No More Yearbook Thinking...

When I signed up to join Picaboo and help them launch their yearbook software I didn't anticipate that I'd be doing all the heavy lifting at the beginning. I don't mind talking, telling them what they need to do, but having to document it impressively is a lot of work.

It was only 10 days ago that I had a lunch meeting with Howard and found out that I'd be coming to Vegas the following week to be part of their yearbook summit kick off. In retrospect had I not come they wouldn't have had a clue what was required to get into the yearbook business. I believe I blew there hair back and behind closed doors they are very thankful that I was there for direction and guidance.

What I didn't expect was to have to do any real work with a deadline that required intensity of focus. I thought I was just going to tell Bill stuff and he was going to write it all down. Doh!!! I put on another 8 hours of effort on it today and in the last three days it's been over 22 hours of Picaboo. I definitely earned my keep. Overall since I got to Vegas last Wednesday I've put in about 45 hours of work on Picaboo between meetings, follow up and travel. I haven't worked this hard in a long time. I don't like it!!!

The document I created I believe is a work of art. It's everything you want to know about yearbooks and forgot to ask. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and they would have a guideline to follow. Some may think that I should hold it all close to my vest, I disagree. Can they use me and through me out??? Yes. So what, I figure the only security I have is with my own business. I don't believe Picaboo will use and abuse me but who knows, who can predict. What I can predict is I'm not going to assume I won't get used. I'm expecting the worst and hoping for the best. That way it keeps me focused on doing my own stuff rather than dream about potential. Plus I'm not a politics or close vested person.

This morning I woke up exhausted. I didn't turn the lights off until 1 am and then it took another 40 minutes for my mind to slow down and stop racing before I could sleep. Then I was up at 6 am again and tired. I was tired of yearbook stuff. I came here for the ITU World Championships, I want to enjoy them not worry about yearbooks. I told myself that come hell or high water I was finishing this project today. Then I was sending an email in a nice way saying ask your questions now because I'm off the grid until Monday.

I was irritable this morning, lack of sleep and pressure of a deadline. First thing I did was go to McDonald's for a McGriddle, my first ever, who knew it was a pancake around and egg and sausage? I started back on Picaboo by 9 am and worked until 1:30 pm. I booked a massage and that was my break time. The plan was to get a massage, head back to the hotel and work until I was done and hopefully it wouldn't be too late.

The massage therapist worked at Elements. It's a franchise from the U.S. I was checking out to bring to Canada. It just worked out that they had one near my hotel and I got a first hand chance to check them out. I got Lena and she was a European style masseuse. Very strong hands. Even though she didn't apply a lot of pressure, it hurt. My muscles are sore. The massage was just what I needed, it told me I need to relax and taper near no training. Any additional training of any effort will hurt me more than help me. When you get a massage and you can't feel the masseuses hands you know your muscles are strong. It's when they are sore muscles that you start leaping out of your skin. Overall it was a good massage, more of a good rub with hot towels. She's definitely self taught, which is often a good thing, they have an intuitive feel which often gives a more beneficial massage.

On the way back to the hotel to slave away on my computer I stopped at a local cool looking hot dog stand. The guy seemed like the hot dog Nazi. Turns out the hot dog wasn't that good and the fries were greasy. I had an urge for a nitrate dog, added salt I guess. I brought the dog and fries home and ate them in my room as I continued to work.

At 10 pm Burlington time I called Alice. I wanted to say hi before she got to bed. And that's about all it was. I called said hi, told her I was in the middle of working on stuff and had to let her go so I could finish. She understood. The next hour and 15 minutes I finalized up the document and sent this covering email letter to Bill.

Hey B, I just finished. Attached is a pdf and word file of the document.

As I started and after our summit meeting last week I realized that it would be beneficial to give some Yearbook Industry background and practices as it will shed some insight and help in understanding what schools are used to and what makes yearbooks very much different than photo books. I also feel that given the time constraints to get a product developed quickly this information may be helpful in expediting that process.

I've broken the document into the following sections

1. Yearbook Industry Products & Practices Overview
2. Online Yearbook Software Requirements.
a. Yearbook Administration Dashboard Requirements.
b. Yearbook Page Builder User Interface Requirements
3. Picaboo Admin Dashboard Requirements
4. Picaboo Yearbook Future Phase Enhancements.

I also then added some additional information as I know with things moving quickly we will need to address these questions sooner than later.

5. Picaboo Yearbook Business Model Questions
6. Online Yearbook Business Model Selling Features
7. Future Markets for the Picaboo Yearbook Technology Platform
8. Picaboo Yearbooks sales challenges

I also researched some of our competitors sites and You Tube channels to help crystallize the various formats and models that others are using and how they are doing it. Many of the resource videos detail much of the areas I've covered in the Yearbook Industry Products & Practices Overview.

9. Competitor Software Video's and Resources.

B, starting tomorrow is the race week event officially start. For most of the week I'm going to be somewhat off the grid and I want to make sure I can answer any questions you may have, I don't want to hold things up, I know we're on a tight deadline.

If it works for you, I can go through the document with you tomorrow morning in more detail, I'm pretty open until around noon tomorrow PST, then I'll be out and about with limited email and phone access until Monday. If tomorrow am works good for you, great. If not, we can email back and forth to set up a time to talk Thursday or Friday.

Hopefully this document is a good starting point. I tried to be very comprehensive. Hopefully it all makes sense, I was a little cross-eyed by the time I was done. haha.

Talk to you soon,

B

P.S. Please confirm back that you receive it. Thanks.

Now that I prepared that stuff I hope I gave Bill enough to work on and not trouble me to do any thinking work. I have to get back to my Caricature Toons site which went live today at www.caricaturetoons.com and my Results Cloud Marketing which I got some new proofs for my website. I really need to get those things up and running and making money. I got a Word File template from Abbey today and I'm now going to prepare a pricing quote and proposal for my physiotherapist potential clients. It will look professional when she get it but I'm just making this stuff up as I go along. I love when that happens and it all comes together. I even ordered my business cards yesterday. I got them for free, I just paid expedited shipping. Normally $9.99 I paid $29.99 to get 500 cards printed color two sides and rounded corners. Damn that's cheap and I'm a printer saying that. I have no idea how they make money giving cards away for free.

 Today was a good day to not have to train and do a report. I was able to give my muscles a break. After I was done I made some burnt popcorn in the micro wave. I love burnt popcorn. The room now stinks, really bad, there is no ventilation. Alice knows what burnt popcorn smells like she hates it. I'm now sitting on my bed, updating the blog, then I'm going to hopefully turn the computer off and force myself to watch TV and relax and get into the ITU spirit. Now that I think about it I'm going to have to air out this room somehow, I'm picking Paul up at the airport tomorrow. 

Actually I got to find the event schedule and see when I'm supposed to register and go on group rides, runs and swims with the team. Not that I'm going to do that based on wanting to give my muscles a rest. Today I finally saw one other athlete, an older guy outside my hotel building his bike. This is definitely not like Kona where people show up a week or more before. Even on all my rides, runs and swims here I didn't yet see any athletes. Hopefully that will all change tomorrow and I'll be mentally ready for anything but Yearbook stuff. 

One last thing. I rented from Advantage Rent a Car. They were really cheap. Heard good things though. They rented me a Nissan Xterra and I'm not sure if it's the truck itself or poor maintenance but this thing sounds like I'm driving a school bus and even handles like I'm driving a school bus. 

I just realized that things have worked out perfectly. I don't know how I would have gotten in all my training and got this report done without having a hotel room training camp environment. I just realized I didn't even have time to shower this morning. I only noticed because the towels in the bathroom haven't been used. I love when a plan comes together. I've been actually too busy to miss my family. That's weird, normally it doesn't take long until I miss them. Now I'm done blogging I think I'll go for another McDonalds coffee and get some fresh air. 

No Training - Taper