Buy me.

I just signed up to be a mentor that you can bid on to benefit Thirst Relief. I've done this in years past as well and it's a great cause to support. They bring water to water needy areas - primarily in Africa. Clean water is something we so easily take for granted and it's disheartening to think that millions aren't afforded that simple necessity. Bid on me! You'll get a 90 min. personal consultation for your business and ALL our Kubota Image Tools software (valued at over $999). Save your business and save the world!

I hope I never have to give a talk like this again...

Recently, my Grandmother, and last surviving grandparent, passed away in Hawaii. I was very close to her as a child growing up in Hawaii and I loved her dearly. I returned home for the memorial service and my family somewhat surprised me by asking me to deliver the eulogy! I wasn't even really sure what was supposed to be in a eulogy, as I've been fortunate to have attended only one funeral before hers - that of my grandfather over 20 years ago.

I looked it up in the trusty wikipedia and found it simply meant "Good Words." It was praise of someone's life. That was easy enough for me to do. To do it without crying through the whole thing was the hard part. I am an experienced public speaker and that does not scare me. I don't often get nervous anymore. I got pretty nervous. It was the hardest, and most rewarding, talk I've ever given. 

My grandmother was an amazingly loving woman. She was patient, kind, creative (an artist and book lover), and she spoke her mind - without ever being offensive. She just told you what she thought and you usually realized she was right. She lived to be 88 yrs. old. Her mom, my great grandmother, lived to be 108 and was celebrated in Hawaii as one of it's oldest residents on record.

Preparing the eulogy was an eye-opener for me. I started to think about all the lessons I've learned from her and how they have impacted my life. It's wild to think back and connect the dots between all the little things someone has impressed upon you and how that molded who you are today.  I recalled stories from her life - things that she told us about herself and things we remembered about her. Everything she did, it would seem, was a valuable life lesson. At the end of my eulogy, I summarized with a list of things I learned from gramma:

1) Be nice to everyone.

2) Exercise, take care of your body, and eat well.

3) Take time to smell the roses.

4) Say what you think.

5) Stand up for what you believe in, even if you're the only one standing.

6) Always keep learning.

7) Share what you know with others.

8) Sing, even if you can't sing very well.

My sister, Kecia, gave a short dedication after I did and she said something very profound. When she started to think about things to say at Gramma's memorial, she wondered what people would say at her memorial. How would she be remembered. 

For me, it was very poignant and yet so simple. I will keep this list with me always to honor the lessons Gramma herself lived & breathed. I love you gramma.

Do it All iPhone app I heart...

I have every space on my iPhone filled with apps. Apple sends me personal thank you cards, signed by Steve himself, for single-handedly funding the App store. Well, not really. But, I do love to try new apps and finding that perfect little gem is my personal conquest.

I've been using a great app called UltraList Plus. I like it because it is incredibly versatile and can be used for a variety of business and personal productivity needs. It's seems on the surface to be a list maker/manager. But it's really MUCH more than that. You can keep track of multiple personal lists, Shopping lists, Gift giving lists, todos, etc. But it also is a great expense tracker, photo tracker, and location record keeper. Here's some of the things I use it for:

1) I keep a bloody mary blog from travels around the world and whenever I indulge, I add it to UltraList. I can add my geographic location, complete with google maps link, a photo or photos, notes, my ratings, helpful search tags, and more. Then I instantly email the note from the app to my blog and it's online!

2) I keep a note of all the cool restaurants and places I visit when I travel. I like to share this info with others and also be able to review the info when I'm back in town looking for places to go. Just like with the Bloody Mary, I mark the spot on the map (right inside of UltraList), save the map link, add photos, ratings, category, etc. I can instantly share it via email or keep it in the list for future reference.

The cool thing is that whenever you pull up a list of places, the app can (as an option) use your current gps location and show you your items in order of their distance from you! Great if you are in the middle of a city and want to know where your nearest favorite restaurant is.

3) Track your business and personal expenses and easily email a .txt or .csv file, with pictures attached, for easy import into your bookkeeping software. My bookkeeper loves me much more now!

4) Keep todo lists and gift giving ideas for upcoming occassions.

5) Be able to keep photos in a list where I can add titles, descriptions, geo tag info (map links to where they were taken), and more. You can search any list easily too, so if you have tons of photos you can search for something by the name. You can't do that with the iPhone Photo album app! You can also see on a map all the pins for the locations where your photos were taken.

6) Take photos of locations I want to return to and photograph again. The built in mapping makes it easy to record the exact location and multiple photos and details. Great for photo location scouting!

There are many more uses for UltraList and it keeps getting better. The developer is very helpful and receptive to suggestions. It's one of my Home Screen apps!

Success could be under our noses.

I had an interesting email today from an attendee to one of my workshops. She remembered me talking about how telling stories with your images can be very powerful and instrumental in connecting with your clients, adding deeper value to the images, and ultimately giving them good reason to add them to their personal collections! She admitted that she didn't think she could do that and the thought of it made her a little uncomfortable. Recently, however, she had a client come and sit with her and after looking through the work she told her how she "loved how she told stories in her images." She realized she had been telling stories, but didn't even look at it that way!

For her, it is now a simple matter of learning to express, in words, what she saw and captured. I think our words can bring deeper meaning to our images and it really helps solidify the story for those who maybe "don't get it" right up front. Often there are hidden stories behind the images that really need to be told - then the image makes so much more sense or has more intimate value.

Think about this: when you look at an image in a magazine or book, aren't you compelled to look at the caption to find out more? I have actually played a game with myself, trying to look through photo books and not read the captions. It's hard! I really feel like I'm missing out on something and once I do read the caption I like the image even more!

How are you captioning your images? Do you have captions and stories on your website, blog? Do you tell the stories behind the images when you show them in albums and slide shows in your studio?

This image was taken in Italy, just outside the grand gates surrounding the Boboli Gardens in Florence . I was sitting on the steps, enjoying the setting sun and I noticed this elder man, distinguishably dressed, yet obviously alone and worn through the years. He shuffled his feet through the pigeons, and stopped facing the wall - seeming to reflect on the fact the he was "Once A King". The crowned lion behind him sent the message to me immediately and it has become one of my personal favorites.

I hope that you will join me on one of my Italy workshops in the future too! It is a life-changing experience.

Click the map to enlarge. The Boboli Gardens in Florence, Italy

Customer Service Notebook

In my workshops I talk about something that I do in my life that has helped me to grow a better business. It's my customer service notebook. In it, I keep a record of great - and not so great, customer service experiences that I am blessed or depressed with. I then review these notes and pull things from it to apply to my businesses. I find it a great reminder for what is really most important to the success of any business: a great product, knowledge of and belief in your product, and outstanding customer service. With these things you have the recipe and ingredients for a lasting business.

Yesterday, I had a great experience and a few things to add to my notebook. I have been searching for an iPod dock for my car stereo for some time. I surfed the forums, googled manufacturers, and the outlook was dismal. I have an unusual make and model (as far as iPod connectors go) and most everything I read said it really couldn't be done. Fooey! I then started calling every car stereo shop in town. Several said, "sorry, we don't know of any product for your car." A couple of them said, "We'll look for something and call you back." ONE shop actually did call back - and within the hour. They had a solution. I didn't believe them. I played along though and placed an order for the product with them.

When it came in, I brought the car in for the install. The shop was clean - even the bathroom. That's weird. Car stereo shops are a guy thing. Only guys work in car stereo shops and auto repair joints. Guys don't typically maintain spotless bathrooms without the help of women – unless they are fanatics about attention to detail. This was a good sign.

As I was turning over the keys, the owner posed the question, "How are you going to actually mount the iPod?". I figured I'd get one of those suction cup thingys or just throw it in the glove box. The guy said, "Our installers are pretty creative. If we can come up with a cool way to mount the iPod that looks clean, would you like us to do that?" Sure I would. Sounds good to me - pun intended. I thought about this afterwards: what a great upsell! It satisfies my needs perfectly and gives them a little icing on the cake. I'm all for it. I was still skeptical though.

I left my car and went to the office and waited, anticipating that call..."Uh, Mr. Kubota, we're sorry but this device actually won't work with your car. You were right, you can't connect an iPod to it." The call came, but it was, "Mr. Kubota, we have a GREAT solution to mount your iPod, we can create a custom dock for it in your unused ashtray. It will look like a factory iPod dock and when you close the ashtray it is completely hidden." Bitchin'.

One hour before the promised ready time, they called and said, "Come 'n get it."

I did, and it rocked.

I am thrilled that I can now listen to my iPod, in full CD quality, in my car. It's a simple pleasure, I realize, but that's what life is all about, right? So what goes in the notebook that we can learn from?

1) Follow through. They called back when they said they would with answers to my questions.

2) Professionalism. They were polite, knowledgeable on their products, my car, and the installation.

3) Attention to detail. The shop was immaculate. They instilled trust. The installation looks like a factory job.

4) They up-sold me something I really needed, so I was more than happy to buy and appreciated the creative thinking.

5) They over delivered. I came away with a better solution than I had even hoped for.

Oh, and the clencher? When I came in to pick up and pay, the price for the custom dock was less than I expected AND after I wrote the check he noticed he forgot to add the $37 shipping for the special ordered product. I said, "No problem, I can write another check..." but he said, "Ah, don't worry about it, just come back and see us next time you need something."

Darn right I will. And I'm telling everyone I know that Sounds Fast in Bend, OR is the pinnacle of mobile audio shops.

update: some of you wanted photos of the setup, so here they are!

The original closed ashtrayThe custom ipod dock connector installed in the ashtraymy iPhone ready to rock!