Here’s my latest talk, Why the 8 Hour Workday is Total BS:

*|YOUTUBE:SftL2UAaVmY|*
Here’s a link to all the other great talks from that night (they’re not all online yet, but they will be soon!). The best thing about Ignite is that it helped me to discover my true passion: making people laugh about serious things they think they can’t change – and then make them realize that they really can do something about it.

I had a bad habit of over-committing myself from time to time.

Today, for example, I have a to-do list with 20 hour-long items on it. It’s a work list that doesn’t include things on my personal to-do list (which is much longer — I haven’t had the chance to cull down like Paul has).

When I overcommit, I end up canceling appointments, showing up 15 minutes late to every meeting, and going to bed late – and the cycle just keeps on going until I do something to break it.

It makes me look bad; like I’m lazy even though I’m working harder than ever. It makes me look like I need to be managed (even though fixing the problem is as simple as saying “No”). It’s like those restaurants in Kitchen Nightmares who have a million different things on the menu – the three things they do well are great, but take forever to get to the pass. Everything else induces rampant food poisoning.

I’ve given away free billable hours because of it. I’ve had non-business partnerships decimated by it. I’ve been badmouthed to my friends and associates because of it.

It’s funny how saying “Yes” to even one more task can cause so much damage. I see it now, though – and I’m owning it. It’s a habit I intend to kill like Napoleon Dynamite kills braincells (fast and without remorse).

This doesn’t mean anyone should stop asking me for things and isn’t directed at anyone in particular. I’m just venting.

Just know, if you ask me for something and I say “No”, it’s not because I don’t care – it’s because I wouldn’t be able to give you enough bandwidth right now to really help you. And, if you see me saying “Yes” to something you know I don’t have time for, bug me about it, will ya?

PS – the haters can eat crow. Real partners don’t put roadblocks in your way – if they don’t like your direction, they let you know and walk you through or step back to help you see from another angle until you get righted again. Anyone else is a joker who isn’t worth your time.

(Header photo: Watch Your Back by MassDistraction)

I’m a bad Blog host. I show up, rant for days, and then disappear into the fray. I’m working on that – the last few weeks I’ve been keeping a lot to myself.

About a year ago someone said, “I don’t think people follow your blog as closely as you think they do.” It halted me in my tracks. I write for me, to be sure, but suddenly, I didn’t have a voice; in my mind, I didn’t have anything to say that people would want to read.

So, I retreated – I stopped working for myself and lost that feeling that I was the Captain, the guy who took charge and led the way. And for eight months, I had some really good times and some really bad times. I was doing good work, but I wasn’t making a difference and my confidence wasn’t coming back.

There’s a scene – and this will seem silly to you non-Trekkies out there – in Star Trek: Generations where Captain Kirk and Captain Picard meet. I’ve included it below; it’s something I think about every day.

Show transcript

I eventually realized that I don’t work well while standing in someone else’s shadow. My confidence wouldn’t come back because I’d done good work – I had to get my hands dirty and make things happen for myself. I decided that I’d quit that job on Xmas day – and did.

The last two months have been intensely introspective. I started to rebuild my confidence and sense of leadership, and started looking toward the future. I became The Geek Superhero – and did everything I could to live up to that title. I re-built my business; started right. Fixing a lot of the mistakes I made along the way last time. Built up a client base to provide a tight, but livable income.

A lot of the projects I put on hold for the last year are on my mind along with some new ones. The Digital Gunslingers. PodCamp Fort Collins 2. CareerCamp. Psychotic Resumes… TEDxFoCo.

I can’t do it alone, but I’m confident that I can lead the way. It’s time to make a difference – and I’ll stand with you if you feel the same way.

(Header photo: Untitled by tnarik)

Gorillas are driven by an all too familiar short-list of self-interested values. They focus on production goals, marketing reports with a high close rate, controlling costs at the expense of customer service, a high degree of personal control over all decisions and the all-mighty bottom line. They are the ultimate definition of micromanaging.

A business with a gorilla in the midst displays a glaring characteristic. When the gorilla is lurking, the staff is dysfunctional. The staff usually scatters into the brush. They might even disappear into the woodwork. The air is filled with a sense of us against them. Everyone hides until the beast leaves the premises. You might even notice a few of the timid employees noticeably shaking in their boots. The whole operation is run with the pervasiveness of intimidation.

The gorilla often is the owner of a business. The gorilla may be a capital venture type who wishes to buy out the business at 30 cents on the dollar. He/she may also be a member of the management team. No level of management is immune to the invasion of gorillas. This type of manager only sees people as tools to accomplish the task. Some might say that they have lost touch with their humanity, if they ever had it. This syndrome is found in all sorts of businesses of every size and kind. You might suspect that gorillas are the exclusive problem of the corporate world, but not so. The gorilla can be an entrepreneur who starts a business with a primary vision for all of the money they will make. Dollar signs in the eyes are not good. A mentor of mine warned, “If your customers start looking at you like you’re a steak, you have a serious problem”. Gorillas dehumanize and objectify the people who work for them and the people who buy their products and services.

A trend in the corporate world is to drive people as hard and fast as possible for as long as the people can stand it. Then, when the cracks are surfacing, the gorillas bring in the consultant with the soft voice and uplifting message. This eases the staff back into a positive frame of mind for another round of the drive to success. The gorilla is comfortable with this process as long as the ratio of critical illness and heart attacks are not too high for the population of the company. This cycle takes about 18 months or until an individual becomes exhausted and resigns.

A final note on the patterns of behavior exhibited by gorillas in our midst has to do with accountability. You can be guaranteed that the gorilla will never take accountability for anything that goes wrong. The gorilla will always find a way to cast blame up or down the food chain. Usually, the manager immediately below the gorilla will take the fall for mistakes, especially the ones made by the gorilla. The gorilla may over time be exposed and removed but this process usually takes far too long for the survival of subordinate staff.

The consequence of gorillas in the midst is blood in the street. Word to the wise, avoid gorillas at any cost even if they promise the moon and a block of green cheese. The trip is not worth the ride.

My calling is to kick ass

The hardest part of becoming an entrepreneur hasn’t been the looming threat of financial failure, the haunting scent of the cardboard Dell box that might soon be my home, or even sacrificing the “niceties” like healthcare insurance, Grade-A food, and free time.

Instead, the hardest part so far has been learning to be accountable.  As a cubicle employee, I was only accountable to my boss.  As an entrepreneur, I’m accountable to myself, my clients, and everyone else who depends on me in some function to do a good job.

For as long as I can remember, I have kicked ass.  I’m not… you know, tooting my own horn or anything – but, I got a 4.16 GPA in high school, participated in the Drama Club, made websites that took first and second place in state web design competitions, and organized a group of over 500 people to participate in a Star Trek club.  In college, I ran my own talk show – interviewed Doug Hutchinson – the Fort Collins Mayor, Puke and Snot from the Colorado Renaissance Festival, and entertained thousands as a prime-time DJ.

Then I graduated, landed a kick-ass job at HP making more money than any graduate out of college has a right to and then realized that the working world didn’t want a rock star – they wanted someone who would shut up and follow orders.  They wanted a cog.  And for two years, I played along.  Hell, I was playing along even now – today.

What a horrible, horrible mistake.  There were fits and starts of brilliance – Giant Gnome, Psychotic Resumes… but holy hell, what did I let myself become?

My mistake has turned me into the bumbling idiot – 15 minutes late to everything, overwhelmed, barely succeeding, missing deadlines, not good at communicating.  This isn’t me.  I get so frustrated with myself because I know I can do better – I just let those things slip away as a side-effect of doing something that wasn’t my calling.  When I finally got the programming job every programmer dreams of, I blew it because I was stuck in “mediocre mode”. 

F*CK.

No more. This is my shot to do something good in the world.  I’m not going to blow it like Taco Bell blows it when you order a chicken taco.

This is it – this is what I’m afraid of – why I can joke about “meaningless” consequences like homelessness and the lack of health insurance. The real consequence of failure isn’t that tangible bullshit. The real cost of failure is my self-respect, the respect of my friends, my mentors.

It took two smart people to wake me the hell up this morning.  Today is a sort of “wake up” call for me that I need to get my ass back in gear.  I’ve been slouching since HP – it’s not my lot in life to be ordinary.

Thanks goes to Ron of CodeGeek.Net and Laurie of Blue Skies Marketing – I’m very fortunate to have them as mentors – thankful in the way that words can’t express.  Without them, I likely would be living out of that Dell box already.  What I’ve learned from them could fill an entire blog, but I’ll share with you the best advice they gave me this morning:

• Bring order to the chaos that your client is feeling – even if you’re freaking the hell out, too;
• Tell the client “No” when you have to – it’s better than breaking a deadline;
• Help the client arrive at realistic expectations – doing anything else sets both parties up for failure;
• Don’t give a reason for delays – they sound too close to excuses;
• Always communicate – communicate if there’s a problem, before there’s a problem, as much as you can, always.

I’m fired up – the fuse is lit.  It’s time for me to get back to kicking ass.

One of the ways I’ve started doing this is to keep an offline record of hours worked.  Another is one that I discovered today and want to try out.  It’s called a Sunday Reflection – it comes from the blog Marc and Angel Hack Life.  I thought it would be a great way to hold myself accountable and track my progress.  The whole exercise is supposed to take 30 minutes – it’s 10:30 right now, so… let’s see how I do.

1. What did I learn last week? –
   I learned that friends can surprise you no matter how well you think you know them.  I also learned a lot about Thematic, having built out my personal blog, and that Star Trek will take up a lot of my consciousness if I let it.  Sometimes it’s better just to turn the TV off, even if it’s my favorite episode.
2. What was my greatest accomplishment over the past week? –
   The new theme on I Am Nick Armstrong.  It took a long time and it was GREAT to get it at least half-way started.  Totally beats using a stock theme… and I also really enjoyed giving my Ignite presentation again for the Refresh NoCo crowd.
3. Which moment from last week was the most memorable and why? –
   It’s a split between talking for the Refresh NoCo crowd and the most disappointing thing of the week.  The Refresh NoCo event was awesome – I got to meet a lot of fun new people and I also had a blast giving the talk again.  The most disappointing thing of the week was realizing the people who should be there for you sometimes aren’t – or at least don’t make it apparent.
4. What’s the #1 thing I need to accomplish this week? –
   The WTF Marketing website MUST be completed.
5. What can I do right now to make the week less stressful? –
   Finish the WTF Marketing website… and land a steady, good-paying contract.
6. What have I struggled with in the past that might also affect the upcoming week? –
   I’ve had a hard time keeping a positive attitude.  At the moment, it’s very difficult for me to see past the bills every month.  This will be a huge consideration this week, especially if the Facebook for your Business and Online Reputation Management classes don’t get filled.  This is more true of the July 23 one than the August 5 one.
7. What was last week’s biggest time sink? –
   Star Trek on Justin.TV.
8. Am I carrying any excess baggage into the week that can be dropped? –
   The negative attitude of “oh my god I have no money”.
9. What have I been avoiding that needs to get done? –
   WTF Marketing website and blogging on Psychotic Resumes.
10. What opportunities are still on the table? –
    The WTF Marketing website can be set up correctly.
11. Is there anyone I’ve been meaning to talk to? –
    I definitely need to meet with an accountant about WTF Marketing’s taxes!
12. Is there anyone that deserves a big ‘Thank You’? –
    Leslie – for keeping me sane.  Laurie, Debbie, Viv, Ava, Ron and the wonderful peeps at Toolbox Creative, for keeping me working.
13. How can I help someone else this coming week? –
    I’m going to help Crystal by making her website and I’m helping Ron (and he’s helping me) by my presentation this Thursday at the Fort Collins Internet Pros Meetup on WordPress.
14. What are my top 3 goals for the next 3 years? –
    • I want to make enough from WTF Marketing to buy my own health insurance.
    • I want to make enough from WTF Marketing to pay off my medical bills.
    • I want to make enough from WTF Marketing to buy a house or condo.
15. Have any of my recent actions moved me closer to my goals? –
    I’ve been doing lots of meetings… and turning those meetings into client work, but nothing sustainable yet.
16. What’s the next step for each goal? –
    • I have to make sure all my other bills are paid each month, which is happening (albeit very, very closely.)
    • I have to make sure I’m spending wisely as I pay off my medical bills.
    • I have to save up while I’m making sure every bill is getting paid.
17. What am I looking forward to during the upcoming week? –
    I want to see Harry Potter at the Drive-In with Leslie.
18. What are my fears? –
    Running out of money, getting evicted… game over.
19. What am I most grateful for? –
    I’m most grateful for the people who have faith in me.  People who think that I can do this.  People who want to see me succeed.
20. If I knew I only had one week to live, who would I spend my time with? –
    Duh