Greg de Lima

Do it for Everyone Else

I only have two small things for today being that it is New Year's Eve.

Happy New Year

I just want to wish everyone a great New Year's Eve. Tonight is a night for change, happiness, and company. I dearly hope that everyone has the opportunity to either spend this night with someone they love, or care for or have a great friendship for.

Tonight is a night where we put the past behind us and start a new era. Tomorrow is a new day, a new year and a new opportunnity.

Seize that.

Make the best of this night that you can because when you get back after the champagne, after the grapes, and maybe one too many beers or glasses of wine; You will be back to the grind, you might go back to doing what you love or a job that you hate, but tonight is that night. A night for change and I night for what we make it.

So make the best of this day!

Do It For Everyone Else

While you're changing all your social media predictions, and making expectations or plans for this new year, I only ask one thing that you include.

Stop doing everything you do for yourself. The time for selfishness in this day and age is over. I am sick of it. Sure you might be in need of a new product, a new marketing plan etc. etc. but come on; can we please stop being so greedy?

Are you a social media professional? Well, what are you doing to help others besides writing blogs, or giving seminars? Try going out there and giving directly to the community, show them what to do, be there with them.

Marketing? What are you doing out of the goodness of your heart for non-profits? Are you cutting them a pricing break (probably not).

Even if you make workout goals...why not try helping someone else workout, wouldn't that still help you?

Just give this a shot, let me know what you think!

Image by Mundilfari*

Letters From Rome pt. 1

I have been in Rome since December 24th, after supposing to have arrived on the 23rd (See: Open Letter to Iberia) This has by far been one of the better trips I have made in my time in Europe. An enjoyable environment with food for the stomach, sights for the eyes, and the best variety of people visiting I have ever seen, but I digress.

Primo Giorno - Day One

After arriving and getting settled into my mother's Aunt's apartment located on Via di Porta Angelica. We decided to walk towards St. Peter's Basilica, a whopping 2 minute walk.

My friends have expressed their jealousy of this time and time again, I still simply consider myself lucky.

After a quick walk around the square we hopped on back to the apartment for dinner. Later, we both prepared ourselves to attend "Midnight" Mass. In reality it finished around midnight, the mass began at 10PM. I took my seat little realizing I was seated next to the Ambassador of Sweden to the Holy See, a really kind gentleman.

Mass proceeded as normal, so I thought until I got home that evening and read that the Pope had been attacked by a mentally unstable young lady. I had no idea what the gasps and further applause were until reading the news.

Otherwise, that quite concludes day one.

Sleep.

Secondo Giorno - Day 2

Christmas Day! Sleep in, wake up late, and enjoy the fruits of Rome. That was the plan for the day! And man did it turn out well. After walking around the square with my aunt, we parted ways as I went out on foot to see what I could find.

Now, I have always been an advocate of what I call. "getting-lost tourism". I don't plan out an exact route, just a general idea of what I want to see, then find the alleyways to get there and see where I end up.

It's the best way to see a city.

I passed by Castel Sant' Angelo, as it is such a great place with much history. Unfortunately the interor was closed. It is Christmas after all.

After walking around town a bit, it's time to head back for dinner. We go to her favorite restaurant Roberto's (good luck linking that one up). I order Gnocci just to spite my brother, it's his favorite Italian dish. For second course, lamb. I'm going to skip the details on the food here simply because words won't be able to describe how content I was.

Instead here's a picture of the gnocci:

So yeah it was good!

Later that night I met up with my friend Marisa, from Spain who happened to be staying in a hotel just around the corner with her family. She has a DSLR, better than my P.O.S. Nikon Coolpix...(nothing against Nikon). I managed to take about 150 shots in just about an hour, surpassing what I've taken in 4 current days, as soon as I get some photos I'll put them up. We walked around, took pictures and had a plain 'ol good time.

Sleep.

Terzo Giorno - Day 3

Today's Mission - Trevi Fountain & the Pantheon

I woke up to a very, very rainy day. It didn't much please me for a day I figured I would be walking around a lot. Sure enough I just donned my rain jacket and hit the streets. I was rather surprised to find how many tourists were out despite the rain. I trekked through the streets and the alleyways to arrive at the Pantheon.

Much to my avail, it was closed. Granted it is the day after Christmas, but I figured a church would be open. Turns out it isn't. Therefore, it was time to take a couple quick pictures of the outside and head off to the Trevi fountain.

More alleyways and sights to see on the way there. The best part is that when you're walking in all of these alleys you find the best shops. Clothes, wine, chocolate, restaurants with maybe the best food you will ever find, and all of it is right there within reach (if you have the money. Not me). I arrived at the fountain and there it was in all it's splendor.

I personally never understood why people spend 30 minutes, an hour, multiple hour, viewing sculptures, architecture, art, etc. My opinion is that when you see it you see it. Check the details that matter to you and move on.

I snapped my photos of the fountain, saw the horses, the sculptures and the intricacy of the designs in the columns. I then made my way home. I didn't want to be in the rain, my feet were wet, and I was starting to get hungry. All of those combined were about to make one grumpy Greg.

I went home and had dinner. This made me happy.

Sleep.

Cuarto Giorno - Day 4 Getting lost at it's finest

I decided that today was a good day to go visit the Colosseum. My aunt told me that near there was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the Forum.

I arrived on the bus at around noon. Saw what needed to be seen, like I said I'm a quick tourist, it makes me sad sometimes because I see things way too fast for my own good. Which in the end makes my writing seem non-descriptive but hey, if you don't like it, don't read.

Therefore, here's another picture.

I then made my way to the Colosseum after going out the backway of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This made me lost. I actually managed to go off of the small map I had. I'm glad I have a good sense of direction. I was forced to walk all the way around the forum, and walk half way back to where I came to get to the Colosseum.

Now, I don't like paying for archaeological sites (or any museum, site, anything really), so I didn't go inside. I was forced by my own conscience to enjoy the Colosseum from the outside.

I then proceded to walk 45 minutes home.

Dinner.

Open Letter to Iberia Airlines

Dear Iberia Airlines,

Tonight, you have made the day before Christmas Eve a hell hole.

I arrived at the Madrid-Barajas airport around 7:25PM expecting to leave on Flight 3618 on time to arrive in Rome and enjoy what was left of my day with my mother's aunt, the only relative I have in the area to spend christmas with because I simply couldn't afford to go home to Chapel Hill, NC.

Now, here's where the complaints start; Firstly, the plane is delayed with no information sent to the display screens in the Madrid airport. About 30-45 minutes later Flight 3618 is displayed as Canceled. So instead of rushing to the customer service desk like the 1000 other stranded clients, I decide to wait for the line to die down and be a patient customer, because I figure, "hey, who knows this flight might appear magically, and I'll have my seat."

Sure enough I finish my beer and sandwich (which is the only think keeping me from losing my mind right now, a full tummy) and I see the departures list with my flight leaving at 04:40 from gate H16 in Terminal 4 of MAD. At around 22:40 I decide to go take a nap at gate H16 so when 04:15 comes around I will be good to go for my flight.

No, I arrive at the gate at 22:50 (because if you haven't been in the Madrid-Barajas airport, terminal 4 is about 1KM long, no lie) only to find that my flight had departed at 22:35.

I want answers:

• How does a departures list not say the proper time? (I have filed a complaint with the airport)
• And why, when on a day there are no planned strikes, are there such delays and problems between two countries that have had the best weather in the past few weeks?!
• When you know things are going to go wrong; why don't you have more than 10 people working for customer service. You need to up the numbers and seriously. About 1000 people are grounded waiting for flights, food vouchers and what not.

You wonder why you post an approx. net loss of 16.4M€? Because you can't keep your unions happy, and when you can't get your flights off the ground, you're spending money for the pains people pay in the airport; ie: food, hotels, drinks. Even in the form of vouchers you're losing.

Stop Losing

Please, I would like to fly with Iberia again, but I simply cannot. I write this open letter so that I hope many others can understand the disorganization of such a company. I want to see this comapany do well, post in the green again, but with such disorganization, I can't encourage it and nor can thousands of others.

I am so sorry for you Iberia.

Social Media Predictions 2010

My Social Media Predictions for 2010.

I did this video in kind of a rush, so please excuse the fact that I say "Secondly" twice.

Comments, let me know!

Gary Vaynerchuck at LeWeb '09

The Small Business Impact

Firstly,

Square; Jack Dorsey's project. I believe will have an economic impact on especially small businesses because it's one of the "simplest" and convenient add-ons for somone offering a good (I don't think this will have as much effect on service based companies).

As TechCrunch puts it:

Think paypal, but anyone can now accept physical credit card payments, too. With no contracts or monthly fees. People are sent receipts by text and email.

With such a huge market share of the mobile world running on the iPhone now, the simple dongle will add usability and ease to transactions.

Though I do agree with Read Write Web:

A regular coffee shop can get a payment terminal for free and only pays about $20 in fees per month (plus a percentage of every transaction).

The Square will cater to brand new businesses who cannot afford the merchant costs and to "mom & pop" stores who are selling more home-made like goods at low prices where the merchant costs become overbearable. In the end this will lead to better management of small business expenses. Therefore causing a better stimulus on the small business market.

Secondly,

Trust. I commented on this yesterday with my video, but to expand on that fact.

Small businesses need trust more than any other large corporation. These small manufacturers, service providers, and sellers need to build their trust database more than anyone else. Because their not fully well known and have a more volatile client base they need to:

1. Keep a consistent returning client base
2. Have an increasing trent of new clients

Other larger companies don't have as much volatility in this case, so the small marketing techniques need to be based more on CRM and a quality product or service for their size (prefferably even competing with the big dogs!). By building thier trust these small businesses will see a huge increase in their word-of-mouth marketing and their returning client base moreso than their new clients!

Check out Chris Brogan & Julien Smith's Trust Agents, and understand your clients' needs!

What do you think the impact on small businesses is?

Image by emdot

LeWeb '09 & New Marketing

I've been following the tweets from LeWeb '09 and have a few thoughts so please check out the video below.

If you can't see this video watch it on YouTube

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Letters from Denmark

This past weekend I took a trip to Denmark with 8 of my closest friends here in Alicante. This is my story for your reading pleasure.

As I was sitting in my room my blank gaze is broken by the sound of the most annoying telephone ring in the world, so naturally I pick it up so it'll shut the hell up. I answer to the sound of - "Hey, wanna go to Denmark for 14€ Round Trip?"

I can't think of anyone who would pass up that offer...

A few weeks later 3 days from leaving we decide we still don't have places to stay, car to rent, food, or any idea really of what the plan was for the trip.

One van, 120€ of food, overweight bags, and one flat rented in Ribe later we're hopping onto a RyanAir flight out of the Alicante airport enroute to Billund.

3 hours on the flight bumming our time not digging into our food, for lack of running out later, games of Uno, the plane arrives safe and sound into the Billund Lufthavn. Now this is the first time I have traveled within Europe to another country, I literally had to do a double take that I didn't need to get a visa stamp into my passport, afterall it is an international flight. I was rather disappointed in the fact that I would be unable to have that nice stamp saying I have according to their government been in that country. So just continued walking through, and to the car rental stoop. Here is where I'm finally nervous, because this car is our lifeline of the trip, without it...we get nowhere. Why? Because the online rental said you had to be 26. Our oldest driver, 22. Sure enough online rental ≠ rental company. 9 Person van, here we come baby.

Jam packed, music full plast, we head down the road in the Danish dark on our way to Ribe, the first stop.

We finally get to the Ribe Byferie to our flat. For nine college kids this place was like a gold mine. Comfortable beds, a kitchen, terrace, a shower was nice, we started to unpack the food and get settled in. The girls were nice enough to start the nightly family dinner; Jamón serrano, jamón york, cheese, toasted bread, this was a feast for the gods in our eyes.

We sat around like a big happy family and got our selves a few beers before seeing what the Ribe nightlife had to offer.

Hours of dancing and a few more beers we head home to call it a night and see the town by light the next morning. We're out of the flat by 10 ready to walk downtown. We park the car and start walking. A quaint town with an obvious ancient viking influence and a sense of community. A town where you can walk to every dead end and corner, and still not see everything, because everything there is to see isn't just the obvious location. It's like an unending treasure hunt.

We start our way to Århus (pronounced ouhrhus) and notice it get's dark at about 4:15PM we dicide it will be a very long night. After arriving at our hostel, where we get a half-assed cusion and a nasty floor for more than an elegant flat, we go walk around Århus. Not into an hour after being in the city that we walk into the local catholic church. You know, to see what nordic influences effected had on churches.

Speaking spanish we're warmly invited by another native to the tongue to coffee and cake. Utterly confused we followed this lady into the belly of the church. We're sat down warmly and served coffee and marble cake. We're joined by about another 10 spanish speaking people realizing we had decided to see this church directly after one of their two spanish masses a month. As they thought we were with them the whole time they understand that we had just gotten there and didn't want to deceive them. The half hour we passed was great, with the company of a community, inviting us into their doings because of a common language.

It's time to be on hour way. After a while we're again, in a bar waiting for our friend's friend to meet us and tell us some great places to see.

You'll see a common theme here, we usually end up the night at some new Danish pub, to see what the local wildlife has to offer.

The next day we decide to see two things. The old-town market, and the deer park.

Old-town market...costed money... 5 hopped the fence, 4 stayed back to not hop fences. I leisurely took the latter, to go see an old windmill, and an green house past of the university. Going from desert to intensely tropical then back out into 40º cold isn't fun on the head but it does provide some cool trees and butterflies!

The deer park took us a bit of driving around, and asking those who spoke english how to get there.

Finally found it and spend about an hour playing with the deer, letting them eat carrots and apples out of our hands while we fed them. If there's one thing you do in life, feed a wild animal, not a petting zoo animal, a wild one where the animal makes the choices.

We dedicded that our hostel was a piece of shit, and had to go to Aalborg and rough it there. We drove an hour out of Åruhus to Aalborg, and finally found a hostel site that offered us a cabin of 6 people for nine. Instead of forcing us into 5 & 4. This way we all sleep in the same building and keep the body heat well adjusted.

After another fulfilling dinner of jamóns and samwiches, we go check out the bars. I order a Hoögarden beer, one of my favorites by taste. My friend sees a couple of cute bonde girls and decides it's a good idea to convince one of them it is his birthday and should take a picture of all of us. She tells him that it's her birthday too, and out table of 9 should join them. This makes the guys happy.

Beer's become too expensive, and we decide to head back and keep the laughs going back in the hostel cabin.The night ends with a really long deep sleep.

After waking up on our own time, and checking out it's time to see Aalborg by day. It definitely beats Århus, but not the quaintness of Ribe. We finally get back to the car and get driving back to Billund to catch the flight home.

We're surprised at the airport by my roommates parents.

They were nice enough to drive us home.

Image by keeshu