Class Notes: October 20, 2015

Great news! Tests will be returned this morning. And even better news, those who showed up to take it did well on it.  The bad news? Well for those who didn’t show, you get to write a makeup paper. Check the syllabus for details. I don’t give make-up tests.

 

We’ll discuss Chapter 4 (or Round 4) of Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook — and guess what it’s discussing.  Anyone? Anyone? Yes, Twitter. He likes Twitter.  And it’s a pretty strong chapter.

We’ll also talk about The Clarion-Ledger’s decision not to cover JSU sports due to the fact they are denied access to coaches and players. Should be an interesting discussion. I want to get your take on it. How should this be handled via social media on both sides? Put that thought into your thinking cap.

Working on a Mississippi Public Broadcasting visit. Will be soon, so stay tuned. Ronnie Agnew, head of MPB, is looking forward to meeting you.  Also I’ll introduce you around and give you a tour of radio and TV (I work in both).

Stay tuned.

 

 

 

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10 Life Lessons I learned from sports

Happy Monday y’all. I spent the better part of the weekend watching my middle son zoom around the cross country course and the soccer field. When you spend that much time baking in the sun and watching middle school kids, you observe a few things. It’s entertaining enough to watch the other parents — but really, the kids were the ones who were teaching this weekend. But sports is like that. Some of my most important life lessons were learned on the playing field. Here are a few things I noticed:

  1. It’s great to be a rockstar, but even better to be a member of a great team. You can be Renaldo, but if the rest of your team isn’t in synch, you’re not going to succeed. Being human is a team sport. Remember that and you’ll go far.
  2. Attack the ball, don’t wait for it. That goes for anything in life. Know what you want and go for it. Don’t wait for it to come to you.
  3. When the other team runs their mouth, answer with your feet. The best way to shut someone up is to dominate them. The best revenge is success. Get in their head.
  4. Practice something so much that it becomes part of your subconscious. The second it takes you to think is the moment when your competitor will gain the advantage. Know when to react. Perfect practice leads to perfect performance. I gave my son the example of driving a stick shift. After a while, you don’t even think about shifting gears. You just do it.
  5. Listen to your coach and the ref. Don’t talk back. Say yes sir (or ma’am) and play your game.
  6. Be aggressive. Being afraid is when you get hurt. But don’t be a cheap-shot artist. Karma will bite you in the butt. Play tough but play clean.
  7. When you are in shape, you can can focus on the mental part of the game. That goes for sports and life — you need energy to focus. And life is mental. Fitness is mandatory.
  8. Have a plan and execute it. Run your run or play your game in your mind before your competition.
  9. Talent is awesome — but heart wins the day. I got “Most Talented” in high school but I wish I had gotten “Most Heart.” I’ve discovered that it is the people with heart who change the world.
  10. Losing sucks but is a great teacher. Don’t beat yourself up. Learn from your mistakes and don’t repeat them.

I’m proud of all the kids who compete, give their best and lay their hearts out on the field, course, court or track. I hope they take the lessons they learn and use them for a lifetime of success.

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7.3 Billion to one

Let your attitude be a light in the darkness.

Let your attitude be a light in the darkness.

Woke up this morning and grabbed my phone by reflex. I scanned Facebook statuses and read about various takes on football and life. Then I came across one by a person who is a pretty high profile guy. In it, he was listing all the reasons he was a victim. That he had failed because people were out to get him.

My intention was roll back over and go back to sleep. But I couldn’t. Not because of the man’s Facebook status. It was because I had a huge plank in my own eye.

If you think the world is out to get you, the odds are 7.3 billion to one against you. If you realize that most of your problems are caused by the man (or woman) in your mirror, the odds are in your favor. You can win that battle.

I don’t want to beat up on the guy too much (and thus will not mention his name). Why? I had one of those days Friday. I just didn’t post it here on Facebook. Instead, I went and sat in a library and thought about what I could differently to get the change I am seeking.

Personal responsibility is old fashioned and not very politically popular these days. There aren’t many talk radio shows that preach it (my cousin does about finances, to his credit) But these times call for it.

Now it you will excuse me, I’m going to get a pair of pliers and perform some surgery. I have an eye-plank I need to remove.

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I believe in:

CCF_FreshStrawberryCheesecakeBreakfast for dinner

Being kind to waiters and waitresses
Doing one hour of exercise at least five days a week
Using my car’s blinkers
That the best decision in my life was marrying my wife.
J.J. Abrams to make a decent Star Wars movie
The best in people until they prove me wrong
Karma
Good running shoes
That you are the sum of your five closest friends
the fact that seeing a sunrise is a gift
Family

A good book
The Good Book
The Good Lord
Cheap Beer and good wine
The worst moments are the seeds of your best.
Washing my hands
Being proactive instead of reactive
A random kind word to a stranger
Using my talents
Not being an a-hole (most of the time)
A great steak or at least a cheeseburger
Trying new things

The love of a good dog
Action being better than words
That fear is the Devil walking the earth
Ignoring people who try to make me fearful
There will be cure for cancer.
That kids are awesome.
Good food, friends and family make life bearable.
Good storytelling
The Great Smoky Mountains
Sunscreen
Sneeze guards at all-you-can-eat restaurants
The fact we should pay our blessings forward
The Golden Rule.
Cheesecake
Travel
Laughter

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Adventures of an Awkward Athlete: The Next Level

Steam poured off our bodies as the cool air wrapped its arms around us. Our workout was done for the day and we sat on the artificial turf catching our breath. A couple of our teammates got up and spoke. One, in tears, told about a particularly tough health challenge she is facing. Another told how coming out to workout had given her the mental strength to pull through a particularly cruel loss in her life.

It was a solid reminder that we’re all facing challenges. And it was an even more important reminder of why I spend the money to be out there. It’s group therapy. It’s how I have the strength to keep pushing on.

I know of several of my teammates who have faced challenges that would have brought average men and women to their knees. Their strength strengthens me. Their example pulls me through my own personal dark times.

When I first worked out, I did it for me. As time went on, I realized that there was more than just a physical level to the training — there was a mental one, too. I started paying attention to my teammates more and listening to their stories. I found our shared experiences to be healing.

We’re not alone in this journey. And if we can somehow quit thinking of ourselves for a moment and have empathy, life will get easier. I know the workout won’t — but that’s OK. Tough moments make tough people.

Paul Lacoste talks about the Next Level. It’s physical and mental. But it’s also having the strength to help your teammate when he or she needs it the most.

That’s life right there. That’s truly what living is all about.12006109_10156079227365721_31561077470876233_n

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Class Notes: October 15, 2015

TEST #2 TODAY! DON’T BE LATE — and DON’T MISS IT.

If you miss the test, you have to write a paper. I don’t give makeups (per the syllabus)

See you bright and early.

A clue for the bonus question.

A clue for the bonus question.

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Adventures of an Awkward Athlete: Being Tired

26.2 miles. That’s what the sticker read on my car. One hundred yards from it, I was winded. I could barely make it up to the door to the radio station.

Oh how the mighty had fallen.

Oct. 31, 2010, I weighted 195 lbs. and had completed the Marine Corps Marathon. A year later, I was pushing 250 and wheezing.

I was heart attack waiting to happen.

I looked at that 26.2 sticker and was embarrassed. How could I have let myself go? And how could it have happened so quickly? I tell you how. I had to pick up a second job and I was working my butt off. And I used sugary sodas to prop my energy up.

I was tired. And I was out of shape.

Five years later, I’m about to run my second marathon. I weigh 213 lbs. and work five jobs (six if you count freelance.) I have three kids who need taxiing around. I’m busier than ever.

I’m still tired. But now I’m in shape.

I can tell you this: Being tired when you are out of shape sucks a whole lot more than being tired when you are in shape. I have energy reserves I didn’t have back then. And I am getting so much more done.

People tell me they are too tired to exercise. I get that. But let me tell you from experience: You’re too tired not to exercise. It makes all the difference in the world.

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Class Notes October 13, 2015

The 2nd test will be Thursday, October 15.  Be on time. No makeups will be given. You, per the syllabus, can write a paper to make up your grade. I pick the topic.

The Test will be derived from the first three chapters of Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook.

We will review and go over Chapter 3 (about Facebook) today. Hope midterms are going well.

 

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World by Gary Vaynerchuck. Chapters 1-3

 

  1. Your number one-job is to tell your story to the consumer wherever they are, and preferably at the moment they are deciding to make a purchase.
  2. 325 million phone subscriptions in the United States.
  3. ½ are on social media
  4. 71% of the people in America are on Facebook. Half a billion are on Twitter globally and check it at least once a day.
  5. Social media has altered how people fall in and out of relationships, stay in touch with family and friends and find jobs.
  6. One in four use Social Media to inform purchasing decisions.
  7. Boomers, who control 70% of the spending, have increased their Social Media use by 42%
  8. Social Media is no longer tied to laptops and PCs.
  9. There are three types of media: Traditional (radio, TV, print), digital (websites, banner ads, e-mails, SEO – search engine optimizations) and Social Media. Social Media is pulling away from the first two.
  10. IT took 38 years before 50 million people gained access to radios
  11. It took TV 13 years.
  12. It took Instagram a year and a half.
  13. The fastest-growing marketing sector getting people’s attention is Social Media.
  14. All forms of Marketing must contain Social Media yet 1% of ad budgest going to Social Media.
  15. You can’t just repurpose your content across different platforms.
  16. Great Marketing is about telling your story in such a way that it compels people to buy what you’re selling. That’s a constant. What’s always in flux, especially in this noise, mobile world is how, when and where the story gets told and who gets to tell all of it.
  17. “Jabs” are the lightweight pieces of content that benefit your customers by making them laugh, snicker, ponder, play a game, feel appreciated or escape, “right hooks” are calls to action that benefit your business.
  18. Tradition marketing campaigns would sit back and see what happened. Today there is no six-month campaign. There’s now a 365-day campaign.
  19. Like boxers, great story tellers are observant and self aware. And attuned to his or her audience.
  20. Today, real-time feedback that Social Media allows makes it possible for brands and businesses to test and retest with scientific precision.
  21. A great marketing story is one that sells stuff. It creates emotion that makes consumers want to motivate people.
  22. Your story is not powerful enough if all it does is lead the horse to water. It has to inspire the horse to drink – the only story that can achieve that goal is the story told with native content.
  23. Native content amps up your story’s power. It is crafted to mimic everything that makes a platform attractive and valuable to a consumer.
  24. Whatever story you tell must remain true to the brand.
  25. Different platforms allow you to highlight different aspects of your brand identity. Each jab tells a different part of your story. Have fun with it.
  26. A perfect right hook always includes three characteristics: A. They make the call to action simple and easy to understand B. They are perfectly crafted for mobile devices. C. They respect the nuances of the social network for which you are making content.
  27. Content for the sake of content is pointless. Only OUTSTANDING content can cut through the noise.
  28. Outstanding content’s six rules: 1. It’s Native Content – Content is king, but context is God. You can put out good content, but if it ignores the context of the platform on which it appears, it can fall flat. Consumers are on social media for value. Science – social networking sites light up people’s dopamine pathways and the pleasure centers of the brain. In the right social-media savvy hands, a brand that masters native content becomes human. 2. It doesn’t interrupt. It has to be the entertainment. (think about today’s ad-skipping services). 3. It doesn’t make demands – often. Make it simple, make it memorable, make it inviting to look at and make it fun to read. And make it for the audience, now yourself. Be generous, informative, be funny, be inspiring. 4. Leverages Pop Culture. Create content that reveals your understanding of the human condition – issues and news that matters to them. 5. It’s micro: Think of content as micro-content. Tiny unique nuggets of info, humor content or inspiration. 6. It’s consistent and self-aware.
  29. Want to know what content people find valuable? Look on their phone home screens. 1. Most popular apps – social networking (people). 2. Entertainment (escape) 3. Utility (value service – Google maps for example) So your content must fall within these three areas. It can’t be information that makes people realize they are being sold. MUST make emotional connection.
  30. Facebook: Founded in 2004.
  31. Was called Thefacebook.com until August 2005.
  32. The Like Button was originally supposed to be called the “Awesome” button.
  33. Mark Zuckerberg initially rejected photo sharing, he had to be persuaded that it was a good idea by then-president Sean Parker
  34. There were a billion monthly active users as of December 2012
  35. There were 680 million monthly active users of Facebook mobile products as of December 2012.
  36. One out of ever five page views in the U.S. is on Facebook.
  37. Facebook wants users to see things that they find relevant, fun and useful – not annoying and pointless or else they’ll abandon the site. Which means you’d better create content that’s relative, fun and useful, too.
  38. Facebook settled on an algorithm called EdgeRank. Every interaction a person has with Facebook, from posting a status update or a photo to liking, sharing or commenting is called and “edge.” And theoretically, every edge channels into the news stream. But no everyone who could see these edges actually does, because EdgeRank is constantly reading algorithmic tea leaves to determine which edges are most interesting to the most number of people. It tracks all the engagement a user’s own content receives and well as the engagement a user has with other people’s or brand’s content. The most engagement a user has with a piece of content, the stronger the EdgeRank believes that a user’s interest will be in a similar content and it filters that person’s news stream accordingly. A randomizer ensures that occasionally we’ll see a post from someone we haven’t talked to in years—thus keeping Facebook “fresh.” For example, EdgeRank makes sure that a user who often likes or comments on a friend’s photos, but who ignores that friend’s plain-text status update, will see more of that friend’s photos and fewer of his status updates. Every engagement, whether between friends or between users and brands, strengthens their connection and the likelihood that EdgeRank will push appropriate content from those friends and brands to the top of a user’s News Feed. That’s of course where you, the marketer , what to see your brand or business. It’s the user’s response to the “jab” that matters most. Through EdgeRank, Facebook weighs like, comments and shares. But it currently does not give greater weight to click throughs or any other action that leads to sales. Facebook doesn’t care – their greatest priority is making the platform valuable to the consumer, not to you the marketer. On Facebook, the definition of great content is not the content that makes the most sales, but the content that people most want to share with others. The only way to reach those consumers is to get them to engage, then its up to you to create not just great content , but content that’s so great they want to engage with it. Facebook constantly changes the algorithm. So what works today won’t necessarily work tomorrow.
  39. January 2013, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook should now be considered a mobile company.
  40. Six months later Facebook reported 41 percent of its ad revenue came from mobile, equaling $1.6 billion in the second quarter of 2014.
  41. No space on the mobile for ads per se. Your content – your micro-content, has to be the ad.
  42. Sponsored stories. Launched in 2011 but it was the fall of 2012 they came into their own because Facebook adjusted the algorithmic adjustment that would purposely limit how many people would organically see a brand’s posts even if they had already become fans by liking the brands page.
  43. By Sept. 2013, Facebook’s algorithm will only allow your content to reach about 3 to 5% of our fans. To reach more, you have to post some extremely engaging content. Or your have to pay.
  44. Unlike TV, your content’s reach increases only when you’ve put content that people actually want to see and think others do, too.
  45. Explanation of sponsored stories: 1. Simply extends your chosen piece of content to the news streams of a larger number of your fans than the regular 3 to 5% that would normally see it. That’s called a Page Post. 2: The other extends your reach the same way, but it allows you to highlight the fact that a fan has engaged with your content and tell that fan’s friends about it. You can choose to create this kind of sponsored story around a check-in, a like and several other actions.
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The world needs more Louis Zamperinis

51m7P+bJfALThe world needs more Louis Zamperinis. And if you don’t know who he is, you obviously haven’t read the best selling novel Unbroken or watched the movie of the same name. He was an athlete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and then later a prisoner of war during World War II. Zamperini recently died at the age of 96 — after living a full, amazing life.

Zamperini survived torture at the hands of Japanese prison guards by will and then later defeated PTSD by faith. He could have chosen a path of victimhood (and had every right to do so) but didn’t. After being forced to go to a Billy Graham revival by his wife, he chose the path of forgiveness. His torment, nightmares and alcoholism ceased. He went on to pay that blessing forward by helping scores of underprivileged kids throughout the years.

He chose forgiveness. He ceased being a victim. He changed the script playing in his head.

And for that he’s my hero. I see so many people who are being held prisoner by past events — I know I am at times. I think about how many blessings I’ve missed because of my anger.

I highly recommend that you read Laura Hillenbrand’s excellent book if you haven’t (she also wrote the amazing Seabiscuit, too.) The world needs more Louis Zamperinis. And Lord knows, I need his spirit.

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Fatigue’s Siren Song

Fatigue is a liar. Like a perverted siren, it will call you until you crumble upon its rocks. It’s song is negativity. Negativity that steals your hope. Your purpose. And at times, your will.

Last night, I heard its song. My schedule is mad these days and I honestly have lost sight of the big picture. I’m thrashing around, praying I won’t slip beneath the surface. Fatigue makes you fear failure. Fatigue is a liar.

Sure, failure is a possibility. I have so many moving pieces in my life right now that I could easy screw up any one of them. But where fatigue is truly lying is that failure isn’t always a bad thing. Hang in there with me — I am not delusional. And I know, winning is the only thing. But sometimes you need to take a step back to take two steps forward. As long as you learn from that step back, you will sail past your fears.

I’m sore and tired. The big picture is a bit fuzzy, too. Plus, I have a lot of questions about the future.

But right now, I’m going to get some caffeine, have a little hope, put on my headphones and ignore fatigue’s song. I have something to prove. I’m going to prove my doubts wrong.

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