Have you ever been in a dark room or other situation that frightened you a little bit? You could not see what was there and the unknown makes you shiver a little. However, once you fumbled around and finally found the switch on the wall everything lit up and you felt so much more safe and secure.

That is my goal when I am speaking and teaching people. To flip on the switch.

This past weekend I had the privilege of being invited to speak at a meeting of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition by one of their directors Kelsey Karper (p.s. If you ever want to meet a wild hybrid-driving vegetable eating lady look her up). I was able to join Kelsey, Adrienne Nobles and Jennifer Barron as we headed south to the OVAC meeting. I learned on the drive to Chickasha that these three awesome ladies pretty much know everybody in Oklahoma City.

For over an hour I took the time to explain to people the power of an online strategy (including social media) and what it can do for their business and their brand. We did not dig into anything complicated and we stuck to the easy things that you can do to get started quickly. I could tell by the looks on people’s faces that the lights were finally coming on. They got it. They understood that as complicated and wild as the internet is it is also a great inexpensive place to market yourself. If people walk away with nothing from my presentations that is one thing that I hope sticks. When it does not stick and the light does not come on I have failed in my job as a speaker. But how do you know for sure when it sticks? How can you be absolutely sure?

After my presentation on Saturday one of the artists approached me and said “Thank you so much. This was amazing. I learned more from you in the past hour than I have in the past several months on my own.”

It was a good day. The light came on. My work there on that day was complete.

Have a great day.

(Feel free to share your thoughts below in my blog comments about how you know when the light comes on)

Let’s take a break from all of the seriousness of life and enjoy some of Patrick’s pix as he flew from KOUN (OU) back to KPWA (Wiley Post) Airport. Have a great weekend folks.

Do you ever wake up one more morning and just wondering what are you doing here, and where are you going next?

Recently it feels like I have been doing that more and more. There are places I’ve wanted to be in life, and goals I’ve wanted to knock out. And I am not making steady progress getting there. There are some distractions recently which have really thrown me for a loop. The distractions may be anywhere from a minute to a month, but slowly they have put me behind schedule in life. And that is darn frustrating.

But with these feelings I also realize that recognizing this issues are half of the battle. I know it now. I know I am off track. And consciously knowing will allow me to make the course corrections I need to make to get back on track. Minute by minute the ship is coming back in line with the originally planned course. I go to bed and wake up with a sense of purpose and satisfaction knowing that I’ve made steps in the right direction. Every day is just that – little tiny steps in the right direction.

Has this ever happened to you? What did you do to get back on track?

“Hardcore man on the street videos. As real as it gets. No script. No actors. Raw emotion taken right out of the coffee cup and thrown in your face.” Our videos might be like that someday, but until then we are going to track down the people and businesses that are keeping this country interesting and alive.

I tracked down the Cafe Evoke Coffee Crew last Friday in Oklahoma City. Check it out.

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Had dinner with the ProjectOKC group Friday night. Rex and I stepped out for a quick interview to see what they had been up to today.

The eternal question as asked by @mkokc on twitter. Here is my video response: