Dave Morin

I love fortune cookies. Why? Because they give great advice. Like this:

“Nothing in the world is accomplished without passion.”

Think about that.

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I’ve taken to swinging by my favorite Jamba Juice on the way up to the city every once in awhile. Jamba Juice is a great brand. It seems like a pretty cool place to work. The mission is healthy, their colors are fun, and they’ve got great locations.

But, today I was taken aback by what I saw while waiting for my blended berry goodness.

As I stood there, I noticed a woman with a hat on. The hat said “Chicago” with the Jamba Juice brand above it. This grabbed my attention. I sneakily listened to the conversation she was having with what looked like the general manager. She was pointing to each employee saying things like, “she should be smiling more”, “[employee name] should be acting more happy to hand that person their juice”, “because it is hard to add value to the everyday tasks of an employee, each employee should try to do one task happier.”

Now, there are a few things wrong with this if you are trying to figure out a training/incentive/movtivation program for your company. Retail or regardless.

First, standing in front of the “line” or “facade” of the store, and watching the employees is never going to get you the desired look into the actually personality or functioning of the store. Of course the employees are going to be on their best behavior, and of course you are going to see little defects in the way that they are doing their jobs. You are standing directly in front of them. Now, read that last sentance again. They’re stressed out, trying to do everything right, and you happen to be standing with their manager.

Second, you can never get a look at the “personality” of a store by stopping by once a quarter/month. Doing this is much like what Malcolm Gladwell talks about in his new book Blink, and on one of his recent podcasts over at IT Conversations.

He tells the story of the battle between Pepsi and Coke. Pepsi was beating Coke hands down in blind taste tests. Coke freaked out because everyone began buying Pepsi. In the long run, everyone went back to Coke. It turned out that the only reason that Pepsi beat out Coke in a blind taste test was because Pepsi was much sweeter when taking only one sip. In the long run, people realized that the entire experience of a can of Coke was much better. Coke had gone and created a newer, sweeter version called New Coke, it then failed, and original Coke reigned again.

I think you can learn a lot from this story when looking at how you evaluate your programs in the field. Don’t send your marketing or training managers out to the stores to sweat your employees right in front of their face. Train your employees with passion, infuse passion in your managers, ensure that they know the value and passion associated with the brand. Give them a reason to love their work, and love their job. Erase negativity from the workplace. If you want to spot check your stores, send regular consumers (multiple times), to experience the store, experience the brand.

That way, you’ll know exactly how your stores are doing. What your experience is truly like in the eyes of a customer. And, how much passion for your brand you need to infuse into that store.

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Seth Godin dropped a post last week about a site called autoblogger.net. The site is a technology spoof on a service which would essentially write your blogs for you. So, in times when you hit bloggers block, autoblogger can generate content for you. It’ll even generate fake photoblog travel content. Cool.

The reason I post has more to do with the comment Seth made about the fact that blogging hasn’t turned into a job yet. Now, you can refer to many of the “bloggers” out there reporting for MSNBC, or the Drudge Report, or many other blog news sources. They’ve turned it into a job. Right? Yes, I suppose they have. But, they essentially took the genuis content delivery system of blogging and turned it into a news source.

I am here to tell you about my buddy Tyler, who having been a prolific blogger for a few years (we started blogging around the same time), has now been snatched up by a brand new company called LexBlog.

LexBlog builds websites for law firms. Not just plain vanilla websites, but blogs for law firms. When you sign up with LexBlog, they build a site for your firm, and give you various options as to how often you want your content updated, what you want that content to look like, and what specific subject matter your firm is into. Essentially turning the portal to your law firm into a fantastic lawresource for all of your clients.

Tyler was found through his blog. Now he’s paid to research subject matter and write content for various law blogs around the country. Let me repeat: found through his blog, now paid to blog.

I never thought his pleads of “please give me a job” through his own blog would in turn land him a job doing what he loves: writing. Awesome.

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I’m doing a lot of linking lately. Which, may seem like a cheap way to provide filler content when I don’t actually have anything good to talk about. Interestingly enough, though, I tend to believe that there are actually a lot of really cool things going on out there on the web and in the market otherwise. The chatter is increasing. This means that ideas are churning, entreprenuers are buzzing, and smart people are thinking about where technology and the marketplace are going to go next. This will lead to some really neat things. I can’t wait.

One thing that I have started to follow pretty extensively is Podcasting. It’s a leading edge content delivery method which is beginning to gain quite a bit of traction in the marketplace. Most of you have probably heard of it, some of you might say: “Pod-what??”.

In super simple terms, here’s how it works: Record an MP3 file –> Post it to your web server –> Tell your blog’s RSS feed where that MP3 file is –> Your RSS feed delivers it as an “enclosure” to the masses via any number of Podcasting/Feed related software applications.

What does this mean to the masses and how can it help me on a daily basis you say? Well, it means that you basically can carry whatever content you want wherever you may be going. Hour commute from San Francisco to Silicon Valley in the morning? Maybe you want to learn about innovative intellectual property law from renouned Stanford professor Lawerence Lessig, listen to Steve Wozniak talk about technology, or Malcolm Gladwell talk about human nature or intuitive decision making. Maybe you just want to hear your favorite NPR content from one of the best NPR stations in America KCRW. However you slice it, Podcasting provides you with a way to essentially “Tivo” your favorite content and take it with you.

This profoundly simple concept has changed the way that I consume information to and from work on my commute. I’ve essentially gained back two reading hours a day (when I’m in town). A big thanks goes out to a few of the people that have kept the passion for Podcasting alive through the sites I am about to list. Check it out:

Adam Curry
Adam is leading the charge, sitting on the RSS advisory board, and helping push Podcasting into the mainstream. His daily Podcast “The Daily Source Code” is well worth your time. Check it out.

IT Conversations
At IT Conversations you can basically find podcasting content relating to just about anything in the technology, business, and marketing world. Many of the feeds which I linked to above come directly from this amazing resource.

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I absolutely love Cuban music. From the Afro Cuban All Stars, to the Buena Vista Social Club. Cuban music rocks. So does Cuban food, culture, and art.

Yesterday I was turned on to cuban rap/hiphop. Check out the Orishas. Or just download both of their albums from the iTunes Music Store here:

Orishas

They are really, really good. And, well worth your time. I wouldn’t lead you astray

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