Time For An Opinion

He sat watching tv as she came out of his bedroom. She was almost ready to go out for the evening and just wanted his opinion. She stepped infront of the 5th inning of the Cubs game and asked, "Does this blouse make me look fat?"

He looked at her, cocked his head to one side, gave it some thought and replied, "No, not at all. The skirt makes you look bloated though and your hair is a bit of dissapointment."

She left his home shortly there after and he was able to enjoy the rest of the game.

I am sure that most readers will spot the error here. It is obvious that he should have scheduled their date to begin after the game finished. This would have given him time to consider what she was really asking. She didn't want an honest appraisal, she wanted a good review.

Today I was asked, via a tweet, to review a website. I did, and found it to be ok. The color scheme was fair, the content was nice, but not terribly inspiring. There was a video, which didn't work. So I responded "That it was ok, but I was dissappointed that the video didn't work."

He thanked me and fixed the problem. So I returned and gave the video a look. It was almost 22 minutes long. The gentleman who asked me to 'check out his site and let him know what I thought' was the speaker. I have done competitive speaking in Toastmasters and when someone asks me what I think, I tend to try to give a fair appraisal. It is difficult to tell the tone of the request in a tweet. I truely believe that he wanted an honest critique. Of course, I may be wrong.

The gentleman speaks with confidence, had a better than average slide show presentation, and was able to get several laughs from the audience. There was but one aspect that prevented him from getting an A on his report card. In the twenty-two minutes of his presentation he said, 'uh' 'you know' or 'um' 79 times. This is common when an athelete is speaking, but should not be heard in a business presentation.

The video itself could have used a bit of editing too. The content was good, but a savvy editor could have easily paired it down to a more bite sized version. The length is quite a commitment in this day and age. I have watched many videos of that length on Ted, but those speakers are a bit more polished. It is my sense that the gentleman takes these speaking engagements very seriously and were he to work on this one aspect, could be a world class presenter.

So I give his site a C+ and his video a B+. But without the context of what I might consider an 'A' blog, this is a bit meaningless. There is another gentleman, named SteveBoese, who is a brilliant writer. I also discovered his blog today. I have actually followed him on Twitter for some time and never seen him promote it. In fact, it was someone else who sent out the link. http://steveboese.squarespace.com/journal/2010/4/17/unidentifed-nuts-possibly-filberts.html

This is the definition of great company blog, in my opinion.  The site is clean.  It is easy to figure out how to follow someone.  The writing has nothing to do with the company!  It makes me think that they really have it figured out.  It makes Steve look good, it makes his company look good.  It is, in short, quality.

So when someone asks for your opinion, take some time, maybe a sip of your coffee, and determine if they are asking for a compliment or an assessment.  If you do that, you may find that you are not spending as many nights home alone on the couch.  You will be out celebrating you success.

[Note:  This blog is mostly just a repository for thoughts and ideas I have.  It isn't very well designed.  Not terribly nice to look at, and I don't market it at all.  My real blog is treated with much more care.]