it will be amazingly stress-free. Your responses will be more on target when they tell you the qualifications they are actually looking for.

You will also be able to spot situations where they have not really defined what they need and want. Let's say they are looking for an events manager and they have never put on events, or a sales manager and they have never had one before.

Your questions are critical to establishing a good working relationship, because you really need to understand what their expectations are and be clear what yours are also.

Whether you are looking for a job waiting on tables or managing a store or a group, your questions can make the difference between a great job or a painful ordeal.

One of the unexpected benefits is that you will discover situations that are not right for you before the interviewer does and can end off gracefully with no hard feelings. Your parting line may be, "That's an interesting position, but it doesn't make the best use of my skills."

The bottom line

Any time spent finding out what people need and want from you and are willing to pay for is well worth the effort. Please note, this is not a sales pitch. This is a "survey" and it cannot be a list of canned questions. A simple conversation over coffee at the right time and place can do wonders.

Try it and see. It will make things easier to an amazing degree.

Silver bullet fables - part 3 - competence

Perhaps you think that competence is the silver bullet to career success. After all, it is competence that enables  you to hold your position when all about you are running in circles and panicking.

Wrong again. Competence is a vital necessity for success in any endeavor, but it is not a silver bullet or a lifetime ticket to the fast lane.

Your "competency certificate" in any field needs to be renewed on a yearly basis or even more often.  It's not that you lose your hard-won skills, it just that the playing field changes and your skills can become less relevant overnight.

Programmers see this as a life-long challenge. Advertising executives are finding this out every day as their years of media experience gives them no purchase on the realities of internet advertising. Internet marketing requires entire new skill sets which are continually changing. Old time marketing executives are having to scramble to retain clients because their competencies do not necessarily apply to the Internet.

Corporate presidents find that they are now being challenged by individual customers in ways they never imagined. A single dissatisfied customer with a weblog can derail the most intensely funded promotional campaign in a heartbeat.  While corporate management is saying, "who is this crackpot?", the customer is spreading a tale of customer woe faster than the PR flacks can respond.

One of the most notable examples of this process is the newspaper and mass media businesses. Reporters and TV anchor people still are experts at "shaping the news" so that it conveys the publishers message to a waiting populace. They had years of success foisting off opinion and editorial comment as news until that damned Internet came along.

Now the mightiest news anchors and reporters are up against an army of pajama-clad bloggers who fact-check them mercilessly. Using Google and other Internet tools, it took only hours for bloggers to expose the fact that the CNN presidential debate questioners were Democratic Party operatives instead of "independent voters" as advertised.

When media experts parade opinion as news and bloggers reply with facts mixed with strong opinions, it gives the reading public background material that they never had before. The net result is that mass media is being forced to change and become more accurate or go out of business. Bloggers are also being forced to become more accurate and more professional as more people start reading them and challenging their assumptions.

When every citizen has access to the Internet, they essentially become additional news outlets as well as promoters of various causes.

The competency requirements are changing even in small businesses. In small businesses like custom jewelry making or woodworking, it was once sufficient to be a skilled craftsperson who could create a unique piece at a reasonable price. Today there are craftsmen in other countries who can create unique work at lower prices. Survival now requires better marketing skills and collaboration with other craftspeople so that each craftsperson can focus on what they do best and the final result incorporates work from several people.   

Almost all of the technical competencies I acquired in college were useless when i graduated in 1959. I had to upgrade my competencies on the job and that was the beginning of a lifelong immersion in the rapidly changing field that eventually became the computer industry and the Internet.

I have had to retrain myself in some major area every year just to stay abreast of current requirements. Any area that I take my attention off for very long is an area where I am no longer competent. Since I do not have unlimited time and resources, I have to pick my battles and my studies carefully.

Post corporate life requires a different set of skills. To become competent as a self-employed entrepreneur/craftsman is a never-ending task. Fortunately, it is one that I enjoy.

Have you updated your competencies lately? If you are feeling uncertain about your future, this might be a good place to start.

Thanks to the Canadian Museum of Nature for the image of the extinct dinosaur.

Silver bullet fables - part 2 - persistence

Another silver bullet approach to managing your life or career is to persist, no matter what, until you succeed.

It sounds so, simple, and so reasonable, that it is no wonder that so many sincerely motivated people follow this path to eventual meltdown or worse.

Let me give you some examples to illustrate the folly of using persistence as a silver bullet for dealing with life and its challenges. Persistence as a silver bullet solution is like continuing to drive down the road long after you have lost your sense of direction.

It's like saying to yourself, "If I just keep on driving, I will eventually arrive where I want to be."

Some real life examples include:

Persisting on a career course without noticing that your spouse and children have started creating a life elsewhere without you.

Continuing to share your expertise in some area and failing to notice that your listener's eyes are glazing over.

Continuing to push some product or service on a potential customer without fully understanding their objections to doing business with you.

Continuing to work a full schedule even though you are sick and your judgment is impaired.

I have done all of these, of course, and have survived to go on to better things in the end, but the lesson to be learned is that there is no silver bullet which can be used to resolve all situations. Persistence is vital, but must be tempered with observation and course corrections where necessary.

I caused a fire yesterday that burned a half acre of underbrush next to my new home because I was ignoring the fact that I was not really healthy and in possession of my full faculties.  If it had not been for some helpful neighbors and two volunteer fire departments, I would not be writing this post today.

I have been under the weather with a very heavy cold and I have kept on working and producing as though I was healthy. My respiratory distress and the coughing was a constant distraction and my effective IQ was probably around 45.

So when I went to empty a bin full of "cold" ashes, I did not take the usual precautions and put them safely in a steel ash barrel, because it was already full. I took the ashes, which had been sitting on the hearth for several hours after Gretchen had cleaned the stove, and poured the pile of ashes at the edge of our cleared yard. I stowed everything neatly away and went back to work.

About an hour later, I noticed that the woods were on fire and called the fire department. At that same moment, two neighbors drove up and jumped out to help me contain the fire as best we could.

It took another hour and a dozen fire fighters to put out the fire which I had caused by my neglect of my usual safety precautions. In retrospect, I can see that I had set myself up for it by continuing to work and carry on without recognizing that I was judgment-impaired because of my health.

Like driving and drinking or while using a cell phone, managing a business or your life while physically under the weather is putting yourself at risk.

Persistence, tempered with cautious observation, is probably a safer course to follow.

If any of my comments have struck a chord in your life, you might want to see what is actually going on before you follow any of my examples.

I plan on a reduced schedule with frequent side-checks from Gretchen before I return to the normal full-tilt assault on life.