PardonMyFrench

Career Planning Lessons for AT&T Employees via Brett Favre

Like most sports fans I'm sick and tired of the Brett Favre stories.  I'm not sick and tired about whether he is going to play again; I'm more sick of the teary goodbyes when he announces his retirement (see this video when he starts breaking up around the 27 second mark). 

Anyway, I also started thinking, if Brett Favre wants to come back, why shouldn't he?  After all...

• His whole life revolves around football
• He's been playing professional football for 17 years and if you add in college that totals 21 years
• He is still productive even though he has slowed down, after all he is almost 40
• Has never missed a game in his 17 years
• Companies still want him around as do his customers

That started reminding me of my former AT&T associates especially the ones that are still there.  My old advice on this was that these employees should get out of that place because it is in a death spiral especially if you are located in NJ.  Friends of mine that got out of there are doing just fine proving that there is life after AT&T.  Some folks that left and took jobs with other NJ telecommunications companies (ex - Lucent) typecast themselves even more when they didn't learn new skills or a new industry.  I often felt bad for these telecom drones in addition to the NJ employees of AT&T.   Now I've had a little change of heart.

You see the old AT&T demanded a lot of your time, commitment, and most importantly loyalty.  Nearly all of these employees gave it and in return we built friendships that lasted forever, had good jobs, and great rewards.  A lot of people married co-workers ensuring AT&T talk and thoughts 24/7.  Some people built skills by taking different jobs within the company and they used these skills when they quit or were laid off.  Some folks still cling to their former cubicals.  BTW - my wife and I still remember my telephone number from Basking Ridge (908.221.7723) even though it hasn't worked in 9 years.

Anyway back to Brett Favre and the obvious link to AT&T.  Look if you like your job, you are still good at it, your customers and co-workers still want you, why shouldn't you stay there?  As long as you can still perform and someone wants to pay you, what's wrong with staying in the ONLY JOB YOU'VE EVER KNOWN?  Nothing. Nothing wrong at all.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Will Yahoo Have Any Bench Strength Left?

Got a phone call the other day from my friend Richard Kosinski who wanted to let me know that he was leaving Yahoo to pursue a senior position with WestwoodOne.  I've know Richard for many years, back to his Forbes.com sales days when he met with me while I was at Harrisdirect trying to get me to buy a brokerage package from them (he wasn't able to close the deal).  Richard ended up at Yahoo about 4 years ago as the Finance Category Director trying once again to get me to buy something from him, but he sadly couldn't (I was already buying millions from Yahoo).

Recently Richard was running Yahoo's Political Advertising and that's where he really cut his teeth.  Richard was the political evangelist that could meet with any person at any level (President, Senate, state level) and convince people why the internet should be an important part of any political campaign.  And while his time was short lived in this job, he had an impact as he met with many political organizations to push online advertising including tough groups that still believed direct mail is the way to go.  Basically he gave us cover while he did the education heavy lifting.

(NOTE THE REST OF THIS POST IS ABOUT MANAGING A CAREER DURING ANY KIND OF TAKEOVER AND NOT SPECIFIC TO RICHARD.  I'VE BEEN A VETERAN OF MANY TAKE OVERS AND MERGERS SO I HAVE MY OWN OPINION).

While Yahoo is making inroads into politics, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hold on to talent at all levels, not just the CXO level.  With the looming MSN deal or any other deal that Yahoo might undertake to stave off the Microsoft take over, they are suffering the fate that all companies do when they are in the process of being changed; good people don't see a concrete future and when something good comes along there is nothing holding them back

Its a funny thing about politics.  There is a definite start and end date.  Once November rolls around it is over for a few months until the next cycle starts again.  Throw on top of that uncertainty about your own personal job and that causes you to start to look around. 

I've lived through quite a number of acquisitions and finally chose not to survive one when E*Trade swallowed up Harrisdirect, so I understand what goes through a person's mind when you realize the path you are going down is ending.  It is hard to keep talented people around when you don't have a clear long term path with a definite end date staring at you in the face. 

It reminds me of a part of Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  Inside the book is an image that I've never forgotten even though I probably read that book 10 years ago.  It is a picture of a guy climbing to the top of the ladder with the caption "what happens when you climb the top of the corporate ladder and realize the ladder was leaning up against the wrong building?"  You too should check to make sure your ladder is up against the right building.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Andy Pettitte And Advice from My Old Boss Vinny R

Andy Pettitte seems to have already been forgiven by Yankees fans like myself for taking illegal HGH for an injury.  Yes as Jason Stark points out from ESPN Andy acted like a real person, apologized, and cooperated with Congress and the Mitchell Report, but seems to come up to the point of being a victim; perhaps not by design but in the end that's how he looks.  Mr. Nice Guys seems to have avoided Yankees fan's wrath which can be quite nasty if you've been at Yankees Stadium during a Redsox game or in 2006 when ARod was at the plate.  Why did it seem so easy for Andy?  It reminds me of a story back in my early career at AT&T when my Division Manager Vinny R game me some good career advice (this was probably circa 1998).

During a marketing campaign when we were trying to launch an AT&T bundled product of long distance, wireless, and WorldNet (yes that old narrow band service), we were having trouble with getting the bundled product management team engaged properly.  As I recall they were more interested in working the marketing aspect rather than coordinating the back-end provisioning, billing, and systems work which was technically their job.  Repeated pleading and yelling on my part did nothing; yes I was a hot headed District Manager back in those days.  (BTW - a District had about 4 - 6 people working for them).  So instead of going to my Division Manager Vinny, I ended up whispering the problem to Vinny's boss who was an extremely influential and well connected Director (Division had about 15-30 people working for them and a Director was an AT&T executive).

The Director sensing my desperation, called her counter part in Product Management who then, much to my chagrin, browbeat not the person I attended to get the wrath, but another Division manager who wasn't even involved in the Program.  Of course I didn't know that until Vinny called me into his office and explained to me these words (paraphrased of course because my memory is fading):

"Eric, there are two kinds of people that work at AT&T.  Nice people and jerks (he didn't use that term but someday my kids will read this blog).  There are plenty of jerks that have successful AT&T careers and if you want to go down that path you have to make sure you are perfect.  Because if you are a jerk, you'll beat up a lot of people along the way and unless you are perfect or you have very well connected executives, these new enemies will wait for you to make an error.  Once that happens, then you'll see these people come after you and you'll be finished."

"As a nice guy, it might take you a little longer to get ahead but at least you'll have people helping you along the way and when you make a mistake, and you will, they'll help you instead of coming after you.  You need to make the decision of who you'll want to be, the nice guy or the jerk."

As some of you know, I don't make a lot of mistakes, but thanks to Vinny I went the nice guy route.  In fact, unless you really knew me before that conversation, you'd be surprised to hear that I had a mean streak.  In fact my old bosses at the Bank of Montreal (Susan P. and Brenda T) couldn't believe I was a hot head. Sure occasionally I lose it, but they don't last long, I don't hold a grudge, and pretty much if I was off base I apologize.  I don't go behind people's back and if I'm upset about someone, a result, or a process I'll take it head on, but I'm definitely not the same person who Vinny spoke with that day. 

I went the nice guy route thanks to Vinny and people help me rather than gun for me when I make a mistake (as rare as that is!).  Pettitte used the nice guy route to have an easier landing with his HGH mistake proving that Vinny was right many years ago that it is better to be the nice guy (Pettitte) than the jerk (Clemens, Bonds).  Thanks Vinny for helping me out a few years ago.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Two Years Out Of Corporate America And Still Going

Sorry about the infrequent posts this week.  My kids like everyone else's are off from school and are staying up late which cuts into my blogging time.  In fact, both are up right now as I write this watching Spongebob Squarepants.  SIGH.

Anyway, I like revisiting some of my older posts especially ones on managing your career.  I get nostalgic especially when I had lunch with some of my Harrisdirect co-workers, Jackie, Megan, and Maggie.  It was fun to catch up on old times and it reminded me that I've come a long way from that person that left/laid off from E*Trade at the end of December 2005. Now before I reprint my last post while being an HD employee, here are a couple of things that stand out for me in the past 2 years...

Eric's Top 10 Quick Hits from the Past 2 Years

1. When you work from home or stay local, you don't need as much cash as you needed before.
2. There are more people than you realize that actually work out of the home office especially with broadband being everywhere; it isn't anything to be ashamed of and if you actually have your own office and get dressed everyday you are just as professional as the schmucks in the suits.
3. You actually won't miss out on watching your kids grow up
4. Most of what you do in Corporate America is completely a waste - from presentations to arbitrary start and end dates to kissing up to the new boss because you are afraid of your job.
5. That's not to say I won't ever go back.  What I do miss is camaraderie, perceived security, and actually being involved in running a business.  One of my favorite things to do at both HD and AT&T is look at the monthly financials to see what I could do to help.  I also enjoyed working with other groups to see how marketing could help them.
6. Speaking of dates, YOU HAVE NEVER DEALT WITH A DEADLINE UNLESS YOU'VE WORKED IN POLITICS.  Seriously, you don't know what it means to make a date.  For example, the Iowa Caucus is 1/3.  With McCain's surge in the polls we made some changes to the advertising campaign.  I had to do it today because it can't wait until tomorrow.  1/8 of the remaining campaign would have been gone.  And when the caucus is over, there is nothing more you can do; the vote is forever and being off by a little costs you a lot.
7. In politics there is no such thing as 9-5.  Sure some days are lighter than others but when a lot of the business world is on vacation and you have to make changes you do.  And you expect your vendors to answer your emails (hat tip to the Google Political team especially Rena, Ben, and Virginia).  You work late because you have to and when the campaign manager asks for volunteers to go to a state, you go.  You don't submit vouchers or call your assistant to book your trip.  You pay for it and book it yourself.  Finally, you move your family vacation because it is too close to Super Tuesday.
8. I never get tired of working with new clients.  I've had my share over the years and wish I had more.  When you no longer work with one, especially when it has nothing to do with your support, you feel sad because you wish there was more you could have done.
9. You always need new clients coming in the door; a lack of a funnel means you should start looking for a new job.
10. When you are disconnected from Corporate America you realize how important friends and family are.  And, how important you really were to your former Corp America friends.

Anyway, that's my top 10 quick hits from the past two years.  I hope you enjoyed them. Hint the continue reading link to see the reprint of the post.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

CMO's Fail Because The Rest of the CXO's Don't Respect the M

I just read this article in the December 10th edition of Business Week called "The Short Life of the Chief Marketing Officer" and it really fired me up; it fired me up so much that I'm writing a second post tonight.  Personally I think it was a hatchet job on the CMOs with tidbits like these:

• CMOs last 26 months on average in a job versus 44 months for CEOs (personally I think it is an apples and oranges comparison; CEOs are picked by the board and often the CMO is picked by the CEO)
• New media options are "bewildering"
• CMOs are second guessed and have people looking over their shoulders
• It is a fuzzy assignment (what isn't these days)
• On the heals of former Cingular CMO Marc Lefar talking about  how he needed to get his head around "a geeky marketing tool" called SEO (un-friggin-believable), he was quoted saying "the average 45 year-old chief marketing officer cannot possibly figure out what's cool"

It paints a horrifying picture of the state of CMOs; regrettably I can't find it online for you to read.  However, it neglected one important aspect of the CMO that I've seen make the strongest ones crack.  It is the micro-manager CEO/Chairman that thinks they understand marketing because they read a book, founded a company, or watched Donny Deutsch's The Big Idea (BTW - not a shot on Deutsch or the show which I enjoy).  Here are sure signs if your CEO/Chairman/Founder is a micro managing wanna be CMO:

• Demands that you run useless news paper ads especially in papers that are just good for their ego (ex - The Wall Street Journal)
• Believes marketing is brochure ware
• Won't let you hire a copy writer and insists you do it yourself
• Keeps laying off your staff and has some "wiz kid" in operations/execution write your ads
• Wants you to take creative direction from the head sales guy because he knows what they need in the field
• Insists on proof reading your ads and then offers to re-write your copy or change colors
• Wants to be part of the decision making process in picking your agency or said another way, wants to pick the agency but doesn't respect the process
• Forwards you SPAM solicitation emails about how to get high rankings in search
• Assuming they know something about search, writes your text ads or refuses to let you have landing pages
• Takes sales calls for websites, newspapers, and TV but neglects to include you in the discussion
• Goes around your back to your subordinates to make your life miserable

I could go on and on, but you get the picture.  I'm not saying the CMO is perfect and lord knows if you don't understand SEO you probably shouldn't be a CMO any more.  I hate to write it, but if you are one of these TV and Newspaper first kind of CMO's then I hope you are marketing a product that skews way older or towards non-internet savvy customers.  Otherwise, your days in the CMO chair are over. 

The article makes it seem like blogs, social networking, YouTube are scary things, but how about just plain online advertising which is proven to deliver results through the years.  Why do you think Financial Services Companies pay like $8-$10 million per year for the Yahoo Quotes Results package?  If you aren't advertising online then you couldn't spell ROI if someone spotted you the "R" and the "O".

From what I've seen during my 18 years of marketing, CMOs and other Senior Marketing Execs fails because of

1. micro-managing CEO or founder
2. market forces which the CXO team failed to recognize and the CMO takes it on the chin
3. an over zealous sales exec who doesn't get his way
4. loses a beauty contest to peers or some up and coming manager
5. The CEO changes the direction of the firm
6. Doesn't know a thing about the internet (mentioned in the BW article)

Enough of this rant...PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Vance LaVelle Gives Tips For In-Between Job Time

My good friend and <gulp> dare I say one of my mentors at AT&T is in an awesome, must-read article in this week's BusinessWeek called Time Out Well Spent.  The article basically profiles what Vance did and how she positioned herself in between leaving her job as PNC Bank's CMO and her new current job as VP of Sales, Service and Marketing at Sirius Radio.  The entire article is so Vance and even if you don't know her or don't care about AT&T, you must read this article if you are in Corporate America and facing a job change - forced or not (this means you E*Trade employees who I know read this blog).  In a nutshell here are:

VANCE'S TIPS FOR SURVIVING YOUR IN BETWEEN JOB TIME

1. Imagine what you'd like to do if you had no constraints - Vance started her own marketing consulting firm and then looked at trying something new like dog training.  Yes, dog training. 
2. Create an elevator pitch - Seems like a no-brainer, but how many of you have one?  Personally, I always focused on making my elevator pitch something that my wife could explain to people when asked what I do for a living.  Back in the day it was "oh he sells wireless service" (not really I marketed it) and then at Harrisdirect it was "oh he is a managing director at a brokerage firm".  Now it is "we (notice the we) run online advertising for political campaigns like John McCain for President and other clients"
3. Hit the phones and the e-mail list - All about networking and that's probably one of the most important factors in getting hired now a days.  Funny quote in the article is that an old boss of LaVelle's said to her "Build relationships before you need them...", I wonder who that old boss was.
4. Just Do It - Vance focused on other things on her list of to dos while being in between jobs.  According the article she enrolled in a course to become proficient in new media trends, such as RSS feeds and blogging.  I have it on good authority that I was the reference to the new media trends, but I got described as a course <sigh>.  Vance was trying to get me a free plug for this blog, but I guess I ended up on the cutting room floor.
5. Make a Decision - Basically figure out which new job you want and make a decision.  Vance had two job offers one from GE and one from Sirius and obviously went with the Sirius one.  I also remember one other job she was thinking about too (not at that time) and I have to admit I was pulling for the one she didn't mention because getting a job there for an outsider is almost impossible.

I met Vance back in 1994 when I transferred into her Consumer Card group from a job tip from my friends Sheryl R. and Grace B who shared an office (side note:  Back when AT&T was focused on MOI as a financial measurement, they stole an office sign from someone else in the building whose name spelled out Watchin Moi and  hung it on their ceiling).  The district manager who I worked for at the time who reported into Vance was shall we say a little different from other managers.  However, even though he probably hated it, he did allow me to have more than my share of exposure with my Division Manager Vance.  Many times I had to go around him to work directly with Vance.

Vance used to keep a binder filled with key facts that she needed to know in meetings.  If you've known me since 1995, you've noticed that I kept a binder too and I religiously kept it updated because as Vance once told me, if you get asked a question in a meeting you need to have an answer right there.  My binder has been replaced by a laptop.

During AT&T's response to MCI's Friends and Family 2, I was locked (not physically) in a conference room for a week working on the response by putting together a multi-million dollar campaign that included direct mail, TV, budget, as well as forecast with a cast of other marketing folks.  Vance surprised me with 5 American Express gift certificates as a thank you; I bought Amazing Spider-man (need the hyphen) comic books with them.   

Anyway, I'm out of steam and the YouTube debate tonight kind of ruined my train of thought.  So I'll stop here with the Vance love-fest.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

My Thankful View Revisited

I made the following post two years ago while I was still with Harrisdirect.  It was right after the E*trade acquisition was approved and the folks like myself that weren't retained were just waiting out our time to be officially shown the door.  It was one of my earliest posts and I brought it over from my original blog at Blogger.  I thought it was still interesting to read two years later and even though a lot has changed since then, it is worth re-posting.

In those two years I've met a lot of great people and worked on a lot of interesting projects including John McCain for President.  To be honest, I didn't think I was going to last this long outside of corporate America and days like today, I'm not sure how much longer I can make it.  Anyway, the post helped me out, hopefully it does for you too.  The picture wasn't originally included but my friend Cyrus from the RNC sent it on and I thought it was funny.  Oh, and finally, the friend mentioned at the top of the post is Becki Donatelli.

*************REPOST FROM NOVEMBER 2005************************

My Thankful View                                                  

Sure, every website you visit these days has some schmuck writing about why they are thankful this year. I guess if the malls can window dress on a seasonal basis than why not your favorite columnist. Well, this site will not be the exception, but of course I'll give a different spin. What am I most thankful for these days? Simple, I thank the big guy upstairs for making sure I wasn't retained by the firm acquiring my current employer. Sure it is a little scary with a wife at home that needs medical treatment and two little kids, but what was the alternative? Bad benefits, a commute from hell (not the current one that sucks the life out of me), and trapped in an industry that I only joined because the Monster.com ad looked interesting. As a good friend of mine said, "Eric, it is time for a course correction". So, what has this change resulted in and why do I seem so happy? 

1. Severance and bonus that would take me to September 2006 if I had NO income coming in.
2. I started my own website and this blog and considering I've been marketing on the internet since 1998, it is about time.
3. A chance to start my own consulting business so I can work on interesting projects with interesting people of my own choosing.
4. The consulting business lets me alleviate one source of anxiety, you know, the one where you can't control your own destiny no matter how hard you try and succeed at your current job.
5. A chance to stay in touch with people that matter most to me and cut off the people that are obviously only interested in me because I could buy a lot of media from them.
6. No more bad commutes.
7. The world out there seems new to me again with a lot of possibilities - with all of the positions out there I feel like a kid in the candy shop.
8. I always wanted to write a children's novel about time travel and now I'll have the time.
9. I booked a trip to Disney World and didn't need to check with my boss first.
10. For the first time since I left AT&T in June 2000, I feel like I belong somewhere; not with the unemployed of the country, but with people who work for themselves. You know, what the country really produces today - services.

Ok, so why did I really write this post today? It wasn't to brag about how good I feel, but it was meant to help anyone in a similar situation. Don't sit around waiting for something to happen or a mentor to pull you into a new position. Grow up and make your own luck and use the time and new found freedom to pursue something you always wanted to do, but a company's golden handcuffs prevented you from going after it. With a little luck, you too could have a cheesy website and a little

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Suprise! E*Trade and TD Ameritrade in Merger Talks

I also woke yesterday morning to see this article on the front page of The Wall Street Journal called TD Ameritrade in Merger Talks with E*Trade which only surprised me for the length in between the previous mergers of these companies.  It seems that E*Trade has a knack for announcing merger talks in the summer.  You of course can read the article yourself to see what the experts think, but from a guy that lived and was relieved to not have stayed post the Harrisdirect merger I have a definite opinion on this based on my own experience.

• First of all, I'm not sure this is a slam dunk unless the combined company can figure out a way to appease the Toronto Dominion part of the TD Ameritrade company.  As I recall when TD merged with Ameritrade one of the "benefits" to the American public was access to TD Banks.  I don't think TD is going to walk away so easily unless the price is right.
• Speaking of Canadian Banks (Bank of Montreal owned Harrisdirect), they have an uncanny knack for buying low and selling high at least that's based on my experience so I'm sure there is a way out if the cash is right.
• While I'm sure this will face little regulatory objections, consumers are the ones that will be taking it on the chin.  As more of these big advertising and big promotion companies start gobbling each other up, we will see less choice and less offers.
• Oh and you can bet that the combined online advertising budgets of these two will not be added together.  They both compete pretty heavily against each other right now so there will be a definite marketing savings when these two merge.  For example, they both are one of the Yahoo Quotes Results Page advertisers which probably cost each of them $7  - $10 million per year on just that package.  BTW - according to ClickZ, E*trade was the #5 advertiser and TD was the #11 in online advertiser in April.  Assuming they spend about the same in reality (the differences are really in the known errors in tracking and perhaps E*trade is slightly more efficient) half of those ad dollars will be GONE.

What's really upsetting to me is all of their employees who are now not sure what happens to their job.  I remember when I was first brought over the wall to help with the transition I had a lot of feelings about what laid ahead for me and my friends.   From that moment on people were really really scared about their next paycheck.  What must be really frustrating is the inevitable separation of people who have to work on the merger and those that have to keep their heads in the sand and run the business, but hey those executives will cash in nicely so keep working.

I'm sure the PCFN-DLJdirect-CSFBdirect-Harrisdirect-E*trade merger binder will get used again especially if my old co-worker Lea is running the merger playbook again.  In case any of those E*trade or TD Ameritrade employees need a good read on my own feelings at the end of my time with Harrisdirect, check out the following posts (I apologize that the formatting is off when I copied them over from my old Blogger site).  Don't worry, everything will work out and who knows maybe you too can work on a Presidential Campaign; that's infinitely more exciting and more rewarding than selling trading accounts.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

My Own Independence Day - 2007

I have so many good posts lined up in my head, but I know that my traffic will be terrible tomorrow.  So, I'll make two for the holiday - one a personal observation and a post I made last year which I received a lot of great feedback on and cross posted it to Marketing Pros.  Anyway, on to my personal Independence Day.

I had a great call with my friend Melissa G today and after I gave her the run down on what's new in my world, she said to me "You are never going back to corporate.  You sound so happy and you are incredibly busy.  It is good for you".  It dawned on me that she is 100% correct.  It is good to be independent, but I didn't always think so after ten years at AT&T and then 5 years at DLJ/CSFB/Harrisdirect.  I couldn't imagine myself on my own for more than say 6 months; hence the reason for my boring website.  So, what's been my secret?  Well before I give some of that away, let's take a look at what I was afraid of...

TOP 5 REASONS I COULDN'T LEAVE CORPORATE AMERICA

1. Where was my next paycheck coming from?
2. How was I going to cope with health insurance (those that know me personally know this is not a trivial concern)?
3. Who will want to talk with me if I'm not the big shot marketing executive with the big marketing budget?
4. What would it be like to not bleed blue for the company you work for?
5. Who am I really if I'm not a Managing Director or a Marketing Director?

All of those were real concerns and maybe a few of them still are, but that hasn't stopped me from being away from Corporate America for almost 20 months (During my last month at E*Trade I still continued to produce however, I realized that they were a dead end for me corporately.  And I felt like a homeless citizen when I was in the office because I was laid off and people felt bad for me.)

TOP 5 ITEMS/EVENTS THAT HELPED ME OVERCOME THESE FEARS

1. Becki Donatelli who runs Campaign Solutions and Connell Donatelli called me in the fall out of the blue and told me I needed a career change.  Between her and Mike Connell, we came to an arrangement where I'm not alone, but out of Corporate America, doing something I have a passion for politics.
2. I realized that my job never defined who I was, what I did in life defined who I was.  My key to figuring this out was asking myself as I was driving into Jersey City for the last few times, what would I be doing if I wasn't on this drive and would my kids still recognize me.  The answer was they couldn't tell what I did anyway, I was just Dad.
3. My wife and my friends clearly saw me not as the guy that got promoted at AT&T very quickly, but someone who could make a living doing whatever I wanted.  They kept telling me that I didn't need the big company; that wasn't who I was.
4. You have to keep selling in order to keep having paychecks rolling in.  Even as a marketer you have to sell, so you might as well use those skills to keep getting new clients.
5. Who are these big companies and who really makes the money?  It isn't the low level manager, it is the top level management so the sooner you figure out that won't be you the easier it is to let go.

You know what I learned after all this time?  You do have friends in the real world even if it was a sales person who you thought was only being nice to you because you had money.  If you have a skill that people need, sell it, sell it, and sell it again.  Finally, it is perfectly normal in 2008 to work from home - you just have to be very disciplined to do it.

Are you looking for a little independence?  Have you realized that you've been climbing up the corporate ladder only to find out it has been leaning up against the wrong building?  This it is time to get up from behind your desk and break your supposed golden handcuffs and start your own career revolution.  I did with a little help from my friends and family; who knows if I'll ever go back...

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

What's You G-Cred?

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article called You're a Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well that published on May 8th.  It provides a lot of good information on why your name can impact your career as well as dating (my words) and how some parents will go to lengths to make their child's name search friendly.  Now, I have to be honest, I didn't Google my child's names before we gave them one, but in the scheme of how people go through the naming process it probably is a good checkoff to look at.

Personally (and my former Harrisdirect colleagues will attest to it) I've always been cognizant of what my Google results looked like.  It used to be that I always made sure my resume changed from year to year, but now I need to make sure my Google results are in great shape.  The reason I always kept a focus on my search results?  Simple.  For perspective employers and this was before it became vogue.  There were several successful interviews that I've had in the past when I told the interviewee to just Google me to see what I've been up to.  Also, as of late it has been very helpful in gaining new business leads as well as meeting with people who I haven't spoken to in a while.

About a year back I helped a person with starting their new blog.  I tried to dig through my emails to come up with their blog and/or name but I switched PCs and couldn't find it.   He was an old agency executive and claims he made up the term G-Cred.  G-cred was short for Google Credibility and looked out how your search results boosted your image or didn't. He quizzed me when he first mentioned it proudly and as I recall I thought I answered it as having something to with Google.  Anyway, he was quite proud of the term G-Cred especially because he believed he coined the phrase.  So what's my secret tips for boosting your own G-Cred?

1. Start early and focus on your results now; don't wait so that the 2 reviews you've done on Amazon end up being your #1 search results.
2. If you work for a major corporation, try and get your name published in any corporate newsletters.  For a while one of my top results was an in-house interview I did for an article on AT&T's Personal Network.
3. Focus on official public relations releases.  See if your own internet PR department can put you in any releases.  Anything you can get from your own releases will be gravy.  However, I got more play out of partners, especially web publishers that wanted to put out case studies or press releases on projects.  #3 on my own results is a case study I did with Google while at Harrisdirect.
4. Get your own URL and make sure it is a good one.  I have www.ericfrenchman.com as well as pardonmyfrench.typepad.com and www.pardonmyfrench.net.  So when people Google me those websites show up at the top of the search results.
5. Blog because Google loves indexing blogs and you get to control your own spin so people can see how you think.  If you don't have the time to blog, try and visit your favorite blogs and leave comments.  If the blog is popular enough, your comment will get indexed too.

There you go.  My top 5 tips for upping your own G-Cred.  It is very important now to make sure that your results reflect how you want to be seen by the community.  Otherwise, you'll lose control of your own spin and perhaps your credibility in front of people you care about.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Hi ad:tech I'm Sam Negin

********This post was also cross posted over at The MadAve Journal********

I was thrilled that the folks over at The MadAve Journal asked me to be one of the bloggers to write about the upcoming ad:tech. They gave me the topic of the personal side of technology, how it helps people in their lives, and how companies balanced personal and professional goals.

Sponsors were given a list of 6 questions and the folks at The Madison Avenue Journal collected the responses. Between these responses and my own answers to the questions, I've written this commentary, but you are probably wondering who Sam Negin is and why I named him in this post.

Sam is one of my college roommates from Rutgers (year withheld to protect my age) and when he graduated he joined a program with the Army that paid for medical school with the tradeoff that he had to spend time in the Army as a doctor. Sam always wanted to be a doctor to help people and even offered the roommates charter membership in a medical plan called the Samo in exchange for beer money.

Anyway, the Army deal seemed to have been a good one except that he was shipped off to serve in Iraq to help injured Iraqis as well as our own soldiers. Oh, in case you think this is a sad story it is not - Sam is back from Iraq and is currently stationed in Germany

[Check out: Evening Keynote: Old Warriors Don't Die! Wednesday, April 25, 5:00pm-6:00pm]

However, this doesn't diminish the fact that he gave up years of his life to serve our country so that when he finally paid his dues he can practice being a doctor; not for making money, but to help people which is the kind of person he really is.  I've had numerous careers since Sam and I shared a Silvers apartment at Rutgers and of course I thought that all of them had improved people's lives. Looking back, I can see clearly now when I've impacted people in a positive way and when I was just buying into a company's strategy to deliver a return to their investors or as I like to say, playing the role of George Jetson as a money making cog at Spacely's Space Sprockets.

[Check out: Gamer Nation: Strategies and Tactics for Brand Immersion in the Gaming Universe Tuesday, April 24, 10:45am-11:45am]

While you might think it would be tough to find responses for this subject from technology and online advertising conference sponsors, they were there and their responses really do prove that technology can impact people in a personal way.

Eliminating the Distance Dimension

"Distance no longer has a hold on my life", declared Organic Chairman and Founder Jonathan Nelson and this short quote speaks volumes as how technology impacts every day lives. No more are you tethered to an office or a factory to earn a living and the 9 to 5 days are becoming the latest extinct corporate beast.

[Check out: Mobile Marketing Ecosystem Thursday, April 26, 12:15pm-1:15pm]

My wife Mary once complained "the kids and I don't know when you are working, reading email, or playing World of Warcraft because you always look the same - typing away on your laptop." I work more now than when I did driving to an office and I'm always on; I'm on when I coaching my kid's soccer team, on when I'm looking at hot tubs on a Saturday, and I'm on the night of my daughter's birthday as I type up this post.

[Check out: Tales from the Bleeding Edge: The New Mobility - A Hands On Experience, Tuesday, April 24, 4:00pm-5:00pm]

"Technology often gives us more time to do more work, so the time saving idea is a fallacy," is a quote Harold Mann President of Mann Consulting provides that proves my point with a caveat that while you might not save time, you can squeeze more into the day without wasting your life on Route 78 commuting to NYC.

[Check out: New Media Universe, New Consumer Behavior Thursday, April 26, 12:15pm-1:15pm]

While on the surface it looks like a return to a sweatshop brought about by investors looking to squeeze more minutes out of an employee, it really is the exact opposite. You can work anywhere now and be more efficient. This lets you spend more time, not less with your family and friends. Commuting will (as it has for me) become a thing of the past, allowing you to be instantly available.

Need to attend a teacher's conference - done, because you can make up your time later during the day. The technology companies of today truly make your personal lives better by giving you the ability to reach out and touch the people important to you whenever and wherever you want. My kids no longer remember what it was like for me to commute - they really believe that Daddy has been home forever.

Someone Has To Make Money

Maybe this part of my post sounds very impersonal and perhaps the people that provided me the quotes that I'm referencing are cringing slightly to be associated with it, but I really enjoyed reading the more realistic responses. Stripped away were the party-line responses and left were blunt honest assessments that we provide a service that people or companies need.

And you know what, there is nothing wrong with doing a service or providing a product that as Dana Todd co-founder and principal of SiteLab International Inc wrote.... "We're here to make money for the company and for our customers. Our ability to continue to provide a great environment depends wholly on our ability to stay profitable." It may not be something that as Dana wrote, "reduces carbon emissions", but providing people with opportunities in a fun environment does make them have better personal lives.

[Check out: Publishing in the Digital Era: Feast or Famine Thursday, April 26, 12:15pm-1:15pm

"While the dream of becoming a .com millionaire is a driving factor for innovation throughout the internet... without investors desire to make a buck, Google, YouTube, MySpace and other sites would never have gotten off the ground," William Rice, President of Web Marketing Association pointed out. Providing products that don't necessary save the world or solve global warming, but enrich people's lives including the company's employees is a contribution to society. 

 

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

I'm from The Internet

I had dinner yesterday at Redwoods with an old colleague from AT&T (the better version, not the current anti-net neutrality, anti-competitive one) to discuss online social communities.  As we were leaving, I had a modest moment (yes it happens as often as a total eclipse of the Sun in North America) and said, not bad from a guy from New Jersey and I received a reply back that said "no, you are not from NJ you are from the internet."  And, that got me thinking, well I guess I am.

After working from my home office for the past year, I've often struggled with the stereotype of being at home and constantly proving that I am working hard and not hardly working.  One of things my wife complains about is that she doesn't know when I'm working, playing World of Warcraft, posting on my blog, or just plain surfing the internet.  Why?  As Mary says, it all looks the same.  My counter is that "look, all I need is a laptop, high speed connection, and my experience to work".  And, I believe with broadband spreading like crab grass in your lawn, that my situation will become the norm in a few years.

Why do you need an office?  Why do you need to commute?  Sure if you have an important meeting it is better face to face, but with Second Life for virtual meetings, conference calls, emails, etc you literally can be anywhere and get work done.

Well, I'm not crazy.  Virtual offices are the way to go.  In this week's (or is it next week's) Business Week there is a featured article called Smashing The Clock which goes inside Best Buy's radical plan for reshaping their work force.  It also talks about IBM's efforts to also push virtual offices.  You know what is says?  People work and accomplish more when not glued to their corporate office and they also have more freedom.

See, a virtual office is the wave of the future.  Broadband access lets you operate anywhere and with the cost of laptops and other necessary equipment dropping, you have to start asking yourself why do you need an office?  I bet in 5 years there will be an army of people with virtual offices...I'm glad to see I'm once again on the cutting edge of society ;-)

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

There Is A Bell Shaped Curve for Management Ratings

In this week's Business Week (I know enough already, but it was a great issue) in The WelchWay section (Jack and Suzy Welch) they answer a reader's question on ranking employees into performance categories of the top 20%, middle 70%, and bottom 10%.  It shouldn't surprise you that the Welchs backed up the rankings and you know what so do I.

A while back at AT&T, we used to have the classic annual review where the district managers got together and tried to get as many people into the best rating.  Of course it was utter chaos as pretty much any breathing body would get a good rating and what the discussions came down to was a beauty contest and good old fashioned horse trading.  Then finally, AT&T handed down a 16 box grid with the x Axis being how you performed your job and the y axis being how you did versus your annual objectives.  With the 16 box grid came a forced curve with which percentages the population had to fall in.  As I recall only 5% could only be in the best square (most money and a vote into True Spirit), 15% into the other excellent grids, 10% into the bottom, and the remaining 70% spread around in the middle. 

It was that year when a manager walked into a performance review and said one of the dumber things I can remember "I can't stand this force fit.  I think everyone at AT&T is above average so everyone should be in the best square."  Obviously, she never took a statistics class and looking back with the demise of the old and better AT&T, was a little off-base.  It shouldn't surprise you readers who snapped at her and told her in front of the rest of the group what a moronic statement that was and not everyone can be at the top. It doesn't work that way in the real world or even in professional sports ;-)  and it certainly shouldn't work in an AT&T performance review.  This manager's team did fine in the review, but she fit them into a curve, and pretty much hated me from that day forward.  Oh well.

There were two times the curve didn't work out for me.  One was for a manager of mine who I had rated higher than someone else in my group, but the rest of my district peers liked another person in my group.  They flipped my ratings around moving my lower ranked person from the top 15% grid into the top 5% and lowering the other manager.  That was a tough conversation, but the affected manager made it into the top 5% a year later.

The other time was how I got screwed out of a True Spirit trip and a top 5% ranking for building AT&T's Personal Network offer. That product was dead in the water until I got there, as other managers played around with our tech and product teams by over-promising on start dates, playing around with included products, and price points.  We got the offer launched on the Super Bowl and all I got was a pat on the back as I lost out to someone in a popularity contest.  (It doesn't happen often when I lose a popularity contest).

Force curves are the only way to reward people for an outstanding job.  If you don't have them, then everyone will end up in a great category, getting similar bonuses that reward people for mediocrity.  It would be like all of Major League Baseball's players making the All-Star team which would be boring to watch and probably end up in a tie.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

The Art of Self Promotion - Revisited

Recently, I've been asked to be a charter member of MarketingProf's Daily Blog the DailyFix.  The Daily Fix offers news analysis, opinion and commentary from a collection of 20-plus writers, including Seth Godin, Mark Vanderbeeken, Gerry McGovern, BL Ochman and MarketingVOX publisher Tig Tillinghast.  Basically, a list of very smart and well known marketers and me.

As an added bonus, today's (3/31) Daily Fix had my Arnold story from a few days ago as the lead article, which was quite a shock to me since I feel like the other guy in the Three Tenors.  Here's a screen shot of my post today.

Just over 180,000 marketers subscribe to the MarketingProfs weekly newsletter, so hopefully some of them will start to read my posts and get a little

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Exit Stage Right

“Eric, join us in the conference room with the other directors please”, asked my CMO at the now defunct company Impower out of Princeton NJ. This meeting was how the company was having cash flow issues and the CEO wanted all of the directors to take a 20% across the board pay-cut.

Well, my mom didn’t raise a complete fool and I neglected to volunteer for the pay cut, but the company was in such dire straits that they cut my salary anyway. “Of course it was by accident”, the CFO explained to me as he reversed the problem.

“Enough is enough and my time with this .com is over”, as I confessed to one of my employees Angela E. So, like any good job hunter with no severance and a need to move fast, I went to

Monster.com and submitted my resume on a job. It was a lark, but the job description went like this:

VP Online Advertising
DLJdirect
Weehawken, NJ
Pay: Big salary+bonus
(you didn’t think I’d actually reveal my comp, did you?)

You know what, I got the job after our HR director Lauren T. pulled my resume out of the scrap heap and walked it into the then current CMO,

Debra Isenberg

Debra picked up the phone and asked me “What the hell are you doing at Impower?” and my answer was trying to get out.

Well, a few interviews later I landed a job with CSFBdirect, which was rebranded from DLJdirect the day I walked in the door. I couldn’t tell the difference between a money market and a mutual fund, but I knew how the Internet works and I sure as hell could bring in online sales. Unfortunately, the first major problem went like this:

About two weeks into the new job, I was wandering the halls in Jersey City trying to find the men’s room, when Debra stops me and says “Meeting in my office in 5 minutes. There is something wrong with the AOL Personal Finance Deal and you need to fix it!”

DLJdirect signed the AOL deal with the assumption that AOL would bring in accounts just liked it did earlier when the company basically was built on AOL and Prodigy. Well, I couldn’t turn the numbers around because we were up against three other brokers, but I did increase the sales by bending up the conversion into sales from clicks. In the end, we renegotiated the deal and extracted some value from the contract before it was ultimately cancelled over a lunch meeting at a lovely Greek restaurant in lower Manhattan.

In January 2002, having survived a few rounds of layoffs, the

Bank of Montreal

acquires CSFBdirect and begins the rebranding process to Harrisdirect. I am happy to report at this time, that I do now know the difference between a money market and a mutual fund because I passed my Series 7. We launched an ad campaign in May 2002 around the glorious Elsie Lee online ads (that’s a blog for another day).

Growth was moving along, but by fall 2004 we had an executive management change and over the years lost valuable ground in the share grab game. What was once the leader/inventor of online brokerage was now far behind others. Finally, when it looked like the business finally changed for the better, Harrisdirect was acquired by another online brokerage firm.

What went wrong you ask? I guess as an online advertising person you would say, “sure it was a lack of spending in advertising to generate the accounts”, but that’s not the correct read on the situation.

Nothing went wrong at all.

First, the product that was built was best in class. Even at the end we won #

1 Discount Brokerage Firm from SmartMoney in August 2005

You know what else was built, a great customer service team that not only spanned the actual client services team, but also permeated through marketing, product, trading, compliance, legal, and operations. Finally, it had an unbelievably great team of people, people that I will truly miss who really tried to make a difference.

In the end, why do you go to work each day for a corporation? Is it to change the world for the better? How about, promote a product you are very proud of? How about just something simple as, I need to do something and I may as well get paid.

You see, 15 years in the corporate world taught me a few things. One of them is, you need to get high enough up the food chain to protect yourself and really make a difference. Even a Managing Director at Harrisdirect wasn’t high enough (not bad for a 10 year veteran of the telecom world huh?) because you can be let go in the end.

So, you know what you are left with if you can’t get high enough in the corporate world? Friends, family, memories, hopefully some cash, and integrity. Nothing wrong with that.

Nothing went wrong at all. In the end, consolidation will continue just like it has in the telecom world where SBC can swallow up my former company AT&T.

As you might have guess by now, today was my last day at Harrisdirect after 5 years of

hoofing it into Jersey City NJ

The one thing I won’t miss is that awful commute. You know it is not so weird, not being employed by corporate America. In fact, it is a relief.

Thanks for the memories everyone. Thanks to Scott A, Lauren T, John C, Charlotte F and the rest of the crew that spent this afternoon drinking with me in Baja.

If you want to find me, you should know by now where I’ll be. I’ll be right where I’ve always belonged; here on the Internet.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

My Thankful View

Sure, every website you visit these days has some schmuck writing about why they are thankful this year. I guess if the malls can window dress on a seasonal basis than why not your favorite columnist. Well, this site will not be the exception, but of course I'll give a different spin. What am I most thankful for these days? Simple, I thank the big guy upstairs for making sure I wasn't retained by the firm acquiring my current employer. Sure it is a little scary with a wife at home that needs medical treatment and two little kids, but what was the alternative? Bad benefits, a commute from hell (not the current one that sucks the life out of me), and trapped in an industry that I only joined because the Monster.com ad looked interesting. As a good friend of mine said, "Eric, it is time for a course correction". So, what has this change resulted in and why do I seem so happy? 

1. Severance and bonus that would take me to September 2006 if I had NO income coming in.
2. I started my own website and this blog and considering I've been marketing on the internet since 1998, it is about time.
3. A chance to start my own consulting business so I can work on interesting projects with interesting people of my own choosing.
4. The consulting business lets me alleviate one source of anxiety, you know, the one where you can't control your own destiny no matter how hard you try and succeed at your current job.
5. A chance to stay in touch with people that matter most to me and cut off the people that are obviously only interested in me because I could buy a lot of media from them.
6. No more bad commutes.
7. The world out there seems new to me again with a lot of possibilities - with all of the positions out there I feel like a kid in the candy shop.
8. I always wanted to write a children's novel about time travel and now I'll have the time.
9. I booked a trip to Disney World and didn't need to check with my boss first.
10. For the first time since I left AT&T in June 2000, I feel like I belong somewhere; not with the unemployed of the country, but with people who work for themselves. You know, what the country really produces today - services.

Ok, so why did I really write this post today? It wasn't to brag about how good I feel, but it was meant to help anyone in a similar situation. Don't sit around waiting for something to happen or a mentor to pull you into a new position. Grow up and make your own luck and use the time and new found freedom to pursue something you always wanted to do, but a company's golden handcuffs prevented you from going after it. With a little luck, you too could have a cheesy website and a little

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

The Art of Self Promotion

I was in New York on Monday and I ran into a friend that I haven't seen in a few years. The first words out of his mouth are "Eric you must be the most famous man on the internet". After what passes for blushing on my part, which doesn't amount to much of anything, I replied, "actually no, just good at a little self promotion and long term planning".

I worked for 10 years at AT&T and 5 years at Harrisdirect (the company formerly known as PCFN, DLJdirect, and CSFBdirect and one of the key things I learned was you have to learn how to build, manage, and plan for your self promotion, because at the end of the day, that's all you really have. A rumor I heard at AT&T led me to managing my self promotion, so here it is in its entirety.

When C.Michael Armstrong was named chairman and CEO of AT&T a Vice President walked into the PR department and said "make me an internet genius" and of course they did. This VP had AT&T's press machine in full press and he ended up with plenty of speaking engagements, case studies, and press releases; even a few of these that he couldn't handle ended up on my desk. After a few short months, this VP becomes AT&T's internet czar."

So armed with this knowledge when I leave AT&T, I look for my own self promotion opportunities while at the company formerly known as Harrisdirect. Besides a little self glory, it helps with my own position as VP of Online Advertising because there is nothing better than generating a little free press for your employer while building your own reputation and getting good advertising rates. While negotiating media deals, I notice that several publishers were willing to go beyond what I should be receiving based on my spend if offered to participate in case studies with them. I said "sure, but with one condition, my name is in the case study". So, when you hit the link on the right for My Google News you can see the list of case studies, magazine articles, and press releases that I've participated in since 2002. All this with a little planning, quid pro quo, and an eye to the future. Oh by the way, never, never, do this without your own PR department and legal involved; play by the rules of your own company.

The self promotion has helped me over the years and it can help you too. So the next time you are at a conference a friend will walk up to you and call you famous. Oh one more thing, that friend is Dan Lynn, co-founder of the full service marketing firm, DigitalGrit.

Good luck with your own self promotion and a little PardonMyFrench

Eric