Rory Cullen, Kaizen Software Developer

Last week, I asked for your feedback on my Elevator Pitch.  I received a lot of feedback, both in the comments, and via private emails.

Most common responses:

• I looked stiff
• Didn’t smile at all (or the smile looked forced at the end)
• Tried to say too much
• Clearly reading the teleprompter, should have memorized the speech
• Didn’t seem like the person they know (“engaging and humorous”, I swear it’s a quote!)

Over 60% of Voters felt the production and content were good, while the remaining 40% felt either production or content needed work. That said, since there were only seven votes cast out of 37 viewers (59 total views of the blog post), I feel those numbers may not be statistically significant (my Six Sigma Black Belt days coming out for a visit!) Any way you slice it, I am thrilled with the feedback from so many sources. It also confirms my feelings about the video.

In my humble opinion, it was flat out awful. The awfulness was a true team effort. My eyes kept darting to the teleprompter, but then I’d been guaranteed that no one would notice. I looked like a professional athlete doing a local furniture ad. Stiff as a board, and just reading my lines. Post-production, the video was cut off too quickly at the end, resulting in a smarmy smirk instead of my genuine smile.

In addition, the text added to the top of the video did not accurately describe what I want to do.  It says “Process Improvement Specialist”, whereas I am a Software Developer.  It was like saying you are a real estate lawyer, and being labeled a realtor…or a dentist.  This was just poor marketing, top to bottom, and exactly the opposite of what I wanted.

Mistakes were made:

I stumbled into the filming of my pitch with very little forethought.  I was called the day before filming because a TV station was going to be there that day, and they did not have enough people filming pitches.  As a favor, and with the hope that I might get on TV (non cable-access), I practiced my pitch and showed up.  I admit, the TV angle was intriguing, and I hadn’t thought of the branding control issues I might face.  This was a mistake.

I have a brand.  My brand is “Kaizen Software Developer”.  Conceptually, it is meant to express both my software development focus, and my process improvement ability.  Although I talk about both in the video, I think process improvement was overemphasized as I use those words first.  I did not get across my message. Mistake #2.

I had no control over the release of the final cut.  I would have never released this video to the public, for all of the reasons given.  This isn’t 1909.  Film/Video is not a rare item nowadays, savored despite low quality.  Everyone with a camera or a phone can make a video of himself, so quality DOES matter.  This video is just not quality content that I would consider releasable.  Mistake.

I do not own the video.  For all I know, it could be sold off some day when I’m famous.  I keep a low, but focused, internet profile on purpose.  I try to maintain the highest standards across all of my public personas.  This does not meet those standards. #4.

The Pitch I used is designed for networking events, not for potential employers.  I think the speech itself is not awful, but it’s not made for this type of presentation.  I did not recognize that at the time, but it seems suddenly obvious to me.  I also tried to fit 60 seconds of material in 30 seconds.  Five.

As always, Learnings!

1. Control your brand!  Never let someone else have final cut on something in the public eye.  This is an absolute no-no.
2. Medium matters.  Things that work in person do not necessarily work on video.
3. If you make a mistake, correct it.  When Coke made the mistake of coming out with New Coke, they fixed the mistake (Coke Classic).

Final cut:

I am fixing my mistake.  I have asked them to remove the video from YouTube.  I don’t think it is representative of my best work, and I think it does not advance my interests.  In the end, that is all that matters.

If you need your fix on videos of me that are representative, please see these links to stories from earlier this spring:
NECN: http://www.necn.com/Boston/Business/2009/04/14/Job-seekers-turn-to-television/1239750266.html
WMUR: http://www.wmur.com/money/19075441/detail.html

Note: For the record, I volunteer with the NE Job Show, and do not wish to cast aspersions on the great work they are doing.  This blog is a reflection on my video only, and mostly on my own performance.  Many volunteers put time into this video, and I do not want to put their efforts down.  A camera person, technical guy entering speeches into the teleprompter, a person in the booth, two people to help with your delivery, an interviewer for a long-form segment, countless other organizers, plus post-production work.  Lots of people helped, which unfortunately makes me feel even worse about the result.  Please check out the full episodes of the NE Job Show online to see what they do.

A while back, I posted about my experience filming my elevator pitch.  Compared to many people I had watched, I felt I had a finely hewn pitch which emphasized my strengths and showed where I want to go.  About two weeks ago, the “final product” was loaded to YouTube and placed on the Blog for the New England Job Show.  I have strong feelings about this video, but I’d like to gather your reactions first.

Please take a moment to watch and rate the video using the poll buttons below.  Feel free to leave a comment on your reaction with more details as well.

>> VIDEO REMOVED, no longer on YouTube <<

I will post my own reaction in the next few days.

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First, a bit of housekeeping.  I’ve enjoyed my time on Wordpress.com, but over the weekend I made the move to a self-hosted blog using the Wordpress.org software.  After (and including) today, all new posts can be found on my primary site: http://www.rorycullen.com/blog/

If you follow me with Google Reader, etc., please update your subscription link.

And now, on to the main event:

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I am not exhausted.  My calves are a little sore, and I need a shower, but I’m not exhausted at all.  This is amazing to me.

A little background for starters:  Since leaving my last corporate role, and losing the subsidized gym that was included, I have been making do with my basement gym that consists of a NordicTrack and a treadmill.  Neither of these inspires me to be all that I can be, and my workouts have been noticeably flat lately, as opposed to my stomach.

About a month ago, on a beautiful spring morning, my girlfriend suggested I might like to run outside.  I was hesitant, but figured what the heck?  I might as well be outside, and it always feels like a better workout out there, not to mention there is nothing on TV on Sunday morning anyway.  I ran our local 3.1 mile loop, and felt pretty good.  I don’t think I even timed it, but guesstimated about 30 minutes or so.

A few days later, I did the loop again, and added a jog up a side street, maybe stretching the run to 3.3 miles.  Again, felt good.  A few days later, I did 4.25 miles, adding a new loop.  That added some serious hills.  This time, I was beat up by the hills, but was self-impressed once I measured it after the fact.  More days out, and I eventually went out and did 6.25 miles.  A few days later, I broke the eight mile barrier.  And since then, I have run two 10 mile days.  Twice this past week I have broken the 8:00 minute mile mark on runs of over eight miles.  Some time over the past month this ceased to be about the workout, and became about the act of running itself.  This whole thing is amusing to me, because I’m not a runner at all.

I come from a family of four siblings.  I am the only one who has not run the Boston Marathon.  One ran it last year at 43 years old.  Two of them have run 10 miles in under 6:00 minute miles.  Even if you don’t run, you might recognize those as impressive stats.  Like many people, I am inspired of the Marathon footage every April, and amazed that anyone can run that far, and even foolishly think I could do it.  But then I remember high school.  I was a member of the Cross Country Ski team.  However, I went to school near the coast of Massachusetts, so we had very little snow.  I definitely remember at least one season when we only put our skis on once, for the championship race at the end of the season.  Anyway, those with snow: ski.  Those without: run.  This was torture for me.  I seem to recall walking in the back with a fellow teammate, complaining of shin splints, generally trying to avoid running with all my might.  Truly believing I was not made for running.

Before this spring, I had never run farther than four miles.  The few times I had run that far, it was for races in support of charities, and I was sore for days.  I have also had some knee issues and have had some overuse injuries in the past.  But over the past month, I have realized that I really enjoy running.  I like knowing I’ll be outside and away from my computer.  I spend seven days a week at my laptop, but I can’t check email out there.  I can’t write blog posts.  I can’t do anything but think and run.  Some days I use the time to write a post in my mind like today.  Others I just purely focus on the run itself.  Most people use an MP3 player, but I am still in the honeymoon phase, enjoying the purity of the act itself.  My breathing, birds, Sunday morning softball games, yard sales.  I’m also on some busy roads of course, so self-preservation comes to mind as well.

So what have I learned this month?

• I shouldn’t run more than 6 miles without a water break.
• Check your route before you run.  If the road is busy, thin, and has no sidewalks, try somewhere else!
• Roads that appear flat from the driver’s seat of your car are not, in fact, flat.
• People are friendlier when you are running.
• Recycling is great, but running by a local paper recycling plant is not (it stinks!)
• Running is more fun if you have a lot of choices.  I run a big loop that offers countless options for expanding my run.  I don’t know how far I am going to run until I’ve hit my last leg.
• Fill up a water bottle before you leave so it’s ready when you get back. (I know this, I just don’t do it)
• You can really surprise yourself when you least expect it.
• I have a lot more to learn.

I will never run as fast as my brothers and I don’t know if I will ever run the Boston Marathon.  Maybe it’s a cliché, but it truly is about the journey, not the destination.  Was I able to run all these years, and just didn’t know?  It goes to show; it is never to late to try something new.  Whether it is a career change at 50, or a new sport at 70, you may have no idea what you can do until you try.

Ok, I may not be exhausted, but my knee might hurt tomorrow…

Have you ever heard of a “phantom” limb?  This experience sometimes happens to amputees, they sometimes feel like the limb they have lost is still present.  It must be a bizarre feeling.  Anything that occupies a spot in your life for 10 years is certainly going to feel like a major loss.  Although not nearly so traumatizing, I have a major phantom limb of my own, born from my last job.

I had lunch yesterday with a former co-worker in my old “work” neighborhood.  While observing several former co-workers enter the restaurant, I was reminded of my phantom limb, my employee ID.  There are memories associated with that ID.  This ID hung off my left pocket for years, and before that, my right pocket.  I remember why I moved it from my right pocket.  I had been playing goalie in indoor soccer, and had sprained my right thumb.  My simian arms hung low enough that I struck my thumb joint on the ID card when I walked around, so I moved it to the left side to relieve the irritation.

Your ID becomes a part of you, good and bad.  You check for it when you leave the house everyday.  Sometimes, you have that brief panic that it’s missing, even though it’s Saturday and you’re on the way to the beach.  Muscle-memory playing tricks, or maybe real memory.

At my former employer, people could use it to judge how long you have been with the company.  Maybe you have gained weight, lost hair, had a nose job.  Maybe your hairstyle was courtesy of Aquanet, or George Clooney (the Caesar anyone?), or Billy Ray Cyrus?  Maybe it hasn’t changed since then?

My picture was a freeze frame of my first day.  I was wearing a purple button-down shirt that my brother gave me.  This was my favorite shirt, which I wore like clockwork until my elbow broke through the fabric in the sleeve one day, also at work.  In my picture, I had good hair, and a decent tan.  I had just returned from a two-week vacation in Japan and Seattle, visiting another brother and some good friends.  I had hiked Mt Washington over the previous weekend.  It’s funny, my first thought while writing this was “Who was that guy?” but I haven’t changed that much at all.  I have hiked Washington seven or eight times since, have been to a few more exotic places, and my hair…well, let’s not revisit that again.  Anyway, sometime over the past few months, I stopped checking for my badge.  I don’t remember when.

This afternoon, I noticed my parking sticker on my car, also from my previous employer.  This was not just a parking sticker, but also a way I recognized cars on my commute, and in other lots around the region.  Some days it seemed like every other car was from my employer.  It was a symbol to me, a way to recognize people who I shared a common bond with.  I guess there will be a finality of removing the sticker, but it doesn’t hold the allure of my ID.  I forget the sticker, tucked there in the rear passenger window, ironically in my blind spot.  Seeing it today was a reminder of the past, but held little emotional resonance.

I think I’ll scrape that sticker off over the weekend.  And you know, I’m a little color-blind, so my favorite shirt may have been blue after all.  If only I had a picture to remind me…

I officially started this blog on April 1st.  As May ends, I am reflecting on what I have learned over these two months.

Stuff I’ve learned:

It is hard to break out from your core “audience” by magic.  Although I have increased readership from seven for my first post, to 50 for my more recent posts, it is hard to break on through to a larger audience.  My core “audience” of course consists of people I already know, who I contact via email, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

I really enjoy writing.  I always have, but it’s rewarding to get positive feedback.  It’s also a lot of work.

Don’t be afraid to scrap a post if it is junk.  I have about five of these so far, so about 25% of what I write gets dumped. Most are only a paragraph or two, as it’s easy to see when you have failed.  More importantly, I posted some that were just not good.

On that same topic…Don’t force it.  Pick good topics.

Don’t sacrifice quality for quantity.  I haven’t blogged in over a week, because I didn’t have a topic.  That said, the list of people who start a blog and abandon it shortly thereafter is a long one, so don’t be one of them!  According to Technorati, of 133 million blogs worldwide, only 7.4 million have been updated in the past 120 days (2008 data).  I have four blogs, and only one has been updated in the past 120 days. That said, one is a placeholder, one was for a short-term event, and one is linked to my Java project rollouts, and has been idle as I work on projects for others.  (Game time: Try to find my other three blogs. Credit in my next post for anyone who can find all three)

I comment on other peoples’ blogs more often now.  This leads to more readers, plus I recognize the value of feedback.  Every comment on my own blog is a coup, indicating that I engaged the reader with my topic.

People like pictures.

Two months, by the numbers:
Posts: 15
Page Views: Over 750
Average Views: 45 per post (excluding the “About” page)
Comments from people I don’t know: 1 (this is a huge achievement)

Most popular post so far:
I’m not a doctor, but I write like one beats out the Beard branding post by 1 view.

I have a few ideas rattling around my head right now, but haven’t pinned down the best topic.  The fact is, I started this blog as a self-promotional tool, and it has rather failed so far in that respect.  In reality, it’s more fun to write about other things.  Yes, I want to promote my skills and desire for full-time employment, but I can’t deny that those posts might be less interesting.  Maybe I’ll test that out later this week with something designed purely with my own self-interests in mind!

Thanks again for reading, feel free to send in topic ideas to keep my creative juices flowing!