Managing the Gray – Positive Advice That Everyone Can Use to Succeed

As someone who works in the marketing space I’m sickened to find out that the bomb scares happening all over Boston today turned out to be part of a publicity stunt by Turner Broadcasting.

I don’t know who the agency working this is, but I hope their heads roll and that they never work again. This is pathetic.

They’ve just released this statement:

The ”packages” in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger. They are part of an outdoor marketing campaign in 10 cities in support of Adult Swim’s animated television show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. They have been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Parent company Turner Broadcasting is in contact with local and federal law enforcement on the exact locations of the billboards. We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger.

Shirley Powell
SVP, Corporate Communications

Oh good! Let’s put things under bridges in major cities across the country. Yeah that’s a good one.

Get a clue people. You’re giving those of us who want to be creative but still use our brains a bad name.

Posted in Rants | Comments(16)

Ask a Ninja is one of the funniest and most unique podcasts on the planet. I use it in all my presentations to showcase what can be done.

I just read that they’ve signed a big deal (rumor of $300k up front). Way to go guys!!

Keep on rocking!

Posted in Rambles | Comments(0)

I’m good friends with the hosts of Manic Mommies and they recently made a video for the Dove “real women” contest. They just let me know that they made it into the Top 10. When I first saw the commercial I loved it! Way to go ladies!

There are some other great entrants and I hope Dove takes them all and uses them somewhere because THIS is what it’s all about. Getting the people who love and use your product to talk about it and promote it.

Update: I just finished watching ALL of the videos and saw another familiar face that I know! Congrats to PodChick for also making the Top 10!! WooHoo! I know some damn cool women!

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When I first read that Bill Marriott was going to be blogging I wanted to wait and see if he really would be.

Sure, everything is still overly formal and most likely run by PR people before posting, but today’s post about the bombing of one of their hotels really showed me that they realize why a blog exists and how to use it. Now I hope they take the next step and add podcasting. A message such as this would have been even more open and truthful hearing it straight from the man himself.

Kudos Marriott and continuing forward. If you need help to take it to the next level feel free to contact me. I’d love to help. *grin*

Posted in Blogging | Comments(3)

Managing the Gray #27 answers the question of “how do I build my brand?” It was asked from a personal branding point of view, but honestly I think the advice could work for the largest of companies as well. This was all generated from a question from David Jacobs and a lot of thinking about this lately on my part. Thanks again to Lee Hopkins for the station ID.

Links that I mentioned in the show or that I think will be helpful include:

• Review Managing the Gray in iTunes
• Do You Know Clarence?
• Plum
• CC-Chapman.com
  
• Accident Hash
• The U-Turn Cafe

Posted in Podcast | Comments(10)

Those of you paying attention most likely read the headline and thought, “Where has C.C. been? They did that a long time ago.”

No they didn’t. What I’m talking about is that they crossed the 1 million users logged in during the last 60 days for the first time yesterday according to the Second Life Insider.

This is important because no one seems to know for sure if alternative avatar accounts count towards the total registered user count or not, so I’ve been watching who is logging in as a better indicator of how many people are engaging in this brave new world.

Sure, people will compare and contrast that number to everything under the sun. I’m just looking at it as a nice milestone. One that proves there IS growth happening there. Not that I had any doubts.

I will say that after some deep conversations with forward thinker such as Clarence and Eric  my desires for Second Life are in a state of silly putty where I’m trying to figure out what to shape it into. SO many possibilities.

Posted in second life | Comments(2)

I read about this 2000 Blogger idea that Tino was up to and I loved the idea. Totally open. See who is paying attention to the conversation and open to everyone to join in. Total insanity, but fun to look through and recognize faces and discover new ones. Is it wrong to discover a blog simply from an interesting photo? I don’t think so. Can you find me?

Posted in Blogging | Comments(20)

Just asked a question on 93 Colors that I’d love my Managing the Gray readers and listeners thoughts on.

Posted in Questions | Comments(0)

Everyone knows that Flickr is a great community of photos. You can find photos of everything under the sun. I’ve been fan of it for a long time and now I’m seeing it grow into something even more then just photos.

We all read blogs and communicate through them with posts and comments. Each of us has a set of blogs that we frequent and when they are those of friends, full blown conversations can happen in them. I have conversations that span blog comments, instant messages and e-mails. Now though they’ve moved into Flickr.

Earlier today I saw a picture Chris Brogan posted on the way to a book store. I left a comment asking what he was buying. I would have never planned to go back and see the answer, but then I saw a picture posted tonight called Answering C.C.

Amazing that a simple photo upload site has grown into another form of social network that is still as simple as always, but still something so much more.

Earlier this week I came up with the idea for SlackerShots.com and now this. What’s next?

I love this world of new media. LOVE IT!!

Posted in Cool Tools, Rambles | Comments(2)

I’m hoping to at least get started on one of these over the weekend. The mailman brought me presents.

Citizen Marketers by Ben McConnell & Jackie Huba, What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging & Podcasting by Ted Demopoulos and Purple Cow by Seth Godin.

I’m not going to link to the books because I’d rather you go to the writers sites and buy from there since I’m sure they have it set up so they get the biggest cut that way as it should be. *grin*

As you can see I’m on a new media kick. I still have to finish up Scar Tissue which is the autobiography of Anthony Kiedis as well, but I need some business stuff in the brain as well.

Not sure how much I’ll get to with Sunday being total football and the pile of other goals I’d like to accomplish but you never know. Since people seem to like to know what others are reading I thought I’d share.

What are you reading right now?

Posted in Books | Comments(7)

Intro: Welcome to the brand new world of digital marketing consumer-generated media and no control PR. The rules of engagement are no longer black and white. You need to change, to evolve, to manage the gray, and how do you do that? You let C.C. Chapman help you.

C.C. Chapman: Welcome to Managing the Gray #26. I am C.C. Chapman, how are you guys doing? You know me. I am the VP of Marketing over at crayon, podcaster-crazy man. I am just an all-around new marketing type of guy. I really love new media, love what we are doing in this space and everyday I think I find something different that excites me.

This is an example, before we get to the meat of the show today, one of the things that was fun this morning was, Crayon hosted an event in Second Life called Coffee with Crayon. Now, this is an extension of — if you have not heard about it, do a Google search on Coffee Mornings. It might be coffeemornings.com when I think about it, but if it is not, what these are is all around the country people are getting together. Imagine that, getting together one day a month just to discuss topics of new media or art or anything but they are getting together. It is just bringing like-minded people together whether that is real life or Second Life. The fact that it is happening is a good thing. So, Crayon wanted to jump on it and start doing it in Second Life. So, every Thursday morning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, that is 6:00 a.m. Second Life time, same thing as Pacific, imagine that, we are just going to get together and talk about whatever it is.

Today, I just kind of threw the idea out there about predictions for 2007 and we went on this path of talking about transparencies and fake blogs and just kind of went all over the place. We are soliciting ideas if maybe next time we break out into separate areas, if people want to talk about different things, who knows? But it is very casual. There is no agenda. It is very informal. I gave out coffee mugs to everybody that had the Coffee with Crayon logos on it. Thank you Britney Mason for hooking us up with those, You rock! It was a really good time, really good turn out, I was very excited. If you go over to crayonville.com/blog, you can read the transcript from it. It was very exciting and it was neat that people were discovering Crayoncast as well. If you have not heard about it, we are doing this podcast, doing things a little different at Crayon where every week, every employee, from the CEO down to the youngest intern gets to record a 60-second sound bite of what excited them that week, something that caught their attention and then the Crayoncast is just those all chained together. When I first read the idea I was not too sure about it. I thought, “Yeah, maybe,” but then when we started putting it together, it was a lot of fun and I look forward every week to hear what people say because I do not listen to them before I put it together with CastBlaster on purpose because I do not want them to influence what I am saying. So, it is a lot of fun, crayoncast.com, take out your iTunes and check it out, just some fun things that are happening I wanted to talk to you about before we jump into the meat.

Now, today’s Managing the Gray is all about the fact that I work from home now. I work in my office, I work online. A lot of you are in this situation where even if you are not at home, you are always connected, this world does not turn off anymore. When you start working with people on a global nature, people around the world, who are like-minded like you, who are online all the time, it gets interesting and there are some problems. All of this sparked from a conversation I was having with Matthew Ebel. He sent in an audio comment. By the way, thank you for the comment on the last show. Someone said, “C.C., you gotta put your call-in number into the show.” So, I will do that from now on and the call-in number if you ever want to call in is 206-309-GRAY; that is, 206-309-4729, whether you got a question for a show. I know I have got another question. The next Managing the Gray is already queued up with another great question someone sent in. Or you can email me at managingthegray@gmail.com. Let us get into Matthew’s question. It is directly about IM etiquette. That kind of led to the bigger conversation, which is what I want to focus on today, which is the whole working in a virtual world and things to keep in mind and things that I have learned just in the past few months of doing it. So, here is Matthew Ebel.

Matthew Ebel: Hey there, C.C. This is Matthew Ebel from Nashville, Tennessee. I have a, I do not know if it would be a question or just more of a concern lately about the way etiquette is going in the world of instant messaging. Obviously, things like ICQ and AOL Instant messenger have been around for a long time now and at least 10 maybe even 15 years, but I have noticed that for some reason, people who would normally be very cordial and very formal in the way they conduct business seem to lose all tack when they get on to instant messaging. I am not talking about what they are saying but I am talking about things like away messages and idle time and basically ignoring people. I have noticed that I have had conversations with people who suddenly stopped talking in mid-conversation. It would be like standing in front of somebody and talking to them and in mid-sentence they suddenly just turn and walk way and like hail a taxi and get the hell out of there. So, I do not know if it is just me but I feel a bit put off by this. Other things like away messages, like people who just leave themselves marked “in” all the time even if they are out or in the bathroom or something like that. You know from talking to me that even if I am going to go hit the litter box for a couple of minutes, I will mark myself “out” just so people know if they message me not to expect a quick reply. I do not know, it just seems like, considering how much business we are doing in the new media, considering how much business we are doing via the internet these days, there should be some kind of etiquette. Even somebody who runs a little coffee shop will put a sign that says “out for lunch, back in 5 minutes” on the door if they need to close up. So, hopefully, you have got some thoughts on this and you would care to share and hopefully set some people straight so we do not have a bunch of businessmen getting ticked off at each other and maybe, just maybe, we will actually get some business done. Thanks a lot and hope you can help me answer these questions. Talk to you later, bye-bye.

C.C. Chapman: Matthew brings up an interesting point and that is what sparked the idea of this show. It is funny. I am like, “You know what? I am not going to give best practices,” because I can only give what works for me. So, this is kind of a how-to-work-with-C.C.-virtually and what I have learned over the past six months and hopefully it will translate to you and it will also spark some discussion because I sort of disagree with part of what Matthew — so, I will start with IM. Instant Messaging used to be something where you only opened it when you were in the mood to chat. You would get in AOL and it would pop up. I know I used to turn it on when I was on at night and I was comfortable chatting with people. I was engaging. I started it. I said, “Yes, I want to chat with people, I will open up chat.” Now, the minute my computer turns on, Google Talk and Skype open automatically. Trillian used to too but I do not use AIM as much as I used to since mainly everybody I am talking to is on one of those, Skype or Google Talk. Thus, it is always open and it is a though thing. You will notice if you have ever tried talking to me, Skype is almost always set as not available or not here, not do not disturb, there is a difference. That is mainly because I have so many people that will just IM me for the social aspect and I cannot always talk with them at the time because I am working.

People need to realize that when someone is actually working, just because they have — you know IM has a very social angle to it that is why a lot of companies have banned it. It is very difficult sometimes when I will have literally 8 to 10 IM windows open, some are of a social nature, some are of a business nature and I want to have conversations with everybody and most people are respectful when you say, “Listen, I’ve really got to get back to work,” but should I set my IM to say, “Working hard, do not bug me?” Maybe and I have done that when I really need to but at the same time I view IM as sort of a quick email note rather than sending notes back and forth via email which can be done and I do it all the time. IM is something that happens.

I know sometimes literally I have done exactly what Matthew was talking about, walking away in the middle of the conversation and it is not that I mean to. It is the equivalent of typing an email and then something distracts you and you have to go away. The difference is IM is real time and it is a difficult thing and I tried to always be like, “I’ll be right back,” but when you have got 10 things open and all of a sudden you get a Skype phone call, you know business phone call or someone calls, I mean my office line is my Skype line, if someone suddenly calls in, I have got to go. I cannot go to all 10 windows and say, “Sorry, I am busy right now.” That is a hard thing, it is hard and

I get that. I do think that what is important is setting your away messages in an appropriate fashion. What I love about both Google Talk and Skype is the fact that you can customize it completely. It is not just the fact of “away,” “not here,” you can actually type whatever you want. So, you can actually have fun with it. You can actually type in what you are working. I have put on things you know, “Head down.” It can also be used as a marketing tool, “Check this out” and put a URL or this morning when I did Coffee with Crayon, that is what I was doing and I put it and I already have people ask me, “What’s Coffee with Crayon?” So think about that.

It has been funny because like the other night — it is important if you do that though, you need to stay on top of it because people are in fact paying attention to it. Even if you do not think they are, they are. The other night, I said “dinner with the family” and then I forgot and I shut down the computer later that night. I get up in the morning and that was still there and somebody immediately said, “Dude, you’re still having dinner?” It took me a second to figure out what they were talking about.

So, keep that in mind. It is something to think about and if I ever do pause in the middle of a conversation, I promise I will be back. I will try to be back. What is always awkward is if and I try to do this and I would recommend it to everybody, I am at fault for doing this too, where the IM conversation pauses for whatever reason and when I come back, the person is gone. A good practice is to email them and say, “Hey, sorry we didn’t get to chat too much,” or “I left.” Apologize and send them an email and let the conversation continue there.

One other thing that is weird, especially with Google Talk, I talk to all sorts of people via Gmail. A lot of it sometimes is very, not anonymous, but random, you know, an email comes in to the show, comes in to Managing the Gray or Accident Hash or something like that and I respond. I am like “Hey, what’s up?” and I will talk to them but then three weeks out, I might get a Google Talk from this person and I do not always remember who you are and that can happen in this world where we are all meeting so many people at conferences, we are meeting so many people in just the podosphere, the blogosphere. The other day I got an IM from someone I had only seen them through Flickr on their photos, so I did not know their real name.

I mean this always feels awkward to me but I think people need to realize it is okay to ask, say, “Sorry, who are you again? I apologize.” It is even worse when you get into Second Life where avatar names you have no control over. Oh, Roxy is barking at the UPS man. It is okay to ask questions, “Sorry, I don’t recall where I know you from.” Be comfortable with that and also be comfortable when people ask you. Do not be a jerk about it, be okay with it.

Roxy is really barking. UPS man is not here for me. So, we will keep moving forward. So, that is my thoughts on IM. I am not sure Matthew if that answers your questions. I know I disagreed with you a little bit but it is something to think about and I am curious what other people think on this. This would be a great conversation starter because I am curious what you guys do because I know so many people who have IMs open all the time and it is a difficult thing.

So, some other things I have learned about working remotely and working from home. One of kind of goes back to that is the timing, you have got to manage your –

well that was the first time I have ever done that. I actually paused a podcast recording to go deal with life. See, kind of like dealing with IM. You never know when things are just going to pop up. I have never actually done that. In the past, I have gotten so stressed I just stopped, but today I hit the pause button. The UPS man was coming here and Roxy freaked out even more to the point where I just had to stop. Okay, dealing with stress in a virtual environment is always fun. Usually, I would start it over and that has only happened once or twice in my whole time podcasting. So, back to what I was talking about, I was on time.

I was talking about one of the biggest things about working remotely is you need to make sure that you know time with socialization. What I mean is, it is what I was talking before about IM. The same thing can happen in Second Life really fast. You can go into Second Life or you can go into a website and just lose yourself. You want to socialize because that happens. Anybody who plays in the new media space is into socialization. You like it. You like to engage with people, but all of a sudden you get an IM conversation and you have lost 10 minutes, you have lost half an hour or you have lost an hour. You could easily do that walking around Second Life exploring. What do you do then?

You have got to really stop, keep yourself in check. One of the nice things is that — I have got now this big monitor, which is one of the things I am going to suggest to you. Granted, I know you are going, “Yeah, my wife or my husband is going to let that.” If you can do two monitors or a large monitor, it makes such a world of difference for things like this because I can open a Word document and be working on it and still be doing Skype or IM over on the side because I have got the real estate to do that. Just make sure you manage your time effectively because it is very easy to lose yourself. Do not count the minutes, do not count the hours.

I also suggest saying, “I got to get away from the computer for 10 minutes.” The world will be there, do not worry. Even if someone is IM-ing you, make sure you say your away message correctly, of course. The world will be there in 10 minutes. If you need to get up, go outside, play with the dog for a minute, get a quick walk-in, get some fresh air, get a cup of coffee, take those breaks, you need to. You are going to need them.

So, I was talking about the monitor. I firmly believe this now. I can kind of use it as sort of an excuse when I was getting this monitor but at the same time now I firmly believe it. The more real estate you have, the better. I actually am running two computers right now. I have my laptop. It has always got Crayons’ email open. That is what is always on that one, always. That is what I am looking at.

On my other monitor, I have this 30″ flat panel Dell. This is not sponsored by Dell. God, would I love them to be a sponsor! Imagine if I have two 30″? Anyway, what I am getting at is that the real estate is great. Right now, I have got my Gmail open. I can see CastBlaster. I have got Skype and Google Talk is actually closed at the moment but usually they are open. Usually, I have Google Desktop open. The other night I was watching film in a window while working on a Word document and having a Skype text chat with a colleague and that is a powerful thing. Productivity for working at home is a very important thing so I highly suggest that if you can do that, do it.

Another productivity tip I have learned from working at home is if you have one notebook, one notebook for everything, one notebook to rule them all. I used to have one for my show notes. I used to have one for Crayon. I used to have one for whatever else. That gets dangerous because then you forget which one you write it in because you grabbed the nearest one. I now have one notebook about this Moleskine. Do you say Cahier, C-A-H-I-E-R, Cahier, I do not know, but everything is in it. I am looking at notes from a Crayon staff meeting, I have got the show notes from an Accident Hash the other night, I have got some Second Life notes, all in one. It is just a lot easier and it is a great productivity tip that I highly recommend.

If you have not used Google Talk, one of the things I like about it is that it stacks the chat so literally I can close and maximize and there is one big stack of Google Talk windows, which is nice. Skype does not do that yet. They do not do tabbed browsing. Hopefully, they will add that. If you have not done tabbed browsing or tabbed IMs, it changes your whole world. Firefox and I know IE 7 has tabs now. It just changes the way that you do everything and go with that.

Back to the time thing for a minute, my notes are all over the place, sorry. Respect my time. What I mean by that is I am working from home, yes. My computer is pretty much on from 6:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m., almost solid. Does that mean I am at the computer all the time? No. People need to respect other people’s time like that. I get away from the computer, make dinner and have dinner with my family every night. That is not up for question. That is part of my life and people need those boundaries.

I get on the computer in the morning and I usually have conversations from like 5:45 to 6:30 a.m. and then I go to the gym. People have learned that is when C.C. is at the gym, leave him alone. You need to set those boundaries too and keep that in mind when you are talking with people is that they may not be there. If I am not here, I will get back to you in one form or another, I promise. It is my own fault.

Anybody who is still listening from Babson will notice or anybody who works for me at any other company, I have this notorious habit from the minute you send me email, I will write back immediately, just right away, so that way I do not forget about it. That is a great tip, but it also sets you up for expectations. People start expecting you to get right back to them. I was actually earlier today on a Skype call with somebody and they said, “Oh, you haven’t responded to my email yet.” They sent me an email while I was talking to them on Skype and I kind of laughed in my head, I am like, “Wow.” The fact that I am expected to multitask like that was funny especially when I am looking at one computer and my emails are over the other. So, be careful. It is a good thing to reply right away. It sets expectations. So, just keep that in mind as something to think about.

The phone is a big thing when you are working remotely. I am not a phone guy. I just am not a phone guy. Something is weird with by cell phone right now. By the way, if you are listening to this and you have left me a voicemail, I seem to get them like days later and it is starting to really tick me off. So, I got to figure out what is going on. I think it was Chris Penn from the Financial Aid Podcast who was teaching me that usually the voicemail and the actual phone calls are in like separate networks so that can happen.

So, I am curious if like I am in a dead zone for my voicemail numbers. I seem to get voicemail when I go out and go someplace so I am not sure what is going on with that, but a good rule with C.C. specifically — yeah, this show is way focused on me, but I am hoping it gives tips to everybody, it is the goal. If you really want to get a hold of me, email me or IM me. Do not leave me a voicemail and that is true for every job. I used to tell everybody at Babson, “You want to get a hold of me, email me. You’ll get a response right away. Phone call, you might never get it.” One of my problems is there is no easy way to know I have a voicemail and remind myself to reply unless I write it down. Emails which are right in my face, it is in my inbox, until I reply to it and then I move it, I archive it. Voicemail, I got to get better at that.

A huge help if you are going to be working remotely, especially if you are working for a company that is remotely and you are going to have employees working for you remotely or freelancers, I highly suggest you make them invest in a web cam. It does not have to be anything expensive, just get a webcam. What is amazing is that a little bit of video makes it so much better. The fact that I can have a Skype call with somebody via video is a huge, huge improvement. It just adds that level of intimacy, an intimacy not in that way that some of you are thinking, but in the way of I get to see your face. I get to see how you are reacting to what I am saying.

It is very difficult, especially when you have not met a person face to face in reality. It is very hard to get all that interpretation from an email or to get it from IM, but when you actually see their faces, it adds something to it. By the way, let me put a callout. Does anybody have any recommendations for things where you can do multiple person video chat that is not an open like chat room type of environment? I know there are plenty of them like that like Skype where I could say, “I want to talk to these four people and only these four people.” Skype does not support multiple people on video yet, only one on one.

I am looking for something where I can get four people together or five and do video. I understand. I think iChat does that on the Mac, at least three maybe, I do not know, but I am curious for PC-based or web-based solution for that because that would make it so much easier. I missed not having video. I think everybody in Crayon is going to have to get a video camera at some point, but like I said it does not have to be anything expensive, just get a camera, stick it on and go from there and just roll with it.

My final tip, my final tip if you are going to be working from home or working remotely is get up. Get up and get out. Seriously, I do not do it enough, but I get up. If I got to get a cup of coffee I will actually stand up and walk around for a little bit or when I let Roxy out back I actually go stand outside and feel the fresh air.

I need to find a second office meaning I need to find a coffeehouse office and just get out and work in a coffeehouse. I can work from anywhere with an internet connection and just get out to see people and engage. I mean yesterday I had a lunch meeting and it was so awesome just to be outside. It is really important that while you are still connected to everybody virtually, nothing will ever beat face to face. That is my firm belief.

This Coffee with Crayon this morning was awesome and we could not have done that in the real world because everybody is all over the globe, but would I have loved to have done that in Boston? Yes. I know there is a Coffee Mornings happening in Boston. I cannot make it this month but I am planning on it next month because I think the face to face is so much better and it is always great when you can get out and meet people.

So, get out. Talk to people. Go to conferences, all these unconferences, all the PodCamps that are happening. PodCamp Toronto is coming up. I know I am in PodCamp NewYork. If you want one in your area, just go to I think it is podcamp.org. I am almost positive it is. Chris is going to yell at me, he is going, “Yes, it is!” Organize one. Get people together. Just send out a message, saying “Hey, I want to talk to like-minded people.” There are people out there but doing it face to face is always better when you can.

This show is definitely different from Managing the Gray. When Matt sent that comment in, I just went this could be so much more. People have been asking me how it has been going working from home and while getting up and working in flannel pants and a baseball cap is very cool, it is tough sometimes and it is difficult to work through it all, but you know what, I am having a blast doing it. In this new media space, more and more people are going to be doing it. You have got a laptop, you have got an internet connection, you have got connection to the world and you can do whatever you want and to those of you out there going, “Man, I wish I could work from home,” do it.

Start something. Find someone who will let you. What is interesting is you are seeing people using bloging and podcasting in whole new ways. I saw a job posting. Chris Brogan posted a job posting that Pulver Media is looking for a web designer. I am not looking for a job, obviously, but I never would have seen that if it was on Monster and I am sure they are doing it that way too, but it was on a blog. So, keep your eyes out there. Get doing it. Do not be afraid to start doing this stuff because we are all having a blast doing what we are doing.

So, I am going to get out of here. This is Managing the Gray, the New Media Marketing Podcast is what I like to call it. I have not come up with a tagline yet. Again, the call in number if you did not have it is 206-309-4729 and you can find Managing the Gray everywhere but managingthegray.com is the main place, of course. We are on MySpace, we are on Gather, managingthegray@gmail.com, mtg.podshow.com, we are everywhere. Managing the Gray is part of the PodShow. PodShow is doing some great things. Managing the Gray is going to be doing some new things in the next couple of months. I am going to try doing some video stuff, maybe doing some more interviews, may some group podcasts. I am not sure.

Let me know what you want on Managing the Gray because what is cool is this is a two-way road. Everybody gets a voice if they want it. You know what? I want to hear from you guys. I want to hear from everybody out there. What is cool is this one is going out on Sirius Satellite Radio. So, Sirius listeners, welcome to Managing the Gray. Again, managingthegray.com if you want to find out more because you are missing out on some things over on Sirius, it is the way it is.

Sorry, I took a big pause there. I need water. But, so anyways, I really thank you for listening to Managing the Gray. I am going to go back to work. I am going to open up my IMs, check my email, and get back into the world that I love so much, the world of new media and I thank you for being a part of it and I thank you for listening to the show. I am out of here. Peace. Be wild, y’all.

Closing: Thanks for listening to Managing the Gray. Tell your coworkers. Tell your friends and tell us what you think by leaving a comment at managingthegray.com.

Original post and podcast here.

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Managing the Gray #26 focuses on working in the world of new media.

Matthew Ebel called in a question about instant messaging etiquette and that got me thinking about a lot of things in this space. Things I’ve learned over the past few months working at home. I stayed sort of focused on me and what has and hasn’t worked for me in the hopes that it’ll start a conversation with all of you. Lots of gray on these topics that is far from being managed just yet. *grin*

Links that I mentioned in the show or that I think will be helpful include:

• Coffee with crayon
• Skype
• Moleskine Cahier Notebooks
• Google Talk
• crayonCast

If you have a second feel free to Digg this podcast or visit it’s PodShow+ page. The comment line is always open at 206-309-4729.

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If any of you were doubters that this year is going to be bigger for video then last then scope out this news that local darling Brightcove just landed $59.5 million in financing.

Any questions?

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Posted in Announcements, second life | Comments(4)

Gotta love coming up with something guaranteed to bring in links to your site and Todd And certainly did that with his Power 150 Top Marketing Blogs.

No love for Managing the Gray which is cool with me. I was just happy to find some friends, collegues and business associates on the list so that is always great. Plus I have found a bunch of new blogs to check out and see if they are any good.

Definitely worth checking out. I’ve now subscribed to his blog because reading through some recent posts, it’s full of good content.

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It’s not often that a “business” book keeps me glued to my seat, but Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath certainly did that for me.

What I loved about this book is that it simplifies the concepts for making your ideas stick with others to some very basic principles. One of them being stories which the book is chock full of. Many I had heard before, but many new or with new takes on them just for the book which made them interesting again.

I promised myself that I’d read more this year and for the first book to complete I can’t think of a better one.

Both of these guys are passionate about the subject. That comes through instantly. Plus they’ve got a dry sense of humor that most might not even pick up on but had me giggling more then once.

I recommend this book whole heartedly to anyone who is in the new media space or in any environment where they’ve ever felt that people didn’t completely appreciate their ideas as much as they thought they would. I told my wife she needs to read this book because I firmly believe she’ll take a lot away from it and it’s not the type of thing she ever reads.

Posted in Books | Comments(4)

Sure, I work with him and he’s a friend, but I firmly believe that Joseph Jaffe is also one smart individual. I read a draft of his “Manifesto for Experimentation” a little while ago and really liked it. Seems that it was in the early days of crayon and it just reinforced that I had in fact made the right decision to join.

I’m also becoming a very big fan of ChangeThis and what it stands for.

I actually first heard about this site from my buddy Julien Smith and ever since I’ve been reading a ton of what is being published there. Plus they have an RSS feed which makes me smile of course.

I will warn you though that if you go there you might not ever leave.

Posted in Writing | Comments(1)

…on new media what would  you want to be sure is in that book?

Obviously you know why I’m asking this question if you listened to the latest episode of the podcast, but I really want to know your thoughts to be sure I’m on the right track. I’ve got my outline and everything, but I’m sure I missed some stuff. Don’t we all?

Posted in Rambles | Comments(5)

Managing the Gray #25
Originally Posted January 5, 2007
Listen Here

[00:00:25] Speaker 1: Welcome to the brand new World of Digital Marketing Consumer Generated Media and No-Control PR. The worlds of engagement are no longer black and white, you need to change to evolve, to manage the gray. And how do you do that? You let C.C. Chapman help you.[00:00:44] C.C. Chapman: Hello everybody, this is C.C. Chapman. Welcome to Managing the Gray, number – 25, the first one of 2007. Sorry, it has taken me a few days to get this out. I’ve been just kind of enjoying the holidays really getting rapped up for the New Year.

I really want to make sure this show with something that with truck full of goodness. First of all, I hope you all had a very happy holiday which ever one you celebrate, hope you had a happy new year.

We got a whole year ahead of us: weeks, days, months ahead of us to succeed at whatever you are thinking about doing. Managing the Gray is gonna help you do that, resets the hope. I am gonna do everything in this year, possible to help everybody out there who wants to be helped “to embrace new media” that’s what the goal of Managing the Gray from day 1 was. That’s what it’s gonna be in the next year and I am gonna really step it up, I hope and help you all out.

Another thing I have to give on the way is one of the things Christopher Penn for stepping in the last episode, I hope you enjoyed that. It was little something different, something that lot of us knew England podcasters beyond did where, for the holidays, we thought it would be fun to do, a gift exchange, instead of doing gifts, we did shows. So, I hosted another show, somebody else hosted one of my other shows.

There are very few people in this world that I would led host Managing the Gray. Christopher Penn is one of them. He is my personal little marketing ninja, there is so much knowledge in that head it amazes me everyday. I came here in actually getting together with him in bunch of other new media folks from the Boston area this weekend. I am looking forward to him on so many levels, because, yeah we cross passing email and IM in Second Life and other places, but face-to-face nothing can ever beat face-to-face, nothing will ever replace face-to-face, just human interaction in general. Getting to hangout with such professional people and such good friends of mine, I can’t wait, some of mine haven’t seen in a long time and I am looking forward to that, so get out in 2007.

So, today I am gonna talking about some different things, where it’s a fresh new year, it’s a fresh new start. Just to get you energizing and get you pumped for the year ahead, because there is so much, you get those things in, it comes in the end of December then its like, you get everything its kind of sluggish, if you are in new England almost this year, but if usually if you new England it’s the weather and block, no, right now its fresh. The new year, just get ready to go.

So, I thought about some points, I just wanted to drill into your head to get you going for the New Year. One of them I want you to really think about is to seize every opportunity that comes along. What I mean by this? Is there are so many events, gatherings, happenings all around the world right now, centered around new media. Whether these are big events? Video on the net, The Portable Media Expo is renamed The New Media Expo. There is all sorts of real life events, there is also sorts of Second Life events, whether it’s an opening of a new office or…

Yesterday there was built of the congress, so you could actually engage with me, next week events coming in there. Its not just new, but next week at Crayonville we are actually gonna be part of anyone of theaters, in our theater you can watch the Second Life premier of 4 eyed monsters, which is an independent movie. Sunday channel is doing it, they work with electric chip on it and you are lucky enough too, you can come and watch in our theater. We also got second Thursday’s in Second Life which is a PR focused event, the second Thursday of every month in Second Life and it’s going to be on Crayonville, this month. Things life that there is so much going on, and you see for asking questions, there is new feature linked in. I know, where people are asking questions, you have even just a thought, may be you are not the expert on that, you thought on the answer, share that. You never know where an opportunity is gonna lead.

I know just from speaking and talking to the people and being such a big supporter and it’s just in my blood to build communities. The opportunities, the doors that are opening are just amazing. See, you don’t know where one is gonna go, just get on it and I do wish it’s funny. If someone has this, if someone knows it’s out there or someone wants to get crazy, how cool it would be? If there was a website that very simply tracked all the new media events and anybody could add something to it. It was just real simple, calendar with an RSS feed and it could be Second Life, Real Life, Small Town stuff whatever, all the podcast to be listed in one place, very next side of all the big conferences, next to every little meet-up and every little concert in Second Life.

Whenever you go, it’s fairly easy to do. I am not a coder all the time, but just put that out, because that’s the one my listener getting when I throw ideas and they jump on about “Oh! I can do that,” so go nuts. So, in the New Year also, make sure you are being productive. I am on this big kick right now, being productive. Working at home is been a huge shift for me. I always been in office, I been around people. Yeah, I telecommunicate in the past, but it’s a day or two week here and other people in their office working completely virtual is whole other thing. In this year I really want to get productive, it’s a little things that I have learned already just in the past week of just being productive. One of the things that, if you are not working on a laptop or if are working on a laptop, getting a bigger monitor or getting dual monitors, there has been studies, I have read about them in adds productivity.

My wife laughed at me when I purchased it, I got this big 30 inch flat screen now for my computer. She laughed at me that it was gonna help my productivity, you don’t understand, then I thought of showing her how I can I have Google desktop open all the time, now. So, I got news and I got web clip showing up automatically. I got iTunes minimized, opened all the time, I can have outlook, I can have dream leaver, I can have cast blaster and they are all open in their own spaces and one is not interfering with the other. I am not doing as much minimizing, opening and closing, which we all might go, you click on the bottom. It’s adding to the productivity, it really helps a lot and if you get organized, it does.

On that factor starting with your computer, go through your add/remove programs or on Mac go through your programs and get rid of stuff you don’t need, just get off the computer, it will speed thing up. Go to your RSS feeds, whether using Google reader or bloglines or something else, go through the feeds, what aren’t you reading? If you are not reading on a regular basis or once its dead, they are deadly, get rid of them. Clean it out, will it take a moment to figure out. If you got hundreds and hundreds of feeds and some of them you never reading, just get rid of them, it’s not worth your time wasting. Focus on the things that you are interested in. The once you are really engaging with, do the same thing with podcast.

I went through my podcast feeds, the other day. It actually doing like 12 or 13 different podcast, for what ever reason I am just never getting to listening to them again and the fact that I am downloading them, using someone else’s bandwidth, giving them stats and just wasting my bandwidth in my hard drive. It’s not worth it, so just go through, get rid of some of the clutter, clean-up your desktop, clean up your desk physically. All these things run and I hope you embrace everything its going on, just take a moment and just step back. Its funny, the google desktop is really got me excited. I am not using with search here, but I love the fact there is desktop after where, literally, right now I am looking and I can see the hot news in the webpost, but my favorite thing is just the search pad. It’s so simple to do, [inaudible] it’s a scratch pad, excuse me, I got to post it now. , but I just write-down the thing that I have to do today and then I cross them off. I tried some other to do this, I had some great people suggesting, but this was even easier, where there is no integration. It’s just right there on my desktop, likewise on that I am now carrying a notebook everywhere I go. I have a little mouse kind of note book and it goes everywhere with me.

So, that way when something, because we all have that moment when you are driving in a car or inline it starts bugs and you Oh! Or whatever it is, I need to blog that. Ah it’s a great idea, if you hear somebody talking some, yes, you chat down real quick. I suggest not chat down way you driving. That’s dangerous, bad-bad don’t do that.

I got a comment here that I want to put it, it kind of fits in the next thing. So, this is from a long time listener and just give it annoyed bit long, but thank you Sebastian Keil for sending this in.

[00:08:23] Sebastian Keil: Hey CC, its Sebastian from Planet Sab.de and also from Speak English Podcast. I just wanted to say, thank you again, hopefully this week to see you for Managing the Gray. I’ve been a listener from very beginning ever since the guys on FIR pointed me to your podcast and well, it has been a valuable lesson, the whole way. You know the guys of FIR, I don’t mean it disrespectfully too, they are of course to me a long time heroes, but anyway come back to you, I just want to say thank you for giving me a kick in the bud with the early episodes. Each and every episode pointing to another thing that you can do to promote your product or to enhance the experience for the users or the watchers, in my case with the podcast. I mean from try this in Second Life, which I did, I put up adds there, I hang up with lead and I registered in my podcast in various categories, everything you can do. Linking here and linking there, each little piece I stepped on the way to where do Speak English Podcast is at the moment, with close to 2,000 subscribers, maxing out at 1200 at one point and now it seems the community is starting to kick in which is of course really cool, because I mean feedback is all one does it for. So, we are going well, long story short. Thanks and keep it up, keep up kicking us (listeners) in the bud and pointing us to new things, we should try out. Thanks.

[00:10:51] C.C. Chapman: See those types of comments, I get a lot and I love. Sebastian doing something very good to, Speaking English Podcast which I will link to it in the show notes of managingthegray.com. Its very-very simple, it’s a short video podcast teaching Basic, Basic English. Things like, I know he did a whole thing on the word “which”. The differences between actually “Which” as in Which thing do you wanna do? And “Witch” the thing you see on the Halloween, simple things like that. A very niche podcast, but a very good one and Sebastian, I am glad I am kicking you in the bud. That’s kind of my next point, why I played your comment.

This New Year, I want you guys/girls keep trying new things. One of the best, my happiest things I get, is I get emails from people saying “CC I never would have tried this, if is it wasn’t for you” or “Wow! I never thought of doing that,” that is the point. Kick you in the bud and getting you to try new media. In everyday there is something new to try.

So, listen, have you thought about blogging or podcasting or just even walking around in Second Life or may be creating a video, or even just one video or taking more pictures, just do it, do not be afraid of it. Just get out there, if it scares you a little bit, that’s good. Think about the first time you looked at a roller coaster, right, it scared the [phonetic] out of you. Loop-to-loops fasting people screaming, it’s a scary thing, its scary for everybody, but how many people get on the roller coaster, riding and go, “ha…ha that’s awesome, I need to do more”, new media is like that. You are looking at it, it’s scary. Yeah it’s safe here on the ground. I am sure there is executives around the world who go “Ah, its safe right here on the tea cups, I am going to stay there,” but how much more fun it’s gonna be on the roller coaster. Think about that, just look it and try it. Don’t be afraid to try new things.

Yeah, I am supposed to be some big podcasting professional or whatever you want to call it, right. So, I have a video background, I love video. I’ve run a few pictures, the independent production company, it’s been on over 10 years, made a tonne of short sup, produced some features. So, what am I doing now? I am creating video podcast, it is [inaudible] for his article CastBlaster Video. I use CastBlaster, if you go to castblaster.com, I use that report on my podcast. The CastBlaster Video is literally one click, click the camera turns on, if I am going to play clip, I push a button and then when I am done, I hit save , that’s it, no editing done over period. Its raw, I like that and I like that I am trying in. I love the fact that I am helping this product that eventually it’s gonna allow anybody with the webcam to make video content, whatever it is, I think that’s amazing.

You want to get that, go to oneguysthoughts.com, I’ll link to in the show notes over the feed there, so you can skip straight into the feed. Its all slices of life, what I am doing with it right now, is actually playing clips of movies, I find on my computer, from stuff I have shot randomly, I am hoping that you know, like when go to an event, I am gonna say “Hey, dude come here, I am gonna video somebody” and put it on “oneguysthoughts”.

So, just don’t be afraid to try it, setup that blog. You can go to wordpress.com and do it for free or blogger, there are so many services, podcast them. You can get out there you can do it for free. Put it up on YouTube, put up your video on YouTube, if you don’t know how about hosting? I have seen some podcasters that’s all they do in the start. Just don’t be afraid, get out there and try it. See, it’s the only way you gonna find out what it’s like? Even if you don’t like it, at least then you could say, “You know what, I’ve tried, I don’t like it” that’s okay, but not trying is never okay.

So, the final thing to you is goals. I don’t want to call them resolutions, because we all break resolutions. I am gonna jog nearly a mile, no you are not. A goal should be, you know what? I am gonna run more often or I am gonna run everyday, that is a goal, that is what you should do? Set them, set them big, if I say “I am gonna workout” that’s not a goal. That’s not big enough for me, when I say “I am gonna lose X number of pounds by the end of the year, that to me is a goal and it’s measurable. All your goals should be big and they should be measurable. So you can see success and don’t look at them everyday. Oh, I lost, I lost an ounce today, do not look at that. Look in the bigger picture, set weekly or monthly milestones, but set things where you can measure them and you can see success. If you are not reaching the level of success, stop re-evaluate, figure out what you can do to make that a success and then go forward and kick bud on it and is that alright?

I saw a great quote the other day and it was labeled as unknown, so I guess I can take it here what they said was “if you could do anything and know you would not fail, what would you do?” I read that, it just stopped me and what would I do? I don’t know, but think about that for a minute. What if you knew, you wouldn’t fail at it, what would you attempt to do? And then why don’t you try attempting it, because how do you know you can’t fail. How do you know you will fail, think about it either way, you don’t know. Any goal that you can think of in your head, you can obtain, it could be any thing. So think about that and it doesn’t just apply in new media, or out side of new media, but why not set a goal in new media? I want to go from 100 to 1000 listeners, if that’s your goal, it’s measurable, its big, go for it, try it, see what happens.

Me, I got lot of goals this year, one of them is I wanna help more people to get into this world. I want to get away from the word of podcasting, I want to get people into developing content, I don’t care if it is video, I don’t care if its audio, I don’t care if it’s a mash up of a cinema or history, I am making something like that as I go along. The important thing is that you are doing it and you are going after.

Me, my biggest goal for this year, my biggest goal! and I am petrified to death of it, is to write a book. I got approached by a small [phonetic] publisher saying “CC we love the podcast, we love what you are talking about have you ever thought about writing a book”. Its always been a dream of mine to write a book and so now I am setting a goal to write this book and by me saying it here, it makes it more tangible, it makes me half the work towards it, because I just told you I am gonna write a book, does that scare me? Yes, because right now, I am publicly saying this to, I don’t know how many people out there. That’s very empowering and very scary thing, but by me putting it out, I am setting my goal high, its measurable, do I hold the book in my hand at the end of the year. It’s very measurable, so think about it do not be afraid to do it, just step out there and go for it.

So, I really want 2007 to be a success for you, thank you guys/girls for listening to Managing the Gray, you made 2006 a great year, its when Managing the Gray started, went to 25 episodes, would I like to be more episodes? Yes, that’s another goal for me is to make Managing the Gray biweekly at a minimum. If probably lot more, because my heads going to mile a minute, but I appreciate you for listening, its comments from you, its feed back from you that I love and managingthegray@gmail.com is always available for questions or anything else you want.

I know lots of people are swinging by Crayonville Island, want to say hello and ask question and I love that. If you have no idea where Crayonville Island is, by typing Crayonvillesecondlife.com or just Crayonville.com and there is a link there too. It will bring you right to the office and come on in, if I am not there and if there is nobody out there at the moment, just walk over you will see right in lobby of the office, there is a big stone statue of guy juggling balls, each of those balls, if you click on it, it will tell you how to send a message to any member of Crayonville, which is great thing. It actually sends some email if they are not online, if they are online, like if I am in wherever, it actually lift up and say I am online, and you can go find me someplace else, or send me a message, and I will get it, and I come over and talk to you. That’s the way the conversation starts, right. Doesn’t what the medium is, as long as the conversation is happening, that’s the important thing.

One another thing before I go, I really, really, really want to highlight and link in the show notes directly to the link Mitch Joel, Six Pixels Of Separation, someone that I am glad to say, I got into podcasting. I think me and Joe Jaffe would be the evil parents that created Mitch Joel, a podcaster, that kind of a scary Trio . He did this great thing, right before the holidays, where he reached out to all his new media contacts and said “hey guys I would love to hear from you for this end of the year show”. I listen to it, finally yes I am little behind it, it was very powerful episode, just hearing from people all through the podosphere, just all these different people with all sorts of different in-sites into just the past year, where we were going , we are not so much predictions, some of them are, some of them aren’t. It’s a very great episode, if you are into, if you life Managing the Gray and you life what’s going on, you will love Six Pixels Of Separation and this one episode, you wanna get exposed to, I don’t want to say greatest mind, some of the coolest people I personally dig in this world. You wanna check up this episode, so go to managingthegray.com, it will be in the show notes, you click right there and go over to it.

So, thank you for listening today, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and have a very-very successful 2007. I am going to be here to help you with it, I hope and I will talk to you very soon. Alright guys, peace, and be well.

[00:19:40] [Music]

[00:19:44] Speaker – 1: Thanks for listening to Managing the Gray. Tell your co-workers, tell your friends and tell us what you think by leaving a comment at managingthegray.com.

[00:19:52] [Music]

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I just read the press release from Linden Labs about them embracing the concept of open source development for their viewer software.

I’m a huge fan of virtual worlds as you know and have covered everything from Second Life building costs to my Second Life Primer. This news is a big shift and will effect everything that we know in Second Life. I say that in a good way. I think this is a great thing and I’m looking forward to seeing what people will do with this.

I’m sure some will have malicious intent with their ideas, but on the flip side I know that this is a very good thing. Lots of good can come from this and it’s great to be part of it.

I think I’m going to go jump in world and see what the vibe is like there.

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