The sides of Innovate or Die

Have you ever heard of the phrase "Innovate or Die?"

It would be more surprising to me if you have not heard the phrase.

Innovate or Die...
The phrase that is defining a generation of young business professionals.

If you think about it, the concept of this phrase is not a bad concept. It is encouraging constant change and innovation. Only the companies or products that are willing to change and improve will be the ones that will survive.

This phrase is good to keep in mind, but should it be constantly on your mind? Should this be the driving force?

Having the "Innovate or Die" mentality can lead to positive change, but it can also be deadly to have as your driving force. There is always a good and bad to any idea or phrase, including "innovate or die"

The Good

It leads to constant change

•  If people did not believe in this phrase, then we would not be using half the technology we are using. Computers that once took up an entire room is now in the palm of my hands on my phone. Or when Henry Ford created the automobile to be able to increase travel. Without these constant changes, we would not be living the way that we are are accustomed to nor be able to do business in the same way.

Is the reason for for great ideas

• Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and many many more who have had these great ideas that lead to great change in the world of business and technology. Take for example Microsoft. No one thought they could be able to compete with IBM and they did. These small companies that no one thought could advance are now the leaders. This is especially true today with new technology and different social media sites. Some of these companies pop up over night and a few months later have this great following.

Encourages Creativity

• To be able to innovate, you must be able to be creative. Now creativity does not mean artistic, but thinking in a unique way. There are many people who are creative with their strategic plans. A perfect example of this is how Steve Jobs used his 1984 advertisement (has to be one of my favorite ads). He knew his product was going to change the world and decided to take a creative approach with his advertising.

The Bad

Can lead to constant Fear

•  Having the need to be original and create good ideas all the time is a good motivating factor. It is the second part that can be a little daunting. If a person is just focusing  on the fear of losing their company, then I can guarantee that they are not going to be thinking rationally.

Can lead to poor ideas

• When you feel like you have to innovate and have something new every year, it may not be the best creation. Sometimes it is good to take your time (not forever, but a reasonable amount of time) or take a year before you release something new. If you release too many bad "innovations" to your product, then people will start to ignore the buzz you are trying to create and this will hurt you when you actually have that great changing innovation.

Innovate or Die.

Good words to live by, but should not be your strategy. It is something good to keep in mind to make sure you are not staying in the status qoe. But having this purely as your strategy can lead you to making foolish decisions based out of fear or poor decisions.

Villains are Fascinating

Welcome to the first official Random Saturday Post and it's on time! Yay!

So this post is going to touch upon why I love villains, well, why I love villains in books and films. I love a good story with a well written villain. So, I am going to list some of my favorite antagonists in both books and films (Some are actually crossovers).

Before I start my list, I want to specify that this is in no particular order. This is more the list of the ones that first come to my mind and I do not mean for them all to be female. The majority of my favorites just happen to be female.

Picture from fairy-anna.blogspot.com

1. The Evil Queen  (Once Upon A Time)

The Evil Queen has always played a very interesting part of my life. Snow White has always been my favorite Disney Princess and when I was little and saw the movie for the first time, the Evil Queen scared me to death. She was the scariest Disney villain in my mind, especially when she turned into the old hag with the apple.

When I found out that they were making Once Upon A Time, I was so excited because I loved Snow White. Little did I know that I would also start to love the character of the Evil Queen or Regina as she is named in the television series. I loved how they had written a back story for the Queen and why she was Evil. The idea that someone is not born evil, but can become evil due to their choices made Regina or the Evil Queen much more appealing and at times all you could do is cheer her on because you felt empathetic towards her character. She was not just evil, but was much more of a tortured soul that wanted redemption, but did not know how to achieve it.

Picture from hypable.com

2. Jeanine (Divergent)

Talk about a character in which I am completely fascinated with. Jeanine from the Divergent Trilogy and from the movie of the same title is such a villain in the books, but isn't at the same time. I know, I've seen the movie twice, I've read the books and plan on reading them again and everything points to her as a villain, but she isn't completely.

See, Jeanine is in the Erudite faction (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, read the books right now. Just don't finish reading this post and find the book and read it.), which is a faction all about logic and reason. Her whole point is to get rid of the wrinkles in society that don't logically fit. If you think in her frame of mind, then she isn't being evil, but only doing what is logical. That is why I find Jeanine so fascinating, because in her mind she is only doing what is logical and eliminating the illogical areas of society to make the world a better place. She is not acting out of anger or revenge, but on what she perceives as logic and reason. That is why she is so deadly, because if you do not fit into what is logical, which would be human nature and emotions, then she will try to eliminate the problem.

Picture from wikimedia.org

3. Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)

As much as I was afraid of the Evil Queen as a little girl, I was always drawn to Maleficent. Odd I know, cause let's be honest right now, Maleficent should have scared me to pieces as a little child and not pull me in out of fascination.

I love the fact that she has this charm about her. Like she realizes that she has this intimidating aura and she revels in the fact that she is intimidating and beautiful at the same time.  She uses her fierceness to get what she wants and she can turn into a dragon. What's cooler than that?!?! Plus, you know that there is some type of epic back story cause you know that not getting invited made her make that curse. Someone in that kingdom had to of ticked her off to get that damage (my money is on Sleeping Beauty's dad). And yes, I am super excited for the live action movie that is coming out this year that will probably make me even more fascinated about this character.

Picture from canmag.com

5. Azkadellia (Tin Man)

The mini series Tin Man came out in 2007 and was a new take on The Wizard of Oz. It was a bit darker and Azkadellia can be correlated with the Wicked Witch of the West. The cool thing about this mini series, unlike a lot of the others (except Once Upon A Time's version of the Evil Queen), you get to see her back story and understand why she is the way she is. Your emotions really follow the main character's feelings on Azkadellia as you learn more about this character and ir makes you want Azkadellia change her ways. She is one of those characters who is so bad that you feel like you can't have any hope for, to a character who you want to change and turn good because you know she has a glimmer of hope in her.


These are just a couple of my favorite characters and some of the reasons why I enjoy them as villains. I like these particular ones because I can't view them as being singularly evil, because something had to of made them this way. I like it when writers develop this side of the story, because I can't believe people are just evil. It is too easy to just blame these characters as just being bad guys, because you discredit everything that led them to the decision of being the villain.

So, who are some of your favorite villains? I would love to hear who makes your list. Comment and share below!

3 Things I learned in Retail about Customer Service

During the month of November, I covered the topic of Customer service. I touched upon the basic definition, why it is important, the funnel effect, and my personal customer service experience. As I had mentioned during those posts and what I will reiterate is that there is always so much more to discuss about customer service.

At that time, I was still working in a retail environment and tried my hardest to avoid covering customer service in that realm, since customer service goes deeper than just the retail sense. But, since I no longer work in retail, I want to go back and discuss retail and customer service.

I attribute much of what I know about customer service due to my retail experience. As much as I found some of the online trainings, the games and discussions monotonous, they did actually teach me some very key lessons.

So, here are the:

3 Things I Learned in Retail about Customer Service

There are more than 3 things, but these are the biggest lessons that I learned that encompass everything else.

 1. Keep your cool no matter what

Retail:When you work in retail, keeping your cool is difficult. I will not lie about that, because dealing with demanding customers who are expecting immediate results and answers can be stressful. Starting out, I was terrified of making customers angry or not being able to answer quickly enough. As I started learning more about the store and the different brands, it became easier to keep my cool. As I was able to keep my cool, I was able to handle different situations and tasks that were presented before me.

Current: Having a position where I could leave at the door better prepared me for a position where I interact with a wide assortment of people and reply to emails at different points of the day. Working in retail helped me realize not to stress over the minor details and focus on the bigger points at hand.

2. Solution Oriented will help any situation

 Retail: When I worked in retail, I worked in all of the of departments except 3 (even there I was occasionally pulled in to answer a question or two), including the customer service desk and jewelry where you would have to make returns and deal with the different policies. It did not matter the season, there was always a customer who was not happy about something and would come in charging. In these times, you have to not only keep your cool, but to also be able to come up with a solution. You had to not only provide the patience, but a calm and collected response to calm  the customer down. Not only would you have to feel out the situation, but had to be able to read the customer in a quick way to be able to tell whether the solution would work for them or not. It was a lot of quick thinking and having to be smart about it.

 Current: There are times that I still have to make quick decisions, but not as instantaneous as the decisions I had to make in retail. Having to think like this for many years though has helped me view problems not as something that is in my way, but as something to find a solution for. It has caused my mind to try to figure out the different potential solutions for a problem and not just focusing on the negative aspect.

3. Asking for Help is key to providing even better service

Retail: I am sure there were times that my managers, especially my general manager, got annoyed with me about questions. At first, I was very shy and was not confident about asking questions on how to do things. The more I started working and being asked harder questions by customers, I was forced to ask questions. This led me to understand customer service even more, since the more I knew, the better I was able to assist the customers. My former general manager was my go to person, because I wanted to follow the example that she wanted for the store and she did teach me a lot (even though I would never admit that to her in person).

 Current: I ask questions all the time! I am constantly communicating with my managers and other senior managers who I report to, because I want to make sure I am not only doing things correctly, but if I am doing things correctly, then I will be able to better service any customer. This helps me not only understand my position better, but the entire organization. The lessons that my former general manager taught me has helped me do well in my current position, but has also taught me to be confident in myself to ask questions to do my job better.

I learned so much about customer service in retail that I could have never learned in a class. In fact, many of the concepts that I learned in class I was able to see real world examples when I worked on the sales floor. My experiences and lessons that I learned are very near and dear to me, since it gave me a foundation to continue to explore how to give better customer service.

Did you ever have a job that taught you about Customer Service? I would love to hear what lessons you learned in these types of jobs and how they have helped you now, so share them below!

 

The Untold Story

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. ~ Maya Angelou

Writing is one of my favorite pastimes. When I have a free moment, a pen and paper or a computer in front of me, I will be writing. It's what I love. There was actually a point in my life when I had an English professor ask me why I was not continuing my education in English (I started my college degree as an English Major with a focus on Creative Writing). My reply was simple and straight forward, "I love it too much to be paid for it."

I look back on this and think how true it is, but also how foolish the answer was at the same time.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. ~ Maya Angelou

As I have had time to look back at myself when I said that and realize where I have come, I still end up having to shake my head.

Recently, I have been writing more and in a different style than I have ever written. It's like I have finally found my voice.

As a side note, I do not mean this blog. I have a couple of things I have been working on, but one has honestly peaked my interest like no other story has. This story is not in my typical genre and I honestly love it!

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. ~ Maya Angelou

I have found a story that is worth telling and to be honest, it has consumed my mind and caused me to think in a completely different perspective. It is like I am learning from this character that I am creating, because she is not just an extension of me, but her own identity and mannerisms and opinions.

When you have that story inside you and finally find it and then you start writing it out, it is absolutely freeing. It's like all the internal pain is being released and this other world is being born out of the chaos of the writer's mind. It's such a beautiful experience to go through.

So if you have a story inside of you, then write it! Since it is agony if you hold it inside of yourself.

Radom Friday Changes

I am going to hit one thing in today's post. So let's get down to it.

First things first, I am changing random Friday's to random Saturday for the simple fact that I always end up writing the next day and saying "oops." So I am fixing the problem. Plus, it was way easier to write on Fridays when I was not working full-time (crazy how that happens).

I bet you wonder why I just don't cut this post out, because this is my most inconsistent posts? The answer is simple, because I enjoy writing random Friday (now Saturday) posts. I enjoy not being stuck to writing on a specific topic, even though I love my other two themed days.

Random day posts help me write about items that aren't necessarily in the confines of the other two days. it also forces me to think out of the box on what to write about. Some of these posts are actually the hardest for me to write, because they aren't as easily planned for. The other two days I can plan for, research and understand the parameters that I am writing in.

That is why I appreciate this days posts as much as I do because it stretches me to think more and forces me to write on a variety of topics or to be able to expand on the many things that I enjoy.

So that's all I have for today. Random Friday's are changing to Random Saturday. Now let's hope I can be a bit more consistent on posting.

Social Media: Quantity vs. Quality

Originally tonight's topic was going to be about content marketing again, but that changed. Yesterday, I was on twitter following Pam Moore (@PamMktgNut) for the Tuesday's Get Real Chats where she and others answer questions. It was the first time I was able to follow the vast majority of it and one of her tweets made me excited and I will admit that I may have been a little bit overly excited on this tweet:

This is the best tweet that summarizes my philosophy on social media.

The idea of focusing on your strengths rather than trying to be on every social networking site is not a mind blowing concept, but it is a concept that is difficult to keep in mind. To get your brand name out, you want to be on many sites. That's getting your name out, but is that really the best strategy to do? What this really boils down to is the idea of Quality versus Quantity.

Far too often the idea of Quality is forgotten in social media. People assume that if you post a lot or post at the perfect time of day or are on every social network, then your social media strategy will work. This is just a fallacy! Posting a lot or having a presence on every social media site just means quantity. It does not mean that the content on that site is full of quality.

When a company is running their social media site on the quantity idea, then they may not be successful in their strategy. They are spreading themselves too thin and, quoting the tweet above, you are unable to "focus... [on having] a solid presence, offer value & be [available]!" If a company is on every social network site, then who is monitoring it and are they spending an equal amount of time on each site?  If that is a difficult question to answer, then something has to be cut.

Running on the idea of quality is always the better plan. Not just on the foundation that quality serves a purpose (posting content... content must have a purpose), but this strategy will provide an opportunity to have solid and consistent presence, will be easier to increase value and it will give a company the time to be available and engaging with their customers.

My entire perception of social media is that it needs to be engaging. It is not an ad that is just forcing out information or just a sales pitch convincing you to buy into the idea of your brand, but is that emotional connection. In my opinion, social media is the personification of branding and to be able to achieve this, a company must be able to focus on being engaging and providing their social media pages with quality content that serves a purpose.

The lie of Success

Success has always been a great liar. ~ Nietzsche

Yes, I have found another quote on success that I really enjoy. I was originally not going to be writing about success again, but I did not personally like any of the directions I was heading in and found this quote.

In past posts I have stated that I ardently believe that great success comes from a failure. I do not believe you can fully appreciate success without  having much failure. Maybe this thought is due to the fact that I highly respect people who are in high positions who are still humble.

Success has always been a great liar. ~ Nietzsche

In a past post about success, I pointed out the fact that I hate the definition of success. I don't believe that the definition fully encompasses the truthful side of success.

We are spoon fed the idea when we are children that if you do not make a certain amount of money, or have a certain type of job or don't own the right things then you are not a success. This type of success is such a lie. This type of success is basing your entire life off of the expectations of other people's perception of success, while success should be a personal decision.

For example, during my last semester in college I had a practicum and a professor whom I respected at the beginning of the class. I thought I had a pretty good relationship with my professor and thought I was achieving all that I need to achieve (I have been learning not to be a people-pleaser). The group I was in turned in a paper that she did not approve of and ripped into me because I was the team leader. When she did this, it tore into my ego and left me with a lot of self-doubt because I was no longer successful, especially in the eyes of someone who I had highly respected.

That experience has left a lasting impression on me for a number of reasons, but more so the idea of what success is. I have looked back on our project and laugh at it, because it was not fully relevant nor would it have ever been able to be properly executed in a real life situation. But knowing that even now, it still doesn't take away the most important lesson I could have learned. I am the only one who can define my personal success and not some forced in standard of success.