Stu: Nice to Meet You

I met Stu at a 37Signals-new-office-open-house thing last year. When I met him, I had a super tough time remembering his name. So he taught me this trick he learned in an improv class:

“When you meet someone, sandwich “nice to meet you” in between their name. So, I would say, “Mari, nice to meet you, Mari.” The act of saying someone’s name twice cements it in your mind. Try it sometime.”

So guess what? If we meet, I’ll be saying, “Blog reader, nice to meet you, blog reader.”

And I’ll even remember that your name is “blog reader,” thanks to Stu.

Jen: Lost & Found Taxi Cabs.

Jen and I met at some networking/party event in River North last year. When I met her, I was like, “OMG! You’re Jen Chicago! You look just like your Twitter avatar!” (Nerdy.)

Fast forward. I got a call Monday night from a friend who left his wallet in a cab. So, as any good friend would do, I googled “LOST WALLET TAXI CHICAGO.”

The first search result? This post by Jen Chicago: Lost & Found Taxi Cabs.

Pictures of every cab +
Phone numbers to each cab company’s lost and found departments =
Brilliant.

I do not hesitate to acknowledge that without this blog post, I’m sure that my friend’s wallet would have been lost in cab-land for the rest of time.

Thankfully, we called two of the cab companies, and, 2 1/2 hours later, found the lost wallet. Hooray!

So, Jen, thank you for posting this and for making it so easy to track down every single cab company in Chicago. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s ever used that post as a resource.

Fabulous.

Claire: It’s Totally Blocking the Wind.

I went to my first Cubs game of the season last week. Anyone who has been to a Cubs game in April knows that it’s pretty much a 4-inning experience. And this game was no exception: cold, windy, wet, gross, 34 degrees.

A couple of rows in front of me, I saw this:

And I thought it was so genius that I climbed two rows down, tapped this girl on the shoulder, and asked her if it was keeping her warm.

“Yeah, it’s totally blocking the wind! You’d be surprised!”

They didn’t look super cool, but I know they were a lot warmer than I was, even with my 14 layers and Cubs hat.

Nice to meet you, Claire & friends! Next time, I’m bringing my zebra print umbrella and we can all be safari-esque together.

P.S. The Cubs actually did W this game, so Go Cubs Go.

Derek: Chicago.

I met Derek (@dshanahan) a few months ago over lunch, which turned into a four hour discussion of usability and technology under the el tracks. Which turned into a several-month love/hate relationship over who has better dance skills (Mari), a better mustache (Derek), a prettier Google calendar (Mari).

He’s on his way to Vancouver, BC to kick butt on his latest venture, Foodtree, and writing nostalgic Chicago stuff on his blog as a result:

“There’s a toughness about this city…a confidence in the experience of being a Chicagoan that doesn’t exist anywhere else on earth.  This city stays sexy all winter.  It’s hard to see unless you train yourself to see through the challenge this time of year puts in front of us.  You look through it and you see smiles and music and art and a camaraderie among total strangers that’s only possible if you’ve walked through our streets and watched them transform themselves over and over and over again as seasons change and years roll by.  We watch our sports and politics with unwavering commitment, dedication, and skepticism.  We pride ourselves on hotdogs, pizza, and Italian beef.  We don’t apologize for that.”

I love this. Everyone knows winters suck here. But we get through it together. We survive it with the best combination of sports, culture and food in anticipation of the most celebrated summers in North America. Chicago is a city connected by deeply rooted relationships, in large part due to the seasons we get to experience together.

To apply this in any group setting, people bond when they go through challenging times together (and have some good food to go with). Brilliant.

If you agree with Derek, say “yeah.”

Mari: “Heck yeah.”

Good luck, Mr. DShan. I’ll miss you – and that’s not really even sarcastic.

Tom: Relationships + numbers = fun.

Tom Krieglstein (@tomkrieglstein) is one of my new favorite people. Among the many things on his list of accomplishments, he owns and operates SwiftKick – providing the training and tools to student leaders to engage others in their college experiences.

He invited me and Nate to his presentation on Dance Floor Theory at UIC. While his speaking style was engaging and his content captivating, one thing that stood out as absolutely brilliant was this:

“Anything is fun with relationships and numbers.”

It doesn’t matter how well-planned your event is. If it a) is not attended by enough people and b) doesn’t allow people to bond based on their common interests, chances are it won’t be fun. And fun is memorable.

I need to remember this, not only among my company’s internal staff relationships, but also among customers. I’m positive people across Chicagoland could really connect via their love for cupcakes, and with numbers, they could do something amazing for the community. I’m not quite sure what this could be, but I’m definitely open to just about anything right now. As long as it’s fun. And legal.

Does anyone have any ideas? (And thank you, thank you Tom! You’re so FAB!)

John: Do you want to be Wal-Mart or Tiffany’s?

I hired John as my business coach several years ago to help me grow my last business. My ongoing dilemma at the time: rebranding from “totally-willing-to-bottom-dollar” to “top-quality-and-service, so-you-better-pay-up.” It was an uphill battle, and one in which I was barely profitable.

I fought him on a few things. “If I change to service-oriented, I’ll lose customers. If I charge double for certain items, I’ll lose customers. If I start charging what my time is actually worth, I’ll definitely lose customers.”

Frustrated, John fought back:

“Mari, do you want to be Wal-Mart or Tiffany’s? Both are huge. Both are industry leaders. Neither is bad. But which do you want for you? Remember what your time is worth. You’re in this to make a profit. Don’t lose money just to chase customers who don’t value what you offer.”

Ouch. And he was so right.

I’ve kept this with me in the back of my mind with every decision I’ve made with respect to branding, partnerships, and marketing strategy. It’s amazing how nine words can completely change the way you shape a business.

John, those truly life (and business)-altering words of wisdom have made more of an impact in my life than you’ll probably ever know. So thank you, thank you so very much.

Stacy: I’m not sure why I never tried this!

Stacy and I have known each other for a little over three years. She’s cute. She’s small. She’s concerned about other people’s welfare. She’s friendly. She’s a fire survivor. And to top it all off, she has six kids.

ALL BOYS.

She just posted this on her Facebook wall with the comment, “I’m not sure why I never tried this!”

Stacy, I give you my personal permission to do this whenever, wherever. You’ve earned it.

Ed and Amy: We’re not for you.

I met Amy (@tastycms) (and re-met Ed (@tastypopsicle)), a wife/husband duo who run Tasty CMS (a CMS that’s user and design friendly and comes fully equipped with personal service.) Of course, we started discussing business.

Ed: “We get calls from people who want us to completely change our product – bend over backwards to do stuff that makes no sense for our business. So we just say, “We’re not for you.” And then we refer them to someone else who might work out better for them.”

This isn’t brand new information, no. Nobody can be all things to all people. But it did make me ask myself, How can our offer be more intentional and focused? What can we add to the experience to make it more memorable and viral and buzzworthy?

The best compelling offer I could find on Google Images.

So much to constantly reassess.

(BTW, *so* nice to meet you tonight, Amy (and see you again, Ed). Can’t wait to see you on the Twitterbox!)

Matt C: Life Without Pants.

Yesterday I met Matt Cheuvront (@mattchevy). He (slightly abashedly) gave me this as his business card:

So I did a little poking around. Was inspired by a post. You can read it here.

“Step outside your comfort zone – stop waiting, stop thinking, and start doing. Because in the end, that’s the only way things will start happening.”

I used to be one of those “I’m too busy” excuse-givers. I look back and realize that not only was I stunting my own personal growth, but I was being really annoying to people around me. I apologize for that.

Matt, thanks for the reminder. And by the way, brilliant business cards. It stood out and I remembered you.

I crush on smartness.

Hi. My name is Mari, and I’m a smartaholic.

I crush on smart ideas. I love the connection that comes from sharing ideas with the intent to better our relationships, work environments, and communities.

Everybody has brilliant ideas. I’m so fortunate to have a network of people in my life who fit the above description of my smart crushes. Because to their credit, their ideas have shaped my life and helped me make decisions that affect me and the people I love more than they’ll probably ever know.

My goal is to write down a few ideas from people in my smarty-pants network at least a few times a week. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll probably have to throw in a few posts about cute shoes here and there. I am a girl, after all.

But maybe something good will come from it.

For now, I’m just considering it therapy for my brain. Sometimes this little brain can’t handle all of the good ideas that other people pack inside.