Chris Ming, Author at Christopher Ming Blog

notes

My Notes from: Gary Vaynerchuk on the State of the Advertising Industry

Last updated on March 9th, 2019 at 03:59 pm

Damn, Gary Vaynerchuk gets me fired up.

Here’s an interview he did about the state of the Advertising Industry.

I loved this so much, I asked a VA to transcribe it for me, so I don’t have to relisten for the nuggets.

Major theme: Be the one to put yourself out of business. If you don’t someone will do it for you.

Business that killed businesses

Craigslist killed classifieds
Dollar Shave Club should have been done by Gillette
Business Insider should have been created by WSJ
Sports Illustrated or ESPN should have built Bleacher Report
Conde Nast → Refinery29
Marriott → AirBnb
Why did IBM let Microsoft happen?
Why did Microsoft let Google happen?
Why did Google let Facebook happen?
Why did Woolworth’s let Sears happen?
Why did Sears let Kmart happen
Why did Kmart let Walmart happen?
Why did Walmart let Amazon happen?

Favorite quotes

“This is capitalism. This is historical. What happens is we wake up one day and major media companies that we grew up with are gone.”

“The Wall Street Journal and Sports Illustrated and USA Today and the New York Post, they killed somebody else too. We’re just living through it now as mature adults when it’s happening to them.”

Want the full thing?

Go listen on SoundCloud
Download the podcast episode.
Or read the transcript below (bolding mine).

Enjoy!

restaurants

My notes from Chow: Making the Chinese American Restaurant

Last updated on March 12th, 2017 at 09:25 am

Went to the Museum of Food and Drink in Williamsburg last week! It was awesome!

The exhibit was called Chow: Making the Chinese American Restaurant.

At nearly every panel I felt a visceral connection. Here are some of the pieces that resonated, and why:

In my opinion, this sums up the Chinese mentality, pride, and way of life: “They did what no one else would do.”

More fun times.

career

How to Persuade People to Work for Free

Last updated on November 3rd, 2021 at 03:27 am

In the last ten years, I’ve worked for free many times.

“Uh, no shit. It’s called an internship.”

Not so fast. I’m not just talking about internships (though of course, I did those too).

I’m talking about working for free outside the safety umbrella of a university. Without the structure of an internship program. As a grown-ass man with man bills to pay:

I worked on sets for indie movies and music videos.
I read scripts.
I researched for authors.
I watched Youtube videos.
I did casting.
I consulted on marketing plans.

All free work. In rare cases, yeah, it was an absolute waste of time. But in most, it fell somewhere in the spectrum of “best career decision ever” and “glad I did it, but never again.”

What differentiated work from landing on one side of the spectrum versus the other?

Recently I wrote about working in restaurants. And how my best work happened after pre-meal meetings, and I was reminded that “this work is important.”

In this case, rationally I’m aware the better I work, the better my service, the more I’ll make in tips. Logically, I know this… BUT in this case, there’s a second incentive at play here, more powerful than the money.

career

The Importance of Pre-Meal

Last updated on May 28th, 2018 at 04:54 pm

On January 13, 2009, we opened our restaurant, Shogun, in Delmar, NY and my father held our first pre-meal inside the kitchen. As the first of the soft-opening customers trickled through the front door, he shared this nugget of instruction:

“This is how you pour miso soup.”

We were about to open a Japanese restaurant — and we didn’t know how to serve the soup.

This is like asking for garlic bread at The Olive Garden and your server saying, “Garlic what?”

Case Studies: The Difference Pre-Meal Makes

I always thought pre-meal was the best part of a shift. Our pre-meals improved steadily: my father eventually moved past the soup, and instead, he’d remind us what was ’86ed, what the specials were, and what we should push that evening.

But it wasn’t my favorite part because I learned anything new, or made me feel more prepared.

I’ll get to what made pre-meal special in a moment. First, it’s worth noting how seriously other restaurants take their pre-meal.

At Eleven Madison Park, for example, the maitre d will Google the name of every guest that evening. If he finds out a guest is from say, Detroit, and he knows a server is from there, he’ll put them together. If it’s a couple’s anniversary, he’ll figure out which anniversary

Before guests even step foot into Eleven Madison Park, they’re looking for ways to blow their minds.

This is part of the reason why Eleven Madison Park dominates — even though they only offer a $195 pre-fixe meal.

In a paper titled Impact and the Art of Motivation Maintenance, published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, researchers applied principles similar to the pre-meal to the fundraising process.

At the University of Michigan, researchers arranged for one group of call center works to interact with scholarship students who benefited from the school’s fundraising — a five-minute, informal chat where they discussed the students’ studies.

How much of a difference did it make?

career

A Million Moments of Serendipity

Last updated on March 19th, 2017 at 11:06 pm

Couple weeks ago, I was researching charisma, the ability to build rapport, that sort of thing. It led me down the path of the Charismatic Man: the Bill Clinton’s, the Dale Carnegie’s, the Neil Strauss’s…

All of which were extremely interesting.

But not the right context for me.

A familiar voice creeped into my ear as the deadline for this research approached, a voice rooted deep in the lizard brain, strong and powerful — but one of very limited vocabulary:

Why did you take on this project? You’re not smart enough to figure it out.

You’re running out of time. You’re going to look like a fool.

This is more than you can handle.

I can’t say that I whirled around and told the voice to STFU, like the person at the movie theater who shouts at the Cell-Phone-Talker and everyone claps for. I’m not a “STFU” kinda guy…

I’m more a trench fighter. I dug deeper, like a seasoned WWI solider. Then I held my position, and paused… waiting for the signal to go “over the top.”

Then, I got the signal.

marketing

I Get Anxiety Over This Type of E-mail

Last updated on November 2nd, 2021 at 05:17 pm

There’s one type of email that I loathe above all others.

Can you guess what it is?

I bet it’s not what you’re thinking.

I hate ’em. Seriously, I’d rather read hate mail. I’d rather read Tea Party literature hand-curated by Ted Cruz, or ad-copy from AT&T explaining how bundling my cable, phone and Internet could save me $300.

The interesting part?

About 75% of the time, what’s inside these emails…

Is glowing. Overwhelming positive. Even raving.

Yet the anxiety still seizes me like talons around testicles the moment I see the number (1) in the sub-category I keep for these emails, like a raised middle-finger, reminding me it isn’t going anywhere until I click.

Do you experience this kind of anxiety around your e-mail inbox?

relationships

Trade Up Problems

Last updated on November 2nd, 2021 at 05:15 pm

Below is the transcription of the best three-minute segment of an interview I’ve heard in a long time. And I listen to a lot of interviews.

[01:37:53] It’s not like you read one book and do one thing, and it’s figured out, and you’re done. it’s a constant course correction. You need to have those rituals to go back to.

[01:38:29] People don’t get it. It’s messy. Life is messy.

[01:38:45] It’s messy. Life is always going to be messy. It’s in figuring out how to manage that mess, and planning, “what am I going to do with this?”

[01:39:30] Life is suffering. If you expect to your life to miraculously dissolve all your problems with a new car, a new wife, a new husband, a new “fill in the blank” you are mistaken. When you conquer your current set of problems, you trade up. You just get a new set of problems, and those challenges are set out by the universe, by whatever force you believe in, to challenge you.

[01:40:37] It’s like, okay, you think Brad Pitt has a perfect life? I tell you, he has crazy stalkers, he has frivolous law suits, he has, “fill in the blank.” You trade up. You just have a different set of problems. The reason I bring it up is not to be depressing at all, it’s to underscore the importance of expecting adversity in a sense of looking forward to adversities as a growth opportunity. If you want to be a higher performer in high stress environments, you need to get to the point where you relish the opportunity to prove yourself in the face of challenges.

This was from a webcast between Ramit Sethi and Tim Ferriss in November 2012, right before the launch of The Four-Hour Chef. I don’t remember where I found the link to the audio, unfortunately.

career

What Makes Me Valuable

Last updated on November 2nd, 2021 at 05:17 pm

To others?

If I did this task better, how will it affect my career five years from now?

How will it make me more valuable five years from now?

I think it’s important to step back and ask ourselves that on occasion.

If I schedule all these lunches today, will it make more valuable to others?
If I send out all these rejection letters?
If I mail out all these check letters?
If I connect every call that comes through?
If I indiscriminately do drinks five nights a week?
If I book this travel?
If I move widget A into the arms of mechanical turk B?

If you’re asked to do these things, you can’t not do them, of course.

The widgets still need to move. It’s one of the reasons why you were hired.

But it’s not the only reason, right?

Recognize the difference between creating value and pushing (electronic) paper.

Which one builds a skill?

Which one makes you more valuable to others?

Then, prioritize accordingly. By what creates value…

Not what comes easier. Nor by what you do more effectively.

Photo Credit: Liam Matthews

career

Multiply Strengths vs. Improve Weaknesses

Last updated on March 13th, 2017 at 11:07 pm

The school of thought goes like this:

“Focus on your strengths to see exponential growth. At best, improving your weaknesses leads to marginal growth.”

The idea’s touted all over the internet. Here’s one or two places. Check your Google for others.

In theory this sounds fine.

By sticking to your strengths, you’ll “produce” (in the broadest definition of the word) more for the world, at a higher quality, with greater satisfaction.

Versus struggling through tasks which require a disposition you don’t have, or skill sets you haven’t acquired.

For example, in all likelihood I will never become a terrific programmer or designer. I’ve tried. I struggle through tiny modules of CSS and continue flailing when I have to conjure what words like “float: right” or “padding: 3 em” do to the Internets.

So if I have to bring skill sets to the table, I’d rather leave these in the car.

My problem with the “multiply strengths versus improve weaknesses” argument…

Is how easy it is to confuse:

“That’s not one of my strengths”

with…

“That’s really hard.”

In this hyper-connected world that’s both uber-competitive and saturated with distractions, it’s easy to let ourselves off the hook the second we run into a barrier. This stymies our development: professionally, emotionally, inter-personally.

And if we constantly let ourselves off the hook when things get difficult, how will we produce anything worthwhile?

Take my own example above: is it that I’m not a good programmer or designer by natural disposition? Or is it just hard… and it’s a skill that requires work?

Which brings to mind a lyric from a song in today’s modern-pop lexicon, Ten Thousand Hours by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis:

The greats weren’t great because at birth they could paint/
The greats were great cause they paint a lot.

I’m not saying that school of thought is entirely wrong.

I’m saying, there’s a balance: yes, find the opportunities to multiply your strengths.

But don’t use “weakness” as a crutch to avoid “difficult.”

Photo Credit: Hayley-Jean Lochner

career

First Impressions Stick

Last updated on March 13th, 2017 at 11:17 pm

It’s human nature, I think, to believe your first impression. The one made the second someone walks through your door, and puts their hand into yours.

Humans are predisposed to look for evidence that corroborates what we already believe, not find reasons why we may be wrong.

So if you come into your first Hollywood production company as a intern, big-eyed and cash-money green, that’s how people will see you. For a long time.

If you come into a studio as an assistant, they may never see you as executive material.

Not that it doesn’t happen — of course it does — especially if the company has a system in place for grooming talent.

Then you have the opportunity to outgrow your role…

IF, in that first moment, you showed your employer you have the potential to do it.

Again, first impressions…

But what if they don’t?

And you haven’t shaken their first impression?

If that’s what you’re working up against, what’s the best methodology to progress in your career?

The fastest path is no longer the straightest.

Instead of trying to beat through glass ceilings…

Move sideways and try a different ladder — bringing your experience and ideas gleaned from the other organization,to create new ones that make you more valuable, more indispensable.

Then, bring those ideas elsewhere. Or back the way you came, if you choose.

That’s how to develop a career.

Constantly learning new things.

Never resting on anyone else’s ladder.

Photo Credit: Se_New