I. Was. Tired.

Well, I’m not training for a full marathon, but yes, I AM training for a half-marathon. And I AM building a business.

I give you this disclaimer: I am neither an expert in building a business nor am I an expert in running or training for a marathon… but I can speak from my personal experiences.

They (I have no idea who “they” are) say that the first two years of starting a business are the hardest. I’ve heard some people say one year, some even say three years. And of course, there are the anomalies who build their business successfully in less than a year. Sometimes less than six months – I am jealous of those people.

I have been a freelance writer and consultant for over 3 years, and I have tried to turn my freelance work into a full-time business for a year. It’s hard. Really hard.

Seemingly-Unrelated-But-I-Have-A-Point: I am training for my first half-marathon. I don’t like to run and in fact, I’m a horrible runner. In high school I played golf, in part so I would never have to run suicides. But running is something that I have always wanted to be good at.

One of my goals for 2010 is to run and complete a half-marathon. That’s 13.1 miles. At first I told myself I would just run and complete a 10K (6.2 miles). But I knew that wasn’t good enough for me. I need to buck up and do it. So I, in 2010, WILL run and complete a half-marathon.

I have been doing short distance runs for a while, but I officially started my training a week ago. Yesterday, I ran the longest I have ever run in my entire life, 3.38 miles in 49:24 minutes. (It was a run/walk tempo run – that’s why it took that long). I pushed through when I didn’t want to and I did it. Now, I only have 17 more weeks of training and about 10 more miles to run.

Back to the topic at hand. Why would I compare building my business to that of training for a marathon? Here’s my rationale.

Building a business is hard work. Training for a marathon is hard work.

No one wakes up one morning and has a successful business that runs itself and makes them the big bucks. No one wakes up one morning and says, “You know, I think I’ll run 13.1 or 26.2 miles today.” People who run a successful business and people who run a successful marathon work hard to achieve those things. Neither of these things come easy.

When I’m working to build my business I work long hours or I work when I really don’t want to. I’ll work when I’m sick, I’ll work when I’d rather be spending the night out with my friends. But I am working to eventually make my business rock.

I hate running. And I hate the cold. Well, it’s almost winter, and I’m going to have to get used to running in the cold. I am sticking to my schedule and running even if I don’t want to. Why? Because nothing is going to get in the way of me achieving my goals.

Both of these things take resources. As I build my business I decide what’s an important resource and what isn’t. I knew I wanted to re-do my blog, and I knew that would cost me money. But I did it because it was important.

BIG UPS and huge thanks to Greg Lee and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA, I have a gym membership now. I have set myself up with a mobile training program and I am using their facilities to help me along the way. It’s all about using the resources and just asking when something is needed.

The key here is, whether you’re building a business or you’re training for a marathon, you have a process and the key is to stick to that process. Whether you have to blog every day, run every day, go to networking events twice a week, spend money on an important resource – whatever. Find a schedule, find a pattern, and COMMIT.

All of these things take hard work and dedication, but above all, COMMITMENT. If you don’t commit to your goal, you’ll never achieve it. Nothing is going to just “happen” for you.

What do YOU think? Do you have a different analogy you want to throw at me?

Word.

What is an auto-tune?

From Wikipedia: Auto-Tune is a proprietary audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise off-key inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed singers to perform perfectly tuned vocal tracks without the need of singing in tune.

Basically, if you have ever heard a T-Pain or Kanye West song, you know what an auto-tune is. Well… they have made the auto-tune even better. For reals.

You HAVE to know the Charlie Bit Me video by now. This is 100 times better. Seriously. I honestly think I’ve watched this video about 12 times in a row now. It’s only :28 long. And each second is totally worth it. Enjoy.

As a bonus, enjoy an auto-tuned tribute to the late Billy Mays.

Ahhh it doesn’t get any better than that.

All for now.

When I become a homeowner, this is exactly what I plan on doing.

Best. House. Ever.

(Thx @greglee for telling me about this house).

Word.

Sure, no one REALLY likes change, especially when change isn’t wanted or welcome. The status quo is comfortable, safe, and just “works” for us. Why fix it if it isn’t broken? There’s been some gripe lately about a few changes that are abound or have abounded… I’m not sure if that is the right use of that word there… and I used to be an English teacher, but I don’t really care because it sounds right to me and I like it. So deal.

But let’s face it, when stuff changes that we don’t want to change, we gripe. We complain, we rant, we throw up our arms and say, “TO HELL WIT ‘EM!” Granted, I do this too, sometimes. However, there are just some things that we are going to get used to. We will cry a river, but eventually, we will build that bridge and get over it. Now, of course, there are probably a few exceptions to that rule – and when we know that something is morally wrong or hurts someone, then of course we should gripe until it’s changed… but what I am referring to is not that serious.

Twitter’s New Retweet Feature

Yes, Twitter’s new retweet feature SUCKS. But, let’s be honest, it is not that serious. Some of the biggest complaints are that we can’t add our own 2 cents, that it doesn’t allow for additional commentary. Well, sure, not with the one-click retweet. But guess what you still CAN do? Copy and paste, add your 2 cents, and then type RT in front of it. Sure, it takes longer, but we can do it. Assuming our fingers still work.

And people are griping about seeing people they don’t follow in their timeline. Sure, it’s annoying. Sure, we don’t like strangers in our space, but guess what? In about 3-5 minutes, those people will be gone. More tweets will have come through replacing those of the ones we didn’t know. Phew. Problem averted. It just takes a little patience.

Or, if you use a web client like Tweetie or HootSuite, you don’t have to worry about any of the aforementioned problems.

Facebook’s Change of the News Feed

Facebook changed the user interface again. Now, this is a little bit of old news for most of us. The biggest gripe is coming from businesses who are trying to market themselves using Facebook. Their information is no longer showing up in the News Feed – it is only showing up in the Live Feed, which a user has to CHOOSE to see.

Well, businesses… I guess that means you are going to have to start working harder to engage your customers. The more you engage them, the more involved they become, the more your business will show up on customer’s News Feeds. It actually sounds like a positive problem to me.

I’m just saying.

Twitter’s Trending Topics Being Useless

Yes, 13-year-olds, spammers, and people who have nothing better to do (for the most part) have turned Twitter’s trending topics into something completely useless and borderline inappropriate.

There’s been a lot of talk as to whether or not to do away with trending topics until they provide more value.

I’m going to be honest and say, this is going to be difficult. Twitter has over 33 million users – and I will say that less than half of those users are on Twitter to engage, connect, and relate to people. Many users are on there simply to connect with friends, shoot the sh*t, and tell people what they are eating.

Now, of course, there is a VERY LARGE percentage of Twitter users that use Twitter in a positive, meaningful, and extremely valuable way. I like to think that I am one of those people. We can’t discount those users. At all.

But, I think it’s going to be hard to control the craziness of the trending topics. And seeing as how Twitter exec’s have been handling a lot of Twitter’s issues lately, I will be surprised if they handle this one any better.

But it’s okay, we can search for what we need and what we think is important. We’ll get over it.

The Cleveland Browns on Monday Night Football

It is no secret that I am a CLEVELAND BROWNS FAN. No, I’m not from Cleveland. I was born actually in Redskins territory. My dad’s from Cleveland, and therefore, when I exited the womb, I was to be a CLEVELAND fan. It is genetic. I can’t choose who I love, I just do.

And it is no secret that this season, we suck. The Cleveland Browns are a horrible football team right now. No doubt about it. Well, this past Monday, the Cleveland Browns were on Monday Night Football. And it seemed like everyone and their great-aunt’s mother was complaining about it.

Things I read on Twitter (all found from http://search.twitter.com):

• “Watching the Browns on MNF is like watching paint dry.”
• “So who’s bright idea was it to put the Browns on Monday Night Football yesterday? Whoever it was should be fired. Pronto”
• “New Rule…. No more Browns on Monday Night Football!!”
• “Why would they even schedule the Cleveland Browns for a Monday Night Football game??”
• “If you thought the Redskins were NFL’s worst team, you must have missed seeing the Browns on Monday Night Football.”
• “Sunday Night Football ha sido mucho mejor que los MondayNight Football.. Sigo si entender porque Browns en MNF???”

THEY EVEN COMPLAINED IN SPANISH!!

Look people, you think it’s tough watching the Browns on Monday Night Football? Try being a Browns fan your ENTIRE life. The only years we were good (the Kosar years), I was wearing a diaper and being fed mashed squash like it was an airplane.

If you don’t want to watch, then turn on something else. Quit complaining, because no one wants to hear it.

LOST is in it’s FINAL season and it doesn’t come on until FEBRUARY 2nd

Okay, maybe not everyone is complaining… maybe it’s more sadness from the Fans. I know I’m sad and I know I’m impatient. But let’s be honest, LOST fans have needed answers for six long years now. We’ve waited for a long time and we can wait a little longer. But all in all, it’s time.

I saw the FINAL SEASON trailer today. It’s going to be a good final season. At least it won’t have a crappy ending like SEINFELD or The SOPRANOS. Or, at least, let’s hope the ending isn’t like that.

——–

Okay, enough out of me. I’m feeling yucky talking about all this negativity. I need to go pet my dog, drink a Diet Coke, and watch this video at least seven times (NSFW – language).

I want to know, what do YOU think we will eventually get over?

Word.

There are a couple people that deserve a big shout-out this week – so I thought this would be a great public platform to shout them out on… shout on them… shout out them… out shout them. You know what I mean.

photo courtesy of Sweeden Rock.

Community Leaders

• @CHCYMCA – The Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA is doing everything right. I can’t say enough good things about their organization. They give back so much to the community with the Strong Kids Campaign and are getting kids involved the right way. I am also really excited because I am training for my FIRST half-marathon and the folks at the YMCA have been awesome and are helping to give me some great resources to help with my training. (I am a horrible runner, so this is exciting for me. I need all the help I can get!)
• @CarolinaChamber – Full Disclosure: I am doing freelance social media consulting for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce. Being new to the Triangle, it is hard to feel comfortable getting connected in the community when you don’t know very many people. I got involved with the Chamber about two months ago and since then we have forged a great working partnership. I do not work for the Chamber, but I am working with them on their social media strategy. I attended my Chamber New Member orientation tonight and my first Business After Hours at the Carolina Inn. Wow, that place is amazing! I have to say that the Chamber is really working to support local business, social entrepreneurship, and the local economy.

Inspirational Tweeters

• @Garyvee – Maybe if you’ve been living under a rock you haven’t heard of Gary Vaynerchuk. I aspire to be as inspiring as Gary. His book CRUSH IT! got my thoughts going and my ideas rolling. He is a rockstar community engager – and he totes responded to my tweet on Twitter. I got excited. PERSONAL GOAL: meet, eat dinner with, and interview Gary Vaynerchuk in 2010. I am going to make this happen.
• @LisaSullivan – This girl is a rockstar. I am really in awe of how hard she works and how much she is hustling to make things happen. Even after being laid off earlier in the year, she has maintained such a positive attitude and has never given up her sense of gusto. She is always so enthusiastic and incredibly insightful. What a lady!
• @joshhanagarne – Man, if this guy doesn’t make you grateful, I don’t know who will. Josh writes a blog called the World’s Strongest Librarian. I read an article by him earlier this month, and since then I have been following his blog. He is a librarian living with a severe case of Tourette’s Syndrome and he uses writing as a method of therapy. His writing is fresh, funny, witty, inspiring, insightful, and awesome.

These people are incredible and I recommend them uninhibitedly. They truly exemplify what it means to be valuable.

Tell me, who do YOU think is totally a rockstar right now? Who, in your opinion, is providing awesome content and needs to be shouted outed? You know what I mean.

Word.

Considering this video has over 7.5 million views on YouTube, most of you have probably already seen it. However, I wanted to share it anyway because I think it’s incredible. It is really humbling to think how small we are in the scheme of things. It puts things in perspective.

DISCLAIMER: AND it was researched and remixed by a good friend of mine and hilarious improviser, Jeff Brenman of Apollo Ideas.

What do YOU think?

Word.

Photo courtesy of Agent-X Comics

Ahhh who doesn’t love awkward dating and mating social media vernacular? I am going to go out on a limb and say this scenario, although exaggerated, is probably happening at bars across America and beyond. The reasons this is happening are THREE-FOLD:

1. Social Media Vocabulary can be awkward. Poke. Tweet. Twitter. Twit. Tag. Digg. Write on your wall. Blog post. See? All awkward and carry awkward innuendos.
2. We are Social Media saturated. You and I both know, social media is err’ywhere. Walk into a coffee shop, a restaurant, a bar, a bookstore, a library – how many people are probably checking facebook, texting, or tweeting? They are even passing legislation in states making it illegal to TWEET while driving. Duh.
3. Boys are getting desperate. No, not all boys… and notice I didn’t say MEN. Men wouldn’t dare hit on a woman with a social media term. Boys, however, would. (And a woman, would never ask a man if she could “poke” him.) In fact, no lie, I was hit on once by a guy who yelled across a bar at me and said, “Yo! Female! Lemme get that backslash.” He was referring to my “myspace.com [BACKSLASH] username.” Needless to say, I did not give him my “backslash.” Not okay. Am I right?

The professional woman in me is disgusted by the utterly ridiculous attempts by boys to pick up women in this way. However, the comedian in me thinks it’s hilarious.

So, here is my FIRST OFFICIAL BLOG CHALLENGE/CONTEST: Leave a comment with your best awkward pick-up line that uses some sort of social network term OR tell me a hilarious story where you actually got hit-on using social networking terminology and the winner will receive a surprise prize. Get creative. Think outside the web? You know what I mean.

Word.

This week seems to be sending me inspiration left and right. First my small talk post, now this week’s tip of the week! I was reading Chris Brogan’s blog (say THAT 3x fast) the other day, and he had a great post about the questions that we should ask ourselves and our business – especially with regards to social media.

As usual, his post brought up some great points and I got to thinking about each question and the impact it had on my business. (I’m not going to regurgitate all 7 questions here, you can check out his post by clicking this link).

Then I realized a question was missing. It got me thinking and here is the question I have posed:

When it comes to our practices, whether those be business, branding, or marketing, how are we differentiating ourselves from the pack? In essence, what makes US unique?

I know not all of you own your own business, plan to own your own business, or are even passionate about being an entrepreneur, but my point is that this theory can be applied to any of us, no matter our role. We are all, in and of ourselves, our own “business.” Our personal brand is our business. How we market ourselves, how we represent our brand, and how the world sees us, are all part of our overall “business plan.”

But in this day and age, it is easy to get lost in mix and mass of content out there. For example, when looking for a job, how do YOU make yourself stand out above the other hundred-or-so applicants? Or if you’re a business, how do you make your business stand out against your competitors?

The short answer is to find that unique angle or perspective that differentiates you from the pack.

The long answer is, unfortunately, that can sometimes be difficult.

For me, it has been a challenge. I am passionate about social media and marketing, but so are a gazillion other people out there. So how do I make my brand different than the rest? I don’t want to be better than anyone, but I do want to stand out and I want people to know my name.

My other passion, comedy, was something I thought for a long time that I had to keep separate from my social media brand. Then it dawned on me: Why do I need to separate the two? They are both part of me. Why not combine them? Which is where I came up with the idea of THE Molly Buckley – where I put the MEDIA in comedian.

I am who I am and I’m going to own it. THAT makes me different. THAT makes me unique.

So, my tip this week – is to find out what makes YOUR brand unique. From what angle do you approach your business so that you can stand out from the crowd? What makes your business special?

Find that niche and OWN it. Be the rockstar you know you are. What do YOU think?

If you can’t see the video, click here.

Word.

My Poken in a park.

I am really excited to be reviewing the POKEN. I got my Pokens last week (thanks @pokengirl!) and since then I set them up (yay!) and I’ve been carrying them around with me telling people about them. So, my job here in this post is, basically, POKEN 101 and to let you know what I think about it.

WHAT is a POKEN?

• A poken is, in its essence, a digital business card. The poken is a small USB device that stores all of your social information – name, email, website, phone, address, AND social networks. When someone ELSE has a poken, you HIGH-4 them and the poken transfers all information – it’s a no mess, organized way to store contact information.

The Set-Up

• The poken is incredibly easy to set-up. Once you get your poken, you simply plug the USB end into your computer, and it prompts you to do the rest.
• Fill out all of your information and you’re ready to poken!

Poken to Poken

• The poken has a really cool attachment on it that allows you to easily carry it around.
• When you meet someone else with a poken, simply hold the pokens together (give them a HIGH-4!) and the information/data is transferred.
• There is an indicator light that lets you know if it worked (green is good!)

Storing Information

• Once you have other’s information, plug the poken back into your computer and all of the information is organized and stored.
• How awesome it that?

Why do I think the Poken is worthwhile? My reasons are THREE-FOLD:

1. No mess, no hassle organization of all of your contact’s information. I go to networking events ALL the time, and exchanging business cards can be overwhelming when you have collected a gazillion cards. I tend to lose them, or they get out of order, or I forget to put them in my database. My poken alleviates this problem!
2. I love being tech-savvy. If you’re like me and love fun, new gadgets… then you’ll love it. All your friends will be like, “Whoaaaa what’s that? I want one. COOOOOOL.” Okay, they probably won’t be like that. But you get my point.
3. They are real fancy. I won’t say they’re cute, because a man invented them and men use them all the time. But dudes, my poken is cute. I’m all about aesthetics… and this thing is sweet. (Love the technical language?)

Challenges

• When I first tried to set-up the poken, I couldn’t figure out how to set up the social networks. After a few more clicks, I was able to customize my sites. It was just unclear, but definitely not a problem.
• Not very many people poken… yet. The initial challenge when a new device comes out is that it takes a while to catch on. It is DEFINITELY catching on in the social media aficionado/geek/nerd/armadillo community, but it is still very new to the general public. A little patience and word of mouth will fix that.

Here is a video review of the poken which includes a REALLY sweet POKEN montage about 3/4 of the way through. I was pretty pumped about it.

If you have any questions about the poken let me know. I am excited to meet other people who poken so we, too, can HIGH-4!

Question: Do YOU poken?

Word.

[This post is all about the using the philosophy of improv to enhance small talk and social media interactions.]

PREFACE: My dear friend, margarita drinker, olive lover, and Punk Rock HR-blogger-rockstar, Laurie Ruettimann, wrote about this topic a week-or-so ago. Her post, entitled: “F@%k It Friday: Weather & Small Talk,” in short, is about how the weather unites us all — we can all create small talk by bonding over the weather. No matter where you are, you can talk about the weather. Laurie posed this series of thoughts/questions:

Do we have one universal ice breaker that works in all countries, cultures, and regions? Is it weather? Can we replace it? Should we replace it? What would we replace it with?

And of course, I got to thinking. So, I decided to write a post about this whole idea, but connect it to the things I know and love: IMPROV & SOCIAL MEDIA. Yes.

[All of these statements are going to be made with regards to the general public. So if you live in a small town or you're a stay at home parent or whathaveyou, I'm sorry, I'm just trying to make a point ]

Unless you’re a hobbit or a hermit, you are interacting with dozens, if not sometimes, hundreds of people on a day to day basis. And I guarantee, at least HALF of those people are either mere acquaintances or complete strangers. Well, the days of don’t talk to strangers are behind us in a high-tech world. Most people are strangers to us. And of course, even our now-friends were once strangers to us. So, if we don’t talk to strangers, how are we ever going to make connections? Now, that doesn’t mean run off and start talking to creepos… use your judgement, people.

Now, the harsh truth is, that 9 times out of 10, most of us are somewhat challenged in the small-talk-and-make-simple-conversation-with-someone-we-don’t-know department. Therefore, we go to the default topics, such as the aforementioned weather, or “Hey, how are you?” I think both of those topics are fake, surface, jibber-jabber, nonsense that is superficial and just ends up being a big ol’ pile of B.S.

[BTW: For the most part, I really don't enjoy asking people how they are. Let's be honest, most of us aren't going to give an honest answer. Now, I like to mess with people that I don't know, so sometimes if someone asks me how I am, I'll give a crazy answer like, "Ahhh you know, feeling a little shmackity doo in a diddy land." People immediately leave me alone. And then I regret my decision.]

But going back to Laurie’s question, should we break the “universal” ice breaker? Should we replace it?

In my humble opinion, the short answer is, YES. Now the long answer is, YES. My explanation of WHY is TWO FOLD.

There are two things I am passionate about: Improv Comedy & Social Media. In BOTH of those fields, I am constantly engaging with people in my “community” – whatever community that is at the time – whether it be on stage or on the web. Either way, I have to engage, make small talk, connect with, and relate to people I’ve know for 10 years, 10 months, 10 weeks, 10 days, or 10 minutes. It doesn’t matter.

Especially in the world of social media, we are ALL trying to engage with our community. And the vast majority of the people in our community, we have never met. Yet, if I were to only make “small talk” about the weather or how I’m doing in my social media or improv community, I would be seen as a “me-monster” (someone who only talks/cares about themselves) and I wouldn’t last 24 hours.

SO here’s MY question:

“How do we engage people in our respective communities without being superficial?”

In the art of improvisation, which I love so much, our primary philosophy that we live by is this philosophy of, “Yes, and…” meaning YES (agree to everything), AND build upon that agreement by adding new information, a detail, a feeling, or a consequence. When we are on stage improvising a scene, you must be in agreement and on the same page with your scene partner at all times or else the scene will fail.

For example, if you were to hand me an imaginary cat and say, “Hey Molly, I fed your cat for you.” And if I were to respond with, “What?! That’s not a cat, that’s a jar of peanut butter.” Well, then our scene has failed because I denied your offer. I did not YES, AND, if you will.

One of the best ways that I learned to really take the notion of YES, AND… to heart was to incorporate these key elements, in this order:

LISTEN. CONNECT. REACT. RESPOND.

LISTEN to what your scene partner (or the person in question) has to say.

CONNECT with your scene partner (or the person in question) on a personal level. Establish a relationship. Who are you to each other?

REACT to what they have said and how your relationship or the connection is affected by this.

RESPOND by building on that new information with something of value.

Now, of course, this all seems a little complicated and a little “much” for a way of coping with small talk. BUT, now hear me out, by thinking about these simple ideas, we can use the lessons we’ve learned to avoid the plague of endless, superficial small talk. Hey, at least it will make networking events a whole lot more fun.

People are interesting. Talk to someone you don’t know, strike up a conversation about something completely unrelated to the weather, or the event you’re attending, or the gum you’re going to buy while waiting in line, find out something about them – and be genuine. People appreciate a genuine conversation and people loooove to talk about themselves. We have so much to learn from each other that we shouldn’t waste valuable learning time by talking about the fluctuating barometer levels.

And what I love is to also apply these same philosophies and ideas from improv to my interactions online. Social media and community building is all about the give and take – the yes, and. It is all about the listening, the connecting, the reacting, and the responding. If we have too much of one thing, we won’t last very long.

Tell me, what do YOU guys think? Do you think these simple ideas could help connect with people in a new way rather than the traditional, “SOME WEATHER WE’RE HAVING” way?

Word.