I love this.

I had the absolute pleasure — thanks to Marc Thiele — of being invited to speak at Beyond Tellerrand last week in Dusseldorf. I met so many seriously cool speakers, organizers, and attendees over the 3 days I was there. I got to be good friends with Stefan and Christina and catch up likewise with others, too.

I then got to spend 3 days in Holland, and the experience was delightful. Had it not been for Simon Collison‘s and Robert Eerhart‘s recommendation, I wouldn’t have gone to Leiden. But instead, I did.

Leiden is such a delicious little city; I want to wrap my arms around it and say, “Thank you.”

Thanks to Stefan for taking this hilarious shot:

As blatant as the title is, I *do* think my 365-days-of-playing-piano experiment was a good one. I wanted to devote at least 5 minutes a day to creative exploration musically — that is, ignore my inbox and disconnect from any stressors in life.

The good news is that I created 156 original songs of varying length, from a few minutes to more than 20, and I’ll always have them to enjoy. Because, hey, I’m not a trained pianist but I felt like they represented by emotions pretty closely.

Another great element of the experiment was that I developed the range of my left hand — I’m not even using the right verbiage here — so that it could carry a tune on its own. I mashed together crazy chords and brought them back to relative harmony. I tried to create new things that I hadn’t created before, and I didn’t judge myself too hard when I failed to be original.

Here are a handful of my particular favorites:

• Day 119: “Girl.” 5/23/11
• Day 106: “David.” 4/13/11
• Day 78: “An Ode to the Wind.” 2/19/11
• Day 64: “Thundersnow.” 1/26/11
• Day 53: “New favorite tune!” 1/14/11
• Day 31: “Gave in. Damp eyes followed.” 12/20/11

Overall, the piano on some days was (is) a cathartic experience. Just sitting there and letting my mind wander through the keys can be a powerful thing. I occasionally ended up crying for no apparent reason. I wouldn’t change a thing about those moments.

The bad news is that I only created 156 songs rather than 365, and most of them through June of this year. (Since June I’ve played very little. I could blame it on the whirlwind that is FastCustomer, but it’s entirely because I chose to spend more time in front of my computer or out at events than I did creating music. Period.)

So what’s next? Well, first up, re-commit. Maybe not 1-per-day commit, but “most days a week” commit. With or without blogging about ‘em, either.

That, I can do.

*shuffles off to piano*

Because I’m now trying to save the entire world from ever having to wait on hold again, that means I’m not taking on new clients. But I know people who can probably help you! (And I only say “probably” because I have no idea what their availability is right now. That’s like asking me to predict the future. Which I, sadly, still can’t do, no matter how much I try.)

Copywriters

• Alexis Grant
• Bronwen Taylor
• Melanie Seibert
• James Kotecki (also awesome at video)
• Zak Salih
• Stephen Donnelly (you can call him Steve D. Wait, better not.)

Designers

• Samantha Warren
• Val Head
• The super fine ladies at New Way Design
• Shawn Huddleston (also does development)

IA and/or UX People

• Emily Smith

Developers

• WordPress: Will Rees
• WordPress, too:  Jim Webb or Andrew Cohen (also do design)
• Drupal: Canic Interactive (they are amazingly awesome dudes)
• Rails: Viget Labs
• Django: Wellfire Interactive

Mobile

• nclud

Marketing Brainsplosion

• iStrategy Labs

Hand-drawn Typography Badasses

• Carolyn Sewell
• Mike Rohde

Photographers

• Jim Darling
• Balance Photography

Feel like your name should be on this list? It probably should be, and I just forgot because you haven’t sent me any gifts of flowers or chocolates lately. (Seriously, how rude). But email me or @ me and I promise to get it remedied ASAP.

A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of heading out to Mountain View and walking straight into our pitch with Dave McClure and Paul Singh of 500 Startups.

My partner in (startup) crime, Aaron Dragushan, talked for a few minutes about how FastCustomer solves the problem of waiting on hold for customer service, then described what awesomeness we’re going to make happen on our way to making customer service experiences *not* suck for all of eternity.

The whole thing was a total rush — with a super awesome outcome — that lasted fewer than 15 minutes. But what surprised and amazed me was that the energy I felt during and immediately following our own pitch didn’t dissipate for a full three days while I worked from 500′s offices.

In short, the vibe was incredible.

The office environment and inhabitants seemed constantly iterative and transient; only the gorgeous view of the valley and substantive, positive conversations with strangers-turned-friends were constants within the space. The furniture, pockets of people, speakers, and mentor office hours ebbed and flowed from morning until late into the night.

Outside. Not even remotely doing justice to the view.

Inside. c/o Alex Baldwin (@alexbaldwin) of console.fm

Fortunately, I had been invited to give a talk on content while there, which I did on Wednesday afternoon. I was told to plan for a couple hours of talking one-on-one with founders about the content on their websites and apps.

An invigorating six hours later, I finished my last discussion and called it a rewarding night. What’s more, I’m now a mentor for 500, so I get to go BACK.

I’ve never experienced such a dynamic environment in my life. I believe it’s the kind of place where words like “creative,” “unique,” and “innovation” are actually apropos.

Twitter Birdies Found in Smashing Magazine

Last year, I wrote a post about Twitteretiquette (damn, that’s fun to say out loud) primarily because I was venting. But this time around, I’m going to layer on a new aspect: CARING.

And here’s what I mean: Twitter has become more a distraction to me than I can remember in the past. I know when I click on my Twitter pin tab that I’m about to forget what the fuck I was doing for about 30 minutes.

Which is why now, more than a year ago, I care that what I read is actually meaningful and not useless drivel. I want those 30 minutes of NOT doing billable client work to be well worth the distraction. Which on one hand is total selfish justification, but on the other is actually beneficial to everyone on Earth. Or a fraction of those people beyond myself, anyway.

This is idealistic, and I’m sure “meaning” is in the eye of the reader. So I’m certain that some of my followers consider my tweets to be inane, and for that I’m truly sorry and deserve a thousand lashings. (Or none).

Anyway, so in addition to the four I mentioned last year, here are four more types of Twitter updates that I really wish people would avoid:

1. Asking for more followers – Only once in my life can I remember actually following someone because I was asked to do so. And that was because I had a ridiculous crush on that person and so it doesn’t count. If someone has 999 followers and tweets “Only 1 more follower til I pass 1K followers!,” I *do* believe that person will feel accomplished once s/he passes that threshold. But isn’t it more meaningful to get tons of followers based on substance rather than having to blatantly ask for it? And what happens when that person reaches 1,999 followers? Do we all have to be subjected to another update and request for just. one. more. follower? Sheesh. Just keep on keepin’ on and leave your obsessive Twitter follower tracking out of the stream. (Especially because you actually DO have substantive things to say, which is probably why I started following you in the first place.)
2. Complaining when someone unfollows – I’m not sure anything looks more desperate than asking the world, “Is anyone else seeing a ton of unfollows over the past week” or “I wonder why @sillybeardedmanboy stopped following me?”  I have to believe I’m not alone in almost instantly unfollowing people who do this. (Am I? Bueller?)
3. Venting about clients – Lordy, this is so worthless. When clients don’t do exactly what someone wants them to (which is basically almost every day at some point), publicly venting to Twitter doesn’t make me want to offer support toward the client pains that person is experiencing. Instead, it makes me feel sorry for the client because she’s obviously working with a disrespectful ass hat.
4. Being (seemingly) purposefully ambiguous – Recently when Mike_FTW wrote a content-strategy-related tweet, I paid attention, partly because I think the work Mule Design does is awesome and partly because I had literally just finished watching this rad Creative Mornings presentation he did. So naturally I wanted to know where the heck this was coming from so I could reflect on my own mindset related to the topic, but it just remained hanging … unresolved. I wondered if it was my responsibility to ask for clarification, or if it was worthwhile since it seemed like a touchy subject, and both of these wonderings annoyed me because I just wanted the answer without all the weirdness. And by this time, I had of course forgotten what the fuck I was supposed to be doing and just got back to billable work.

Anyway, I wonder if any of these points are in The Twitter Book. If not, maybe they should be.

As requested by some attendees — thanks again — here are the slides from my talk on March 12, 2011, at SXSWi. You can also download the PDF of slides with my accompanying notes, and you can hear the audio of my presentation at the SXSWi site.

Finally, if you attended the talk, I’d love your feedback on SpeakerRate.

Special thanks to Brian Talbot for his keynote theme, Taylor Davidson for his pre-talk feedback, and @therealmig for listening to me practice a million times.

So, turns out SXSWi is awesome. I’d heard horror stories of getting South by Scurvy, not being able to get into any sessions, standing in endless lines, and meeting douchebags. Somehow I managed to avoid all that.

Here are several highlights from my experience:

I Ate an Amazing Burger with a Couple Canadians

Getting into Austin, I connected with @dillisquid and then he introduced me to @mikewavrecan, who introduced us to @windomearle. The four of us got referred to Mike’s Pub on 7th for the greatest burger in Austin. I didn’t have any other burgers, but the lunch was all together badass.

I Met Seriously Smart Content People

I was basically star-struck to meet the people whose books and blogs and Twitter feeds I’ve been reading — like @ticjones, @halvorson, @kissane, @melanie_seibert — and get introduced to new people who love content, too, including @evany and @jenhyde.

I Didn’t Barf on My Shoes

Right as I began my talk Saturday morning, I felt this crazy nervous searing pain go from the left side of my stomach to the right. I thought, “Wait, I might actually barf.” But then it was gone and I was rollin. I was happy to close the talk with about 20 minutes of active questions and then more after the session officially ended, and then I ate Stubb’s with friends and felt cool as a cucumber for the rest of the weekend. Woo!

Aaron from TeamCoco.com Gave Me Stickers

While I was on the phone with my parents back in Ohio letting them know how the talk concluded, I walked right past a guy I’d seen in all of the @teamcoco videos. I stalked him for a couple blocks and then abruptly asked if he was HIM, and indeed he was. A bit of chit-chat and 10 Conan stickers made me giddy for much of the rest of the afternoon. Hey, it’s the little things.

Turns Out I’m Awesome at FlipCup

Ok, so I wasn’t completely cool as a cucumber. I didn’t want to disappoint @keithmuth, @averyvery, or @castig with my less-than-ideal FlipCup technique for BeerCamp 2011, so I got to Emo’s early with @dillisquid (who, apparently, I’m AOK with disappointing since I didn’t reference him above) and practiced the shit out of making those orange plastic cups land on their mouths. Luckily, one of my competitors felt sorry for me and told me to lift instead of pop the bottom, at which point I had been informed of a sage-like technique that made me impossible to beat.* I then learned from @tomsturge that my midwestern accent of saying “Tahm” instead of “Tuhm” wasn’t going to get me very far when I head to London for FOWD in May. So I guess I’ll be practicing my talk over the next couple months with a forced English undertone.

Jeffrey Zeldman Hugged Me

I had really wanted to meet @zeldman so I could tell him that one of his tweets last year made me cry, in a poignant kinda way. It’s a long story, but anyway, I seemed to never be where he was until my last hours in Austin, when I turned around in the hallway at the Hyatt and BLAMMO, Mr. Zeldman was standing right behind me. I blurted out, “Jeffrey Zeldman, I want to tell you something,” to which he just outstretched his arms and I without thought just stepped in for the hug. I thought maybe it was because I was wearing a pin that said “Bear Hug” on it — which I scored by hugging @varick the night before at BeerCamp c/o the fine folks @nclud — but, nope, turns out JZ’s just a hugger. This made me way happier than I can express. So then we chatted and caught @hoyboy‘s awesome facilitation of a workspace culture session. I finally met @hoyboy in person, then got introduced to @seb_ly while grabbing coffee with the veritable @vlh and @ccashdollar. Twas a seriously rad way to end my Austin experience.

Wrapped in all this conference goodness were two nights with my dear friend @b_tay, who knows all the best places to get food and also happens to date Leroy Brown, and a weekend away with @therealmig, who unfortunately *did* manage to snag the scurvy on his first day in Austin.

I’m happy to be home, but I’m already looking forward to next year.

* Completely false. Team Throat Punch didn’t make it past the first round. So I joined Four Loko Workweek, which got knocked out of the running in Round 2. But I didn’t completely bonk, at least.