Lunatic, it screamed at me from the page. My mother rang me, my friends rang me, everyone rang me, my nearly 800 Facebook friends, 1200 twitter followers and countless other contacts across linked in and google + all said the same thing – that is a bit harsh.

Fanatic? Yes. Fanboy? Yes. One eyed passionate brand ambassador (unofficial of course) you bet, however the word lunatic tends to lend an air of crazy blind devotion with no thought or logic used in the decision. An animal instinct. The truth is far different.

My relationship with Apple began back in the fifth grade at school when my teacher let me have computer time on the old Apple II as a reward for getting my work done, and as a motivated youngster that wanted to play the cool games, it actually made me excel at school far more than I had previously (thank you Mr Wort).

In highschool, my dad bought me an Apple Mac 512k. It was awesome, when we first took it out of the box it was friendly. It was easy to setup, it was easy to use, and most of all, it was fun.

Fast forward a few more years and I got my first High School job. Whilst my friends worked at Maccas or Kmart, I was working in a Apple computer shop, learning everything from how to fix a mouse cable, to how to setup the latest software, it was all good training.

My early career pushed me to the dark side and I was forced to use PCs and when I first started my business, I outfitted the office with PCs because at the time, I couldn’t afford Mac computers. When we had a PC network, we had an IT company to look after it for us. However, when we replaced everything with Macs 4 years ago… we no longer needed our IT support company. Why? Because Macs just work.

So that is the historical part of the story, however let me now give you  my non-nostalgic, formed through scrutiny current point of view.

These days, I am a technology business owner, author and speaker. It is my job to understand how technology is used by consumers and help business owners engage with their customers easier.

Technology has reached a point where it is an invisible layer in our daily life. We expect it to work all the time, we expect it to be easy to use, and we expect it to do what we need it to do. Apple has succeeded where others have failed because they have gotten technology into the hands of people who would not have normally been high technology users.

The iPhone now has over 60% share of the smartphone market and has enabled the growth of mobile web browsing and social networking. Two of the biggest shifts in consumer behaviour in the past decade.

Apple are a user centered company. They understand what consumers need long before they realise they want it.

But why do they drive the loyalty of their fans? What makes people travel out from Sydney to arrive in Penrith at 1am? Or from as far away as Newcastle? They make us feel special. Anyone who has bought a new iMac, started it up for the first time and watched the welcome movie, knows what I mean. It is a once per machine experience, a bond between the computer and the user and it is something that makes that computer, somehow more than a piece of technology, it makes it a friend.

Here is what Apple said when they launched their think different campaign….

So am I a lunatic? You Bet!!

Here is an interview I did with ABC 999 Broken Hill just after coming off stage.

ABC999 Rich Evans – Listen

I will post about my roadtrip in the next couple of days, it’s still too soon

RE

This week (my birthday week, but don’t feel you HAVE to sing to me if you don’t want to…) I have flown from Sydney to Melbourne, driven to Bendigo, back to Melbourne, flown to Wagga and then tonight back to Sydney.

A lot of people would see this as a shame that I was away on my birthday, but something strange happened…

Because of my friends on social media, and the mobile web coming to my rescue with some recommendations, I have had a great time.

Firstly I received birthday messages not just from family and friends, but over 100 facebook friends joined in on the celebrations. TO receive this many messages on your birthday was unheard of prior to social media, and some may be cynical and say that it doesn’t mean as much because facebook tells them it is your birthday. Well I have a lot more facebook ‘friends’ than 100, but these 100+ obviously care enough that they made that special birthday connection. They went out of their way to make me feel special, some I knew well, some not at all, but what an amazing tool to create connection.

I even found out that one of my wife’s good friends comes from this part of the world. A little fact I didn’t know before. Some one recently said to me (David Cammilleri I believe) “the reason I like facebook is when I finally meet people in real life, I already know heaps about them”

and that there is the point:

Social media may seem very shallow at a high level, but we are constantly learning little things about people that allow us to already know them well when we meet for the first time.

Don’t believe me… try this, buying something for a family member for Christmas… do you know what to get? Now, think of someone you ‘know’ on facebook but may have only met once in real life… got any ideas what they would like? of course you do!

What this means for us as business owners, is we are learning more and more about more and more people, and eventually when one those people decides they need our help, you will be top of mind for them, and you will already have some idea who they are. It will make the whole process easier.

So keep posting your photos of coffee, bacon, your kids, your t-shirts, your paintings, your cakes, your footy team, and keep sharing your jokes, articles videos, article and songs, they help us learn more about who you are and what makes you tick. And if you are reading this you obviously have been following my rants and stupidity for long enought that you decdided to check this out, so thanks for that.

Stay the course, play crazy.

Rich

Can I call you Gerry? I think I will. As what I have to say to you is said as a friend to a friend, even though we aren’t actually friends, but you know what I mean…

Firstly , I understand. I understand that this is a very important battle that you are undertaking and that the retailing businesses in Australia, small and large would benefit from you winning the case, if the problem actually existed.

I am concerned that you have underestimated the intelligence of the people online in Australia and have tried to give us a ‘War of the World’s’ type of entertainment about how everyone in Australia is buying online cheap, and how that will make your stores suffer. IMHO (In my humble opinion, I know you might not have known what that meant, see we speak like that sometimes online… LOL!) it is not anywhere near as bad as you seem to believe or are trying to make out that it is.

If anyone is going to buy a TV online, it would be me, I am online approx 80% of my day every day. However, just last weekend, I bought a TV from a retail store. I was shopping on price, but I also wanted convenience, I had my 6 year old son with me and I needed it quick, in the back of the car and I wanted to go home.

I am sorry to say I did not go to a Harvey Norman store, my perception was that it would be too expensive, and parking at Penrith is a drama (but I know you already helped us with that one, so thanks). I bought a generic brand from a local retailer cheaper than that nasty Mr Kogan could do, and I was able to pick it up up that day and plug it in to put a smile on my sons face.

Now I will say at this point that I am not an expert in retailing, unless you are talking about retailing online, which I do quite a lot of, helping other Australian companies make the switch and include online in their mix, which is what I am proposing right now.

See I think people may have misjudged you, but that is not entirely their fault. Whilst it is true that retailing is an important part of your business, my understanding, and correct me if I am wrong, is that you are in the business of franchising, giving people locations/opportunities to sell goods. So your customer is not me, but it is the franchisee at Penrith. He put down his cold hard cash to be part of the Harvey Norman brand, seen as one of the strongest in Australian Retailing because it would draw customers into the store where he could sell TV’s and make money.

Now I am not aware of exactly how your franchise works, but I am pretty sure that if you just started selling online as everyone is suggesting you do, then Mr Franchisee would get pretty upset. He would see that as you taking HIS customer, almost double dipping, which we all know is not cool. That’s why it is easy for woolworths to sell online, because they always sell direct to the consumer, but for you not so easy. As I said earlier, I understand. It is the same reason no major brands sell direct to the public, imagine if they did, how upset would everyone be then.

But I am excited for you, because you are Gerry Harvey. You can lead a game changing way of embracing the internet and making it work for large retailers. Don’t just think it is about price, because it’s not. For me shopping online is getting things I can’t find anywhere else, price rarely comes into it.

There is an old business saying that says:

You can choose any 2 from the following list

• Good
• Cheap
• Fast

So if it’s Good & cheap, it won’t be fast.

If it’s Cheap & Fast, it won’t be good.

And if it’s Fast and good, then it is not going to be cheap.

Online retailers have always thought it was about being Cheap. But sometimes it is FAST! Luckily for you, most of the online retailers that are having a go at you are focusing on cheap, but being cheap is never a good position to be, because then you get the price shoppers who are always one discount away from being the customer of someone else.

So here is my magic 5 step online business mode to save Harvey Norman without upsetting the franchisees…

1. Setup an online store of stock available from Harvey Norman stores
2. Let consumers buy their product online with a saving because now we don’t have to get a slaesman involved etc, but make it a small saving, don’t worry about being the cheapest. People just like to think they are getting a bargain.
3. Given you already have a distribution network (a plus) all over Australia offer FREE delivery. Let the transaction still happen via the closest store so the franchisee gets his slice, and he delivers it.
4. Value add for the customer and the franchisee, offer a service for Installation and training for a small amount. And take the box away for them (biggest headache ever for me!)

Happy customer bought online, for a small discount (probably nothing more than they could have negotiated instore) had their new TV setup, for a small fee by the nice man, who also took the box away.

Sure it has some holes and probably needs some number crunching in a few areas, but it shows that being the cheapest online is not always where the battle is, be the BEST! Because then there is no price competition.

Changing the laws on imports etc would be one way to battle the perceived problem , but that’s not what it’s about Mr Harvey, there is always a better way.

Your Friend

Rich Evans

From the first 30 seconds you start thinking “is Mark Zuckerberg really like this”, and having known some intelligent people over the years who are very gifted but annoyingly pretentious, I assume he may in fact be. If so, Jesse Eisenberg has a very bright future as a actor as he got you to a point very quickly where you just wanted to beat the smarmy I am better than you attitude out of him.

I have not read the book the film was based on but intend to get it today.

The chopping and changing of different time sequences is a little odd at first but as the film unfolds it works really well, giving you direct context to the conversations taking place.

Some of the unexpected things for me were the sad stories and the sacrifices that seem to have been made, the things that happen to a company when opportunists get involved and it grows beyond the capability of the founders to control and the price you pay for success can sometimes be far too high.

All in all, it is a very good movie, my only down side was that I felt ended far too abruptly, like it hadn’t actually finished, but then it dawned on me, neither has facebook… to be continued?

RE

Let’s get one thing straight, there is a straw that broke this camels back on this topic yesterday, however the ranty-ness is not entirely focused at that person, it is focused at everyone that is partaking in this exploitative behavior.

There is a trend growing among people to run ‘competitions’ to have things done for their business. The most common, and perhaps the most insulting is the ‘Design our logo and win hardly any money’ competition.

Let’s get one thing straight. I am a designer. I make money and support not only my family but the families of my employees, the community and many others with the money I make. I am not a large ad agency, I am a small business owner, one of the people that make up the back bone of this fine (if somewhat ungoverned) country.

Let’s get another thing straight. I have done a LOT of Pro Bono work over the years for causes I felt compelled to support, or even businesses that were getting going and needed a hand, but I did this by choice and because I was in a position to do so.

As a new young designer, I was lucky that I never had anyone exploit my like this, because there was at least some respect for talent and not everyone thought they were a designer.

The problem with someone who looks at a basic logo (lets say Mcdonald’s famous golden arches) is you have NO IDEA how much effort goes into making something look simple. Nor how much time it takes to develop your craft enough that you can make something effective and beautiful quickly.

It is kind of like ordering everything on the menu at a restaurant and then only paying for the meal you enjoyed the most, but deciding that the meal is only made up of $5 worth of ingredients so that is what you will pay.

There is a sign in my Tattoo Artists shop that says

Good work is not cheap, Cheap work is not good

That sums it up perfectly, but in the creative industry, we struggle to get people to understand that. We do not just enter your business name and favourite colour into a big machine and 3 minutes later your branding pops out. We sit, we sketch, we probably do 100 different versions before we show you 3. That is a process that takes not only time, but also talent (and not to mention expensive software and tools of trade).

The other side to this rant is that what you are offering in value rarely stacks up as high as what you think… Telling me you will tell everyone that I designed your free logo, is going to make it really hard for me to sell my services to those people in the future because they think the value is a big fat 0.

It may be useful for a student to participate in this sort of competition so they get some things in their portfolio, but aside from that, there is no value for me to participate in this type of competition/business startup/whatever.

The best ever explanation of just how ridiculous this situation is can be found here.

My time is worth money. My years of experience are worth money. My talent is priceless. If you want that for free, go and screw yourself!

The fact is that in business and communities there are always people that we come across that just rub us the wrong way. The difference in real life is we avoid them like the plague… see them coming towards you at a networking function, good time to take a bathroom break! However, it seems in the race to the most friends/followers on social, we’ll accept those same people into our ‘network’.

Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II said: keep your friends close but your enemies closer.

(This is often misattributed to Sun Tzu… which i did the other day, i stand corrected)

This social environment we now find ourselves in lends itself to this, however something Sun Tzu DID say:

A leader leads by example not by force.

Now this is the thing that we need to hold to.

The other day I started a conversation about having a local catch up of Social Media junkies in the Penrith area, this got a small thread going that was in turn, turned into a slash fest of external promotion and subsequent backlash from people that were loyal to me.

I prefer not to get involved, I actually tried to diffuse the situation, because reality was, people that wanted to hear what I had to say heard it. People that try and push their own agenda on your posts/wall strike me like the doormen on a strip club, “cmon mate, come in, our ladies are the best…” when you know full well, that inside the door is going to be a whole world of nasty … (from what I have heard).

• Got a problem with someone? Tell them in private.
• Don’t want to hear what they have to say? Unfriend them
• Sick of all the crap that instant experts are stealing/selling… offer an alternative! or STFU

I think the only way to stand tall above all this is to be yourself, your true self and not get involved in mudslinging, crap digging or any other rubbish online, the same as you would not in the ‘real’ world.

No one is forcing you to be on social media, no one is forcing you to friend anyone. I have said no to a bunch of people, why, because i know who they are and they have nothing to do with my life.

Thankfully, however, I feel that the balance is squarley in the friends side of the argument. I think the frenemies are few and far between and their abrasive nature will ensure they attain their rightful place at the top of scrapheap of hasbeen wannabes. Cream always rises to the top so do what you do best and leave the mudflinging to the pollies, they are best at it anyway.

Just A Thought,

RE

however, as you can see from the photo my view is kinda cool. Left the family back at the house to chillout and probably walk down to the beach, so I could get a little ‘me’ time.

Failing to find an appropriate lil asain massage place, and realising that my options for retail therapy in Batemans Bay are slim to none, I have opted for sitting in a park, and catching up on some podcasts (thanks to my ipad), some writing and then, some thinking.

I used to have a lot of thinking time, however, a lot changes when you need to sleep in 2-3 hour bursts thanks to the new princess.

An so the thoughts begin… It is June ALREADY! Wholly bat crap bat man, how did that happen? nearly half way thru the year, some things are right on track, some things have failed to go where I needed them to, but all in all, pretty happy with the progress we are making.

A statement I made earlier in the year is resounding in my head

‘careful what you wish for, you might just get it’.

This is ringing very true in a number of areas in our business, and it is a nice problem to have, however finding good people to join the team is going to be a constant struggle. (If you are a superstar designer or developer, or just looking to join a dynamic business let me know rich@redd.com.au)

We are all set for a big second half of the year, and there are some very cool things coming up.

I will keep you updated with those over the coming weeks but the thing I am most excited about is the launch of my click here revolution site (I know FINALLY!!!!) on July 1. Why has it taken so long. Well everytime we thought we were ready to launch, someone else launched something, so we continually stopped, looked at what the competition had done, then made sure ours was better… but I have decided that we now have a product that will be best in breed and is ready to go.

If you are on the mailing list for that you will get advanced warning and you can help us with the final beta testing, if you are not, make sure you follow us on facebook.

Oh well, off to lay in the sun and listen to steve jobs wwdc keynote again… all is as it should be in the world.

There are many reports out there saying that the iPad serves no purpose? I question if they have actually spent time with one, really spent time?

After just two short weeks I could not imagine life without it. Everywhere I need to, I have my stuff, this will improve even further when I get the 3g model, but thanks to clever apps, like this word press one, I am mr on the go.

It has to be said that a lot of what I have done on the iPad is also able to be done on a laptop or a phone, but not as easily. Take the current situation, i am balancing the iPad on one leg and typing , it just wouldn’t work balancing my MacBook. And my iPhone is too small to effectively type this fast and accurately.

So the iPad is exactly what steve promised, a device that did some things better than a phone and some things better than a laptop.

It does not replace either entirely, but in some situations it is the best device.

So let me tell you my very few frustrations so far….

1. The app store is not open. I know this is because they are not available here yet, but seriously where is the downside apple? You might make more money… What a shame

2. Following on from point 1… There seems some odd omissions, calculator? There has been one on every phone and computer in the last 20 years?… Did you forget? And a todo list, there is an awesome diary, how hard can it be to add a task list? I am certain when the app stoe opens there will be a 3rd party alternative, but I see these as things that should be here.

That is all I have for downside, upside there is heaps, but I don’t want to come off as a raving fanboy… Maybe it’s too late for that.

Any way, whilst I could keep typing… I am now in a bucket load of pain… So ..

See ya!