My last blog was on Jan 4th, 2011 and since then we have opened J7 Images for business and as of today, December 31, 2011, I have successfully completed my Photo 365 project.

The project had its challenges but in the end I truly believe I am a better photographer, have learned new lenses and cameras along the way and have accomplished a major goal in my career.   What I didn’t expect was the emotional reaction I had when I compiled the photos into a video using Animoto.   The video, which was a byproduct of the project was exceptionally rewarding and almost enough incentive to make me do it again.  However, now that the photography business and my photography skills will continue to gain momentum I am turning my 365 focus in 2012 to writing and expanding on a theme that has been in my head for some time.  While its not as defined as posting on photo a day for 365 days. The new project, which will begin tomorrow is intended to help me become a better writer and help me accomplish another major goal in my career.

I have to thank everyone who has supported my photo 365 project, especially my wife and boys who have been patient with me on all those days when I took time out of whatever it was we were doing to take, edit and post my photo.  While the majority of my photos were taken with Canon DSLR cameras, there were a few iphone photos that were necessary just to keep the project alive.

It was definately a great experience and my recomendation to anyone trying to complete a 365 project is “stick with it”  and make sure your family and loved ones understand what you are trying to accomplish.  Understand that there will be days that you are on vacation, are working, are traveling and sometimes getting the project accomplished won’t be easy, but the technology of today allows us to accomplish just about anything.

2011 has been amazing and while I am sad to see it end, I am very excited about what lies on the horizon in 2012.  Happy New Year!!!

Here is a link to my Photo 365 | 2011 videos of all the images  -  www.youtube.com/j7images

Another basketball season has begun and after officiating my first game of the season tonight, I felt compelled to offer some tips to the fans who attend school sponsored sporting events.  As a referee I am very used to the constant barrage of comments from the fans, but someone has to tell people how embarrassing they are to their children (and usually their spouse).   I am here to help. 

Here are my 5 tips for being a better sports fan and less of an embarassment to your family at the local sporting event.

It’s a Game
By the time we have children most of us should understand that when our favorite teams don’t win, unless we are on the coaching staff, it really doesn’t change our life.  In fact when our teams don’t win, we save lots of money when we don’t have to buy championship sweatshirts & hats.  Keep this in mind the next time you attend your child’s sporting event.  Nothing bad is going to happen to you or your child if their team loses.

Remember What Your Mama Says
If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it.  You don’t like the officiating, sign up, get your license and try it for yourself.  No one comes to where you work and criticizes your every decision by screaming and yelling, why is it ok to do this to sports officials?  Be positive and encouraging, parents who scream at officials and in some cases the other teams (or even their own teams) are embarrassing.

Don’t Look Stupid
If you are going to yell comments about the rules of the game, please know the rules of the game.  I mean really know and understand them, don’t just think you know because you have watched sports on TV.  This means you have at least seen a rulebook and read one paragraph in it.  By doing this you will be light-years ahead of everyone else in the crowd. 

Respect Great Plays
Every night SportsCenter celebrates the top 10 plays.  They might not be from our favorite teams or even our favorite sports but we appreciate great plays when they are shown on TV.  Learn to appreciate great plays live.  Even if it is a play by the other team, don’t be afraid to cheer a great play.  Spend less time yelling and more time applauding.

Its Not About You
(Thanks Dr. Phil) Sporting events are not for you to prove that you know more rules than the officials, that you can scream louder than anyone else in town or that you know more about how to win than the current head coach.  Sports are about your child’s education.  Sports teach our future leaders about competition, sportsmanship and teamwork.  Be a fan of the education your child receives while participating in a sporting event and talk with your child about lessons learned after each game. 

If you don’t like my tips then you are probably the type of person that officials laugh about at halftime.  Your comments don’t make us change our calls or the coach change the play and we usually know who your child is by the end of the game.  He or she is the one apologizing for your actions.   Don’t worry kid we see it all the time and we won’t hold your parents against you.  Just promise to follow these 5 tips when you grow up and have athletes of your own.

Thanks for Reading… JakeDaddy

Have you ever noticed that your vehicle just doesn’t care when it breaks down.  It’s not mindful of  your financial situation, it doesn’t care about the vacation you are saving money for.  When it wants to break down it will.  It helps if you take care of it and maintain it properly, but bottom line, sometimes your vehicle just has bad timing.  We experienced this over the weekend.

The mini-van has 120,000 miles.  A green Ford Windstar that gets us where we are going every day, but on Saturday the battery light came on and on Sunday, with the help of Jill’s dad, we gave her a brand new alternator.  Not the cheapest part of a car to replace, but luckily, not the most expensive either.  Unfortunately after changing the oil, we noticed that the front tires, were more worn than we thought so on Monday, we made her an appointment to get new shoes, to the tune of another $200+.  Unfortunately, neither of these expenses were in our budget for the week. 

We went to a local chain automotive store for new tires.   We had been there before, they had the right tires and a 10:30 appointment available.  We get there and they are scrambling, not unusual for the tire guys, so we left the van and would pick it up at lunch.  On our way to pick up the van, we get a call from the mechanic.  Among their recomended maintenance was an oil change (just changed yesterday, guess they didn’t notice the new oil filter) a new battery (was tested the day before during the alternator swap) and a new serpentine belt (which had also been inspected the day before during our maintenance.)  I went in for 2 tires and they recomended over $1500 in work, most of which had just been done.  Scammers!?!  I am all for the upsell and makeing the most of a captive customer, but this should be illeagal. 

If you are trying to sell, BE HONEST, its not that hard, but it seems to be something that our society has lost somewhere.  An honest pay for an honest day of work.  If you are a salesman, sell me, sell me something I need or want, not something I don’t.  Sell me something that will truly make my life better, not the same crap I already have.  Be crafty, use sales techniques but at the end of the day, honesty is still the best policy. I’m sure for every 10 people that see right through the recomended maintenance there is one gullable soul that won’t say no and the boys make the sale, but how much of that work is really necessary. 

I have a lot of years left of being a consumer.  This company, makes tires, has autocare centers and is a well known brand.  It will be a long time before I will trust their brand again.  If you are a brand owner or company owner you have to be aware of who is making bad impressions on your customers.  Who’s hasty effort to make a quick sale today will cost you a loyal and repeat customer tomorrow? 

Now not only am I  upset, with one facebook post and one twitter update explaining my experience, 400 of my closest “friends” are now questioning your brand as well.  Word of mouth can make or break you and social media is word of mouth on steroids.  We used to say that a person would tell 2 friends about a good customer service experience and ten friends about a bad one.  With technology, letting everyone know your displeasure is very easy.  At the same time, treat your customer right and a whole new group of people might learn about your product or service. 

Cars and business are very similar.  Their objective is still the same, cars get you places, good business makes you money.  However, over time, technology has greatly improved the efficiency of both, but it has also made it much more difficult to fix things when they are broken.   You never know when your business or brand might break down.  Chances are it won’t be at a convenient time and it will cost you.  Perform routine customer service maintenance with your team to make sure they are all on the same page.  The goal of both cars and business is to make sure they are running good, not just today, but long into the future. 

Jake Daddy

Its been a busy summer for our crew.  Between moving to a new home and planning for our trip to Vegas in August there has been little time to enjoy life.  However this weekend, was our Payton’s 8th birthday and we celebrated by attending two very different events. 

Saturday | Jill worked at Chicagoland Speedway for 8 years before becoming a victim (yeah right, she got a severance package and a summer off) of the economy and was let go with several others in November of 2008.  We decided to make our first trip as spectators to the speedway with our boys, this weekend, for the big event.  

NASCAR events have a lot of excitement to offer, celebrity National Anthem singers, fantastic fly overs and non stop high speed action. It is truly an exciting event.  For several years the Chicagoland Speedway has sold out their weekend event, filling nearly every seat in the place.  “We’re NASCAR,  they will always come”  seems to  have been their approach in the past.   Well as we could tell by this weekend’s attendance, or lack there of, the new car smell has worn off the Chicagoland Speedway and suddenly there are not nearly as many people passing through the gates just because its NASCAR. 

NASCAR and Chicagoland Speedway will need to shift their marketing and promotion efforts into a higher gear to gain the crowds back.  If you build it they will come mentality, just doesn’t work without promoting it, marketing it and working your butt off to gain the average American’s entertainment dollars.  I don’t have the answers for Chicagoland Speedway.  In fact we listened to the race from the parking lot as we  reminisced about the good times we had working at the speedway.  Our family entertainment dollars are limited as well and it would have cost over $500 for our family to pass through the gates and attend the 3 hour event.  We were home in time to watch the final laps on television.

Sunday | Sunday we went to one of  the State of Illinois’ best kept secrets.  Grand Bear Lodge in Utica, Illinois.  Where the hell is Utica you ask, well its only about 40 minutes from I-80 and 1-55 and about 10 minutes off of i-39 in Illinois.  Pretty easy place to get to.  There is not much around Utica, but there is one of Illinois finest State Parks, Starved Rock (see photos above) right across the street from the Grand Bear.    As we toured the property, I was baffled by the lack of people staying at the resort.  The only pool is indoors, but it is a perfect size for a family with younger children and just seems like a great place to relax.  We were there to enjoy the indoor amusement park.  $6 all you could ride, no lines, fun rides and best of all inside = air conditioning.  We experienced some great service at the restaurant and the hotel, but i am still wondering how they stay in business, if during peak vacation season, no one was there. 

We are all quick to blame the economy, but if you  have been to the mall on a Saturday lately you still can’t find a parking spot within a 2 mile radius of the door.  People are still spending money, but you have to work harder and smarter and place much more emphasis on effective and efficient marketing efforts if you want people to leave their homes, spend their money and visit your venue or hotel. 

As a marketer you have to work smarter to get people to attend your event, use your service or buy your product.  As a consumer you have to spend more time finding the best deal and exploring new ways to spend or not spend your entertainment dollar.  T he days of attending the NASCAR event every year because its NASCAR, and its the thing to do, are over. 

Moving foward I’ll be spending more time marketing my personal brand and getting more of you to read this blog.  As consumers who enjoy having fun, my family and I have already began searching for more economical entertainment. 

JakeDaddy

There are no great secrets to giving or recieving great customer service.  Just be nice…may sound simple, but its true.  If you are providing customer service, be nice.  Customers don’t reach out to you because they have nothing better to do, they call you, e-mail or visit you because they NEED your help…so help them, it is your job after all.  Customers don’t want your attitude, they don’t care about how stupid your boss is or that you are having a bad day, they want and deserve an answer or solution to their problem.  Somewhere, on some document, web site or instruction manual it says if they call you, you can help them.  Make it easy for your customers, you would expect the same if you were on the other end of the experience.

This brings me to my next point, if you are in need of customer service, be nice. You will get the solution to your issue much faster if you just be nice.  You might be frustrated, you might be aggrevated, but most of the time (as you know if you work in customer service) the person on the other end of the phone or the other end of the counter has very little to do with what has gone wrong with your product or that your order was shipped wrong. Don’t take it out on them, they didn’t do it, they’re just trying to help you find a solution to your problem.  Its much more fun to help a nice person than it is to help a mean one.

Be nice…It’s that simple.

JakeDaddy

Ever feel like everyone is dumping their work on you?  Feel like you have more than enough work to keep you busy 24/7 yet co-workers or family keep asking you to do things?  You, my friend, are a resource.  You have proven that you are responsible, talented and can get things done (and you haven’t learned how to say no). 

I realized this as I was slightly complaining about a co-worker recently dropping a request for a presentation on me at the last minute.  He only asked because he knew i would get it done.   My boss, said to me “Isn’t it great to be a resource?”  When you step back and think about it, it sure is great to be a resource.  Its great to know that others trust you to get things done and to help them out when they are in a pinch.  You are the “go-to person.” 

So the next time you feel like you are just getting dumped on and are tired of people giving you more work, change your thinking.  Say to yourself “I am a resource.”  Shout it at the top of your lungs if you don’t think you’ll piss off your co-workers or if you are the only one left at the office because, by being a resource, you had to work a few extra hours to get the job done. 

Transform your way of thinking from “I’m getting dumped on” to “I’m a Resource!”  Jake Daddy did it…so can you.