Image courtesy of GapingVoid

I’ve been an entrepreneur for many years, it’s chaotic, hectic, painful, stressful, fun and rewarding – if I’m lucky I might even make some money at it. That’s where I’m personally at today, and again it’s ok.

After one of those extremely hectic days recently, me and one of my partners decided to grab a drink in the local watering hole where we ran into a local business figurehead who will remain nameless.

It was an interesting exchange since I had met this individual no less than 5 times in past 6 months and was quite quickly forgotten. That’s OK as well I’m busier on a daily basis than even I can imagine and spend a significant amount of time awake until 2am or 3am on what I like to call my night shift.

Back to the story. After re-introducing himself the light blub then came on and I was greeted with “Oh yeah, you’re the marketing guy”.

You could call it insecurity (I don’t) but I quickly replied that I’m not specifically a marketing guy, although I do believe marketing in new companies and start-ups as a critical element that is quite often overlooked.

Marketing is business, it’s how you sell your product and how your clients and prospects feel about you. It’s also a way to get the world to know who you are, what you are doing and to create a mindshare with the world-at-large.

It’s business, and it’s critical to the success or failure of any new venture.

Back to the story: apparently (according to our good friend) I was insecure about my abilities. Which I both found amusing and ridiculous at the same time.

So why tell the story?

I do a hell of a lot more in any given day than marketing. I’m working to make all of my ventures succeed just like any other entrepreneur. I’m doing it without investment, all of my companies are (currently) cash flow positive and growing.

I’m happy with that. Marketing is key to the success of all of the ventures, particularly at the early stages. Marketing is also a whole lot more than some perceived bolt-on that happens after you’ve figured out financing, an office, a product, a message and a team.

From day one think about your marketing, how the world will see you, what they say and what they will believe about you and your company.

Even more fundamentally it’s about who are you selling product to, will they purchase it, what are you saying to sell that product and how do we make these companies viable, profitable and long lasting.

Develop your business plan and execute with those elements front of mind. It will make a world of difference much more quickly than you may realize.

Yup. I’m the Marketing Guy. Hell, I’m the Twitter guy as well. I also get coffee, clean the office, don’t take a pay cheque when needed and stay up all night whenever needed. I love it. I’m an entrepreneur and I wouldn’t have it any other way (although my wife and family may sometimes disagree!).

This is a fantastic look at the real life social network and the online social network. It’s a presentation done by a Google employee and has some very interesting insights. In particular segments and groups of friends and relationships. I’ll be adding thoughts, bullet point and additional info for the post but for the time being here is the presentation.

More SEO Speaking Engagements

The search for WordPress Shopping Cart Solutions which are relatively low touch and simple to get installed continues. This test is the Fat Free Cart Plugin.

Now the question is: Can I easily store items for sale and simply insert them into the post? I’m also testing out the eShop WordPress Plugin at the same time.

StorkCraft Recall - Be Careful

Looking for StorkCraft Contact Information and News Updates? Click Here.

If you know me then you know I’m the father of 7 month old Jaxson Daniel Nedelko. Since I’ve been a Dad I’m pretty mindful (of alot of things) but I’m pretty watchful for his safety.

He is a little mover, awake and asleep and I want him to always be as safe as possible. That’s why it pisses me off when a company life StorkCraft does a crappy job of handling a safety and recall issue. First they deny there is a problem, then they do issue a recall but don’t put anything in place to properly handle the recall.

Their phone lines are jammed, their website is down and they are only issuing official Press Releases. Well I’m here to officially say screw you StorkCraft. You can be sure I’ll never purchase another one of your products ever again and I definitely hope no one else purchases any of your products.

It’s less about the fact there is a recall. It’s how you handled it, or how you didn’t handle it.

That’s what is really at issue here. You’re a backwards company and don’t deserve the right to be producing products for our children, not with your brutal attitude. Check this piece of lame spin out:

“In the majority of incidents, the cribs were being used with broken parts, parts with pieces missing, parts that were damaged or with modified or homemade parts,” the firm said in a statement.

“In some incidents, the crib was in a state of significant disrepair. In other cases, the consumer had installed the drop-side rail upside down — contrary to the instructions that are glued to the mattress base of each crib. This causes extraordinary stress on the plastic parts that could result in breakage.”

Which is basically saying “no no it’s YOUR fault, not ours” – which is complete and utter bullshit. Your products are clearly not well designed, harm children and your spin is not going to change that. Here some more information on the StorkCraft Crib Recall from Mama Knows

StorkCraft Contact Information and News Updates

I’m compiling a list of useful resources for Storkcraft News, Storkcraft Parts, company contact information and any additional press releases I run into here. Please comment below if you have additional news and information about the Storkcraft Recall

November 24, 2009 – Storkcraft CEO “Blindsided” by Recall (Toronto Star)

January 13, 2009 – The first Storkcraft Recall Press Release

CBC News – Storkcraft Recalls “Jams” Website

November 23, 2009 – The second Storkcraft Recall Press Release

Canadian Trade Index Listing for StorkCraft Manufacturing

StorkCraft on Twitter – they seem to be communicating, finally.

Update Nov 30, 2009 – StorkCraft Facing Wave of Lawsuits

Stork Craft Manufacturing Contact Information

StorkCraft Recall on YouTube

This brightened up my morning today. I get tons of spam like this but I have yet to have seen one that actually included my real name in the body. A few things about this are very cool:

1. I never knew I had a relative named Michael Nedelko. It’s even more ironic that my relative has a similar name to mine (my middle name is Michael).
2. I never knew that my relative worked in West Africa as “Director of Produits petroliers” – although my French is a bit rusty I think that might mean he was the Director of Petroleum Products. Well done!
3. Sadly, even though I never met my successful relative (the dude was worth over $10M!) the poor guy was the victim of a tragic plane crash. I hardly even knew ya.
4. Happily, the money is in an estate account! Yippee! The lawyer was kind enough to track me down with all of this pertinent information. Thanks Lawyer person!

Sadly, this is the same old Nigerian email scam. It just seems they get better and better at composing their emails. Undoubtedly some poor schmuck will get a letter like this and send these people $10,000 to get the $10,000,000. But that poor schmuck probably already verified their banking and credit card information through a similar email.

Beware the Nigerian email scams, although if for some reason you’re reasing my blog you would fall for this kind of thing (at least I hope to hell you wouldn’t).

Check out this email though – pretty impressive overall:

BARRISTER  HUDSON JUNE AND CHAMBERS
03 BP 2082,Cotonou,
Republique du Benin
E-mail: hudsonjune1970@yahoo.co.jp

ATTN: Daniel Nedelko

I am Barr. Hudson June, the Attorney at law to Late Mr. Michael Nedelko, a native/national of your country, who used to work as the Director of Produits petroliers (TOTAL BENIN) in Benin Republic West Africa Here in after shall be Referred to as my client..

On the 29th of April 2007, my Client, His wife and their three Children were involved in a plane crash and unfortunately lost their lives. Since then I have made several enquiries to your embassy to locate any of my clients extended relatives  but all efforts was just in vain.

After  these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to track his last name over the Internet, to locate any member of his Family hence I contacted you. I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the money left  behind by my Client before they get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank (BANK OF AFRICA, BENIN REPUBLIC). These huge deposits were lodged particularly, with the “BOA” where the deceased had an account valued at about $10.5 million dollars (Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars).

The Bank has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have the account confiscated. Since I have been unsuccessful in Locating the relatives for over Six years. Now I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased since you have the same last name so that the proceeds of this account valued at $10.5 million dollars can be paid to you and then you and I can Share the money 50% to you and 50% to me.  I will procure all Necessary legal documents that can be used to back up any claim we may make. All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us seeing this deal through.

I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law, but you must also agree not to disclose or pass any information related to this business to any body for security reason and to avoid eye brow, and the way we are going to achieve this is.

I will need the following information from you:

Your Full Name and Address,
Your Age, Occupation and Position,
Your Telephone, Mobile and Fax Number for Communication Purpose.

My private email address is :  hudsonjune1970@yahoo.co.jp  Please feel free to contact me immediately for further action.

Waiting to hear from you urgently.
Best Regards
Barr. Hudson June.

So today is the 41st anniversary of Prague Spring. Around my house growing up I had heard alot about it in snippets. It became the subject of family gatherings (especially after the adults got into drinking a bit) – to me it is a somewhat distant event that although is a huge part of my family never directly affected me.

So it was interesting that my mother decided to finally write the experience down in first person form. I read it and it made it more real to me and definitely made it make sense to me on a more personal level.

Take a few minutes and have a look at her Prague Spring Memories.

Pretty crazy stuff and pretty turbulent time.

Can anyone guess who said this? Please comment and take a shot at it:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings
but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We
spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger
houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have
more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more
experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too
little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too
tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk
too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years
to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and
back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We
conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things,
but not better things.

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the
atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan
more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We
build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies
than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and
small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are
the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken
homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway
morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do
everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is
much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when
technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can
choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete…

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not
going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe,
because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is
the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a
cent.

Remember, to say, ‘ I love you ‘ to your partner and your loved ones,
but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it
comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person
will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the
precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the
moments that take our breath away.