Are You Productive as a Geek?

Is it really more efficient to think we can and should handle our own IT?  Maybe.   But maybe not.  I’m not going to discourage being a bit self-sufficient, but do we need to be cautious about taking the whole DIY thing too far?   When it comes to what we provide within our companies, should we suggest more DIY projects for our employees or less?

As I pondered this, I decided to reach out and survey a few trusted friends.  The answers varied, (I wish they didn’t), and it seems that there has been and will continue to be a dramatic change in expectations among the people who really use technology.  Nowhere is this more true than with employees who focus hard on getting their work done.  These folks used to rely on owners, managers and IT to make all the buying decisions, set up all of the equipment, and fix anything that went wrong.  Today, most of these employees are on at least their third or fourth new PC at home.  Most of them have smartphones,  and carry their own personal laptops or tablets.  Millions of them have personal email through Gmail or some other carrier  and a few of them are even managing their personal files across multiple devices with cloud services like Dropbox.

So when IT tries to keep them in or worse yet deploy outdated computers, enforce limits on the size of email boxes and attachments, doesn’t allow them to check the company CRM, calendar and files from their personal smartphones, these employees see the IT department not as enabling, but as a roadblock to progress and their success.  On the other hand, if IT is responsive and forward-thinking it can be the key to their overall success and vital to your company.  Having all your employees responsible for their own IT needs can be a huge time waster and take them away from what you are paying them to do.  Like I said, the answers I got about how to handle the appropriate level of  “geek” was all over the place.

Allow me to summarize a bit and see if it’s helpful to you.  Most employees don’t want or need the IT department to hold their hands as much anymore.  But make no mistake, they expect their company’s systems to be as easy to use as the iPad, as unlimited as Gmail, as simple and seamless as buying on Amazon, and as intuitive to set up as Dropbox.  Now that’s a tall order for most companies that don’t have the resources of Apple, Google, Amazon, or even a venture-backed startup like Dropbox.  But, the fact that it’s a tall order and maybe not even fair doesn’t change expectations.

What has to change isn’t really change at all.  It’s about assessing you and your company’s needs and filling them.  What is different is the pace of the change and the need to make the assessments more frequently.  What has changed is ownership or management’s responsibility to strive to support the IT needs of the company by looking at them through the educated eyes of the “customer” and that customer is the employee.  What has changed is the need for the owner or manager to make sure that the employees are being as efficient and happy as possible doing their primary job, not being a geek, either for fun or out of necessity.  You wouldn’t expect employees to fix leaky toilets, fix faulty wiring, set up phone systems or even change light bulbs, just because they know how.  Treat IT and tech issues in your company the same.

Ctrl-Alt-Del–Time to Reboot?

Do you ever feel as if things are spinning out of control? Do you sometimes feel that things aren’t going smoothly?  Maybe it’s the things around you that are causing the problems and so a reboot, giving yourself a nice clean restart might be a great idea?  Maybe you just need an “update”. Wouldn’t it be interesting if making things better for your organization was as simple as hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del? Tapping those three keys could clear things up and send you in a new and better direction.

I think there’s a way to do it and thinking of it as Ctrl-Alt-Del might help.  What I’m suggesting is taking a look at CTRL or control – what can you let go of or manage better?  I’ll give you a tip.  A lot of negative issues come from our need for too much control.  So hit that Ctrl key hard.  I look at the ALT key as reminding me to search for Alt – alternate solutions to common problems and look for them within existing resources.  I liken this to that TV show where they move things and find stuff already in your house to “stage” or make living in it much more enjoyable and functional. Del – Delete really should stand for delete.  Think about what can be erased in your operation.  What are you or the people around you doing that is unnecessary to your business’s bottom line?  Notice I didn’t say anything about doing something better.  I said Del – Delete.  It’s tough but vital to have a successful reboot.

I actually hate to reboot my computer even though I know it’s good for it.  I hate having to close down all open files and then wait for the machine to spring back to life.  I’ll bet it’s not something you like to take the time to do either.  We all wish that rebooting was instant.  Moreover, we wish we never had to do such “housekeeping”.  But we do and here’s what I know for sure:  Rebooting – (Ctrl-Alt-Del) takes a lot longer when our computers are full of “bloatware” and our lives (business and professional) are just the same. The frustration of losing “precious minutes or seconds” in a day leads to stress on ourselves or the systems we use.  By taking the time to reboot on a somewhat regular basis will help your overall productivity.  Try using the time it takes for things to restart to step back, clear your mind and go forward calmer and more level-headed, instead of frustrated and bogged down.

What Would We Tattoo

For some reason I’ve been in places over the last couple of weeks where there have been a lot of people with tattoos.  I’ll go on record as saying, I really don’t like tattoos.  Don’t get me wrong sometimes I can appreciate them for their artwork, but there’s just something about the permanency and public display of body art that I’m just not fond of.   I think I know many of you,  as I talk to you each week, and for the most part I’m safe in assuming that many of you probably don’t like tattoos much either.  But there is something to be said about what kind of “mark” you and I want to make.  What kind of “tattoo” would I want people to see about who I am and how I run my business?

The tattoo that first got me thinking about this was in the transition area for the Saint Anthony’s triathlon.  Trust me, triathlons are great places for type A personalities and there’s a lot of skin showing, so you tend to see a lot of tattoos.  As I was finishing up the day and retrieving my bike from the rack, I came face-to-face with a young man who had what admittedly was one of the most unique tattoos on his left arm that I have ever seen.  It was Gaelic writing encircling his left arm in one and a half-inch letters.  I stopped to tell him that I admired it and asked what it said.  As he pointed to his other arm, his back, his chest and his legs filled with tattoos he said, All of this is from a point in my life when I forgot some of the things my mother told me were important.  On the arm that you’re pointing to is a positive Gaelic statement that my mom instilled in me.  And while he didn’t go into detail, it was clear he was proud that it was likely one of the last tattoos he’d get for a while.

The other tattoo that made me think was on a young woman’s back as she used her press pass to take up-close and personal pictures of many of the bands at this year’s New Orleans Jazz Fest.  I had never been to it before and it was a terrific, energizing experience and because we had passes to be up front, I repeatedly saw this young woman’s tattoo staring at me.  Here’s what it said, “Pain is inevitable suffering is optional. “ And boy, can’t we all relate to that relative to the commercial real estate market and the general economy?

So as I sat down to write to you about business, process and technology this week, I kept coming back to the question of what kind of “mark” you and I might want to make.  What would we publicly wear as a permanent reminder of who we are as a business person, as a leader, as a specialist in what we do?  I think mine would say, “A constant state of learning.”  I look forward to you sharing yours.

Zillions of Conversations

                   
That’s the way I describe social media.  Officially social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction and the construction of words pictures videos and audio.  That official definition is from Wikipedia.  Let’s get back to the unofficial one, zillions of conversations.  I know from my conversations with people either at group meetings or one on one that those of us in the business world are still wondering what part we play in those zillions of conversations.  Or stated another way, why should we care?

Here are a couple of reasons why we should care.  We should care because three out of four people use social media.  We should care because two-thirds of the global Internet population uses social media.  We should care because it’s now viewed more often than personal e-mail.  And lastly we should care because social media is like “word-of-mouth” on steroids.  No one denies that hearing about who you are and what you do has its greatest punch and reliability via word-of-mouth.  Think about it.  That’s the single most reason that social media is really important.

Social media is way too big to handle in this short column, so let’s just focus on Facebook and Google+ and pick this whole social media topic up again another week.

We are becoming the face of Facebook and Google+.   Google+ seems to have a younger user base and with its decision to open it up to the under 18 age group it is a trend to watch.  I learned the other day that the fastest growing segment of Facebook users are the 35 to 44 and 45 to 54 age groups.  I’ll bet you fit in there somewhere.  Other notable statistics pointing to why we care about Facebook as a social media platform are:

• 1 in every 13 people in the world use Facebook
• 48% of 18-34 year-olds check Facebook immediately after they wake up. That’s before they check their email and maybe before they get out of bed
• People 35 and up dominate more than 30% of the user base
• 57% of people talk more online than they do in real life
• 48% of young Americans find out about news via Facebook over any other news medium
• About 72% of all US internet users are on now Facebook.
• Over 200 million people access Facebook via their mobile phone.

If I only have time and space in this discussion to tell you two things about Facebook or Google+, I guess I’d say; 1. Create a minimum of two identities – one for business and one for personal use, and 2. Create and use a strategy to implement the business identity. And let me sneak a number 3 in here…nothing about using social media and Facebook or Google+ is free.  Make sure you know your hourly rate (calculate it) and agree to the amount you are willing to “spend”.  Your time dedicated is money.  Like most “ventures” you’ll have ramp-up costs and ongoing maintenance costs.  The costs are real, and I encourage you to make the appropriate investment.  If there’s one thing most of us in commercial real estate understand really well it’s ROI – Return on Investment.  There must be a definable ROI.  Period.  Oh, and one more thing.  When you have your “presences” ready, send me an invite!

It’s Coming at You

I was in the beautiful city of Charlotte, North Carolina late last week.  I was speaking to a group about sales and social media.  One of the topics of conversation that arose was the difference between how those of us in commercial real estate communicate significantly through e-mail while many of those that are younger and entering our profession are really accustomed to texting, tweeting and messaging through Facebook.  Part of the reason it seems that this happens is because they are much more mobile than we are.  We tend to sit behind computers at least a good part of our work week.  It is more about styles of communication than modes.  I think it’s really going to be important that we learn how people want to be communicated with and when.  How many times have you called somebody on their office line and hung the phone up after their menu answered, called on their cell phone and still didn’t get them, then sent them an e-mail and/or a text?  We have so many ways to communicate at so many times of the day, evening, after hours and weekends, it’s hard to know what serves best for any given party.  It has become a part of our vernacular to ask ones preferred method.  I guess it might even be smart to change our voice messaging to tell somebody not only that we promised to get back to them but if they want to reach us the best way to do it.

As part of the conversations last week, we discussed how media and product information is coming to us now and how it might in the near-term future.  There is no doubt that things are changing.  It’s really all about what’s coming at us (rather than seeking it out) and how this “identify and push” helps us sort through the vast amounts of data and opportunities.  At the same time this might result in silos of information.  Thus, putting us in distinct profiles and thereby limiting exploration and the opportunity for random things to catch our eye, creating a very narrow focus.

I call this Silos by Interest.  Companies are going to start to evolve to market to us not with a single product that they think we might have an interest in.  Rather, they will market to us things that interest us that may not be in their product line.  This will result in companies offering products they don’t make and maybe never planned to.   It might work out to something like this.  You’re buying books on commercial real estate from a publisher who is good at getting those books out to market.  Once your interest is defined that same publisher will likely have an expanding product line  to provide things that you are interested in and fit into your life as a commercial real estate professional and could include things such as GPS, educational coursework, software, data sources, etc.  This Silos of Interest approach is going to be a major change for companies and will likely result in some very interesting alliances.

In my conversations about this method of marketing it seemed that there were plenty of opinions on both sides.  Those that thought this was a great way to go and those who thought it would create a more narrow experience and possibly have a negative impact on free choice.  I guess I’m more on the side thinking it’s a great way to go.  I think as humans we will always try to do some exploration outside of whatever silo or walls we might find ourselves in.  And maybe it’ll just help cut through the clutter.  What do you think?  Will future, more interest-based marketing help us or not?

Use the Laughter

Okay, this is a first.  I’m sharing a link with you that is just plain funny.  Oh, don’t get me wrong there is of course a message here, but for the most part it’s just me sharing some humor.  As I started to write this, knowing that I haven’t really used humor in my messaging before, I had to stop and wonder if I was inspired by the Easter service I attended this weekend.  It started out like most of the services I’m sure many of you attended.  Crowded.   A mix of “regulars” and only those who come out for special occasions, but overall a fairly typical church service with a group of fairly disparate people for whom the minister, pastor or priest addresses with a message.  Not an easy job.

So on this Easter Sunday the priest chose to use humor.  It worked.  The joke captured everyone’s attention (except the crying babies and fidgeting toddlers of course), who listened and then laughed at the punch line.  Of course the priest weaved the joke into the message he wanted to deliver, but what I found really interesting was when he explained why he used it.  People relax and are better receptors when something makes them laugh.   And he’s absolutely right!  Solid research shows that when people laugh together, they not only enjoy themselves and get pumped up with the body’s feel good chemicals, but they are more receptive to new ideas.

So here goes it.  Please stop now and watch this quick video.  So dad, how do you like the iPad we got you?

If you watched it I hope you’re laughing like I did.  (A special thanks to my friend David for sharing).  If you didn’t click on the link, you might have a harder time with what I’m going to say.  Embracing, not just considering, new ideas and technologies is vital to our personal and business growth.  Intellectually we know that is true.  The problem is that most of us as we mature in our careers just don’t stay open-minded, and so we start to “gray”.  And I’m not talking about our hair.

I’m certainly not professing that just because something is new that it’s good.  Quite the opposite.  What I’m saying is in order to stay young and to stay relevant you need to think critically.  Being able to think critically is vital to being open-minded and in our quickly changing technological world, it’s important to keep an open mind just to keep up.

So while you’re in an open mindset from the increased endorphins, make a commitment to look at something in a new light this week.  Pick something that you have a fairly strong opinion about and analyze it by weighing the “other” side.  Look into becoming open to change your views with the new facts.  If it helps in this process, feel free to revert back to the video link above.  It may give you the edge you need!

So Why Don’t We Do It?

Most of you that read this column have been in this business for a long time.  No matter what segment of the commercial real estate space you are in, you are fully committed to being successful.  I know this because I hear from many of you and because the mailing list for this newsletter continues to grow. Since you are the type of person that is fully committed to being successful, you know what to do to make that happen.  We all do.  But sometimes it just doesn’t matter.  It’s like so many other things in our lives that have a pretty clear input and result.  We know if we eat better we’ll have a healthier body.  We know if we exercise we will look better and feel better.  We know if we get more rest we can perform better.  We know if we love more we will receive more love.  We know the more effort we put into a task, the greater the output.

Lately it seems, I meet more and more people in our business who don’t do the things they know how to do.  Unfortunately, all too often (and maybe it’s the older we get), we are simply unwilling to get out of our comfort zone or current mindsets and take the necessary steps to make a difference in our businesses.  There are so many ways for us to jump from being the way we’ve always been, to the way we need to be.  And need to be, because it’s a great way to be.

Usually the reason we don’t do something is because there’s just not enough pain from doing things the way we’ve always done them.  Pain is clearly the biggest motivator as opposed to gain.  We move a lot faster away from painful situations than we move towards positive situations.   I think the other reason that we sometimes don’t do the things we should is because it feels overwhelming.  There are so many things we can or should do.  It’s like the variety of cereal choices.  They all scream at you, “We are the best!”  I find the people who are the best at changing their behaviors and finding success are those who figure out how to select just a couple of things and improve those, as opposed to being stymied by an overwhelming array of choices.

So if I had to say that there was one thing to do that I know most people don’t do very well (me included, although I’m pretty good) is to build your List.  The List.  A vital List.  An ever-changing List.  And lists within the List.  Really.  If all you did was create a great content management system, sometimes called a CRM – Customer Relationship Management system, you would be ahead of many of your peers.  A good List will allow you to develop the kind of personal relationships that result from getting business from the right referrals.  But don’t think that this is easy.

While it’s simple, it’s certainly not easy.  First of all, you have to recognize that Outlook is not a contact management system.  It is an electronic Rolodex, but it is not what you need for developing your List and yet when I talk to people 75 percent to 80 percent tell me that Outlook is what they rely on.  It makes me want to scream.
So I’ve given you something that you can act upon.  It is even something that you can do this week.  Something that I guarantee will make you more successful.  Find a content management system and put it to work.  But, like lots of other things that you already know you should do, you’re likely not to.  It’s likely that you won’t create the List.  The List that is a living, breathing, powerful asset.  Your List has the potential to establish you as an expert in your field – someone who has more to offer.

Experience tells me that chances are high that until you’ve lost opportunity after opportunity and you find that it’s because your competitors have a customer management system will you have the motivation to get serious.  I hope that motivation happens sooner than later.  I hope that sooner than later you step out of whatever comfort zone you’re in and take the necessary steps to find the best software that works for you and put a plan in place and work the heck out of it.  Or at least use it a little!  Remember, you don’t have to go from sitting on the couch and eating potato chips to participating in a triathlon.   And you don’t have to go from thinking that Outlook is a suitable CRM/CMS to having a contact management and follow-up system that is fully automated from start to finish.  But I do hope you’ll take the first step because you’re smart and maybe you don’t have to wait for the intense pain.  Maybe this little pinprick of an article will be enough!

Are You Searching for Something or Just Being Social?

Many times people ask me where I get the ideas for writing this column every week.  While I’m not surprised with the question, the answer sometimes surprises people.  Ideas come at me from everywhere, all the time and when they do I store them digitally so that I don’t forget them.  I can’t stop myself.  Today’s column resulted from a speaking engagement that I participated in last week about development in downtown Tampa and then a news story about digital hoarding.  The two conversations approached two different ends of really big issue.  The first being how active is commercial real estate in utilizing social media and the second one is what to do about people who are paranoid about their digital communications and tend to hoard things to the point of printing a year’s worth of e-mail and store it off-site.  Wow that’s weird!

So first a little discussion about what people are doing and why are they doing it, and I’m only going to stay focused on the many disciplines that comprise our commercial real estate industry.  Most people in our business are attempting to use social media to increase their reach, either directly or indirectly.  Problem is the reach is so broad that even if you hire a consultant it’s hard to know if you’re going in the right direction.  If you listen to someone who is totally enamored with social media, you can certainly go in the wrong direction.

So as I set out to answer the question of what are people doing and why are they doing it.  I come back to an old adage that makes a lot of sense.  If you want to be efficient:  Don’t just fish where the fish are — fish where the fish are hungry.  You need to take it one step further and make sure they’re hungry for what you are offering.  Many a hungry fish will bypass the wrong bait.  I hesitated to use the word bait because it has a negative connotation associated with luring.  And that’s has nothing to do with social media in the context of using it for businesses.

Here’s something that I believe is true.  At a minimum, you should have your business branded in a number of social media spots.  If you could just do a couple, use Facebook and Google and possibly throw in YouTube.  But don’t confuse these places when it comes to how people find you and finding you is where it’s at. Facebook is a place people go to interact with people they know and talk about themselves and their friends. It’s self-focused.  YouTube is about entertainment.  And Google is a place where people go to get answers to questions and find information.  See what I’m getting at?  Obviously it makes sense for brands to be in all those places.  But which one of these interactions is a more obvious fit for helping people find out about you and your business?    It’s pretty clear.  It’s the place where people go to ask questions and find information.  And frankly, that’s Google.  So I advise people to start there.  Focus there.  Learn Google or help your consultant stay focused on helping you maximize Google.  And the good news is Google may be getting better – getting better about delivering the right answers for you and just you because there’s a layer of social media that goes into the algorithms  when you get a result .  It is based on your activity in lots of cyber areas as well.  But now it’s common that a search will bring up your friends ideas and comments in addition to the factual items.  And while this certainly is more personalized,  I’m not sure that it’s actually helpful.  Only time will tell.  I can see that if I was searching for information on how to do something like how to deal with an obscure clause that a client might be asking to be put in a lease that having other people who I interact with weigh in could be useful.  For the most part I’m thinking I want to reach out for that information and not have it come automatically to me.  Otherwise,  there’s just too many results in small bits of information that need to be sorted and filtered when what I’m looking for is information from an expert.  During my workday, it’s just not about finding friends or hearing their stories, opinions and advice.   So until Google can identify whether I’m trying to do a business search or social search I’d rather not have the social layer.  How about you?

Is There a Reason for a 365° View?

I want to write to you about Microsoft’s 365 and also their office Web Apps.   I bring these topics up because there’s so much talk about “The Cloud” lately.  It just seems that spending a little bit of time on how most of us work using lots of software that we’ve mastered over the years,  in the Microsoft environment,  might be useful.

As I thought about how to approach this topic in this very short column, I was overwhelmed by the amount of both technical and marketing information available about Microsoft’s Office 365.  Here’s what I’d say off the bat, Office 365 isn’t Office. In spite of the name, Office 365 isn’t a new version of Office.  It’s more like a rebranding of server services Microsoft has offered for years.  Specifically, Office 365 is an upgrade of the business productivity online standard suite (now there’s a mouthful) that Microsoft has offered for years.  You’ve probably never heard of it because frankly its marketing was done poorly.  Somehow, like the word “cloud” these days, which finally has people starting to understand software as a service, Office 365 is a much better name.  So let’s see what it is.   Office 365 is meant to be used with a locally installed version of Office (preferably Office 2010).  Microsoft aptly refers to it as a companion product.

So while it might feel as though everything is going to the cloud; I think it’s fairly naïve to think that getting to the cloud is like walking a stairway to heaven.  Clearly working in the cloud has some economic benefits, particularly if you can figure out how to “rent” only what you need.  There are also lots of benefits to moving the general level of expertise needed to keep your systems working into the cloud, but my personal opinion is there’s no way that the cloud will deliver in every department or aspect of your business.  For our industry, where a typical office is under 20 people, it does seem that working in the cloud using Office 365 (which starts at $6 per user/per month if you already own Office 2007 or 2010) has some strong benefits.

For many, the biggest benefit, if you’re not already running an Exchange Server is the ability to access all of your Outlook stuff everywhere, or all at the same time.  The features here are really good.  For instance, if you use rules to move mail on your PC, those same rules apply when you access mail on your phone. That’s the magic of an Exchange Server, and it’s all included in Office 365.  Everything appears identically on your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, or BlackBerry.  So if any of this sounds appealing to you, or you just want to see what your friends in big companies have been up to, I suggest you take Microsoft up on its offer for a test drive.

And while you’re at it you might also want to check out Microsoft’s Office Web apps.  Again, I found there’s so much information on this that all I can do here is give you a little personal insight and if you are motivated to learn more, there’s plenty out there for you.  I do suggest you might use these questions as a starting point.

1. Can your company save money by paying Microsoft to take on what you’d otherwise attempt or are already doing in-house?

2.  What kinds of problems have others incurred?   What benefits?

3. Will a cloud solution make sense for you, or is the grass always greener on the cloudy side and a bit dried and brown on the sunny side where you are now?

Generally, the pros for Office Web Apps’ cloud-based application suite are that creates and edits Office documents.  It’s easy to upload directly from desktop Office applications and allows for simultaneous editing by multiple users in Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.  However, just know that Office Web Apps offers only a limited subset of the desktop-based features you’re most accustomed to.   Additionally, it does not handle large files very well.  So overall, in my opinion it’s a dichotomy.  It is comprised of disappointing and impressive features.  But like most things that we explore in our lives, there are a lot of choices and no one solution is going to ever be “perfect”.  My recommendation is to do a little research, explore what your trusted peers and friends have found works and then make a decision.  I guess I look at it like painting a room.  You always start out with the vision and a plan to make things better.  The prep is the hardest part because it takes a lot of time and attention to detail.  But the good news is if you don’t like it once you’re done, it’s not that big of a deal to repaint.  Welcome to the world of renting software instead of making big capital expenditures.

I am a Walking Hotspot

One of my favorite gadgets is my Verizon MiFi.  As a matter fact, I like it so much I don’t even call it a gadget, I refer to it as a necessary piece of equipment.  So I was intrigued this week when I learned that at this year’s South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas  a controversy was created when one of the companies came up with a plan to turn homeless men into walking hotspots.  It particularly took me by surprise because one of my tech friends and I like to joke about being walking hotspots.  Little did I know.

First a little background on my bizarre discovery.  South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual event that features music, film and interactive (which I am focusing on in this article).  Dozens of entrepreneurs start out in buses, originating from San Francisco Boston, Cincinnati, Florida, Las Vegas, New York, etc., and spend three days traveling to the event in Austin.  On the way there, they are expected to create a product or company that they then pitch to the venture community.  One Web outlet referred to them as “buspreneurs”.  I was particularly interested this year as one of our technology vendors was participating.  So it seems that during this nine-day event that includes an interactive portion, a film portion and a music portion , a marketing company decided to turn Austin’s homeless into walking hotspots and outfitted them as part of the program with T-shirts saying “I am a 4G hotspot”.  It raised a lot more controversy than when I walk around downtown saying it.

People on both sides of the fence, those that find it a horrible display of dehumanizing the homeless, to those who say it’s a great opportunity to bring awareness to the homeless and create social links between the homeless that roam the streets of Boston and the general population. The inventors of the program believe that it was a way to modernize the street newspaper model that has been employed to support homeless populations.  From what I understand it works like this.  There were 13 men chosen to participate.  They are given a t-shirt which identifies them by their first name and says, I’m 4G hotspot.  Anyone who wants to access the Wi-Fi simply asks them for access in exchange for a donation which is suggested at $2.00 for 15 minutes.  The company paid each participant $20 a day, and they were able to keep whatever customers donated in exchange for the wireless service.  And I am not really sure how I feel about it but in general, I think it’s probably a good program for exploring.

So back to me being my own hot spot, sans the t-shirt.  I purchased it when I got my first iPad because I wanted to be able to be on Verizon’s plan.  We now have a couple of them in the office and I wouldn’t want to be without it. It really comes in handy.  It’s really small it’s priced right and I’ve been at many a meeting where it’s not only a lot faster for me to connect but I’m able to quickly led others connect as well.   So it’s just one of those little tools that you might find as useful as I do.  Since human hotspots were in the news, it seemed like a perfect time to share with you one of my favorite “must haves”.