Walter Reade .net

Twisted Dazzle, the band for which my daughter Emily is the drummer, got to play outside in downtown Appleton, Wisconsin, to help “motivate” the runners of the May 7, 2011 Sole Burner up the hill by Lawrence University. It was a perfect day, and they sounded great! Here’s one of their new cover songs – Let’s Get the Party Started by Pink.

During the end of their performance, they had a fun surprise visit from the Harmony Cafe Coffee Cup mascot!

I’ve been fortunate to have attended the last two System Seminars on Internet marketing. Ken McCarthy, who puts on the seminar, was one of the original pioneers to promote the opportunity of marketing on-line. He sponsored the first conference on the subject in 1994 with the cofounder of Netscape Mark Andreessen.

I attended my first system seminar in 2010, held in Chicago, as well as in 2011, when it was held in New York City. (The 2011 event was the last System Seminar open to the public!)

In the year between the two seminars, I participated in the weekly Smart Beginners coaching course. This training takes you, hands-on, through the basics of Internet marketing. We covered such topics as WordPress blogs, article publishing, auto responders, getting traffic, etc.

Towards the end of the year, it became clear to me that one of the largest barriers for somebody trying to market online is not with learning any of the parts or pieces. Rather, the challenge is putting all the parts and pieces together into a cohesive whole that works. Or, if things don’t work, figuring out what peace needs to be strengthened.

I volunteered one Saturday morning to take the class through a method that I use to simplify work processes. The method is generically called hierarchal function analysis, but it also goes by different names such as task analysis. While there are a number of different flavors of the method , the basic idea is that you link together what you want to accomplish with why you are doing it, and then specify how to do it. By linking activity to purpose, and purpose to activity, you ensure the most effective use of your time as well as identify those areas in your process that need to be strengthened.

I’m posting the video below in its unedited form so that others can benefit from this training. You can download the Task Analysis slides here.

I’m finally getting around to posting my presentation on lean that I gave at the 2010 BYU Chemical Engineering Alumni Association Dinner, held in Provo, Utah, October 8, 2010.

The title is Stories from the Dojo: How One Japanese Company is Improving Everything from Your Consumer Products to Your Health Care. The purpose was to provide an introduction to Lean to the alumni association. The video is 23 minutes long, and I’ve provided the full transcript below.

Click to see full transcript >> […]

Twisted Dazzle played at the Outer Edge Stage in Appleton this past weekend as part of the Kids Rock Benefit Show. The band did great! Here are a couple of clips. The third video was a surprise drum solo Emily performed to fill time during a band blooper moment.

If you had the opportunity to be famous for one of either of these two performances, which would you choose? Why?

Personally, I’m all over the second video.

Official World Record Speed Guitar

Air Guitar Champion

I love this song by Marillion. Funny thing, though – I haven’t kept up with any of the band’s 11 albums since their first, Script for a Jester’s Tear. Maybe it’s time to check some of them out.

Links:

• Official Marillion Site
• Marillion Wikipedia Entry