iRig Microphone

Had to test this out and include an audio file within a post to share how cool this.

Listen in and see what you think. The mic is really good feeling, and takes in sound from the front. Things behind the microphone are ignored which is nice.

Click the link below and read more here:

Check out this Amazon deal: IK Multimedia iRig Mic Handheld Mic for iPhone/iPod... by IK Multimedia http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004IA8F50?ie=UTF8&tag=docmurdock-20&linkCod...

Are you using LINKEDIN?

If you are, pay close attention to the following dialogue that I had with someone this morning already and I've not had my coffee yet.

I was approached by someone who wanted to "add me to their professional network". I had no recollection of this person so I declined the invite. I received back a "oh we met at such and such a convention 3 years ago and I thought I could use your services back then but I've been busy since then and this is the first chance I've had to reach out" emails.

The problem with the connection request is that they left out those details.

My response was simple:

No worries at all. There's one little thing I tell everyone using LinkedIN to pay close attention to as it makes all the difference in the world. When you're sending an invite to connect there's an opportunity to add a personal message. Use it. Simply put you could have made a stronger impact with something like:

"Hi Michael, I met you at "SUCH and SUCH in 2009, but I've been busy for the past 3 years and so this is the first chance I've gotten to connect with you. I remember you provided some great services such as merchant accounts with the lowest rates in the business, shopping carts, and that you get people listed on google faster than anyone on the planet. I was wondering if we could connect our networks, share resources and potentially collaborate - SoandSO"

instead of "I'd like to add you to my professional network"

Notice the impact of the first vs. the second?

This little change in the way that you approach connecting to people on LinkedIN will help you grow vs. shrink your network.

Take this to heart, if I don't personally know you or have not actually met you, and you send me a "I'd like to add you to my professional network" request...the laughter will be able to be heard through the speakers in your computer as I delete the request and move on to those who invest the time in the connection.

Yes, I have done the exact same thing in the past and I have learned to spend a little more time truly connecting with those I'd like to do business with. You may wish to do the exact same thing. However, it's one of those choices in life that we either make...or don't.

Happy Thursday!!

Michael

Staples…You have MUCH to learn

Yes Staples, as in Staples, Inc. the store.

Your Yorktown Avenue location in Huntington Beach, CA, the exact address being:

7131 Yorktown Ave., Huntington Beach, CA 92648 has much to learn about the words "CUSTOMER SERVICE".

It's sadly lacking at this location and after living in this area for over a year now and frequenting that store to purchase products, it's time to speak up and voice what many others choose not to.

The store is not a pleasant place to shop. When someone walks into a Staples in Arizona for example, the first thing you get is "Welcome to Staples! May I help you find something today?"

When you walk into this Staples you're lucky if a head raises up to acknowledge you're there in the first place. That's a warning sign. This email does not share a single experience. It's the same thing, over and over again for more than 1 year. It has not changed. It's time that you know there's an issue. I find it surprising that nobody else hasn't brought this up to your level. What does surprise me is that you've not acted on it because I know of more than 5 people who have mentioned this exact location to your corporate offices in the past year.

When you walk into a store and see 4-5 employees standing around and customers looking for help and not getting any, that's a warning sign.

When you go to a register row, find NO cashiers, customers waiting and you turn to a person in a Staples Uniform with a Staples Name tag on and they say in response to your request for a cashier that "I don't work for Staples", either we're on candid camera or this person is too lazy to be working in your store in ANY capacity.

If I were the CEO of Staples and I read this email posting, I'd take a serious look at things and start to see if there were perhaps holes in the system that as worked well at other stores for so long.

The other thing that took me by surprise today was that while all of this was taking place, the manager was literally standing there cracking jokes with some people and seeming to believe everything was just fine. Rather engage with this person and embarrass them in front of other customers I decided to take this issue to the Internet.

You see I was not the only person in the store. There was a total of 10 customers, there were more than enough employees, but they were too busy texting, talking with each other to be bothered with the little matter of customer service.

In their minds it's little. In my mind and others who spend money, who buy stock, who purchase products that keep your doors open, it's important. So perhaps you might want to look into things and see why your stock is trading around 15.00 a share when it could be trading substantially higher. Maybe more than just me is unhappy at the way your "Managers" are failing to take charge of your stores and operate them at STAPLES STANDARDS.

I hope this email is shocking. I hope it brings shame. I hope it makes some people angry. I hope it calls your managers into question and helps your management team figure out a solution to the problem.

Those of us who are the Boomers are tired of being treated like garbage by people who feel that they're too busy to perform customer service. We'd rather shop online at locations other than yours so that we don't have to deal with your people. You obviously don't want to deal with them because there's no fear in their eyes that there will be any repercussions surrounding an email such as this one.

I hope that's not the case. If it is, please let me know. I'll be happy to fly to your next shareholder's meeting drag out a megaphone and call for your board to take a vote of no confidence in you, have you tossed out on your backside and install me as the CEO. I guarantee you we'll take Customer Service up to a level that we had when I was at PIXAR working with and for Steve Jobs from 1991-1997. This type of lack-a-dasical attitude would not be stood for and replacements would be installed immediately to ensure our brand did not suffer.

What you do next is your choice. I intend on keeping this discussion alive on the web until such time as it's resolved.

Thanks for taking time to read this and best of luck in finding a solution. You might want to consult with the television show UNDERCOVER BOSS and see about having them do an episode using your stores and include this one in a visit where you get to work in the store undercover so you can see how screwed up things are.

Best regards,

Michael Murdock, CEO

Followup to "So we met a dog..."

Just a quick update to my story http://docmurdock.posterous.com/so-we-met-a-dog from January. I took a side trip today on my way down to teach the social media class for The Orange County Business Experts.

That trip was to see "Buddy Guy". Buddy is the dog we found in January in Huntington Beach.

The news is great. Buddy is healthy, he's happy, and he's well cared for. It was such a thrill to see him, when I arrived to visit, his new owner went to let him out, Buddy ran to me and leaped into my arms. WOW what strength he has now that he's being taken care of.

He was able to be off leash and obeyed commands from his owner. I was simply touched by this.

So once in a while there are pleasing continuations of great stories. This is one of them. I know from time to time we'll see Buddy Guy, and he'll do just fine out there.

Thanks again to the Universe for the amazing lesson in unconditional love. I am so happy and grateful that this came our way. We needed a refresher and it could not have come at a better time.

God bless Buddy Guy, his new owner and people everywhere who have dogs come into their lives. When it does happen, talk to your heart and see how you feel.

Michael

Once in a while...

there comes a business and people you really want to brag about because they’re fun, they produce a great product and they bring smiles to many faces. This time that business is Mike Madden & his Cookies in Bloom shop in Phoenix, AZ.

Mike’s a great guy always smiling, always making me laugh, and always connecting with others and supporting them on facebook. He’s constantly liking pages, and pictures and keeping me on my toes on facebook which is tough for anyone.

While we were on our trip to Arizona this past week we had a chance finally to stop in and see Mike and his store. What a treat that was. Literally!! They've got a great location in Phoenix on the corner of 40th and Indian School right next to a large new trampoline park.

When we entered, we met Mike (finally), this is me in the photo with him and photos of the great products that they produce in the gallery.

Mike was kind enough to send us on our way with some goodies. The cookies did not make the trip to Tucson. One bite told me and Maria that these were well made tasty cookies that needed to be eaten. The thing that made it back with us was the Hannah Caramel Apples, the last of which was finished this very day.

I want to say THANKS to Mike Madden for sharing with us his time, his products, and the story of how they do what they do. You're a credit to your business and a pleasure to know.

I wish you much success in your business and all that you do.

Thanks for taking time to read this one.

Michael

So we met a dog...

On January 11th we thought we'd have a normal day. This was the day after launching The Orange County Business Experts. I was not 100% feeling well, but offered to take some equipment back to Irvine to return it, and on the way Maria needed to go to a quick meeting with our partners from Phoenix. So we went to meet them at their hotel in Huntington Beach. As we pulled into the parking lot we noticed this cute little dog bouncing around the parking lot looking for food. Nobody was watching him, he had no leash, no collar and it looked like not much hope.

As we got out of the car he saw us and came running our direction. This was the start of an amazing day. He appeared to be abandoned and we were shocked. This dog had a well groomed coat, perfect nails, perfect teeth and the disposition of a house broken puppy with a yearning to be loved. The universe had delivered to us a gift that we were to share with another.

Maria had her meeting with the team and while we were inside the hotel, the dog joined us and wandered around. The Manager at this particular hotel was not accommodating in the least. "Remove that dog" he said to us. Personally I was a bit miffed at the person who looked like he was just an unhappy person stuck behind a desk, so I took the dog to a local petsmart store had him checked over at the Banfield Desk there to see if there was a microchip present so we could track the owner. No chip. No license. We also noticed that he had not been fed in a while. They gave me a leash to put him on, see the picture:

So whoever had this dog, took good care of him, but yet starved him and they did not want him to be tied to them in any way...interesting.

We got on the road, headed to Irvine to return our equipment and where we did that we found who would 24 hours later become the owner of this wonderful fur-being. This guy was thrilled to meet this dog that had wandered into our lives and Maria was quick to say "HEY YOU WANT A DOG?" He said YES!!! I was a bit protective of our new friend as I knew there were things that had to be done to see if the current owner would surface, plus there was something else flowing into me that said this dog was here to teach us something and we needed some time with it.

I told the guy we had to check on the current owners and would get back with him. So we came home went to work on Craigslist, posting an ad there with pictures. I had posted one at Petsmart with our contact info on it, and then we took the dog to another spot to see if there was anyone looking for him or if there was a possibility to put him up for adoption. We contacted a local animal rescue NO-KILL Shelter, but they were full and could only refer us elsewhere.

We brought the puppy home and I named him "Buddy". Hey Buddy! I said and he leaped up and licked my face. Maybe his name was Buddy after all! I fed him, watered him, and even gave him a quick shampoo to make sure he was nice and clean for the activities of the following day.

Our dog Sophie is a bit territorial so when she looked out the window and saw her Daddy fawning over this puppy she began growling and barking and well needless to say it was a bit interesting when I went to sleep, Sophie curled up next to me and all of a sudden out of no where the bed starts moving around underneath. Puppy had wandered up stairs into the bedroom and was under the bed playing with Sophie's toys. The growling ensued and well finally all went to sleep after much laughter and a few OH BOY that was somethings!

The following day, I woke, checked all the places we'd posted Ads...Nothing. So we contacted our guy in Irvine and arranged to take the dog down to him. On the way I connected with Buddy and explained to him that we were taking him to his new owner and that he should be well looked after. He looked at me with these big eyes and then stood up and licked my face. A bit disconcerting to have that happen at 65mph on the freeway, but unconditional love is just that. It happens when it chooses to.

Buddy ready to lick Michael's face! He's quick on the draw!

Buddy pondering his new owner

Buddy resting a bit before we arrived

Upon arrival, I got Buddy out of the car, he saw the new owner and instantly ran to be with him licking his hands and face and saying a big hello. I told the guy that I had named the dog Buddy and he said "That's so funny, that's the name I wanted to give him". So the name has stuck, in fact, he's been named "Buddy Guy" after a Blues Guitarist of the same name. What a great name and it does fit! He's a BUDDY and he's a GUY doggie!!!

So what was the universe reminding us of you ask? Unconditional love. To show up as equals in this timespace and to treat all as same is truly important in understanding how to best serve the greater good in this time. When we do this we level the space in which we hold for others to show up and connect with us. There is no speaking down to or up from, there is equality and love unconditional. From this can come nothing but love, peace, joy, understanding and clarity of purpose in being here and now.

Here's one video of him playing with me: 

and here's a second video I took of him, so playful he is. Am glad we found him a home: 

Thank you Universe for this lesson, and thank you Buddy for your spirit and love in the time you spent with us. We appreciate you and are so grateful that you came and connected with us. Whoever let you go...we bless them and wish them well on their way and we thank them for letting you be free to choose who you desired to be with and mentor going forward.

We love you. We hope you enjoyed reading about Buddy Guy, the amazing puppy. We wish him and his new owner well. We pray for them and wish them much clarity, enlightenment, peace and understanding along their new path.

Michael

I want to brag about YOU & YOUR PROGRAM

And here's how I want to do it...

I've been in the internet marketing/affiliate marketing business for what seems like forever. I've seen people come and seen people go and it's always amazing to me that the ones that stick around are the ones that are really making the money and having fun doing it.

So, for the rest of those out there who think they have the chops for a challenge, I will offer you a $250K bonus to the first one of you that works with me and helps me to BANK $1 Million dollars by the 30th of November 2012.

That's right. With all those wonderful programs out there with all those guarantees, I challenge you to use me as your test case of "I can help anyone make a million dollars on the web using my methods and I guarantee it."

Here's the rules to this:

a. I will be instructed by you in your methods, all under non-disclosure/non-compete, and I will follow your directions of success because you're already a liquid millionaire and you know what the best method of achieving success is.

b. It cannot cost me one dime to do and it cannot involve any list of people that I currently work with. This has to be all fresh based on techniques that you'll teach me for building a list interested in your product. I am not paying for your product. You are investing in yourself, and in me and I am offering my 30 years of tech background to be tested to prove your product and methods work. In turn I am going to tell the entire world your product is amazing and they need to buy it (if it in fact is amazing and does work).

c. The database that gets built from it is mine and you have no access to it, until we JOINT VENTURE which once you've helped me do this and I am bragging about you, we'll be joint venturing a lot.

d. In exchange, you get $250K in CASH from me out of the $1 Million you're helping me to bank. If we do this in 6 months, you can bump that up bonus to $500K. That means if you've helped me bank $1 Million in 6 months using your great program, that I will take $500K of that and give it right back to you. That's one heck of a return on your investment of both TIME (which I consider to be HIGHLY valuable, and MONEY as well)

e. This has to be a legal, moral, ethical venture (no porn please).

f. It has to all be done on the web, with no off web activities involved. No cold calling, no door knocking, nothing like that.

g. and yes I will work on weekends, and no I will not be traveling while doing this. I may be visiting Scottsdale or Phoenix during this time period, but I will not be traveling to accomplish what we're going to be working on together.

h. and yes this can be through clickbank promotions of your product to a list which we create, etc. It has to be a new list built from scratch using your list building methods which you're teaching me.

i. If your methods and your program do NOT deliver as you say they will, you will revamp your program and your methods so that they will. I will help you with that as I have a way of seeing how others interact with products and services and what their expectations are.

So if there is ANY internet marketer out there who has the chops to put their program to the test, I am ready to put my name to a contract and to get to work making this happen. Are you out there?

I am putting this out for a simple reason. I have seen a ton of these programs out there. And nobody seems to stand behind them with any real chutzpah. So I want to have someone out there in the business that I can laud what they do to everyone. I'll be posting ads in papers for them when this is done, speaking about them at events, bragging all over facebook, twitter, to the news media, etc. I'll be a one person wall street billboard for their product if they can truly deliver what I have posted above, and I will get a newscrew to come out and film the presentation of the cash or check to them live, and get it onto CNN and some other places as well.

Why? Because I see people getting ripped off by a lot of hacks out there and there truly has to be one person out there who has a product, a system that I've not seen, that works and could use a name or brand behind them to double, triple, quadruple their business and I am willing to do that.

So...anyone? If you're out there, make sure you email me at ceo@docmurdock.com and let me know you're the one and let's get this party started. You have until the 30th of November to sign things and get going, and I am busy on the 29th and the 1st of December.

Thanks for reading (and I know there are several out there chuckling, but if I am right there will be at least 1 person surface to take this on quickly. Look for my postings.)

Michael

**Please note, $100,000 of the money will be donated into a charity to help a number of Veterans who need that assistance. The charity will be created by us and it will be monitored by professionals to ensure that nobody is left out.**

RIP Steve. You, my friend will be truly missed

Today is a day I will never forget. It's a day when someone who influenced me for years, mentored me, coached me, and inspired me moved on.

The sphere feels emptier this day as news of the passing of Steve Jobs fills the air. The TV is lit up with it, it's on the web and on Apple's website the following image
really says it all:


(image rights belong to Apple, Inc., All Rights Reserved.)

I first met Steve Jobs on University Avenue in Palo Alto one morning back in 1987 as he was walking to a local muffin shop. Later I found that many who had been at Apple with him were going there and eventually I talked with him briefly in passing and said "One day I'd like to work for you". 

Move to March 16th, 1991 when I began my workday at PIXAR in Pt Richmond, CA. Steve and Laurene were married on my birthday, the 18th of March. So I did not see him that week, but when he did return we reconnected and he remembered the Palo Alto meeting. His words were simple: "You've gotten your wish. Welcome to your new home".

Later in my time there would be things like a phone call "Mike can you come here and help me, it's Steve".

I had the honor of working with this man for 6 years at PIXAR. The times I shared in talking with him and learning from him I will cherish as jewels in an amazing basket of abundance. The wisdom he shared with me which is private to this day was shear brilliance and I thank him for it.

Rest in Peace Steve. Thanks for all you shared during your time in the sphere, and you will truly be missed. Our prayers are with the family this evening and the spirit of the man as he makes the journey home and receives the reward. 

God Speed Steve Jobs.

Michael

Boatlift - An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience

Take a few moments and let your heart enjoy this one. It's really good and a story you don't hear mentioned on the news. This was the first time since that day that I've heard about this. Always wondered what happened to all those people, never knew till now. WOW. Simply amazing story.

Amazing to watch, listen

Michael