Vlad Mazek – Vladville Blog

I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of Steve Jobs or the Apple fanboy cult, but as I get busier I am really starting to appreciate the level of certainty both Jobs (and Gates) pack into a oneliner. The kind that you just have no counter-argument to mount against, love it or leave it, the discussion ends here. One of these came yesterday during the earnings call and here is what a Wall Street Jr blogger noted about it:

But the most fun on the conference call came when he parried analysts’ questions about new product areas that Apple might or might not enter. A recurring question among Apple watchers for decades has been, “When is Apple going to introduce a low-cost computer?

Mr. Jobs answered that decades-old complaint by stating, “We don’t know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk.” He argued instead that the company’s mission was to add more value for customers at current price points.

Powerful words.

Now, let’s for a second ignore that the Mac Mini uses the same chipset, same video, same speed RAM and most of the peripheral components found in your average MSI Wind that sells on retail for half of Apple’s Core 2 Duo’s…

Think about all the other ways he could have said that?

• We have seen no interest in a junk computer
• Those computers are pure junk
• We are not a company that builds junk commodity computers
• We don’t want to compete in that junk market

Point is, in the answer of why they are not doing something Jobs didn’t blame any external party. Not the customers. Not the suppliers. Not the market. Not the demand. Not the interest. Just the only thing he controls, and it’s hard to argue with someone that takes the entire roadblock onto themselves….

He just said that they don’t know how to build a cheap junk computer that many more people can afford. Quite a departure from what started the Apple company, don’t you think?

For the past two weeks (and going for the next two or so) I am really in the overkill Ironman mode trying to clean things up both personally with respect to Own Web Now and professionally with respect to everything that I’m doing.

Have you ever seen a dumbass jock on ESPN scream “We must execute. Execution is the key. We are just not executing” – same stupidity applies in business where you go head first towards the results you’ve set and process you’ve implemented that when it works remarkably well you don’t take your head out of the picture for long enough to see the mounting pile of little problems.

I think that’s something we all struggle with. We’ve been remarkably, by all expectations and projections, successful over the past few years but we’re neither as efficient as we possibly can be nor as focused as we probably should be. That sort of a shotcoming is generally flows from the top down, as you’ve read on this blog before.

What I generally do not talk about is how we overcome and fix the issues that pop up.

Last week was big organizational view / review / rebalance. Since quite few of you run as large of an organization I won’t bore you with those details.

Today, I sat through the pipeline with an axe and went through all the quotes and promises and well wishes we were thinking about doing and I started swinging. When you are struggling you’ll take any deal, any project, sign up for everything that may lead to success. Once you’re successful, you have to rebalance a little and try to be more optimal with your practice instead of chasing any dime. Not that there is anything wrong with chasing per-se, but if your chasing of little stuff impedes your ability to be responsive with the big stuff and you start backing yourself up….. well, you owe your plan a big reality check because things have changed since the time you’ve put it together or since your last measurable accomplishment.

So today I got myself out of the expectations and promises and doubled down on the things we intend to fulfil. Already got the apologies/retractions out and have a goal to have all the outstanding quotes submitted and fulfilled by the end of the week.

This hasn’t been easy, and it has really impacted my ability to be as responsive as I’d like. I know I’ve missed a lot of email responses and IMs as I’ve just flagged the conversations I need to continue but haven’t had the time to give them the just attention and response they deserve.

The point of this whole thing, even condensed down to a single activity like email responses, is that regardless of how big you are you still have the issue of finite resources and finite opportunities you can turn into results. One suffers as a result of the other and the reason why it is done to begin with is to improve your company, services and deliverables as you grow – instead of precipitously declining quality to increase revenues until you’re pretty much the biggest thing out there but everyone thinks you suck (See: AT&T)

How have I done this so far? First, I bumped up my hours from 4-6 a day to about 10-12. I then organized my to-do list not in the order of urgent, important, high priority, standard, normal, low, inquiry but in the the order of resolution and delegation. That is, I tackled the issues that were largely not involving me but were waiting on me as a small part of the equation. This way I can attack things first and hand them back over so they can continue to progress without my direct involvement.

Then moving on to the optimization tasks – instead of doing a process equivalent of data entry and then fixing the issue I’ve moved to fix the issue first and then work through the backlog – this way my pile is static and every issue I handle directly decreases the workload and backlog by that amount. Remember, you don’t fix problems by making a pile of those problems or people complaining about those problems smaller. You fix it by stopping the problems from coming up in the future.

I’m not superhuman. Last night I had some of the Halloween candy and apparently wasn’t watching just how much of it I was eating while working. I decided to take a short nap around 10 PM and the next thing I remember is walking the dog around 7:30 am 🙂 I’ve had to cut out the blogging, marketing, partner calls, movies, lots of TV and sports (haven’t seen a full football game in 2 weeks now) and am back to driving to work with Katie. Each of those activities contributes a few hours a week back to my fixing efforts.

It’s not really easy and I am not complaining – it really is a blessing to have growth pains – but I think it’s important to keep in mind that everything comes at a cost.

Regarding the previous post, someone asked whether this stuff really matters of if we should be more focused on the IT stuff which seems to be ignored as of late.

Here is my thing: I am not here to tell you how to vote or who to vote for. The problem I am here to spotlight, as I have for years, is that social, political, technical, financial and business factors make a big difference between success or failure. If you are not aware of all or at least follow them all, you are doomed to poor performance at best and total failure at worst. In the business of technology we no longer have the luxury of always being employed because things are too complex, people need new gadgets and want upgrades. Things are getting serious on one end, commoditized and outsourced on the other, and you have some big decisions to make.

Your decision on November 4th will affect you, regardless of where you are and who you vote for. It may make a difference in your ability to grow your business if you own one, or your ability to keep your job if the business you work in is blissfully ignorant of what is going on. You have to be aware of the wide array of things these days.

That is why I write this blog – to stay a level above and beyond the bullshit.

Some people enjoy the comfort of lies and sitting in us vs. them groups – but the reality is that you are in control of things, it just takes a lot of effort and learning. But hey, it’s not for everyone, and folks stuck in that comfort zone are the ones I pity the most – on the other hand someone still has to work the fry station until that is automated as well, so to each his own.

Don’t you hate it when professional liars get smacked in their face with facts that prove what we all think of them? If you don’t live in America you’re in luck because you likely got to miss Obama vs. McCain presidential debate, the ongoing farce of pandering, where the two foamed at the mouth over trying to please the ordinary man: Joe the Plumber.

If you are a fan or follower of American politics you know that a politician running for office has more shoutouts than an award-winning rapper or an inbred Nascar driver combined. To help connect with the people they are serving screwing they like to talk about their touching stories of ordinary people that shape their thoughts and (pay no attention to special interest lobbying that effectively controls their every move) this year it was Joe the Plumber’s time to shine.

McCain brought up how his good friend, Joe the Plumber, looked at Obama’s tax plan and realized that paying higher taxes may make it impossible for Joe the Plumber to buy the plumbing business he has been working at for the past 10 years. Awe. Doesn’t your heart just die when you hear something that horrible? Mans hopes and dreams, crushed, by a marginal increase in taxes.. To which any small business owner was likely thinking:

New shirt available from tshirt hell. I am so wearing this.

What’s the problem with Joe? Why do actual business owners likely hate guys like Joe? I’ll tell you why:

Joe the Plumber is not exactly a plumber, he’s “not even close” to making the kind of money that would result in higher taxes from Democrat Barack Obama’s proposals and has such an aversion to taxes that a lien was filed against him by the state of Ohio.

Source

Hold on a minute. Not only is this guy a fraud, an unlicensed plumber but also has a tax lien against him? Filed almost two years ago? And he is hanging out at rallies and appearing on TV interviews?

This is the profile of a hard working American entrepreneur? One that is running around and not working while bitching about how others are bringing him down? I’m here working at 4:49 AM on a Sunday morning and THAT fraud is the depiction of the hard working people that politicians are concerned about? An unlicensed handyman that doesn’t pay taxes?

On behalf of the business owners and tax payers everywhere, fuck you Joe.

How strongly do you feel about your brand and the unique services that you deliver?

Those of you that follow me on Twitter know that I’ve been in Miami for the past two days. One, well the only one, thing I love about my old home town is the incredible sense of opportunity and the enormity of the markets to make your dreams come true if you work hard. I work with a lot of entrepreneurs and I feel that many are mentally crippled by their own small vision of their world and the possibilities – some are so scared and petrified of it that they have mentally locked themselves down to their routine that they can’t even think of a way to grow into the future.

Time for a field trip to Miami.

I kind of grew up around this culture which in no small part accounts for what drives me to keep this stuff moving and growing, here and abroad. What kind of culture is that? Well, true story (cause you can’t make this stuff up):

Earlier today I was driving back from breakfast down Broward and a silver Tahoe pulled up to my Vette. Guy rolls down his window, leans out, starts pointing at me.

Did I leave my trunk open? Is there a hobo I’m dragging behind me? Who knows, I roll the window down:

Vlad: What’s up?

White dude: Hey man, we install home theatre systems and we just had a cancellation. I can give it to you half off!

Vlad: Sorry to hear man, appreciate it but I don’t need one?

White dude: I hear you but it’s over half off, everyone needs one!

Vlad: Thanks man, but I live in Orlando.

White dude: <shrug> It’s a great system, maybe for an extra room? We can have someone come out and install it for you there.

Vlad: I appreciate the offer, good luck with the sale.

Now, was the system hot? Unlikely, company logos all over the car and he wore a logo shirt.

Could it be that they really just got an order pulled after they drove all the way to the place to be rejected at the doorstep? Doubt that too.

So what is the deal really?

The deal is that you can count on wealthy or busy business people not to be aware of what the things are actually worth. But one way they got to that point was by working hard and taking advantage of every opportunity that comes across. You want to come into my home and install some stuff that I’m practically stealing on the street? Who am I to say no?

The unique selling opportunity is that these guys likely travel up and down the street all day long between installations and they pull up to the cars and run a sales pitch that is far more sophisticated than most of the people reading this post can ever pull off.

Profiled audience (expensive car) with vanity issues (“VLAD” license plate) and most of all a captive audience stuck in traffic likely bored out of their mind.

It’s like ghetto Skymall – I’m stuck here with nothing to do and someone wants to entice me to play with shiny toys?

The largest component of marketing for sales and leads is originality. Most of the time it’s not about the price (that comes later) and it’s not about the features (remember the purchase is emotional for the benefit not logical) and everything else comes only after you have their attention.

Folks complain that their marketing isn’t working because they are operating in a crowded market with indistinguishable alternatives all trending towards being commoditized. So the only way to uniquely distinguish yourself is your marketing – and many opt out for the cookie cutter advertising, pre-canned and sent by other people in your own market. Your ability to convert a disinterested third party into someone that will pick up the phone hinges on your marketing budget to continuously slam the person with junk mail and phone calls – all of which they receive all day long from your competitors.

How much money could you possibly save if you could clearly communicate your differentiation on the very first interaction that sets you apart from the others – good or bad?

This is how I roll..

I know you’re probably thinking that this is a nice story but how do you implement it. If I told the 60,000 of you reading this then there would be 60,000 of you doing it and the whole concept would fall apart. Does it actually work to stand out? Well, you are reading this, so yeah, it works.

The last bit of unapologetic, shameless, slimy vendor whore, pimping I’ve done was in Dallas a few months ago. I have long term hopes of replacing my staff with a webcam and a Lego robot. It’s a dream.

I was installing a webcam that pointed at my development server rack (read: fire hazard compiled from things Vlad found on eBay) and while I was working I invited people to hang out with me. So people came on, chatted with me, I talked, did tours.

One of my Twitter followers emailed me for the first time and told me that they were thinking about going with us but got a contract in the works with RackSpace because they didn’t know what the infrastructure looked like.

Oh reeeeeeaaaaaly? 

Hard selling – 4 TB on my shoulder, bitch!

I added the guy to my MSN messenger, started the webcam on my laptop and took him on an impromptu tour of the data center. This is the server room. This is the switching cage. These are your options of racks. This is the cage we can do when you want to grow. This is the HVAC. This is the readout on the A/C – 65 degrees, brr.

Then I showed off the raised floors, the Diesel generators, the different cage configurations. I did a on-demand pimp session of the data centers that I never could have recorded on the camera and put up on the web – nobody would watch a goofy guy run around a data center blowing his pants off by the air flow output from a huge 42U rack.

But by the time I had made it back to my development cage and put my servers down there was a quote copy in my inbox that we beat by 20% the same day and by Monday closed a huge contract.

Aaaaalways be pimping.

Is it so different from the guy leaning out the window trying to push a home theatre system? Is it so low to take pride in your work that you can sum up the courage to show what you’ve built and can offer people?

If you are in this market and you’re struggling… you need to step your game up.

Got a pretty disturbing IM earlier yesterday, which will probably explain why some of us keep such a watchful eye over the economic events:

“side note most of your AUS clients are now getting screwed hard by the AU/US Dollar changes.. we lost 35% in the last 3 weeks”

Ouch. Now, if you’re only charging 30% markup on ExchangeDefender you’re better off just burning money. If you are letting go of it for less than $4/month you’re really missing out on the point of the product – people pay hundreds of dollars for just Exchange backup features in their backup software – to get the client back in business a few hours or days later – you mean to tell me you can’t show the value in having their exact Exchange 2007 replica on a 10 second notice (or however long it takes you to open Internet Explorer and type in https://livearchive.exchangedefender.com)

That’s besides the point though, if you are doing business with any foreign entity you are at the mercy of exchange rate fluctuations which means your profitability margin is tied to the economic prosperity (or perception thereof) of another country – not to the value add that you provide.

Food for thought people. The world may be flat in terms of communications and idea exchange, but it ain’t flat when it comes to money. How do you deal with the fluctuations in pricing that impact your profitability margin by an unpredictable amount each month? This isn’t just a pricing change that you can announce, adjust and move on…

If you’ve got an idea people are listening…. 🙂