Jun 23, 2011 Posted in Fun and Inspiration, Marketing Ideas

Socialnomics by Erik Qualman

I know I’m behind the times in my reading material but I’ve just started reading “Socialnomics” by Erik Qualman.  So far it is a fascinating read and I suspect it will only get better.

Right out of the gate Qualman talks about the demise of traditional newspapers and media channels as we know them.  I recently posted very similar thoughts on my post after the Vancouver riots a few days ago.

I haven’t read enough of the book yet to intelligently comment on it but I did want to mention one thing.  Qualman cites Dancing Matt early on as an example of the potential power of social media and more importantly, the potential of social media to allow people to make a living doing what they love to do.

If you’re not familiar with Matt, he is a dude that was famous among his friends for a goofy dance that he did.  He got sick of the rat race and started travelling for fun. One of his buddies asked him to do his dance “over there”, filmed it and eventually put it on YouTube.

Long story short, Matt’s videos became wildly successful and Stride gum approached him and now sponsors his travels.  Matt is doing what he loves to do and Stride gum is getting MASSIVE exposure for very little costs.  Last I checked the video below had nearly 38 million views.  That is just one of Matt’s many videos.  Amazing!!

Jun 17, 2011 Posted in Fun and Inspiration, Random Thoughts

New Danny Wallace Book Out

If you’ve never heard of Danny Wallace before, shame on you.  He is a British author that wrote Yes Man (which was turned into a movie starring Jim Carrey) and a whole whack of other books.  He has a very dry and very strange sense of humour which I find hilarious.

I stumbled across his work when I was in a thrift store in Nottingham.  I picked up a copy of ‘Yes Man’ for less than a dollar and I must have read it 3 times before giving it to a friend of mine.  It is that good.

In any event, Danny has come out with a new book called, “More Awkward Situations for Men”.  Obviously, this is a sequel to one of his earlier books.  I haven’t read it yet but I’m sure it is going to be just as good as all of his other stuff.

The thing that I really like about Danny is that he writes about his own life experiences.  He’ll put himself into all of these awkward situations (which of course, turn out to be hiliarious) and gets you sucked into thinking “What if I was to do something like that?”

For example, the premise of “Yes Man” is that Danny commits to saying ‘yes’ to everything for a year.  As a result, he gets himself in some fine messes but he also opens himself up to a world of possibilities that he never knew existed.  While the book is funnier than a fart in a space suit it is also very much a self-help resource.

If you’ve ever read any of A.J. Jacobs’ stuff – especially “My Life as an Experiment” – you’ll find their writing styles and the situation they put themselves in quite similar.

Anyway, I haven’t read it yet and all of Danny’s stuff is hard to find in Canada so if you have had a chance to read it, please let me know how it is.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with one of Danny’s videos but beware, this tune is addictive and you might find that you’ll be humming it for days.

Jan 11, 2011 Posted in Fun and Inspiration, Random Thoughts

Too Bizarre to Even Fathom.

I was recently speaking with my buddy Cheda.  His cousin Dragan (who I met in Brazil) was in Egypt when after a night of heavy drinking he decided to go for a swim in the ocean. Before his friends even knew what he was doing Dragan handed his beer to a friend, climbed the ladder and took a running leap off a high-diving platform.

His friends commented that it was odd that there wasn’t much of a splash. Turns out that he landed on the head of a shark. He sprained his ankle and killed the shark.  That same shark had been terrorizing the city and had killed a swimmer a couple of days before.

Dragan was so drunk he doesn’t remember any of it.  The resort covered his accommodation costs, paid his medical expenses and treated him as a hero. This is a picture of the very large shark taken from an article about the story (written in Portuguese) via the link below.

Is that the most bizarre thing ever or what?  Even I cannot make this up.  Dragan had an entire ocean to hit yet he landed on the only two square feet (pardon the pun) that could have ever caused this outcome.  In fact, I shudder at the more likely outcome of him landing beside the shark and becoming a meal but that didn’t happen.  What are the odds, really?

http://www.jornalvs.com.br/site/noticias/geral,canal-8,ed-60,ct-1079,cd-297567.htm

Jun 10, 2010 Posted in Fun and Inspiration

A Philosophy Lesson from Dave “The Hammer” Schultz

So I was watching the Stanley Cup Finals this evening and the Canadian icon Don Cherry interviewed legendary tough guy Dave “The Hammer” Shultz before the game.

If you’re not familiar with “The Hammer” he was the king bully back in the 70′s when the Flyers were known as the Broad Street Bullies. I was only about 7 years old when Dave ruled the roost but I do remember him always beating up on some poor sap from the Leafs.  He was the toughest of the tough in an era of incredible tough dudes.

So Don Cherry is talking to him and the name Fred Shero comes up.  Fred was another legend but for his coaching skills, not his fists. In fact, he was known to have ‘disliked’ fighting in hockey – all the while putting together a team that would give opponents nightmares.

In any event, Shultz mentioned something that Shero said once to get the lads revved up.  It was something to the effect of, “If you’re worried about people criticizing you the solution is simple.  Say nothing, do nothing and be nothing.”

Huh?  Did I just pick up a great lesson from The Hammer himself?  I guess I did.  I have a number of half-completed projects on the go that I haven’t done anything with simply because they might not be well received.  In other words, I’m breaking my own golden rule of marketing – test everything.

Who cares what others think?

Jun 2, 2010 Posted in Fun and Inspiration

Gramps, the Canadian Weather and Cordaroy Pants

I haven’t written anything just for fun for awhile so I thought I’d share this amusing little diddy.

I’m in Vancouver now where it has been raining for three weeks straight.  I was in Calgary visiting my sister’s family on the weekend and it snowed there. Not just a light dusting but two days and about six inches of snow.

Back in Ontario on the same weekend, Mom tells me that it hit 39 degrees celsius!  Even for Canada, that is a pretty crazy weather pattern.

In any event, here is the amusing part of the story.  My Grandfather is 87 years old and don’t worry, he’ll remind you of that fact repeatedly.  I guess Mom was taking Gramps over to a friend’s place to eat on that very hot weekend back in Ontario.  As Gramps is getting into the car, she asks Gramps why he’s wearing a velour sweater when it is over 30 degrees out.

His answer was, “I just realized I can’t wear short sleeve shirts anymore.  My arms are starting to look wrinkly.”

I guess the dinner on the deck was pretty funny.  Everyone was in shorts and t-shirts sweating profusely while Gramps sat there stoically in his sweather and cordaroy pants not even mentioning the heat.  Classic.