Erich Stauffer

Author: Erich Stauffer

  • Oh Life

    2012-11-01

    I got up at 5:30 this morning to be at Tea’s Me Cafe at 22nd and Pennsylvania in Indianapolis by 7:30. I’m currently sitting at the McDonalds at 96th and Meridian. I got the Big Breakfast, Biscuits and Gravy, and a small orange juice. There were three guys here having a Bible study or talking about their church – I’m not sure which. They all had beards.

    I may be starting up at AllThingsIT this coming Monday, which stresses me out. I may be meeting up with Joy this afternoon which stresses me out. I just want to curl up on a couch and sit a spell. I’ve been going at it pretty hard for a couple of weeks. It might not look like it, but I’m having to push myself to even keep doing the normal stuff I’m doing now.

    I’m still working at Dr. Reese’s office for now and am attempting to keep employed there in the afternoons after working mornings at AllThingsIT. My wife wants me to make more money. She wants the money as soon as possible and to spend it before I even make it. I guess that’s what wives do. She’s pregnant. Again. Last night was Halloween. Kids had fun.

    Erich

    2012-11-05

    I started working at AllThingsIT again doing marketing work. I had to go to work at the Reese office after that. I’m pretty tired right now, but am experimenting with Shopperpress for WordPress to import in Amazon items into a storefront.

    Erich

    2012-11-06

    I finished filming at the Reese Office and am copying the raw video onto my hard drive. It’s almost 10 GB of video. I’m really tired. Today was the election. I think Obama will win, but not sure yet.

    Erich

    2012-11-07

    I had a meeting with a new client and he said he wanted to go forward, but he hasn’t yet replied to the proposal I emailed him. I asked for half-down before going forward, but didn’t give him instructions on how to do that, nor did I mention it in our initial meeting at Starbucks at 55 Monument Circle downtown Indianapolis.  When I met with Joy later on that day she hit me like a tornado by immediately asking me to do 3 things all at once while I was already in the middle of doing two things for her. Barack Obama won the election. Carmina and Kevin got new patches on their vests for Awana. I’m still pretty stressed non-stop all day and still going to bed at 9 and waking up at 5:30.

    Erich

    2012-11-08

    I went over web content with Andy, then drove to meet Joy. She has company over working for her. The house was a mess and she was stressed. Her sons keep her awake at night with requests from the other side of the world. She’s been saying “shit” a lot lately, which bothers me. I walked out on her twice. The first time I had to come back, but the second time she called and I waited for her and her son to figure out the problem over the phone. It was rude and unprofessional of me, but I didn’t like the way I was being treated or how my time was being spent. I’m not a tool – and if I lose the Reese’s because of the breakdown in my relationship with Joy, there are other things I can be doing than her son’s homework or her other son’s business.

    Erich

    2012-11-11

    I was tired most of the day, but we went to church this morning, ran errands, then went home. Suzanne fixed ham for dinner last night and for lunch this morning. This evening she made one of my favorite meals, blackened chicken pasta. It was good.

    I didn’t want to work on my work, but forced myself to attempt to create and edit a Shopperpress child theme. I then took a nap, watched some Glee, and then worked on Teas Me Cafe’s WP-Ecommerce website. That took all I had to finish it.

    Suzanne says I have a fever. Maybe she’s right. I do feel hot. It’s back to AllThingsIT tomorrow morning to write up content in the new ‘containers’ I created last Friday. After that I’m headed to Reese office for IT work. Should be a challenge.

    Erich

    2012-11-19

    Oh man, today was a doozie. I had an emergency domain transfer of teasmecafe.com and couldn’t figure out how to get his email working again. I finally just set him up with Google Apps and trained him on how to use it. He was stressed and I was stressed. That was on top of working 4 hours at AllthingsIT and 4 hours at Reese office before heading home to try and fix the https:// redirect to the subdomain problem I was having with teasmecafe.com. I ended up redirecting the subdomain back to the primary domain as a workaround, but users will still see an error page during the redirect process. John Chalfant mailed a check and AllthingsIT paid for the first time. I guess it was a good day overall. I’m thankful for the work.

    Erich

    2012-12-02

    I went and saw James Bond, Skyfall this evening. I had to walk to CVS to get the cash first. I bought a Snickers and withdrew $20. I walked the Snickers back to my car and put it in the console for those times when my sugar gets out of whack and I need something quickly. I wore a white t-shirt, but I wasn’t cold. It’s a warm December again, just like in 1998.

    Erich

    2012-12-10

    Today I woke up at 6:24, 6 minutes before my alarm was to go off. I went to work at AllThingsIT and then went to the chiropractor. Today was the first day of exercise therapy. I found out my gluts are really tight and need stretching. I ate the chili Suzanne packed me at Jason’s house. Krista gave me some bread and water. I drove to Shelbyville to recycle the ewaste. The same lady greeted me and the same guy brought out the same trash can he brought out before. I listened to the “One Night” musical I made in the car. I drove to the Reese Office and used WD-40 on the chair in room 1 and on the back door. Brandon had a stiff neck. I installed the Apteryx license codes finally and tried to get their Tumblr account unblocked. I threw the big trash from Suzanne’s bathroom remodel in the dumptster. I drove to Jason’s house and ate dinner after helping him buy and move a loveseat. It was heavy. I got my saws back to work on the upstairs bathroom and the downstairs bedroom. Now I have to work on Tea’s Me’s stuff so I can go to bed. I have to take out the trash in the morning.

    Erich

    2012-12-16

    The whole family went to church at White River in Noblesville and then me and Magdalena went to Starbucks for hot chocolate, we went to Barnes and Noble for 39 Clues #5, ate lunch at Paradise Bakery, went to the park on College across from Park Tudor, fed the ducks on Westfield Ave in Broad Ripple, walked around Circle Center Mall and up the Monument Circle, toured the University of Indianapolis, worked at Dr. Reese’s Office, then went and saw The Hobbit at Landmark theater with Jason and Silas.

    2012-12-22

    I took Carmina on a date. We went to breakfast with the family at Jim Dandy, then drove to the bank to deposit a Christmas bonus check from Dr. Reese. I thought about buying a laptop with it, but decided to pay bills instead. Carmina and I then went to Jason’s house to play the new Catan game Jennifer got me for Christmas. Jason won by one point. This was slightly intentional as it will persuade him to want to play again. We ate lunch at Jason’s house then went to Joy’s house to decorate gingerbread men and cupcakes that were left over from last night’s Christmas party. Finally, we drove home, stopping at Marsh to buy her and her mom some flowers. I then went to sleep for the day.

    Erich

    2012-12-29

    I wrote a blog post on Warby Parker and Google Glass then went to Jason’s house. We drove to JC Penny and other stores to do  research for #highfive.

    2013-01-05

    I drove to Lafayette and met with Angelica, Sharon, Georgia, and Charlie to go over Angelica’s new business plan. We ate dinner and she paid me $1000.

    2013-01-19

    I got sick. My whole family got the flu. Some also got pneumonia and ear infections. I’m still sick.

    2013-02-02

    I read So Good They Can’t Ignore you, then wrote a blog post about it here: http://erichstauffer.com/self-development/how-to-work-a-life-of-purpose

    2013-02-09

    I was sick. Again. Some sort of stomach bug. I’m getting tired of this. And scared.

    2013-04-06

    I took a nap today. I tried to get caught up on email and side-work. Patty O’Banion stopped in this morning and bought a website for her friend for $200. I’ve contacted him by phone and text, but so far have not got a reply.

    Angelica is getting ready to go to China for the Han Clinic/Institute, AllThingsIT is getting ready to move into it’s new building, and Jason and Justin have started doing freelance work for me with Reese and INSBC respectively.

    Erich

    2013-06-08

    Bought a used bike yesterday from the garage sale across the street. Suzanne and kids brought all of the bikes down to Strawtown park and we rode bikes together. Carmina and I went on a bike ride this morning and I went on one again this evening. Carmina and Magdalena had their dance recital today. They did good. I was there to watch. Amalia is almost 4 weeks old now. Samuel likes trains. Kevin wants a basketball. Carmina wants a phone.

    2013-06-15

    Went to Phoebe’s concert and to Superman, Man of Steel. It was Carmina’s birthday. She wanted to go to McDonalds. We went there for lunch.

    2013-06-22

    Went to Chicago with Jason and walked around, saw Lake Michigan and the “bean”. Ate at Harry Carray’s restaurant for lunch and at a pizza restaurant for dinner before going to watch World War Z. We then drove to Wisconsin to visit Madison and the University of Wisconsin. We went to the farmer’s market there, took a tour of the campus, checked out the lakes and the trails, and then went to New Glarus Brewery, then home.

    2013-07-06

    I had a morning meeting at EMD. It was a good meeting to go over his website. He wants videos made. I then went to Zionsville to meet with Angelica and Linda. It was an uncomfortable meeting because Linda was putting down the work I had done and trying to take it from me, but I couldn’t help but think she wasn’t actually better than me, just more vocal than me. I then went to the Reese’s house to work on their computers and meet Christopher for the coconut business. We ate dinner and took a walk.

    2013-07-20

    Went on the Color Run today with kids. Went to Launch Fishers QS meeting with Jason. Had first web dev meeting with Justin to redesign erichstauffer.com.

    Erich

    2013-07-27

    I was sick with a cold, but went to watch the WordPress Conference, Wordcamp, at Jason’s house with Cullen. We then took a trip through Little Eagle Creek road and West Carmel. I went to be early, around 7 PM. Today I’m having a Coconut meeting about Skinny Coconut Oil.

    2013-08-03

    Started looking for houses.

    2013-08-10

    Spent some time with Suzanne for our anniversary. We went to Chili’s. The kids went to her mom’s house. She got a flat tire, but we were at home.

    2013-08-17

    Went to shoot video at Angelica’s then spent some time with Jason Duncan, which I later wrote a blog post about: http://www.erichstauffer.com/technology/jobs-grants-and-everything-else

    2013-08-24

    Went to Missouri with Mom, Dad, Kira, and Keilan to see Peggy for her birthday. Spent the night in Missouri on the way there and then arrived at Peggy’s house 5 minutes before she was about to leave for lunch. We went to Belton to eat lunch at The Log Cabin. On the way back we stopped by Price Chopper to get groceries for shishkabobs. That evening we grilled dinner. The following morning we had eggs for breakfast with Peggy then headed home. On the way home I told dad about http://ohlife.com/.

    2013-08-31

    I edited together “The Dogs of Windfall” and published it on Amazon Kindle. I had a geeks call with Angie Wylde in the morning. I played Catan with Carmina at night.

    2013-09-07

    It was the pork festival (2013) and we celebrated Kevin’s birthday. Mitch and his family; Jason Duncan and his family; Gaby; Kathy; and my mom and dad came up. Carmina and I rode the Ferris wheel.

    2013-09-14

    It was the day before Kevin’s birthday. We went to the park at the school.

    2013-09-28

    I had a meeting in the morning with Wayne Ashford of Tea’s Me Cafe, then Dan Hoffman at Bonzi Sports, and Angelica Kokkalis for Han Institute. I came home late and watched two movies in bed before going to sleep. The next day (Sunday) I went to church with the family then we went to Chili’s and out for frozen yogurt.

    2013-10-05

    From email to Skinny Team:

    It’s in the beginning – a shout out to Erich Stauffer for a recent first sale at Skinny Coconut Oil – he also put a link to Skinny on the podcast page! I thanked him by leaving a comment on the blog post, liking it on Facebook, and mentioning it on Twitter and Google+.

     

    I gotta admit, it felt like I was in a band and our song had just been played on the radio. I’m not going to lie – it felt good.

     

    We all worked hard today. I’m not only looking forward to big paydays in the future, but I’m also enjoying the journey.

     

    Erich

    Blog post about first sale:

    e-Commerce Metric: Time to First Sale

    October 5th was a rainy day. I had to get up early in the morning to be in Richmond at 8 AM. At the same time, Matt and Chris were up early getting ready for the Gluten Free Living festival in Carmel. We had recently hired two interns, Michael and Stephanie, but only Michael was there that day. Rachel from the dentist office also stopped by to help sell. We sold almost 50 jars and I got my first check after 2 years of work. On the drive home Andrew Youderian gave me a “First Sale Shout Out” on his podcast. It was a good day.

    Andrew’s Podcast that mentioned me and Skinny Coconut Ol:
    http://www.ecommercefuel.com/going-viral-michael-dubin/

    Thanks for mentioning me on the show for our first sale. I was driving home from an all-day convention selling coconut oil and was thrilled to hear it. It was like having my song played on the radio or something. It was a great memory that I’ll remember for a long time. Thanks again for all you do for the e-commerce community.

    2013-10-19

    Skinny Coconut Oil had its third event, but the second one I had been to.  It was the fIndy Family Fest in  Indianapolis at the State Fairgrounds.  Ate dinner with family in the park. It was starting to get cold. Worked on Moto Menswear.

    2013-10-26

    Jason Cobb and I went to Reese office for video prep work and then to downtown Franklin. We stopped at Long’s bakery in Southport. We walked through the Willard but ended up eating at the Duck restaurant. We both had cheeseburgers and fries. We went to the Artcraft to watch Young Frankenstein and then got some candy on the way home.

    2013-12-14

    Spent the afternoon with Kevin watching movies and then took Magdalena to see the second Hobbit. Jason, Silas, and Calvin also attended.

    2014-01-18

    I got the flu.

    2014-01-25

    I was still a little sick from the flu, but I got to hang out with the family more as I didn’t have to go anywhere. We had bacon quesadillas for lunch and broccoli cheese soup for dinner.

    2014-02-01

    Played with Kevin some. He wanted to work in the woodshop. He wanted to use his hammer. He practiced nailing some boards together and then he helped me glue the broken stool together.

    Later on Kevin asked to see what was up in the attic. I got the ladder out and showed him. I then showed him what was behind the attic access in his bedroom behind his bed. He was thrilled.

    Erich

    2014-02-15

    2/15/2014:

    I met with Jason for our second book club on All You Need is Kill and recorded it as our first podcast*. We ended up talking equally about Groundhog Day (the movie). On the way over, I told Jason I texted Jason that I was “thirsty for coffee” and he replied, “Well good. Cause I’m drinking some of the finest coffee I’ve ever sipped in front of a lovely fire reading Felton annual reports.”

    When I arrived, Jason was indeed sitting in front of the fire – his two boys, Silas and Calvin, sitting by his side reading their Kindles. We talked about my ideas about information management systems and then got up to do the book club podcast. Afterwards, we all went to Launch Fishers (a coworking space under the Fisher’s Library) for the Quantified Self Meetup (via Burger King).

    Jason was presenting a report on Personal Annual Reports**. The audio of it was also recorded via a failed Google Hangout On Air attempt*** and pictures of it were stored on Dropbox****. After the presentation, the Meetup group went to Texas Roadhouse and we went to Twenty Tap in Broad Ripple (Krista was headed back from having breakfast with her parents in Trafalgar with the girls).

    Right before I left the Meetup I saw that most of the files I had uploaded to Skinny and Company’s dropbox account had been deleted. This upset me. There were hundreds of files deleted. I emailed Matt, who didn’t know what happened or why. Matt and his brother Luke were on their way up to Canada to pick up more coconut oil after having been out for over two weeks. The orders were piling up.

    After 20 Tap, Jason and I went to the Hubbard and Cravens in South Broad Ripple for coffee and conversation about 2014 goals*****. I revamped the 5 goals I had sent Skinny and Company in January and gave Jason feedback on his. Jason encouraged me to get better about overcoming my fear of confrontation with finances and emails I don’t want to respond to by practicing.

    On the way home I stopped by Lowes to pickup wood to build a rocket with Kevin and by Marsh to get ingredients to show Jason and Krista how to make salsa******. When I got home Kevin helped me bring in the wood and carry it downstairs. Suzanne made pizza and the family played Minecraft together. Suzanne and I left the main village to start a new village farther inland beyond the snow-capped mountains.

    “I enjoyed our day together. Thanks for coming.”

    “Me too, thanks”

    *https://www.dropbox.com/s/hj2sde1114diypc/Podcast%20002.mp3
    **http://slid.es/jasoncobb/personal-annual-reports

    ***http://youtu.be/BqQy7fUrBhc
    ****https://www.dropbox.com/sh/x3e2vj96fkkgufq/N9GInxmfY4
    *****https://docs.google.com/a/watershawl.com/document/d/13Bue_YgB8MsYamw8fsjohrPoeVPjtgSSW_sCbKBzQ2c/edit?usp=sharing
    ******http://instagram.com/p/kdNxvmCYPM/

    2014-03-01

    I went to The Arnold in Columbus, Ohio with Matt Geddie, Luke Geddie, Joy Reese, Marcella Hoard, and Michael S. I took some pictures and posted them on social media. We stopped at Starbucks and Chipotle on the way there and at Outback on the way home. It took all day.

    Erich

    2014-03-08

    Played Minecraft with the family.

    2014-03-15

    I met Jason in the morning for breakfast, prayer, and a walk around his neighborhood. We then went to Foundry Provisions coffee shop in Indianapolis before heading to the Quantified Self Meetup in Fishers. I gave a presentation at the meetup about QS web apps (http://slid.es/erichstauffer/quantified-self).

    After the meetup, I dropped Jason and Calvin off at their house, had lunch at Chipotle alone, and then went to the Reese’s house to meet Joy, Luke, and Kim for a trip to Angelica’s house to discuss her buying velvet antler for her Han Institute business she’s trying to get started.

    Angelica agreed to get hanrx.com started with existing products supplied from Luke Geddie. Matt & team will run logistics ala the dentist ecommerce idea and I will handle marketing. They will give her a percent of the store revenue each month. I’m calling it “a reverse affiliate relationship”.

    When I got home I played Minecraft with Suzanne and went to sleep.

    Things I’m remembering lately:

    The Kansas City Zoo – our vacation there early on in our marriage

    Meeting Vineet at Subway that one time for lunch at IUPUI

    Sunday school at Pittman Road Church of God (white walls)

    2014-03-29

    Today we went to church at White River Christian Church in Noblesville. Magdalena sat in church with me instead of going to her class. After church we went to The Roost in Fishers for breakfast and to the YMCA to swim. After that we went home to get essential oils and then drove to West Lafayette to see Grandma O’Banion at the Soldiers and Sailor’s Home. Kevin, Carmina, Samuel, and Magdalena rode their scooters and played with the soccer ball. It was 50 degrees outside and sunny. Afterwards we went to Angelica Kokkalis’ house so Suzanne could meet her for the first time. Angelica enjoyed seeing all of the kids. She made them Tontino’s Pizza Rolls and orange juice. It was a good day.

    2014-04-05

    I got a new web client, Jim Nelson, and Jason and I set a date to start recording our first online course.

    2014-04-12

    Met with Jason to create our first online course. Decided on the use of Bold Bros. for the name of the project. Decided to start a podcast. I forget what our first course is going to be about. We recorded 3 videos, 1 screencast, and 1 audio recording. #learningsets #boldbros #onlinecourses

    2014-05-10

    I went to King’s Island with Jason on Friday and then to EMD on Saturday morning. When I got back I took a nap then played Civ5. On Sunday (Mother’s Day) I went to church with the kids. For lunch we went to Qdoba and then I went to Launch Fishers to work on Bold Bros. I finished phase 1 of the first online course on business blogging/content marketing. The next step is either to turn it into an ebook or start making the videos.

    2014-05-17

    I met with Suzanne about finances at the house and then she made me biscuits and gravy for breakfast before I left to get adjusted at the chiropractor in Carmel. My neck was hurting from King’s Island.

    After that I had planned to meet Jason at SOHO to work on Bold Bros and prepare for the meeting with Debbie at Yokohama in Greenwood on Sunday at 2, but since Jason couldn’t meet I watched Kevin’s soccer game.

    After the soccer game we all went with Grammy to Qdoba where Suzanne and I attempted to teach the kids how to set the table both at a restaurant and at home. We also discussed new home schooling curriculum for the kids.

    That afternoon I went to Launch Fishers to work on posting Reese Office blog posts for the month of May that Aggie had written. Today I’m typing this again from Launch Fishers on my way to meet Jason on the way to Greenwood.

    2014-05-24

    I spent the day resting after getting run down at work. And then on Sunday I got sick with a sore throat and spent another day resting. I felt bad because there is so much self-imposed work to do creating the course or re-building up the consultancy – and the weather was so nice – but I just couldn’t move. It was like everything was ‘gray’.

    2014-05-31

    I mowed the yard and trimmed trees. I then went to Kevin’s soccer game and then home. We had bacon lettuce and tomato sandwhiches for lunch and biscuits and gravy for dinner. I played Civ 5 in the afternoon and evening and went to bed at 9.

    2014-06-07

    I worked at Dr. Richard Gillum’s dentist office setting up the new Server 2008 domain for Practiceworks. About 2 hours in I realized the RAID 5 wasn’t setup so after researching and calling Dell, we realized the RAID wasn’t setup and had to be rebuilt, which meant reinstalling Server 2008 and re-doing the updates. This wasn’t that bad aside from the slowness that an initializing RAID causes, which slowed everything else down. I worked from 8 AM to 7 PM with no breaks for $1200.

    2014-06-28

    I stayed in playing Civilization 5 except for mowing the yard. It was hot in our bedroom despite having air conditioning in the rest of the house so Suzanne went and bought a fan from the store. On Sunday I trimmed trees in the yard and worked on Skinny Coconut Oil’s website some. Suzanne made waffles, salsa, and chicken tortilla soup.

    2014-07-05

    I went on a walk to the baseball diamond park with Kevin and Samuel, then we went to see the trains, went to White’s Meat Market for drinks and candy, and then went home where I played Civ 5 until it was time to get ready to go to Angelica’s for a Han meeting. The day before was Suzanne’s birthday and we went to Texas Roadhouse with Gaby and Scott.

    2014-07-12

    I helped Bill Heath with an IT issue and then worked on Jason’s landscaping with Jason. I had asked him if he’d buy me a tank of gas for helping me because we’ve been trying to get ahead on some bills and he agreed. When I got home I played Civ 5 and played football with Kevin and Samuel. Camina and Magdalena had 4H with Grammy and Suzanne.

    2014-08-09

    On Monday, August 4 I was laid off from Worksmart Systems due to a consolidation of the IT department for budget reasons. My boss, Aaron Matlock, said, “I can do what you can do, but I can’t do what Andy can do.” It is true that I was underutilized there, but the lack of income and suddenness of the event was and is traumatic. I am currently looking for new income by applying for jobs and servicing the existing customers I still have. I am still trying to decide whether or not to go full-time consulting or go back full-time as an employee. I am attending a job fair at Apple tonight in Indianapolis and have had one phone interview for a SEO specialist position in the Castleton area. I am trying to get a Digital Marketing Manager job at One Click Ventures – even going as far as to make a special video sent via a VHS tape with the domain “oneclickVHS.com”, but so far have no news on that front. Today is Suzanne and I’s 12-year anniversary.

    2014-09-13

    I laid in bed all day working on Skinny and Company stuff to pay for working on Simplicity Hollistic Health stuff on Tuesday. I think I’m getting sick.

  • What it’s Like to Lose Your Job

    When you get laid off, you’re in a strange kind of phase where all of a sudden you have a lot of time, but your brain is scattered. Days prior you may have wished you could have some time off. Now that you have it, you wish you could be back at work. The trick is to enjoy this season. Spend time with family that you wouldn’t have otherwise. Watch your kids grow up a little. Teach them something. Learn something new. And yes, do those other things to: apply for jobs, outreach to your network, and check your finances.

    Before I was laid off I was quick to give others advice. I’d send them a blog article (10 Things You Need to Do if You were Fired Yesterday) or recommend they attend a networking group or meetup. What I didn’t realize was a) the effect of pride and b) the strain on mental bandwidth. When things aren’t good, pride doesn’t want to “reach out”. It wants to hide that problem. And when money is not coming in regularly, a higher percentage of the brain is allocated to thought about ‘how to get more money’, burning bandwidth (1,2).

    Even job applications require eliminating a little bit of hubris. Yes, you must fill out all of these boxes regardless of your business acumen or professional experience. Yes, you must convince us to hire you even if you are completely qualified for the job. You have to sell yourself, but as time goes on, the ability to sell yourself gets questioned. Confidence begins to wane. The no’s begin to pile up. You start to second-guess yourself. The bills start getting behind. Your ability to buy basic essentials begins to come into question.

    The Blame Game

    The first person I blamed was myself. “What did I do wrong?” In Christopher Avery’s Responsibility Process™ he says that when a problem occurs, our default response is, “What should we do about it?” The problem is that words like “should” map to “shame” and “blame” in our minds. Instead, Avery says, we can say, “What do I want from this?” Asking yourself what you “want” maps the question to “responsibility” in your brain. Avery defines responsibility as, “Owning your ability and power to create, choose, and attract.”

    What Do I Want?

    Before I was laid off I thought I wanted to be an independent consultant. But after I became an independent consultant by default, I suddenly found myself wanting to be employed. Actually, what I wanted was “income”. And that may be part of the problem. I know from experience that top entrepreneurs (or employees) seek to “add value” as their primary goal. But “adding value” requires “being valuable” and that in-turn requires work. The real question was, “Do I want to do the work required to be valuable in today’s economy?”

    How Much am I Worth?

    Tai Lopez, a serial investor who reads a book a day, says something like, ‘Your bank account is exactly how much you are worth.’ What he means is that those who invest in their skills and work hard, and have good financial principles (like paying yourself first, spending less than you make, and investing) are more likely to have a higher bank account than people who expect things to come without working towards them or making any changes. “The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want.” –Charlie Munger

    A Skills Gap

    I’m an IT generalist with some skills in web development, web analytics, project management, and business analysis. The jobs I’ve been applying for have highlighted the need for more specialization (and skills). For example, to be a web developer, knowing HTML and CSS is not enough; I’d have to become proficient in JavaScript and HTML5 as a baseline. Many “web analytics” jobs require knowing Adobe Omniture (now called Adobe Analytics) and many project management jobs require project management certifications.

    Going Forward

    Right now my full-time job is finding a job using my current skillset while still maintaining the client work I have ‘on the side’. I am widening my job search outside of my current geographic region and applying for jobs ‘edge to edge’ on my current breadth of skills. For the last two days I have wrote a personal blog post. This is to keep my brain sharp and to practice writing. This post in particular is helping me figure out what to do next. I think I’ll pick a new skill to learn and start learning it. I have the time.

    Update:

    When I got back from the Storyline conference in November, poetically I assumed that because I lost my last full-time job just after attending the MixWest conference that I would get a new one just after attending Storyline. That didn’t happen. However, I did continue getting more interviews and from those interviews I learned what employers wanted from me. On November 19th I got my first job offer for a position that would start on December 1.

    In the week before I started work I began digitally cleaning house after realizing I was spending mental energy thinking about businesses I didn’t want to run just because I had the domain names. I shut down ‘brands without businesses’: Webories, Managing Actions, Outure, Seektivity, Bold Salsa, Deliver Town, Content Market Fit, AB Insights, Marketype and Watershawl. When you delete an account on Instagram, it’s permanent. No one can get that account back – even me – so I had to be sure. I was. I set the domains to auto-expire, deleted the Twitter accounts, and updated my records.

  • 10 Ideas for eCommerce Businesses in 2015

    Hello, my name is Erich Stauffer. I am an IT business analyst with a background in IT, web, and business. For the last year I’ve been helping ecommerce companies get off the ground. As I look forward to 2015 I started to wonder what types of ecommerce companies will be the most successful based on current technological, economical, and societal changes evident today.

    I’m no futurist, but I’ve been known to dip my hand into some trends I’ve noticed (1,2,3,4) in the past. I have a client who says I’m, “the best at looking back and figuring out what happened.” I’d like to think that some of those business analysis skills can be used to look forward. Humans are terrible at predicting the future. Regardless, this is my attempt at coming up with 10 ideas for ecommerce businesses in 2015.

    The Future

     

    How I Chose Each Business Type

    Each ecommerce business idea is based on a general trend in either technology, healthcare, economics, or pop culture. I’ll do my best to explain the business type before explaining the idea so you have some context.

    10 Ideas for eCommerce Businesses in 2015

    1. Two-Factor eCommerce Businesses – two-factor authentication is “one in hand, one in the cloud” security, but that same concept of “smartphone in hand, web app in cloud” applies to businesses that connect the real world via a smartphone or web app. Examples include AirBnb or Lyft. We’re going to be seeing more ecommerce businesses that are “two-factor” – where online ecommerce technology is used to arrange and sell something in the real world that wasn’t previously organized – rather than a part off a shelf in inventory. Think more “TaskRabbit” and less “Amazon”-type startups.

    2. Augmented Reality Products – if there was any doubt whether Minecraft has become mainstream, Microsoft’s purchase of them in August of 2014 sealed the deal. It’s not out of the realm of possibility for people to begin to want the ability to live in the creations they’ve so painstakingly created in that world. Imagine if there was a way to make it so that the viewer could design their own home or interiors to appear as though they were living in their own Minecraft world. eCommerce retailers could sell ‘skins’ for Google Glass – like rose-colored glasses – they would shape the way people see their world.

    3. 3D Printed Products – I thought this trend would have had more of an effect in 2014, but it will no doubt eventually have an effect on society as a whole. Right now 3D printing equipment and supplies are already in ecommerce stores, but we haven’t seen a big breakout ecommerce company selling a product that is made via 3D printing yet. I have one idea for using 3D printing to make more life-size toys for kids, something which wasn’t an accessible idea even 2 years ago, but one that carbon-fiber 3D printing technology now makes possible due to superstrong, lightweight materials.

    4. Paper Products – printing is not dead. It’s one of the biggest answers to The White Album Problem, but aside from that, I can’t tell you how many times people have asked me to help them print from their iPhones or iPads. Or how many times people have asked if they can have a personal printer on their desk. One thing I know: have printer – will print. People are taking a ton of pictures on their cell phones and over time those are going to need to go somewhere. Sure, you can store those on Dropbox, but for what? Pictures are for printing. eCommerce companies that come up with easier ways for people to print photos (or books) from their phones will win in 2015.

    5. Home Energy Production – don’t look at me like I’m a hippie. Like Minecraft, alternative energy production is now becoming mainstream. It won’t be long before we will see home energy production appliances in Best Buy and Sears alongside the newest washing machine and dryer. And they will be about that size, too. The Rockefeller family, who made their money on gas and oil production, has recently switched their investments to alternative energy. Edison Electric has recognized the effect of solar power on net metering in the US. The writing is on the wall – home energy production is coming, but what ecommerce company will capitalize on it in 2015?

    6. Drones – one of the hottest trends in late 2014 was the “#dronie” – a selfie taken with a drone, but that was only after Amazon announced they would be delivering packages with drones. Photographers have been using drones to capture shots that previously would have cost them much more to hire a crane or helicopter. And a drone supplier was one of the top ecommerce stores in this year’s Shopify Build a Business contest. Like 3D technology, drones are only just now starting to be utilized. An ecommerce company that can capitalize on this trend is set to be in the right spot going forward in 2015. I’m looking at you, RC gas boat companies!

    7. Surveillance – Intelligence craves information. And intelligence groups are never satisfied, but they are so happy that you have chosen to carry a personal tracking device around with you at all times! “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” says anyone who can track your GPS coordinates, phone calls, text messages; view your pictures and videos; see all of your messages on social networks; and read all of your email. “Yes, give me more information”, say the gatherers – and entrepreneurs will continually look for ways to feed those gatherers with new and unique ways to surveil the masses and the individual – like you and me (Hello!).

    8. Counter-Surveillance – we don’t really like to be watched, but we are always under surveillance. We know that now. It’s not a secret. Now that the public is aware of this “problem”, entrepreneurs will rise up with counter-surveillance solutions. What will those look like? You might see WiFi-detector-type devices that notify you when a camera is watching you or if your smartphone is transmitting without your knowledge. You might see apps that can detect whether or not your packets have been viewed before you can view them. If you’ve ever had a text message read before you’ve had the chance to read it, you know the creepy feeling others will be looking to avoid.

    9. Tracking Technology – I’ve covered surveillance tracking, but what I mean is everything from tracking your health data (ala Quantified Self) to tracking where your keys are via your smartphone. You can track your dog, your car, and even each other. Why can’t you track your food through your digestion system (or better yet, watch your food travel through the sewer system). Jack Dorsey, one of the founders of Twitter says he made Twitter and Square because he liked to “track things”. Who else will profit from tracking things? Who will be the next “Mint” for your life in 2015? I’ve got an idea for an app to track staff utilization if anyone is interested.

    10. Life Assistants – I see three trends merging here: virtual assistants, life coaches, and Siri/Google Now-type technologies. Even in 2014, Google Maps cannot recommend that you “might want to stop at Starbucks on your way” – even though by now it should know that you always want to stop at a Starbucks when you’re going somewhere. Remember travel agents? They helped you do stuff like this for big trips, but it doesn’t make sense for travel agents to plan your trip across town – or does it? I see an opportunity for virtual assistants to be the “brain” behind web apps that help people get where they are going.

    Summary

    Those are my ideas based on my spheres of influence. You might notice that I didn’t talk much about insurance, banking, finances, military, government, or any other industry not mentioned because I don’t know much about those things. I know that small business owners want to run their businesses from their smartphones. I know that people expect access to [their] data anywhere at anytime (and in any form). And I know that Google’s mission of “organizing the world’s information” is starting to spill over into all aspects of technological innovation. The world is becoming more “known”, but we still need someone to parse the information for us – that’s where ecommerce businesses come in. They help guide people to the solutions they need. And that’s the value they provide.

  • How to Join a Fuze Meeting

    This video explains how to join a Fuze Meeting from the invite to the download to the installation.

  • What is Digital Marketing?

    Digital marketing is the promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of electronic media. A digital marketer is someone who focuses on customer acquisition and who has a passion for increasing conversions. Digital marketers drive new customer growth through the creation and hands-on execution of strategies across multiple channels like the website, social media, and paid advertising.

    The best digital marketers are the ones who focus on the customer. Why not focus on the company? Because the more the digital marketer knows about the customer, the more successful the conversions will be. The best digital marketers become an expert on their customers.

    Digital marketers work with a variety of marketing channels, which means they not only have to manage multiple platforms, but also relationships with internal staff and external agencies.

    The best digital marketer is a results-oriented person who has the analytical skills to break down complex problems, creativity to identify and develop new, scalable programs, and the skills to lead rigorous testing, measurement and iteration to improve results continuously. So what skills are needed?

    Digital Marketing Skills

    • Self-management – be able to manage your day-to-day tasks in order to achieve long-term and short-term goals.
    • Communication – sounds cliche, but here it’s important. Things need documented and communicated constantly.
    • Business analysis – the ability to distill information and present it in a way that other people understand it.
    • Domain knowledge – analytics, email marketing, paid advertising, retargeting, SEO, direct mail, video, and podcasting.
    • Curiosity – seek out and test innovative opportunities to expand visibility and customer acquisition through new channels.
    • Leadership – be able to lead a small team to help meet acquisition objectives by hiring, training, inspiring, and coaching.
    • Vendor management – be able to manage relationships with external agencies who specialize in various marketing domains.
    • Agile/Lean – a person of continuous optimization who develops and implements a strong framework for iterative testing.
    • Planning – be able to develop and manage long-term plans to meet long and short-term business objectives.
    • Technology – digital marketing and technology are inescapably intertwined. Be able to support the marketing technology.
    • Excel – you must have the ability to turn empirical data into insightful, strategic decisions for decision makers.
    • Strategy – the ability to think strategically and plan the overall direction of the company’s marketing strategy.
    • Google Analytics – you must understand how to read and interpret web analytics and testing/optimization techniques.

    Using the skills above you will be able to develop and execute the marketing strategy to meet the goals established for your company regardless of the budgeting constraints. You will perform weekly, monthly, and quarterly analysis reports across all marketing channels, which will report on your progress towards the stated goals. Are you up for the challenge? I am.

    My name is Erich Stauffer and I’m a digital marketer who is passionate about customers, conversions, and collaboration. One of my favorite things to do is to “check my stats”, which means logging into the e-commerce dashboard and Google Analytics to review conversions. I’ve managed Google Adwords, Twitter and Facebook ads, and helped run and train teams of other marketing specialists.

    I love to document what I do, which means I’m either updating a spreadsheet, an Evernote note, or a Dropbox folder. When new staff are brought on board, I’m the guy who trains them how to use the marketing systems and when there is new marketing technology, I’m the one trying it out. I love marketing, technology, and how it all works together. That is what I’m passionate about and that’s how I can help.

    How can I help you with your digital marketing needs?

  • Why I’m Going to Mixwest 2014

    Mixwest is an Indianapolis marketing, design, and technology convention with speakers and multi-track sessions spread out over two days: July 31-August 1, 2014. I’m going to meet new people and see old friends.

    Mixwest 2014

    I first went to Mixwest in 2011 when it was called “Blog Indiana“. Half of all of the people I follow on Twitter I met at that conference and I continue to keep in touch with them today. It’s any not different than many other conferences you might find in New York, Vegas, Austin, or San Francisco, it’s just that it’s in the Midwest, which makes it closer to me. I’m from around here, but it’s close enough that if you really wanted to come you could drive it in a day from Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, or Kentucky.

    The #Mixwest14 conference has a keynote speaker that opens each day, then there is breakout sessions, lunch, and an evening big speaker again. The first year they had Jay Baer, who I didn’t know of at the time, but have since realized is a pretty big deal in the social world. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana, which is an hour south of Indianapolis.

    You can learn more about the conference on Twitter @mixwest and can follow all of the speakers on the unofficial Mixwest 2014 Speaker Twitter list. If you’re looking to socialize with the tech entrepreneurs, social media pros, and freelance writers around Indianapolis, this is the place to do it.

  • The Digital Arrow of Time

    In the library scene from H.G. Well’s The Time Machine where the time traveling man from the past finds books that have fallen apart amid a new ‘CD’-looking object that plays after he spins it on a big open plate thing. He asks about their books, only to learn they have been left to decay and turn to dust. He’s then taken to an ancient museum, where “talking rings” tell of their history.

    HG Wells Time Machine Talking Rings

    In H.G. Well’s future, books have been converted to talking rings, which are like CDs or DVDs that are more like metal rings that play when spun on a special table-top surface. But it’s not just books that need converted to new platforms, The White Album Problem also applies to digital cities.

    In this Atlantic piece on “What happens when digital cities are abandoned?“, Laura Hall writes, “Ownership…must be continually renewed, the way a garden must be continually tended, lest nature overtake its carefully-arranged borders.”

    The way she talks about revisiting her Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) reminded me of what it’s like to go back into the empty Minecraft server. There it sits, a world past occupied, ready to run for as long as it’s maintained. But what happens when it’s turned off the way collegeclub.com was turned off?

    Laura mentions Geocities, where I too had an address in Athens at “8802”. I still remember it because it was the first time a virtual place was categorized like a physical place and so it seemed like it wasn’t just online, but was a real destination. A destination that got shut down by Yahoo! in 2009.

    “The great paradox about these digital communities is that they’re easily kept around forever, and they are even more easily deleted utterly,” said Jason Scott, an Internet advocate and archivist who launched a digital preservation team in 2009. “These communities had lasting historical and societal value.”

    Laura pines, “It’s up to our future selves, or those who live beyond us, to make sense of what’s being saved today: to curate the data and form the stories around it that will give it meaning.” In H.G. Wells story that was with talking rings.

    Scott said, “This is not a new self-awareness. You’re just keeping it on a hard drive instead of the old family bible. Your diary is now on a server, instead of underneath your room, where your parents throw it out.” I couldn’t agree more.

  • Gross Songs Kids Love

    The first book I ever wrote was a collection of lewd songs children sing in grade school called Gross Songs Kids Love. However, due to file mismanagement and The White Album Problem, I no longer have the book.

    It was originally written in PFS Write on a Zenith personal computer with a 5 MB hard drive. It was written between the years of 1988 and 1994.

    It’s not like I didn’t have a version in Windows. My father helped me convert the files from PFS Write to a file that could be read in Windows by “printing to file”. I had to have a computer that could read the 5 and 1/4 inch floppies, which my Windows 95 computer did.

    I copied the files from the Zenith PC to the Gateway 2000 PC running Windows 95, which was used as the family PC. There the files sat as I got on with high school, swimming, and Shog.

    By the time I had my own Windows 98 computer I failed to copy the book to the new PC and therefore lost the digital copies. But what about the physical copies? After all, I printed it out on the attached dot-matrix printer. What came of those?

    In my physical file cabinet in my office I have not one, but four “Things I’ve Written” folders and not one of them contains a copy of the book. It may be somewhere else in the file cabinet, but it just goes to show that even paper copies can be lost (or is that more obvious – I can’t tell anymore).

    My children are now of the age when I started writing this book, but when I look at what they are creating, it pales in comparison. Even though I’ve bought them Snagit to record Minecraft videos on Youtube and it’s easier than ever to create content, they have little to show for the available resources before them.

    I blame myself for not pushing my children to create more works despite my own professional advice to business owners to create content to market their businesses online. How does that saying go, “the cobbler’s son has no shoes?” Don’t be that guy, Erich.

  • Who is Roger?

    Roger got up to go to work, just like he does every morning. The sky was still dark, but there was a hint of gray as the sun was rising far away from his east window.

    His wife made him breakfast as he put on his shoes. He always kept them by the front door and took them off just as the kids would greet him on his returning home.

    The kids were still asleep and so Roger went over the upcoming bills with his wife and what the calendar had down for him tonight and this weekend. Nothing much.

    After finishing his breakfast and brushing his teeth, Roger grabbed the cup of coffee and lunch from his wife, kissed her and left for the day, same as always.

    On his way to work he passed the same courthouse, the same school, the same hospital, and the same corn fields. In every way this was a typical, normal day.

    GNNgnzhh! A loud, static, industrial grinding sound blared from an unknown location. Black pixels appeared above the roofs of the houses. The world began to flicker.

    Darkness.

    Applause.

    In front of him sat a studio audience. He couldn’t move his head. “Where am I?”, he thought. “How did I get here?” Suddenly a game-show-like host came near.

    “Who do you think you are?”, asked the show’s host.

    Unsure if he could speak, he said, slowly, “I’m Roger.”

    “Who do you think Roger is, Roger?”

    “That’s me. I’m Roger.” The audience laughed.

    “Where do you think you are right now, Roger?”

    “I, I don’t know. I was driving and…”

    “Ladies and gentleman, allow me to introduce to you the first fully functional artificial intelligent computer of it’s kind, R.O.G.E.R.”

    Roger attempted to cry, but there were no ducts, only a LCD monitor, and a fading, gut-wrenching realization that everything in his life was a lie.