Andy Boyer

Blog

  • Why Life is Like Football

    I was talking to one of my young entrepreneurial friends today. It had been a while since we caught up so the conversation predictably started around, “How’s everything going?”

    The funny thing about entrepreneurs is that nothing is ever going poorly. Setbacks are learning experiences. Unexpected hurdles are blockers for future competition. Lack of clarity in a mission is pause for contemplation.

    People with jobs have a bad day. Entrepreneurs have a new challenge.

    We ruminated on this awhile and came up with the analogy that entrepreneurship is like football. You build the best team you can, develop a system you think will work, scout out the competition, and take your game to the field. During the game you run your plays, knowing 11 people are trying to stop you. When you get the ball, you run into the defense, driving as hard and as long as you can go on each play.

    Eventually you have to make strategic decisions. When you see something working, you ride it as long as you can. If the situation is hopeless, you punt and regroup. Somedays you have a great game plan and the right team. Somedays you have a great team and the wrong plan. And somedays, you just get blown out of the water by people more talented than you.

    Anyway, I thought it was a fun conversation. Keep those legs driving forward….

  • A Cynical Realization About How I Read News

    It’s coffee break time. So I head over to Deadspin.com to do a quick scroll to see if there’s anything im-sport-ant for me to follow up on.  (Yes I created that term to describe important sports news, and I will allow you to use it…)

    The latest story on the A-Rod mess attracts my attention. I read the story. I see both sides to the issue. I want more info.

    So here’s the main plot point in my story here – I am looking for objective, fair and unbiased facts that I can read through. I want to get news, not filtered bullet points provided by either side’s PR teams. I unconsciously scroll through my mental list of places to type in my browser next. Here’s how that thought process went:

    • MLB.com  – No, that’s a marketing site, not a sports news site.
    • Espn.com – No, they will basically have someone from MLB.com writing the story, with the CFO and head of the MLB / ESPN relationship approving it. It will be completely one-sided.
    • FoxSports.com – No, they aren’t going to bite the hand that feeds them either.
    • SeattleTimes.com – No, the baseball beat writers are probably on furlough until February.
    • SportsPressNW.com – Yes, I’ll check them out, but will expect the article later in the week since it’s not pressing news right now.
    • 710Sports.com – No, the home of the Mariners is not going to write anything negative about MLB.
    • Any of the news sites – No, they are probably just going to have 3-4 paragraphs pulled from MLB.com.
    • USSMariner.com – YES. they may not have the story, but I bet the KNOW where a good article is.

    And I was rewarded. A USSMariner.com article had a link to this awesome piece by Wendy Thurn at Fangraphs.com.

    But now think about this. I have been trained that whenever there is an “insportant” story, I can’t go to any major media outlet to get fair coverage. The news, sports and entertainment divisions of companies are so intertwined, my unconscious reaction is to ignore anyone who has any official relationship with Major League Baseball.  Not to read the story with a grain of salt on my tongue. Not to read the story and then look for countering arguments. But to sidestep all broadcasters associated with MLB all together.

    Am I too cyncial? Maybe. Or maybe I’ve just been conditioned to know what to expect from them.

  • Opposing the Arena Cost Richard Conlin His Job

    This is pretty much purely my speculation…

    Fact: Out of 16 people on the Seattle City and King County Councils, Richard Conlin was one of 2 people to oppose the proposed arena. From Wikipedia:

    On October 15, 2012, both the King County Council and Seattle City Council approved a financing plan for a $490 million sports arena in the Seattle’s Sodo neighborhood, backed by venture capitalist Chris Hansen. The King County Council vote was 9-0, while the City Council vote was 7-2, with Conlin and Nick Licata as the only opposition.[16] The new arena was intended to host the NBASeattle SuperSonics professional basketball team as well as a potential NHL ice hockey team.

    Opinion: I voted against Conlin solely because of this.  Didn’t even look to see who the opposition was. (Of course, the joke’s on me – the opposition is a Socialist and I’m stuck with THAT for 4 years, but anyway.)

    Conlin’s only colleague in his failed anti-arena effort was Nick Licata, who keeps getting elected under the same Seattle-specific psuedo-common sense that says people should wear socks with birkenstocks, refuse to use umbrellas in the rain and improve traffic by getting rid of car lanes for bike lanes. It appears Licata was at least lucky enough to be able to wait for the election to be over before having to launch his failed initiative to derail $151,000 from funding a more formalized Seattle Startup Initiative. I breathe a little thanks that Licata has lost enough pull that he can’t completely derail common sense in the Council anymore. Still, I can’t help think that as a city, we get what we deserve as long as we continue to elect that crackpot. But it’s worth noting that he waited until his paycheck for the next 4 years was secure before trying his latest effort to hold Seattle back.

    But back to the point of the story. Richard Conlin is forced out of his job of guiding a city, and headed back to a job of writing policy for non-profits, thanks in part to his refusing to help bring a privately-funded arena to life.  He could have used common sense and kept his job. But he didn’t. And by refusing, he forced voters to go against common sense and elect a Socialist. All in all a wash for the voters, and a loss for him.

  • Bridging the Social Media Ocean

    When I chose to go back to Grad School at the UW  in 2004, I made a conscious decision that after I graduated, I would say “Yes” to every opportunity to learn more that would ever be thrown at me.

    In the first few years, saying “Yes” meant speaking at the Undergraduate Marketing Club or Young Entrepreneurs Club, or meeting with VCIC students. That evolved into judging the UW Business Plan Competition, taking on interns for projects and guest lecturing from time to time. Before I knew it, I was teaching  real classes, trying to implement the parts of business school I benefited from the most as a student, while shedding the parts that I saw no value in.

    And so here we are today. I just finished up the first part of  the two days I have the privilege to spend working with MBA students visiting the UW from Lucerne University in Switzerland. I wish someone would have asked 4 years ago if I ever thought I’d be teaching students who live 8,000 miles away. I wonder what m response would have been.

    My discussions with them today reminded me about something I think proud Seattleites often forget. Namely, there are way more people in the world that don’t share the every aspect of the Northwest’s rain driven, liberal thinking, social media embracing, technology-centric, environmentally-maniacal, privacy shunning state of mind.

    For example, other countries haven’t necessarily adopted the idea that every ham sandwich we eat should get its own Instagram photo, or why we would want our boss to know what articles we are reading.  The idea of building personal blogs to gratify our egos and promote our social importance isn’t necessarily a worldwide phenomenon yet.

    But what is important is that globally, smart people want to learn more. Whether we are American, Swiss, German, Japanese, Korean, etc… there are people who want to understand how others think. They may not understand why, and they may not want to emulate it, but they want to understand the “how.” And the more people we have around the world who want to learn about how other cultures act, work, play and live, the better chance we have at finding a common ground.

    Moral of the story: Always say yes to anything you can learn from.  You’ll never regret it.

  • The Best Pumpkin Seed Recipe

    Relax… this isn’t going to become a food blog.  But ’tis the season for candy and jack-o-lanterns. And I took the guts and remains of my small little pumpkin the other day and turned them into something worth sharing.

    So here’s the recipe for the best pumpkin seeds you’ll ever eat.  They are so good that people who don’t like pumpkin seeds will like them.

    Prep:

    1. Wash pumpkin seeds
    2. Lay seeds on a slightly tilted cookie sheet to drain and dry them overnight for 24 hours.
    3. When you get grief from impatient people about the 24 hour drying process, ignore the impatient people and go to sleep.

    After 24 hours:

    1. Melt a few tablespoons of butter in a bowl.
    2. Mix in salt (just a little to start).
    3. Mix in cayenne pepper (about the same amount as salt).
    4. Mix in white pepper (little less than the cayenne).
    5. Mix in black pepper (little less than the white pepper).
    6. Mix in brown sugar (your choice).
    7. Stir the seeds around the melted butter and spices, and give the mixture a taste. It should be sweet, then bring a little kick about 3-5 seconds later.
    8. Reseason to taste. More sugar and heat.
    9. Stick in the pre-heated oven at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.
    10. Take out the seeds and shake them around to wake them up.
    11. Put them back in for another 15 minutes.
    12. Take them out and put them in a bowl.

    Trust me. These are the best seeds you’ll eat. And the best part is that you are able to take the healthiest part of this candy-gasmic holiday and turn it into a sugary butter bomb.

    Happy Halloween.

  • Talking Startups at Entrepreneur University

    Between teaching Entrepreneurial Marketing at UW, and being on the Board of the Northwest Entrepreneur Network, I get a number of amazing opportunities to sit down and talk with people who are making things happen. Not just coming up with ideas, but actually executing on those dreams.

    Last Friday at NWEN’s ntrepreneur University, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel with three of my favorites; Mariah Gentry of JoeyBra, Andrew Dumont of Moz and StrideApp and Kelly Smith of Curious Office. We talked about when is the right time for someone to jump into the entrepreneurial waters.

    If you haven’t met Mariah before, if you run into her at an event I encourage you to grab as much of her time as you can.  She is easily one of the most impressive people under 30 that I’ve ever come across. And she’s only something like 22 or 23.  She started her first business at 14, owned at house by 20, and launched JoeyBra as a junior at the UW. When you talk to her, you just get a sense that she can distill any complex problem to its core, and come up with an obvious solution.

    I met Andrew a few years ago when some people at my company told me they had a friend we should hire. In a ironic twist, our Office Manager at the time wouldn’t forward his resume because he didn’t have a college degree (he later went back and got it). I met with him anyway and realized we would never be able to hire him because he was way too impressive to take what we would be able to offer him.  He now works from 7:00 – 5:00 at Moz, then runs his side business StrideApp.com, which he disclosed has paying customers numbering in the hundreds.  But on top of that, he also spent a weekend building a Udemy course, which now has close to 500 paying customers at $100 a shot. That’s pretty impressive. The secret behind of Andrew’s success is pretty clear – a tireless work ethic and a commitment, almost obsession, to building stuff.

    And then of course there was Kelly. Investor, founder, idea guy, executor, he does a little bit of it all. I loved his advice on harnessing the power of entrepreneurship. He said the key is, “Question everything. Whenever something sucks, figure out if there’s a better way to build it. Just solve the problem and figure out how many people have the same problem.”

    There’s a difference between ideas and ideas with execution. People like this are inspiring because they don’t let any excuse get in their way. They see a project they want to attack, and then relentlessly pursue it. There’s no wishing on a star or dreamland scenarios with these guys, they are all about dedication and execution. It’s great that we have people like this in the city, people who can remind us that the hardest part of entrepreneurship is the commitment to doing the work.

  • Soccer Supporters Groups Could Affect The 2022 World Cup – If They Cared Enough

    Sports fans across the globe generally share a single problem – they really can’t affect any change in the leagues or even their teams.  Seattle Mariners fans may universally despise management for 10 straight years without making the playoffs, but they don’t have a way to remove the CEO. Some people may hate the way Roger Goodell runs his football mafia, but there’s not another league of gridiron superstars to support. As a fan, you take what you are given or find a new hobby.

    But this isn’t necessarily the case in soccer. While it would take organization of historic proportions to get hardcore Mariners fans to build any kind of impactful protest, this organization already exists in soccer, in the form of Supporter Groups.

    Supporter Groups, such as the Emerald City Supporters, can mobilize hundreds or even thousands of people. They often have a hierarchy and organizational structure that rivals a successful non-profit.  They communicate among each other, have dialogue with team management, share best practices with each other and have followers who will act as directed.

    No one was happy when Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup. It was an obvious result of international bribery, blackmail, payoffs and back room deals, executed with a level of precision that NBA COMMISSIONER David Stern WOULD ADMIRE. And throughout the predictable controversy that inevitably became reality (wait, playing soccer in 130 degree heat is a bad idea?), there wasn’t anything that was worth an international boycott.

    And then we found out that 4,000 people will die in the next 8 years building the stadiums.  We also learned that the “lucky” ones who survive are basically being enslaved in stifling, inhumane conditions. 

    The world soccer community (DID ALL THINK THAT?) went from thinking, “This Qatar World Cup is a bad idea that I have to live with,” to “Damn, I’ll be sitting in a seat someone died to build, so some rich guy could get paid.”

    If the global soccer community cared enough, it *could* do something about this. It’s the one sport that could organize a global protest. Here’s what it would take.

    1) Supporters Groups of local teams in national leagues such as MLS, Premier League, La Liga, etc… individually would have to agree to support the idea that killing and enslaving people is bad. It’s key that the protests come from the Club Supporters groups, not the national groups (like Sam’s Army) at first, because national teams would fear retribution from FIFA if their supporters organized anything. Plus, you don’t want it IT CAN’T look like the U.S. Supporters Groups are organizing a political protest against the Middle East. It has to be country-agnostic. But keep in mind, members of Club Supporters groups often also support their national teams.

    2) Then, the supporters groups in each league could galvanize together with one representative force from each league.  Arsenal and Tottenham fans hate each other so much when it comes to soccer, that is pretty powerful when they agree on anything.

    3) If globally, members of Club Supporters groups agree to protest something like a FIFA World Cup Qualifying match, a week of friendlies or some other set of matches, it would make world news, and FIFA would have to take this seriously. Even FIFA didn’t want to take it seriously, brands that advertise with FIFA – McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Heineken, etc.. would have to take it seriously.  Multinational companies do not want to be on the wrong end of a global protest. So even if the groups didn’t want to boycott the matches, just threatening to boycott the advertisers en masse would create a massive headache that would have to be dealt with.

    We’re talking about people protesting the killing of others to build stadiums, not whether there should be instant replay or a ban on if we need to limit flopping. It would be kind of hard for FIFA to turn a blind eye and ear to a global protest on mass murder.

    This is something that could happen. Three to four 3-4 years of protesting, led by the Supporters Groups, could cause change. There are plenty of countries with the infrastructure to prepare for a 2022 World Cup with 4-5 years of notice. The question is whether the Supporters Groups care enough to do it.

  • On the Road

    Happy Fall 2013.  This summer sure got busy, as you may have figured out from my lack of writing.  And things look to only get busier as we head into the autumn season.  So, here are a few things and events I’ll be participating in.

    October 1 – Dec 3:  Teaching Marketing 555 (Entrepreneurial Marketing) in the UW MBA Program.  If you have a start-up and would like to get some in class recognition, feel free to drop me a note. I’m always on the look-out for people and business to put in front of the class.

    October 18: NWEN Entrepreneur University – I’ll be moderating a panel entitled, “From student to serial entrepreneur: The lifecycle of startups.” My experts will include Andre Dumont, Director of Business Development at Moz,  Mariah Gentry, CEO at Joey Bra and Kelly Smith, CEO at Curious Office. Should be a great panel.

    November 6 and 7: I’m really looking forward to teaching a short section on Social Media Strategies to a group of MBA students from Lucerne University in Switzerland. They’ll be at the UW for a week or so, soaking up knowledge on a number of topics that thrive here int he Northwest.

    November 20: It’s been a while since I have been back at the Seattle School of Visual Concepts, but right around Thanksgiving I’ll be leading a workshop on Content Marketing Strategies.  Feel free to come check it out.

    I think that’s it for now.

  • If the Mariners Had Kept Everyone They Drafted…

    Hat tip to the Snohomish bureau of AndyBoyer.com for digging up this little article from Dominic Lanza at http://itsaboutthemoney.net. The premise  is simple, even though the work was grueling and tedious. Lanza answers the question, “What would every MLB team look like if it was only made up of players it drafted?”

    Of course, what you hope is that the team you have today is better than the team on this list. That would indicate you were able to sell the talent you had in your system for more than it was worth, and buy bargains along the way.  Unfortunately, in the Mariners case it looks like we are pretty good at drafting talent, and then selling it at bargain prices.

    I added a (*) next to everyone no longer on the roster, meaning they were let go and contributing for someone else now.

    Seattle Mariners

    Starting Pitchers
    • Doug Fister (*)
    • Felix Hernandez
    • Hisashi Iwakuma
    • Brandon Morrow (*)
    • Chris Tillman (*)

    Bullpen
    • Carter Capps
    • Shawn Kelley (*)
    • Yoervis Medina
    • Eric O’Flaherty (*)
    • J.J. Putz (*)
    • Rafael Soriano (*)
    • Matt Thornton (*)

    Catchers
    • Rene Rivera (*)
    • Mike Zunino

    Infielders
    • Dustin Ackley
    • Willie Bloomquist (*)
    • Asdrubal Cabrera (*)
    • Nick Franklin
    • Brad Miller
    • Kyle Seager

    Outfielders
    • Shin-Soo Choo (*)
    • Raul Ibanez
    • Adam Jones (*)
    • Ichiro Suzuki (*)

    Designated Hitter
    • David Ortiz (*) (though this barely counts.)

    More analysis on this report is here on Deadspin.

     

  • The Joy of Trophies

    I think kids today get robbed. By getting a trophy for just competing, they lose the chance to enjoy the novelty of WINNING a trophy. And don’t we all love winning?

    Maybe winning is just a 1980’s concept that should be put to bed. But doesn’t it just FEEL good to win? Do you care about the actual trophy? No. But you care about how it FEELS to win that trophy.

    Nowadays we cater to the kids and make sure we don’t let anyone feel bad for not getting a trophy. We tell the winners that it’s not that important to win, what’s more important is that no one actually lost. No matter what the score was, everyone gets a trophy just for trying.

    But a trophy for trying doesn’t make you FEEL great. It doesn’t make you celebrate. Winning is a form of accomplishment, and when you accomplish something with a group, you develop a bond, a shared story, a memory that will last longer than the trophy itself. The trophy is simply a representation of what you earned, and what you felt when you achieved your shared goal.

    When professionals win, reporters ask what it feels like. Winning doesn’t feel like anything else. It feels like winning. We all wish we had more moments in our life that felt like winning, not vice versa.

    Winning is an emotion we have to earn. Every time we are deprived of a trophy that we see someone else get we say, “I can’t get that trophy unless I win, so I will try harder to win.” Consider that vs “I get a trophy no matter what, so who cares if I win.”

    When the joy of having something is deprived from us, we try harder, we want it more, we feel more strongly about it.

    Sure, losing stings. Losing hurts. Losing makes you mad and when you lose you think perhaps a trophy for participating would make that loss feel better. But all the hurt from losing is magnified 10 fold when you win.

    And you will win. You will persevere and gut it out and battle until you get that win.

    And that feeling is worth it.

    Let’s not rob our kids of the joy of winning to spare them the pain of losing. The winning is worth it. No matter how young or old you are.

    Trophy 13

    Trophy 10