Archive for category Personal
A Few Anniversaries
Posted by cheuer in Personal, Social Media Club on July 12th, 2008
I meant to write this up earlier in the week, but have been overwhelmed by the great response we have received from the latest Social Media Club announcements. There have been quite a few anniversaries lately, only one of which really got any attention, which was my first wedding anniversary with Kristie Wells-Heuer on July 7, 2008. Love you honey….
It was also the 2nd anniversary of the Social Media Club blog on Thursday July 10, 2008 and the 3rd anniversary of this blog on June 23, 2008 (though my official first post goes back to May 13, 2002 on a Movable Type install setup by my old friend David Pruitt – thanks buddy, if only I realized back then how cool this thing really way).
So I want to take a moment and revisit those first posts and a few others from early on, just to share some of the early thinking and writing with you to see if any of it has changed a bit…
- We, together, have a dream… May 13, 2002
- How I got here June 23, 2005 (on my way to Gnomedex, which I am missing this year for the first time since then đ
- Introduction: The Customer Strategy June 23, 2005 (repub of 200 article)
- Why I blog June 27, 2005 (interesting)
- The First Rule of Social Media Club is… July 10, 2006 (first SMC post)
- Building the Social Media Clubhouse July 12, 2006 (our goals/mission – not much has changed here really)
- Reading wRiting, aRithmetic and RSS – The 4 R’s July 18, 2006 (a first pass at media literacy)
Well, what do you think, anything interesting to note there, other than the fact that there are no comments on those posts?
Top Ten Reasons I Don’t Blog More Often
Posted by cheuer in Personal, SocialMedia on May 13th, 2008
- Don’t think I have the time
- Don’t have anything valuable to say
- Don’t think I have anything valuable to say
- Everyone else has already said what I wanted to say
- Not in the mood
- No one is going to comment on the post anyway
- Not allowed to write about what I am working on
- I want to make sure my wife’s blog gets all the attention
- My first amendment rights have gotten enough exercise lately
So why don’t you blog more often?
Health Update – Some Good News and Advice
Posted by cheuer in Personal, Year End Resolution on April 28th, 2008
While I was overly transparent in dealing with my health crisis and fears of impending doom, I have not been talking about it as much lately. I did not intend it to become the primary conversation I was having with everyone, but it did. I just really wanted to express myself and get it off my chest so to speak, but I found a wealth of support, new knowledge and great advice in doing so – all unintended but very welcome consequences.
While I didn’t want to write about it or Utter about it at any length, I realized I should put out a post to share what we found out and what is going on now. Overall, my health is greatly improved since facing up to the fact that I am not invincible earlier this year. Specifically:
- Blood Pressure down to 128/76 from 149/90
- I lost 48 pounds since Jan 1, 2008
- Blood tests are all vastly improved, though I still need to watch my blood sugar
The tough news is that the years of bad diet and sometimes excessive drinking took its toll on my body, though some of it could be chalked up to the Giardiasis parasitic infection that I got in Mexico during my wedding. Regardless, I am now needing to be more careful with my diet to manage lactose intolerance, Diverticulosis and what the doctor still thinks is Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I drink a lot more water than I used to drink (some with Benefiber + Calcium) and I am working out several days a week. I also see an acupuncturist regularly and try to get outside every day.
All in all, the biggest lesson that came from this is that no one is invincible and we truly do need to take good care of our bodies first and foremost. I wish I had truly understood this better when I was younger, particularly the part about the need for a high fiber diet and drinking lots of water. Then again, had I really understood the risks of getting diabetes from being overweight, I think that might have been enough motivation to get healthy earlier.
If you are overweight and not eating a healthy diet, please, I implore you, look into the consequences more closely and start to take better care of yourself. The pain and stress that my wife and I have had to endure over the past 4 months was just incredible. I am so very lucky to have such a strong and loving wife in my Kristie Wells. I don’t know that any other relationship could have survived this trauma (and the drama I created as a result).
While I have a lot of issues we have to manage for the rest of my life, thankfully it looks like we caught the major health issues just in time and everything should be just fine.
Are Bloggers Always Fighting? Are blogs today here because of 9/11?
Posted by cheuer in Personal, The Noble Pursuit on March 6th, 2008
In doing research tonight on Blogs for The Social Media Playbook, I came across this article entitled “A Rift Among Bloggers” from the New York Times, dated June 10, 2002. What struck me most here, and why I am simply quoting it here, is how odd to think that tech bloggers and war bloggers were battling over the purpose, intention and possibility of blogging in the manner they did.
‘The Weblog world before Sept. 11 was mostly inward-looking — mostly
tech people talking about tech things,” said Glenn Reynolds, a law
professor at the University of Tennessee who publishes InstaPundit.com,
a popular site in the war blog camp that attracts about 19,000 readers
on weekdays. ”After 9/11 we got a whole generation of Weblogs that
were outward-looking” and written for a general audience, he said.
Wow. Was it really 9/11 that brought a wider cross-section of our society into blogging?
At the time, my employee and friend David Pruitt, installed Movable Type for me to play with to solve my content publishing dilemma (took a bit of time and I wanted to publish my poetry). I never quite got it looking write in those early days, and only managed to write one post, which I read aloud at the opening night of Northern Voice recently.
That first post, entitled We, together, have a dream…, represents a big vision about what I call The Noble Pursuit, stemming from my optimistic desire for dreaming and making a better world.
Wow. I didn’t even realize it, but my earliest blogging was a response to the war on terror…
Transforming the Heart of Business (My BIL Talk)
Posted by cheuer in Insytes, Leadership, Personal, SocialMedia, Speaking, The Noble Pursuit on March 2nd, 2008
Utter your Support for your Presidential Candidate
Posted by cheuer in Clients, My Utterz, Personal, Social Media Tools, SocialMedia, utterz on February 29th, 2008
Yesterday, Utterz (my client) announced its new election focused social media tool, a widget you can easily place on your blog, web site or social network, that tells the world who you are supporting in the US Presidential Election. Unlike most of the badges that are available from the main campaign Web sites that are just GIF Banner Ads, the Utterz Voice Your Support widget contains an audio message that you personally record, telling everyone why you support your candidate.
Whether you are behind Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul or even Ralph Nader, you can get a Voice Your Support widget that activates your blog readers to understand why you are supporting your candidate of choice. When they first announced the widget on the Utterz blog yesterday, it came out with only the top 4 candidates – but listening to the feedback from everyone, they quickly added an additional 4 widget options. In addition to Ron Paul and Ralph Nader, they added an independent option and a ‘fix the electoral college’ option. <plug & praise> This is what I really like about the team at Utterz – they are really responsive to the community and totally focused on their users. </plug & praise>
So enough of the pimping, I want to get more into the subject matter at hand – the elction… Perhaps you saw Larry Lessig’s excellent video on why he supports Obama – this is a powerful way to move beyond static banner ads, simple blog posts, and lawn signs, to lend your real voice and your real reasons to your candidate. As all of us social media folks know, we trust each other, more than we trust media or institutions. This new widget allows anyone, from their computer or any telephone, to record a message and display it easily for everyone to hear. Its so cool.
As you may have already seen, I placed a Voice Your Support widget on my blog the other day, putting my support behind Obama. Why? Well, click the play button and listen for yourself…. ok, I am waiting. So, as you heard, I am supporting him because I think it is time for a visionary leader – someone to see beyond this mess we are in and who isn’t held down by ‘the way its always been done’. If we keep doing it the same way, with the same insiders, playing the same game – our game called Life may soon be over. Don’t agree? I am up for talking about it civilly – here in the comments or over at Utterz.
Chris Heuer’s Upcoming Speaking Engagements
Posted by cheuer in Personal, SocialMedia, Speaking, The Conversation Group on January 15th, 2008
Once again, it is speaking season, or rather, itâs conference season and I am grateful to be speaking in a few different cities here stateside (still looking for some European opportunities so I might be able to give my wife a working honeymoon â just kidding honey, no work on the honey moon đ
Thanks to my good friend, and fellow âair-manâ Shel Israel, I am on a panel tomorrow talking about Bloggingâs impact on the corporation at Frost & Sullivanâs Sales and Marketing MindXchange. I will be in Phoenix for two days, Monday and Tuesday Jan 14 & 15 but unfortunately no time to meet any of my friends from Social Media Club PhoenixâŚ
On Monday February 4 I will be joining my brothers in arms at the Customer Service is the New Marketing conference. During lunch I will be one of several people (including good friends Jeremiah Owyang and Deborah Schultz) leading workshops on how companies can build closer relationships with their customers. My workshop will be based on how to move beyond the transaction to satisfaction â using knowledge to empower customers and turning customer support from a cost into an investment across the customer experience lifecycle. In short, I will be walking folks through my methodology for marketing after the sale â how to better educate customers so they get the most enjoyment and satisfaction from a company’s products or services.
Two days later, on Wednesday February 6, I will be leading a short interactive exercise at the ALI Conference on the use of Social Media for Internal Communications. The folks at ALI put on a great event I had the pleasure of participating in during December in New York â very glad to be participating again. There are so few good professional education / conference companies out there, it is nice to be working with a good one. Social Media Club members get a $200 discount by mentioning Social Media Club when registering.
I am really excited to announce that I have been invited to do the keynote at SoCON08 on Saturday February 9 just north of Atlanta, GA. Thanks to Sherry Heyl, one of the organizers, for inviting me down after seeing my âclosing keynoteâ at Josh Halletâs BlogOrlando. I plan to go deeper into some thoughts I have had over the last few months that extend on my âBusiness is Personal (again)â presentation. Interestingly, a Wired article I read recently mentioning The Conversation Groupâs Peter Hirshberg addressed this same issue. In the Wired article, Clive Thomson wrote âcorporations are getting humanized and humans are getting corporatizedâ. Letâs hope and work for more of the former rather than the latterâŚ
Unfortunately I missed the speaker submission deadline for Danny Sullivanâs Search Marketing Expo, but Social Media Club is proud to be a media sponsor of this great new event series. The next event is being held in Santa Clara from February 26-28, and if the prior event in New York is any indicator, this is a must attend event for any digital marketer. While I am unfortunately going to be out of town, friends of Social Media Club will receive 10% off the registration using discount code SMX10SMC. If you are in Silicon Valley or able to get there, you should make time for this event.
Whew… time for some rest so I can get some more client work done in the morning and some more writing for the book done…
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Chris Heuer is the founder of Mentor Bureau, a global collaborative of Startup Mentors focused on #SmoothScaling over #Hypergrowth. He has invested his life in working to create a better society through personal and community efforts that brings people together such as Rysing Tyde and Social Media Club. To learn more about Chris, visit his profile on LinkedIn.