Hello everybody. I apologize for the silence out of the intern camp. We’ve been shoulder deep in video-making for a couple weeks. Being busy is a lot like the television remote; you don’t really appreciate it until it’s gone. You get out of bed Sunday morning (or Sunday at around 3 p.m. in my case) and crash on the living room couch, someone left the TV on the public access channel, and you can’t find the remote within an arms’ length. The trip from the couch to the TV seems about the same as conquering Kilimanjaro so instead of making the effort you will settle for watching your local school committee meeting for 2 and a half hours. Admit it, we have all been there. And if you’re really unlucky you will get stuck watching the infomercial for the Snuggie all afternoon.
At least it has arm holes so you can read a book. Can you imagine if your parents and your little sister showed up to your soccer games with those on? I’d call DSS and put myself up for adoption at halftime. All I’m trying to say is when you go home tonight take a moment of quiet reflection to realize how important your remote is. I can’t completely remember how we got to this point in the story but what I think I’m trying to say is, I’m glad we have been busy.
This week is a big week for us. Our first videos are going to be released Thursday and we are pretty excited with how they turned out so far. I think I speak for Ryan too when I say that more than the fun of making them, we’re most happy our bosses enjoy the videos. I’m pretty sure we made Cory cry this morning. At the end of the day, Ryan and I can came up with a video that we think is hysterical, but it doesn’t mean anything to us if our audience doesn’t feel the same way. I don’t want to let the monkey out of the bottle on this one (that doesn’t make sense) but our series being released is part of a “Superheroes” campaign. These videos are a showcase of some of the seemingly normal Dyn Inc. employees that possess office superpowers. We want them to be funny and original, but we also want to display the awesome company culture here and introduce the world to the people that make up Dyn Inc. I haven’t felt this many good vibrations since that time in 92′ when I hung out with Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch and we drove over the rumble strip on I-95 for 2 miles.
Update! Cory just watched our second Superhero video and he cried again. That means we made a grown man cry twice in under 2 hours. It might be time for an intervention.
On a serious note, over the past couple weeks, we’ve learned a lot about promotion. It’s not as simple as, ‘make something and let it run wild.’ You need to tame the beast before you let it out of the cage. We have spent a lot of time on coming up with a promotional strategy for showing the world our videos. It’s all about timing. We have had these videos in our back pocket for a couple weeks now, and we think we came up with the best way to time them. We have the good fortune of having a lot of tools within our reach and a lot of smart people around to help us whenever we ask them to. Here’s a tip, PLAN AHEAD. Give yourself time to get things done and get them done right.
Speaking of tips, what’s the etiquette for tipping at a full service gas station? I didn’t have a full tank when I left the house this morning, but I knew where there was a full service gas station, so I risked the trip just to avoid getting out of my car. The thermometer in my car read -5 degrees, and here is this poor guy filling up my tank with 40 dollars regular. I like to pay it forward. I know if I was in his shoes, a couple bucks would make my day. But then I reached a crossroads; the fundamental law behind tipping is once you start, you can’t stop. I just can’t not tip the guy next time. It doesn’t work like that. It’s inhumane. I’m pretty sure that was brought up at the Geneva Convention. There is no way he will forget me now. The next time I go, I’m going to be expected to tip him. He’s been classically conditioned now. I should have listened to Pavlov. Now I’ll be a jerk the next time. So he came to the window with my receipt, and I signed it, and gave him a couple bucks floating around my cup holder. And you know what? The look on his face was worth much more than $2 to me. He seemed so thrilled. A little goes along way, especially at 7 in the morning on a Monday when it’s below zero.
We hope you all like our videos as much as we do. They will be public by Thursday, so make sure you keep an eye out for the link. We have a schedule to keep so I need to stop sharing the intricacies of gas station ethics and finish these videos. Have a good Monday people. Check out our Office Superheroes!