Thoughts from Mike Templeton

At most of the events I’ve attended recently, I am always greeted with the same question:

“What exactly is it that you do? I seem to see your name everywhere online.”

With so many asking this question, I’ve been able to formulate what I think is a good response.

“I have a lot of fires burning, but I’m looking for the right one to keep stoking so that it will take off.”

When an interesting project comes into your mind or you are offered the opportunity to collaborate on something interesting, it’s often hard to resist. I’ve gotten into this situation with clients, with friends and with my career. I’ve taken on clients whom I probably should have declined, I’ve started projects I shouldn’t have and I’ve made career movements I later came to regret, but really it’s just hard to resist.

Being known as an idea person and someone who is interested in a lot of things, keeping up with all of these efforts can become personally draining. Sometimes I wonder what I would do if I had no outside projects whatsoever, but it just doesn’t seem feasible. Based on my nature, I’ll most likely always have something else going on the side, just to keep me motivated and continuing to expand my skills.

So, given that I like working on projects and ideas, but I sometimes feel spread to thin, I’ve recently been running through internal processes to validate my ideas and find projects to put on the chopping block. For a guy with 10+ Twitter accounts, two business bank accounts, more WordPress installations than I care to remember and a handful of email addresses, I knew there would be potential to clean house.

The Project Detox Process

If you find yourself in a similar position as me, or just feel like streamlining your project list, consider walking through the following questions:

• What value is this project providing?
• Is this project generating income?
• Is your project compensating you well enough for the time required to generate that income?
• Are their easier ways to manage this project?
• How much time does this project require?
• Could the management of this project be outsourced and still provide the same value?
• What else could you being doing with the time spent on this project?
• Is there a long-term future for this project?
• Do you see yourself continuing to pursue this project into the foreseeable future?

If you answer “no” for very many of these questions, it’s easy to see you may be looking at a project worth dumping. And if you don’t want to totally delete a project, just find a shelf where it can sit until you have some “yes” answers to motivate you.

These questions and this process are not meant to say that every project that fails to receive positive answers should be killed off, but it is a quick way to get you thinking about the outcomes of these ideas. Too often we can become so wrapped up in an idea that we miss out on the answers to many of these questions, allowing ourselves to be blindsided and missing other types of opportunities.

I was recently watching a video from Loic LeMeur and caught a great conversation he had with Seth Godin discussing why he (Seth) isn’t on Twitter,

“Be a meaningful specific, not a wandering generality.”

If you can’t be the best, don’t do it

Seth explains that he is the best in the world at writing a marketing blog (for now) and the best at being himself. If he were to start using Twitter, he knows that he wouldn’t be the best at using it, as others are much better (like Chris Brogan, he says). Seth would rather stick to what he knows and what he is good at, rather than doing everything mediocre.

Catch the full-video interview on YouTube, where Seth describes why people need a tribe (and eventually why he isn’t on Twitter):

Should I quit everything I’m not the best at?

Seth Godin seems to have taken his example about Twitter to the extreme, but I can relate to his point about doing the things the best or not at all.

When I first started my marketing and web strategy consultancy, I had no idea what the scope of my services looked like. I figured I would do anything and everything related to marketing that  a client wanted to pay me for.

However, after spending time building websites, setting up blogs, designing logos and writing marketing campaigns, I soon found that certain items seemed to be taking more time than I wanted, and that I didn’t really enjoy some aspects of what I was doing. As a result, I had to sit down and truly define the scope of services I would offer. I decided that I would not be a graphic designer for clients and that my main focus would be on planning, strategy and education, not necessarily on executing everything.

This small exercise helped me understand what I was best at doing, and most of all, helped me understand what I was best at providing to clients. If I wasn’t going to be able to provide them the best graphic design service, why bother doing a mediocre job? It would be in my client’s best interest to find the best graphic designer available for the job and to steer them in that direction.

Examine your skills and figure out which are your best

If you’re not a good blogger, find someone else to blog. If you can’t manage projects, find a good project manager. If designing user interfaces is not your forte, find a UI designer who rocks at it.

In the end, identifying your own strengths and outsourcing the rest will save you time and make you (and your clients) happier.

What do you do the best? What should you be offloading to someone else?

While big corporations are laying people off and America experiences the highest unemployment rates in a long time, there are still those who are willing to take risks. In fact, Iowa State University economist Liesl Eathington said the Midwest tends to see an increase in business start-ups during tough economic times as people laid off from jobs are forced to find ways to make money (Business Record).

A recent Business Record article by Sarah Bzdega profiles three Des Moines area business owners who are taking risks and have started their own businesses, and quite frankly, I’m inspired by them. I’ve been running a marketing and web strategy consultancy of my own on the side since March 2007, but never had the guts to take it full-time. And now I’ve just started a new job, which puts plans for Dosovo (and all of my other projects) even farther behind. However, these business owners (and many others like them) have given it all up for a chance to live the dream. They’re hustling. They’re making it happen.

I hope everything works out for these business owners and the hundreds/thousands of others trying to make a go of it right now. It’s these small businesses that are probably going to pull us out of this thing we’re worked ourselves into.

If you’re not on Twitter you probably haven’t heard of an internationally organized event taking place tomorrow night simultaneously in 175+ cities across the globe. The event is called Twestival and is being organized to bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water.

charity: water is a non-profit that brings clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. The organization has been operating since 2006, but a global community of passionate microbloggers has propelled this group to gather worldwide recognition for its efforts.

In September 2008, a group of Twitterers based in London UK decided to organise an event where the local Twitter community could socialize offline; meet the faces behind the avatars, enjoy some entertainment, have a few drinks and tie this in with a food drive and fundraising effort for a local homeless charity.

The bulk of the event was organized in under two weeks, via Twitter and utilized the talents and financial support of the local Twittersphere to make this happen.

Around the world similar stories started appearing of local Twitter communities coming together and taking action for a great cause. Twestival was born out of the idea that if cities were able to collaborate on an international scale, but working from a local level, it could have a spectacular impact.

Seeing how these tight-knit local communities could gather together and tackle seemingly impossible feats in a short amount of time, charity:water saw the Twitter community as an opportunity to help raise awareness to the global crisis they seek to remedy.

People Will Rally Behind a Good Idea

First the idea was born, then volunteers started pouring in. Tony Scott set up Twestival.com and enabled each participating city to set up their own page. Amiando came on board to help event organizers with online RSVP tracking. Mashable partnered to promote the event worldwide. Tipjoy built widgets and organized a channel to raise donations.

The sheer number of people involved in this event and the heart and passion going into all of the planning, organizing and promotion have my jaw dropped on the floor. Many times in today’s society we are plagued with thoughts of how terrible most people are and the newsrooms of the world continue to pummel us with bad news, but the truth is that good-natured people with good intentions DO exist in the world. Twestival is being organized by those people.

Join Us Tomorrow Night and Support Twestival’s Cause

If you’d like to become part of this monumental fundraising event, stop by http://desmoines.twestival.com (or whichever city you are from) for more information. It’s not too late to donate a few bucks and help those in need.

I’ll be at Mars Cafe, 2318 University Ave tomorrow night (Thursday, February 12) and hope to see you there.

If you’re still not convinced, I’ll leave you with a video from the folks at Lava Row about why you should get involved:

Last night was a unique #dmtweetup event because it was centered around ugly Christmas sweaters and those in need. The event, hosted at Impromptu Studio (@ImpromptuStudio) and sponsored by Olde Maine (@OldeMain) and the Technology Association of Iowa (@TechnologyIowa), was an informal social hour with the goal of donating clothes and household items to a local shelter and providing an outlet for networking for many of the people who have recently lost their jobs in the Des Moines area.

The bulk of those in attendance are all users on Twitter, which makes these types of events even more fun because you get to connect face-to-face with people you normally just talk to online in 140-character bursts. I was able to meet several new people who I’d not yet been introduced to and I made several new connections that I think will lead to great opportunities in the future.

To some people it may seem awfully strange that members of a common website could come together in person and support causes and our community the way #dmtweetup does, but our group is very unique in the way that we operate. Through the common ground and transparency of Twitter, users are able to learn about and be introduced to people they may have never met otherwise. Also, because we have that commonality in Twitter, it gives us all a sense of camaraderie and we go out of our way to support each other. People answer each others questions, pass along job leads, donate to good causes and show their support in any way they can.

It was great to see so many people (and new faces) at last night’s event as it really showed the organic networking power of good people here in Des Moines and a few strings of messages on the web.

Thanks to Dan Welk (@clickphotodm) of Click Photography, Metromix captured a number of photos from last night’s event, including this one of Robby Glazebrook and myself.

ABC5, the first local news station on Twitter (@ABC5_WOI), put together a great video story on the event.