Lee Way

My eldest son, Danny, has won the initial phase of the Someday Essay contest sponsored by Wells Fargo bank.  He went through a remarkably hard experience a few years back that changed the course of his life forever. He was in a near fatal car accident just south of Flagstaff, Arizona, wherein he shattered his femur and pelvis. My brother Barry and I were the first family members to arrive in Flagstaff, witness the demolished Toyota Carola, and see Danny in the hospital. It was gruesome.

Long story made short, Danny was told by doctors he would walk with a cane and not be able to run or play sports again. Danny found inspiration in the physical therapy staff who cared for him in the hospital and afterwards. He eventually tossed the cane, continued to work out, and began playing some basketball again. Now he walks with a very minor limp, when you can notice one at all, and he is studying to become a physical therapist himself. It is an inspiring story.  At least the folks at Wells Fargo think so. He was awarded $10K for his essay in their contest.  Now, he moves on to the final round, where his essay will compete with four others, and beginning September 17th, people visiting the Wells Fargo website will vote to determine the winner. Although, to me Danny is not only the clear  winner of this contest, but one of my heros as well.

In the course of my life, as it is with many, my Dad has had an incredible influence on me.
He passed away on Sunday, March 23. I continue to learn from him, even in his passing.
I have grieved a number of losses in my life: two younger brothers, a nephew, all my grandparents, and a wife. Somehow, I continue to be surprised at the variety and newness of the set of feelings that accompany the grieving of each. This one, again, hurts in new and different ways.

As I work through this grieving and have a chance to watch my family (extended and immediate) work through it, I am also aware of how others are mourning Dad’s passing differently than I have seen them grieve the other losses we have in common. Almost in the same manner in which we celebrate births differently, depending upon whether we are a new aunt or uncle versus when it is our own child. The relationship does make a difference.

For example, I see my Mom going through this loss of my Dad in a way that reminds me very much of my own grieving for the loss of my wife, Kristin. And, I see in my own behaviors and grieving patterns what I recall seeing in my Dad, at the point that his father passed.

I guess the key point here is that grief is essential, and a variety of grieving experiences rounds us out as individuals and gives us capacity to help and understand others in their times of grief, loss, and survivorship.

I am grateful for the learning. I look forward to being on the other side of the pain that this loss means to me. I will be grateful for what it will give me in terms of making me a better man. Hopefully, a little more like my dear Dad.

Dan Fogelberg is dead, having passed on the 16th.  I just learned of it tonight.
I will never forget where I was the first time I heard my first Dan Fogelberg song. My cousin Stuart, six months older than me, put the LP on in his down-stairs family room and said something like, ‘this music is amazing!’

I was hooked.

Dan Fogelberg was as much the soundtrack of my youth as were the more common top 40 artists.  His writing style appealed to me both in terms of lyrical content and lyric melody. His orchestral arrangements made sense to my rock roots and my classical training.

I will miss hearing new things from him, but thanks be to God that his music will live on.  May heaven be kind to the son of the Leader of the Band.

My wife will undergo surgery on her right ankle this Friday.  It has been a source of constant, chronic pain for about 15 years. The surgery will fuse her ankle, completely limiting the flexibility of her ankle.  Sounds like a nasty remedy, doesn’t it?

Yet, my hope is that this surgery will reduce her pain.  You see, she has bone on bone pressure and pain (her ankle has no cartilage in it) with every step she takes. This has gone on for so long that she is actually losing bone to the point that the bone has become flattened out at the round end that should have been protected from the lower part of her ankle by cartilage.  So, being in this condition at age 45, she is not a candidate for ankle replacement, as those have an effective post operative life of about 15 years… She would be 60 looking at the prospect of another replacement, and second replacements are highly discouraged… so what then, amputation?  So, we are opting for fusing the ankle.  The greatest benefit will be pain-free, or nearly pain-free, walking.  Hopefully, it will also help end the emotional, physical, and psychological fatigue I see in her when she has to do long days on her feet.
I titled this post “Feels Like Business as Usual” because it seems to me that sometimes there are hard choices to make in business that are not optimal in any regard, but they are the only choice one is left with.  Delaying, or doing the wrong thing will only delay the pain, usually making it worse.  One of the most obvious applications of this is when you have an employee who has dead-ended within your organization. It is obvious that you should let the person know, but doing so is uncomfortable. I have seen these types of situations get prolonged for years, causing chronic pain and slowing of execution, and degradation of morale.  I have also seen the benefit of more rapid, candid feedback and action to embrace the inevitable.  The result may be temporary reduction in some benefit while a suitable replacement can be found. But the gains realized by way of the relief and greater espirit de corps were well worth the loss of the dead-ended employee.

So, it is always useful, and most fair, to let such people know and make the needed changes for the good of the greater body.

Please send positive thoughts to my lovely wife this Friday.

The last few weeks have been absolutely nuts with all the activities leading up to PNME. And, now that it is show time, the greatest feeling I have as I look back over the past several weeks is a deep sense of peace, and I find that remarkable. Why, after what the last few weeks has held in terms of the demands on time, stresses on relationships, and all the hair-graying and wrinkle-deepening stress should I have a sense of peace? Upon sitting quietly on the plane, looking out the window, and thinking of all that has been accomplished the answer came very very clearly and simply: Great People!

Just spend a minute thinking with me here through the announcements we have made in this week leading up to PNME and that are being made on Friday a.m. at the show and all the people who have contributed to the success those announcements represent:
- GigaVox: Who in the world could be more professional, sincere, and great to deal with than Michael Geohegan and Doug Kaye. Throughout our acquisition and transition process they have both just been classy, great partners: non-adversarial, crisp in their execution, fair and intellectually honest, understanding, and willing.
- MommyCast: You will simply never find anyone sharper and on her game more than Gretchen Vogelzang. Similarly, you will never find anyone more real and straight-forward than Paige Heninger. Paul Vogelzang is an amazing PR mind with so much to offer the podcasting industry in terms of his knowledge of sponsorship sales and approach. Jeff Henninger, Paul’s (and Paige’s) alter ego is the consumate detail guy with a great ability to pull a deal together in sharp, crisp fasion, while achieving the ultimate legal stunt of fairly representing the reality in which the agreement must govern the relationship. Not easy to do. Behind the scenes, Arturo Rodriquez has been great to work with under pressure of time and not knowing our APIs, but he came through big for the mommies. Also, the podcasters who they have signed on, and who I have known, and now know even better as they have been guinea pigs for new systems and patiently endured while helping us identify issues and resolve them: Whitney Hoffman, Mark Blevin, and one charming couple who hasn’t signed yet, so I can’t say their names, but whom I have come to really like a lot.
- Kiptronic: Everyone I/we have dealt with at Kiptronic has been absolutely stellar: leading professionals in their areas of expertise, sincere, clear, direct, kind, and determined to do what is best not just for Kiptronic but for the industry. Larry Levine, Jonathan Cobb, Scott Cardosa, and everyone else we are working with are such pros. It makes it easy to look forward to working with them to help enable the monetization of all the shows on Podango.
- PodPress: Dan Kuykendall is a one man army and one of the nicest humans I have ever dealt with. His vision and passion for technology may only be surpassed by his technical abilities and work ethic.
- FarPoint Media: I just have to say that Michael Mennenga, Jeff Willerth, and Summer Brooks are rocks. These folks have built trust with me in ways I can’t even articulate. They have shown faith, endurance, loyalty, vision, leadership, and poise that has enabled us to produce a remarkable relationship of deep trust and accomplish so much more than we believed possible together in a short period of time. When people place that kind of trust in you and your team, you knock yourself out for them.
- RHED Pixel: The first time I met Rich Harington in the speakers lounge at NAB NY, we hit it off. He struck me as one of the most capable, bright-minded, and kind-hearted guys I have met in the new media industry. He has continued to strengthen that impression with each subsequent encounter. His staff, including Nichole and Pam, are consummate professionals, and like Rich, very friendly and likable from the first time you meet them. Rich is a super-star within his niche focus of videography and within his profession, and his team is worthy of his obvious trust for them.
- Girls Gone Geek (also know–at least by me–as g3eek): Staci DeGagne, the producer of the show, is a remarkable talent, and once again, just one of the nicest, yet professional and personably strong women you will ever meet. She has a winner on her hands, if you ask me. This show has real potential. And if it wins, it will be because of Staci. Scott Bourne has been brilliant in his approach to Staci and the show. Ask him his secret to making Staci a success sometime. He will tell you that all he did was set things in motion and then get out of Staci’s way. What I love about Scott is that he has a knack for knowing just what is needed to make a show fly. In this case, it is Staci DeGagne. Another woman on Girls Gone Geek who I am looking forward to meeting is Liana Lehua. Scott Bourne describes her as being really smart and talented and amazingly fit (three attributes I aspire to, so I look forward to Liana’s influence in any measure).
- The Unconference itself: Who doesn’t love Leesa Barnes, CC Chapman, Alex Lindsay, David Lawrence, Jason Van Orden, John C. Havens, Paul Colligan, Rich Harrington, Dan Kuykendall, and Evo Tera? (There are others that are leading sessions who I have already mentioned or whom I just don’t know as well, and I am being just as honest as can be here in gloating over all these amazing folks I get to work with. )

Outside the realm of our announcements, my life is filled with great people who offer constancy and excellence and goodness that motivates me and brings me feelings of great gratitude:
- Doug Smith: What an amazing partner and friend. He is loyal, kind-hearted, patient, and so very capable as probably the best value manager I have ever encountered.
- Tracey. our investor: Without Tracey’s ongoing faith, we would be nothing. And her personal story and ongoing tenacity continually serve to inspire me as an entrepreneur.
- Scott Bourne, whom I met exactly one year ago at the last Expo: Scott has become not only an indispensable advisor and business partner, but also a dear friend. Fiercely loyal and obsessively full of integrity in every sense of the word.
- The Whole Podango Team: If you have met these folks, you know what I mean. You will not find more devoted, capable, professional, and fun people anywhere. If you do, send them on over we are hiring!
- My Family: Annette and the kids have been far more supportive of my mad dash than anyone ever should have been. Their smiling faces and bright eyes fuel my fires, and I would not have even begun to survive the last few weeks without them picking up extra chores and working well together in my absence, and ignoring my occasional grumpiness for lack of sleep.

Bottom line, I am lucky that my world is filled with people I love, respect, and enjoy because of who they are and not because of what I get from them or them from me. I work and live with true contributors who are just good because they just are.

The people in my life make it all worth while.

(I was holding this post until I could put all the links in, but I just haven’t gotten to it, so I am going to return to edit and put them in later.  Sorry for the lack of link love in this edition!)

There is one winning principle, simple, yet profound, that I learned early in my business career and that continues to be reaffirmed for me again and again (and I do wish I could recall who taught this to me so that I could give them due credit), is this:

Work “On It” not “In It!”

This means that one should work on problems from an objective perspective, removing oneself as much as possible from the emotional investment that is invariably in place with pretty much anything that qualifies as a problem that is worth solving. Routinely reminding myself of this principle has often helped create a space between stimulus and response and given me time for my Irish temper (or wherever it came from) to take a back seat to reason.

I find that there are two keys to enabling this principle to have full effect:

1) It is nearly impossible to remember this at the point of crisis. It has to be practiced constantly in the course of making one’s daily contribution, not just when the crisis arises–by then it is too late. Always try to see things from the outside looking in, free from ingrained biases, assumptions, and prejudices.

2) You have to make your contribution passionately and consistently out of a conviction that it is the right thing to do and not out of a hope, desire, or expectation of reciprocity or reward. The reason this ties to the “On It not In It” concept is that the moment one’s ego is invested, i.e., “what’s in it for me?” or “how does this make me look?,” one has crossed the line and is working “In It” not “on it.”

There is also a certain noteworthy paradox in this principle that invariably twists people up. That is that it takes passion and investment of energy and personal care to achieve most great things. Yet, here I am advocating objectivity. It would seem that I am saying, don’t care too much about things. On the contrary, paradoxically, I have found that my contribution level is greatly enhanced once I remove the selfish motivations and focus my passion on the motivations that serve the greater purposes outside of myself. The sense of freedom and the openness and trust that it enables allow the contribution to be embraced and carried forward by others, enabling the greater likelihood of success.

So, the key is to be passionately focused “On It” not “In It.”

Yeah, I know. It is supposed to be “A day in the life…” but it just doesn’t feel right to say it THAT way. Instead, I am feeling like many days have a lifetime of experience built into them… at least in terms of length.

I love what I do for a living. I thrive on ideation, envisioning, conceptualizing, and on building, creating, debugging, refining, selling, and believing, especially when it comes to the seemingly impossible. But I have to tell you that it means long hours of intense work.

I have worked in the corporate scene. I even put in what were more normal hours, although my wife says I wouldn’t know how to do anything half way or on a normal person’s schedule. This (running an internet startup) is fundamentally different. It requires all I have to give. And that is what I also love about it.

I DO take time to get my kids off in the morning, and to be with the family in the evening. I HAVE to take time off on Sunday and just breath, separate myself from the pressures, read good faith-building literature, and worship.

But the point of this post is simply that if you are going to start a new company, be prepared for a full investment of all you have to bring to the effort.

There are a few things that keep me sane, energized, and moving forward. I will blog about those in coming posts.

I just completed my latest Web Trends News Brief (my podcast on Web 2.0 and Internet News), and the lead story I chose was one from Business Week, reported by CNETNews.com that claims that Blogs are declining in popularity, when judged as a percentage of active blogs that are being tracked by Technorati.

I must say that this is not a huge surprise for a few reasons:

• Blogs, like podcasts, have been the subject of a bunch of hype, so naturally, everyone swarms the new technology for a time, then figures out that its work, or just goes to the next thing (probably over to Twitter, in this case).
• Blogs, in my opinion, are just mini, personal websites, that let users establish them much more quickly and update them nearly painlessly. It just makes sense that after the hype dies down, people will naturally begin using them pragmatically, and I am seeing a bunch of that. For example, many podcasters are using blogs as the platform for delivering their website experience for their audiences.
• Finally, it isn’t a surprise because people will often start a blog, figure out they don’t believe in their initial concept, and they abandon the effort. I can think of four blogs I have started, realized that my concept was either flawed in its lack of appeal, or unsustainable in terms of the effort.

All in all, I think it is neither good, nor bad that blogging, and other consumer generated media (CGM) are beginning to “plateau.” It is just what come naturally. Blogs are not going away any time soon.

I feel very fortunate to have attended PodcampNYC this weekend. i have met some wonderful people and had a truly fulfilling time. I participated in three sessions  as a speaker or panelist. I really felt good about the content of each of the sessions in terms of what the attendees were able to take away from the event. Good, solid, new information was exchanged in the true spirit of openness and common  interest.

Above is me standing in teh Podango space. Shalon is seated to my right.

We sponsored the WiFi for the event and thereby also created the Podango Room where people could plop down and get WiFi access and just hang out.

John C. Havens opened the event, thanking sponsors. Above is a picture of me sitting in the back of the room when he thanked Podango for our sponsorship help for the event. (man I look fat!)

In my first session, where i was the only presenter/moderator, i talked about how to find sponsors for podcasts, which naturally requires the users generate quality content, know their audience, discover where sponsors are who already advertise on the internet, etc. The session participants had some great wisdom to offer one another. In particular, a fellow by the name of Steve Eisenberg piped up from the back of the room with some really helpful sites and resources. I promised Steve and the session attendees that i would include a post that would share his contact information (steve AT steveeisenberg.com - be sure to replace the AT with the @ sign). Shout out: Thanks for your ideas and openness, Steve. You typify what i love about our industry: good-hearted, helpful people who love to learn and share their learning.

‘

Above: Steve Eisenberg with Laurence Koret

I also want to thank my new friends, Mark and Jeevan from RawVoices who invited me to participate in their session on monetizing podcasts. I participated with Dina Kaplan (blip.tv) and Frank Edward Nora and Mad Mike Masters (anythingbutmonday.com) in a discussion about monetizing podcasts. The ad hoc panel wasa a good mix of folks from companies that are actually helping podcasters monetize content today.

I then had the opportunity to participate with Matt Snodgrass, David Kawalec, Kris Smith, John C. Havens, Chris MacDonald, and Greg Cangialosi on a panel discussing the Podcasting Open Metrics Initiative.

Finally, i went to dinner with Leesa Barnes (Podonomics blog) and Shalon Ironroad (my beautiful daughter who helps as much as anyone to keep Podango in the good graces of our customers). We had a terrific visit and enjoyable time together. If you haven’t met Leesa, you have missed meeting one of the brightest minds and personalities in Podcasting today. We truly had a good time and exchanaged ideas about podcasting and the needs podcasters have today. Thanks for the wisdom, insights, and fun, Leesa!

I also enjoyed meeting and talking with Gary Leland of Podcast Pickle. What a nice, genuine, guy!

Gary Leland, Podcast Pickle CEO

Podango is one of two sponsors of Gear Media Tech, an amazing learning experience for podcasters. Leo Laport, Alex Lindsay, and Scott Bourne, three of the best and most respected tech podcasters, responsible for 13 of the 20 top tech podcasts on iTunes (yesterday’s standings), are putting on a class in the Zeum auditorium. and Alex Lindsay mentioned Podango’s FREE (Ad revenue split) podcasting service. This is something we have talked about openly, but we had not begun the official marketing push for. It was a fun moment when he mentioned it and I said it would be announced in a couple of weeks. The crowd erupted into laughter.  I went up after the event and told Alex that I hoped he didn’t feel badly for me saying that we hadn’t announced what he was talking about. He was super cool about it.

It has been a great week in LA and SF. But it always feels great to be home.

Podango was the Podcasting Sponsor for TechEd 2007, which let me get to know William Neese, the director of the show. When I shared with him some of my vision for podcasting, new media and education, he invited me to give a Spotlight presentation to TechEd attendees.

I was pleasantly surprised to get very favorable reviews from the attendees, nearly across the board. One thing i got whacked on was that I didn’t provide any paper handouts. So, I am herewith making that situation more forgivable. You may download my presentation in PowerPoint format here.

I am feeling a mixture of both satisfaction and a sense of guilt for just having received notice that I have been voted into the v|Spring Capital Top 100 Venture Entrepreneurs. The reason for feeling happy are obvious: it is nice to be recognized by a group of one’s peers. The reason for feeling guilt is that, like most such beauty pageants, pretty girls win, and arguably the most deserving, but I am confident that there, for me, will be some pretty important names not on the final list of winners. So I offer my congratulations to the other “winners,” and my sincere applause to the others, so many of whom are far more deserving than I.

I’m probably going to post a Lee|Spring 100 list once they post the full list of winners, highlighting who should have, in my view, been included on the winners list, but was not.

Just got back last night from a few days away participating and presenting at the Web Ventures event. It was a well organized, and well structured event. It was very motivating and inspiring to hang out for a few days with other CEOs and VCs. Many similar stage companies were there, so the idea exchange was fairly rich.

Unfortunately, I found myself spending way too much time in the room doing what I would do if I weren’t at the event, but things just didn’t align to let me mix and mingle as much as I would have liked.

I did record a couple of interviews that I will use in future podcast shows. More on that later.

The key learning for me from the event was something that should be obvious, but tends to fade for me and then return with huge force: Solve real problems and be focused on the relevance of your service/product to customers. More on this later…

New acquaintances from the show include:

• Yoni Avital, Founder & CEO of MatchActivity
• Dana Li, Co-founder of NetMITE
• Pascal Josselin, CEO and founder of Yoono
• Ken Liu, CEO of mindtouch
• Don Musselman, Account Development Executive (read sales wizard) for Dow Jones
• Adam Lilling, Co-founder of biggerboat
• John F. Ince, Founder and President of PodVentureZone (podcast!)

Ok, so my first post on my shiny, newly templated blog pointed out that I was having some pain around my new template saying I was John McCoist. I was unsure where to change this within the template files, so rather than poke around blindly, I submitted a ticket with Template-help.com, the vendor for this WordPress template, for which I gave $55.00 of my own hard-earned money.

So, this is kind of funny. I bought (from TemplateMonster.com) and uploaded a new theme for my blog, and it has Name: John McCoist appearing just bemeath my picture. I can’t for the life of me find where to change it! I have a pretty deep technical background that I am currently questioning pretty fundamentally.

I have opened a ticket with Template-help.com. We will see if I can fix this with their help. If I can’t you can bet I will have a few choice words for them posted here later. If I can, and it is just me being roll-your-own WordPress stupid, I will admit that here also.

 But at least we are off and running!  <|:(