Ron Lindeboom
2
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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[Martin Phillips] “Hey, thanks Ron. Really appreciated.”
You are welcome, Martin.
Ron
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[Mary Tracy] “Now, I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid, which is why I came here to ask!!”
It’s clear that you are not stupid, Mary. That is why we were as straight as we could be with you. You are clearly motivated and confident, good things indeed, and we just wanted to make sure that you understood the sheer scope of the job if you were to be tempted to try to head the project.
[Mary Tracy] “Thank you very very much for your honesty, caustic not observed, but rather bare honesty, exactly what a situation like this requires.”
And thank you, Mary, for recognizing that in these tough times in which we all live and work, we were merely trying to keep you from taking a road that would have hurt you and your new company.
We are glad you are here.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
creativecow.net -
It is gone, Martin. The old post is now all minty-fresh. ;o)
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
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[Steve Kownacki] “I would simply ask for a new sales rep that listens. We are all in the same boat of properly pricing our products for clients and this guy didn’t listen to you. What if you had a client come in and pose a similar situation: They had $2500 to spend and you came back with only a $10K deal; never addressing what you could do for the $2500. Fail.”
Not necessarily, Steve. Any good salesman learned long ago that if the “budget” is one number, then that number plus a “bump” is quite likely the result — if the presentation is done well enough, with enough clear reason to show the merit and value in the up-sell.
Rarely have I missed an up-sell. I *never* believe that the customer is telling me the “real and final locked-in-concrete” price. I take the “budget” as a suggestion, nothing more.
From there, I always quickly mentally construct a “good, better, best” scenario, using their suggested budget as the good level. Often, after a well presented case for each, they will step up to the better or best option for the increased budget. Rarely does it end with the suggested and proposed budget as the final answer.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
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There are many, many thousands of Canadians here, Rod. They are quite prevalent in the site and you will bump into them quite easily. How do you spot them? They all wear Mountie uniforms and instead of saying “A_BOUT” they will say “A_BOOT” and will nearly always be holding a Molsons Golden or a Labatts Blue. They will also be watching “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” — especially the episodes wherein they spoof the stereotypes that some Americans have of Canadians.
;o)
Thank you for being a part of the COW, Rod.
Ron Lindeboom
creativecow.net -
[Mike Smith] “Creating interactive learning is normally a team game, and there’s a big place for someone in the key contact / producer role to get all the specs really tightly defined, get a video team and a programming / wuhtoring team together, and manage the project.”
Your points are on the money, Mike. This really is a team sport.
This job is so complex, with many of the steps requiring demanding levels of knowledge, planning, execution, and infrastructure support, that thinking you can do this as a single person with no experience is not just getting in over your head — it is like cutting your head off and burying it in the bottom of the sea. That is how far over your head you are asking to go, Mary.
We have a team here, we have the infrastructure, we have the ability to pull off most of what’s needed now — and still, I WOULDN’T do it. Why? Because even with all of this to start with, it would still be a nightmare job that would require so much that we wouldn’t want to do it.
But as a single person with no idea what they are up to and with no experience? Well, let’s be nice and say that there’s no way in hell I’d attempt it, unless no one had forewarned me as to what I was about to get myself into.
Sorry to be so blunt and caustic with you but this job is not for the inexperienced — even the obscenely confident inexperienced with tons of time on their hands.
Did I mention that this kind of thing is really expensive to both produce and to implement?
Beyond here be dragons.
Ron Lindeboom
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Please do not misunderstand my comments to you or think that I am calling you paranoid, Ned.
My point in this is that yes the market is shaking and it is hard. Things are in chaos and people’s ways that worked in the past are being tested in ways and to degrees that never happened before.
But leveraging every ounce of experience, cunning, drive, talent and knowledge we possess, we will outlast the ones that think the answer is found in a box. It’s not, it is found inside the head and that is the advantage that creatives possess. Be a creator, it’s too easy to replace a button pusher. Especially as more and more button pushers join the field. (I am not saying this to you, Ned — merely posting the idea in general for the sake of the thread and the ones who will log into this later.)
Unfortunately, many want the market to stay as it’s been and the real pros should be the first to adopt things like metadata-fed “media anywhere” on iPhones, Androids, and the like — yet many are the ones resisting it the most. It will prove their undoing as the market proceeds elsewhere.
But the bright side is that the schools will also get the message that training students for a field in which most of them are not ever going to work, and in which if they stay they will make little money, means they will find the “next big thing” to train people for. (I predict nano-technology as the next big thing.)
Media has an allure — at least until you are working in it and then you realize that it’s just damned hard work with long hours and the pay isn’t always that great.
But I believe that the real leaders and innovators will hold at least a sustainable level of livelihood until the market calms down and the glory seekers move on to the next big thing.
Like many, we stayed in this industry even in the years in which we made no money. Why? We are communicators and we have to communicate. That is what we do and what we want to do. We’d hate a real job and so we look at all the changes and try to find our place in them.
While the future, I believe, will roll on to nano-tech as the sexy new girl in town, I think our market will continue redefining itself in terms of media-anywhere-at-any-time. Trying to hold on to the market as it has been is going to get tougher and tougher.
My apologies if my thoughts and comments seem like they are flippant or callous or intended to demean anyone. They are not intended that way. I am merely hoping to throw some thoughts out for consideration.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.netCreativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint ExupéryFirst they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– GandhiBetter is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt
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It is this way, Ned: everyone said that desktop publishing was going to destroy traditional print shops and typographers. The smart ones learned to take their analog craft over onto digital tools and still controlled the bulk of the big accounts decades after their prophesied demise.
The reason?
The digital tools just made for more and more work. Yes, much of it at the lower end and done by people who did not belong to the typographer’s union. Where there was once a very tightly controlled market that was the domain of type setters that charged big money, the market doors blew open and there were jobs springing into being that never would have existed if the old rules had been followed.
Sure there are TONS of crap jobs out there, Ned. And the percentage of good paying jobs is relatively small in comparison to the small- to medium-sized budget jobs.
But…
The market itself has grown until there are many more people in this market. Is that good news or bad? It depends on how people price themselves, how well their work is viewed by clients and prospects, how good at marketing they are, etc., etc.
Gone are the halcyon days when a typesetter could hang a shingle, be a crap salesman, and still make a good living.
The same is happening in video.
Markets experience chaotic innovation, suffer disruptions, react to these changing market forces, and then — to quote Grinner Hester — those who have to do this because it’s in their soul and in their blood, survive at all costs. Everyone else leaves for greener pastures.
It isn’t long and the kids in school will quit going after their media degrees (thinking it’s cool to be in the field because it seems fun to them), realizing the same thing that 70s kids realized about psychology and liberal arts degrees, that 80s and 90s kids realized about MBA and law degrees, and they will move on to other things.
When fields become so glutted that even the schools realize that encouraging kids with no talent and no real passion for this craft cannot possibly be a credit to their programs, they will cease. They will move on to other things.
Who will survive the shaking and sifting that disruptive innovation brings? Who knows?
Stay tuned. The answer, soon…
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.netCreativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint ExupéryFirst they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– GandhiBetter is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt
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[Mark Suszko] “Tap into your inner Billy Mays.”
Wouldn’t that require a seance?
Sorry.
Ron Lindeboom
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[Nick Griffin] “I’m not sure that broadcasting (even when it’s cable) will provide a cost effective return for what is, in essence, a specialized service.”
My thought exactly, Nick.
There’s no way Aaron will make his money back on a media buy like this. It is just TOO narrow a product pitch and the cost is too high.
This kind of thing is perfect for something like Google Adwords, but is definitely a poor buy on cable, even if the spots are all focused on business channels, etc.
As an example: Kathlyn and I *used* to advertise our production business in the Yellow Pages and after a few years of calls regarding “Hey, can you tape the movie I just rented from the video store without getting those scrambled lines?” and stuff like that, we gave up. I can’t recall ever once getting a legitimate client that we didn’t first get ourselves by going after them directly on our own, or that came from a referral from someone they knew.
Pitching something as specialized as transfer services is going to have the TV scratching their heads and going “Huh?$#@!?” — while Aaron’s bank account gets siphoned to the tune of a few dollars per scratch. (I say specialized, because as Mike Cohen points out Wal-Mart has been doing this for years. The market for this is largely theirs. Trying to take the few jobs that remain in this field for $1000 a month is just not a good investment.)
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.netCreativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint ExupéryFirst they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– GandhiBetter is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt