A Tidy Home is a Tidy Mind

It’s right there in the title, but I never saw it coming. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up changed my life.

A couple months ago, I noticed the book’s exploding popularity and was intrigued by author Marie Kondo's claim that not one client who completed her process has ever relapsed into clutter. Not one? Challenge accepted.

Now, Mullins Projects ain’t messy! No one would ever walk into my home and think it was cluttered, and I have to be well-organized to do what I do. I went in thinking if I picked up a few tips and got a nice summer cleaning out of it, great.

As I read on, driven by Kondo's dedicated, positive encouragement, I found myself becoming more and more excited about the prospect of “tidying thoroughly and completely, all in one go.” Her KonMari Method is relatively simple: you tackle your possessions by category (clothes, books, papers, miscellaneous/household, sentimental), building one pile at a time in the middle of a room. You hold every item in your hands and decide if it “sparks joy." If it makes you happy or you consider it an essential part of your life, keep it. If not, discard it!

Less than two weeks later, I finished: every item of clothing, every book and magazine, every piece of paper, all of my media, accessories, electrical, personal and household supplies, every photo, every sentimental letter and gift, every item in every box, drawer, and closet. I’ve even gone through all my digital files and email (which isn’t discussed in her book). I typically discarded 50-66 percent of my possessions in a given category, except paper, where I eliminated over 90 percent of it.

Try to imagine your own home if it were less than half as full as it is now. I no longer have any items in long-term storage, buried in cardboard boxes, plastic bags, or containers in the recesses of my closet. Everything I own is easily accessible and visible to me. Because I’ve reduced to only the possessions which bring me joy, they are simple to manage, and not a day goes by where I don’t look at one of my shelves and smile.

I’ve never bought into any kind of self-help method before, and I didn’t even think tidying was “self-help” until I experienced the dramatic results. Most significantly, I’ve lost all the small daily anxieties, the tasks that pile up and preoccupy us, make us feel scattered, or keep us up at night. I don’t become half as irritated about inconveniences as I used to - traffic, lines, poor service. These disruptions of order no longer disrupt the order I’ve achieved within.

It was time-consuming to be sure, at times overwhelming, yet I’m confident almost anyone can do it, and I want to tell you it’s worth it. Besides, if you finish your tidying and feel like your life hasn’t changed, you still end up with a tidy house! It’s win-win.

I have so much more to say, and as I’ve talked to friends and loved ones about it, I believe I can contribute my own experience to help others who want to give tidying a go but might need a little more clarification and a friendly push. I’d like to announce my next Mullins Project: I’m going to write a companion guide to Tidying Up! I’ve never done anything like this before, so I’m really excited to see what I come up with. It may be a few months, so stay tuned.

“I’ve never heard of The Walking Dead."

I've been working on a sales event this month, and recently I spent the afternoon with a team of salespeople who flew in from across the U.S. for their annual awards. The work itself was pretty straightforward - I helped them get tickets for a TV show taping and managed some logistics on the day of the event. But the real opportunity, at least for me, was the chance to interact with a very talented cross-section of people who didn’t really know Los Angeles or the entertainment industry. Since we were at the taping, the topic was front and center, and they were curious to hear about my background.

I’m always happy to speak about the trade I know best, and since we didn't have a base of common technical knowledge, I get to think through the business and “present” it. Anytime I have the chance to explain something I think I know, I'm forced to step outside and look at it more objectively, boil it down, and try to be engaging, which is always a good way to learn something new. It helps that everyone consumes entertainment to some degree, but what I find most fascinating is that the organizational framework of distribution is practically meaningless to most consumers.

That is, we look at television, scheduled programming, video on demand, downloads, DVD, as one universe of choices that people actively engage in making. I always keep track of what content is where and how that might affect choices, but usually people consume whatever entertainment is available at a given moment. What’s on TV is what’s on. Skipping through Hulu or Netflix is another way to go. When viewers find something they like, they may stick with it and remember to go back to where they found it, and if that happens often enough, they may acquire a habit of seeking out a particular channel. But what gets me is that despite the information available through marketing, friends, news, there’s still chance involved in whether that person will happen to see and happen to be interested in watching a show.

I know this when I hear statements like “I’ve never heard of The Walking Dead,” the top scripted series on television. The guy who said this watches TV regularly, is a bit outside The Walking Dead’s demo, but also doesn’t live under a rock. I would even bet based on my impression that he’d like the show, yet he never landed on AMC when it was on, and was never influenced to check it out. I’m glad he has a fulfilling life not predicated on zombie apocalypses, but for an industry trying to get this guy to watch this show, it’s pretty crazy to think about. We’re used to thinking as heavy entertainment consumers because a) we're heavy consumers, b) the most vocal feedback comes from other heavy consumers, and c) we “neglect the denominator”: any show, even The Walking Dead, only attracts a small sliver of the national pie each week.

I guess this is my long way of saying it’s refreshing to hear the impressions of casual viewers outside of a focus group or local environment. I gathered that most of them had cable and at least one on-demand service, but these are top sales performers, and they’ve got lots of other things to do. When they turn on their TV, there's generally one reason: they have a bit of downtime and want to find something enjoyable to watch.

CES 2015: Double Down

I’m back from my second trip to CES Las Vegas, the biggest tech show in the world, with ZeroHour innovations. The Eureka Park area for startups moved from the basement of the Venetian to the much larger Sands Expo Center this year, and ZeroHour has also graduated in many ways from year one.

Our strategy in 2014 had been to launch our first product in November with a crowdfunding campaign, and use its success and publicity to distinguish ourselves at CES since the device was in pre-production and we only had the prototype available.

What a difference a year makes. ZeroHour XD was produced, received all kinds of mentions and support, and the amazing creators at ZeroHour Innovations even had time to take consumer feedback and adjust it for the next iteration of their tactical flashlight with portable power. Rather than repeat the one-two punch strategy, we decided to launch the next crowdfunding campaign from CES, which meant we collapsed two very intensive projects into one timeline. In addition to the logistics for the exhibitor booth, press kits, sales sheets, and of course our snappy attire, we were up late many nights before CES editing the new campaign and preparing to blast it out to the press, customers, and prior backers.

After a last-minute snafu that almost saw us miss our morning launch, everything came together and within hours, we hit our goal! (Prior year we hit goal on day 29.) We displayed our Kickstarter page in the booth so attendees could watch it grow, and this inspired a lot of people to pledge since they wanted to be part of the live campaign. As intense as it was going in, launching from CES paid off, and as a startup ZeroHour has to be industrious with promotion since we don’t have jumbotrons yet.

We hit $50K over the course of our four days at CES, and as I’m writing this, we've passed the $108K that the first project raised, with two weeks left! This is a real testament to the product quality and customer rapport ZeroHour built over the last year, and I’ve had quite a ride myself.

2/6/15: The campaign closed at $250K, more than double the amount raised last year!

Sometimes the best plan is the best plan

In addition to launching ZeroHour’s first product (or I should say as a direct result of its success), I’ve been consulting with several crowdfunding campaigns this year. Crowdfunding has really developed into its own industry, led by the structure Kickstarter created in 2009: anyone with an idea for a project can create a site with a detailed pitch, take pledges, offer thank you rewards, send updates, answer questions/comments, and set an “all or nothing” funding goal that has to be met by the campaign end date.

With increasing public recognition, creators have rushed into the system with the promise of easy money, and campaigns have had to up their game with professional design, slick videos, inspirational calls to action, and a more transactional emphasis on rewards. There’s been blowback on a number of fronts: creators who don’t deliver their promised rewards, a misunderstanding that these are retail transactions instead of backers taking a chance on an investment, and of course the recent Potato Salad Kickstarter that skewered every crowdfunding technique in the book. It was brilliant, but also meant crowdfunding had become cliche.

In short, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to launch a successful crowdfunding project. The actual work is much harder than it looks, particularly for creators who have no track record with production or manufacturing and delivery of rewards. Instead of being funded by a bank or investors, there may be thousands of backers involved, who have access to very public and social commenting features to question your process. And the volume of campaigns has reached a point where launching strong and staying visible is critical, almost like the opening weekend of a film release.

The teams I worked with were both raising funds for film, a popular Kickstarter category frequented by celebrity projects like Veronica Mars and Zach Braff’s Wish I Was Here. Film is already in a tougher spot with crowdfunding because consumers put a lower value on the “reward” of entertainment than on products. That means the backers consider their support as more of a donation and have to be really inspired by the concept.

The best way to drive this kind of motivation is with a wide network of friends and a targeted marketing and media plan. Not quite as easy as “post your idea and cash in,” but sadly I have to report I’ve seen the difference. One of my projects did not make its funding goal, and we had done a lot of things right: sharp page, strong video, inventive rewards, and even a fan base for the topic. But the network simply wasn’t large enough, and they did not want to invest in a basic PR plan for launch. They were also guided by the same unshakeable optimism and confidence of every entrepreneur I’ve worked with: if I build it, they will come. When they didn’t come, we scrambled for attention over the next few weeks and only started gaining media traction when it was too late.

My other project creator laid a lot of groundwork on his own, developing media and film organization contacts over a period of one year before launch. One year! Even though his network of friends was somewhat smaller, he had the help of his contacts to greatly amplify and sustain his message. We continued to follow through with creative promotion until the very last day, and it succeeded.

So there really are no shortcuts. Having spent the past year deeply involved with crowdfunding, I can also say that it is one of the most satisfying accomplishments to influence a group of people who don’t know you to believe in your vision. It can be done, but I do believe the most organized, connected, media/viral-friendly campaigns will have the best chance come out on top.

ZeroHour XD has arrived!

I’m so proud to be part of the journey of ZeroHour Innovations, which truly embodies the entrepreneurial qualities that mark so much success in business. Bringing ZeroHour XD to market has been one of the most challenging projects of my career, but we kept the ball rolling through crowdfunding, CES, factory adjustments and upgrades. Only weeks ago I was doing the final edits on the retail packaging and user guide, and now it’s ready for consumers!

Next we’ll be reaching out to distributors who have shown interest in carrying ZeroHour since it debuted at CES. There are a number of gadget-focused media ready to review XD, and ZeroHour will be part of the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in August. That means I’ll be developing several more communications soon, but for now, I’m going to bask in what I’m holding in my hands today, a device that didn’t exist until the team at ZeroHour created it. Check it out on their site and Amazon!