When we were all kids, one of the lessons our parents really emphasized was "Sharing is Caring." When we grew up, we all stopped sharing as much. I have to take care of myself. I can't give away my expertise for free. What would happen if I shared something, and didn't get the credit?

I think we need to bring back the values that were ingrained in us as children. Start simply with "sharing is caring." With how awesome technology is now, I can carry an entire production studio for podcasting in my backpack. I can have a pop-up photo studio that's so portable, I can carry it around with me. But not everyone has the funds to be where the professionals are at right now, and that can really hamper some amazingly creative people from creating.

I was inspired by the amazing people behind Death to Stock Photo and New Old Stock website, offering great photos that are royalty free, and free to have access to. So I decided to start my own free stock photo site, because I love photography as a hobby, and if someone finds the pictures cool, then feel free to use it!

My site is called Lock and Stock Photos, and take a peek. I hope that we can grow a community around creative people sharing some of their work to help the next generation of creatives that may not have the funds to get access to amazing tools and assets.

Let's build a new culture of free. Pool some of our talents, and assets together, and help bring greater creative things to life!

With my line of work in social media marketing, communications, etc. I've noticed something very alarming in the discussions and processes that happen: we forget about the one person that this all matters to. The end user.

The end user is a marketing term to refer to you and me. The person on the other end who will see your posts, watch your video, click on your ad, buy your product, use that product, and hopefully become a customer for life.

What happens in all the meetings and design iterations, and talks, where the product/ad post/tweet campaign flops? Why did this happen? I think we forget how someone would interact on the other side. We stare at these words for hours on end, scrutinizing every phrase and punctuation, and forget that it's just another email in someone's inbox that will probably be deleted before being opened.

If we took some time thinking about it from the end user perspective, it could help make our brand and product even that much better. Good design, and good products, truly speak for themselves, and will get recognized. But to get someone to even look at them first, we need to understand how our work is perceived.

One thing I like to do is pull someone who has had no discussion and no knowledge of something that I am working on, and show them a design that I am working on, or watch a video that I created, and get their reaction. What did you think? What was the message you took away from it? Did it make sense? Did it seem relevant?

Taking this one step has helped out tremendously in avoiding some gaffs; but you can't avoid every person's perspective and interaction. Learning the art of persona building helps too, where you build a "person" or a group of "people" who are your target audience, and filter things through this character. What kind of work do they do, what's their day like, interests, hobbies, favorite foods?

In the end, though, the greatest tool you can use, in my opinion, are your ears. Listen. What are people saying? How are they responding to what you are doing? Taking the time to listening can help shape your work to be effective.

I want to leave you with a great talk by Seth Godin, called "It's Broken" from 2006. An oldie but a goodie on how people interact with things, and how it affects people's perspective. Enjoy!

Not to sound ambiguous, but here's a question: Do you find yourself spending so much time focused on an event, day, phone call, interview, etc. that a week goes by and you realize that nothing has happened after that event?

I am finding myself getting close to this being a routine with work, and in life; that I spend time working with teams for planning a big event, twitter chat, live hangout, and more, and the only focus is on "the thing."

What happens once "the thing" is done and over? People go home, they get back into their daily lives, you fall back on routine, and the influence of the interactions during "the thing" fades away quickly.

So I did some thinking of what could I do, that are practical steps, to make sure that I'm not forgotten after "the thing" and the momentum of it doesn't die too quickly. So here's a list of three things that I have started implementing to stand out, and not be too quickly forgotten:

1. Thank You

After a twitter chat, I make sure to thank everyone who re-tweeted my tweets, or mentioned me and interacted with me. I set my time limit to do so within 12 hours of the twitter chat. The same goes for interactions with meeting new people, or attending an event. Bonus: write a thank you card. It's such a rare occurrence now, that the time involved shows how much the interaction meant to you.

2. The Takeaway

A big thing for events that I help plan and work on is (creating this before the event) a takeaway. An epub to re-emphasize what was learned in the event, a business card that is unique with a meeting, just something tangible that you can pass along keeps the conversation going, and showcases your commitment.

3. Something Free

This is like a takeaway, but not necessarily needing to happen right away. Give away something free to people you meet, or who planned an event you attended. Free swag, a small gift (something that your intended recipient would actually use, no more flash drives please) shows thoughtfulness and that can mean a lot to people.

We're very dismissive and very busy in all of our lives, and any little thing to show your not just going through the motions really enhances the experience of meeting you.

Let me know what you think, and share your follow ups!

My wife and I recently purchased a used car in preparation for our first child (our current vehicle is not too car seat friendly). Within a few days, we noticed small spots of oil on our driveway. We called the dealership we purchased the car from, and received an extremely poor response: "Well, if it's part of the drive train it's covered under warranty, but if not, it would be a service fee."

Now I don't want to come across as entitled with this post, but we had had the car for less than a week, and noticed it leaking oil. It was a fantastic opportunity for the dealership to do the right thing and say something like: "We're so sorry, bring it in right away and we'll take a look at what could be happening."

Instead, after getting nowhere after a couple emails and calls, we took the car to a local authorized dealer, and they did an oil change which fixed the issue (apparently there's a gasket that needs to be replaced every time there's an oil change performed on these cars).

We let the first dealership know that was the issue, so that they didn't make the same mistake on the next sale, and a gain the opportunity to do the right thing was lost.

This is an event where the dealership that sold us the car could have created raving fans for their business, and potential referrals. Instead, if people ask us about our experience, we'll share our story about how they were unhelpful.

What does this all mean? We're in a time where we can no longer run businesses that are just "good enough." We're connected through our technology, and a bad customer experience can spread faster than ever. My thought is that we need to hold ourselves to better experience standards as businesses, not out of fear of backlash online, but because it's the right thing to do.

I've been chewing on a thought for a while now, but when was the last time you unplugged, put the phone down, and just took 15 minutes to think? Distraction-free with no email pings, text bells, tweet announcements, and all of that?

What happened to the lost art of fire-gazing? I was reading about how Michelangelo spent nearly 4 months staring at the block of marble that would become the David statue. He would come in each day, sit down, and stare at this massive block of marble, pack it in, and go home. For nearly 4 months. How fast would people start thinking he was a bit loony?

Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/michelangelo.html#GybtKTQypoIoXOwd.99

 "Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it."

Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/michelangelo.html#GybtKTQypoIoXOwd.99

He took the time to create a world renowned masterpiece, and perfected it in his own mind before releasing the sculpture from it's block of marble.

With how many distractions that we are faced with on a constant basis, the challenge really lies in becoming the master of distractions, and remaining focused. Taking some time out of our day, even if it is for only 10 minutes, to just think and reflect, is such a helpful task to keep sane.

I don't want to bore you with stats, figures and research, because frankly, I can find anything to back up a statement on the internet, whether it's a reliable source or not. What I want to say is that we should work to regain the lost art of fire-gazing. I can not wait until we can start building some fires in the back yard (probably this week!) with our fire pit, and spend time outside without a tv, or other distractions.

It's a time to reflect at the end of the day, to think about what is coming tomorrow, and to just relax. Make a S'More or roast a hot dog, and let's find comfort in the small joy of restful fire-gazing!

Dieter Rams was born 20 May 1932 in Wiesbaden, Hessen and is a German industrial designer associated with the consumer products company Braun. His design is instantly recognized for it's minimalistic and functional focus, and he is a key source of inspiration for Johnny Ive from Apple. 

Dieter Rams put together his 10 Principles of "Good Design" that are so amazing to me, and universal to everything we do, it's adaptive to nearly any job or situation you find yourself in. Check them out below:

Rams’s 10 Principles of “Good Design”

1. Is innovative – The possibilities for progression are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for original designs. But imaginative design always develops in tandem with improving technology, and can never be an end in itself.
2. Makes a product useful – A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic criteria. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could detract from it.
3. Is aesthetic – The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
4. Makes a product understandable – It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user’s intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.
5. Is unobtrusive – Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.
6. Is honest – It does not make a product appear more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
7. Is long-lasting – It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.
8. Is thorough down to the last detail – Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
9. Is environmentally friendly – Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
10. Is as little design as possible – Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.

The collision of Net Neutrality, Snowden, Comcast and Time Warner merging, ISP battles, are leading us to become even more subservient to a potential monopoly/oligarchy of control of the internet. While this might not warrant many issues for some, others, like myself who's career and income are derived from having an internet connection see the necessity of keeping the internet open to competition and the true free market.

A glimmer of hope has come to my mind in the form of +Google Fiber and their installations throughout many cities. Even though major ISP's try to tell us that we really don't want such fast internet speeds, it's just not true; when you look at the pricing of Google Fiber, it is a product that truly brings competition back to the market.

We as a country are not leading in the innovation of this technology at all. We're not even in the top 10 around the world. I understand the infrastructure challenge that our country poses. America is a vast country, and the challenge is great.

And this is my rally cry. This could be the New "New Deal!"

Looking to what happened in England and British Telecom, there's a unique roadmap we could take. Here's a quick recap: British Telecom laid down all the fiber for the internet around major hubs of England, and then was ruled a monopoly. Parliament ruled that they should "rent" the fiber to other ISP's in order to create competition in the marketplace.

I watched an Engadget podcast a couple of years ago, and they were talking that a Londoner was paying around $50 for 1 Gigabit speed internet, phone and cable. That's crazy!

So let's create the New "New Deal" here in America. Employ a nation-wide workforce to lay the fiber and connect our country. Allow ISP providers to "rent" the connections, and create competition. Break up the regional monopolies and duopolies.

With faster internet connections, we could create more job growth and opportunities around the nation, and put more people on a level playing field with those in the major cities.

This is my big dream...