Do you have control?

What do you have control over? Your body? Your mind? Your brand?

The first two are relatively easy. You have a lot of control over your body because you can choose what you eat, when you exercise and the environment you put it in. You have control over your mind because you can decide what to ignore, what to take in and choose your thoughts.

Your brand though. Do you have control over that? By brand I mean the relationship you have with your friends, family, work colleagues and the world. How they perceive you.

Today you have more control than ever over how people see you. You have control over what you put on Facebook, what you Twitter about, what you blog about, what you listen to and what you say.

Does this mean you have to mindful about what is coming from you? Yes it does but it also offers you a chance to be remarkable. That is; worth making a remark about in something you are passionate about. Something outside your usual 9-5 job that you love doing.

There are more opportunities to follow your passion and have control over your life than ever before. Take them by learning about them and showing people who you really are and what you care about.

What went well today?

Last week I had a few days where nothing seemed to go right. I was lost, my head wasn't in the game, whatever you want to call it, I was going nowhere fast.

This of course caused problems in other areas of my life (read my personal life) because I was vague about stuff, frustrated and a bit short tempered.

Then I had a thought on Friday; what went well today? I started to list the things that had gone well. Little wins I had had and even compliments people had given Spikemail about our new website (you can see it here).

I felt great. I got my focus back, started to hustle and then in the words of Gary Vaynerchuck stopped crying and crushed it.

This is a simple task to do that will make a huge difference to your life. When you are low write down what went well and read through the list. You can start with getting out of bed and getting into the office on time and go from there. The list will be huge will stop you focusing on the couple of things that didn't go your way and focus on what went well.

Have a terrific day and thank you for reading.

Why @guykawasaki must think I'm an idiot.

Last week I made a bit of an idiot of myself when I sent a link of a new background image to Guy Kawasaki. Guy is someone I admire for his simple and easy to understand marketing and business ideas.

So how did I make an idiot out of myself? It went like this.

Tuesday April 07. Looking at Guy’s Twitter page and see it has a big black space on the right hand side. I decide to resize the background image, put it on my server and send him a link to it.

Me: DM guykawasaki: Resized your background image http://bit.ly/yj8hK

Guy is in Spain but I get a DM back.

Guy: DM Thanks. Is there something wrong with my current one? It's 1280 now.

Me: DM guykawasaki: For some reason 2048X1707 seems to be the perfect size. Yours had lots of black on one side instead of filling the background.

Guy: DM I get the fail whale when I try to upload the new one! I'll try when I get back to CA. Thanks again!

Me: DM guykawasaki: Bum! I will sort that and resend you the link. Have a good flight.

What?! I checked the background image out and it’s over 800k. I'm thinking great, I look like an idiot now. Damn Fireworks.

So I resize it and send this;

Me: DM guykawasaki: Its was too big. Here you go http://bit.ly/4dAZXe Been interesting trying to find the right size. Im on a 15" MacBookPro.

Because he probably gets heap of DM's I resend the link to him on Wednesday 08 April.

Me: D guykawasaki: Trust you had a good flight. Here’s the link to the resized and tested bg http://bit.ly/4dAZXe

Thursday April 09. I can still see black on his background but I decide to be persistent because he hasn't been on Twitter personally today so has probably got lots of messages.

Me: DM guykawasaki: Hi Guy. I can still see lots of black on your bg. No fail whale with this one http://bit.ly/4dAZXe

I hear back from Guy.

Guy: DM I can't figure out how to save as anything but .htm. Can you email to guy@alltop.com? Thanks!

Guy: DM I think I just did it. Pls check. Thanks!

I check his page and yay no black. Fire off an email to him;

Hi Guy,
Looks great.
Well done. Thank you.
Glenn

End of the background image saga. So, what have I learnt from this?

• Get it right the first time. If you are going to do something for someone test it before you send it to them.
• Guy Kawasaki is a nice guy. He tried, answered and even used the image.
• Twitter backgrounds are a black art. With so many different screen sizes out there finding the perfect background size is harder than I thought.
• Be politely persistent. Following up and keeping in contact does work.
• Spell check. Check the spelling of my Tweets so messages make sense.
  

Lastly, I hope Guy doesn’t think I'm an idiot and if he does at least I can't see the black anymore.

Seth Godin: Sliced bread and other marketing delights

Seth always makes sense. Great viewing.

Long weekends and Easter eggs

Another long weekend and we are at the beach overindulging on Easter eggs and enjoying a few extra days off. This morning the place is especially busy as everyone is looking at a friends wedding pics while I figure out what to write and time is running out.

Few things against me today; slow internet, I'm not on my laptop and the bach is crowded making it hard to think.

I have typed things out, deleted, typed and deleted as I attempt to get my thoughts down. It reminds me of a quote by Josh Billings, "Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there."

So today I have been a postage stamp, stuck myself in a corner and kept writing until something made sense. Perserverance is an important character trait to me and when I get to the end of a project the feeling of accomplishment pushes me to do more.

Have a terrific week and when your surroundings don't quite allow you to do what you think is your best work, perservere because you never know what is going to come from sticking at it.

Can Twitter save the planet?

Rosemary Fillmore Rhea said, "The world we are experiencing today is the result of our collective consciousness, and if we want a new world, each of us must start taking responsibility for helping create it."

Then on April the 1st 2009 @johnjcampbell wrote, "James Joyce would get twitter. It's a many headed stream of consciousness. Folk collectively weaving a story of sorts. Everyone adding bits."

On Twitter most of these 'bits' are good. Good news, inspiration, articles that inform, bits that help small business, opinion that helps big business and lots more. The Twitter stream is a safe place to swim and you can jump in whenever you like. Tell your story or add to another.

One big thing I see is that people take responsibility for what they Tweet. If they are called on it they also have the ability to reply and back themselves or link to the relevant information they are tweeting about. Groups can form around these opinion's, backed up by this information and facts, that move 'us' forward.

So to answer my question Twitter might not save the planet but it gives those who want to a place to disseminate, filter and have their ideas added too faster than any platform I have seen before.

Please comment. I would appreciate it.

What has inspired you this morning?

Every morning I head into work and there are two ways I go depending on the time. One way is ok, not much to see most of the time, but the other way always offers me an amazing view of Auckland.

This morning was no exception. As I turned a corner I was greeted by the most spectacular sight of a sun drenched Auckland City. Fog through Avondale that looked like a calm lake, the outline of the hypodermic Sky Tower against a band of gray cloud and blue sky, even the powerlines couldn't ruin it this morning.

I slowed down to take it in as I realised sometimes I just drive and don't pay much attention to it. A photo could not have captured the moment as perfectly as my memory has and it really set me up for the day.

That is what inspired me this morning, what has inspired you? Read this article [http://www2.freelanceswitch.com/freelance-writing/7-inspiration-sources-you-should-pay-attention-to/] for some ideas and then let me know by commenting here or let me know @glennedley on Twitter.

Kevin Rose and Tim Ferriss discuss Angel Investing and naming companies

I certainly didn't know they play racket ball. I enjoyed this chat.


Tim and Kevin from Glenn McElhose on Vimeo.