Attention Deficit Alert

I don't know about you, but I don't have hours, even minutes of free time sitting available to me.  So, I take advantage of every second of my day.  I am a multi-tasker and most would consider that a good thing.  I realize, however, that sometimes its not! 

This morning, I woke up and like normal, turned on the TV to see the breaking news stories of the day.  I watch coverage of the hot topics and then slowly fade off into the rest of my day.  I see the quick hits and nothing more.

The other night, I found myself "reading" the Sunday paper.  By reading, I mean scanning the titles for word that might interest me and when I did find something, I only read until it didn't interest me anymore. 


I am a product of my surroundings in that if something goes on too long, or if I lose my interest for even 20 seconds, I may be lost for good!  We live in the age of quick sound bites and short messages.  A place where a picture on Instagram tells the story we need to know.  Where 140 characters (I know, its more than that now) is all that's needed to get the word out. 

My lesson of the day, when I communicate:

• Use bullet points when possible
• Use short sentences
• Do it sound bites
• Add a picture and remove some of the words

Keep learning, keep going.

Data Junkies Unite!

If that were the subject line of a party invite, I would be all over that!  There is where I join a support group and in the beginning I say, "Hi, my name is Rita and I am a data junkie!"

I just found myself manipulating, changing, formatting, reformatting a document and what is so great about data is all the information that pours off the page when I do those things.  The data file, as sent to me, is HUGE and RAW!  If someone were to look at it and try, just by looking at the info, to make sense of it their head would explode.

By looking at this raw data, in 10 minutes, I was able to see where our challenge countries are for some of our KPI's.  I was able to see ATP increases and decreases in some of our larger markets.  I was able to see a market that has never been a focus market in the past.  I was able to understand buying patterns of our employees in a foreign country.  I was able to see what cities we are challenged with from a hotel rate increase perspective.

As a data junkie, you also have to be able to read into the data to infer certain things.  That doesn't fall off the page at you, but it comes with experience and knowledge.  One piece of data is a sentence.  Two, three, four pieces of data becomes a conversation and I love seeing where those conversations go! 

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." is a quote from writer/philosopher Aldous Huxley.  Truer words were never spoken...  You can ignore facts all day, but that doesn't stop them from being out there.  I'm gonna check my inbox for party invite and even after it arrives, I will keep going. 

A Trip to Macy's, Travel Style!

The other day, I went to Macy's in search of sunglasses.  I found the perfect pair of leopard print Coach sunglasses that were within my budget.  I approached the man behind the counter, he got them for me, put them in a Coach box, wrapped them nicely in a few pieces of tissue paper, put them in a cute red Macy's bag, applied my percentage off coupon, took my credit card and I left a happy customer.

The other day I went buy an airline ticket.  I found the perfect flight that met my business needs and was within my budget.  I declared, "I am going to buy this ticket" only to find that because of the shelf on which I found the ideal trip was not the one the airlines promoted, now I had to pay more.  Only to find that because I was going to use a credit card, I had to pay more.  Wait, the plane needs fuel, so now I pay more there too. 

Back to Macy's.  They knew what it was it was going to cost to have the person help me.  They knew what it was going to cost for the cute red bag.  They probably took into account what it cost them to get the sunglasses shipped from the manufacturer to the store.  They knew that X percent of the people will use a coupon.  Additionally, they knew that X percent would use a credit card.  In their knowledge, they priced the sunglasses so they could make a profit.  Novel idea, I know!

In full disclosure, I didn't buy a pair of Coach sunglasses recently.  I also didn't find the perfect flight for an upcoming business trip.  It's a blog people, it's not all about reality...but trust me, this is real life stuff.  It's out there, happening and its going to end negatively for everyone involved.  Trust, I don't think Macy's should consider becoming air pricing specialists simply because they can sell me what I want, when I want it, but someone, somewhere does have to get this figured out.

Until then, I keep going!