Alex Priest » lists

Failing

Alex Priest — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:01:53 +0000

I’ve been thinking about failing a lot lately, which is kind of odd given that the past month has probably been filled with more successes than almost any month in my entire life. I have amazing friends, an incredible job, and I’m doing ridiculous things each and every day that I never thought I would have the opportunity to do, much less succeed at. Long story short, things are really, really good.

But failure is on my mind. Because there have been plenty of failures in the past month, too. I mean hell, it’s been almost a month since I’ve blogged—wow. Talk about failing. I think there are three big reasons it’s on my mind right now:

Wins are easy. Failures suck and we want to ignore them, but they’re much more valuable to learn from. I mean think about it. There are little (and big) wins in our lives almost each and every day. And while there are failures there, too, we tend to try to avoid them and push to the back of our mind. What if you spent 15 minutes every day thinking about what you’ve failed at? And then try to fix it and succeed next time. I think I need to do that a little more.
Failures come from neglect, too. When you’re passionate about something, it’s tempting to drop everything and focus all your time, energy, and effort into that thing. I’ve sort of done that with Uber for the past month, neglecting my blog, my side projects, and some of my other responsibilities. I don’t regret it at all—I love my job and I’ll happily throw 3000% at it, and it’s tremendously rewarding. But I do think I should take note of the things I’ve neglected and try to make at least a little time for them, especially as things calm down a little now that we’re post-launch in DC. What else am I spending time on outside of work that could be better allocated somewhere else? How can I work time for fitness into my routine? How can I make sure I’m staying emotionally, physically, and intellectually healthy? You can learn from these kinds of failures, too.
Failing is sticky. I’ve been happier than I’ve been in a really long time for the past month or so. But I still find that some failures weigh very heavily on my mind. It sticks in your brain and you can’t get it out, try as hard as you might. It’s sticky. Writing this—and as I think about them more and more—I realize that I can’t just let them sit there. I need to take some time to focus on them, figure them out, fix them, and move past them.

Becoming a Networker

Alex Priest — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:32:14 +0000

Around this time last year, I was a fairly timid yet ambitious rising college junior, finally venturing out to my first real networking event. It was a Mashable-hosted tweetup on Capitol Hill, and I wandered in feeling totally overwhelmed. I’d just begun to get into social media and finally feeling like a real adult, but I’d never been to a networking event outside of American University.

Oh my how times have changed.

Tonight is Mashable’s DC “Summermash” event. That means this is also the one-year anniversary of my becoming a networker. Networking has changed my life–I’ve realized opportunities I could’ve never before imagined, and I’ve made some of my best friends in the world through online social networks. In honor of the occasion, I figured I’d offer a few tips on how I’ve managed to get where I am and how you can be well on your way, too.

Get social. This should be just about the most obvious of all the tips on this list–especially coming from me–but I simply can’t stress it enough. If you aren’t active on social media, you’re behind. Get on Twitter, get on LinkedIn, and stay active on Facebook. Collect those business cards, look people up, research the people who will be at events before you go–all simple things you can do to connect with great people online and be one step ahead of the game. Need examples? Check me out on Twitter (@alexpriest), LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Get real. This is equally important, and far too often overlooked. Connecting online isn’t enough–meeting face-to-face is more important than ever in today’s networking world. I connect with thousands of people on Twitter, but the ones I remember, trust, and am likely to pass on opportunities to are the ones I’ve met and know IRL (in real life). Find those events (see my sidebar for some upcoming ones) and get out and meet your online connections in the flesh.

Be a brand. I hate the term “personal brand” but if it walks like a brand, talks like a brand, and acts like a brand… it’s a brand. You should be one. Sell yourself. Design some custom business cards (I recommend Moo.com), build yourself a website (I recommend WordPress), and be consistent with how you present yourself and communicate both online and off. It’s more important than you think.

Stay connected. Sure, nobody likes being tethered to your phone, but oftentimes speed and responsiveness counts. I do my best to respond to every Twitter DM within five minutes, every text message within one hour, and every personal e-mail and phone call within 24 hours. Simply being on top of your game when it comes to communicating with your personal network can make you stand out more than you realize.

Don’t be timid. Yea, it’s awkward walking into a room and not knowing anyone. Sure, it’s a little uncomfortable trying to break into a conversation with a group of people you don’t know. Do it anyway. You’ll never meet people if you don’t get over your fears and jump in. Chances are, that group conversation you just butted into only got started because someone did the same thing only moments before.

Provide value. Don’t be “just a connection.” Be a news source, and opportunity archive, and a content provider. Write often, pass on interesting links, and reach out to people you haven’t talked to in a while from time to time, just to let them know you’re thinking about them. Don’t be dead weight and blabber on someone’s Twitter feed about your relationship issues, unless you’re a relationship blogger. It’s fine to be casual, and I’d say as much as 10-15% of your social network communications can be pretty mindless, but you have to be providing some value there somewhere.

Be everywhere. Don’t settle for just going to one networking event a month. Don’t settle for just being on Twitter and LinkedIn. Don’t settle for just one organization or group of friends. Get out and go to new events weekly. Set a personal goal to find and experience a new organization’s events at least once a month (if you’re in a city, trust me, this isn’t hard to do). Meet new people every day. Is it tiring? Sure. Does it keep you busy? Of course. Is it better than sitting home on the couch and watching TV? Hell yes.

Don’t underestimate yourself. I have problems with this one sometimes. The thoughts run through my mind pretty regularly, actually: I’m just a student. They won’t take me seriously. I’m just “the intern.” Well snap out of it. I slap myself on basically a weekly basis to avoid this mindset, because it’s absolute nonsense. It doesn’t matter if you are 16 or 61, a student, an intern, or a corporate vice president. I don’t care if you’re in a different industry, a different city, or a different planet. I don’t care if you’re straight or gay, black or white, loud or quiet. You are who you are and you have every bit of potential to provide value to someone’s network as anyone else. Don’t forget that.

And literally, that’s just a few of the things that have popped in my head as I sat down to write this. Follow these tips. Get out there. Have fun. Be a networker.

Make Your Cubicle Your Own

Alex Priest — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 04:49:33 +0000

Over the years I’ve worked in plenty of offices, and plenty of cubicles. Unfortunately, each and every single one of those cubicles has included a Windows computer. Me being a Mac user, I’ve done lots of research to make these inferior computers (in my humble opinion…!) my own, installing software to make my life a bit easier.

Some of these applications are just nice alternatives to some of my favorite Mac apps, and some are just great apps that I use at home as well. Others make it easier to sync your work between computers. Regardless, they’re all great apps and features, and I couldn’t recommend them enough.

Without further ado, I present my list for making your cubicle your own.

DropBox
DropBox I really can’t recommend enough. It’s one of the best apps out there, and I use it at work, at school, on friends’ computers, and at home. I haven’t used a flash drive in years thanks to DropBox. Just go download it. Really. Right now.

Every Web Browser
Yup, I’m talking about Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. They all serve excellent functions and, if you’re looking for compatibility, unfortunately there’s rarely a catchall solution. Obviously Internet Explorer is, sadly, sometimes necessary on Windows PCs. For regular browsing I use Chrome. For MobileMe and Apple-focused Web apps, I use Safari. And for design and Web development, I use Firefox. Too many apps? Who says you have to have a limit?

The MobileMe Beta
I just recently began using the MobileMe Beta, and it rocks. It’s so much faster, smoother, and well, just better email interface than ever before. It’s still not quite as snappy as gmail, but if you’re a MobileMe user (and if you have an iPhone I’d strongly recommend it), it’s a must. Sign up for the beta as soon as you can.

iTunes
Own a lot of music? Want to play any videos at all off the Web (with the exception of YouTube, obviously)? Download iTunes. ‘Nuff said.

Spotify
Want to play music at work? Get Spotify. Technically, it’s still not available in the U.S. But if you get an invite there are ways around this. Not that I’d ever recommend breaking the rules or anything.

GIMP
Do any photo editing? Image manipulation? At all? You need GIMP. Consider it free Photoshop. You can thank me later.

Tweetdeck
If you spend any time at all on Twitter, you need to be using Tweetdeck. There is simply no better client. Tweetdeck lets you manage multiple accounts, open multiple columns for different categories, run searches and view multimedia within the app, access your Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Myspace and more, and the list goes on and on.

Pidgin
Consider it your Windows alternative to Adium. It’s free, manages every instant messenger account you can think of, and has plenty of cool plugins to give you all the features you might need. Check it out.

I hope you found this list useful! By all means, “Like” it on Facebook and share it on Twitter using the links below.

On Management

Alex Priest — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:28:54 +0000

This morning we had a guest speaker in my Organizational Behavior class, and she was incredible! Suzanne Clark, CEO of the Potomac Research Group, spoke with us on some of the things she’s learned managing over the years. It’s not often I’ll write a blog post for a guest speaker in a class, but the things she said were just so incredibly practical and valuable, I thought I’d share them on here.

Are you a manager? A team leader? A business owner? Well read on, hopefully you’ll find this as useful as I did.

1. Your team wants context.

Suzanne explained that you can’t just make decisions without explaining them–most of the time–because your team simply won’t be motivated without understanding the context. Giving them the bigger picture helps keep motivation and productivity up!

2. Develop a real plan, be careful with measurement.

Oftentimes, Suzanne said, the hardest part is figuring out how you need to measure your progress and success. Make sure you’ve laid out a real plan for success, and pick the measurements that make the most sense for what you want to achieve.

3. Ensure people have the proper tools.

This one is a no-brainer. If people don’t have the tools, they can’t get the job done!

4. It’s important to practice situational leadership.

“Consistency is overrated,” said Suzanne. Not every person is the same, and they shouldn’t be managed as if they are. Don’t worry about consistency, worry about being effective.

5. Frequent feedback is incredibly important.

It’s all about being immediate and being repetitive. Suzanne said that oftentimes you really do just have to drill feedback into someone’s mind to get it to really sink in. It’s also important to make sure you’re giving feedback in the moment. Don’t wait until April to give someone feedback for a meeting that happened in March–they can easily say “well yesterday I did _____” to contradict your feedback. And that just leads to a “war of anecdotes,” says Suzanne. Not fun.

6. Performance reviews are a necessary evil.

Like them or not, performance reviews are important to make sure things are on the right track. But they also need to be done right. As a manager, you need to make sure you’re giving a review on time, because it’s simply disrespectful to keep a staff member waiting and worrying over a review that was supposed to happen a week ago. You also need to be participative. Make sure you’re involved in the review, don’t just fill out a form, make a quick 10 minute meeting and then be done with it. Be involved in the process of reviewing, it’ll make the process easier for both sides.

As a side note, Suzanne offered the suggestion to do performance reviews backwards. The tendency is always to give the encouragement and good news first, then move on to the “but…”. “Put the ‘but’ first,” said Suzanne–it’ll leave you both feeling positive at the end of the meeting, and ensures the positive feedback won’t be pushed out of the way by the negative.

7. Understand people’s triggers.

Similarly to number 4 up there, keep in mind that different people will be motivated by different things, will react differently to certain actions, and might need different incentives or even punishments, if the occasion calls for it. Learn these and know these, you’ll need them to get the most out of your team.

8. Understand how people learn.

Some people learn by reading. Others need to be briefed. Still others might need a visual representation to really “get” a concept. Make sure you know how your team learns, and utilize every method available to make it as easy as possible for them to do so.

9. Manage conflicts constructively.

This one was particularly interesting to me, and she made an excellent point: “There’s no way you’re that smart that everyone always agrees with you.” If that’s the case, chances are there’s something keeping your team from giving you real input–input that could be incredibly valuable. Make sure they know that a conflict in ideas, opinion, or otherwise is all perfectly acceptable, and can be easily managed. And once it’s managed, learn from that (both sides!) and use that to build upon your managing experience up to that point.

10. Don’t wait too long to fire someone.

Firing is no fun. That’s pretty much a given. Obviously I’ve never had to do it, but I’ve always heard it’s one of the hardest parts of managing. Suzanne says don’t put it off, just do it as soon as you realize it’s the right thing to do. She says she’s never regretted firing anyone, but it’s always for the best.

A couple side notes on this one, too: First, understand the law when it comes to firing–make sure you aren’t doing anything unethical, and certainly not illegal. Secondly, make sure you’re good with discretion. No reason that the conversation needs to go past the walls of your office (unless it comes from the fired worker’s mouth) and it’s the only respectful thing to do. Finally, make sure you’re good at communicating the development to the team. You don’t have to give details, but make sure they understand that employee is gone, what the next steps will be to replace him or her, and to continue keepin’ on keepin’ on.

11. The first thing is to hire the right people.

She saved possibly her most important point for last–make sure you hire the right people! If you’re not doing the hiring right, you’re going to have to deal with just more problems down the road. Some recommendations: be quiet and stoic during the interview, listen more than you speak. You want to get to know the candidate. Also, start with the question, “what do you know about this job?” It’s an easy way to gauge their expectations and see if they match what you envision for the position. Finally, be consistent–don’t ask different candidates questions in different orders. With some questions, candidates might be given clues from other questions earlier on in the interview, and it doesn’t do you any good to give one candidate an unfair advantage.

So I hope these were helpful! If you have anything to add, drop me a note in the comments and I’ll be sure to include it in this post. Thanks!

Making it Social IRL (In Real Life)

Alex Priest — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:15:59 +0000

There are plenty of networks online for connecting people. You’ve got Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, you name it, they’re all meant to connect people who might not have otherwise been connected. And that’s all well and good, but what if you want to get to know someone in a better way than just online?

Just today, actually, I had a follower on Twitter, @Sullivan_Smith tweet at me, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRIEND I ONLY KNOW ON TWITTER!” (Yes, today is my birthday.)

So what if you want to move those connections into the ::gasp:: REAL WORLD? Well there are tools for that too, and they’re fantastic for strengthening friendships, networking, and even meeting new people you might not have ever found through the mass that is online social networks. Check below for some examples of sites to use, as well as a list of D.C. networking and meetup groups that I’m involved in (and you should be too!).

As a student, I’m already discovering the incredible benefits these IRL social media services provide. Just browsing sites like meetup.com, for example, yielded tons of opportunities to connect and network with other professionals and like-minded individuals in the D.C. metro area. I even found a book group that is discussing my very own sister‘s newest book this Thursday at Politics & Prose.

Of the more light-hearted nature are sites like Tablesurfing, which promises that “you’ll never eat alone again.” Although not particularly active (sadly, it actually seems very inactive right now), it still provides a good glimpse of the possibilities of using online social media for making IRL connections.

Finally, there are some services that, in my humble opinion, take themselves far too seriously in their goal of making real-life connections. Take By/Association, for example. Their introduction proudly proclaims the following:

By/Association is a private service for personal introductions to remarkable people.

We hand select our members for their exceptional creativitiy, vision, and cross-disciplinary networks.

We then introduce them to each other. Because when two amazing people get together, their potential impact grows and the world changes shape.

We know someone you should meet.

For them, there is an application process and, if selected, they contact you to hook up the meetup. Interesting, if a bit too hardcore for my personal liking.

Of course, all this is without even mentioning the myriad of third-party services that add-on to Twitter, Facebook, etc. for managing IRL meetups. Plan.fm is a new service that caught my eye recently, for example, and it aggregates event data from Facebook, Twitter, Eventbrite, Meetup.com, and even an iCal feed to put all your IRL events in the same place. Still a little iffy on quality and usefulness due to the limited manipulation you can do with your events there, but it shows some promise.

For me, there’s several groups right here in the District that I’ve discovered via some of these tools. I try to participate in as often as possible, as I’m already reaping some major dividends in terms of the friendships and networking connections that I’ve gained. Here’s a list of some of those groups and their upcoming events–hope to see you there.

DC PR Flacks – next event: Happy Hour, 2/16, 6:30pm at District ChopHouse & Brewery
Capital Cabal – next event: 2nd Tuesday Happy Hour, 2/16, 5:30-9:00pm, Upstairs at Gua Rapo’s private space (I’ll have to pick which one I want to go to, obviously!)
Social Media Club DC – next scheduled event: Social Media Breakfast, 3/1, 8:00am at Busboys and Poets
Ignite DC – next event: Ignite DC No. 3, 2/18, 6:00-10:00pm at Town Danceboutique
RootsCampDC – 2/20-21 at the NEA Building
DC Media Makers – next event: “The Who-What-How: Impact of Community Technology and Crisis Camps,” 2/24, 6:30pm at NPR headquarters

Breakfast with a Side of Social Media

Alex Priest — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:13:11 +0000

This morning was Social Media Club DC‘s first ever Social Media Breakfast, and it was great! Held at Teaism here in downtown DC, we had great food, great conversation, and some excellent speakers. I’d never even been to Teaism before, but if this morning’s breakfast was a good indication of their normal food, I’m excited to go back.

The speakers included Geoff Livingston (on Twitter, @geoffliving), Alex Howard (on Twitter, @Digiphile), and Shashi Bellamkonda (on Twitter, @shashib). They had a lot of great things to say, and I even had the great opportunity to continue into a conversation with Geoff Livingston at our table after the speakers had all presented. Unfortunately, I had to jet a little early because of class, but here’s some of what I gleaned from the speakers.

Geoff Livingston had a simple message: “get mobile, get mobile now,” he said. Appropriate. I think most people in the social media and technology world are well aware now that mobile is certainly the next big revolution in communication and media tech. The iPhone and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have led the way to a more digital, more mobile, more connected life–24/7, wherever you are. He said that this next evolution in the industry is “your opportunity to be a visionary” and if you want to lead then “load up [your] reader” with every tech blog you can find. Thankfully, I’m well-covered on that front–Mashable is like the gospel for social media tech, and I must subscribe to at least 10 or 15 other big blogs, in addition to all the smaller, more personal format ones. There’s lots of info out there. Always learning.

Shashi Bellamkonda had much the same message–it’s all about mobile, it’s all about staying on top of trends, and it’s all about staying connected and active in the social media sphere. You can’t read about this and know it, you have to use it to know it.

Speaking of trends, Alex Howard rounded out the group and gave us a great list of what he thinks are the biggest trends coming for 2010. They are:

Search – traditional search engines being replaced by social media
Niche networks – using OAuth to log on, individual networks, platforms such as Ning
Privacy – much discussion on the “privacy is dead” controversy spoken by people like Pete Cashmore, Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg; Howard disagrees, says there will be a big debate both in social realm and in congress this year
Social gaming – games like foursquare, “Farmville” on Facebook, etc. becoming huge players
Security - key: “STOP USING INTERNET EXPLORER 6″
Open web - no more locked into platforms
App as the new Web site – quoted from Mathew Ingram, making mobile apps for revenue; es
timated $7 billion in revenue
for mobile apps in 2010
Geolocation – Twitter integrated geolocation, games like Foursquare, etc.
Online video – continuation of the growth seen since 2006, more mainstream content online, CNN streaming, Hulu, iTunes, Amazon, Boxee; also, organizations like CNN and the White House using Facebook, YouTube as outlets for online video

And that about wraps it up. It was a great morning–I’m already looking forward to the next event!

Update: I’ve added Alex Howard’s presentation from the event to this post. It’s embedded below the jump, check it out, it’s pretty awesome! He uses Prezi, which has been one of my favorite tools since early last year.

My Anti-”Top 10″

Alex Priest — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 03:16:29 +0000

I, like any busy person, love lists. I love being able to flick through a news article or blog post, read a two-sentence introduction, and allow my eyes to flip quickly from bullet point to bullet point. I love numbered lists, where I can tell not only how far I am down the list, but how many more I have to go.

It’s a psychological thing. Anyone versed in business writing knows that it’s easier, quicker and simply more efficient to read lists and bullets than big long paragraphs. And nowadays, we’re all about reading short things, quickly (i.e. Twitter–140 characters, doesn’t get much shorter and quicker than that).

But I’ve just about reached my limit of end-of-the-year/decade/whatever top 10 lists. I just can’t handle it anymore! It seems like every where I’ve looked–starting December 1st and still ongoing–there’s another top 10 list for something. There’s lists of the top celebrities, top people on twitter, top books, top gadgets, top political scandals, top news stories, top movies, top albums… everybody and their brother has their top 10 list of [insert subject here] they want to share.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m guilty too. Even today, I’ve tweeted at least one link to a top 10 list (Engadget’s wonderful Top 10 Gadgets of the Decade). But there just needs to be some kind of restraint here, it’s overwhelming!

I like how Time Magazine does it. They put ALL of their top 10 lists in one place, a neat little index for you to flip through, nice and organized and not too much to handle. But for things like Twitter, I feel like the service is just swamped with everyone’s lists for this and lists for that. It’s drowning out the content. The breaking news. The #FollowFridays (it seems I’m not the only one who almost forgot about that today–it seems totally absent from my feed, at least).

Thankfully, this only comes around once a year. And in a way, it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure, reading all these lists. But when it gets to the point where all media is just saturated with it–like now–and the real content seems to disappear, I feel like it’s time to step back and ask: do we really need all these lists? What do you think?