Hitting Diamond is bitter sweet in many ways. Sure, I should get upgraded on just about every flight I take next year, but it also means that I have spent a lot of time away from my family this year and wayyyyy too much time in a confined space. Perhaps I was slap happy from all the travel… but I decided to poke Delta on Twitter about my “Up in the Air” moment.

To be honest I didn’t expect anything from them. Delta is a great airline, but I wouldn’t exactly call them playful or over the top. My impression has always been that they are very corporate, buttoned up and professional. Their customer service is strong, but their brand personality has always felt bland compared to that of Jetblue or Southwest.

Showing the Love

When I walked up to the gate there seemed to be an awful lot of Delta employees crowded around the desk. The gate attendant came on the loud speaker and announced, “Ladies and gentleman I have a very special announcement. I would like to congratulate Mr. Edward Murphy for making Diamond Medallion status. Mr. Murphy we would like to present you with a token of our appreciation.” Whaaaaaa?!?!

I walked up to the desk and was greeted by a team of Delta employees. They presented me with a framed certificate and a special Delta bag. We took pictures and all of the employees shook my hand. The entire gate area was clapping and shouting. They then provided me with a private escort onto the plane.

Once on the plane (in first class) the passengers were high-fiving me as they passed by. Each flight attendant came by to personally thank me for my business. The pilot came on the PA and congratulated me as well. I was floored. I felt like a rockstar… I was tweeting and texting my friends like crazy.

When I landed I noticed that I had a voicemail from a number I didn’t recognize. I played the message and my jaw dropped. A Delta VP called me while I was in the air apologizing that he couldn’t be at the gate, thanking me for my business and giving me his personal phone number if I should ever need him. Freakin’ awesome.

The ROI of Being Awesome

The total hard cost of everything that Delta did to celebrate my special flight was probably about $50 (for the certificate, frame and bag). All the employees were already at work; so was the person manning their Twitter account. I figure I spend about $30,000 a year on flights and I am now a customer for life. Not a bad return on investment for a little extra effort. Not only did they win me over for life, but my tweets reached my 27k followers and I have a feeling at least some of them will be making a switch soon.

Employees Love to Delight

You could tell from the Delta employees that this is not something that Delta does every day… but they should. The employees were genuinely happy for me and excited to be celebrating the occasion with me. Not only was I thrilled with the experience, they were to. They were proud to be associated with a company that would do something so cool for a customer. Empowering employees to take care of customers truly delights both parties.

What Can Your Company Do?

What Delta did for me didn’t cost a lot of money. It didn’t require months of planning (this all went down in a matter of hours). What it did require was listening to their customers and moving quickly to show they care.

Over my years in business I have been blessed with the opportunity to meet many successful people. The one thing that they all have in common is that they know themselves. They know their individual talents and areas of opportunity. They focus their efforts on their strengths and acknowledge their weaknesses. They understand how their personal gifts can best be utilized and surround themselves with others who excel in the areas wherein they are deficient.

I’m No Bean Counter

When I first started down the path of raising money for IZEA I made a mistake. I thought that in order to raise money from Wall Street I had to be like many of the people on Wall Street. I put on my suit, polished my shoes and proceeded to give boring, data-centric presentations. I was deadly serious because I wanted to be taken seriously. I kept to my script because I didn’t want people to feel like I didn’t have the answers to everything.

It felt unnatural to me. I felt like I wasn’t playing off my strengths. It was like getting on stage and singing to a crowd of Grammy winning recording artists. It was the worst possible thing I could have done. They knew I wasn’t me… and so did I.

The best advice I got during my initial fundraising process was to “take advantage of your strengths and be yourself”. My advisors helped me realize that I didn’t need to be a bean counter to be successful in fund raising. “Let your CFO be the CFO. She can deal with the deep dive into numbers. You be the visionary. That is what you are best at.”

I ditched the suit for jeans and cowboy boots, put on my smile and haven’t looked back since.

What Are Your Gifts?

It is easy to look past the gifts we have been blessed with because they are naturally a part of us. Sometimes we even hide these gifts because we think our audience wants something else. Your areas of intellectual acuity, your artistic abilities, your personality, sense of humor and even your looks can all be used to your advantage. Don’t let these things go to waste, and don’t downplay them because they are innate to you.

Take every advantage of them, they are your competitive edge.

Photo credit : Cayusa

Daily Deals are Broken.

I believe he current model utilized by many “daily deal” companies is broken. They prey on restaurants, spas and other small business owners who don’t have the technology to track the effectiveness of the deal or easily retain a customer once a discount has been given. IZEA’s solution focuses exclusively on e-commerce merchants who are better equipped to track repeat customers and obtain contact information for future marketing. Our goal is to help great companies of all sizes attract and retain customers, not cycle through a new deal every day.

You can check out our first deal above. This one is for a long time customer Pexagon Technology. They offer personalize thumb drives, ipod cases, hard drives and more. I carry a little Ted.me thumb drive with me all the time. Their products are quality and I love that they include the personalization for free.

What to get your own deals? Sign up for SocialSpark.

I would like to share a different point of view. I believe America’s ultra rich and successful are one of the greatest assets our country has. Contrary to popular belief only 20% of millionaires inherit their money, the remaining 80% are self-made millionaires. These are the people creating jobs. These are the people who build the things we can’t live without. I believe people like Gates, Buffet and the late Steve Jobs are more valuable than any oil field or gold reserve.

In the U.S. our rich (and aspiring rich) create wealth not only for themselves, but everyone they touch. They are a unique natural resource created by our capitalist society. I don’t want to eat the rich, I want meet them, learn from them, leverage their financial resources and become one of them.

America needs the rich.

Think about the companies that lead the world in innovation. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Intel, eBay. What do all these companies have in common? The entrepreneurs that created them were all backed by rich, successful people and the venture funds that they invest in. There is a tremendous trickle down effect that few people realize or acknowledge.

When I look at a company like eBay I am amazed by the magnitude of the trickle down effect. In 1997 eBay received $6.7million in venture capital from Benchmark Captial. At the time the company had $4.7million in revenue. No bank would have loaned them that much and raising that kind of money from family and friends would have been impossible. Without some smart, wealthy investors willing to place a very risky bet eBay would have never happened.

Who cares? Well… 17,700 employees care, not to mention the millions of users who will conduct over $10 billion in transactions this year. eBay has created a wealth of jobs both directly and indirectly and I for one am happy that the rich were there to fund it and help it grow.

The very tools that are funding the #occupy uprising are a direct result of investments made by the rich. Social platforms like Twitter and Facebook didn’t make a dime for years and would never have made it past their first couple of months without big money pouring in.

Yes, the rich get richer… but they take everyone else along for the ride.

There are now thousands of people gathered together using their iPhones (APPL) to upload videos to YouTube (GOOG) on AT&T (ATT) and Verizon (VZ) networks, sipping Starbucks (SBUX) and taking bathroom breaks at McDonalds (MCD). They are dressed in clothes from GAP (GPS) and American Eagle (AEO), writing on paper signs from International Paper (IP) with markers and pens manufactured by BIC (BIC). People are demonstrating against the very companies that they depend on every day to provide them everything from food and clothing to communication and entertainment.

The idea of corporate greed is altogether wrong.

Corporations don’t have desires, people do. People are greedy. People want more. They want more service from companies for less money. They want higher paying jobs. They want cars and homes they can’t afford. They want a better lifestyle for themselves and their family. They want it not because they have earned it or because it makes fiscal sense, but because they feel they deserve it. Entitlement spans the entire gamut of society from the rich to the poor.

This is the real greed that is ruining our country.

We need to look no further than our government to see the collective greed of the people. We are $14.8 trillion dollars in debt and have an annual budget deficit of $1.3 Trillion. The government is hemorrhaging money and we continue to increase the debt ceiling to fuel the unrealistic demands of the general public. We all want more… we push our politicians to get more… and we are drowning in debt as a result.

We are in this situation because most of our politicians don’t have the strength to say, “NO”. Our system rewards the short term “YES” despite the consequences and long term fiscal health of our country. Democrat or Republican, it doesn’t matter. Politicians get reelected on platforms of increased allocations, not cuts…tax reductions, not revenue generation.

The exact opposite is true in the corporate world. CEOs are selected and rewarded based on their ability to grow the top line, manage the bottom line and make the hard cuts when needed. Most major public corporations are profitable. It is not because they are greedy, it is because they are fiscally responsible and have a duty to their shareholders. I am not going to say that their aren’t issues with corporate governance, but I wish our government was managed more like a corporation.

Every CEO would love to pay their employees more, offer more benefits, increase dividends, upgrade infrastructure and make huge investments in the future. The reality is that there is only so much money to go around and they can’t do it all. CEOs can’t print more money… but the government can and does because of us… because of the peoples greed.

Corporations are not our problem. We are our problem.

Redirect the Energy

The energy of this movement is exciting and intense; I just feel it is wasted and misguided. I believe unemployment is at the heart of the unrest, causing people to point fingers and look for a scapegoat. Protesting about corporate greed doesn’t create more jobs. If anything it freaks investors out, drives the markets down and devalues the very corporations that could be hiring. If the organizers of the movement really want to have an impact they should change the message to be one of job creation and entrepreneurism.

#startupwallstreet

What if those thousands of people came together to create startups instead of protesting? What if we were able to harness all that negative energy, hate and resentment to turn the world into a better place? What if those gatherings created hundreds of new companies, with new lives and futures for people who are currently unemployed? What if the organizers actually welcomed corporations to sponsor the movement and provide seed capital to the new startups?

Instead of #occupywallstreet how about #startupwallstreet?

I believe that there are positive ways to approach any problem. America was built on optimism and capitalism, let’s not sit around complaining about corporations keeping us down… lets go out there and create a the next generation of corporations.

We need corporations, but that doesn’t mean we can’t change the way they are run. If you think you can do it better go out there and start your own!

Two people have stoked my entrepreneurial fire for as long as I can remember… my father who literally created me, cared for me, mentored me, and supported everything I have ever wanted to do… and Steve Jobs, a man who I have never met or corresponded with in any way (despite many attempts of mine).

Steve accomplished so many things in his life that I can’t possibly list them all, but I believe his biggest contribution to the world was being an iMentor. Steve’s boldness, perseverance, work ethic and incredible attention design have guided me without our physical paths ever crossing (though I was so close at one MacWorld). I can’t tell you how many times I have thought to myself “what would Steve do?” I know I drive my development team crazy at times and it is thanks to Steve teaching me that good isn’t good enough. I want things to be “insanely great” and I am not alone.

An entire generation of entrepreneurs have been iMentored by Steve. His mark extends far beyond the iPhone in your hand or the iMac on your desk. From movies to music to robots and quantum physics, the people that are changing the world draw strength from following Steve’s long road to success.

Steve taught me that disruptors are often hated before they are loved, that the best ideas come from your heart (not focus groups), and most importantly to never give up on something that you believe in (even if your board or investors do).

Apple burst on the scene with the Apple I & II and that was incredible, but what really impressed me was the long term commitment Steve made despite what seemed like insurmountable odds. Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy and Steve came back to transform the company with his vision and commitment to innovation.

I have been there. I have been running on vapor. I have had everyone tell me I was crazy. I have been told, “don’t waste any more of your money.” I have been told to “just give up.”

I knew Steve wouldn’t give up. My dad doesn’t give up. I never give up.

I am no Steve Jobs. There is only one. However, I do hope that in some way my actions, failures and success can iMentor a new generation of entrepreneurs, developers and designers following their dreams.

I will miss you Steve. Give iGod a high five for me. I will buy you a beer when it is my time.

Things have changed over the years. I spend most of my day in meetings. I travel constantly. Inspiring brainstorms with designers and engineers on beanbags have largely been replaced with giant oak tables lined with lawyers, bankers and investors. I am pursuing the same dream, but in many ways it feels like I am living a different life. When I was in college I considered myself to be an artist that happened to be entrepreneur, in reality I am an entrepreneur that happens to be an artist.

I don’t think I am alone in this. Many founders struggle with identity issues as their organization grows and their roles change. Some fight it. I have chosen to adapt my creative energy to my changing role over time.

Creative Energy

You may think of yourself as a coder, a designer, a writer or photographer… but what you really are is a creative. You do things differently. You are an inventor… a visionary. Once you recognize that your true asset is raw creative energy, you can learn to adapt and convert that energy to overcome any challenge (and make any task fun).

Business as Usual + Unusual = Art

I spend a large part of my time these days meeting with people in suits. I am talking buttoned up, cuff link-wearing, hard-core wall street types. I could grab my suit and conform. I could be absorbed into the machine and “act like a public company CEO”. Instead I see these meetings as an opportunity to adapt my creative talent and demonstrate what makes our company special. I don’t want my meetings to be business as usual. I want to share what makes our business unusual.

I walk in wearing cowboy boots, jeans and the biggest smile they have ever seen. I yell with excitement. My pitch includes offbeat photos, jokes and enough passionate energy to power a small city. I blaze through 60 slides in 20 minutes. I rock their world.

I have spent hundreds of hours tweaking my investor presentation. It features photos and videos I have personally created. It is story that includes my wife, my dog, my trials of the past and vision of the future. It may not be a new website or logo, but when I deliver it in front of an audience it is art.

I am still an artist, I just paint with different tools. You can find an opportunity to adapt your creativity in virtually any job role. Every change is a new canvas begging for your paint.

(Except for accountants. Sorry, I don’t want you guys getting creative.)

I tried the card scanner route. It was a good idea, but unfortunately OCR just can’t deal with all the different variations in fonts, sizes and layouts that people have on their cards. That… and I really don’t want to spend what little time I have at home scanning in business cards.

Enter CardMuch

CardMunch is one of the best business productivity apps I have found to date. CardMuch allows you to take photos of business cards with your iPhone. I can do it at the airport or even on the plane. It then uploads the photo of the card to a server where actual humans enter data and review the information for accuracy. Once processed they synch the contact information back to your phone and create an address book record. Even better… it will auto send a LinkedIn invite so your contact data is never out of date. It’s free (for now anyway) and I love it.

Well…I have got news for you people… even at $2.50 gas is dirt cheap!

Oil is Non-Renewable.

Let’s put all the environmental, political and humanitarian issues aside for a second. The simple fact is that the oil we pull from the ground was created over the course of millions of years. It is non-renewable and we are sucking it down at a rate that is not sustainable. Eventually there will be no oil to speak of, but in the near term we will certainly see the end of “cheap oil”.

You Pay More for Your Starbucks

A Venti (24oz) iced coffee at Starbucks costs around $4.00, that is $0.16 per fluid ounce. The average cost for a gallon of gas in the U.S. as of today is $3.52, that is $0.0275 a fluid ounce. To put that in context if you paid the same price for a gallon of gas as you do for a gallon of Starbucks it would cost you $20.48 per gallon. That in itself is a pretty amazing fact, but when you start to look at the numbers in terms of raw energy it is even more amazing.

The price for a barrel of crude oil is right around $100.00 today, that is 5,376 fluid ounces or $0.0186 per fluid ounce. That same barrel filled with Starbucks would cost you $860.16! I am not complaining about Starbucks. I love Starbucks… but let’s just put everything in perspective when it comes to price. Yes… even your Dunkin’ Donuts cost more than a gas ounce for ounce.

Gas Should be More Expensive

Did you know that the 1 barrel of oil equates to 25,000 hours of human labor (12.5 years at 40 hours per week). The energy density of oil is simply amazing and our thirst for energy is causing us to consume more oil than the earth has to give. Many scientists believe that we have already reached peak oil production and we will begin to see a downhill slope over the coming years.

As we deplete this incredible resource we  should not only expect the price to go up, our government should inflate the price of gas to ween us off this terrible addiction faster, before the oil is completely gone. I would personally love to see gas at $20.00 per gallon within the next 10-15 years, with a clear plan that outlines exactly how and when the prices will be raised in advance so the public knows what is coming. In my opinion, all tax revenue generated from the increase should be invested directly in research and development of alternative energy projects.

I’m No Angel

Sure, I have switched out my light bulbs. I try to turn off the power. But let’s face it… I drive a truck. I have a boat and jet skiis. I don’t carpool. However, I think more and more about my personal gas-guzzler vehicles every day. I would buy an electric F-150 tomorrow. Same with the jet-skiis and the boat (my dad is working on a mass-production electric boat if anyone is interested). If gas was at $20.00 a gallon right now I think alternative modes of transportation, whether electric vehicles or mass transit would be a bigger priority for our government and the private sector. I am really happy that the Chevy Volt is finally here, but in my opinion it has taken far too long.

An Ugly Future

If we keep running at this rate with no intervention to slow consumption we will eventually come to a point of unavoidable crisis. Everyone will wake up and realize that the resource we depend so heavily on for everything from cheap gas to cosmetics to clothing is no longer bountiful.

Think about it… we will have a bunch of unkempt, naked people riding around on bicycles.

Nobody wants that : )

Medallion Qualification Segments

The key to leveling up on Delta is Medallion Qualification Segments (MQMs). You can earn traditional “Miles” in thousands of way, but MQMs are a different story. You can’t earn them from buying flowers, renting a car or eating out. You can’t buy them either. For the most part you have to travel the actual miles to earn MQMs. However, there are periodic promotions and other methods that allow you to rack up MQMs in a big way.

In November I scored 25,000 MQMs for transferring 50,000 AMEX rewards points to my Delta account. That is the difference between Silver and Gold Status. This promotion is no longer active, but I hope they bring it back in 2011. This got me way closer to my Platinum goal, but what put me over the edge was the American Express Delta Reserve Credit Card.

AMEX Delta Reserve Card

I have been an American Express customer since 1999. They are my credit card of choice for business and personal use. I love their service and was delighted when I found out that they had a special high end credit card for Delta. With this card you earn 10,000 MQMs with your first purchase and can earn an additional 30,000 MQMs if you spend $60,000 or more per year on your card – which is doable if you are using it for business expenses. In addition to the MQMs you also get some great benefits:

• Check your first bag free (for up to nine people)
• Access the Delta Sky Club (free booze, Internet and comfortable seats)
• You can gift MQMs to other people
• Annual companion certificate for a free ticket
• Pay with miles lets you buy any ticket with miles without blackouts
• 24 Hour Concierge

At $450 the card is not cheap and the APR of 14.5% isn’t great, but if you are a frequent flyer that pays your bills every month (and has excellent credit) this is right up your alley. I have only had the card for a month and it has already paid for itself in baggage fees alone.