Grow Your Business

Recently I took a doctor recommended stress test and I realized I was demonstrating physically how the world is impacting our businesses and how we need to act to be able to maintain our success in the new economy.

How it used to be.

When I first got on the treadmill life was good. It was a nice manageable steady pace. Easy to maintain without much exertion and as long as I simply kept moving I was handling everything just fine.

When the economy was robust that was how we ran our businesses. It was easy to be profitable and maintain our expected results without much stress because we understood how the business world functioned. Sure we’d trip once in a while but with a bit of time it was relatively easy to recover.

The business world for the most part operated as we expected and we had confidence in how our actions were going to deliver for us – keeping us on track moving down the road.

Changes are made for us, or are they made to us?

After a couple of minutes on the treadmill my cardiologist asked how I was feeling. Confidently, I said, “Fine, I can do this all day.” Next thing I know the elevation is changing on me and I am now walking up a steep incline.

Largely because of the impact of the speed of the internet and the globalization of business, the pace of business for most of us changed. We suddenly had to have a plethora of technology changes; we were competing in a bigger league, customers were better informed and demanding more.  The learning curve from this caused many business owners to begin feeling like they were constantly working uphill. For many executives these were not changes they were craving, these were changes forced on us like the doctor deciding I suddenly needed to be working uphill.

Businesses were excited with the new opportunities being presented but realized they had to be much more agile to work at this new pace and in better shape to be consistently working up the hill.

At this pace we need agility over stability.

Still able to manage this pace and increased incline I felt confident. My thinking was, I work out, do half-marathons, have good health measurement numbers over the years and I can handle this test. That is, until this uphill pace was increased to a new faster pace I was unfamiliar with. An external force was pushing me to perform at levels beyond my comfort zone. (I swear I saw an evil smile cross the doc’s face when he did this.)  I realized at this pace a small trip would leave to a painful stumble. I found myself working harder and realized my stability on my feet needed to be replaced with agility on my feet.

Business is going through this same shift. Stability was an important desire for decades. Remember how businesses would tout how long they had been in business? Today, people care less with how long you’ve been in business and care more about how well you are doing at this moment in time. Stock holders and customers share this view. Stability is rapidly being replaced with a need for agility – the ability to operate at increased speeds and constantly uphill.

Look at the before and after pictures.

Before I stepped onto the treadmill the doctor took a series of pictures of my heart and shortly after the treadmill stress test was completed more pictures were taken for contrast and comparison.

Businesses should be conducting comparison studies within themselves. Take a snapshot of your business from five years ago and compare it to your current operations. How do things look? Were you more profitable then than you are now? Did you feel more comfortable and confident then than you do now? Be cautious not to simply look at the numbers – they can be deceiving. For decades my medical numbers have been solidly in the normal zones for health.  Keep in mind, many businesses have died in the last few years that according to regulators and auditors were in great shape as far as numbers go.

Look at the heart of your organization. How well are you dealing with your stress test? Are you increasing you abilities and agility to operate at this new pace or are you huffing and puffing trying to maintain until “things get back to normal?” In my case the stress test saved my life with the doctor’s expertise in knowing what he was looking at and how to properly deal with what he saw. Is it time to save your business by taking that same approach and analysis and incorporating the skills of experts?  I know it’s time to take care of the health of your business.

On a personal note: I encourage my business friends over the age of 50 to consider talking with your doctor about taking a stress test. At the very least it will establish some baselines for comparison as you age, or as in my case it could also be a life-changing event.

Sitting in my exit row seat in a plane next in line to take off I hear a phone ring behind me. The man in the center seat didn’t turn off his phone as instructed and proceeds to carry on his phone conversation. The lady beside me says to the flight attendant sitting in the jump seat right in front of us, “The guy behind me is talking on the phone!”

The flight attendant shrugs his shoulders, shakes his head, and throws up his hands and says, “Nuthin’ I can do.” As we turn onto the runway he adds, “It usually never affects the plane anyhow.” USUALLY???

Have you ever noticed bad employees stay with you for a long time (because they have nowhere else to go, which is an article in itself as to why you allow them to say!) while your best employees are being poached and given opportunities by your competitors even in these challenging economic times?

Like the best companies in every industry, your organization should be on a constant search for better talent to strengthen your team. The talent wars will determine the success of any organization competing in this new economy. Before trying to attract and hire top talent you need to ask yourself three critical questions that will determine the quality of the talent you can attract and more importantly, get to stay. Are you really ready for top talent?

Question #1: Why do you want top talent?

When I ask this question of audiences I get responses such as, “They will make my team better. They will save me money. They will produce more. They will help my bottom line.” Every one of those answers is true from a manager’s standpoint, but not one of them will get that talent to stay with you. The correct answer to that critical question – Because I want that employee to have a life-changing work experience works for us.

What does a life-changing work experience look like from a top talent’s point of view? As one human resources director told me of an actual experience she witnessed; when the employee is leaving because her husband was transferred and she is crying in her exit interview saying things like, “I will never find another place to work as good as this one.”

A life-changing work experience is about how connected the employee is to the work she does, the people she works with and the opportunity to exercise her talents. She wasn’t crying over a lost paycheck, she was crying over a lost work-experience. This is why you want to hire top talent so you can provide them with that type of connection to what they will get paid to perform. If you can’t provide that experience, your top talent will not stay and frankly you have some things that need to be done to create that work environment.

Question #2: Are you hiring talent or filling jobs?

Filling jobs means you are interviewing when you have a job opening. Hiring talent is bringing on board a person who has talents you highly value and finding a place for them to fit your organization. When you are filling jobs you have a box you need to put someone in. It’s restrictive and based on a job description that has more to do with the mechanical aspects of the jobs rather than the fit of the person to the workforce or the culture of the organization. A job reports directly to a boss, has specific duties to accomplish and after a short period of time the owner of that box refuses to perform duties outside of the job box created for them to fit in.

Talent is more free-flowing in top talent-attracting organizations. When they hire talent they hire an individual to perform that talent anywhere in the organization that can benefit from those skills. Find someone who has a knack for solving complex problems with simple solutions? Why limit them to a box of one job title? Let them roam the organization as a solution-provider for anyone that has a need for that skill. The company is better off, the employee is better off doing that thing he is best skilled for, and everyone benefits!

Question#3: Are you willing to change the hiring and retention process to keep your top talent?

Top talent should be hired based on a talent description, not a job description. Recruits should be asked to demonstrate their talent, not submit a resume. Do you really care how they look on a piece of paper? As fast as business is changing, you want to determine how they are going to perform their talents for you in the future. Request a demonstration and conduct a team interview to see how well they are going to fit.

To retain top talent you will need to abandon a recent pillar of managerial structure: Treat everyone the same. One size does NOT fit all. Top talent expects to be managed and lead differently than the middle of the road talent employee. Managers need to be taught how to manage the elite and yes treat them differently than the rest. (Again this can and will be an entire article later.) When you insistent on managers treating everyone the same you appeal to the lowest common denominator which means you dumb down your organization and you lose the elite talent.

If you want to attract and retain the best of the best, you have to provide the work environment to keep them on your payroll. So the next question is: Are you ready for top talent to work for your company?

Have you changed how you approach your business in the last few years? Have your products and services shifted to meet a changing customer expectation? What kind of new innovations or initiatives are you working on to increase market share? Most businesses are operating quite differently than they have in the recent past and they may no longer have the right talent fit for these new approaches.

To retain your top talent in a free agent market it is critical to know how to align your business strategies with the right talent. One of the greatest frustrations to both employees and executives occurs when the talent is a mismatch with the strategies of the company.  Granted if you are transforming an organization there will be a period of time adjusting the alignment of strategy and talent, and as long as everyone is being continuously informed of this transformation while they are going through it, they will tolerate that ambiguity for a time.

The Right Talent with the Right Initiatives

Look at the five top initiatives that are driving your business this year. I’m guessing your marketing is taking a more Internet and social media focus. I would imagine your customer care is elevating for better communication, less wait time and customer expectations are setting a greater need for directly communicating with a knowledgeable employee. I am willing to bet you have moved innovation up the ladder of priorities. These are the types of changes most organizations are seeing to be competitive at the speed of change. As you upgrade your initiatives to reflect the increasingly competitive marketplace you have to ask, is my talent upgrading with the expectations?

Once upon a time longevity was a desired trait in employees but at the pace of change today longevity is only as good as the employee is willing to upgrade his skills. Let’s say, you have a marketing director that has been in that position for 20 years. Good for him, but how well does he understand the seismic shifts happening in marketing with social media? Does he know how to use a QR code? Does he even know what a QR code is? If you have a marketing director who still places ads in the newspaper and on local cable channels as his first choice for his budget dollars, you have to ask if he is the right talent for the times.

To execute your initiatives with maximum returns you have to have the correct fit of talent for the desired results. If you want to be innovative, create an innovative work environment and employee innovative minds. It’s time to evaluate your talent and see how well they match with what you are trying to accomplish.

The Right Talent with the Right Customers

How well do your customer-contact employees relate to the customers you are trying to attract? How well have you defined the “new customer?” Are you attracting a particular demographic of customer? Typically, customers today want to deal with an employee who has very good interpersonal skills and is knowledgeable of the products and services being offered. Customers calling call-centers want quick answers and an easily understood person to speak with.

Now look at your workforce. Are your customer-contact people the most personable? Do they enjoy solving problems for others? Can they handle a confrontational conversation?   Are your employees capable of sending away an unhappy customer satisfied with the response they received to their complaint? The brutality of customers’ comments take a specific type of person with the talent to manage these situations. It has less to do with their technical abilities and much more to do with their talent to communicate and interact with the customer. Are you still asking for job experience on your job applications? Experience no longer speaks to capabilities in the new economy. Hire for talent, you can train for skill.

The Right Talent with the Right Leadership

I met with an executive of a company who proudly told me, “I am president of a pure cutting-edge innovator company. I surround myself with innovative thinking people. I absolutely love the creative process.” Then why were the majority of his current innovative creative-thinking employees significantly dissatisfied? Why were those who left in a mass exodus the year before so vocal about their negative experience under his leadership? It seems this executive felt that innovative thinkers suffer from unbounded thinking and can easily be distracted and miss deadlines therefore they need a tight structure and someone to provide discipline to the process.

This speaks to the fear of many command and control style managers: If I don’t contain them, nothing productive will get done. The fact is, innovative thinkers do not work well in cages or with someone cracking a whip behind them. Yes, a tiger in the wild will roam the wilderness, but putting him a cage or in the circus under a constant watchful eye does not make him a better tiger. Creative people need room to roam, innovators need to be able to work through the process, and talent needs an environment that allows them to grow. Understanding the talented people you are leading is most important to unleashing the best their talents have to offer. Some talent works best in a private office without interruptions, some talent likes open unbounded work space, and some talent must have constant human interaction. Know your talent needs. Know how to lead them and know how they fit well with your initiatives and you will create a comfortable work environment and create great success for the organization.

Last Friday night over cards with friends I was asked, “What’s the point of Twitter?” Before I could respond, a guy waded into the conversation by saying, “There is no point. Who cares what I had for breakfast?”

I realize so many people feel the same way, and they totally are missing the point and the value of social media.

Talk with anyone who owns their own business, or is a solo practitioner, or is looking for a job. They will tell you the two most important tools they have are their network and their reputation. Both of these are built today with social media. Without question, Twitter contributes to building your personal brand.

How you use social media, what you say, and the pictures you post will all become part of your permanent record. Not participating will also speak volumes about your brand.

“I have a good job, so I have no need to build a personal brand, right?”

There is no such thing as job security in the digital age; therefore, everyone, regardless of current position, should be building their personal brands because your business worth is becoming more and more predicated on your “Google juice” (getting a high representation in a search for you.)

When was the last time you Googled yourself? That’s right, put your name in the search box and see what comes up. How many times did you appear on the front page of the listings? Did you even appear on the front page of the listings? How many pages deep did you have to search before anything about you appeared?

If I can’t find you in a Google search looking for you, you are brand-less to the world. Who you are and what your skills, talents and capabilities are matter in today’s business environment. Companies are shifting to a more talent-focused approach to hiring and promotion than the old school experience-based hiring approach. Why the shift? Because everything is changing so dramatically that experience is becoming of lesser value compared to skills and talents that apply to current job demands. So what if you have 15 years of experience working with outdated technology? It just doesn’t matter anymore.

So how do you make yourself relevant? By building your personal brand.

Building a personal brand is tough. There are over 845 people in the United States named Russell White (and I think every one of them must have a Facebook account.)  One Russell White was a Heisman Trophy candidate out of California. Another is a gospel singer. Yet another is wanted for armed robbery. So how do I jump above this crowded space to grab some Google Juice and make my brand heard?

Start with creating distinction. I use my middle initial (Russell J White) in most everything I do. That gives me traction on Google with Russell White AND I dominate the first two pages of search results when people search “Russell J White.”  Personal branding takes time, consistent effort and participation in a number of social media outlets. In this article I don’t have time to go into all of the most obvious social media opportunities to build your brand such as with LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and the importance of blogging. I’ll save those for future articles, but I do want to answer my card-playing friend’s question about Twitter.

Twitter

How do I use Twitter to build my personal brand, reputation and network? I simply treat it like a conference hospitality suite. Talk a little business, talk a little fun, and share information. Unlike a hospitality suite conversation, people can find everything you tweet, so keep it clean and friendly — use it to develop your reputation, not harm it.

Think before you tweet.

Many employers check the public record of Twitter streams of employees as the proverbial fly on the wall. It gives a great insight to the thoughts of the individual, how they approach life, and what is important to them. It will also reveal how they view work and relationships and how they communicate. Many celebrities and professional athletes forget the permanence of a tweet and how fast they can be shared. It’s hard to believe how 140 characters can ruin a reputation and cost someone an endorsement deal.

So what do I tweet?

Information you think your followers will find interesting. Monday at 9:04 am, I tweeted that Jim Tressel had resigned and included a link to the Columbus Dispatch article. On Memorial Day, thank those who serve us in the military. I have commented on the storms we are having, that I will be attending the next tweetup, and that I will be going to an upcoming concert if anyone wants to join me.

I will let people know where to find this blog article with title and link. The last blog article I posted someone retweeted it (copied the link and sent it to all of their network, thus building my exposure!) Like I said, a little business, a little fun and sharing information.

Respect the power of Twitter and use the medium to your advantage.

My Twitter account name, @BizWizTV, has over 6,000 followers and is growing. I use that account to specifically refer to my BizWizTV.com television channel where I post weekly three-minute videos. Google still sees my name tied to that account as it is registered in my name, so I still get good juice. Your Twitter name should speak directly to either who you are or what you are talented doing or, in my case, a specific destination that is about me.
Solely because of Twitter I have made many local connections with business owners, and I am offered a number of free networking events, lunches and meetings known as tweetups that have helped my business, my knowledge and my network.

As Twitter is maturing, it is far less about “what I had for breakfast” and more about breaking news stories, making meaningful business connections, and gathering meaningful information that speaks directly to my interests. Twitter is a great tool to build your business reputation, build your network, and build your brand. That is why I think it is the most underused tool in the traditional business person’s toolbox.

Every business executive talks about innovation, the need for innovation, they have to innovate or die, and some say how great they are at innovation, but their innovations never reach the customer in time. Why is this the case? Because when innovation is expected because it’s the most important word in Buzzword Bingo, it fails to have the passion to see it through.

Talk is cheap, ideas are free, and intent is easy.

If you want to truly give your customers some meaningful innovations follow these rules to S.T.A.R.T. Something.

S.     Show Initiative

If your best innovation is covering ground your competitors have already walked, you are not innovating – you are catching up. Creating a Phone app? Are you the first to have this? Who else in your industry has one? Is your app doing the same identical things? There is no competitive advantage to being next in line, but you probably need this simply to stay competitive. True innovation comes from showing initiative. For example, being the first to take a customer pain and figuring a way to eliminate it. Start simple, take an internal process that is painfully slow and fraught with pain points (errors, internal bickering, etc) and tackle it once and for all. True innovation doesn’t come from copycats; it comes from those who strive to be unique in the market place.

T.     Try Stuff

If you feel the need to hit the Bull’s eye every time, you are standing too close to the target. Innovation comes from a series of failures and missteps that create knowledge to be better on the next attempt. This is why I hate “zero defect” corporate cultures. That mindset eliminates the best innovative ideas and efforts. When you can’t fail you only reach for the sure thing. Instead, create a culture of “try stuff” and watch how ideas get bigger and better and the execution of those ideas improve with every attempt. It’s how real innovation occurs.

A.     Attack Issues

Innovation implementation rarely reaches great heights because people tend to avoid risk, play safe and go for the sure thing. To innovate you must fully attack the issues you are addressing. It might get a bit messy, a few toes may get stepped on in the process, and someone’s feelings might get hurt. So be it. To win the battle with your competitors must first win the battles in-house. Half-hearted efforts never win the big prize and innovation isn’t worth trying if there isn’t a full on attack of the issue you or correcting with your innovation.

R.     Re-evaluate Everything

A large stumbling block to innovation is the transition from the vacuum of a lab to the dirty real world. Innovations don’t stand alone; they can bump into everything else that works with the old rules. The old policies, procedures, department design and even the old technology can be called into jeopardy with true innovation. This is why it is important when pursuing significant innovation to examine every impact a successful launch can have.

T.     Transparently Communicate

When you show initiative, try stuff, attack issues, and re-evaluate everything you have completely challenged the status quo. People like the status quo because they know what to expect, have figured how to be successful, don’t like risk and know where the pain is. Which is why innovation needs a marketing campaign every step of the way. The best marketing campaign for innovation is transparent communication. Let people hear the story along the way, encourage them to buy in, and share the benefits the overall organization will experience once the innovation is the new status quo.

Innovation is a defining tool for the new economy for every organization, especially in well-established industries. Don’t simply play follow the leader – START Something.

How do you fuel a 54-hour weekend work project team? Legal methamphetamines, of course — more on that later. This past weekend I participated in a Startup Weekend event, where web developers, designers and business types paid a nominal fee to gather at 6 pm on Friday for a competition to take an idea from concept to launch by Sunday night.

From concept to business launch in a weekend — that’s impossible, right? For old school business thinking, this is an impossible request. (I know executives who can take a month simply to return a phone call!)

So how did five teams create viable startup businesses complete with live demos of their products, completed websites, social media marketing and financial projections in 54 hours? By using the new business methods required for creating an agile business.

Start with Swarm Intelligence

Swarm intelligence is where a collective group of talent assembles to address an issue. In this case, take an idea from concept to launch. On this Startup Weekend, teams were formed by each individual choosing the idea they felt drawn to and then offered his/her talents to the team. No job descriptions, no assigned roles. People were able to participate at their preferred level of involvement, interest and excitement.

Swarm intelligence in a business setting would work quite the same way. Post a specific project you want to accomplish, such as how to reduce customer wait time in your call center. Determine the talents you will need on this team, and open it up to participation.

The team selects the leader, the leader sets up job tasks within the team, and people volunteer for the part of the project they are most interested in working on. Each subgroup begins work on their section, and the overall team meets hourly to touch base to make sure everyone is traveling in the same direction. Toward the end of the project, the pieces are strung together for a final creation.

Now imagine asking your swarm team to work on this project over a weekend for no pay? Immediately, I can see the head shaking by old school executives as they exclaim, “This will never work!”

If I learned nothing else from this weekend experience, I learned this:

• Really great talent finds its happiness in execution.
• People are willing to work insane hours and put forth incredible effort for something they truly believe in.
• A gathering of a team of people who have never worked together can accomplish an incredible success when everyone is committed to the outcome.

The old school business model of top-down thinking is flawed. Giving people a space to think for themselves, use their talents to the best of their abilities, and be proud of what they do is more about the employees telling us what they want to work on and what the best use of their talents is.
When someone is fully invested in the idea and is willing to volunteer their talents and work hard for no immediate compensation, you have a talent worth keeping.

If you post an idea for a weekend swarm project and no one signs up, you learn you either have the wrong talent in your organization, or as more often is the case, you have the wrong work environment for encouraging people to volunteer their talents. Either way, it is an indication of not being ready to compete in the new economy.

The Right Work Environment

The old school work environment is predicated on distrust — time clocks, set hours, closed door meetings, having to ask the boss to schedule time off, electronic pass keys, and the hierarchy of approval. The old school has personnel policies and restrictive codes written for the offending few at the expense of the many who can be trusted. This structure puts employees in a box, and they are told to do what they are instructed to do. Not much room for self expression or talent, is there?

“If my soldiers were to begin to think,
not one would remain in the ranks.”

– Frederick the Great

Employees are no longer low-skill, low-educated workers that populated factories 60 years ago. They are intelligent, skilled people, and the best talent of these is thinking at a high level.

The new work model appeals to those who have great talent. Companies who attract the best talent are the ones who are going to be the most successful in the new economy. Shifting from distrust to trust is important to creating the right work environment. The weekend work environment in which I participated was much more trust based.

So, what was provided for this weekend of work that I took part in?
Access to the workspace was 24/7, and no one had set hours. Mentors were available for questions, input and troubleshooting, but none were telling any team what to do or how to do it. Good food was brought in for meals at 8:30 am, 12:30 pm, and 5:30 pm.

An open space was provided for papering the walls with good ideas, a powerful wifi connection was maintained, small tables were easily moved to wherever they needed to be, and minimal oversight was given, other than to let people know when food had arrived.

Snacks were readily available for whenever someone felt the urge without having to feed a vending machine. A beer fridge was available, and the privilege was never abused. An iced down cooler with the sign “Free Legal Methamphetamines” offered ample amounts of 5-hour Energy Shots, Red Bull and Monster energy drinks.

People were given the freedom to work at their own pace, and the collaboration was constant. After years of advising old school businesses, I was floored at the potential of what could be accomplished by people motivated, talented, and ready to make something happen by Sunday night.

The new model of business success is dramatically different than the old school style, and is designed for success at the speed of change that is happening in the new economy. Are you ready to get on board? Let’s talk!

Looking at the large collection of liquids still being confiscated by TSA at airports made me wonder where travelers had been hiding to be oblivious to the size restriction rules, which have been in effect for years.

So I asked one of the agents the other day as I was getting redressed after inspection what was the most common reason people gave him for the oversized liquid containers.

He smiled and said most everyone tells him either they didn’t realize the item was in there or that the rules were still effect. He went on to say, “People just don’t pay attention.”

I had to ask about the unopened bottle of vodka and the bottle of Bloody Mary mix. He said the man told him in-flight drinks were too expensive so he was bringing his own. He kept pleading that it was OK because the seals hadn’t been broken. It didn’t matter. That was an expensive detail that passenger overlooked.

Later that day I received a free restaurant meal because the waiter failed to give the kitchen the correct order.

At the bar at that same place, two men and two women waited on tables to open. The ladies asked for the bar check, signed for it and went to their table. The bartender came back to see the two guys still sitting there and realized she thought all four were together. The ladies were charged for the drinks of the two guys as well. The lady paying didn’t even notice the error!

What is going on?

Our brains process information differently than they used to. We take shallow bites of information from the internet and the news channels. We multi-task to the point of distraction. We are doing things so much faster that we don’t go as deep in our thinking as we once did. Therefore, we are confusing details such as travel rules, order specifics, who is on what check AND paying a check without checking it!

To become known in the workplace is to be able to do something of value others don’t do well. As our society becomes more shallow in how it processes information, as it becomes less focused on the details, the person who is a detail dynamo becomes a significant asset.

Details are where great innovation begins. In the details are where problems can be prevented. In the details of every organization are significant savings waiting to be found. Become the Detail Dynamo or hire one on your team of talent to have a disappearing commodity that will become even more valuable as business moves even faster.

Today being April Fool’s Day a fellow speaker listed today as his birthday as a prank to pull on Facebook to see who would wish him a happy birthday and who really knew it was in a different month. For the last couple of years this has been a funny joke to John. As one person in the know best put it, “In a society that is a bowl of Cheerios, John you are a Froot Loop!”

Sadly, John passed away in December and his Facebook page is still up. Those who have him as a Facebook friend but not a real life friend are leaving cheerful birthday wishes which is unfortunate since they didn’t realize he is no longer with us. Yea, I found it sorta creepy, like actually being there at Weekend at Bernie’s  and knowing what is going on.

Those who know he is gone are still leaving birthday wishes hoping he is having the greatest party of all wherever he may be. Is this in honor of their friend? For the relatives of John?

This raises many questions about social media:

• Do Facebook pages of the deceased become pages in honor of fallen friends? (Pretty cool idea I think)
• How many “friends” in social media are actually contacts, connections, admirers, lurkers, or friend collectors who really don’t know their friends?
• How many on your Facebook friends list “know” you as a real friend?
• What is the social media definition of “friend?”
• When a person dies, what happens to social media profiles, blogs, websites, and information available on the internet?
• We have birthdates on Facebook, should there be a death date as well for those who have passed?

I think these are but a few questions created about how social media is redirecting the habits of society and what new societal protocols will be. And finally, to John; listing a fake birthday on April 1st is genius even when done posthumously.