Small Business - Raul Colon - photographer, digital marketer & writer living on the beach in Puerto Rico.

Good Morning Tropical Moon

December 10, 2014 by Raul Colon

Buy a Copy of “Good Morning Tropical Moon”

You deserve to have a digital copy of some of the pictures I have taken of Puerto Rico. This picture was taken from Isla Verde Beach in Carolina, Puerto Rico.

My Thoughts on the Image

The moon greeted me this morning when i went for my morning walk.

Yesterday I had an awesome day. One of my favorite clients invited me to sit in to participate in a full day strategy meeting.

It was an opportunity for me to feel as part of the client’s team. One thing I admire from that client is that he has a unique way to do business in an honest and healthy way.

Seeing how his team shared the obstacles and opportunities they have in the near future. Observing how they could discuss in a harmonious way many complicated matters was refreshing.

I left the full day strategy meeting having felt challenged intellectually and a bit drain from the deep thinking I was a part of.

Regroup

Today I want to make sure I organize the knowledge I absorbed yesterday. In an attempt to quiet the mind, I went for a walk and took pictures of my morning walk.

I feel relaxed and waiting for what seems to be and awesome day.

What is your day holding for you?

Igniting a Revolution – Mueblerias Berrios Listens

March 1, 2014 by Raul Colon

This is the sixth post of my Igniting a Revolution Series.

On rare occasions I get to express my frustrations online. Now days I do it less as I work on subtracting occasions where I spend time on negatively charged events in my life.

When I am in a negative situation I first look into how I can make it a positive. Working backwards on how I use to work as an IT Security consultant. I was paid to look at what the client would say was a perfect environment and identify faults in hopes of safekeeping their ASSets.

Making the Difference Locally

I am always on the look out for awesome individuals that enhance the customer experience. From the sharp valet parking attendant to the bar owner who seemed obsessed of having each spot in his bar ready for patrons.

After my negative experience with Sears I went ahead and emailed two companies asking them if they could guarantee I would not have a similar experience.

Answering Faster is not Better

One of them responded within minutes and clearly did not read my request demonstrating that they rather answer quickly than respond a question.

Taking the time to Nurture a New Relationship

The second email was from Abner Muñiz from Mueblerias Berrios. Abner responded after a few hours with an invitation to their VIP Event. Not only would I have the opportunity to get what I needed but I even had the chance to win a few prizes, while there were drinks, cocktails, and food being served.

Since I am getting ready for my SXSW Interactive trip, my time is a bit limited but Abner took the time and went the extra mile to send me an invite after reading my blog post on my experience with Sears that I gladly made time for the event into my schedule.

Great Way to Build Community Amongst your Customers

I arrived at the event after having dinner at my new favorite Asian Bistro and I had someone park my car for me while I walked into the Mueblerias Berrios Showroom.

I walked with my family and we were greeted. Two raffle tickets were handed to me and Lucy which gave us a chance at the over 40 prizes they were giving out. I was then approached by one of their sales personnel and was shown a mattress that fit my needs and budget

It was a relief to hear they include delivery in the price and I could have it the next business day at my house.

Searching for Daniela’s Bed

After that Lucy and I walked around searching for a bed for Daniela. She tested a few beds while another Berrios team member was nice enough to give us the features of the beds and pricing. Once again delivery is free and assembly of the bed is around $20 dollars which I think is at an attractive price point for a hassle free purchase.

We walked around saw some more furniture. It reminded me of when as a kid I use to go to work with my dad Don Tito for the Luis Furniture when it was at its peak in the 80’s.

Searching for Abner

Since Abner had invited me I asked one of the Berrios team members if he was at the event. The team member pointed that Abner was the Master of Ceremonies of the event.

As soon as I approached Abner he smiled and recognized me. It was like greeting a friend. Although being extremely busy running the event, he stopped what he was doing to help me in making my decision with the mattress.

I was so impressed with Abner I had to do a bit of research on the internet on his work and I understood that Abner’s body of work as a performer and musician is useful to work a crowd in a live event.

We need more Abner’s Working for Our Local Companies

Abner seems to be a creative at heart. He understands communication and showing people that he cares. I am sure Mueblerias Berrios knows that they have a great resource, but I wanted to point out on my end that they are leading many other local and international companies established in Puerto Rico by listening and responding to their clients in a human way.

I am writing this post based on the limited interactions I had with Abner where he exceeded expectations by far.

Locally it is normal to fill a contact form on a website and receive no response. Or you get a generic response from an auto reply giving you more things to do.

The Opportunities

It is my opinion that Mueblerias Berrios is on the right track so far.

I see many opportunities in having an edge over their competitors by listening and using the website and online eco-systems to:

Bring New clients like myself to visit their location
Finding a way to incentivize their customers like Mark Hayward (who referred me to them) to refer more customers.
Being able to match pricing or make the buying furniture experience more pleasant by receiving feedback. Similar to Amazon’s price match.
Making the purchase process even leaner and online. So if someone visited their location did not make a decision at the moment they can even buy from the comfort of their home.

I am glad I listened to Mark Hayward and decided to email Berrios. I got to meet a very talented individual who seems to be a local Marketing and Human relations rock star. His effective use of online tools benefit the company he works for and made my life a lot easier.

If you are planning to buy furniture feel free to tweet or contact Berrios. I am sure Abner and his team will be listening and will be as helpful as they were with me.

What other companies stand out that I should include in the Igniting a Revolution Series?

Might have Been Lost in Translation but Truly Innovative

November 8, 2013 by Raul Colon

I just got back from another Pecha Kucha at Seriously Creative’s new space based in the heart of the new rising and more modern Santurce. The space is a lot cozier and location wise it is very accessible to everyone in the Metro Area which makes it a big plus.

It Was time for a Pecha Kucha

Being a fan of how, Angie and Dana, two small business entrepreneurs in San Juan bring a diverse community together and sit them down for a night of exchanging ideas and views.

The event was started by Dana Montenegro who introduced the concept of what a Pecha Kucha is and introduced his wife Angiemille Latorre who would present kick off the Pecha Kucha’s with a presentation titled “Tiralo al Medio”.

Committing and Experimenting

“Tirate al Medio” in good Puerto Rican slang takes the meaning of jumping into a commitment .

What I liked was how Angie spoke on some of her attempts and how she set goals to keep herself being proactive. She spoke of her personal efforts towards creating awareness in a very unorthodox way. A subject I may cover in a future blog post.

Once Angie finished some ideas were exchanged and similar to when my buddy Joaquin Kierce gave his Pecha Kucha it ignited many thoughts on how to add value to her effort (which should be everyone’s effort).

Seeking the Source of…

The stage was set for Juan Pablo from lab787.com who is also spearheading a movement to nurture a culture of creatives and designers on the island.

Juan Pablo spoke about the many who here on the Island like elsewhere complain about the struggles but are not pushing towards improving their current situation much less of their communities.

I personally appreciated how well he prepared to give one of the most solid Pecha Kucha presentations I have seen.

We need To Nurture Juan Pablo’s message

His message is very clear we can’t move this economy unless we have designers and creatives finding those global opportunities which will help us connect to the rest of the world.

I personally want to commit myself to help Juan Pablo push more of his work just looking at the detail he put into his presentation clearly shows me how deeply committed he is with his efforts.

The first two presentations really got me thinking and ignited some pretty awesome ideas where I can clearly say it gives me a bit of hope that this small island which is in very bad shape can come out of the hole if we could have more Angies and Juan Pablos.

Is it About the Money?

The third presentation was created by Kurt Schindler who is a financial planner for a local bank in Puerto Rico. His message was clear and it was inclined towards finding your path (at least in my interpretation). What my good friend AJ Leon would call embracing the journey.

A Fragmented IT Eco-System in a Tiny Island

The last presentation was shared by the current CIO of the Puerto Rico government someone I heard of the first time about a week ago when I sat down with his wife who is the owner of Piloto 151 a coworking space in Old San Juan.

I saw his presentation and it seemed to be a brain dump of many things he wants to do and has already started. There was clearly too much information to absorb in one presentation I guess it is part of the complexities of the position he holds tied to government and politics.

What story is the Puerto Rico Government Sharing?

I directed the question to the CIO of the Puerto Rico. To be fair I probably did not formulate my question the right way but my point was that for many of Puerto Rico’s issues to be resolved and to get buy in from those like me that want to help, but don’t want to be part of the political B.S.

Being a Misfit at heart keeps me away from wanting to just play along to give people what they want even when it does not make sense.

My friend Pamela Slim taught me the importance of understanding the story you tell yourself and the story you tell others. I currently think the current CIO is bringing a lot of cool things to the table and I give him kudos for that, but it can be an uphill challenge trying to easily get transparent updates on the experiments and attempts at improving Puerto Rico’s infrastructure.

Special Thanks to Angie and Dana

To conclude my admiration for Dana and Angiemille continues to grow. They continue to get over the many hurdles (most created by the Puerto Rico Government) and also facilitate the connections amongst a diverse group of individuals.

For the moment I can only root for those who shared their thoughts in this Pecha Kucha (even when I have a very different opinion on their perspective) and hope we can continue these conversations Ignited in the Pecha Kucha in a more open platform.

Feel free to make a comment below.

Too Rigid for Creativity

May 27, 2013 by Raul Colon

For the past 5 years I have moved myself towards working with my creative side. I can confess that I got tired of the corporate performance evaluations, the internal politics, the corporate external politics, and everything that has to do with being the ideal corporate employee (if there is one.)

Too rigid for me

Working for CPA Firms like KPMG and as a Department of Defense Contractor with American Systems as part of their IT Security Practice, I have moved away from rigid structures to having more flexible structures and more creation.

A Structure Should be Your Skeleton

So many of us live our lives creating rigid structures but not building upon it. Structures serve as a skeleton and should not be the outside of everything you do.

I’m Unemployable

About 5 years ago I made decision that I needed out from being an employee and as my friend Jeff Pulver would explain it I realized I am unemployable.

Less Rigidity More of A Mix

I have noticed how mixing many disciplines of my diverse background has helped me appear very different from those who I compete with when it comes to what I do for a living.

In the past few months I have launched and re-launched the following websites:

The privilege of working with teams of individuals with diverse background enables us to oreplicate their offline presence with one online; we do this well.

Although each individuals roles might have been defined in one or two jobs, on each project we were all able to synch and get the product right because we understand each others roles a bit better.

The harmony of the team moving towards the same goal can be a big win for me and for my clients.

Which makes me ask one question, why do many people want to work with people that think like them?

Fusions can Be Entertaining and Educating

Since I shared a bit of my past experiences of working with diverse teams, I wanted to put the spotlight on someone I met. Several months ago the musician and educator Ignacio Peña and his partners invited my family and I to see one of the presentations of “The Great Planet Earth Debate” .

Very Impressed

I was highly impressed with how Ignacio used music, visuals, science, and other disciplines to create a unique and entertaining learning experience.

The Opinion of Other Educators

Here are the reactions of Teachers who went through the same experience that I did.

Support Ignacio

So if you are like me, always searching for fun ways for everyone especially the kids to learn, go to one of his presentations.

He is also raising funds to make this material available for educators, so feel free to visit his site for more information.

Mistakes Will Happen

May 5, 2013 by Raul Colon

“As long as the world is turning and spinning, we’re gonna be dizzy and we’re gonna make mistakes.”

— Mel Brooks

Recovering from mistakes is something I wish I could get better at, but over time I feel I have gotten better at it.

Last week while I was testing out a WordPress Plug-in called Autochimp and did not configure it correctly. My blog ended up sending multiple messages into your inbox. The first one was a previous newsletter, the second one was the correct newsletter ,and the third one was another version of a newsletter.

Before I continue. I want to thank you for not unsubscribing from my list. Experimenting with new things to enhance my newsletter made you receive a few unnecessary emails. I really appreciate and thank you for supporting me even when I make a mistake.

The Fear of making a mistake

Like every other human in this world I am scared of making a mistake that will impact negatively the relationship I have with you and others I respect.

Overall, I fear making many types of mistakes. But the fact that I am not normal is that with time I have learned that by building enough courage I can overcome most fears.

Your subscription is important to me

Thanks to you this newsletter exists and more importantly the feedback I receive from you and others not only helps me improve it but do better in other areas of my life.

I understand how important it is for you to give me a few minutes to read this newsletter. You have many more options and I am very grateful that you are here reading. There is nothing better than seeing your feedback and replies once the newsletter is published.

With every reply I see a different aspect of the subject I wrote on and more importantly I get to know you better.

Once I saw the newsletter sending the wrong content and having your email inbox receive multiple emails I was a bit worried. Your time is so valuable to me I did not want you to feel that I was sending spam to your inbox.

Once I read a few positive replies and others who asked me if everything was ok offering help I felt a bit more at ease.

Apologizing

One of the first things I did on this newsletter was apologize for last week’s mistakes. I really want you to understand you’re important to me (Have I written how important you are to me? Sorry when I make mistakes I over apologize).

I over apologize because I don’t like it when someone makes a mistake that impacts me and can’t find the guts to apologize.

Sending a message when you really mean it, makes a difference so we can overcome whatever obstacle we are faced with. Sometimes the biggest issue is not that you made a mistake. The problem might be your lack of response and accountability of what happened.

Most importantly there has to be a plan to move along in a healthy way for the parties involved.

Moving on

To move on I made sure this newsletter’s topic was on how I think others on the personal and business side should react when the make a mistake. I also made sure to do research and find a better way to have my blog publish my newsletter and not have last week’s issues all over again.

Making up for it

I want to make up for the mistake by doing two things:

1. Give you a Special Consulting Rate

I have been offering some coaching sessions and my standard hourly consulting rate is $125.

For VIP like you I will be offering a phone call (minimum 45 minutes) where we can discuss any idea or business topic you want my advice in the areas of technology, business, web development, or online communications for the special newsletter subscriber rate of $49 (limit of 10).

I will not offer this again for the rest of the year so if you are interested this offer it will be valid until Tuesday.

If you feel I can help anyone with this feel free to forward the email to him or her and have them mention you.

2. Showing you how I configured my WordPress post to publish to MailChimp

I will also point you towards Chris Lema’s Blog where he explains how to get your WordPress blog to publish to Mailchimp. I would have written down the steps I followed but he does such a better job explaining I thought it would be worth it.

How do you handle yourself when you make a big mistake? Any thoughts on how we can all grow from this opportunity. Hit Reply I am waiting on the other side for your email.

PS: Today is a special day for my friend, business partner, and artist extraordinaire. He publishes his 100th Daddyknows Cartoon over at Papaheroes. So if you can spare a few more minutes congratulate Rick by leaving a nice comment on something he does to share his experiences as a dad.