October 9th, 2009
by Lorrie Thomas
Happy Friday Wild Web People! Today’s web marketing funny is a true tale of a Marketing Therapist who had an old-school moment in her “new rules of marketing” world.
I volunteered my time last Saturday to do a 3-hour educational session on Web Marketing for a local women’s organization in Santa Barbara. I stayed up very late the night before (yes, that is what wild web women do on a Friday night!) to prepare Power Point slides that would help illustrate my points on the power of web marketing. I customized my slides to be specific to women in business and the non-profit sector. Yes, I was working for free, but as a diseased perfectionist, my slides had to rock.
I arrived Saturday morning, ready to rock and when I arrived, the “projector” that was confirmed for me looked like this:
New rules slides do not work with old-school projectors!
I politely smiled and said that that was not my projector, that my projector was to “project my slides” (Power Point!) and then it hit me….
I ASSUMED (ASS of U and ME…eek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
I assumed that when I requested a projector, it wouldn’t be from 1982…I failed to communicate, which caused the failure to show my sexy Power Point slides.
But, in the name of education, it was my duty to teach and train, so my first lesson in web marketing that volunteer day was this:
Nothing Goes As Planned. 
In the wild, wild web, we have to be ready to expect the unexpected, communicate, re-communicate and clarify communications.
The other lesson that day was Never Let Them See You Sweat. I could have been a diva and said I couldn’t teach without my slides, but you know what? When you know what you know, then you can focus on your craft and not the method of delivery. It was really productive to make the workshop a discussion and talk web marketing strategy. If I had to do it all over again, I would have been a-ok sans slides (to be clear, Power Point!! HA!)
In retrospect, it was really funny to open the projector box and see this old-school projector. I asked for a projector, and by golly, I got one!
Be sure to communicate and clarify what your expectations are. I assumed that we were talking about the same projector, so shame on me for not clarifying!
I will save the story of how I was sitting on the table facilitating the Saturday workshop and how the table collapsed, sending me, my latte and laptop sliding away for another Friday funny….
Until next time,
-The Marketing Therapist
Web Marketing Therapy Related Links:
- Friday Web Marketing Funny – Web Personality Grader – Take the Test!
- Friday Funny – This Woman Has a Serious Twitter Problem
- Friday Funny – Facebook Song (R language)
- Web Marketing Friday Funny – Go Google Yourself!
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Coach Johnson
(October 11th, 2009 at 2:12 pm)
Lorrie:
Great real life example to demonstrate the power of communication. Early in my career I rotated through my organization’s Customer Research department. I did this to fast track my understanding of what our customers thought of us and to learn the strategic methods of extracting insights from customers to use for strategy mapping. Though I picked up these two things…what I learned the most, unexpectedly, was the power of communication!
People would ask us to do customer research on a certain topic/product/service, and when what came back didn’t answer all their questions, the common response was… “Well, what I meant to have you gather was…”
From this experience I learned the power of communication: be sure you know what you are asking people for and be sure they understand you. Great story from your end that validates the importance of proper communication.
P.S. I’ll offer a nice prize to anyone on your staff who has VIDEO FOOTAGE of you and that table wreck!
Lorrie Thomas
(October 11th, 2009 at 3:10 pm)
Coach Johnson, thank you for the BRILLIANT example of communicative power from your experience in Customer Research!
I can totally relate to the “Well, what I meant to have you gather was…” type of situation…my connection to that type of assumption is in web marketing with programmers…I spent years in the corporate world working in online advertising (relying on programmers) and I learned to ask questions 3-5 different ways to be CRYSTAL clear that I was getting the WHOLE answer! One wrong assumption could cost a company hundreds or thousands of dollars!
As for VIDEO FOOTAGE, oh, my if you could have seen the reality of me falling off the table and winging it sans slides, you would have been on the floor laughing!
AnaMaria, one of my BFF’s, came to support me at the end of the volunteer day and we both agreed that video of the table would have been very YouTube “authentic” yeesch
Thanks for the great post!
-The Marketing Therapist
Susan Levine
(October 11th, 2009 at 5:55 pm)
That’s something I would do! I assume that everyone understands me when I have a hard time understanding myself sometimes!
Lorrie Thomas
(October 11th, 2009 at 6:23 pm)