Gather 'round kids, Uncle Richie's a wee bit hot under the collar and I'm gonna tell you why....
<begin rant> The other day I wrote a post about a personal "centering" as it related to my business (I'm from the West Coast and I married an ex-Deadhead (60+ shows, woo!) - we use words like that, don't be hatin' .... Anyway, it was basically about doing business with people I like, if you havent read it yet click here. So what happens today, I get an unsolicited email from a manufacturer's PR company with a generic "hope you liked CEDIA, if you're writing a story on home automation soon, blah blah, our product, blah blah.. something" *click* KA-BLOCK!! KA-BLOCK!! KA-BLOCK!! No soup for you!! Now why this upset me, I'm really not even 100% sure yet, but here's some of the reasons I can think of off the top of my head: 1) I'm not a professional writer... 2) I'm not a PROFESSIONAL writer... 3) I'M NOT A PROFESSIONAL WRITER!!! I have started a blog that's about my personal views and thoughts about the AV Industry, specifically the Custom Install side of things. I have written (3) three, not 500, not even 50... three! ... uno dos TRES catorce blog posts! (sorry, channeling my inner Bono for a sec) Oh, for about a micro-second I was flattered that someone at least knew my blog existed, now that part I ain't gonna lie, that was cool, it was my own little Steve Martin moment from one of my favorite movies - 'The Jerk' "Page 73 - Johnson, Navin R.! I'm somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity - your name in print - that makes people. I'm in print! Things are going to start happening to me now!!" But if that person had taken a moment to read my actual blog post, they would have hopefully taken a much different approach, because my posts are about personal opinions, I write about what I like and what I know... Now, I'm pretty darn good at what I do professionally, after doing this for 20+ years now, I think I've earned that distinction, if for no other reason that sheer tenacity and stubborness has equated to an expertise that consists of "I've blown this stuff up in ways you have YET to even consider Sir/Ma'am, you need me so someone else doesn't make you their wooops story" (no seriously ask me about the time I had in-ceiling speakers catch fire 35 feet off the ground, not smoke, but honest to goodness flames bursting forth out of them) But no... I get the hard sell, from someone and some company I've never heard about. *IF* I write about someone's product, it's because in all likelihood, I own it. This was somewhat of a pretty important promise that I made with myself because I'm not a professional writer, I'm not qualified to give reviews. So random PR person who I have banished to sit there and think about what you've done .... here's some examples of people who are qualified, you can check them out below (click their names for links to their work): John Sciacca - An honest to goodness equipment reviewer who rocks the written word Julie Jacobson - She's *the* Julie Jacobson, grand dame of AV Writing, nuff said. Brent Butterworth - so good, so so very good at this. So what's the moral of the story kids? If you're going to try to sell something, make sure you think twice before you hit the "send" button <end rant>
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