Marcus Neto

LessConf 2012

This past week I spent 2 days at LessConf in Atlanta. I had never heard of this conference before going to Panama City to speak at the meet-up a few months ago. Allan Branch, the person that organized the meet-up, started LessConf about 4 years ago. He is business partners with Steve Bristol at LessEverything and they are a hoot!

I will admit I was a bit confused about what the conference was going to be focused on. There seemed to be a lot of hub-bub surrounding the conference but no speakers were announced and there were not really any old videos of speakers to give any indication of what it would be like. Having said that this conference was probably one of the best I have been to. Turns out the conference is about helping and fostering growth in people that have start-ups. And while EllisLab is not necessarily a start-up there is a lot to be reminded of in how start-ups think, behave and operate.

Spike Jones was the first speaker of the conference. He was easily my favorite. He is active in the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. In his talk he shared about how he helped Fiskar (maker of scissors… of all things) create a word of mouth initiative that fed off of the scrapbooking community.

He also talked about the ins and outs of this. How they created a barrier to entry by making the ambassador program small (4-5 people) to make the Fiskarettes feel special. How they personalized some scissors and sent them to them. How they created a new level in a scrapbooking forums especially for them. And ultimately the positive effect on the Fiskars brand that they carried into scrapbooking community.

He also talked about how to tell stories with powerful identities. His example was the State of Texas. Love them or hate them Texas has an incredible marketing campaign. Don’t mess with Texas, Everything’s bigger in Texas etc. He talked about a great brand as being polarizing. This idea resonated with me…

Rob Walling was the second speaker (don’t worry I am not going to write about all 10 talks). Rob’s talk was excellent for a different reason. Rob runs 5-6 small startups. His talk was all about Cost per Acquisition, Lifetime Value of a customer and how to use the information those numbers provide when making decisions about your business. If I remember correctly he also talked quite extensively about A/B testing and using CPA and LV when doing your A/B testing so that you know whether your changes are working.

He also talked about leveraging low budget ways to get word out about your product (Podcasts, Guest posts etc.) using relationships that you might have with apps that are integrated with yours to get word out by cross-promoting to each other’s communities.

John Crawford talked on the second day about not forgetting your friends. My major take-a-way from his talk was a quote:

Your friends have awesome powers - They can create alternative Universes - Let them

The quote builds on his talk about how the people around you can often open doors or take you in different directions by introducing you new people. In his case it opened up some doors that led to 1.5M in funding. Not bad if you ask me.

The final talk I wanted to tell you about was the guys from Intercom.io, Eoghan McCabe & Des Traynor. They talk about how ability and hard work will only take you so far. That without passion you will not acheive as much. And I was struck by something.

The team at EllisLab is a team of positive thinking and passionate people and I am proud to be associated with them.

They discussed the idea that starting (or running) a business is like working on a piece of Art. That there is no scientific forumula that you can follow to get from point A to point B. And that like most pieces of art it only acheives it’s true potential when it is complete. Some really good stuff in this talk…

They also mentioned that Des has called every single one of their (thousands of) customers. That proactively reaching out to their customers is one of the best ways to delight them. I would love to experiment with this. I may not be able to call every new customer to ExpressionEngine but I would like take more time to reach out to the community members that are NOT on twitter. Twitter contains such a small fraction of our community and I often wonder what the rest of our wonderful community is up to (nothing against my twitter friends ).

Their final thought (and they were the final talk)? Was that you must be customer obsessed. That we are entering into an age of the customer. I agree with them. Businesses that stand out for me are the ones that provide ridiculous customer service.

For me there was a common thread in all of the talks. My main take-a-way was to focus on the customer/client in a more personal manner. The EllisLab community is waaaay bigger than a lot of the communities the speakers at the conference deal with, but that shouldn’t matter. We not only need to be Bacon, but I also need to take a chance and personally connect with our customers. But that means I have to put myself out there, and that is a bit unnerving…

LessConf was awesome!

Reflecting on 2011 and looking forward to what 2012 brings

Many moons ago a mentor of mine beat it into my dense skull that if you don’t set goals then you have no way of knowing whether you are moving forward, staying stagnant or moving forward. Looking at it now I don’t know if that is accurate but I have spent so many years planning and scheming on things that I want to achieve that I just don’t know how to do it any different. Perhaps I should have a goal of not setting any goals… nah.

Last year was amazing. Everything seemed to click. Not to say that it was all roses. I think a lot of us are scratching our heads wondering when the hangover called 2011 is going to end. My hope for us all is that 2012 will be a mind blowing year and that we will all check off our to-do lists early, achieve inbox 0 on Thursdays and blow the doors off of our New Year’s Resolutions by February.

In reviewing my goals for 2011 I did pretty good. I like to keep it fairly general when writing goals (I’ve learned). Below are my goals for 2011:

1. Bodyfat below 15% - possible (I haven’t measured it recently) but more importantly I stuck with going to the gym 3-4 times a week. I am now in better shape than I have been in a decade or so.
2. Run a 5k - negative. I have struggled with an achilles issue for the year. It is getting better. But now I have no desire to run a 5k. I can bench 250lbs though
3. Be more focused with my time and tasks - definitely. I am very pleased that I can say I achieved this goal. It is so easy to get off task. Especially for me. I feel I had a really productive year. I have learned tons.
4. Net (insert a specific dollar amount here)k - yup. Made it. Saved a bunch because of it. For whatever reason we have been blessed and I am thankful for it
5. Save 5-6 months of salary - Can’t believe it but we made it. Those of you that know us know that both Jen and I work pretty hard. It is an amazing feeling knowing that if something were to happen we have a little bit saved up. I know it definitely helps Jen sleep better at night.
6. Take 2 vacations with Jen alone - Yeeessss! Gotta get some alone time with my bride. I am excited about this year as we have our 20 year high school reunion in DC that we will be going to. I would also really like to arrange to go away for a long weekend to Jamaica for our 15 year anniversary since that is where we went for our honeymoon.
7. Spend quality time with the boys - So glad I did this. My little men are amazing. I think the world of them and can see them turning into amazing men right in front of my eyes.
8. Take date nights with Jen 2x per month - nope. Too expensive. Sitters cost us $10-ish per hour around here. Add that to the cost of dinner and a movie and you can spend $100 for a 3 hour date for a cheap dinner and a movie.
9. Have abs - close. This. will. happen. this. year.
10. Continue eating healthy - This is for my family. My father had a heart attack in his 40s. I am closing in on that. Fortunately I have the luxury of making diet and exercise a priority in my life. I am determined to not follow in his foot steps on this one.
11. Keep my office - yup. I love having a place to go work. I miss having my cohort in crime (Casey Lee) but at least I didn’t have to move into our closet when he took a job in Birmingham.

So what does this year hold? This year I have some of the same or similar personal goals.

1. Do physical activity 4 times a week - 3 times at the gym and some hefty yard work or something is good.
2. Continue eating healthy - Try to eat out as little as possible. Paleo if possible. Mmmmm Bacon.
3. Read at least 2 books per month - Time to dive into topics instead of just skimming the surface.
4. Spend more time with my parents - They just moved to ATL so this should be easier. In years past they have lived in Caracas, Soeul, Sao Paulo and DC. ATL is closer so I hope that this year we get to see them for Birthdays and stuff.
5. Watch less TV - see #3
6. Have abs by summer - I don’t care if it is a 2 pack….
7. Take 3 vacations with Jen this year - Time away for us to reflect on 15 years of marriage and 20 years of being together. So awesome. If we go somewhere for our anniversary and DC for our 20 year reunion then we only have 1 other trip to arrange. Perhaps NYC near Christmas?
8. Teach my boys something new, often - I think there are things every man needs to know. How to whittle a stick. How to operate a mower. How to be safe with a knife. How to build a really cool fort.
9. Keep learning - I would really like to dip my toe into PHP this year… I hope DJ doesn’t read this… I think it will help me understand a section of the ExpressionEngine community that has different needs than the average user.

For business my main goal will be to help the ExpressionEngine community grow. The new position is something I am really excited about. Once I wade through the mountain of email that awaits me tomorrow I intend of formalizing a lot of my plans for this year. I definitely intend on attending more conferences this year. I hope to have more conversations with members of our community, especially the Pro Net (hint hint). I may be doing some speaking. I will definitely be giving demos. If you are a member of the community .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if you have ideas of what you would like to see us do to help our community grow.

So maybe this is not your thing. I have a friend that will probably read the first paragraph of this and go ‘meh’. But for me it works. I keep these reminders in a folder in Omnifocus and refer back to them pretty often. And it makes me feel good to know at the end of another amazing year I worked hard towards some goals and achieved them.

Thanksgiving

I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is here already. It seems like just yesterday I was dipping my toes in the turquoise waters of the Gulf Coast and chasing the kids in the water. I wanted to take a few minutes and reflect on all that I have to be thankful for.

I have a beautiful wife that loves me and puts up with my crap. I will be forever thankful for that. It has been 14 years of marriage and 20 years of being together as a couple. She is an amazing human that I love spending time with.

I have three boisterous young boys that keep me on my toes. I look at them and I see a perfect blend of my wife and I. They are so awesomely amazing. They are healthy, smart and curious. Those are there qualities I want in a son. I would not trade their wonderful smiles for the world.

I have a wonderful extended family. My wife’s family has adopted me like a son. My own parents have recently decided to move to Atlanta to be closer to us which is going to mean we get to see them more than 1-2 times a year. #bonus

One of the bigger changes this year was my move to the EllisLab team. I love my work. I am so thankful for the camaraderie that we have. Going to work each day is a joyous experience. I am also very very thankful for the many friends that I have made in the community. They keep me on my toes and make me laugh… well some of them : )

I am thankful for my health. It has been about a year and a half since I decided to take control of my health. Short of a recent battle with an ice cream addiction (please don’t judge) I have been pretty good. I have been very consistent with my workouts and eating and my health has improved because of it. My Dr ha taken me off of most of my drugs including the Cholesterol meds that I was on.

I am thankful for my church. I have never been part of a church that cared for their local community as much as Bay Community does. I love that right before writing this blog post they sent an email telling everyone we have raised enough money to give away 3200 bikes to needy families this year. So many kids will get a gift this year because of the giving hearts of the Bay Community family.

Anyway, I do hope that if you are reading this that you have much to be thankful for. I believe that having a thankful heart is key to having a better life.