Now blogging …

This blog may make a comeback later this year, but for now, my thoughts, both personal and professional, can be found at at lgesin.wordpress.com.

In praise of poker and “changing tables”

As you may know from prior blog posts, I spent my summer working on a movie for the ProjectTwenty1 Film Challenge and preparing my oldest to head off to college.  Kudos to our writer / director for being nominated in the best writing catetory, and I’m happy to say, my daughter is doing very well at Lehigh.

During those hot summer months, I also listened to Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness as I drove from location to location, Walmart to Target along with many detours.  Within the experiences of the author lie the reason for the recent hiatus from this blog.

In the book, Mr. Hsieh discusses his experience as first an investor and then the CEO of Zappos.  I bought the audiobook because I prefer to hear nonfiction as if the writer were in the room with me telling his or her story, and every year I choose a recently published business book as a starting point for a number of lessons in my eCommerce class.  This book was perfect!   Mr. Hsieh and the founders of Zappos experienced so many aspects of entrepreneurship I still refer to different quotes as I guide my students through preparation of their own business plans this month.

However, it was the section on poker that really got me thinking.

I don’t gamble.  In fact, my own mother was very angry with my father’s mother when she taught myself, my sister, and my cousins how to play blackjack one cold winter Sunday afternoon.  (I’m named after that grandmother which explains a lot.)  I come from a home where if you worked hard, did the right thing, treated everyone with respect and kindness, you would be rewarded in many ways including financially.

That hasn’t worked out that well for me at least so far.

Just like my mother who’s known as the “Energizer Bunny” to friends and family alike, I just kept on going, doing the best I can.  Then I heard Mr. Hsieh talking about the benefits of “changing tables” and even leaving the table for awhile.  I think I already knew what he was saying but needed to hear it said out loud (again, a benefit of audiobooks).  It’s been almost a year since AsburyPop, and I’ve met many wonderful, talented people and become involved in too many deserving activities as a result.

At the end of August, I decided it was time to step away from the table.  Could be, I’ll return to the table I was at this past year, but I may just try my luck at a new table.  Might have the same dealer and some of the same players, but it’s still a new table!

Before the teachers and students I’ve worked with for eight years think I’m abandoning them, think again!  You may just be the “new” table: a different outlook, a new set of challenges for the school year, and some new players I’ve met over the past year.

Maybe  doing my best to work hard, do the right thing, and treat everyone with respect and kindness might just prove to be the right way to live after all!  …and even if it isn’t, taking the time to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m going is a valuable endeavor over the next few months.  Stay Tuned, and thanks Tony Hsieh!

UPDATE: I’ve been asked if I’m “quitting” anything that I do.  NOPE!  I’m just reassessing where I put my time and efforts.  I’ve stepped away from the “table” to get some perspective, that’s all.

ProjectTwenty1 Video Diary – Day 5

On the last day of the shoot, cast, crew, and zombies came to my house for what we called “Gorefest”.  In this entry, we see David Meditz, SFX genius, turn a baby(doll) into zombie lunch, hear how Stango envisions blood splatter on the side of my garage, meet our enthusiastic zombie extras Kristine Knowlton, Michael Sweeney, Karisa Hunt, Paul McCue, and my son Joe Fadem, hear more music from No Wine for Kittens, and of course hear Cameraman Stango speak yet again… you know how production companies have those weird voiceovers? Like Bad Robot(s) and Pretty Matches Productions (I watch way too much Bravo).  Well, Stango is now my company’s audio!

ProjectTwenty1 Video Diary – Day 4

On Day 4 of shooting, we moved to The Showroom, Asbury Park’s own movie theater.  Mike (the c0-owner) opened his place up on his day off at 9 a.m., and we learned he’s a man who needs his coffee.  Zombie Bill makes an appearance to prove a point, @CraigMahoney is seen on camera, @megh28‘s contribution of a poster prop serves as a scene focal point, and Cameraman Stango actually speaks at the end of this entry!

ProjectTwenty1 Video Diary – Day 3

Today we shot at Restaurant Plan B, my favorite restaurant (no, seriously, I don’t eat out much on a teacher’s salary, but when I can, I go here).  Closed for the day, the owner was gracious enough to give us free reign of the place.  Yet another great location on Asbury Park’s Art Bloc, Restaurant Plan B provided a great place for our characters to have a couples night out.  Kudos to Rachel Kelly (who conquered a very difficult line of dialogue) and Keith Laviola who share their thoughts on our production in this entry.  Finally, many many thanks to Chrissy Epp & Brian Napoliton who served as VERY last minute extras plus my daughter Sarah who took time out on her 18th birthday to play yet another diner in the scene.

ProjectTwenty1 Video Diary – Day 2

In this episode, we meet Dominique Aro, our incredible makeup artist, and see Josie confront Adam. Shot at the Salowe parental abode, see more behind the scenes footage from Team TacovsGrilledCheese (“like” us on Facebook if you want to know why we chose that team name).

ProjectTwenty1 Video Diary – Day 1

This month, VoxPopNJ, in association with NJFA and Elephant/Bunny/Dinosaur Productions, is filming our first short movie for the ProjectTwenty1 Film Challenge.  Today we filmed our first scenes at Parlor Gallery and Words Bookstore in Asbury Park, NJ.  Check back here over the next week for daily video diaries of our adventures in filmmaking as well as information on the final film, all our participants – they’re volunteers, and we thank them as best we can, generally with food – and when you can come out to support us at the ProjectTwenty1 Film Festival in October!

Adventures with Chain Restaurants & Social Media (Part Duex)

I know I promised the next post would be about a Foursquare Scavenger Hunt, but this experience with Chipotle and Social Media took precedence.  I urge you to read the entire blog post; Chipotle was slow out of the gate but they did address my issue eventually and satisfactorily.  I am still a fan.  They, like Chili’s in the last post, now need to get serious about how they interact with their customers on the wide variety of social media platforms we’re all using to express our opinions about brands every day.

This past weekend, my daughter and I decided to try the new Chipotle that opened near us in Sea Girt.  Happy to have a location much closer than the franchise in Eatontown, and being pressed for time as usual, we headed down Route 35 looking forward to a generous takeout food experience.  Sadly, this didn’t happen.

Back when the Eatontown Chipotle opened, I didn’t make it to their pre-opening giveaway because I was too busy and live 20 minutes away.  Many of my students (starving and poor) took advantage, however, and raved at the massive amounts of food they received for free.  I thought this was a marketing ploy – after all, I was teaching Free by Chris Anderson to my ecommerce students at the time – and cautioned them not to expect this to continue.

Chipotle proved me wrong.  Not only did their generosity continue, but their vegetarian burrito option without cheese or sour cream is vegan!  As @StephanDavis02 tweeted, “[Chipotles] is a vegan safehaven in foreign cities.”  I’d say at home too!  When my daughter started working at the Eatontown mall, Chipotles was one of her go to quick, cheap, nutritious restaurants.  Made this Mom very happy when she passed on the fast food options at the food court!

So back to Sea Girt.  We arrived around 4:30, not a peak time, but there were a few customers there.  We placed our order for two burrito bowls and began discussing our plans for the coming week especially when our schedules were both open to visit the Apple store for her college computer.  We replied to the servers’ questions regarding toppings, and I did ask for more peppers and onions when (I swear this is true) I got 1 onion and 2 peppers the first time.  I figured the server got the message so continued talking to my daughter, paid for our food, and left.

What a surprise when we got home.  I do wish I took a picture, but we were hungry.  Sarah’s bowl was 2/3rds full.  She asked, “What did they leave all this empty space for?”  My bowl was no better, mostly rice, a few beans, some tomatoes and corn salsa.  We’d both had these bowls in Eatontown so our expectations were high.  My daughter didn’t say it, but I knew what she was thinking: When we’re done, you’re going to tweet about this, aren’t you?

Of course!  I haven’t followed @EatontownBB for over a year without learning something from his customer service approach!  I tweeted about the miserly portions we received including @chipotle in the tweet.  A few tweets later, I discovered that this is not the restaurant’s Twitter account; very unfortunate.  A few students who eat in Eatontown regularly asked what was up and @rob_sports pointed out that their new Twitter name was @ChipotleTweets.

This information wasn’t on the website.  Neither was a link to their Facebook page.  Once I sent the tweet regarding our disappointment and the lack of social media information on the website to the right account, I got this response:

@lgesin It’s not on our website YET. I just submitted the request on Friday, this account is only 3 weeks old for us. -Colin

No Free Lunch (yet) from Foursquare…

Today’s blog post addresses the use of Foursquare by businesses to interact with customers.  As a new Foursquare convert, I was eager to experiment with a new offer I discovered online.  If you too use Foursquare, you can find me here.

I met Bonnie (@mswas) years ago, about the same time Jeff Bezos started Amazon and Tony Hsieh was still growing Link Exchange (read his new book – wonderful resource for entrepreneurs).  We weren’t nearly as successful at the internet game as those two guys, but we’ve been close friends and sometime coworkers and collaborators ever since.  Bonnie now works for Rutgers (our alma mater), and as we all know, I’m a teacher, sometime entrepreneur, and now local film producer who’s near obsession with social media is no secret.  Add our children and the distance between where we live to the mix and you have a friendship that’s short on face time.

We try to get together for lunch when our schedules permit, a much easier accomplishment in the summertime when mine time is so flexible.  Today, we decided to meet at the Chili’s on Route 18 in East Brunswick.  This morning, I noticed an article posted on Twitter about Chili’s experiment with Foursquare users.  According to SocialFresh, Chili’s would give free chips and salsa to any patron who checked in on Foursquare and showed the checkin to their server.  They were even kind enough to provide the coupon code to readers in case servers were unsure what to do when faced with this new offer.

The word “free” to me is like WMDs to George W. Bush: I will hunt them down no matter what the cost and feel justified even if I find out the free offer was just a rumor.  (Did I mention I live on a teacher’s salary & have two teenagers?)  That, combined with my new curiosity about how business people could harness the use of Foursquare by all of these people checking into venues across the country, clinched the lunch date’s location.  Bonnie commented that she’d be more motivated if they were giving away free Coronas, but she’s not that serious about her social media (or maybe she just has her priorities).

I’m older and I have more followers!

Most readers know I earn my living as a high school teacher.  This year, as the school year wound down to an end, more and more current and former students approached me to say they’d applied for a position over the summer that involved social media.  All of them wanted information or advice that would win them that job in this economy.  Parents approached me looking for students to help integrate social media into new or existing businesses.  One former student even used my experiences at TWTRCON as a blog interview for her summer position.

I’m 46 and have the scars to prove it.  So when did I become the “go to” person for the 18-22 year old crowd entering the field of social media marketing?

My answer lies in an experience I had at the beginning of this year.  I love craigslist.  It’s layout warms my coder heart, it’s minimal set of rules appeals to my libertarian soul, and it’s job list helps me out when I need some extra cash.  In the middle of winter, I read an ad looking for someone to set up and run a social media marketing campaign for a nationally known company in Lakewood.   Never hurts to send a email, so I did.  A few days later, I got a response I would see and hear more and more over the months to come.

We’re looking for someone onsite in their early 20s with real experience in social media.