Just a quick post to finally share the photos Kristie and I took over Christmas with the Wells Family… There are a bunch of good ones in there of the kids, the dogs, sunset, the turkey I cooked for Christmas eve and adults playing Wii

If you know me publicly, you may be a bit shocked by this quick post, but if you know me personally, you probably already know this. (it was supposed to be short, but when I am on a roll…)

I have a tremendous personal battle I wage each day to get beyond my fears, to stop worrying and to take even the smallest action. In fact, this post is only coming after what must be a bottle of champagne on my flight to Phoenix… This is in despite what many perceive as my overt confidence, arrogance and occasional intellectually based rudeness.

But its important for you, yes, I do mean you not the other person reading this, to understand that this is normal, its ok, youre ok, Im ok. The thing is, most leaders won’t admit this is what they face, because they also carry the burden of managing perceptions and casting a long powerful shadow so that others who may seek to exploit such traits as weakness will not know where to shoot their slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

In fact, I did have this personally happen to me once when engaged in a negotiation with a former colleague who deliberately exploited my emotional vulnerabilities and my beliefs in fairness and doing the right thing. Good thing is, even he couldn’t change who I was, despite the pain he forced me to endure through the tumultuous process.

But I am hear to oppose this, and to end this for me and hopefully you too.

This all just kinda popped in my head, so I don’t know where I am really going with this, but early today I tweeted that I was proud of my buddy Alan Silberberg from You2Gov for all that he has been accomplishing. Shortly thereafter I was in tears, which has happened all too often on this trip during deeply personal moments when I have been alone, as I am doing once again now.

My mother, used to say this all the time to me. That she was so proud of me. That I could do anything. That I was her miracle baby (both my parents had Cerebral Palsy).

For a long time, no one said that to me, or if they did, I felt it was insincere. Many wonderful women who I have loved (and still do) told me this, and I dismissed such reinforcement as their own shortcomings for not recognizing how fucked up I am, inside and out.

They weren’t of course, in fact, they were and still are perfect, just as they are. We all are, we just don’t often feel that way because we measure ourselves and others against an unrealistic ideal instead of the practical global reality that we are all one, we all suffer through the same psycho/emotional conditions but yet inside us all is the potential for greatness. However, with the burden of needing to realize this potential and not wanting to disappoint, I have all too often run from it to the bottom of a bottle or the escape of a video game…

A fear of failure as much as a fear of success. It’s a miracle I am even still here on this earth and able to do even a tenth of what I do in my life.

Facing Reality

The other day, I came face to face with one of my own deepest fears, when I met Julie Vessigault, aka @potentiallee when she shared with me her own personal story of life’s biggest challenges. In her face though, I saw not the despair or the challenge or the thing I feared most, I saw love, I saw life, I saw a human soul who could see beyond her condition and recognize her own loveliness and her own humanity and her own potential. Her attitude, as I came to know in her tweets and brief interactions online was the same in real life as it was online.

Yet in her face, I also saw my mother. She is not completely what mainstream media or advertising would call normal, she is different, like us all a snowflake to be admired for her differences and her alikeness.

As I explained in my keynote at Drupalcon last week, we have a real problem today with what Shel Israel explained to me as ‘the other’ and what I have been talking about as the “Us vs. Them” problem. If you don’t look like, act like, talk like, believe like, smell like, think like or seem like me, you are the other. As soon as we see other people as separate of ourselves, instead of like ourselves, we all too often immediately shun them, cast them aside and dismiss them as having little to no value to our lives. It may often be expedient to do so, but its not right and it’s the same thing that is feeding the current political upheaval in our country over healthcare (well that and some greedy old white men trying to manipulate others and public opnion for their own personal and financial benefit – see even I do it, but I think it is with good reason here)

It is worsened by the fact that we have transcended (in many parts of the first world at least) our basic needs for shelter and are moving to a higher plane of our existence, where we can be more aspriational in nature, seizing economic opportunities, achieving self realization and also changing the things we don’t like in ourselves through plastic surgery and fashionista accoutrements.

What I saw in Julie was not the other, but myself, or rather what could happen to me, and what almost happened to my mother. If it weren’t for my grandparents taking myself and my mother in, her situation could have easily been mine… and I don’t know that I would still be on this earth much less being able to share this story with you had it not been for them and their love. (and of course my mom’s amazing attitude and ruthless persistence and belief in herself… and me)

Julie loves planes. As a child she dreamt of being a ‘stewardess’, still does. But she doesn’t look like a flight attendant and I don’t honestly think an airline would hire her for that job. She does however love people, and despite what some may see as her quirky social skills, I know she could be a tremendous asset to an airline, especially one like Southwest or Jetblue, which have fully embraced our humanity bringing levity and satisfaction to so many.

So I am going to make a public request to Paula Berg, and whoever is running JetBlue’s social strategy, you should hire her to help with your twitter and other social connections online. At least interview her. This is something I would normally never do and in a sense I feel wary even of telling her story, so I hope no one gets mad at me, but other people needed to know this story too and in my stream of consciousness on this subject, here I am.

But back to the main story and reason for this post.

I’m imperfect, wouldn’t you like to be imperfect too?

I am so far from perfect, its not funny. I have physical problems and pains in my body everyday now, I never could throw a baseball and still cant, I can barely complete a sentence before thinking about something else, my ADD, while not as bad as some, has caused me to suffer deep depressions resulting from my frustrations with not being able to do what others do so easily, I drink too much sometimes, I interrupt people when I should be politely paying attention, I am wrong headed and stubborn in my ideas, I raise my voice in anger too easily, I react without thinking, I have a hard time being present in any moment, I speak in absolutes when I believe the world is grey and mushy and worst of all, over the past several years I have been disrespectful to my loving wife on all too many occasions, often without cause.

Its not that I am short tempered, its that I am often frustrated with trying to explain how I see something, or how I feel and trying to be linear in explaining it gives me a headache sometimes. I am trying to overcome this every day, being aware of it is the first step, and certainly I have mitigated much of this over the last few years to become a lot better at being in the world then when I was younger. I am mad mostly at myself and unfortunately Kristie often bears the brunt of it, yet she keeps on keeping on, forgives me (if only I could forgive myself) and she still loves me.

For this, I want to tell her and you that I am truly sorry. I am moving to a better place personally, emotionally, physically and professionally. I have to. I cant keep living this way.

Kristie Wells is one of the most amazing people I have ever met. She makes me proud everyday in every way. She is not book smart and she is occasionally not as eloquent as she would like, but her heart and her soul make up for this in ways to innumerous to mention here. She runs Social Media Club locally and internationally, an idea I had several years ago and which she has been saddled with ‘in order to protect our reputation’ and to fulfill our commitment we have made to you. She is making good money from her job as Community Manger / Social Media Girl with Ribbit and she is putting that money as much into supporting me and trips like this one I have been on as she has put into her own happiness and well being. Then she sends out a DM like this that make me cry again and again:

“I love you very much and bathe in your passion to bring people together. You are inspiring.”

Too often don’t feel that way myself, but do try so hard to do my part to heal the world, to make things right and to contribute whatever value my voice may convey.

She deserves to be treated better. She deserves to be honored. She doesn’t deserve to be yelled at for misspeaking or for forgetting to complete a task I asked her to do to support me. I am sorry I have not been able to transcend my own insecurities, my own fears, my own doubts and my own fears to embrace all of her in the warming cocoon of love and respect she deserves.

Most of all though, I am sorry I have not gotten past these shortcomings to be more effective, that I have not believed in myself enough, nor had enough courage to take the actions I needed to take care of myself, to serve the community and to be bold when the moments have arisen. While many people may see me as a serial entrepreneur, and technically I am, its not because I am a bold risk taker, its because I see no other way and I am driven by the passion of my ideas and my belief that the world can be a better place… and of course by my ego which needs to have external approval in order to feel loved and accepted rather than a love of self which I more often then not am missing in my day to day.

I have another personal post I will share with you in the coming days that speaks to this more directly, along with a plan for manifesting that and changing my life, our lives, but for now, I just need the catharsis of publishing this and coming clean with my higher self despite whatever professional consequences may exist.

The Point

Finally, I am writing this to let my wife know how proud I am of her, how grateful I am that she puts up with my bullshit, how much I appreciate her support, how lucky I know I am to have her in my life and how much I look forward to living the next 50 years with her by my side.

The title of this post has very simple origins – its everything that went into the above, in contrast and in connection with each other, the words that motivate us or prevent us from being all we can be. Love, Hate, Fear, Courage, Doubt, Confidence, Life.

For me, my biggest problem is clear – its fear. Fear of publishing, of being wrong, of being right, of becoming famous – of having demands placed on me that would showcase my weaknesses (despite my belief that Marcus Buckingham is right in “Now Discover Your Strengths”) and a fear that I am simply not good enough, smart enough, loving enough, caring enough or doing enough.

Yes indeed, this is life. Deal with it and keep on keeping on despite it all, just do so with respect for everyone else suffering through the same, worse or better conditions. We are all one. One species with a fate that is not distinct from each other, but intimately tied to our mutual success or failure.

Be bold, be not afraid, I am here with you, struggling just as you are, and yet here I lay my soul bare for all to see and critique. Fuck it. Its me, and I am so much more then a collection of words about my challenges in life. That’s serious.

The time for change is now, and YES WE CAN do it.

Well its not an official event like InternetWeek NY was, but for me it is a great Social Media Week in London.  While I still have a few open appointment slots on Monday morning, the week is pretty booked up.  I hope you will be able to join me at some point and say hello and we get a chance to talk about all the ways in which social media is creating growth opportunities and changing the way we work.

• TWEETUP!
  Thursday 25 June – 1700-1930pm
  Open to everyone
  The International Bar (near Charing Cross and Leicester Sq) 
• Gov2Gov UK
  Friday 26 June 1600-1900
  Registration Required (sold out, but contact me if you really need to be there)
  Canadian High Commission Office
• Tweetcamp
  Saturday 27 June 1000-1800
  Waiting list only now
  Richmond, Surrey
• Geek Field Trip – Tate Modern
  Sunday 28 June 1100-1400
  Open to Anyone – Show Up at Main Entrance, Look For Me
  Bankside (on the Thames) 

So it is pretty much a Social London Week for me and I hope it will be for some of you who join me as well.

The reason I am coming over is for the Gov2GovUK event and all the other opportunities to get together and talk present themselves when you think differently about how to connect with a community.  We are really hoping to see Social Media Club take off again in London (Lloyd Davis was organizing Social Media Club events before starting Tuttle).

We are really excited about Gov2Gov as I think it will be the start of something very big, where we are bringing together an array of events to facilitate international knowledge exchange on social media between governments and amongst their citizens.  This is one stone that kills about 20 birds, as the outcomes from these sorts of meetings are filled with amazing potential.  Not only does it improve international relations and facilitate cross border knowledge exchanges, it creates opportunities for entrepreneurship, business development, new ways towards civic engagement and so much more.  Pay attention to the conversation around this as the next announcements coming later in the month are going to be very big… in fact, we will start talking about it on Friday evening, at the Gov2Gov UK event.

I would be remiss if I didn’t give out a lot of credit for this event to Lovisa Williams from the U.S. State Department who helped in so many ways from introductions to organizational support and Dominic Campbell of FutureGov Consultancy who (very humbly) has contributed his expertise, his network and so much more.  These are the sort of people that get me excited and make the work we do so much more fun. Am so glad I can call them both friends.

Of course, huge thanks to the High Commission of Canada’s office for hosting the event.  Of course, we have always known how great our friends to the north are (particularly Our Vancouver Crew) – I have now found that their representatives in Ottawa and in London are just as wonderful.

So I hope to see you in London sometime this week, if not at our Tweetup on THUR at The International Bar, or The Gov2Gov UK Event on Friday at the High Commission in London, or at Tweetcamp on Saturday, then you better come out on Sunday for our Geek Field Trip to The Tate Modern.

Or, if you want to meet with me independently, I have some time for business meetings on MON morning 29 June and would be happy to book appointments with you while I am in the UK.

Cheers!

Oh well, might as well post all the domains I have for sale so we can get them all reviewed at the same time.  Some of these below are really really good.  Wood still like to do sites for more then half of them myself if possible.  There are some possibly great blogs in here that would be great as part of a network.  Others are simply great company ideas.

If you are interested in making a serious offer on one of these before I put them up for auction elsewhere (would rather they went to a good home), please comment below or reach out to me through my contact form.  For more details on why I am doing this and how we got here, read the post, Help Me with my Digital Addiction.

1. adoptablogger.net
2. interviewablogger.com
3. mediaglu.com
4. newmediarelease.com
5. socialcommunications.org
6. socialmediabusiness.com
7. socialmediaclubs.com
8. socialmediaexpress.com
9. socialmediafilter.com
10. socialmediaglue.com
11. socialmediagreenhouse.com
12. socialmediainsights.com
13. socialmediamavens.com
14. socialmediapages.com
15. socialmediaproduction.com
16. socialmediarelease.com
17. socialmediascene.com
18. socialmediasphere.com
19. socialmediasymposium.com
20. xtagging.com
21. betterbloggerbureau.com
22. bloggerbureau.com
23. businessbloggeragency.com
24. businessbloggerbureau.com
25. tagfacets.com
26. tagformats.org
27. tagsort.com
28. tagspaces.com
29. tagspaces.org
30. topictags.com
31. bubblecamp.com
32. bubblecamp.net
33. bubblecamp.org
34. bubblejams.com
35. marketing2point1.com
36. unbubbleconference.com
37. unconferenza.com/net/org

Again, if you are interested in making a serious offer on one of these before I put them up for auction elsewhere (would rather they went to a good home), please comment below or reach out to me through my contact form.

In my prior post, I spoke about having many more domain names available I wanted to sell now if possible. Here are a few more that are interesting so that you see there are some real quality ones available.

If you are interested in making a serious offer on one of these before I put them up for auction elsewhere (would rather they went to a good home), please comment below or reach out to me through my contact form.  For more details on why I am doing this and how we got here, read the post, Help Me with my Digital Addiction.

1. connectedlifestyle.com
2. connectedlifestyle.net
3. elifeadvisor.net
4. elifeadvisor.org
5. elifeadvisors.com
6. elifeadvisors.net
7. elifeadvisors.org
8. elifeassistant.com
9. elifeassistant.net
10. elifeassistant.org
11. elifetoday.com
12. elifetoday.net
13. mobileworkplace.net
14. mobileworkplace.org
15. ouradvicebox.com
16. productlaunchsuite.com

I’ll admit it.  I am an addict.

I am addicted to buying domain names. I am addicted to the idea of starting something cool and new by registering an address and putting up a digital shingle.  Even today I had an idea for a new type of Tweetup where people would take 140 tweets and turn them into a story, so I registered 140×140.com – cool eh?

Well it is cool until you realize you can’t possibly run as many sites as you imagine and have to face the reality of an annual domain name registrar bill in the neighborhood of $7,500usd.  

So the time has come to do something about it.  We are letting a bunch of nutty names just expire.  I am seeking partners (mostly writers) for several domains such as SocialMediaCampaigns.com.  We are actually going to be hosting events such as http://socialmediacamp.org/ and ListeningCamp.org and SocialMediaUniversity.org.  We will also be selling a bunch of domain names to try to recoup at least my registration fees paid and hopefully even make some profit on a few like SocialMediaRelease.com.

All of these domains had some great purpose which never was realized.  Some of the names are silly (or rather, some just stink). Some were attempts at new brands.  Some were just drunken rants that were too easy to obtain.  Some are good.  Some are really really good. Many are still valuable. All of them are open for discussion.

So the first batch of names we are going to publish are below.  Rather than running it through an auction service, I thought I would offer them up to friends first (would love them to go to a good home).  I can turn any of these sites on as a blog in about 30 minutes, so if you want to partner, please comment below or reach out to me through my contact form.  You can look at $50 as a sort of minimum if you want to buy one of these from me (to cover costs paid and time invested in transferring) but if its a good one, will need to think about spending more.

Chris Heuer’s Miscellaneous Domain Names List #1

1. 3screens.info
2. 3screenstrategy.com
3. anonymizr.com (this was going to be a service that scrambled your voice and let you leave anonymous audio comments like post secret)
4. boomnotbust.com
5. businessintention.com
6. collaboragents.com
7. collaborants.com
8. docentrist.com
9. docentrist.org (was thinking about docents, and centrists and these being guides or something)
10. geekeducation.tv (a complement but opposite of GETV.com)
11. metaformats.com
12. metaformats.org
13. metagroups.org (microformats go meta… there was a great idea here but I don’t want to crawl back into that whiskey bottle to find it again)
14. mynolastories.com
15. mysfstory.com (so many great opportunities around collecting community stories, inspired by Derek and The Fray of course, also by our good friends in New Orleans)
16. nomorebubbles.com
17. reallysimplepublishing.com (RSP anyone?)
18. rubygnome.com (dont ask, dont tell)
19. stopthebubble.com
20. theparamedia.com
21. therubychallenge.com
22. threescreens.info
23. threescreens.org
24. threescreens.tv (the next wave of user experience is across the three screens of tv, pc and mobile phone, these are some good domains for someone – they are fresh, not like those unused AT&T rollover minutes
25. ubiquitytoday.com
26. web20college.com
27. web20communitycollege.com
28. web20state.com (OMG, too geeky… though state could be useful since its short)
29. channelwiki.com
30. channelwiki.net
31. conteststreams.com (this was going to be a business out of making contests in video streams, like trivia contests – was cool)
32. eholistix.com
33. holistice.com (was trying to come up with a new agency name)
34. kannotate.com
35. kannotate.net (K Annotate was a software I wanted to do for knowledge annotation and sharing – we ended up going with Insytes instead since this wasnt so great)
36. letstalkaboutbooks.com (someone has to want to buy this for a book review blog – there is real money in this domain name – we can make some killer affiliate revenue on this I think)
37. lostlighters.com (lost dollar bills meet lost lighters – put stickers on lighters and a reg number and track your bic as it moves around the country and the world!)
38. partnerwiki.com
39. partnerwiki.net
40. plob.org (it meant something as an acronym, but I cant remember what)
41. rgb-t.com
42. rubycoop.com
43. slotlet.com
44. slotlets.net (slotlets are tokens for authentication purposes – when I thought of them back in 2002 it was all about a single sign on system I was trying to get built – would probably be an equivalent of something like oAuth though not as cool or well thought out)
45. streamotions.com (this is really cool for a video company)
46. thebutterflyballot.com (remember those hanging chads? well this could be a great book title)
47. thefranchise.info
48. thetrustmark.com (damn I like this one, so much potential here)
49. thetruthtellers.com
50. thetruthtellers.net
51. thetruthtellers.org
52. ipodfilmlounge.com
53. ipodtvreview.com
54. ipodvideolounge.com
55. ipodvideosalon.com

Well there are 55 domains and about $2,000 out the door – they could have been great investments, but now its looking like a Domain garage sale with all the little bits and bobs laying out on sheets in my digital lawn…  I have many other good ones I will publish tomorrow, particularly the social media related ones, so stay tuned.

Again, if you want to buy any of these or partner, please do let me know…

Well, maybe its me looking back, but only because I want to learn from what I just left behind to inform where I am going…

I am for the first time in a long time sitting in a moment that is pretty near the present.  For most of my life, like many of you I am sure, I invested a lot of energy into worrying about the future over which I have little control, or regretting my mistakes made along the way.  I have learned from the books I have read on Buddhist and Zen principles a scant little, but this one thing was driven home in all the works:

be here now

So simple, yet so hard – especially for an ADD rattled mind that would be equally happy facilitating a large conversation between a few hundred people or having tea with one of our wise elders learning their life lessons.

I guess it really is just about getting older, gaining more perspective from experience.  As I turn 40 this summer, the number just weights heavy on me, eventhough it is still looming in the distance some 4+ months from now.  So I clearly see the only thing I can do is type the next word and the next.  While I could of course now delete those words, or edit them, I can’t have the first seconds back in which they were typed.  I can only be here now, as I was there then and as I will be when I am there.

OK.  Philosophical rants aside, I have a new accupuncturist at Kaiser Permanente and the guy is fantastic – not only has he helped relieve the rotator cuff pain, but he must have hit my ‘bliss’ spot on my forehead because each time I leave, I feel more grounded then ever before, more here, more here now.  Don’t get me wrong, I am still blurting and hitting the hot button still causes a reaction more times then not, but it is bettter.  Better still, I feel healthier.

But there is another element of that too, which is Grace Di’Laura, a great administrative manager, but more importantly a great person who has the crucial ability to think, to question tasks so that she can perform them more effectively and efficiently.  It’s so crucial and so few people have this talent – great questions mark the beginning of great conversations, and great conversations lead to innovation.  Ultimately, the implementation of those innovations will lead to transformation… of organizations, of people, of communities and even of entire societies.

To get back to the story, the reason for being so extraordinarily pleased with Grace is that she has helped me get near to the ever elusive inbox zero.  So if you dont hear from me on some email you sent in the next week or so, please do followup again – clearing through 10,000 or so emails from the last year or so took several weeks to do and I am sure it was not done without missing something important (in fact, we just deleted everything prior to January 1 actually .  But the feeling of being able to let go of all those old emails I knew I wanted to respond to, but couldn’t, due to the 24 hr daily time limit… Grace freed me from those and so much more already in the first couple of months.  We are really going to miss her when she goes to law school this summer.

Of course, this is also why I am able to be here now better then ever before.  Unfortunately, it has meant that I spent the majority of the last week clearing up old open issues, preparing to file taxes (ok, Kristie’s doing more of that then me, but it still takes energy), dealing with settling old debts, completing a project for a client, doing the weekly Social Media Club work, getting the social media workshop series redesigned and now finally thinking that each Friday should be my day to create content and nothing else. OK, maybe a lunch meeting, like I just did with Timo Heuer, family from the old country

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the great time we had at WoolfCamp, where I got to debut my Tweet Story which we will be publishing next week.  WoolfCamp was a bit different this year, but still held its charm – coming together with a group of kindred spirits to honor Virginia Woolf and the writer inside us all.  Given the difficult times we have all seen it was just as much about being together, celebraring our humanity and our community, as it was about talking about topics of mutual interest.  Kristie and I were so glad we made it down there, though bummed we missed StartupWeekend SF.

If you care, which you probably dont, I allso made some progress on a few different businesses we are starting up to build some residual income sources, more to come on that shortly.

Now, next week will be all about catching up on the Social Media Buyers Guide Project and getting into final production mode for the workshops we are doing in Birmingham, Hamburg, Paris and London.  Still trying to see if we can do something small in London – maybe our friends at the Paul Young Foundation can let us borrow their main room for the afternoon?

As long as I am writing about it, I should mention that we are now embarking on producing a lot of events, so I am starting to look for sponsors from communications agencies and social media technology vendors.  If you want to get in front of the people who are implementing social media solutions in their organizations and I don’t call you next week, please do reach out to me.

Next week’s Social Media Club Question of the Week (#SMCQ5) is going to be a good one I think.  Something along the lines of our responsibility to check our facts, ensure we are clear when something is opinion and when we are stating facts and the general harm that can be caused by intentionally ignoring such important ethical tenets, as we saw yet another detractor of social media club do this past week. C’est la vie.  Some people will just never get it and we can’t do much to help them except continue to explain what it is we really stand for and continue to live the values that we find to be important.

Also next week is the beginning of regular 24 Hour Fitness visits – finally feeling healthy enough to get that back into the routine.

So that’s my first Weekly Look Forward, thanks for stopping by.  Hope your week ahead is a good one.

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• Social Media Club Workshop Series (socialmediaclub.org)

When Hillary (aka Quepol)shared this story with me, I realized it was too amazing to not record there and then. Scott Beale of Laughing Squid was kind enough to shoot this video with his new Canon 5D – wow! and Hillary tells us a story that is at the same time upsetting and touching. While Santa Clause worked hard to get Prop 8 passed, he still was respectful to Hillary – it was a very human moment and I thought the story was very powerful…

Disclosure: I was given a $500 gift card from Izea on behalf of their client, Sears, to participate in their campaign and “grant a wish” for someone, then to share the experiences shopping at the retail store. There is also a contest you can enter with details below for me to grant perhaps one or more of your wishes. From my perspective, I see this as getting paid to provide my feedback more then getting paid to write a blog post, but as we have seen over the last few days with regards to Chris Brogan and his involvement in the K-Mart campaign, everyone has their own perspective.

The spirit of the Sears “Don’t Just Give a Gift, Grant a Wish” campaign is laudable, and also very difficult to live up to IMHO – giving a gift is easy, a wish is really, really deep.  I was able to choose whether to grant a wish for myself, for someone else or for a charity.  Given the fact this was going to be a light Christmas at best, I wanted to do something special for my wife, Kristie – we do a bit of charity work throughout the year as well as several donations, so I felt its time to do something nice for her. (video re-enactment forthcoming

I believe the reason I was selected for the campaign is that

• I have a small audience aka ‘reach’ (bigger on Twitter, smaller on my infrequently updated blog)
• I have some insights to share which will hopefully help Sears and Izea
• I have privately been beating up Izea and Ted in personal interactions for a while, giving him a good ribbing but also talking to him seriously about how they have embraced disclosure and evolved their business in response to complaints from people like Jason Calacanis, myself and others about disclosure and business ethics
• I am generally known for my integrity and truthiness – which you will see here
• I was previously invited to join Izea’s blogger advisory board but really wanted an insiders look before fully agreeing to join (though perhaps I may not be wanted after this post)

The program ‘rules’ are simple, Sears provides a $500 gift card to me, I go to one of their stores, then, after the shopping trip, I post about our experiences (which wasn’t all that good as you will soon read).  Now here is the part that makes it cool for you. I hopefully am granting one of your wishes. Izea, who is running the promotion for Sears, is also going to be picking a winner of another $500 grant a wish package (instructions for entering below, but first a bit about our shopping trip and our experience with Sears).

For starters, I should point out that Sears is not one of the stores I would shop for Christmas.  For me, Sears is top of mind when thinking power tools, appliances and car repairs even – but not clothes, electronics or even furniture.  In fact, most of our furniture in our house we have purchased off of Craigslist or a second-hand store, but it wasn’t my wish, it was Kristie’s, so I thought I would just ask her instead of worrying about it and really felt grateful to Ted for inviting me.

Of course, Kristie’s first response was that she wanted a trip to Paris (where I just came from).  Then she said, well we aren’t doing Christmas gifts this year so it doesn’t really matter.  After a bit of haggling over what I meant by the word ‘wish’ (fix the world, solve for hunger, get a big sponsor for Social Media Club so we could hire an executive director etc..) I finally conveyed it had to be physically something I could buy – in other words a gift.  After a few minutes she finally said what I knew she wanted, a Karaoke machine so she could let out her inner chartreuse.  Of course, if she was going to get a Karaoke machine, I needed noise canceling headphones to be part of her wish The other big thing she has been trying to get for the past year was a Wii.

So we had our shopping list set up and after Social Media Club hosted a Social Media Breakfast, we set out to Sears at Aventura mall in North Miami.

I grew up here in Miami (where we are visiting for Social Media Club events and also to spend some holiday time with my 92 year old grandfather) so I knew generally where it was, but I wanted to be sure.  So we searched Sears on the Google Maps app on our iPhone.  There were actually too many listings for Sears in North Miami to easily find it so we went to the sears.com Web site, which was actually optimized for mobile.  The only complaint with the mobile site is that they need to have the store’s addresses linked to a mapping service, because we had to manually transfer the address into the map app which made it a bit harder.

The one unfortunate thing about the timing of this campaign is that we are only two weeks away from Christmas and ended up heading to one of the busiest malls in the United States on a Saturday afternoon at 1pm. Needless to say – the mall was packed. In fact, parking was so tough we had to use the valet service after searching for nearly 30 minutes, but once that was all sorted out, we headed to Sears with the gift card in hand and our simple shopping list at the ready (though I still have no idea which Wii games we really want other than Rockband – see the musical theme of this wish?).

Walking into the store, we noticed the new signage highlighting the campaign “Don’t just give a gift, grant a wish” – but the rest of the store felt the same as it did when I used to shop here with my grandparents. Even the Christmas yard decorations setup felt a bit less then modern.  I guess the best word to describe it is that it felt ‘dated’. In fact, when talking to my aunt about it later, she said “Sears has always been the same, they never change”.  For some people this is good, for me, this is not so good.  Reminds me of the many ad campaigns such as “this isn’t your parent’s XYZ any more” except in this case, it still is.

Anyway, we headed straight for the electronics department and found the karaoke machines. We found the one Kristie wanted on sale at a great price, only $90 down from $150. Though we couldn’t find the extra microphones or music, but that’s another story.

Knowing we had more shopping to do, we asked a nearby sales associate if there were shopping baskets available. Her English was poor and she couldn’t understand the question, even after asking it several times – this is something I have become used to in Miami retail, and while unfortunate is not uncommon – I wish I spoke Spanish fluently, but I don’t.  Realizing there weren’t shopping carts available and not wanting to carry it all over the store, we left the karaoke machine and headed a few aisles over to the video games where…

We didn’t find any Wii’s… so we found another sales associate who told us they were sold out and didn’t know when they were getting it in.  Bummer, but this has often been the case with Nintendo for the past year plus, so that is not entirely Sears’ fault.  In fact, when we got back I ran across this article about November being the biggest month of video game console sales ever.

At this point, we said, ok, lets go check out the noise canceling headphones – unfortunately the choices were limited and I didn’t see the headphones I wanted.  We did find something suitable though, but then I couldn’t get it off the rack (it was locked in somehow).  With these frustrations mounting, we realized we should just wait to get the Wii from sears.com and since we had to fly home anyway, should get the karaoke machine online too.  After all, why spend $25 to check an extra bag? or waste the time going back when you can just order online and get free shipping.

Of course, in going to look at buying it online, they are only offering it in one of those silly packages designed to make you buy games you don’t really want – really not very good marketing on their point (Nintendo’s) in building a good relationship with folks like me – we are seriously considering a PS3 now, but I digress…

While walking out of the electronics department to check out the rest of the store to see if we would be inspired, we did see a great deal on a Panasonic cordless phone for the house, to replace the broken ones we have been using.

The electronics department was situated next to the appliances and our eyes moved to a beautiful stove that reminded us of that really cool and expensive French one we saw elsewhere, but this was made by Kenmore and was about half the price of the one we saw previously. If we owned our house and had a few thousand extra dollars, we might have been tempted to purchase it as our current stove is relatively small. Since we rent our flat and are paying down our debt instead of making major purchases, we set aside the big wish.

After a quick lunch break, Kristie decided she wanted to use some of her wish to buy some gifts for my nephews, so we went back to the store for round two. After searching both floors of the entire store, we finally found the toy department, by the power tools and the weight lifting equipment. Unfortunately there really was not much of a selection, just an aisle or so with a good percentage of that being toy Craftsmen power tools. They also had a small display of Hasbro board games, many of which were priced at $29.99, essentially $5-15 more than the same games cost at other stores. While it was ‘free’ money to us, there is still a sense of wanting to find value so we passed.

Kristie also needed a pair of socks (because she forgot them at home) so we picked those up while there.

So all in all, the Sears shopping experience hasn’t changed much since I was a kid – in the case of the floors, shelves and overall feeling of being in the store, it doesn’t seem like it changed at all. If I am looking for appliances, I still trust Kenmore.  If I am looking for power tools, I still trust Craftsmen.  Now, the one thing that did seemingly change is the clothing department, they actually have some cool stuff there, including some great styles from LL Cool J, who has also put together this good video as part of the grant a wish campaign.

In short, we had some really tough challenges which shows why programs such as this one being run by Izea are risky for companies to pursue, but also invaluable if handled well.  I still haven’t seen them engaged in the kerfuffle with Chris Brogan this weekend though…  Further, campaigns such as this expose the real shortcomings of the end to end branding experience and how important it is for all different groups within a company to work together.  Finally, it proves once again that marketing alone cant solve a company’s problems with its’ market relationships.  Hopefully though, this is a learning opportunity and not a censorship opportunity.

To summarize, here are the problems we faced:

• Went in to buy a karaoke machine, noise canceling headphones and a Wii, came out with a pair of socks and a new phone system for the house. We are going to order the karaoke machine online, and it seems we have to wait to try to get the Wii at a later date as we realized Sears currently only sells the Wii bundle ($500+) which is not what we want – we just want the Wii console ($200+) and the chance to select our own game and accessories. Shame on Nintendo, shame on retailers for going along with this exploitative bundling that forces people to buy games they don’t want or need.
• Tried to also get toys for my nephews, but the selection was not very good – specialty stores and other Sears competitors clearly perform much better in this regards.
• While there were some cool styles in the clothing department, the overall feeling of the store (at least the one in Aventura) was that it was ‘dated’. This is particularly troublesome in light of the fact that Aventura Mall has some of the most upscale brands in the world, so by comparison, Sears looked even more dated then it probably is.
• The clerk in the electronics department didn’t speak English well. The other two clerks in the same department were seemingly disinterested in offering help. When we paid for our phone, the clerk didn’t even bother to say thank you, let alone happy holidays or something more cheery.
• The store layout was really tough. Hard to find the departments and items we were interested in. The directory by the store front was a list of which departments were on which floor, not where they were on the floor.  Perhaps a design choice in getting people to stumble upon something else to buy?
• Overall, prices were not that good really, though there were some great sales prices (like our new house phone and even the karaoke machine).  A recent steam mop I purchased from a comepetitor was offered for $20 more.
• No shopping carts – understandable with aisle layout and for ‘department store’, but also making it very difficult to go shopping in multiple departments with more bulkier items like electronics
• Actually paying for the items was tough – we had to track down a sales associate to pay for the phone.  When paying for Kristie’s socks, we looked around for a few minutes and eventually found a staffed customer service station (not a ‘check out’ stand btw).  Unfortunately, we had to wait several minutes because a customer had started checking out, then went back to search for more clothing for his grand daughter, tying up the cashier for several minutes.  After some audible groans from us, she did finally suspend that transaction, but by that point, we were finally at the front of the line for the other register.

Some Positives:

• Sears.com is pretty good, though minor tweaks would make the shopping experience even better – for example, the shopping cart is missing some little things like “update all items in cart” (requiring me to remove each item one by one) which is more likely to make me abandon the purchase entirely (ran into this while trying to build the wish package for you.
• They are experimenting with programs like this and from my perspective the marketing campaign is really good – it would be great if the top to bottom experience matched it
• The sale prices were really pretty good and Sears stores are everywhere.
• I was really glad to see Sears is working with the Heroes at Home program to grant some wishes for military families – they are taking care of their own, with a very socially conscious program which makes my time invested here doing the review worth the while.

I can’t say I will be running back into our local Sears store anytime soon, but I am happy to see Sears engaging. Unfortunately, the campaign really is a great lesson that a fresh coat of paint and a great pitch can’t change the brand by itself.  It takes a complete retooling of the operations first and foremost, then to change the attitudes of the work force in order to change the product itself before you can make people feel different about your company.  From the choice of flooring, to shelving, to hiring practices, to motivation, to inventory selection, everything is permanently inter-linked.  One weak link may be overlooked, but several kills you and your opportunity to develop a meaningful relationship.

Perhaps I am just not the target customer that Sears is reaching for.  Are you?

I wish to extend my thanks to Sears, and to IZEA, for inviting me to get involved in this program.  As I have said for a long time to my clients (as a consultant), its not so much that people have negative things to say about your company insomuch as it is how you respond – what you say and do as a result.  So in light of the relatively positive experiences posted around the K-Mart campaign, I am interested in seeing what happens as a result of this post.  Is it a learning opportunity or is it time for corporate speak and a blind eye?

Now for the Fun Bit – Let me (and Izea) Grant Your Wish

I have selected a great package for you for feeding the mind, body and soul, or you can ignore my shopping choices (and the time I put into assembling the package) and pick your own item #’s from sears.com and include that in the comments below or your own blog post. Please do read the rules completely as I am not in charge of the contest, Izea is, but here is a general overview of how it will work.

Readers can enter via blog comment, tweet or blog post.

Blog Comment: A reader can leave a comment on this blog with the name of the wish package they would like to win. (I only made one, so its either the mind/body/soul wish or your own wish.

Twitter Tweet:
A reader can simply tweet out the following message:
“RT @chrisheuer, please grant my wish to win the #Sears XYZ package – tweet to win your own wish http://urlbrief.com/73ce6d”  – replace XYZ with Mind/Body/Soul or Media or Gamers or My Own

Blog Post:
A blogger can enter by writing a post about the contest and linking back to your post. Be sure to leave a comment with the URL to their post as trackbacks don’t always work.

Each tweet, comment or post counts as one registration. A person can register up to three times by tweeting, leaving a comment and doing a post on their own blog. The winner will be chosen at random by IZEA based on all entries. The contests are separate, each blogger participating in this promotion will have their own package to give away.

If readers don’t want to win the specific package I selected you can put together your own Wish package by leaving the package item#s from sears.com in the comments (up to $500) in value.

The Mind/Body/Soul Package

• Danskin  55 cm. Core Ball, Swirl with DVD – Burst Resistant
• Stamina Products  Pilates Premier
• The Four Agreements by Ruiz, Don Miguel
• Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Millman, Dan
• The Mastery of Love by Ruiz, Don Miguel
• A New Earth by Tolle, Eckhart
• Cook With Jamie by Oliver, Jamie

• Kodak  Pocket High-Definition Digital Camcorder
• Harman  On Stage Micro / Portable Loudspeaker Dock for IPod
• Apple  16GB iPod® Nano Digital Media Player – Black

• Sony PLAYSTATION®3 80GB Console
• PS3,Madden NFL 2009 Collector’s Edition

Some Further Thoughts

So you may think this post was paid for by Sears, and indeed it was – but in my mind they didn’t pay for me to post this (would you pay for a review like this?) but they paid me for my time (and underpaid me at that as I sit here at 5am completing the post after spending several hours in the store, browsing the online store and reviewing program details for compliance). In short, it feels more like a mystery shopper program with complete transparency, coupled with a giveaway.  Its not about getting paid to promote them so much as it is getting paid to invest my time interacting with their brand and then sharing my experiences with you.

The original issues people had with the notion of getting paid to blog about a company had two main points: 1 transparency of transaction and intention – make it clear what you got paid and what you got paid for; 2 perceived lack of objectivity – in that people believe that honesty goes out the window when someone gives you something, which just isn’t the case for everyone, while it may be for some. I believe that this post adequately addresses those issues and believe you will find that to also be the case, though your opinion of such programs may not change as a result.  Regardless, I learned a lot so far, and expect to learn a lot more this week as I hear your feedback.

Best of luck – I hope you win and I hope you enjoy one of the packages I selected for you.

Oh yeah, and just in case the title wasn’t clear enough, I received a $500 gift card to shop at the store, share my experience and give you a chance to win $500 wish too.