If you’re a baseball fan, this is a great time of year.  Spring Training is in full bloom and opening day is just a short time away.  If you’re fortunate enough to be able to visit Florida or Arizona this time of year, you know that the weather is fantastic and the nostalgic, throw-back stadiums are fraught with families, sunshine and your favorite players standing seemingly within reach.

It’s a chance to preview your team—to see who has come, who has left and to talk non-stop about what’s possible this year.  Maybe this year will be THE year.

This is also an exciting time for Fpweb.net that includes change along with great prospects of success.  One change is that this is my last “season” at Fpweb.net.  I am stepping away as President of Fpweb.net to take an opportunity that involves a move to Phoenix, Arizona.  This is a very unique opportunity and probably one of only a handful of scenarios I could think of that would ever take me away from the company that I love and have been proud to be a part of.  It brings me to one of my favorite places on earth and closer to family that I’ve dearly missed for far too long. It also gives my wife a chance to breathe!  (She’s a big asthma and allergy sufferer and Missouri is the last place you want to be for those ailments)

My time at Fpweb.net has been phenomenal.  I wouldn’t trade a minute.  I’ve made lasting friendships and worked with amazing clients.  But now is my chance to tell you the behind the scenes secrets and to pull back the curtain on all of our flaws!  Hah, yes, now is your chance to learn just what goes on around here as we lie, cheat and steal our way to the top! 

Prepare yourselves…DEFCON 4 on the cheese-o-meter today.

THE STORY

HE EMERGED FROM THE METRO AT THE L’ENFANT PLAZA STATION AND POSITIONED HIMSELF AGAINST A WALL BESIDE A TRASH BASKET. By most measures, he was nondescript: a young white guy in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin.

Placing the open case at his feet, he threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play.

It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush hour. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed several pieces, 1,097 people passed by.

The behavior of one passing demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted their child away in a hurry away from this “strange man.”

But the amazing part of this story is that this “strange man” was Joshua Bell, the most famous and talented violinist in the world.  Just two days earlier Joshua Bell had played his $3 million violin to a sold out crowd in Boston for $100+ per seat. Joshua Bell averages about $1,000/ minute for playing in front of kings, royalty and Popes.  Now, two days later he stood in a subway station in Washington D.C. without receiving hardly a second glance.

Joshua Bell’s own account is fairly humorous, “I started to appreciate any acknowledgment, even a slight glance up. I was oddly grateful when someone threw in a dollar instead of change.”

Why was he playing at the D.C. Metro Station?  It was a study to see if people would recognize genius with no context or familiarity of the normal surroundings of this incredible artist.

Today’s Cheese Factor: DEFCON 5

Today’s edition of Tom’s Monthly Cheese is rated at DEFCON 5… hold on tight!

What makes you angry?

Did you know this is a great way to determine your own values, to establish a personal vision?

In Christmas Vacation you get to know, truly know, who Clark Griswold is. Clark is angry. More than that, though – He is the last true family man. He’ll go to any length to preserve the sacred family traditions.

Clark knows who he is. He is true to himself and I argue that when you are true to yourself, you are capable of amazing things.

Watch out folks… DEFCON 4 on the cheese factor today.

Today’s Cheese Factor:

You’ve heard that showing up is half the battle.
I didn’t give this statement much merit in my younger days. Now that I’m older and well… older, I find this statement to be true. Perhaps even more so in personal matters. I’m a big Ken Blanchard fan and he has some great points on this subject. Ken asks us to think about the people in our life who “show up” when tougher times hit. Who’s the friend that gives you a call when everyone else seems to be running the other direction?

Today’s Cheese Factor:

Not too bad today, cheesiness only about a 3! I wanted to say I just handed out our President’s Cup award this past Friday to one of our senior engineers, Rob Marshall. The cup symbolizes achievement in excellence and other well-known clichés, but it’s more about someone who’s not afraid to go against the grain, without fear of conflict and lead our company towards the next level of success.

Recently, I read a blog about non-profit discounts written by our friends over at 37signals.  It was profound – and reminded me of one of the many, many things I love about America; we have the power and right to choose.

I get asked this question daily: “Why should I upgrade to 2010 Foundation from WSS v3?” 
There are too many reasons to list in my opinion, but I’ve jotted a few down below.  Some are for the everyday user like me and others are for the developer or SharePoint engineer types.  One thing is for certain, SharePoint Foundation 2010 is a game-changer when compared to its predecessor: Windows SharePoint Services 2007.

Sorry SharePoint fanatics…
This is a blog about sales and marketing, but please bear with me.

In the last week I have experienced one of the best and worst moments of our business.  As a metrics fanatic, we tend to track everything around here, or at least I do.  As the saying goes, “if you can measure it, you can improve it.”  I discovered that as of the last two months, our #1 metric for lead generation has been current clients! This is a mark of great success for our company and it is one that we deliberately focus on.