Tim Miles, Wizard of Ads | The Daily Blur » Home

“He was just … so into you.”

Tim — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 17:49:36 +0000

Thanks, Coach.

No related posts.

Give A Wittle Bit

Tim — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:31:40 +0000

“This is my fwend Scotty.”

The boy’s friend (and ours), Uncle Scotty, gets up around 4:30 every morning to be best buddy to about 40 or 50,000 of his closest friends.

He’s been in the conversation for the best morning show in America many times over, and he’s a busy, busy guy. Lots of people want a piece of his time.

Sound familiar? Seems like everybody wants just a minute here or there, doesn’t it?

In many ways, for many people, time is now a more valuable currency than money.

Yet, Scotty always has time for his fwend, Will Miles. Yesterday, he was the mystery reader at the sublime Stephens College Children’s School here in Columbia.

Here he is regaling the kids with his rendition of Aunt Nancy and Cousin Lazybones. He had them laughing. He had them leaning forward. He even had one or two picking their noses in delight.

He also could have easily said, “Sorry, buddy. I just don’t have the time.”

But he made the time.

In my little talk, All the Difference, I suggest you figure out a way to volunteer some of your time to a small, local not-for-profit organization.

Make the time.

Make a difference.

Maybe even make a new fwend.

Thanks, Uncle Scotty.

A Weekly Blur

Tim — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 13:01:08 +0000

Phew. What a week. How about you?

We spent most of the last week in Illinois visiting mom and dad and celebrating perfect weather for planting corn.

We’re very big on seed time and harvest around these parts.

Want to learn how patience is the greater expression of commitment? Spend a little time with a farmer. Those crops which yield the most bountiful harvests take the longest.

Since the week whirred by, I wanted to give you a quick glimpse into some things you may have missed that are worth a couple minutes of your valuable weekend time.

My buddy Tom Wanek’s 7-year-old daughter, Olivia, wrote a poem I think you’ll like.

My buddy Michele Miller wrote a fantastic little piece about the importance of opening gestures in work and life.

Seth Godin wrote a great bit this morning about being addicted to stuff that’s incoming versus focusing your time on doing fun, interesting, and important work.

I gave a new talk on Practical Applications of Social Media for Small Business that went over very well.

I’m no expert – be wary of 99.9% of people who tell you they are experts in social media (and run for the hills if anyone proclaims himself a guru) - but I’ve been fortunate to have some success with clients in a few different categories. We’re illustrating those case studies and the audience this week ate it up.

While there, I met a tremendous young staff writer from the local paper who really understands the future of newspapers if they’re to survive.

She’ll be an important voice in Champaign County for years to come … if she doesn’t get frustrated and move onto a different industry. She wrote a small recap of the talk here, but you might get distracted by the lede of the story about some cats that’ll teach you to play bagpipes.

We’re going to be expanding the Practically Social talk in a couple fun and interesting and important ways. Stay tuned.

After the presentation, I got to lead a meeting at United Way of Champaign County with a group of impressively committed volunteers and staff. They’re trying to re-write and improve their mission statement. We had a great session that started with Dan Heath’s video from Fast Company to understand why most mission statements suck. It’s worth a look.

I’ll try to expand on our session and the methods we used. We were striving for clarity. It worked, and it was a lot of fun.

And my wife had a birthday, and my son and I played catch for the first time, and he said “I love you” for the second time, and my daughter’s about to crawl and start doing trigonometry (I think).

That’s been our weekly blur. And while I’m sure some of them social media experts would tell you I shouldn’t blog or send out emails on Saturdays, this is going to be a regular thing.

On Saturdays, I’ll start emailing out The Weekly Blur.

It’ll be different content than the blog, though it may have some links to something from the week, but it’ll also give you something to hopefully enjoy over coffee. You can sign up for the one email per week here if you’re interested.

Today, the boy’s going to help grandpa plant corn. Hope grandpa can teach him a little patience. And Baby Sarah might just crack cold fusion.

Here’s to a weekend full of fun and interesting and important new beginnings.

Living on the Spectrum

Tim — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:54:18 +0000

In what could only be described as an historic display of bad judgment, Columbia Home & Lifestyle Magazine asked me for 1000 words about Will and Touchpoint Autism Services.

This is the fancy digital version.

You can either click here or on the image below to open their reader in a new window. It should take you straight to the column.

Mom – I hope you can figure this out … :)

Click Image to Read Article (Opens In New Window)

Sick Words

Tim — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:11:27 +0000

So, your tummy starts hurting a little bit on Sunday. You don’t sleep much, but you get up and head to St. Louis for a day of meetings.

Your tummy hurts a little more. You sleep a little less.

Tuesday you go see the doc at the urging of your mother. Yes, even though you’re almost 40, you still listen to your mother.

Good boy.

After a day’s worth of needles, barium shakes, CT scans, and one gloved finger you don’t really want to discuss, you find out you have something called diverticulitis – which is painful as heck but can at least be treated over ten days with antibiotics if you don’t mind the nausea.

So, the good news? You don’t need to have your appendix removed. The bad news? You have something called diverticulitis.

I thought a lot about this last night as I wasn’t sleeping.

And I think I’d be less bothered by it if were named ‘puppies’ or ‘frisbee’ or something fun.

That said, there were about forty others in the CT lab waiting room yesterday at Boone Hospital (thanks for the free WiFi!), and they all appeared to be in various stages of ‘worse’ and ‘off’ than me. I have an old friend – same age as me – who’s about to leave us forever after a long battle with breast cancer.

Life is short. I have no problems – only lessons and the occasional discomforting inconvenience.

My family’s home after 11 days away. I’m not recovering from surgery today. I’ve gotten to talk to my mama several times in the last couple days.

And I learned the next time I get to name something – in sickness or health – I’m not going to name it something scary.

Words matter – for better and worse. Why not pick a few to give someone hope, encouragement, peace, or a little comfort today?

No related posts.

Ugly But Functional

Tim — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:38:06 +0000

Like me, the blog doesn’t look very good, but it’s workin’ … I think I got everything fixed except it seems I lost a lot of the images, and the cosmetics need fixing.

But, at the end of the day, do you care? Probably not.

Do my clients care? Definitely not.

Does my family care? “Daddy, get off the computer and come pway with me, pwease.”

No related posts.

My First Performance Review (from Kindergarten)

Tim — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:00:50 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about the boy lately. It’s Special Education Week, and while we’re spending time giving thanks to his teachers and his therapists, we’re also thinking about the world today and what’s changed and what hasn’t.

Apparently, I haven’t changed much. Like, ever.

Mom found it hidden somewhere, and now I keep this double-sided 3×5 card framed on a shelf above my desk. It’s one of them rotatety-type-frame-thingies (bummed that spellcheck doesn’t recognize ‘rotatey’).

It’s from my kindergarten teacher, Miss Irle, at Gifford Grade School in Illinois. I was around Will’s age. It was like 1974 or 1928 or somethin …

Hmm … the more things change …

Stories From Home.

Tim — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:40:29 +0000

I’m on the last night of a road trip to Austin, Texas. It’s been my first plane trip since baby Sarah was born in September.

I miss my family. Emails like this about our 5-year-old son, Will, make it a little easier … and a little harder …

From: Deidre Miles

Date: February 25, 2010 9:46:34 PM CST

To: Tim Miles

Subject: conversations with Will

I think I might start a blog with that title.

#1 – We’re in the car and Will’s was complaining about being cold so I turned up the heat really high and told Will I’d done that.

Will: Is the air warm?

Me: Yes. It’s on 74 degrees so it makes it like summer in our car.

Will: So we could open up the doors and warm up the whole world so that the plants would grow?

#2 – I’m putting him to bed tonight.

Will: When daddy gets older I will sleep in bed with you.

Me: Where’s daddy going to be?

Will: He will be too tall for your bed and he will have a new bed. (He’s of the mindset that everyone just continues to keep getting taller as they age)

#3 – I recorded a DVD for Will off the Tivo today and right at bedtime we were checking to make sure it would work for first thing tomorrow morning.

Me: Oh Buddy. It’s not working. I don’t know what’s wrong with it.

Will: I think I might know.

Me: What do you think it is?

Will: Sometimes the discs just don’t work.

That’s my boy. I’ll see you soon, buddy.

The Meeting That Saved My Career

Tim — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:09:21 +0000

Almost two years ago today, I sat down with Michele Miller and she shook me out of a whining, wandering, meandering, namby-pamby funk. She told me a lot of things that day. She scolded and shook and snapped me the heck out of a dangerously downward spiral.

Michele Miller kept me from working at Best Buy. People now ask me how I stay organized and on top of things. It shocks people who’ve known me for years that I get asked about my work-ethic and productivity.

Today, at her world-famous Wonderbranding blog (she’s verrrry big in Europe), she shares the basic construct of how she taught me to stay organized and on top of things:

I’m not structured enough as a person to follow the Getting Things Done model. I honestly don’t believe in the Four Hour Work Week. But I do have my own simple system that not only keeps me on track, it prevents me from letting the day get away from me. Which, in turn, wards off anxiety and (yes), sometimes, depression.

We talked about a lot of things that morning. This was just one piece of the puzzle, but it was a big piece. It was one of those mornings and moments where everything changes and only a couple years later do you clearly realize the significance of the moment.

Tomorrow, I’ll start sharing some awfully good Michele-juju in a two-part interview we did earlier this week. I got the transcript back this morning. I forgot just how much good stuff she freely shared.

Today, go visit Wonderbranding and learn three simple steps and three things to remember. I’ll thank her for you the next time I see her.

If it sounds like I’m fawning over her. Well, you’re right. You do that with people who save your career.

Can you get to 50? What's it take?

Tim — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:09:07 +0000

Weather extended my parents’ 50th anniversary celebration a couple extra days, and we got back to Mizzou last night. I spent a lot of time wondering on the eight-hour drive home:

What does it take – in the age of divorce – to get to 50 years of marriage?

And …

What does it take – in the age of the Internet and an overabundance of choice – to get to 50 years of business?

I’d like to think both are still possible.

Are the answers to each question the same?

What do you think? You’re not only good-looking, but smart, too. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.