Perceptint Musings

When you’re dealing with an organization with more than a hundred thousand employees, it’s very likely you could end up bumping into a negative zone version of yourself or your team on any given day. Discovering others within your organization with a similar charter, goal, time-line, project or scope can throttle into a Monday morning like hot soup in your lap.

My team has had several instances lately of running into new internal people trying to solve similar problems to the ones we face. They have their own budgets, their own clients, their own agenda and our sudden discovery of each other usually leaves both groups puzzled. Did I just run into my shadow? Do we own this part of the business now or do they?

We’ve recently been in process of looking at vendors for a certain need.  We’ve had preliminary interviews with all of the companies we wanted to speak with. The next step for us was to find additional internal sponsors and then begin the RFP process. Right after we crossed the threshold of speaking to the first round of vendors, we discovered another group that has a similar goal related to the need we are trying to fix.

This group is already in the dog and pony part of the show with vendors. So now we’re quickly tagging along with them to see where they’re at, what they know, how far along they are in their process etc. We’re also hoping they don’t jump the gun and start down a path that we aren’t able to influence.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. I realized I need to start documenting our strategy for dealing with these types of issues. This is my first draft for handling these types of situations.  I’m very open to feedback and any thoughts you might have about this list.

Code of Conduct for Internal Comet-Like Collisions

1. Stay calm, you didn’t worry about this team or their projects before today
2. It is highly likely that the discovery of the other team(s) will be of benefit to your projects if you handle it properly
3. Begin an ambassador outreach program to this team at once
4. Get any and all background that you can and provide them with the same
5. Document their team structure, reporting structure, etc.
6. Make it official - do your two teams overlap and where? If they do, put it out there in the organizational mind-share.
7. It could benefit both teams and help management better plan future resource development
8. Look for opportunities to spread your buying power into theirs or vice versa
9. Keep in touch - don’t let your projects and day to day worries keep the other team out of your mental picture, you may need them and their expertise sooner than later
10. Share knowledge and learning’s often - you both stand to benefit from the others experience
11. Do you now have a bigger story to sell within the organization? It may be that the combined efforts of two teams produces better results than one team alone. If it does, tell people and sell the cross-over success. If it doesn’t and your tripping over each other, let people know that too
12. If a mirror image team within the organization existed for this project, there is a greater probability that there are more mirror teams for other projects as well

Keeping your cool is what it’s all about when things get wacky like this. Discovery and knowledge are a faster path to enlightenment than denial and worry.

Just because another project or team overlaps in your area of expertise doesn’t make you any less of an expert. If anything, it keeps the kettle warm underneath you and pushes that competitive corporate button that can help you excel.

So never fear the negative zone, its just part of some bizarre corporate duplication theory that physicists are just beginning to document. Until these scientists know more, you can operate in peace knowing that the collision of corporate anti-matter does not have to end with a big-bang.

The first time you step into the dewy mornings entrepreneurial air, something electric is unleashed in your mind. Like a perfect mix of calming storm that settles your mind and spirit, a certain part of your inner psyche is finally unwound before you. Besides my wife and two daughters, nothing else has captured a part of my soul that I didn’t know was there before like jumping into the unknown of a start-up business.

The first time, I was 23 and didn’t know better. And I’m glad I didn’t. I made $700 a month working full time in the Internet marketing game, unseating local ad agencies for one-tenth of the cost they were charging to design websites. It was a visceral hands on rush through from freshman to diploma in about the time I would have spent in post graduate, lectern filled halls working for an MBA.

When our four person agency decided to throw in the towel, we had crossed $500,000 in yearly revenue and were paying ourselves in the low to mid 30’s. It felt good to walk away without driving the car into a cliff and say we had run a successful business and decided to close it to pursue other interests.

A few years later, I had spent time in bigger agencies, honing and growing my skills for larger clients. I knew it was time to strike out again and trust my gut.

My second start-up had gone through both the dot.com boom and bust. They had been in business for two years and had grown from 3 to 10 to 3 during that time. I joined the company as employee #4, in an overhead position, to help rewrite their business plan, secure additional cash flow, and see if we could find a second life for it in “the big game” - the Valley or beyond. It was a start-up because we were free to create any Frankenstein the market needed.

About a year and a half earlier and on the side while living in Seattle, I had begun writing their email newsletter/article about online marketing and the growth in search, email, viral, and other new channels. My seventh or eighth article was about the viral marketing campaign for the movie Artificial Intelligence (AI) by Steven Spielberg. We had been getting positive feedback on the articles before this one, but something about it clicked with people.

Timing and word of mouth spread it quickly around the web. Then I’m sitting at my day job and I get a call from the side gig. CNN called and wants to talk to me about the the AI marketing campaign. And I’ve been positioned as the VP of Marketing for side gig, how soon can I be in San Francisco for an on camera interview with James Hattori?

The day job had been going through a painful hemorrhage/merger and acquisition dance for almost 6 months, but the latest round of potential buyers looked very interesting and skilled. I went to my boss and told him the newsletter I’d been writing had been picked up by CNN. And I wasn’t writing it for our company, and I needed to be in San Francisco two days later, and I had been positioned as the VP of Marketing for this company.

Because the dance was going so bad for the whole company, he grinned bright, put his thumb up and said, “I’ll see you on Thursday. Have a great time and tell me more when you’re back.” Seeing that strategic inflection moment in time, and jumping on it before it is moves away, you should never doubt that timing can be on your side.

The thing I remember most about that interview was sweating and James Hattori laughing with us that after our interview, he was headed to talk to some “bloggers” - web loggers who diary about themselves. Oh 2001 self, look and laugh at you now.

I did join the side gig a few months later. By the beginning of 2002, the stars aligned for me to make the jump. I would join Marketleap with a 3 month contract. I would make less than I was making at my day job, the books showed they had exactly three months of operating capital, and we’d see how it went. Two years later, we were acquired by one of the largest email marketing agencies in the world and little slivers of us were available for sale on NASDAQ. A year after that, another NASDAQ fish. We had completed the jump from ten people to six thousand.

I’ve been lucky enough to walk away from good jobs into better opportunities. This time, I had to get back a part of myself that giving up the slivers on Wall Street had taken away. The freedom to make a nimble, gut based decision as a shareholder/owner of one. The freedom to serve a client better than I could from inside the beast. Because I see an opportunity in front of me that I trust I should follow. 

A deep inhale of the fresh air, that kinetic energy you feel when you believe in something enough to dive to the ground for it, that’s what being an entrepreneur feels like. Perceptint is my first time stepping out completely on my own with no one else to catch me. It’s a mix of the excitement and fear that I’ve never felt.

Over the coming days, I’m going to be spelling out the Perceptint offering that I’ve outlined and pitched to my preliminary clients. Feedback as always is welcome. My goals is to create a transparent, open business model for myself and any other marketers or entrepreneurs that might benefit from it. Because if you think you can do as good as or better than me from seeing how I think, how I organize, what I share with clients, then I feel like I am helping to push the market ahead and contributing to a bigger good that I want to help nurture amongst the business people of the 21st century.

We often think of evolution as a gradual, thousands of years event. I believe as individuals we are capable of more and can make it happen for ourselves faster than that. Honestly, I just don’t have time to hope and wait that long. I’ll turn thirty-six this summer and I’m working in the eighth stage of my career. I’ve set goals for myself that I never knew if I’d reach them, but setting them gave me a direction and a pace that has kept me steady. Noticing the off-beat trails and paths that lead me here, I know that there are many more like me. Inspired by the storms of life to run for and make our own cover.

© 2008 Keith Boswell

When I graduated from college in 1994 with a Liberal Arts degree with an emphasis on Media and Business Communications, employers weren’t beating down my door to give me a new and exciting opportunity. In fact, more than once, I was told that I knew too much about too many things. I needed to narrow my focus if I wanted a real career.

I’m glad I didn’t listen to those who tried to bridle me. Had I enlisted into their standard career model, I would have spent many years working my way from entry level to group manager, to a bigger manager, to a senior manager and so on. Or that’s how I was taught to think my career should go if I was a good worker.

But it didn’t feel right. I knew I had a lot to say, and things that people in positions higher up than the assistant manager needed to hear about. Trusting when it didn’t feel right, having a strong passion for my work, and educating myself constantly has empowered me to make the career decisions that I want, when I want, and move my career strategically ahead without following the traditional rungs up the corporate ladder.

The first step was walking out of the customer service center and into the boardroom. I quit my job as a desktop publisher at Kinko’s in Dallas, Texas to go and start a web design firm in Bend, Oregon in 1996. Four college friends determined that we had a good idea, headed wildly into the desert and carved a niche for ourselves that I’m still quite proud of.

It took every bit of time we had, every ounce of patience, and every dollar a credit card would extend to us at some points. I learned more in those 3 years about how business works and gained the confidence to share my ideas with presidents, VP’s, directors, on down.

I performed a combination role of writer/speaker, sales and project manager for our small team. We made plenty of mistakes, fought over things we didn’t even understand, but we pushed ourselves to create an award winning design firm that was well respected in the community.

We were excited to be on the verge of something big, something we knew was going to change how business was done. Over the three years, we also grew pragmatic and began to see how online marketing was evolving from nice looking websites into full fledged applications running in browsers. We didn’t have the right talent or revenue to reach that next plateau.

So we walked away from it. In the middle of our last summer, we told our clients that we were folding up shop. The reason: we wanted to keep their goodwill towards us and know that we knew the web was changing and we weren’t positioned to keep up. Many of them were shocked that we were walking away.

That was a hard decision because after three years of slogging through the swamp, the business was just settling in. But we foresaw our limitations and owned up to them, we were honest about our situation.

Honesty is a huge part of building trust and success I’ve found. I’ve walked away unharmed from projects that went down in bigger flames than the Hindenburg because I was honest. Because my client knew as much as I did as soon as I did. They trusted that I had nothing to hide, and eventually we’d work our way through anything.

Those moments of truth, when you realize something so universal that it has its own power, are the ones to seek out if you want to truly own your career. I needed to know more about software systems and how they were being delivered online.

A small software and design agency in Seattle happened to be looking for project managers and I fit their bill. The next thing I know, I’m talking with engineers with fifteen plus years experience building very dynamic, complex software systems.

And I’m representing my company on the Microsoft campus interacting with teams at Microsoft and MSN on various web marketing projects. I felt like Mr. Smith Goes to Redmond. Some starry eyed kid who suddenly had an opinion and a deadline for much bigger projects than I was used to.

I believe project management skills are another critical piece to going where you want in your career. Because I could manage my projects effeciently, I could adapt to the more complex requirements of each one during the extended time between milestones.

Everything you’re trying to do to find success in a corporation is a project. Whether it be influencing a decision, winning a sale, delivering a new website, tracking a campaign, writing briefs and more. Project management teaches you how to enlist a team to help you accomplish a task. Every time I’ve said I never want to manage another project, another project is on my desk needing my management and so I’m on it.

From my first agency job in Seattle through the present, I’ve seen a lot more than I would have ever expected to at this stage in my career. I believe it’s because I trusted my gut and always challenged myself to take a chance that I knew should be taken. I walked away from jobs that on paper looked fantastic. I walked into situations where I knew I was going to need to make an impact or failure loomed. Trusting in myself and growing a diversity of skills has always paid off.

The times it has been toughest mentally are the times when I let myself get stuck in that runaround rut, filling out countless timecards with meeting after meeting, while nothing gets done. And I wait it out thinking it will get better, or someone up top will finally get it.

Recently, I’ve put those days behind me and I’m back to whittling my own world. Belief in yourself, the excitement of not knowing, the fear of failure, the endless amount of possibilities you can make for yourself, these are what life can be about.

Carving a good career for yourself is part of creating a better life. Trust your gut and really listen to your heart, because they can lead you down a path you might never have put yourself on to begin with. If you have the dedication to see it through, you’ll be amazed where they’ll lead you. I can personally attest to that.

© 2008 Keith Boswell

More than half of being a good consultant is navigating the waters of corporate politics. When you’re dealing with Directors and above, life can be a daily forest fire. As one of my clients likes to say, “the big swirl”.

The president of the company I used to work for always reinforced what it was to consult for a client, “If we’re good consultants, we’re like our clients Samurai.”

Noble warriors charging into political minefields, and usually being the first to suffer the fire of internal retributions. Sometimes leading the victorious charge, other times fumbling through a prickly political maneuver that goes sour. And even taking one on the chin for your client, in their battle, and licking your wounds later over drinks.

A good consultant is like a skydiver, jumping headfirst into that tempetuous air between internal marketers, IT staff,  agencies and contractors, — all playing in an amorphous dance of dollars, diplomacy, and danger. It’s easy not to realize how new it is to all of us still today. Or what a complex dance we’re trying to coordinate.

Digital marketing has been here more than a decade now, and there are always new elements, new players, new tracking, shifts in preference, growth in bandwidth and the band plays on. Explosive movements continue to erupt online, a Google killer lies in wait in some dark grassy knoll. And agencies and consultants that don’t keep up get left to wither in dry, lonely fields.

The digital marketing evolution plows right through the world of the corporate and individual id. Reputations. Personal pride. Questioning of one’s expertise. What does a brand really mean to its market today?

The clash between IT and marketing continues to spill over from the run-up days of the web. Mammoth web systems continue to be put in place to facilitate massive scale customer session loads, all while needing to support ever evolving marketing functions. And no one has been trained to do everything they used to do offline in a new faster world. 

To deliver value and success for your client, that’s the game. Making sure yours is the first “A paper” should be on your mind everyday. And being virtuous in your value leads to greater topics.

Diplomacy, for one, is a practiced skill. Knowing when it’s your turn to speak, knowing when your opinion matters and when it doesn’t. Understanding when everything is on the line because your clients reputation is at stake. It’s a subtle skill to learn over years of dealing with c-level clients.

Patience is a virture as well. You shouldn’t be in a hurry to exit a job in which you are adding daily value. Every day that you are there, and in turn value you deliver to your client, the more likely you are to stick around.  

Listening will never fail you. You have to know and track what’s going on in the corporation, what’s the buzz, what are people reacting to? Who does your client need to impress to get a promotion? Who might you be presenting to if you’re taken up to “the show”, the infamous CEO, CTO, CMO meeting, with twenty-seven attorneys in the back.

Observe the players, how they play, and trust your gut in telling you how to kindle a relationship with them. Know when it’s right to sit back, watch, and learn what not to do. The biggest mistakes you could make as a consultant are likely to be made by someone within the organization, or another vendor, if you are practicing some of our earlier exercises in patience.

Learning is a daily exercise, you must  stay that half step ahead. No questions on this allowed.

Now that corporations are realizing their first decade of web investments won’t be enough, and new investments will always need to be made, internal marketers find themselves faced with an ever mounting list of Web 1.0 and 2.0 issues to deal with.

And they are piling on fast. Most large corporate marketing staffs are tracking hundreds of campaigns a year. Almost always with limited staff compared to traditional marketing groups.

And the final exam essay for Politics 301 is the dreaded “you never want to get it” smear factor when a project goes horribly wrong, or someone higher up than your client, thinks it did. Because once the taint is on your shoulders, whether individual or agency, it is almost never shed from the organization’s belief system. You’ll likely be in new pastures soon, without a reference.

And since I brought it up, Web 2.0 is dead to me. Web 3.0, 4.0, 5.5, 6.2, it’s just not right. We’re evolving faster than software features. Why should we compare ourselves to a release candidate? We shouldn’t. So you won’t hear me use that arcane numbering system ever again. That’s a promise.

And so to summarize…diplomacy, patience, listening, and observing are the key to surviving as a consultant. Staying a step ahead in the dance, keeping your sword swift and sharp, and learning, ever learning. For the foreseeable future, you won’t slow down because as soon as you do, your world, your whole market can move right past you. No more playing catch up. It’s time to stay ahead of the curve.

May grace and elegance effuse from your next productive meeting. Until next time.

© 2008 Keith Boswell