Making Things Happen

Cleaning up hosting quality for better service and efficiency

September 17, 2016 by Thomas Z Lukoma Leave a Comment

A couple of years ago, I made a major move from Hostgator to Media Temple for all my client critical websites, including this website. At the time, my move was in reaction to unfortunate circumstances, so my selection of host was done under duress. Thank goodness I found Media Temple, and it served me very well. But there was one problem.

The cost.

I only have one client that needed the resiliency provided by Media Temple, so paying the amount I was paying monthly for all the other non-revenue-generating sites was not prudent – I ended up keeping the majority of the sites at Hostgator.

Unfortunately, that meant that for the past 18 months, I have actually had two hosts and paid two hosting fees – not cool. Since I was focused on a platform-building project that was centered around editing a book, I did not have as much focus on my website hosting set-up and I have paid for it over that time.

Earlier this year, through my usual blog reading, I stumbled upon a host that I have completely fallen in love with because of the simplicity of their service, affordability and superior customer service – Siteground. Once I had vetted their service, I put together a migration project plan on Trello for all the wordpress websites I manage and proceeded to procrastinate for several months without implementing it fully.

The main reason for my hesitation to complete the plan was email hosting. In the past, I have hosted my email at the same host as the WordPress website and used cPanel to manage the email accounts. The biggest problem for me with this approach is that I have to assign the passwords for the users and they can’t update them without my intervention – which inevitably requires me to know other people’s passwords.

I wanted to find a way to extract myself from the password management business for email and it was during this search that I discovered Zoho Mail – another product that I am totally in love with.

Last night, I bit the bullet and stayed up late implementing the entire migration plan – websites and emails.

I am proud to say that I can now retire both my Media Temple and Hostgator hosting accounts and consolidate all the websites on Siteground and all the mission critical email on Zoho Mail.

I will write more about what that process was like, but for now, I’m just taking a big breath of relief and looking forward to my next web designing project.

Update:

If you are interested in other alternatives to hosting email for your business in a cost-effective way, this is a great article that covers the topic comprehensively.

Joining the ‘Toastmasters’ tribe

December 11, 2014 by Thomas Z Lukoma Leave a Comment

One of my future goals is to become a public speaker who inspires, motivates and uplifts people from all walks of life while giving them practical ideas they can implement easily. Throughout my childhood I was involved in theater and have never lost my reverence for the power of the stage and the ability it gives me to move people.

In a theatrical performance, my goal as an actor was to move my audience into the imaginary world of the play so that they suspended disbelief and became immersed in my story. Once immersed, I could entertain, teach, infuriate, amuse and challenge them just by the words I said and the actions I took on that limited space on stage.

I no longer have access to the stage in that way, but I believe the podium is just as powerful when used in the right way. It can be an even stronger agent of change than drama because the world I am taking my audience into is not imaginary – a speech is usually speaking to very real issues and experiences that are immediately present to the audience.

You can challenge people about very real experiences and ideas without the need for them to ‘get the metaphor’.

Therefore, if I want to fulfill the tenants of my personal manifesto, I need to significantly improve my abilities as a speaker.

A Tribe for Those Who Want to Become Better Speakers (and Leaders)

Last week, I took the first step towards my goal by attending the introductory session of a ‘Toastmasters‘ chapter that is starting up at my job. Not only did I learn a lot in that initial session, I was able to sit back as an observer and enjoy the many elements of tribe building that are so masterfully used by this organization.

There are three that really stood out for me – you can keep these in mind when thinking about your tribe:

A shared set of values
A shared vocabulary
A shared system

Shared Values: Unity in the Midst of Diversity

This first Toastmasters session was referred to as a ‘demo’ meeting and it was a mix of people from my company and volunteers from a few other chapters in our area who came to help us run the first meeting.

Just from the sample of volunteers who showed up, I was impressed by the diversity of backgrounds, speaking styles and personalities. Despite this diversity, there was something about all of them that made them similar – they all had a warmth, friendliness and generosity that was contagious.

And it was clear that they all took Toastmasters seriously.

When I asked one of the volunteers how far he had come in the middle of the day for this meeting, I was surprised by his answer – he came from at least 45 minutes to an hour away. As I expressed my surprise at this he explained that there are four values that all Toastmasters follow:

Integrity
Respect
Service
Excellence

And of these, they take ‘Service’ very seriously and so whenever there is an opportunity to help another chapter, they do their best to participate.

In absence of attending that meeting, the four values could sound a little ‘pie in the sky’, but when I reflected on how they had run the meeting, I saw elements of all four.

As a tribe, they embodied the values they espoused.

Shared Vocabulary: Of DTMs and Other Acronyms

As I was speaking with a collegue this week about our experience in that first Toastmasters meeting, she humorously commented that this was a very ‘nerdy’ bunch of people. I think one of the things that built that impression in her mind (and probably those of other attendees) was the wide variety of specific jargon and acronyms that they used as part of the meeting.

None of it was used in an exclusionary way – they were happy to explain all the different terms they used – but it was clear that there was a very specific ‘lingo’ that went along with Toastmasters.

I didn’t experience it as ‘nerdy’ but rather found myself identifying and wanting to be a part. As I found out what each thing meant, I appreciated the thought and order that it represented.

This is an important point to keep in mind as you study your audience and think about how to solidify your tribe. Look out for recurring themes and ‘coin’ specific terms that capture those ideas. Over time, these ‘nerdy’ words will be part of how people self-identify with your tribe and will help to build community.

Shared System: The Competent Communicator

My final observation in my first encounter with Toastmasters is that they have clear a system and structure that helps protect the integrity of their tribe.

A good example of this is their ‘Competant Communicator’ award. This is the first level of recognition that every Toastmaster member works on when they first join. It is a series of different types of speeches that you make to your group over time so that you can master some basic techniques of public speaking.

Because it requires a certain level of commitemnt to complete the Competent Communicator track, it is a clear way to dilenate somebody’s level of engagement with the tribe – whether they are just ‘shopping’, or whether they are truly sold on what the community represents.

As you work on the different steps of the track, you become more confident as a speaker while integrating into the values, vocabulary and system of the tribe.

You gain personal value, while contributing to the tribe just by plugging into their system.

I guess I’m the same kind of ‘nerdy’ as the Toastmasters that hosted our demo session because I am looking forward to working towards my Competent Commmunicator designation.

I’m not so sure about my collegue – maybe by the time she takes part in enough meetings, she won’t realize how ‘nerdy’ she is becoming too.

10 online tribes I am proud to be a member of

November 22, 2014 by Thomas Z Lukoma Leave a Comment

Over the years, I have become interested in the concept of building a platform to amplify a message, service, product or movement. After sitting on the fence and soaking in content but not doing anything with it, I decided to create MoreThanAHut Solutions to force myself to DO. I needed a real life vehicle through which I could implement the ideas that I was reading about and see how they worked in the ‘real world’.

As I tried out my ideas on my early set of clients, I realized that one of the most important things to identify upfront before embarking on platform building is the tribe that you are going to engage. Find a group of people that buy into your vision and have voluntarily decided to follow you.

Without a tribe, your platform is merely a soapbox and probably will not gain much traction.

Today I thought I would pay homage to ten online platform builders that have or continue to inspire me about what is possible. There is a diversity of methods used to build and engage their tribes, but the key component that is a unifying thread across all of them is that they consistently create compelling content.

Their content has certainly compelled me.

So in no particular order, here they are:

#1 Steve Dotto of DottoTech

I never thought there were other people in the world that got as excited as I do when I discover a new to-do list app – until I discovered Steve Dotto. He has a YouTube channel that has become my go-to resource for finding out about all the wide variety of apps and techy tools that get me excited to explore.

Its not only his content that I find compelling, but the way in which he delivers it; he really loves this stuff and I find a kinship with him each time I watch one of his videos.

Yes, I know … I’m weird.

#2 Ramit Sethi

When I originally read Ramit’s blog, I was turned off by the very thing that eventually enamored me to him – his ‘in-your-face’ brashness. I mean, who calls their blog ‘I Will Teach You to Be Rich’? But thankfully, behind the initial image, there is a significant depth and resonance with his ideas about personal finance.

Perhaps the thing that I admire the most about Ramit though is his masterful use of email marketing – I have never experienced anybody else who has such a deep understanding of segmentation and building a funnel of marketing through email. What I like about him is that everything he does is based on experimentation and analysis, so its not just fluff but ideas that have empirical data behind them.

#3 Tim Ferris

My introduction to Tim’s platform was actually offline. His bestselling book The 4-Hour Workweek was an encyclopedia of ideas that challenged my status quo and what I thought was the way things had to be. I read the book at the same time as a colleague of mine who is an even bigger tribe member than me (she refers to him as ‘Timmie’) and we still reference ideas from his book today.

His online tribe is where the real magic happens though – he was engaging with his tribe through his blog even before he wrote the book.

#4 Daymon Peterson @ Daym Drops

Daymon Peterson is a regular guy who’s funny that decided to make his own ‘gourmet reviews’ of fast food. He took what started out as a way to quell his boredom by shooting ‘home reporter’ videos and grew it into a major platform that now includes hosting a show on the travel channel doing what he loves on a larger stage. It all started by his own unique way of describing a french fry in this review he did of Five Guys Burgers.

“You bite the fry and the fry bites back! That’s when you know you have an OFFICIAL french fry.

#5 Fake Grimlock

At the time of publishing, I think it is still true that only a handful of people know Fake Grimlock’s real identity. He has successfully built a following on Twitter with an alter ego because he has a unique delivery of content that actually has a lot of weight and wisdom with it. He is also an illustrator, so providing visual complements to his ideas helps. I was so fascinated by his work that I signed up for his Kickstarter campaign – and he did not disappoint.

Here is one of the goodies he sent to me during the campaign that I still have up on my wall:

#6 Joe Penna a.k.a Mystery Guitar Man

I don’t need to say much about this guy – just watch this:

#7 Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt literally wrote the book on Platform Building. His book, along with Seth Godin’s Linchpin, were the starting framework for my ideas around platforms and impact.

#8 Rhett & Link

If these guys don’t make you laugh, I don’t think much can. I was introduced to their platform by an appearance they had on the George Lopez night-time talk show where he showed the video below that was made by them. At the time, their claim to fame was that they made high quality local video ads for small businesses.

They have since grown their tribe to millions of viewers on their YouTube channel, which includes a daily show called ‘Good Mythical Morning‘. If you haven’t seen some of their epic rap battles like here and here – then you are in for a treat.

#9 Sacha Chua @ Living An Awesome Life

I love Sacha’s blog. It is an eclectic mix of creativity, art, geeky topics and most important of all – sincerity. I was honored to have a Google Hangout with Sacha almost two years ago and can say with complete confidence that she is the same person in person as she is in the blog – she truly values learning and sharing above all else. We spoke about platforms (this was around the time I was really trying to figure out what platforms meant to me) and I pointed her towards Mike Hyatt’s book. Since then, I have seen her expand into doing more with Google Hangounts and continue to engage her tribe in interesting and novel ways.

#10 John Stepper

Final contribution to #wolweek from @JonHSAUK it is from @johnstepper excellent book pic.twitter.com/xnfm21IV1B

— Helen Sanderson (@HelenHSAUK) November 21, 2014

For the past three years, I have recieved an email in my inbox every Saturday morning from John’s blog that I look forward to reading. His consistency of publishing a post once a week to that blog is what has cemented his presence in the mind of his platform. I just recently helped him launch a separate website to build out a movement that came as an offshoot of his blog and with the momentum he has behind his book, I am excited to see his tribe explode in growth and impact.

#11 to …

Though I listed ten platforms here, there are numerous others that come to mind, so this is not a definitive list, but just the ten that have had the most significant impact on me in the recent past. My goal is to dig a little deeper into them and study the ways in which each of these platform builders charted their course – with the hope of distilling more ‘nuggets’ for you on how best to build your own platform and thrive.

Madiba

December 6, 2013 by Thomas Z Lukoma 2 Comments

I remember in my second year of high school in Botswana, we had a history teacher named Mr. Wilson who was determined to help us gain an appreciation for the importance of understanding the past and its impact on the present. He didn’t want us to just memorize the information for the purpose of passing the tests – he wanted us to care about the content and make it our own.

One of the ways in which he achieved this goal with me was a series he took us through about three historical figures: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. With each of the figures, he took us through their background, how they rose up in leadership of a movement, the sacrifices they had to make and ultimately, how they changed the world.

I remember reflecting on how interconnected these three historical figures experiences were with each other. Martin Luther King Jr. was greatly influenced by Gandhi’s ‘non-violent’ approach to protest and the earlier part of Mandela’s leadership applied the same principles. Prior to his civil rights work in India, Gandhi spent 21 years in South Africa where he developed many of his political views and methods fighting injustices in Mandela’s native land.

All three challenged a ‘status quo’ that at the time seemed insurmountable and ultimately triumphed, not because of their wealth or military power – but because of their strength of conviction which caused a movement of people to rise up that eventually could not be ignored.

In 1989, when we studied these figures, two of them were already dead and the one who was living was still serving an unjust lifetime imprisonment sentence. We did not even know what Nelson Mandela looked like because all the photos released of him at the time were pre-prison.

Our visual image of him was the young man in his 40s with a part in his hair that we saw on all the ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ posters. So we studied him like a ‘past’ figure because we did not know if he would ever be released.

So I remember very vividly the following year when it was announced that he would be released. Our school came to a standstill as everybody let it sink in – that day no class really studied – we just rejoiced.

And then on the day that he was released, we spent several hours watching a television shot of a gate as we waited for him to emerge. There were several delays and it only built the anticipation of who he would be after all these years.

Was he a frail old man and a shadow of his former self?

Had he lost his regal stature and magnetic draw because of the unmentionable horrors of imprisonment?

Would he be bitter and seek revenge on his now vanquished tormentors?

Thankfully, the answer to those questions was no, no and absolutely not. He emerged and lived an amazing ‘second chapter’ to his life that most people could not manage in a single life. From uniting a country that was on the brink of civil war, to bringing Africa its first World Cup, his imprint has resonated throughout the world over the past two decades.

Even within my family his impact has been tremendous. I think this post by my sister this morning gives a very good summary of the breadth of his reach. I love the picture that she used in her post because I am so thankful that our visual image of him today is that imprint that she used when she designed the jacket – rather than the ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ posters we grew up with.

This post was originally posted in my personal blog @ komasworld.com.

Angst and The Resistance

March 20, 2013 by Thomas Z Lukoma 4 Comments

Last night my daughter was reviewing her homework with my wife when my wife noticed that she had not done the writing assignment correctly. It was a very simple assignment that she had done several times before. She was given a list of words and she had to create three sentences that used all the words.

In her first version of the assignment she had used the wrong form of one of the words and ignored using some of the others.

So my wife asked her to do it again and the tears began to well up in her eyes:

“But its too hard”

“Why won’t you help me?”

The ensuing soap opera lasted almost an hour. She went into her room and sat staring at the paper but writing nothing and complaining about how it was too hard.

Her younger sister, trying to be helpful, suggested a strategy:

“Why don’t you think about something you like and then write about that.”

Her suggestion was met with indignant venom “I tried that already and it didn’t work!”

I doubt she had.

So I made another suggestion:

“Why don’t you take out a blank piece of paper and write out a few sentences to try out some different ideas.”

More resistance: “I already did that”

“When?”

“When I first wrote it.”

“So you haven’t done it this time around?”

“No.”

“So take out a piece of paper and try.”

So she took out a piece of paper and I left her at it. Several minutes later when I returned, she had written one sentence and couple of words but was back to pouting.

“This is too hard. Why won’t Mummy help me?”

In the end, my wife told her that it was up to her whether or not she did it, but she would have to face up to her teacher tomorrow if she didn’t do it. This morning it was unclear whether she ever did the assignment.

Besides the inherent melodrama of an 8 year old, what was going on here? My daughter has had an ease with words since she could speak. She reads at several grade levels above her own. And almost every day she writes a story and gives it to us as a present.

The issue was not that the task was unreasonable, or too difficult. The problem was not that my wife refused to help her.

I believe her problem was The Resistance (or as Seth Godin refers to it, the lizard brain).

The Resistance is that part of our brain that aggressively fights against you every time you want to create something or do a piece of work that really matters. The Resistance hates art because art comes with risk. Art comes with a possibility of painful rejection if somebody does not like what you made. If somebody does not like the work that you poured your heart and soul into.

The Resistance believes that its noble cause is to protect you from that pain so it puts at the forefront of your mind the possibilities for failure and minimizes any vision of success.

When my daughter was faced with the simple task of creating something new The Resistance made sure she forgot about all the times she had done this before and convinced her that it was too hard.

But this is not an ailment that only afflicts 8 year olds – it is something that I constantly struggle with and watch other highly talented and intelligent people fight.

It comes in the form of procrastinating on moving an important project forward by focusing on imagined future roadblocks instead of dealing with the work that needs to be done now.

It comes in the form of overloading your schedule with a long list of important things to do, when you know in the back of your mind that you are avoiding that one piece of writing you have to do or that one phone call you have make.

It comes in the form of never giving yourself time to pause and reflect because you will realize that you are putting up smokescreens.

Writers call it writers block.
Salespeople call it call reluctance.
Busy people say they are overwhelmed.
Perfectionists say they have to do some additional work on it before its ready.

What they are all saying without using the words is that they are scared.

Scared of their own potential to make an impact.
Scared of their own ability to change the status quo.
Scared that if they truly stepped out and did the work, they would become accountable for the results and people would expect them to keep producing. But because The Resistance has convinced them that they are inadequate, they fear that even if they are successful the first time, they will be unable to repeat the results.

My daughter was scared.

And I am often scared.

But I am learning that if I am truly going to live out an authentic life that reflects my true potential, I have to fight The Resistance and win.

The good news is that The Resistance is much more bark than bite. It can be countered by taking some simple steps and building habits around them.

Step One: acknowledge The Resistance and expose it for who it is. Make a point to start watching yourself and questioning why certain things that are important to you are not getting done. Ask yourself the question: “What am I resisting?”

I’ll give you a hint … your first answer to that question is probably wrong. Especially if it has nothing to do your emotions and what you fear. Once you start digging deeper and getting to the core of your resistance, you have a good starting place.

Step Two: find evidence that contradicts the fear and emphasizes the opportunities for impact and positive change that you could have if you did the creative work you are avoiding.

Step Three: do the work. Take action and keep taking action. Then ship. Hit the publish button. Press send on the email. Pick up the phone and have the conversation.

Step Three is the only way to truly counter The Resistance. Because by taking action you disprove The Resistance’s theory that you cannot or shouldn’t do it.

This blog post is just as much for me as it is for you. Publishing it is me countering The Resistance and determining within myself that I have things to write about that matter and need to be written.

I wrote this post on my phone during my commute to overcome my excuse that I don’t have time to write. And it worked.

Writing this post is also my notice to The Resistance that I can see what it was doing with my daughter but I will have none of it. I will teach her how to defeat it.

And she will win.

What are you resisting?

For more reading, see Seth Godin on the resistance.

This post was originally posted on my personal blog @ komasworld.com

Is this the year for your platform?

January 4, 2013 by Thomas Z Lukoma 4 Comments

Do you have a message that is burning inside of you that you want to share with more people?

Do you have a remarkable company, product or service that you want to have more impact?

Do you want to have more influence on your career trajectory than you currently have?

Are you somebody that is constantly asked for advice on a specific topic?

Do you currently mentor a few people but would like to have a greater impact on a greater number?

Do you have a vision to bring about a change or start a movement?

Throughout my adult life, all of the above questions have resonated with me at some point or another and I have tried to find a coherent model through which I can build something consistently that would help me to be more successful. After observing how others have done this and reading extensively in a wide area of topics about technology, finance, marketing, personal development and success, the model that I believe is the most organic way to increase the impact of your unique contribution to this world is by building a platform.

I am primarily influenced by the writings of Seth Godin on this topic, but I have also observed first hand both at my job and in my personal life how people have taken the concepts he writes about and made them real. I invite you on a journey with me where I will explore platforms, both in my writing and by practicing things in my own life. I would also like to help you to move forward in building your own platform because whatever God has uniquely put in you to share with the world is for the world’s benefit and whatever is holding you back from sharing it can be overcome.

For the purposes of this exploration, a platform is:

a homebase from which you can rally supporters (a tribe) for your cause
a place for you to both demonstrate and increase your credibility in your area of expertise by teaching, mentoring and/or entertaining your tribe
a watering hole for you to build lasting relationships with your tribe that over time can help you increase your influence to a larger group

A platform is not:

a soapbox
a 24/7 marketing pitch
a vanity publication to boost your ego

I do not have all the answers so I invite your feedback and dialog as we go on this adventure together.

This post was originally published on my personal blog @ komasworld.com