ThisJustin

Every new year is filled with a lot of looking backward (see my own 10 best albums of the decade) and looking forward but not so much focus on the present. I guess the prevailing thought is that the best times are long gone or just ahead of us. Well, this won’t be the first (or last) time the prevailing thought is wrong.

Right now is the best time to [insert thing you've been wanting to do.]

Seth Godin decided that today was the best day back in 2007 when things actually seemed pretty good:

Here’s a question that you should clip out and tape to your bathroom mirror. It might save you some angst 15 years from now. The question is, What did you do back when interest rates were at their lowest in 50 years, crime was close to zero, great employees were looking for good jobs, computers made product development and marketing easier than ever, and there was almost no competition for good news about great ideas?

Many people will have to answer that question by saying, “I spent my time waiting, whining, worrying, and wishing.” Because that’s what seems to be going around these days. Fortunately, though, not everyone will have to confess to having made such a bad choice. (read the original)

And he revisited that mentality today on his blog:

The oughts (the “uh-ohs”?) were a tough decade on a macro level. Front page news events will give the textbooks plenty to write about in the years to come.

But on a micro level, on a personal level, this was a decade filled with opportunity. The internet transformed our lives forever. Opportunities were created (and many were taken advantage of). And, like every decade, just about everyone missed it. Just about everyone hunkered down and did their job or did what they were told or did what they thought they were supposed to, and just about everyone got very little as a result. (read the original)

For those of you who like to take your information visually, here’s Hugh MacLeod’s cartoon in the same vein:

There will never be another time quite like now to launch a new company, quit your job, or be a part of something great. The time to do your life’s work is now.

This is it.
Fight like hell.
Happy New Year.

I noticed my RSS feed got screwed up when I switch my blog over to its new home with new and improved look. It’s fixed now so you might see a bunch of stories pop up all at once.

Oh, and I’m changing this blog’s name to “ThisJustin” and changing the subtitle to more clearly reflect what I’m interested in–digital creativity. The focus, or lack thereof will remain the same. I like it, hopefully you do to. This should all be transparent to you, I’m keeping the site’s feed address the same to prevent you from having to do anything.

Thanks for reading and happy new year,
Justin

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlfM_jZxTZM]

Why would someone drop everything for more than a year to enroll in a completely untested program that vowed to teach the world of digital and interactive in a way never done before? The first class of 12 students in Boulder Digital Works’ (BDW) first 60 Weeks program answer that question in their new short film called The 1210 Project.

The 1210 Project is named after what will be the students’ final day of BDW 60 Weeks, December 10, 2010. The video explores the twelve students’ motivation for jumping onboard Boulder Digital Works’ 60 Weeks program inaugural voyage. Some of the students enrolled after hearing about the program with only weeks before its start. The film looks at what the students have learned, considers their hopes and plans for the program’s remaining 50 weeks and focuses on their dreams, goals and predictions.

These 12 students, who range in age from 22 to 48, have been exposed to some of the best of the best in digital and interactive over the past 10 weeks. Their brains are buzzing and the walls of BDW are bulging with possibility.

There is much work to do leading up to 12/10/10 and years of work after that, but there is no doubt there will never be a year quite like the one that lies directly ahead. Follow my fellow Boulder Digital Works students over the next year at http://bdw.colorado.edu/blogs/60weeks

I’ve been working on a site re-design as part of a project at Boulder Digital Works. I’m just about ready to push it live. That means I’m going to screw things up and learn along the way. So be ready for a disruption in the space time continuum. If the site never comes back up again know that I must have stumbled upon some new quirk in html5 that allows for the creation of black holes. Either that or I gave it all up to work on a small farm in Iowa. Either possibility is equally likely at this point.

I found out last week that I’m amongst the 16 students admitted to the first class at the Boulder Digital Works. I’m excited, and nervous, and excited some more all at once. It’s an incredible opportunity, one that I see as a potentially life changing.

If you’re not sure what Boulder Digital Works is you can find out more on their website. Simply put, it’s a school for developing future digital leaders. With partners that include a who’s who of the digital advertising world it is definitely a program with potential. Huge potential.

Right now I’m figuring out how to pay for the tuition ($25k, and because it’s not a degree bearing program, most government loans don’t apply) pay for living expenses while attending and still kick ass in the actual program itself. It’s going to be a tough balance of debt, work and school.

The whole thing has the potential to weigh me down for the rest of my life with debt or put my career into overdrive and launch me into the sort of places I’ve only dreamed of.

I’m hoping that by leveraging the things I can control (my hard work, effort, etc) I can overcome the things I have less control over (my lack of money, the economy, etc).

One thing is for sure: it’ll be interesting.

One (of the several) projects I’ve been working on lately that is consuming my life (in the best way possible) is brewing a beer via twitter for Odell Brewing in Fort Collins, CO.

After having the idea back in January, I worked with Reel Motion Media to pitch the idea to Odell’s. In April we finally began bringing it to life and the rest is well documented history (search for the hashtag #odelltwitbrew to see the history on twitter.)

If you’re reading this before 7am MDT on 5/29/09 go vote for your favorite label design for the beer.

And now it’s all culminating in the release of the beer, Blackbird, this Saturday May 30th at the brewery in Fort Collins. You can see details on Upcoming or Facebook.

I’d love to see you at the event. If you find me and tell me you read about this on my blog I’ll buy you a pint.

I’ll be sharing more learnings from this project in the future when I have time to reflect on it. Stay tuned.

A new, updated portfolio reflecting some of my more recent work.

Justin_McCammon_Portfolio_April2009.pdf

If you read / hate / worship the Denver Egotist you might have seen me in the “please, please, please hire me. someone, anyone!” section. Welcome, feel free to browse around the site.

You can find more samples from my portfolio here.

You can see some of my favorite posts here.

You can contact me at justinmccammon [at] gmail.com

Yesterday morning I read the superb article “The Quiet Coup” by Simon Johnson in The Atlantic regarding what sort of advice the IMF would give the US about our current crisis if the US actually gave a shit what the IMF thinks. While the article is worth a read for its look at the causes, the current plan and what ultimately must be done in a way I’ve yet to see articulated, I’ll do it the great injustice of paraphrasing: some really tough decisions must be made and the future of the US / financial system will not look anything like the past (if we are to be prosperous again.)

Which brings me to every other industry right now that’s crying “Save us! Bail me out too!” This includes advertising. We’ve all see the layoffs, from varying degrees of intimacy. Surprisingly enough, it was harder for me to watch eight dedicated people get their walking papers one afternoon and be asked to leave the building than it was to see 300 people be told their areas would be shut down by the end of the year.

But here is where I feel The Atlantic article’s advice meets the advice that everyone, from Timothy Geithner to your local ad shop’s CEO, needs to hear: some really tough decisions must be made and the future of your organization cannot look like it has in the past if you intend to be successful again.

I think that’s the hard truth that few are embracing right now. Sure, you can make layoffs and cut costs here and there and limp along until “this thing turns around” (if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that I’d have enough to turn this thing around.) Or you can act boldly. Act offensively not defensively. Instead of reacting to the pressures of the outside economy create your own success.

This gets to a personal mantra of mine, a pet peeve in a way. Anytime someone says “good luck” I’m always tempted to say “I hope luck has nothing to do with it.” That’s because relying on luck is a really shitty way to go through life. That basically gives you an excuse for anything that happens to you and absolves you of all personally responsibility for the course of your life. Bullshit. I believe we create our own luck. When you work your ass off, suddenly you seem “luckier” you know why? Because you are creating new opportunities for yourself rather than sitting back and hoping that by some cosmic occurrence you get exactly the outcome you want.

And it is from this belief that I offer this advice to agencies or business or individuals everywhere who are willing to listen: go forward boldly.

Take risks. Fail boldly. Succeed boldly. Reinvent yourself. Do not remain static. Do not recoil into the fetal position and hope this all blows over. You will not emerge stronger on the other side if you emerge that same as you went in.

There is a need for [insert your service here] but that need is not fixed. It’s dynamic and ever changing and so you must be as well. If you’re not obsoleting your own business model every few years you should be very afraid. Because someone else will.

And there you have it. My Sunday Morning Philosophy for you. Let’s hear your take in the comments.

Hi, uh, do you come here often?

I feel like a stranger on my own blog. It’s been a while since I’ve devoted some serious time to it. Too long in fact. But it’s nobody’s fault but my own. Well, maybe Twitter is to blame as well. But more on that later.

I had an interesting conversation with my girlfriend the other night. I was ranting about how this really awesome place (www.bikefurniture.com) that makes furniture out of bike parts is, in my opinion, making a huge mistake by not listing prices on their website. I went on and on about how you need to make it as easy as possible for someone to buy your stuff and if you don’t list a price I’ll assume I can’t afford it, whether that’s actually true or not. Once I composed myself she turned to me and said “What am I supposed to do about it? Why don’t you blog it or tell the company so someone who cares can actually do something about it.”

And that’s when I realized I needed to return to blogging. (ps- that bike furniture is AWESOME, but I’m not going to email you to find out the price. If you’d like me to buy it I need to be able to do so in as simple a way as possible.)

Aside from this revealation I also realized that I had fewer “urges” to blog. I attribute this to my increasing use of Twitter. I also wonder if other bloggers feel the same? It’s so easy to bust out a few quick tweets that many of my thoughts, rants and ramblings get channeled there as opposed to on here. As I logged in to write this post I realized that I can compose a whole tweet in about the time it takes me to log into Blogger. In an age where instant communication is becoming more instant everyday I see this as a long term issue that blogging service may need to address. Obviously micro-blogging won’t kill macro-blogging(?) but it could pour some water on the fire.

So I guess that’s my long way of saying, “I’m back.” Thanks for listening.

Like what you see? Contact Justin at justinmccammonblog[at]gmail[dot]com