Work At Home Dad - Ty Tribble

34 Year Old Men Have No Business Breakdancing

I could pretty much stop right there. The title of this post just about covers it. Last night, I decided it would be good fun to teach my son and daughter some breakdancing moves. I threw down the worm, some footwork, a backspin, and a moonwalk in our newly hardwood floored T.V. room and I am paying the price today. It's probably worth it though. My kids think I am a breakdancing master, even though I am (was) only a hack. I do have a good moonwalk, although I usually only break it out at weddings and bar mitzvahs.

Happy Campers

Over the weekend, we went to a friends cabin on the Foss River in Skykomish, Washington. Friday was beautiful and we had a wonderful time around the campfire with what looked like millions of stars above our heads. It is amazing how many stars you can see in the sky when you get away from city lights.

We woke up Saturday morning to a warm and sunny day, that took a wrong turn around 4:30PM into the worst rain storm I have seen in several months. Our friends cabin is pretty small so we had brought along our newly purchased tent, which made Friday night wonderful sleeping under the stars. Saturday night was a different story. The tent kept us all dry, but the noise from the rain was incredible. It sounded like 1000 cul-de-sac neighbor kids were blasting our tent with high powered squirt guns all night.

Most of the weekend the weather was just fine and the rain even let up enough on Saturday night to allow for a short campfire with everyone's favorite, s'mores. Our kids got in some fishing and by the end of the weekend my daughter, Emma was getting really good at casting her line into the river and realing it back in. Meanwhile my son, Tyler was just as happy turning a stick into some type of high tech weapon.

Kids and Nicknames

I have just been informed by my 4 year old son that I am to refer to him as "Doorknob" from now on. His real name is Tyler, but we have called him "Bubba" since he was a few months old. Tyler's great-grandmother took a look at him and said, "he looks like a little bubba". The name stuck.

Where he got the "Doorknob" name? I have no idea, but it's funny. Tyler likes to make people laugh and he is good at it. I hope that I can help him use his sense of humor as a spring board to success in the future. I have a feeling at the very least his sense of humor will help him with the girls.

My 7 year old daughter, Emma, has been known as "Punkin-butt" for as long as I can remember. I know where the Bubba name came from, but I have no idea how Punkin-butt evolved. Emma actually does not have a punkin-butt, it's is more like a skinny-little-butt. I have given some thought to changing my nickname for her to something like "Princess". I really don't want to give her a complex about her figure. I can just see her as a late 20-something, talking to a therapist about her punkin-butt complex brought on by her father's goofy nickname.

Do your kids have nicknames?

Seth Godin Asks: What Did You Do?

Sometimes you need someone to give you a swift kick in the rear in order to better understand what you are blessed with in today's world. My Uncle Duke used to tell me, "Ty, if you don't get a move-on, I am going to throw my shoe at you...with my foot in it".

Here's a nice wake up from Seth's Blog:

Here's a question that you should clip out and tape to your bathroom mirror. It might save you some angst 15 years from now. The question is, What did you do back when interest rates were at their lowest in 50 years, crime was close to zero, great employees were looking for good jobs, computers made product development and marketing easier than ever, and there was almost no competition for good news about great ideas?

Keep your shoe on, Uncle Duke, I'm movin'.

The Marketing Playbook

John Zagula and Rich Tong of Bellevue, Washington based VC - Ignitition Partners have written a book titled "The Marketing Playbook: Five Battle-Tested Plays for Capturing and Keeping the Lead in Any Market."

After reading the article about the book in the Seattle Times, I thought to myself, these guys must have a blog. As the story goes, funny thing happened on my way to reading a few of my favorite blogs today, I ran across, The Marketing Playbook weblog.

You can read more here about the five marketing plays.

Good stuff from fellow Seattle-area guys. I look forward to the book.

American Start Up

From Fresh Inc.:

Spike TV, a division of MTV Networks, has announced that it will launch "American Start-Up" next year. The 10-episode reality series, produced by actors and writers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, pits eight young businesses against each other. Each business will be given $50,000 in seed money and will be guided – and scrutinized – by a panel of entrepreneurs, business tycoons and venture capitalists. The grand prize according to the press release announcing the series is a "major investment that will enable them to take their business dream to the next level."

This will be one to watch.

Leading a Team - One on One Time

I ran across a great post on team building at Dana's Blog.

Here is a clip:

"Doing regular (read: weekly) 1-on-1 meetings with each member of your team is one of the most effective ways to ensure that you're maximizing the potential of your staff and staying plugged in to their work lives so that you can be a more effective leader for your people. Below are a few ideas that I'm applying to my 1-on-1 meetings/coaching sessions that I thought might be of value."

Sometimes in my efforts to come up with new ways to motivate my team, I forget that within the team are individuals that given some personal time might produce results that would REALLY motivate the team.

Read Dana's ideas for 1-on-1 time with your team.

Engaging vs. Interrupting

Knock knock

Who's there?

Annoying, Interrupting cow.

Annoying, Interupting co..(cut off)

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Author Michael Oliver talks about using the power of dialogue in selling. Dialogue is not really an earth shattering breakthrough (see Socrates 469-399 B.C. and his Socratic Method of teaching) but I believe it is more relevant in today's sales and marketing environment than ever before.

People are ignoring traditional advertising (if you don't mute the volume at my in-laws house during commercials you are banned from using the remote). People are ignoring email or email is being delivered to the spam folder even though it might not be spam.

So what is working in marketing today? Engaging.

According to Oliver:

Dialogue is like a vacuum that both of 'Us' are drawn into, willingly and openly with neither being defensive or on guard. You can't see it, however you can feel it because of its energy. Within this energy we can create all that we both desire.

The first step of creating and holding this sacred space with your potential customers is to learn to let go of your need to be right or tell.

The need to tell is traditional interruption marketing at it's worst. Why force people away from what they are doing in order to sell your product, when you can engage them in a mutual area of interest and opportunity? This gets back to the backbone of small business which to me is solving problems. If my product offers a solution to a problem that you are facing, how likely are you to want to hear about it? Very likely right?

Oliver continues:

Creating an 'Us' space through 'The Magic and Power of Dialogue' will allow you and any person you speak with enjoy the process and create any result you want.

Difference Makers

I have been reading Difference Makers for a couple of weeks now and wanted to share the latest post from this well written blog.

We're taking an emergency trip to visit with one of the most influential Difference Makers that has ever impacted my life. He is a man of modest means with a generous spirit. He is man of unyielding principle, but gentle in every respect.

His life is a classic American story. His mother was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia at age 17. She raised eight children on a very meger income. Some of his siblings were raised in foster homes. He is the youngest of the eight; the baby of the family.

As a young man he learned the value of hard work. This training provided him the fortitude to complete his college education while still holding down a full-time teaching job at a vocational school. In addition, he operated a part-time home improvement business in the evenings and on Saturdays.

He was and is a faithful husband. His first wife passed away in 1994 after 43 years of marriage. The following year, he met a lady that has complemented his life for the past 9 years. During his first marriage, he not only met the needs of his job, part-time business and church responsibilities, but cared for his ailing wife for a period of over 10 years.

He is the epitome of character. His word is his bond. His life is an example of consistency and constancy. Faithfulness and selflessness characterize his service to his home, church and community.

All this to say I am going to spend some precious time with my dad. No business, job or earthly good comes close to the value this man has added to my life. He is a Difference Maker...

Read the remainder of this wonderful post here: A Difference Maker

If my son or daughter ever writes or speaks of me in such a manner, I will consider myself a success, regardless of status, wealth, or possessions. I want to be a Difference Maker.