0-75 F

Today, the air outside feels like an oven, and it’s “only” 97 degrees and still climbing.

Well, maybe a sauna, since it is the deep (wet) south and throughout the summer months every morning wakeup is greeted by 100% humidity. Yes, that’s right, 100% in the form of a dense, stuffy, smelly fog.

I’ve spent too many summers in the south, and am already in the throes of yet another. I try not to, but all I want to do is complain relentlessly about the heat. Why? Because I absolutely detest it and how it affects me. I am just flat out cranky when it’s hot, and it won’t NOT be hot again until at least November.

Last summer I thought I was going to die it was so hot, and tried really hard to find a summer job in Alaska. I thought I was pretty close to getting picked up for a job on Kodiak Island but it fell through and here I am, sweating it out.

The other night at dinner I was asking my companions how people actually LIVE here – as in choose to live in the south. (For us, it wasn’t a choice. The Army sent us here.) They went on and on about how they enjoy the heat and really like to sweat. (Personally, I don’t like having to shower 2-3x/day and changing clothes just as often.)

The talk that evening made me think about my comfort zone.

What is my comfort zone? It is the range of temperatures in which I can go outside and do any number of activities. And for me that zone ranges from about 0-75 degrees F. Depending on the activity it can easily go below zero, especially considering the plethora of technical clothing and gear available to keep warm these days. But, much above 75, or 80, it starts feeling miserable – like work – not fun. Unfortunately, here it won’t get below 75 degrees (even at night) for at least four more months.

So what does that mean to me? Will I still go outside to play? Yes. In fact, I will be biking later this afternoon, sweating it out and cursing at the weather the entire way. It just means I would much rather live in a cold environment than a hot one. There are so many things you can do to warm up when cold, but very little you can do to cool of when hot (aside from not moving and being a complete sloth). I like to be outside playing and it is just hard for me to do here. It’s as if I have to force myself to do so, especially when it is this hot. It means no matter what when WE get to choose where we will live (please, someday!) it will be far, far away from here and as far north as we can stand!

Efficiency comes through winning the head game

Chicks with Picks was the first time I got “proper” instruction on how to ice climb and let me tell you, it made a WORLD of difference in the effort/output it took me to top out a climb.

I had only recently begun to realize, in my early 30s, how important it is to learn efficiency. It’s a word I use a lot because I now know there is a TON of value in learning to do things efficiently. This lesson was really drilled home a couple of years ago when the boy and I did some alpine climbing in Patagonia. Since then I’ve looked for efficiency in many places, and have found there is a lot of value in learning to do things more efficiently – whether it is skiing, CrossFit, kayaking or biking – even if it costs a little time and money to learn how to do so.

In any case, I just pulled out my Chicks with Picks feedback form from Caroline George and am struck by how, in only a few days, she was able to see right into my headgame.

Here are just a few – good and bad:
- “Don’t be so hard on yourself…”
- “Don’t let standards you have set for yourself bring you down…”
- “Boundless desire to improve and be great! It’s awesome!”
- “Climbs efficiently when not stressed out. Do more of that!”

Really? Wow, that’s impressive but in all seriousness, the takeaway for me is to just have fun and not set standards for myself that if I don’t meet, I think I totally suck. For me this means, “don’t think that if you have to weight the rope or take a fall that you are a horrible climber and a complete embarrassment and should never climb again.”

So heading to Ouray for this season’s Chicks with Picks clinics where am I at? I’m working my way through an elbow injury – tendinitis to be exact that is bad in the right and touch-and-go in the left. I’ve been undergoing acupuncture (which is really working well) to help alleviate the problem. Is it going to be acting up when climbing? I guess we’ll see. So I need to not worry about whether the elbow is going to hold me back. One of the greatest things about us Chicks is that we can totally climb with one arm so the biggest obstacle I still need to face is all in my head, and that’s one I know I can conquer.

The worst that can happen is nothing

So today I’m having a lot of fun expanding my network of contacts in the outdoor industry.

It entails spending a lot of time hemming and hawing over e-mails to folks I am being introduced to.

Why? Because they are people at organizations I’ve only ever dreamed of working at and I want to make sure I don’t do what I usually do (which is write way too much). Brevity is something I work hard for.

While exchanging e-mails is by no means a direct link to full-time employment (which isn’t my goal anyways), it is fun to really entertain the thought that there is the potential for an opportunity to be part of something bigger, and something that I truly believe in. Something similar to what I am doing at Chicks.

And I think there’s something incredibly satisfying about putting yourself out there. Reaching out for those contacts and connections, pitching ideas, gaining traction, and interaction.

The worst that can happen as a result of my efforts is nothing – which is exactly what happens when you don’t try.

(Photo by ME taken in Puerto Natales, Chile)

Got that fire inside? I do.

It’s been so long.

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing. Just not here.

So, since I want to, I’m ready to again, I’m going to make it fun.

Want a quick update? I’ve finished my MBA, left one job, taken another, moved, done a few triathlons, gotten pull-ups (after 33 years of trying!) and so much more. So, exciting things all around. I continue to dream of all things outside (especially Patagonia and Alaska) and am one step closer to making it all happen.

One of the most exciting things I’ve got going on is here at Chicks Climbing. Here I get to work with some of THE strongest women on the planet – mentally and physically. It’s truly inspiring and exciting every day for me. And because of that I have a fire inside me that really wants to make it great – bigger, better, more. I want it to reach more women and inspire them. How can I do that? I’ve got some ideas!

Friday Free Stuff on a Tuesday!

I was more than thrilled when a strange ink-toner package showed up in the mail the other day, because I just knew that it was the Friday Free Stuff I had recently won from MaryMaryQuiteContrary!

For those that don’t know the formidable @MMaryMary she is an absolutely unstoppable, brilliant, whirlwind of a marketing guru who I was so fortunate to get to work with on a project while she was at Sun. Mary is now a Senior Director of Brand Marketing at Yahoo!, a company that recently snapped her up and has already been putting her talents to good use.

In the package, as promised was the adorable yellow Yahoo! Chair that I coveted when I first saw it in her post that is just PERFECT for my iPhone! There was also a great notepad for grocery lists that fits perfectly in our skinny “junk” drawer, two key chains with the classic Yahoo! yodel that we have been playing incessantly for the cats (it hasn’t gotten old yet!), a dark purple hot-chocolate thermos (or coffee thermos for those type of people…), a card holder, and a fresh deck of Yahoo! cards that will be perfect (they are small and light enough) to take along on our upcoming hiking and climbing trip in Patagonia.

So a BIG thank-you to Mary for the fun Friday Free Stuff! The giveaways are all donated and completely paid for by Mary herself. Keep an eye on her blog to play along for your chance to win, and to hear about all the exciting marketing projects and people she is working with at Yahoo!

P.S. If you haven’t checked out the new It’s Y!ou Yahoo! yet, what are you waiting for?!

Are apps making computers obsolete?

AP photo by Lm Otero

Well, today’s the big day – the first BIG day in a new season of Fantasy Football. Yes, I know the season opened on Thursday with a great throw-down between the Titans and the Steelers, but I didn’t have any big hitters in my fantasy leagues, so for me that was just a fun game to watch, and a game in which I wasn’t heavily invested.

However, today, with more than 13 season openers, it begins my manic season of watching multiple teams – just to see how my players are performing. This used to mean sitting in front of the TV while my husband and I jostled back and forth over the laptop, seeing how each of our players was performing in our respective leagues (and sometimes against each other).

Well, thanks to a new free app for the iPhone – we don’t need to do that anymore. Each of us now has the Yahoo! Fantasy Football ’09 app on our phones, so we can each monitor our own teams without handing the computer back and forth. And, if that wasn’t great enough, an extra bonus is that the Yahoo! app claims it will provide up-to-date stats this year – for free – which is an even better deal than monitoring on a laptop, where you have to pay for up to the minute stats.

So, it made me think of how rarely I actually need to use my computer – aside from work and school of course – but really, in my personal life, I can do almost everything I need to on my iPhone. And I don’t doubt the same holds true for other smart-phone users. I can check my e-mail, update my blog, buy darned near anything, pay bills, and more – basically anything I could do on my computer, but in many cases, because of the wealth of great apps available, I can actually do it faster on my iPhone than I could on my computer.

I recently saw this video from Socialnomics that said in only 9 months iPod/iPhone application downloads hit 1,000,000,000 (yes, that is one billion). That statistic tells me that if a company doesn’t have an app in the iTunes store they are missing out on reaching not just their customers, but millions of potential new customers.

However, like the rest of social media, just having an app to have an app won’t do you a whole lot of good if it isn’t relevant to your customer base. There are thousands of companies with Twitter accounts and Facebook pages that only have them because they think in order to jump into social media, ‘that’s what you are supposed to have.’ But, a languishing Facebook or Twitter account will do nothing for your brand or your company nor will it increase your presence and reach through a social media platform unless you make it interactive and pertinent.

Similarly, an app that doesn’t offer some kind of fun game, or useful service to the user will be just as pointless as the thousands and thousands of Twitter accounts and Facebook fan pages. So how will you design your app to make it relevant? That’s the challenge many companies face, but some creative thinking could lead to a significant and critical boost to the bottom line.

Patagonia’s proactive response to BPA fallout helps establish trust

On September 4, Patagonia officially announced they were terminating all co-branding and co-marketing efforts with SIGG, Inc., after recent news reports found that a Bisphenol A (BPA) epoxy coating was used in most aluminum SIGG bottles manufactured prior to August 2008.

The reason for the termination was because SIGG assured Patagonia that the liners of their bottles did not contain BPA, which is a chemical that Patagonia, as a company, states it does not support the use of in any consumer products.

Patagonia announced it is no longer selling any SIGG bottles in its stores or through either its catalog or on-line distribution channels. Additionally, Patagonia is accepting returns of any SIGG bottle that was purchased through Patagonia for a full customer refund. Customers can bring their Patagonia-labeled SIGG bottles to either the nearest Patagonia store, or can return it through the mail.

Unfortunately for Patagonia, a print advertisement showing Patagonia’s founder and owner, Yvon Chouinard, holding a SIGG bottle will appear in an upcoming issue of Backpacker Magazine, which had already gone to print when the report about the BPA in the liners appeared. However, I think that Patagonia’s proactive and honest approach to addressing the issue – very publicly – will help temper any fallout that may ensue.

In fact, Patagonia’s announcement on Facebook has been met with appreciation for their quick reaction to the BPA-SIGG announcement with users saying things about Patagonia such as, “nice to see a company that takes action instead of looking the other way…” and “this is why I remain loyal to Patagonia…”

In today’s world where globalization and cost rule supply chains, consumers, more than ever, depend on companies to keep them safe from these types of health hazards. And although Patagonia was not able to do so in this case, its quick, efficient response will largely help the company save face amongst its customer base.

Traditionally, the fallout from this type of recall is far more steep for the manufacturer, or in this case SIGG. If you think back to the Mattel toy recall from Wal-Mart in 2007 Mattel bore the brunt of the blame, and definitely suffered long-term financial consequences as a result. The effect on Wal-Mart wasn’t as dramatic, but again, customers expect that when they take a product off the shelves, it is safe for normal use.

In an ideal world, consumers would never need to worry about hazardous products making their way onto store shelves, but today’s globalization and demanding shareholders are severely squeezing supply chains, putting consumers more at risk than ever for faulty product purchases. This is why it is more important than ever for companies to establish trust with their customers, and to ensure them they have the customers’ best interests, and not just the bottom line, as the number one priority, just as Patagonia has demonstrated this week.

Web site’s viral explosion poses little threat to Wal-Mart

Image from PeopleofWalmart.com

This morning I did a quick scan of TweetMeme (see article from yesterday – yes I am already getting addicted to their aggregated links) when I saw a post talking about a new Web site, started just last month, that essentially went viral overnight. The Web site was called PeopleofWalmart.com and allegedly consisted of pictures of some of the more outrageous shoppers found at Wal-Mart’s across the country.

As a person with a love/hate relationship with Wal-Mart, I was curious to see the photos the article was referencing. However, I was unable to get onto the site. I did a quick Google search and found it was in the top 10 trending topics on Google Trends (labs) and was the focus of many, many articles in the past few days including:

• CNN
• ABC News
• Examiner.com
• Media Bistro

In fact, there had been so many other news articles, TV news features, and blogs that also picked up on the site that it has consistently been unable to support the traffic volume for the past few days. When I finally got to the site I discovered it features fuzzy cell-phone pictures of individuals that I would not be surprised to bump into at any time at my local Wal-Mart. Is it funny? Yes. Especially because I have no doubt that I could drive to my Wal-Mart right now and get a picture that would make it onto the site.

Does a site like this present a problem, or threat to Wal-Mart? Not really. People shop at Wal-Mart for the low prices, and accept the fact that creatures from all walks of life shop there (yes, there are goats in one of the pictures at Wal-Mart). It is just a fact shoppers accept, and part of what makes any trip to Wal-Mart what I call “the Wal-Mart experience.”

A site like this that rose to fame overnight will be a one-click wonder for most people, who won’t remember it, or revisit it within a week. To be sure, there will be some loyal followers. In fact, a visit to the @PeopleofWalmart Twitter site this morning and again this afternoon shows a huge explosion in the number of followers (sorry, I did not record followers this morning for an exact growth percentage), but again, currently numbering just above 10,000, this isn’t anything a giant like Wal-Mart will worry about.

If anything, Wal-Mart may appreciate the fact that people will now look forward to going to their local store just to see what kinds of crazy outfits or strange vehicles they may find in the parking lot!

TweetMeme another addicting Web site

This afternoon I spent some time writing up a brief summary of TweetMeme, one of Sun’s newer clients for later publication on Reviews Interactive. Tweet Meme is a social media company that is quickly becoming one of the most popular Web 2.0 sites in the world. The company uses custom-made software to count the number of links posted on Twitter, which it then organizes into categories on its Web site. Visitors can also cast their own votes by “retweeting” a story through their own Twitter account, which in turn increases a story’s popularity.

While doing the writeup I spent some time exploring the TweetMeme site and was very surprised with what I found. To begin with, it is so easy and simple to navigate the site. Content is broken down into categories that are further divided into subcategories so it is easy to target the current hot topics that are of interest to you.

Secondly, you could break down the statistics by time period, which, for those in marketing, will help assess the longevity or strength of any particular article’s popularity.

Finally, there is so much constantly updated content I could spend hours a day here, getting lost in all the random articles I find interesting. Obviously, this makes it a DANGEROUS site for me, since my favorite sites are the type that are expansive, easily searchable, and most importantly, constantly have something new.

I must admit though, this wasn’t my first introduction to TweetMeme. Some time ago, I noticed the TweetMeme button on one of Sun’s blogs. I maintain two blogs in this forum and was anxious to get the button myself, because it seemed like such a simple way to retweet an interesting article! At one time, I had the button in this blog, thanks to a colleague, Matthias Mueller-Prove. However, when I changed the theme the button went away and I was too shy to beg for Matthias’ help a second time! At that time, I didn’t realize TweetMeme had a Web site where it was aggregating all the content from the buttons in millions of blogs, I just thought it was a convenient way to retweet – which it is!

As many of us know, it isn’t easy for startups to succeed in today’s Web 2.0 world. TweetMeme is a relatively new company – whose product was just introduced this year – that is really leveraging the popularity, and power, of Twitter. It remains to be seen whether Twitter will ever find a way to cash in on its popularity before it starts the downhill slide, which it inevitably will at some point in the future. It’s interesting to see the many companies that have found ways to cash in on Twitter, and TweetMeme is one of them. I can’t help but wonder what type of business model a company like TweetMeme must have, when the product is built based on another, which has an undetermined, yet likely short shelf life, until the next hot thing comes along. I suppose that is the great thing about entrepreneurs though, always one step ahead.

It looks like I am setting myself up for a project though – I would love to set the TweetMeme button up on this WordPress blog, but am completely unable to find a plugins directory. Does anyone know whether you have to pay to have this functionality?

Bravo’s answer to DVR and TiVo

Whoa, where has the time gone?  It has been a busy summer with school, work, and lots of fun outside in the most beautiful summer Tennessee has seen in a long time.  My sincere apologies for taking such a long break from updating.

Image from Bravo TV

With my summer classes winding down this week I’ve had the opportunity to watch some TV instead of doing homework all night!  I spent some time catching up on Bravo’s Top Chef and Top Chef Masters over the last week or so, and I think Bravo has come up with its own solution to making sure advertisers are getting their money’s worth in today’s DVR and TiVo age.

Many people, myself included, love to save time by recording a show and fast forwarding through all of the commercials. To an advertiser the dilemma is obvious: no exposure to target audience = money wasted. But, I believe Bravo has found a way around the problem, besides the extreme product placement and sponsor shots that put Brita placement spots on The Biggest Loser to shame.

I found when watching I would fast forward to the commercials and naturally stop as soon as I saw the show pop back up.  However, I kept getting caught stopping for an approximately 3-5 second long clip.  After the clip Bravo would show a very brief commercial of about 10 seconds or so.  This ‘trap’ caught me almost every time, because if I tried to fast forward through the commercial I would go too far into the show and end up rewinding (hard life I live, I know).

I mentioned it to my husband who said he had noticed something similar during the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week episodes he had taped.  So, have the networks and advertisers found a way around the DVR and TiVo lifestyle many have grown accustomed to?  I don’t watch enough TV to know for sure, but am curious to discover if this tactic, following sponsored product placement, is the new advertising trend in TV media.