How the Wolf Met the Swan

It was a Tuesday afternoon and the Swan was headed into town in order to pick up a fresh loaf of bread from the Farmers Market.  She weaved throughout the busy bustle crowded amongst the edges of the narrow street, lined up and down with local shop keepers trying to bargain with potential customers.  The Swan was in a particular hurry that day. She had to be back home within the hour in order to prepare a meal for her mother and father.  You see, her father, the Head Goose within the town's District of Authorities, had received a special accolade that week.  He was being nominated for Man of the year, and the recent buzz on the grape-vine had everyone believing he was a sure thing.   

As the Swan continued to head toward the market, lost in thought regarding all of the things she had to prepare for that night, she clumsily bumped into a stranger, causing both to fall over.  "Oh lord, I'm so sorry," she said.  "I'm afraid I've let my thoughts get the best of me today."  The stranger, wrapped in a thick, dark cloak, hiding all features except the deep glare of a set of eyes gazing back at the swan.  "It's fine," replied a ruffled, almost growl like, masculine voice.  "Apologies are not in order, but appreciated, for I fear I as well was lost in thought."

At this point, the stranger slowly revealed their face, pulling their cloak down, and to the shock of the Swan, exposing a young Wolf, not but what appeared to be only a few years older than herself. Now, the Swan had met a few Wolves before in her past, but her father always warned her about them. He said that Wolves were of a different time.  That they still lived within a lifestyle of the old days, thriving off of the thrill from hunting and gathering in the wild.  "They're beasts!" he would tell her. "Nothing but feral beasts. If you don't pay attention to where they're at when they're around, you might as well coat yourself up in butter and serve yourself for dinner!" 

To be continued...

QR CODES: Scanners Beware

When working on your company's IMC plan, it is important to incorporate methods that are unique to the various traditional and non-traditional marketing channels you will utilize.  For planning promotional and targeted marketing activities over the web, or more specifically, smart phone platform channel, the infamous QR code can be a great asset, if used properly.

The first step in properly identifying if the QR code will create value for your branding mission, is to identify who your consumers are and what they do with their technology.  Personally, I've never really used a QR scanner until recent events demanded I did, but if I ever strolled through a magazine, or saw a flier on campus with a code, I never bothered looking it up.  But, this is me.  

A lot of marketers will make the claim that the QR code, "Is Dead!"  Let's see if statistics can uncover some information regarding this statement.  According to this data site, a 38% jump in QR code scanning occurred between Q1 of 2012 and Q1 of 2013.   But, evidence also shows that this is merely reflective of the proportional increase of smart phone usage within the United States market.  In fact, further evidence shows that the scanning of QR scans has virtually stalled.

So, what this does tell me? There's absolutely no harm in incorporating a QR code.  It's virtually free (in fact, many sites make it free), and can be a nice addition to an ad that will increase interaction for certain individuals. Still, I wouldn't rely on the QR code as being the crucial aspect to the promotion itself.  This could potentially alienate certain consumers since many no longer enjoy the novelty of the scanner itself, essentially limiting your reach to your target market.

I like to think that a QR code can hold a certain amount of mystery. What does it lead to?  Should I scan it and "stumble down the rabbit hole." Well, for the sake of the QR code below, I'll give you fair warning.  Once you open this door, it can never be shut.  For it is merely the tip of the ice-burg of something so much greater, something that has lurked behind the shadows of humanity since our very creation; pulling the strings, making empires rise and fall.  Beware, reader.  But, if you wish to know more, keep posted. 

Paypal : The Widely Accepted Funds Manager and Payment Gateway

Now, I've only used Paypal once, and I didn't have a great experience with it.  But in part I found out this was due to something I did, or didn't do; but anyways, that's a different story.

Paypal is perhaps one of the most widely solutions for payment processing needs related to consumer to consumer marketplaces.  What do I mean?  Ebay for example.  It's essentially a collection of consumers who are reselling or auctioning items to other consumers, and after the transaction is finished, they needed a client that can assist in transferring funds.

So what are the pros for these buyers and sellers?

Let's find out.

Pros

* Secure Processing

* Low Transaction Fees

* Larger User Base

*Accepts Majority of Major cards

*Strong Support Network to Assist in Any Issues

*Accepts Many Currencies

*Easy for Developers to Use, Meaning High Adaption for Variety of E-Commerce Sites

Now, that's all great, but what about the negative sides?

Cons

* Negative Experiences from Users Don't Cause Innovation or Change Due to their High Market Share

* Pay Pal has Authority and Control Over Your Money

*Adoption and First Time User Can Be Tricky (even for tech savvy folks like my self...)



All in all I'd say user Paypal, but just know that it's not all peaches and creams.

Transparency in Healthy Care Costs: Information in Markets

I personally found this to be a pretty interesting article. Why?  The healthcare industry itself can best be described as a confusing, compilation of esoteric pricing and market structures; and while this may serve as  great fire and hot-air for political debates and politicians arguing for "change" , in reality, the most important factor that gets set aside, is that we, the consumers, end up having to navigate through a confusing and cloudy market that we know little about, besides the fact that we need it.  Great, right? Not at all.

You know, I've probably personally had over 15 procedures in my life time. A few were fairly intrusive , requiring a few months of recovery, while others, such as getting tubes replaced in my ears or having endoscopy examinations, we're relatively quick and painless.  Now, I have no idea what these costs were, I was just a kid, and my parents took care of everything.  Still, after reading this article, I can only imagine what type of costs were incurred.

To me, a strong and healthy market depends on a few things.  The first of them is honesty, and by this I mean a strong and true intent at delivering and offering value-based goods or services to consumers with the emphasis on the value created for consumers.   The second is information.  As consumers, specifically in today's fast growing and information abundant world, we have the ability to make the best purchases thanks to the educated decisions empowered by having mass amounts of knowledge at our fingertips.

Now, healthcare is completely different from paper towels, tooth paste, produce, electronics, and so on, but at its core, it's still about delivering a service to a consumer.  As a consumer, we have a need, and we want that need to be satiated in the most efficient manner while simultaneously being affordable within our budget constraints.

This article highlights the fact that healthcare and its current structure might very well not be offering the most efficient or affordable services.  With such a large gap in prices between these hospitals and surgery centers, and the fact that the main differing factor is the acceptance and lack of acceptance of medicare and medicaid, it at least should encourage us to examine and question our system a bit more.

Transparency, honesty, fairness, and efficiency; these are values that should permeate all corners of a market.  Now let's ask this question, do they?

Florida So Far

This past Thursday, around 4:30 PM, I caught a flight out of the Arnold Palmer Airport in Latrobe and rode it all the way down, non-stop, to the sunny coast of Ft. Lauderdale.  I make it down here at least once  year.  It helps that I'm blessed enough to have not only an uncle down here, but two cousins, and a multitude of family friends that always welcome me with open and gracious arms.

So, what have I been up to since I arrived? Well, I've been living a really demanding and stressful life, let me tell you. Once I got here, I jumped in the car with my Uncle and my Nana (Italian word for Grandma) and got some pretty good grub.  Then, pretty much just went to bed.  That Friday I woke up, laid out in the wonderful 70 degree weather by the pool, and spent my time going in out of consciousness and reading when I had the chance.

That Friday evening I also had a chance to catch up with one of my first professors and academic advisers at Clarion University, Dr. Brian Dunn.  I met him when I was a freshman at Clarion, and ever since we've been lucky enough to stay in touch. We've always talked about getting together and catching up, but we never had the chance; until now.   Dr. Dunn, my cousin Alex, Alex's girlfriend Simi, and myself met up at a wonderful restaurant called J Marks' in downtown Ft. Lauderdale.  We enjoyed an amazing meal with even better conversation to complement it.  After saying our good byes and parting ways, Alex, Simi, and myself headed back up to Stuart, Florida, the place  where he resides.

We spent that Saturday morning outside working in his yard.  I walked around cleaning up and throwing away trimmed branches from palm tress for a good hour or close to it, before we focused on mulching and de-weeding the back yard area around the pool. Afterwards we sat down, ate some awesome pizza, and decided that we all wanted to go paddle boarding.

What's paddle boarding?  It's when you get on a rather large and slightly wider surf board, stand straight up on it, and paddle out into the ocean.  Now, we weren't in the ocean exactly, we stayed in an inlet, but it was such an awe inspiring journey.  To literally be standing out in the middle of the water, with nothing but the wind and sun pounding at your back, it just made me feel so alive, so in the moment. In fact, I got so lost in the moment that almost 2 hours went by as if it was nothing.

I woke up this morning and went down to one of the local churches there in Stuart with my cousin.  It was a really nice service that set a great mood and mindset for the rest of the day.  A mindset of being thankful and aware of the wonderful things that surround our lives every day.

My family and I just wrapped up a cook-out.  I have to say, it was one of those wonderful things the preacher was talking about.  I sat there, listening to the laughter of my Nana, my Uncle, and the rest of my family.  Watching people making new friends, sharing great food, and simply enjoying life together.  It made me feel such warmth it's truly hard to put into words.

Now, I also have to add that during this time, there have been moments where I've missed my nephews, nieces, father, mother and the rest of my family.  But I know I'll be seeing them soon.

For now, I'm gonna focus on getting a bit more work done, and then prepare for tomorrow's activities.  What are they, you may ask?

9 AM snorkeling tour in Key Largo, right out in the reef.

Blessed.

LinkedIn : My Favorite

I love LinkedIn.

That just happened.
(Drops mic, walks out of room)

But seriously. I do.

LinkedIn to me, was bound to happen, the inevitable outcome of the tech generation dominating the professional world.   It's Facebook for the yuppie. Kinda.

I've been  on LinkedIn since 2010, and I have to say, if anything it's the one social media channel that has truly added value to my life, real tangible value.  Now, I get value out of other channels, specifically, I enjoy being able to reflect upon photos with friends, but LinkedIn is one site that I recommend for anyone out there in the professional world.

If you're on LinkedIn though, here are a list of simple rules I recommend you follow.

1.  It's not Facebook.  Don't Ask to Connect.

So, there's this ongoing trend in LinkedIn where people, whom you know, and very well may be friends with on Facebook or another social media channel, will ask to connect with you on LinkedIn.  To me, that defeats the purpose of LinkedIn itself.

If you've never worked with the person, taught the person, or vice versa, were a student to the person, there is literally no way to gauge the quality of work an individual is capable of doing.  It's supposed to be an online social networking/CV/Resume, not another place for you connect with everyone you know.

2.  Make Sure It's Up to Date

I've seen plenty of people who have a LinkedIn account, but barely ever keep it updated.  What's the point of having it if you don't use it the right way?  I've had LinkedIn get me plenty of interviews, and this is in large party that I make sure to have all of my experiences posted on the site.

3.  Utilize Skills/Experiences

Do you work in a certain industry?  Are there specific requirements/skills for that industry?  Make sure you have those as options on your user profile.

For example, let's say you're a computer programmer.  You should probably have HTML, C++, CSS, Python, SQL, Root Error Analysis, and various other buzzwords in your skills section.  Now, let's say I'm your boss, and I log onto LinkedIn.  It will automatically pop up with your face, asking me if you are experienced within those fields.  My simple click, acknowledging a big fat yes, is essentially my endorsement.  I'm saying, yeah, this guy knows what he's doing.

That's enough for now.

More tips for social media will come soon!

Random Moments of Clarity

Last Thursday night (here we go again) I decided to do something spontaneous.  After a long conversation with my good buddy Josh Domitrovich regarding life, meaning, and all that jazz, I decided I was in the mood to go on a road trip.

At 11:35 PM Thursday evening, I called up my good buddy Alex and told him that I wanted to go on a road trip. He asked  where, I said New York City.  That wouldn't fit within our time constraint, so we decided to head to Niagara Falls.  By 12 AM we were on the road.

That night was perhaps one of the best in recent memories.  Alex and I have logged well over 2000 miles in road trips together, and the two of us just continued the discussion that I was having earlier that evening with Josh.   We talked about how we ended up in Clarion, and how through a series of unpredictable and stochastic events, our lives were where they were right now.  

Great tunes played on the radio, coffee and red bull were in our veins, and the highway belonged to us. 

We arrived at our destination around 3:30 AM.  Niagara itself was absolutely beautiful.  The falls were  almost completely frozen, and we had the entire area to ourselves.

 After trotting around for about a half hour, I realized I couldn't feel my feet.  We ducked into the local casino to grab some food, warmed up with coffee, and headed back toward the car.  That's when I decided to take a nap.  Alex went back out to grab more photos.  He was better prepared for the winter weather.   

We got back to Clarion at 10:15 AM Friday morning, just in time for Alex to get to work.  

He was running on no sleep, and I only had an hours worth.  But, at the end of it all, it was totally worth it.   Who knows how many more opportunities we will have to go on such a trip again. 

For the rest of our lives we will always have that night.  Nothing can ever take it away.

That night, we were infinite.