The push for perfection and the reality of messiness.

When I began Hand in Hand Productions many years ago I was constantly pushing the envelope. I pushed hard to find better ways to do things. I then got scared. This fear drove me to keep things status quo for many years. I was comfortable doing what I knew. It’s not broken so no need to fix it. If anything this last year I found out that change can hit you like a freight train. Well maybe we don’t want to get hit, but it is coming and the light at the end of the tunnel will be here sooner than we know it or want it. See the freight train left the station many years ago for me. I just couldn’t hear it and I wasn’t in the darkness of the tunnel.

Yeah lot’s of metaphors to unpack here. When looking at my darkness it came from a couple of forms, personal and professional. I need to make it clear though my professional darkness was a result of my personal darkness. I will not be going into the details of my personal darkness in this post. It is safe to say though that like the announcement on the plane to put your oxygen mask on before helping someone else I was not doing that. While I was acting in selfish manners I was to outwardly facing and not taking a look at was going on in my own world and definitely needed that oxygen mask. I think this can be a moment that we can all relate to and it is important in these moments to stop the world going by and focus on yourself to get healthy. Truly dig in. Get some definition of what is important. My time took many years and I was truly stuck in the black tunnel. I was always just trying to find the way out, but could not because I had the lost the light. I don’t want it to seem like I was helpless. I was living, but I was not thriving. I truly believe we are built to love and thrive. I finally found the way out of the tunnel. I put the oxygen mask on and breathed the breath of life.

With the personal far from perfect (as there will never truly be perfection, more on that later) I began putting the business back together. I had no idea how badly I had been just to afraid to start something new. Experiment with making things better. I had no idea though the train was about to catch up with me. I was beginning to start to figure things out when a moment in time that changed the entire world caught up to me like everyone else. COVID was a game changer and as I turned to look into the tunnel that I had just left I saw that light at the other end of the tunnel coming straight at me. That light was a freight train that as an event production company looked like a complete collapse of business. The world dramatically changed and changed quick. I made a choice to not get flattened by the freight train, but to jump on and see where it was talking me.

Changes like going back to my roots of scrappiness. Things got messy. I decided since I had nothing better to do I would embrace my broadcast roots and started doing virtual interviews of people since I couldn’t interview them in person. It was a mess of ideas and emotions, and gear as well. I had to patch things together since I had a business that had gear focussed on doing live events in person. It was a learning curve, but man it was fun. I learned so much and adapted a new workflow for an evolving world that will probably never look the same with live events. We will now be in some sort of a virtual/hybrid world and the knowledge that I gained in those early days of virtual production have been crucial to the success of Hand in Hand Productions today.

Messiness is so helpful to get into both personally and in business. First, personally as if you truly aren’t looking at our messiness as an individual you may be missing what you are truly supposed to be doing with your life. You may also be not being your best self and living your life as a walking lifeless shell of yourself. It is in these moments of messiness that you learn about yourself. You learn about what it means to live life. Second, when looking at business I don’t want it to seem like you have to break something. Your business may be incredibly successful and you are a well oiled machine, but if nothing else this last year has taught us that we have to plan for everything. What if your entire customer base disappeared overnight. What does that look like for your business, or you as an employee within it? We as good humans owe it to each other to wade into the messiness as it truly is a rewarding experience. It sucks in the moment, but has so many great outcomes.

A new start to begin the end of the year

With a title like that, how can you not be confused? The reality is I stopped blogging this year and Seth Godin was in my ear all year. One word honestly is the reason why I stopped. 

FEAR

What in the heck would I be afraid of though? If I am doing what I love I am actually just sharing my knowledge. My thoughts on different subjects. What works and what doesn’t when it comes to AV and technology. Even sharing new ways. BUT…. The but is the voices saying that isn’t the right way to do it. The but is the trolls of the Internet. The but is honestly just in my head.

So I stopped because of fear. What if you could take all fear away and make a jump? What would you do today with no fear? Honestly, that is how we are most successful. Striving to make things better with lots of bumps and stumbles along the way. Zig Ziglar sums it up best,  “Remember that failure is an event, not a person.” Each time we fear the outcome we are taking away our own success. Yep that’s what I did. 

I have so many great ideas kicking around, but I stopped short of execution. I stopped short and became comfortable in what I know. Fearing the outcome I stopped reaching. I stopped growing in the large areas that I need to work on. I am sure all of us have had this from time to time. However, we don’t have to make it a reality.

So fear get out of my way and let’s end 2018 with the fresh start on 2019 before I get even there.

By the way here is what I am not getting afraid to get done:

  • Biweekly Podcast (Got any ideas)
  • Launch a series of how-tos that people can purchase
  • Loose 30 pounds
  • Become debt free (Yes I am a Dave Ramsey believer)
  • Complete 2 passion projects this year
    • One is a documentary on Visions of Hope
    • One is top secret

Time to start.

Top 10 Gift Items Under $100 for the Geek in Your Life

As a geek I often get asked for a list of items that I couldn’t go without and here is my top ten.

1) A Decent Back Up Battery

My personal favorite is most anything from Anker. My recommendation is you spend a bit more as you will get a charge on your phone as well as any other devices like an iPad or device that uses USB charging. Take a look at the Anker PowerCore 10000 for value and charge capacity. Currently it is $23.99 at Amazon.

2) Dongles

This goes without saying, but with the current crop of Macs, iPads, and even Surface Pros they all need dongles. For an older generation Mac prior to last years MacBook I recommend a mini display port to 3-in-1 combo adapter. These are nice because they have the ability to plug into a TV with HDMI as well as an older style monitor or projector that uses VGA. $12.99 from Amazon.

If you have a newer MacBook or MacBook Pro with USB-C you may take a look at this adapter. While I have no experience with these as I don’t have a USB-C Mac this one looks well rated on Amazon. The other advantage of this is that you can use it to charge the Mac. $59.99 from Amazon.

3) Spare USB Cables

Anker 3ft Nylon Braided USB Cable with Lightning Connector
Anker PowerLine+ Micro USB
Anker PowerLine+ Micro USB

My favorite USB cables come from Anker and are nylon braided. While they are a bit more money they are well worth it. They seem to not have any issues with the typical breakage where the cable meets the end like the Apple ones do. They also have them in different lengths and combo packages. $10.99 for the Lightning connector and $9.99 for the Micro USB.

4) A Good Multi Tool

Every true geek needs at least one and for a small one my favorite is the Leatherman Piranha 2. This one easily fits in a briefcase or backpack. It includes 7 tools including scraper, bottle opener, ¼” hex bit driver, medium screwdriver, open wrench (English), box wrench (metric), box opener. $22.89 on Amazon.

My other favorite is the Leatherman Wave. This one is one that you wear and has gotten me out of plenty of jams. It includes these 17 tools needlenose pliers, regular pliers, hard-wire cutters, wire cutters, wire stripper, 420HC knife, 420HC serrated knife, saw, spring-action scissors, ruler (8in, 19cm), can opener, bottle opener, wood/metal file, diamond coated file, large bit driver, small bit driver, medium screwdriver. In my humble opinion there is no other brand than Leatherman to use. $89.85 on Amazon.

5) A place to organize it all

What I refer to as my tech board. Many years ago I discovered a company by the name of Cocoon Grid-It and haven’t looked back. They make a great product and it just works. This one I have had for almost 4 years now. It holds almost everything I would need when I produce an event from a computer standpoint including my Piranha 2, USB cables, spare headphones, backup battery and a few other miscellaneous items that come in handy for events. Mine is a medium which measures 12″ by 8″ and is $17.70 on Amazon. For those who travel you may look at the extra Large 11″ by 15″ which is great to help keep your suitcase organized. It is $22.03 on Amazon.
Take a look at the entire Cocoon GRID-IT products on their website.

6) Cleaning Cloths

This one could be a stocking stuffer at $8.99 on Amazon for a 6 pack. I keep them in every bag. They are just great at cleaning and are safe for cleaning delicate surfaces. My recommendation when you need to clean something is put a tiny bit of water on the cloth in a corner which usually works to clean most smudges or grossness off of surfaces. NEVER use alcohol or any other cleaning solution. Do the geek in your life a favor and get at least one of these packs.

7) Spare Headphones

I know this seems counter intuitive as most people grab their headphones when they travel, but trust me just buy some and your favorite geek will love you of it. For me I throw a pair in my briefcase or backpack and know no matter what I have a pair. Now this is a personal preference I am partial to these Sony ones. I like them because they have a mic so can double as handsfree when driving and the button works to activate Siri. $27.27 on Amazon.

8) Spare Hard Drive

This one may seem strange, but trust me on this. Most likely your geek has forgotten to protect his/her love ones with backups or worse yet themselves. With hard rive costs getting so low you owe it to them to buy one for backup. If they already backup their files then having another one to make a second backup always makes sense. I am partial to Western Digital and this one is a good value at $83.25 for 2TB. Make sure to get a drive that is larger than the size of the computers hard drive so this may be over $100.

9) A subscription to DropBox

While this is just under $100 at $99 a year for 1TB of storage this is one that I consider one of the best investments each year. For me I use it actually as my cloud backup as I store all of my files in my folder that Drop Box uses to sync to the cloud. Some other nice features include 30 day file recovery and the ability to share files with a link for those family members need a file and it is to big to email. I probably should do a screen cast on the ability to share a folder and allow people to upload files which is another great feature. Check it out here.

10) iPhone/iPad Flash Drive

While this one is specific to iOS users it is always great to have more storage when you are on the road. At 64GB of storage you should get plenty of extra room to store your videos and photos. This device also makes it a bit easier to move your photos to your computer as it has a standard USB 3.0 connection on the other side. At $42.99 it is not the least expensive it can be invaluable for your traveling iOS companion. For those on android phones most support storage via micro SD and so check out this 64GB card for added storage at $15.49.

A bonus one that isn’t under $100

I have an obsession with bags and my laptop backpack made by incase hate now started to fall apart. This is no fault of the bag as it has been used and abused and is actually a great bag. I however wanted to try something different and have been intrigued by TSA-Compatible types and found the Patagonia Paxat 32L. Take a look at it on Patagonia’s site. Selling for $120 it actually isn’t much more than the $100 and so far it has been a nice bag.

What do you think of the list? Did I miss anything?

Just dig in and begin!

That is the point today and tomorrow. In my social media classes that I teach for community education I tell my class that what do you have to lose by just doing it. For some reason it is the cobbler’s kid’s shoes. You see in the story of the cobbler he makes the best shoes around for everyone, but himself and his children. Too often we do this in our own lives. We forgot to do things for ourselves that truly matter in the lives of those around us, but also in our own business as well. I find that I am constantly telling others to make the changes in their marketing or do this or that because it is too easy to tell others to make the changes for themselves and not look at the changes we need to make. I have however been giving this a lot of thought recently, I have been reading, and also listening to some amazing thought leaders and have come to understand that urgency has to be stopped.

We get sucked into urgency as it is easy. We feel like others are asking of us something important and it must be done to keep the client, to make the sale, to keep moving, to complete the task. What however I have been really looking at is what if I as a cobbler started by making my shoes first? What would happen to my life if I began to make the priorities my own instead of others? What if I stopped putting others first and began the process of setting my process and goals in place first and placing others into these times?

The reality is that we place time priorities as if the day has to be filled with the emergencies and urgencies of others, but there has been study after study from productivity experts that push us to delegate, to prioritize differently, to automate, and in the end just put our priorities first that have shown to be far better productively.

It is important to note here that I am not talking about making your life only about you. What I am talking about is the opportunity to start with your why. Start with your why and make it become important to you and begin to make your why a reality.

A why is a tricky thing because it is a very scary thing. It involves taking a look, as Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy talk about in their new book Living Forward, at writing an obituary at the end of your life. Not in a morbid way, but in a way that you want to be honored by. What do your family, friends, kids, community, or others say about you? What does that look like and then taking that and creating a life plan around it.

What if you stopped living your life in the chaos and urgencies of others, but began to live it for yourself? I would hope that those around you see how much better you are living your life and would support you. I know for me this has been a process I have struggled with and know I will struggle for the rest of my life. I do know that as a part of this process though my wife is a part of my why and we will be doing this together, and hopefully in time we will so become in tune with what each other wants that we will help keep each other on track.

That is my reality. Each week I am living for me which means my clients/customers will be treated better and get better results because I am living my life for the things that matter the most which is God, family, and those that I surround myself with. For me digging in is living my why and not living the why of others. For me digging in looks like the work that I have been doing in the last week of making a difference in others’ lives and beginning the process of telling my own story within this.

Just dig in and begin.

Past, Present, and the Future

The Past, The Present, The Future

Actions of our past do not make us who we are today. This is what I believe.

I do a lot of work in the start up field and when you look at what the successful startups are doing it is rapid prototyping and shipping products quickly. The quickly shipping products however is where the problems can be. Sometimes pride get’s in the way and the mistake of the past becomes the present. How we deal with this makes a mark on who we are and our long term code of ethics. We see a lot of companies make a choice to take the past and make it better. This choice leads to better businesses. When we make a personal mistake in life with those that love us we can do the same thing by owning up to it and trying to make it better.

If we are to be looked at who we are today then we need to take a look at the past and not dwell in it. Personal reflection is the mark of successful people. The personal introspection though can lead to self doubt and that is where the present comes in. This present is what we make of it today. Does this past create the reality of what a new future looks like, or do we choose to relive the errors of the past? It has often been said the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result. In order to change this we must realize that our future is predicated on choosing to change today and make a difference in tomorrow.

All of this is predicated on our priorities and our core values. What are your core values? Sometimes the value in the today is the moment and the stillness of the now. My own experience was helping my wife when her son was in the hospital recently with viral pneumonia. The drive for the future was suspended by the now and that is ok. My wife and “bonus son” needed me. My wife needed someone to make sure that she was getting what she needed as she took care of her son. What this says is my family is worth it and for all of us this should truly be the case. I feel life really is to short and that the stress of life gets in the way of the love of life. The experience of the day and those that love us that are around us.

Our future therefore is unwritten. We get to make a choice in how we make it better. Our values dictate something about those choices. I know for me I am choosing the ones around me that care about me.

This is even true in business as Rabbi Lapin puts it, every dollar you earn is a “certificate of appreciation” from your customers. Take a look at your business and if you are to serve instead of receive how would your business change? I guaranty customer service becomes priority number one and you get rewarded for it.

By looking and learning from the past, stepping out of the present, and serving for the future we will have a better life in business and personally.

I have a confession

For quite sometime I have been dealing with a huge problem, but I had no idea. The bizarre thing about this problem is that most would think how could that even be a problem. It seems like it would be something that we all would want and even strive for. The challenge is when this problem kicks into overdrive it causes serious problems including self esteem, and for me just even dealing with the world. The problem stems from one word, and many people today have no clue how big of a problem just one simple word creates. That word is yes.

While yes by itself is not a problem, what stands behind it can be. If all that yes means for you is people will like me more, then you can relate to where I have been for most of my life. I sought out approval. I sought out the yes. You see for me it started at an early age, and is a story for another time, but in todays reality it has been a barrier. I lost my voice in the process of always saying yes. I lost my sense of balance. When you are always saying yes it becomes such a struggle to not get to such a high level of overcommitment that you have no where to turn. You begin to feel paralyzed at even calling a client and telling them of delays because you feel they won’t like you. You feel like you will have let them down. In reality you just are letting yourself down.

Saying no is tough because someone may not like us. In reality though we are just kidding ourselves. I struggled with this. How is it possible for someone to like us if we say no? I just did not understand it. Today I still struggle with it, but the reality is something that most of us forget about which is boundaries. We want to do so much that we get lost in the everythingness of just doing as much as possible, but in reality it is not a life worth living. It is living someone else’s life and not our own.

Enabling yourself to be happy and facing the dreaded no starts with your foundation. Who and what are you? Why do you exist? Why do you go to work? Why do you do what you do? Why are you?

For me the balance was shot. More work would be great. More income and better success. The reality is most of the time less is always more. Imagine if you are able to focus on just one thing today how much better you may be able to complete that task. Imagine if all you did today was focus on your relationship with your spouse, kids, relatives, or friends it will change your life. Saying no can help create balance and when you tell people that truly care about you that you need to think before you give them an answer it helps build respect.

I am not suggesting you say no to everything because remember your balance. Remember what matters most. Remember that life is not worth living by yourself, but with others around you and you certainly have to give back to whatever makes you who you are. The challenge for me though has been realizing that as long as I am treating each person with dignity and respect the no becomes less personal. My personal worth rests inside myself and not with others. I believe that for everyone. Find who you are and stop letting the no be so personal.

The Beginning

Most of the time when we start something we don’t have a good idea where the end is. This is even more evident when most business owners begin their small businesses. We think I want to change the world or want to offer a product that is not being offered by anyone else. We possibly find funding, buy equipment, buy product to sell, and we open our doors. If we guessed right and there is a market we begin selling our product and in time we find ourselves “successful.” Well at least others judge us as successful because we overcame that start up hump. To us though we just keep on keeping on and in some instances we are just making it. We are not really feeling successful. We still are struggling. We are struggling because our success compass is off.

Money is supposed to equal success. If we have the nice home, the nice car, or the nice office aren’t we successful? We have the money to show it, but in reality we have a false sense of success. Well at least I did.

I have owned my own business for over 11 years now. I battled through so many bad years just making it. I did make it though. I made enough to put food on my table and that in reality is what mattered at the time. I however still measured success as not having more money. I wasn’t driven by it, but I was placing my own value in it. I was not valuable because I wan’t making more. My reality, I wasn’t successful because I didn’t have the nice car or the nice house or the nice whatever. I was simply passing through my business making ends meet and at the same time becoming more and more bitter about it.

Why don’t people know my worth was often the question I would ask. I felt powerless and in that question alone is the value. We have to find our success in a different way.

Here is the reality when looked at through a different lens. For the past 11 years I have been privileged to be a part of some of the largest events in the community of Bend. I have put together many videos that have helped raise funds to change peoples lives. I have with assistance of  an incredible team built and executed countless videos and events that have been the small ripple. So my value is greater than money.

Here is what I would encourage all of you. Take a moment when you are feeling the lowest, or are not feeling successful and reframe the question to what is it that I value. Success is in that value. Success is so much more intangible than money, Success is the change you make in the world today.

Begin with the end in mind, but start with values instead of success. If you stick to your values you will be successful by nature. Your nature is your legacy.

A new year a new planning routine

For years I have struggled with planning and goals, but this year I am determined to make it work and get myself going. I am going to outline my process so I can look back on it and better refine during the year if needed.

The first thing I am doing is using a great little iOS app called Timeful.
Timeful_iOS_ScreenShotIMG_5113This little app starts my day off right and helps to find times within your days for priorities that you define and then keeps pestering you to go and schedule them. It ties into my calendar on Google and updates the calendar there.

Once I have the times mapped out I begin my day by spending those 15 minutes that are allocated to a simple document that I have created with Pages that outlines Year, Month, Week, and then finally Day. It is very important to make the actionable and focused. I don’t just say that these will be done, but instead I make them they will be done by X day or X time. this helps me put timelines in place for them.

Timeful_iOS_ScreenShot
ToDo iOS App

Next I place these important goals into Todo on my mac. The great thing is that there is also an iPhone/iPad App. I chose to sync the lists using Dropbox, but Todo also has there own sync service.

Todo__All_Tasks_and_Add_New_Post_‹_Matt_Hand_—_WordPress
Todo Mac App

The Mac app is very nice looking and I find it highly functional and one of the best GTD interfaces out there. This is a redesign that they underwent last year and it clearly shows they took some time to get it right.

 

You will notice in this photo I have some codes which are PB and PT. I have been grouping a bunch of small tasks into these “Blocks”. My codes are Personal Time and Productivity Block. I place a day as I tend to reuse the lists and I have created them as projects in the program. The nice thing is you can take any of these and drag them into Calendar which I am using on my Mac.

Calendar_and_Add_New_Post_‹_Matt_Hand_—_WordPress
My Calendar

 

I am creating daily schedules at this point that have all tasks to complete for the day.  Here is the part that I am still trying to figure out, but in essence I am budgeting my time. I need to do a better job of scheduling some breaks and will be working on that in the coming weeks.

I also have a couple of other tools that will help with my scheduling, but that is for next time. Please let me know if you have any question by emailing me. I also know this is a work in progress and hope to better refine it over the next month.