Category

business

Ted Murphy
In inspiration

Team Building Exercise : Team Storyteller

As CEO of IZEA I am always looking for fun, low cost activities to build teamwork and communication. Sometimes its hard to come up with team building ideas, so when I come up with something that works I like to share it with others. This one is very fun, simple and only costs paper and tape. I call it Team Storyteller.

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Team Storyteller Overview

  1. Find 50 pictures from around the Internet and your companies own photos. Be sure to pick photos that are diverse, unique and interesting. (Flickr is a great source for cool photos)
  2. Import the photos into your favorite word processor and add a small area to write underneath each photo.
  3. Add an instruction page.
  4. Print out packets for each team.
  5. Assign teams and distribute packets.

The instructions for this exercise are very simple. Here is a sample of what I created for IZEA:

  • You have 30 minutes to write a story with your team about IZEA using the provided images.
  • You must use at least 40 images in your story.
  • Each piece of the story should be written below the corresponding pictures.
  • You will tape your images to the wall and present your story at the end of the 30 minutes.
  • The company will vote on the best story.

I would suggest teams no larger than 6 people and no smaller than 3. Put people on teams with other people they don’t normally work with. I turned on some loud techno music to add a little to the chaos. Thirty minutes sounds like a long time but the teams struggled to finish within that allotment. I wouldn’t change that though, a little pressure is a good thing.

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The energy created from Team Storyteller is amazing. People smile, laugh, communicate and create together. The participants absolutely loved this team building exercise and we will be doing it again. Here is a video from one of the teams telling their story.

There are some questions you can ask after the stories are shared. Here are a few ideas:

  • Who were the leaders in the group? Why?
  • What type of real life activities are similar to this one?
  • What was the hardest part of this exercise?
  • Why did you discard the pictures you did?
  • Are you happy with the story your team produced? How could you have made it better?

If you decide to try Team Storyteller please be sure to leave a comment here. I would love to know how it works for other organizations.

Ted Murphy
In sales & marketing

The Iraq War is Over!

Well… not really. It seems that a group of pranksters handed out free fake copies of The New York Times this morning in Grand Central Terminal and other locations around the country. The papers were distributed by the Yes Men, who issued a statement about the prank:

In an elaborate operation six months in the planning, 1.2 million papers were printed at six different presses and driven to prearranged pickup locations, where thousands of volunteers stood ready to pass them out on the street.

They also launched a website mimicking the NYT.

All politics aside someone should hire these guys to do their marketing. It was brilliantly executed.

Ted Murphy
In sales & marketing

Free wallet from Burger King

Randy and I were having lunch in downtown Orlando today when someone appeared to have dropped their wallet. People shouted out to the person who dropped the wallet and Randy ran over and picked it up. When he tried to give it to the person who dropped it they said “Keep it. It’s on the King”.

Burger King Wallet

Burger King Wallet

The wallet contained a special BK $1 bill (legal tender), a $5 BK gift card and other random BK stuff. By the time we got back to the office a few others had found wallets too, everyone was talking about them. I love clever marketing, this was some very well done word of mouth for Burger King.

Burger King Wallet

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Ted Murphy
In business, politics

Please don’t bail out the automakers

Now that the election is over the media has turned their focus to our nations failing automakers. It seems these automakers are asking the government to bail them out, just as they have been bailing out financial institutions and AIG. I wasn’t in favor of the original bailout package, but I could see some of the justification behind it. Our financial institutions and the credit they provide to businesses and consumers are the backbone of our economy. People need to be able to borrow money and feel that their money is safe when they deposit it at a bank. I get it.

Our automakers are a different animal all together. Sure, the automakers provide a lot of jobs and fuel a ton of spending, but the product they provide is available through other means. There are plenty of automobiles to choose from in this country and not every automaker is struggling. This is what capitalism and free markets are all about. Companies that manage themselves well, provide a quality product and deliver for their customers earn the right to survive. Those that fail to do so do not. End of story.

The government should not keep companies artificially afloat. Companies must make money to stay in business or have investors who believe in funding the future. If private and commercial money won’t invest more in a company there is obviously something wrong. I have no desire to “own a piece” of these companies through my tax dollars. If I wanted to own a piece I would go out and buy some stock on the open market.

All that said I do believe our auto makers need help. However, that help should not come through a bailout, rather it should come through the mechanisms already in place to deal with such a scenario. The auto makers should file Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Chapter 11 will allow them to strike deals with creditors, eliminate unnecessary labor and restructure their companies. The investors, management and employees will be accountable for the failure and reinvention of these companies, not the federal government.

If these companies survive great. If not I am not worried… let them die. There are plenty of startups out there looking to take their place. Those startups will create new jobs and new economies of their own. Have you heard of Phoenix or Tesla Motors?

The restructure needs to focus on earning the U.S. consumer’s business. People don’t buy American cars like they used to because we have been getting our tails handed to us by foreign manufactures. It’s time for the big boys to step their game. If our automakers are going to be successfull long term they need to start making quality, innovative, fuel efficient vehicles. Show me a quality electric truck and I will be the first in line to buy one… and some shares.

Ted Murphy
In business

How Not to Make a Sale

If you are an Indian IT outsourcing company do yourself a favor and hire an American sales person (or at least someone who can speak English clearly). If I can’t even understand a voicemail what would make me think we would have good ongoing communication. Someone translate this for me.

Listen to this Sales Call From India

I get about 4 of these a week from different companies. They drive me nuts.

Ted Murphy
In business

Are you what you wanted to be?

Some people dream of becoming an astronaut, policeman, doctor or pro athlete. I have always dreamed of being a businessman. As a boy I watched my father start several businesses, he would always bring me to his office and show me what he was working on. I helped my father tinker with early uses of lasers, wind energy, digital video and electric cars. He shared his visions and taught me things about business most kids are never exposed to. It always fascinated me how he could make something out of nothing.

Ted the Little Busniess Man
Me as a kid during Christmas

That fascination lead me into business and becoming an entrepreneur (much to my mother’s dismay at first…but that is a whole other story). I don’t think I could ever do anything else, nor do I want to. I love the process of creating and running a business, it is my passion, it’s in my DNA. Through good and bad.

How about you? What is your passion? Have you always wanted to do what you are doing now? If not what lead your current job or role? Do you aspire to be anything else?

Ted Murphy
In inspiration

Start generating more bad ideas

People like to think good ideas are some how formed by immaculate conception. Have you ever said to yourself “I wish I would have thought of that”? There is a reason why you didn’t. Most good ideas don’t just pop into someones head out of nowhere. Good ideas are part of an active and iterative process that can take days, months or years to get right. The big idea you envy wasn’t the first idea its creator had.

Whether you are an inventor, an entrepreneur or a photographer it all comes down to numbers. How many prototypes have you created? How many ways have you looked at tweaking your business? How many pictures have you taken? Rarely do we get it right the first time. Those that think they have nailed it early on are often just settling. Voltaire said, “Good is the enemy of great.”

Q: How would you make a flying car?

Add wings to the car? How about a couple of jets? Yeah. I thought about those too. The big ideas aren’t the first ideas. Those are the ideas everyone can think of. Those are the average, practical ideas.

If you want to have more homerun ideas you have got to swing the creativity bat more often. Don’t be afraid to think beyond the obvious, let your imagination run free. Sure, you will generate a ton of bad ideas, but you also have a better chance of having a truly big idea.

Let’s try that exercise again, but this time force yourself to write down 15 ideas in the comments of this post. I bet you get beyond wings and jets.

Q: How would you make a flying car?

Ted Murphy
In inspiration

AdTech Sidewalk Rally with Gary Vaynerchuk

Those of you that know me also know I am a huge fan of Gary Vaynerchuk. He is loud, passionate and dead on in my opinion. When I heard about a Mashable event featuring Gary after AdTech yesterday I was all over it. Apparently the bar wouldn’t provide Gary with a microphone, so Gary convinced everyone to take it to the sidewalk. He stood on a bucket and shared his thoughts with a crowd of about 50 people standing in light rain. It was awesome.

This video has a decent amount of profanity… suck it up… it’s worth it. I encourage you to snag the video and share it with friends, especially entrepreneurs. This is some inspirational content! Here is my question to you…what are your three take-aways from this video? Please share.



Sidewalk Rally with Gary Vaynerchuk from Ted Murphy on Vimeo.

Big ups to the guys at Mashable for putting this on. I really enjoyed it.