Month: November 2015

Be Thankful

Thanksgiving is almost upon us. It’s a holiday traditionally dominated by the 3 F’s: Family, Food and Football. But in recent years, it’s become more of an afterthought.

Indeed, many people seem to view Thanksgiving as the day to beat the holiday shopping rush. Others simply use the holiday to fuel up for the next morning’s mall mayhem.

It gets worse. If you’ve been looking at store decorations and ads lately, you’ve surely noticed the holiday season began on November 1st. While I love the holidays as much as anyone, hearing Let It Snow and Jingle Bells while the leaves are still on the trees in the South just feels wrong. Seeing one of our nation’s most significant holidays get swept under the rug because of this leaves me just as uneasy.

It seems we’ve conveniently forgotten the purpose of Thanksgiving. While we deserve credit for using the holiday season to brighten spirits and be good to one another, we shouldn’t bypass a day designated for us to show gratitude. After all, Thanksgiving not only predates our nation, but it’s also pivotal in terms of us having a nation.

The first Thanksgiving was put on by the Puritans in present-day Massachusetts, as show of gratitude towards the native population. When these settlers arrived from England, they were unprepared for the region’s cold winters and didn’t know how to farm efficiently. Although the natives in the area were apprehensive of having a strange group of people in their area, they helped the Puritans survive — which is what inspired the now-traditional feast.

The world has changed a lot since that time. British colonies eventually sprung up across the east coast, followed by the independence of our nation and the expansion of that nation across the continent. All of this likely wouldn’t have happened if the native population hadn’t helped a freezing and famished group of settlers survive, and if those settlers hadn’t expressed their gratitude with a communal feast.

It’s important to remember that, even as we’ve done our best to forget. Today across Oklahoma, there are plenty of reservations and casinos, along with bars that sell watered down beer by law. None of that is a coincidence. As a nation, have not been kind to those who were so gracious to our forefathers, those who deserve better than to have been exploited, relocated and forgotten.

It’s time to bring back that spirit we’ve long forgotten. It’s time to show gratitude for what we have and for those we have around us. It’s time to display the values we stand for as a nation, and show what makes our culture so great.

It’s time to Be Thankful.

Be The Answer

I earn a living as a search marketer. That means, in my professional life, I’m responsible for helping clients increase their visibility across the Internet — on search engines, directories and social media platforms. I’m a hired gun, a desperado using a very particular set of skills — as Liam Neeson would put it — to make a difference in both the success of my clients and my own livelihood.

This all might sound meaningless and corporate to you — that’s OK, it sounded that way to me too at first. After transitioning from the broadcast media industry to search marketing, I struggled in finding true meaning in my work. I wanted to make a positive difference in the world around me; although I felt the broadcast media industry largely failed at this task (more on that in another post), I still felt a little less altruistic — and a bit empty.

Over time, I realized that I wasn’t looking at my role from the proper perspective; I was focusing on the six inches in front of my face instead of the bird’s-eye view for the industry. That change in perspective was truly enlightening.

By looking at the bigger picture, I have realized that I was positioned in a unique industry — one that has continually transitioned into more innovative version of itself in recent years, and one that has largely been dominated by the cornerstones of 21st century culture: Google and Facebook. Both of these companies have leveraged the combination of innovation, consumer needs and rapid growth of their user base to create de facto monopolies over the Internet marketing world.

Good fortune, good timing and brilliant business maneuvering helped both Google and Facebook rapidly grow into the dominant cultural forces they are today. But unlike so many corporate narratives from previous generations, the story does not end there. Instead of simply chasing profits and stepping on consumers, Google and Facebook used their dominant positions to carry out their missions — organizing the world’s information and connecting the world, respectively. Since both companies dictate the market, the search marketing industry was obligated to follow their lead. These initiatives have helped consumers improve their experiences on the Internet — and yes, they’ve also helped Google and Facebook send their own profits skyrocketing.

It’s in this context that I came to understand the true purpose of the industry I came to work in, and of my role in that industry. You see, each time Google or Facebook changes something up, the search marketing industry changes with them. The most recent focus of the industry is providing information for what Internet users are asking for — both actively (in a search bar) and subversively (through demand for websites with good user experience).

How does a search marketer such as myself factor into all this? Three words.

Be The Answer.

By providing the best answer at the right time on my client’s websites consistently, I can help Internet users find solutions, and my clients find success. If you strip away that Neeson-esque “particular set of skills,” this is what my job is all about. It’s that simple.

***

Be The Answer has become my mantra and my rallying cry. It’s brought purpose to my career, but it’s also brought a necessary level of perspective to my life. And I bet it could have the same effect on yours.

How so?

Start by asking yourself the big, scary questions:

  • Am I giving my all, every day?
  • Am I learning from my mistakes?
  • Am I treating people with kindness and respect?
  • Am I doing my part to make the world a better place?
  • Am I the spouse I should be?
  • Am I the friend I should be?
  • Am I the parent I should be?
  • Am I the son or daughter, the niece or nephew, the cousin I should be?
  • Am I satisfied with who I see looking back at me in the mirror?

Scour your soul to find the truth, even if you don’t like what you find. Then work on improving every day, until the answer is unequivocally yes. And when you get there, keep working to keep it that way.

Be The Answer.

Cooking Is Life

Those who know me best know that I love cooking. I cook multiple times a week for several reasons — including the financial benefits, the sense of control and the ability to avoid using dairy as an ingredient (as my body simply can’t handle it). But the main reason I cook is because I love it.

In fact, I remain mystified by cooking, even after all these years — although it hasn’t always been this way. In fact, the idea of preparing a meal initially terrified me. Cooking is equal parts art and science — and I’m equally bad at both. Add in a childhood fear of fire, and I kept my distance from the kitchen as much as I could.

However, once I started cooking, I discovered that it was much less complicated than I’d imagined it to be. Ultimately, you’ll find that cooking is dominated by three factors:

  • Seasoning
  • Heat
  • Time

Mastering the intersections of those three elements is the key to successful cooking. If you mess up one of these elements, your dish will pay the price. Then again, if you take the time and attention to ensure they’re all properly accounted for, you’ll likely be happy with the results.

Of course, the right ingredients, cookware and appliances are also crucial — but those who don’t farm, hunt or fish for the food they eat (or forge their own cast-iron skillets) don’t have full control over this part of the process. It’s up to us to make sure we get fresh chicken breasts or an adequate fry pan, but it’s also up to the supermarket or home goods store to ensure the right items are in stock. And raw ingredients don’t become a delicious meal until we evoke the magic of cooking, which comes back to seasoning, heat and time.

Still, there’s more to cooking than just the main elements involved.

  • Cooking is expression. Whether it’s a dish from a five-star restaurant or mama’s cookin’, you can bet that whoever prepared the meal put his or her own touches on it. This is where the art of cooking takes over. A cook can play around with the elements of seasoning, heat and time — while tinkering with the ingredients they use — to make a dish unique and memorable. Expression in cooking provides variety, making a meal both palatable and exciting.
  • Cooking is adversity. You can’t be afraid to try new things in the kitchen, and you can’t be afraid to fail. Recently, I spent two hours trying a new recipe for the first time — and I failed miserably. My reward was an hour spent cleaning up the mess I caused in my kitchen, and then two days of eating the edible remnants of my culinary disaster for dinner. It sucks, but you own it, and you learn from it.
  • Cooking is commitment. It doesn’t matter if you’re preparing a Thanksgiving feast or warming up a can of beans — cooking takes some degree of effort. Taking ownership of that responsibility meal after meal shows devotion and can help define character.
  • Cooking is love. When you prepare a dish, you care about how it comes out. On some level, there’s empathy at play each time you turn the dial on the stove or preheat the oven. Whether you’re making dinner for others or simply preparing a meal to the standards of your taste buds, you’re passionately devoted to making your culinary creation worthwhile.

Success. Failure. Art. Science. Expression. Uniqueness. Excitement. Adversity. Responsibility. Character. Commitment. Devotion. Empathy. Love. Empathy. Passion. These are all concepts that are key in cooking, but they transcend our daily lives as well. With that in mind, one thing is clear.

Cooking is life. Go on and get the most out of it.

The South As I See It

It’s Biscuits and Gravy, Fried Chicken and Pecan Pie.

It’s Moonshine and Jack D, Coke and Sweet Tea.

It’s Earnhardt and Gordon, Talladega and Daytona.

It’s Roll Tide and War Eagle, Rocky Top and Go Dawgs.

It’s country and bluegrass, classic rock and the blues.

It’s hills and hollers, magnolia trees and clear creeks.

It’s stormy spring afternoons and scorching summer days, crisp fall nights and chilly winter mornings.

It’s hunting and fishing, camping and a round of golf.

It’s sitting on a front porch on a comfortable autumn evening, feeling that cool breeze warm your soul.

It’s kindness and generosity, honesty and empathy.

It’s values and morality, family and tradition.

It’s working hard for what you’ve got and never forgetting where you came from.

It’s standing firm in the face of adversity and never giving an inch.

It’s learning from the past and building a brighter future.

 

And because of all that, from Texas to Virginia, Kentucky to Florida and everywhere in between:

It’s a great place to live and leave your mark.