G’day folks!

And in this week’s issue: Clipart - when to use it and when NOT to use it!

Plus a very nice comment from Heidi Miller over at HeidiMillerPresents.com

Enjoy!

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I had to pay my 6 month-old notebook’s vendor a third visit recently.

The first visit was because of the motherboard frying; the second because the internal battery was stuffed.

The third was because the power block gave up life just when I really needed it. Argh!

Whilst waiting in the shop for one of the staff to see if they had a spare ‘out the back’ I listened in to the shop manager attempting to explain to a customer why he didn’t copy over some programs from an old hard drive to a new drive she had purchased.

The customer’s ‘passion’ levels were rapidly rising, her ‘frustration meter’ going off the scale. No matter how he attempted to explain his position, she was getting more and more aggravated.

In the end she stormed out, yelling that she was never coming back again, and to be honest, with the way she was handled, I don’t blame her.

The manager spent all his time defending his position, talking at her rather than with her. Obviously not a devotee of Covey, he failed to ’seek first to understand, then to be understood’. Instead he just launched into a vigorous and patronising defence on why he didn’t/couldn’t do it.

The staff at the shop, I have noticed, are very good at selling you stuff, but not so good at helping you solve a problem when there’s no direct financial incentive for them to do so. At least the chap who was helping me had helped me out in the past and was friendly and helpful to the limits he was allowed to be.

Additionally, they are no doubt very competent technologists, but their people skills are lacking.

The assistant handling my case came back shortly after the female customer had stormed out and let me know that my power block would have to be sent to Sydney to be serviced. I had to ask if they had any spares, but there weren’t any.

Reluctantly, it seemed, the manager lent me a universal power adapter, but with very strict instructions to take care of it and not scratch it (no doubt he wanted to sell it as new). He then launched into a thinly-veiled and patronising series of questions to see if I had ‘destroyed’ mine by negligantly connecting it to the power without a surge protector. I almost got to the point of asking him if he was accusing me of lying when I said I did have a surge protector…

With my notebook suffering repeated failures, I am very much in the mood of the female customer. Next time I think I will take my business elsewhere.

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Argghh!!

Despite repeated attempts to unsubscribe from an email list, and repeated emails to the owner of the mailing service, I still keep getting email newsletters from a former business associate from whom I would rather not hear or read anything again.

Anyone know how to take the complaint up a notch? I’ve tried the automated unsubscribe many times, emailing the owner of the service three times… all to no avail.

I use Spamnet as my Outlook spam blocker, and I have repeatedly ‘blocked’ the emails, but still I receive them.

Frustration levels reaching Defcon 3 level…

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Downloaded and watched Heidi Miller’s promo vid - seriously impressive!

If you are looking to create your own PR video, her’s is a great template.

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Listening to the first issue of Heidi Miller’s great podcast on marketing and trade show presentations (she’s up to show number three already - great listening!) I was reminded of why a good audio tag (or jingle) is so important.

I originally grabbed the idea from Robert Middleton’s fantastic work on marketing for professionals — it was he who directly inspired my answer to the question, “what do you do, Lee?”

I help businesses communicate better for better business results

A lot of alliteration, sure, but the listener is left in no doubt about what service I provide and for which market.

Heidi has a great audio tag as well, which I will let you find by listening to her first podcast. I wish she would use it as a tag/jingle for every podcast, it’s that good.

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This is interesting!

My favourite software company Macromedia is being bought by Adobe.

I love Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Director and used Photoshop at LineOne in London, finding it very handy for ’stroking’ images quickly, but have stayed away from using Photoshop more often because it is too ‘feature-packed’ for me. I like Firework’s simple interface.

I never got my head around Flash, though — I was used to Director’s timelines and Flash works counter-intuitively to Director.

It’ll be interesting to see if Fireworks gets a ’stroking’ tool like Photoshop’s.

Also interesting to note that Macromedia’s share price went up on the announcement, but Adobe’s went down (possibly because of brand/product dilution).

As Macromedia say on their website:

The combination of Adobe and Macromedia strengthens our mission of helping people and organizations communicate better. Through the combination of our powerful development, authoring and collaboration tools – and the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash – we have the opportunity to drive an industry-defining technology platform that delivers compelling, rich content and applications across a wide range of devices and operating systems.

I whole heartedly approve of anything that helps people and organisations communicate better!

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What an amazing few days/weeks…

Because of a few mp3 comments sent to their podcast I get to start building a relationship with some bearded bloke (an ex Doobie Brother, I reckon) in California and a geezer in Amsterdam, then the incoming Chair of the IABC drops me a personal email because he has a good friend in Adelaide, inviting himself over for a coffee soon (which is gladly accepted!), then I get a very attractive and highly intelligent woman with a great podcast saying nice things about my own podcast (you’ll hear her in my next podcast)…

Tell me this blogging/podcasting stuff isn’t wonderful, go on…

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Having now swelled the illustrious ranks of the IABC, induced in no small part by Nifty Nev and Shakin’ Shel’s wholehearted endorsement of the organisation, I am able to report on my first impressions.

“Very” is a word that springs to mind.

The resources available are impressive — I haven’t had time to wander aimlessly through the books and material available for purchase, but certainly a few quick clicks of my mouse enabled me to print off a swag of great articles for reading on the bus.

Sure, a couple of the articles are ‘magaziney’ in feel (as in a little light on ‘how to’ and a bit too much like articles you’d find in House & Garden), but some were absolute corkers!

I’ve committed what many of my peers would consider heresy — I’ve read the $#@^ing manual on MyComms before actually starting work on producing a Comms plan with it. Once I start the project proper I’ll get to put my reading into practice. Stay tuned!

So all in all, my first impression is very positive.

Living as I do in Adelaide, there’s no ‘chapter’ for me to join, so I join the ranks of the ‘members at large’. [I wonder if it is a comment on my waist size? Has my wife been talking to them behind my back?] But no doubt there will be plenty of opportunities to find IABC colleagues here in Australia at an appropriate time.

So thanks, Nev & Shel, for recommending the organisation to me. You are indeed good ambassadors.

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