NBC Olympic coverage fail.

In the USA at the moment, failing to enjoy the Olympics because of the time delay coverage. I am however reveling in the internet barrage of NBC on various social media over their coverage (or rather lack of it) for the games. You can read a bunch of their glorious bloopers here .

Due to the massive US bias on broadcasting here (which is probably not a bad thing for a compan broadcasting to a US audience) it is rather difficult to find broadcasts that showcase athletes from home in Zimbabwe (unless there is an American in the race of course). I don't object to the American bias on NBC, I just object to not being able to get a second opinion. Almost all other sources are blocked out including the normally pervasive Youtube. I cannot access a BBC, or a European Olympic broadcast at all (unless of course i go throught the pain of trying to work through a proxy server). Reminds me of George Orwell's 1984 when the only veiwpoint you can access is that of the 'official' channels.

The way I see it is that it is pretty much a form of censorship, but one that has been paid for rather than implemented by a government body.

Villan or Hero

You never hang out with people that hate you, why would you do that? People that hate you are wrong, right? We love to surround ourselves with people that tell us how good we are, not how bad we are. No one ever wakes up and says, “I’m a bad guy”. When you take your kids to the movies your son doesn’t walk away saying that he wants to grow up and be the villan; of course not. No, we all want to be the rescuing hero – the one who everyone applauds. So we constantly surround ourselves with those who affirm us as good people. Unfortunately we rarely take a candid introspective look at ourselves and ask, “Am I a bad guy?”  Maybe you wake up saying, “I’m not a bad guy.” Well, I beg to differ if you do any of the following.

You’re a bad guy…

1. If you’re giving people a reason to sue you. If you’ve signed a contract and haven’t kept to it, changed the terms, or haven’t paid. If you’re not answering your phone, you’ve changed your address and you’re in process of changing your name too, then you’re a yellow bellied bad guy. You’re the villain in that movie.
2. If you are suing 2 or more people right now for the wrong reasons. Be the bigger man, cut your losses. Improve your judgements of people and business deals. Where you can try solve issues out of court.
3. If you give poor customer service. You own a restaurant and charge $4 for a rock-shandy, you serve crappy coffee, your workplace is dirty and your receptionist is rude and addicted to Facebook. Jack up your act!
4. If you have said in the past week, “It’s not personal it’s just business” as you take someone for a ride. People are business and business is people. If you take advantage of someone’s helplessness or ignorance and sell something with a 200% mark up, you are plain greedy.
5. If you are trying to get a large cut of every deal that you come across. Understand your value. For a change, try helping people with no expectation of getting anything back.
6. If you are offering loans at more than 15% per month. Even if it's legal, high interest rates are crippling us, especially when inflation figures are reported as much lower.
7. If you litter. Disease spreading vermin leave rubbish everywhere so unless you are a rodent just stop leaving trash lying around. While you are at it, stop your friend next to you. Have a little pride and keep things beautiful.
8. If you’re not a security guard yet you demand money for “watching cars.” Although you’ll probably never read this, get a real job you lazy beggar. Stop hassling productive citizens.

If you get offended reading the list, perhaps you should have a look at what you can change. I can hear another self-righteous idealist chiding me saying, “Why aren’t you talking about anything good? Why aren’t you talking about all the good guys?” Well, I actually am. If you’re not doing these bad things, you’re probably a good guy. I like you well done!

Business on the Moon

Starting a business is a lot like landing a man on the moon; many will say it can't be done and even when you succeed there will be many who still think it a scam and a rip off.

Zimbabwean Transport Trends

This post marks the start of a new photo gallery on this blog. Zimbabwean 'kombis' , as public transport is known, have started broadcasting their names on the back of their vehicles. In the light of this we want to capture the best names and place them up here. Our first candidate is 'Cherry'

Note the improvised back door closer.

Feel free to subit photos to our email boardmilkshake@gmail.com

Check out the latest video from Mbichana Boys.

Turn Your Story into a Purple Cow (apologies to Seth Godin)

I opened my email and I came across a brilliant little letter from cdbaby.com where I had recently purchased music online. The purpose of the email was to tell me where to go if I had any problems with the download. It could have easily read: Dear Sir/Madam, Thank you for your purchase. If you have any
trouble with it then please look here for our FAQ section.
Simple concise and it gets the information across. It is also as boring as watching paint dry. It is the same as every other email from any other online purchase outlet I buy from.
Instead I got a well crafted email from the fictional “e-gnome emissary” who resides in cyberspace and had “overseen” the shipment of my package. It told me how the whole cyberworld was so excited to see my electronic delivery go out and if I had any problems to check out the FAQ or contact him.
It was brilliant, and made me want to run back to the site to make another purchase just to get another email (I would happily put the whole text of the email up but rather go buy your own and get the pleasure of your own email).
Seth Godin affectionadoes will recognise this as a “purple cow”; something so exceptional that it stands out from the norm. To summarise Mr Godin, we all know what cows look like and as long as you look like other cows no one will ever notice you, but be a purple cow and everyone will notice how exceptional and amazing you are because you stand out.
The email was so unexpected and so different that it has made an incredible impact on my day, imagine if your product did the same thing to all your customers.
Music videos used to be boring shots of the band playing the songs with the odd flashing light, having stemmed from shows like “Top-of-the-Pops” they were not much to look at. Then Michael Jackson arrived on the scene and turned the music video into an art form. The first music video that involved dance and a story line left lasting impressions and the music world has never been the same.
People are drawn to what stands out. Watch a choir and you will either look at the person with the biggest smile or the person picking their nose in the second row. Great or revolting we notice the extremes.
Extremely bad happens naturally most of the time we don’t need much help there, extremely great takes deliberate effort and intention and an in-depth understanding of your market. Cdbaby sell independent music and not mainstream labels. They know that there is a small group of people who will take the time to find and buy indie music and the email they crafted caters to the “out-of-the-norm” type of customer they attract. They know their market.
It probably was not the first email that got drafted either. It may have been the first idea, but I doubt it. Deliberate, intentional planning and rewriting would have taken place to get just the right effect. You are aiming for the “Holy cow . . . Did I just see that” moment in your clients. The type of service, communication, product or experience that makes them tell everyone else about it. How can you make your product stand out?
Make your story exceptional and it will be remembered and retold.
Standing out takes effort but hit the right note and everyone will notice. There was a time when all you got in most Harare restaurants was sponge cake (throw back from the British influence) then one coffee shop started serving a richer German-type cake. People flocked to try it and soon nearly every other coffee shop had something similar on its menu.
So one last thing on the purple cow, sooner or later everyone else may start to copy your idea, then you have to create something even better to stand out.

Celebrate Young: Found Love

As a follow up to the previous post with the exceptional music video...Zimbabwe's inspirational Rock band "Celebrate Young" album titled
"Found Love" download the full abum here.
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/celebrateyoung