Husband, Father and Technology Specialist

Live Your Life, Write Your Story

April 12, 2010 in Blog by mikecushing

Community and Social Media adviser Chris Brogan did a review on his blog of Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years (affiliate link). In his review Chris talked about how the book is about viewing life as a story and asked people to do a quick blog post about the importance of story in our lives.

Viewing my life as a story makes me ask the question “am I living a life that people would want to read about or watch a movie about?” I think that is a pretty obvious question to ask and I think the answer for me would be that much of my life is consumed by daily activities like going to work, coming home for lunch and dinner with my family and then maybe some reading or watching movies (and occasionally glancing at my iPhone). There are parts of my life that are interesting for people to watch, and my kids definitely make things more interesting (if you want to read about some of that check out my last post), but does having an interesting life really matter?

There are plenty of people out there that live lives full of drama, drugs, sex, big houses, and nice cars that would be very interesting and would make a hit TV series, but is that what I want for my life? No, to me a story like that would be a big waste of time. I want my story to be less about being interesting and more about making a difference and inspiring action. I want to live a life that my kids can follow and make a sequel about.

I read Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz and enjoyed it but have not yet read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, but it is on my list. To view Chris’ full video review you can go here.

Cushing Kids and Things They Say

April 7, 2010 in Blog by mikecushing

If you didn’t know already I have three kids, Brianna (4 years), Andrew (2 years), Ethan (4 months). I wanted to share with you some things that my kids have said recently that have made me laugh.

Brianna (to me as I’m walking out the door to work): “Daddy, I’m hungry can you get me something to eat?”
Me: “No sweetie, I have to go to work. You will have to wait until mommy gets up to get you something to eat.”
(After a little while, my wife gets up)
Brianna: “Mommy, I was hungry and I waited for you and then I ate Jelly Beans and now I’m full.”

-In our family room we have two couches and a recliner. My wife was sitting in the recliner
Brianna (to mom): “This couch is not comfortable” (goes to the other couch) “This couch is not comfortable either, could you move so I could sit there?”

“I did not hit Brianna I was burping her.” sure you were Andrew.

Brianna (to mom): “Can we wrap up our cats to be a surprise for someone so I can get a rabbit?”
After some discussion about her NOT getting a rabbit…
Brianna: “Andrew, do you want to get a dog to scare my rabbit?”
Andrew: “I want a train.”
Brianna: “A train is not a pet, you need a pet.”
Andrew: “I want Thomas.”
Brianna: “Do …you want Thomas to be a fish?”
Andrew: “No! I don’t want a fish, I want a train!”
I think someone wants a pet (besides our cats).

-Walking down the aisle at Costco.
Andrew (to Mommy): “You’re gorgeous and beautiful. That’s why Daddy married you.” ‘(A nice comment about my wife but does that make him sound shallow or me?)

- My Sister was changing Andrew’s diaper and slid a diaper underneath him.
Andrew: “Get your big hand out of there. It might break my bones.” (My sister does not have big hands.)

- Found Andrew in the corner filling his diaper.
Me: “Andrew, do you want to use the potty?”
Andrew: “No, you need to be patient. I have a lot of poop.”

Social Media to Replace Advertising?

July 9, 2009 in Marketing by mikecushing

Recently I was reading an article from copyblogger.com about Facebook Gunning for Google. The article explains how Facebook has no interest in teaming up with Google and they have become partners with Google’s archenemy, Microsoft.

This got me thinking. Will the future of social media be the one super time wasting website youtwitface that Conan O’Brien predicts, or will it become a useful pool of information that we will rely on for our decisions? I predict it will be the latter.

As the tools of social media and supporting technologies improve and move in to the palm of our hands I would expect that they will be utilized more often in our everyday lives. We already have the capabilities of taking a picture of a book and finding online where the cheapest place to get it. We already have the ability to take a picture of something that we like or dislike and share it with our community. More and more websites are including customer comments and people are relying on these to make their decisions. How much more powerful would those comments be if they came from someone they knew.

Social media is becoming part of our everyday lives. As it continues to mature we will begin to see more posts with substance that include brand names. The “I’m at lunch” type posts will turn in to “Just had the best pie at Marie Callender’s” or “The service at _____ was terrible” (sorry shameless Marie Callender’s plug for my Dad). Those everyday experiences, good and bad, will be shared with their community. The comments may not reach as far as a network TV ad would but they will have a bigger impact coming from someone the community trusts rather than a faceless brand. I don’t think it is very far off that people are going to use their online communities as directories to find goods and services.

Businesses that once relied on marketing departments will shift more toward customer service and PR type functions. Brands are going to have to interact more with their customers. They are going to have to create good experiences that people talk about. When an experience goes bad they are going to need to respond more rapidly. The fill out the online form and wait 24-48 hours for a response will not cut it; the damage has already been done by then. (see United Breaks Guitars for a good example of this)

Would You Settle for a Cookie?

July 6, 2009 in Blog by mikecushing

The other night it was dessert time and I was observing my daughter. Her Grandpa gave her a cookie and she was so excited. She was grinning from ear to ear, bouncing around, and showing us that she got a cookie. Then out came the ice cream and immediately her demeanor changed.

She no longer wanted the cookie. It was no longer making her happy. All she wanted now was that ice cream and nothing short of that would satisfy her. When she was told that she couldn’t have ice cream because she already had a cookie, she broke down. The object that had once filled her with joy was pushed aside and not even worthy as an alternative to the ice cream.

Kids can tell us a lot about human nature. I look to my life and I see things that are cookies to me and I want nothing else other than the ice cream. “If only I had that better camera, or better car, or ____, then I will be satisfied.” Or “there is no way I could settle for the off-brand jeans when there are Lucky brand jeans.”

What in your life is your ice cream that you won’t settle for a cookie?

Homeshool?? What?? Us??

May 17, 2009 in Blog by mikecushing

For the past few years we have been contemplating homeschooling our kids. At first I was real skeptical towards the whole idea. I thought if homeschooling is such a great idea then why aren’t more people doing it?

I went along with the possibility that we might, by some slim chance, home school and will look in to it. This was the same type of slim chance where all the schools in Ventura were flattened by an earthquake, or some other natural disaster, and our house was still standing (even though we live less than a mile from two elementary schools).

We attended a informational meeting for an organization that helps you with your homeschooling paperwork, coordinates classes, like chemistry for older home schooled students, and builds a sort of community for these students. It seemed that they spoke more about how bad public schools are and how dare you think of putting your kid in a public school than about the benefits of homeschooling and their organization. I was a product of public school, did I turn out so bad?? I was considering putting my kids in public school, does that make me a bad parent?? They didn’t exactly win me over.

We continued on our journey of knowledge about homeschooling. We read books and talked to some people that are doing it for their children. It softened me a bit by breaking down some of the stereotypes and fears that are associated with homeschooling, but I was still not convinced.

We were invited by Mindy’s cousin, who is proponent of homeschooling, to a workshop by Carole Joy Seid. I don’t know what was I thinking when I agreed to go to a 9-5 workshop, on a Saturday. Especially when we didn’t have any information about the content nor the format of the workshop. I guess I must have been in a good mood when Mindy asked me to go and heard and thought, “sure.. why not”. Or maybe it was the words “husbands are free” that lured me.

Today, the day of the workshop, I wasn’t so “sure… why not” and was more leaning towards “what are we doing?” “Are you sure you still want to go?” “Ok, we’ll go but we may only be there a little while and leave.” We ended up staying there the whole day and now that I went I’m glad that I did.

Carole’s approach was much different than my previous experience. She talked about the development of children and the idea of only teaching them something when they are ready. She talked about how boys have a much harder time sitting still in a classroom than girls and end up getting in to trouble for it. She talked about how great it is to get kids out in to nature rather than just reading about it in a text book. She talked about getting kids to love reading and teaching history through biographies. She talked about if there is something that you don’t know you are going to be learning it right along with your child.

I thought back to my time in school and how I was always bored and getting in to trouble for talking during class. (I guess I still can’t sit still because Mindy commented how my legs never stopped moving throughout the day). Also, for me, reading was always a chore in school and never for pleasure. It wasn’t until recently that I started getting in to reading regularly (as you may have noticed by the quality of my writing).

Carole was passionate about what she talked about and she had the credentials to back it up. She has a Masters in education, has taught in both public and private schools, and lived it by homeschooling her son (who went on to get a Masters degree). I would recommend her workshop to anyone, whether considering homeschooling or not.

If you haven’t guessed already, this workshop confirmed that homeschooling is right for our family and we are going for it.