All that said, I think there are some good lessons we can learn from Scooby Doo:
1) It’s always a good time to eat (thank you Shaggy & Scooby Doo).
2) We’re all willing to do something, even if it’s scary, if the reward is big enough (perhaps 2 Scooby Snacks?).
3) Working together, even when working apart physically, can actually be quite effective. (thank you Freddie for getting us to split up and look for clues).
4) What we think is big and scary, most often is a much simpler problem. Step back and take some time to tackle and trap it. (Usually the second person you meet will be the culprit in the end).

On a side note, I’m always impressed with how the Mystery Gang always have time to travel the world and goof off, but none of them seem to work. How do they do that?

Have a great day and SCOOBY DOOBY DOO!!!

Matthew A. Hawkins

“Find something on them that you can question” was his first tip for me. Find something that’s unique, for instance a logo, sports crest, wording, an iPhone and then start asking questions.

“Ask questions that they can’t respond yes or no to” was his second tip. Ask questions that lead into other questions, get them talking and feeling comfortable.

“If that fails, that ask them questions about themselves” was his third and last tip. Pop in law had a great point. Everybody loves to talk about themselves. People will share where they work, what they do, how long they’ve lived there, etc.

I had an open house party I was attending last week for the Royal Theatre in Trail. I wanted to bring someone with me for the drive, so my father in law came along. He doesn’t know much about the theatre advertising business, but that didn’t stop him from coming to the open house and getting to know everyone. He should have been the sales guy that day.He knew everyone by the time we left and actually had previous connections with one fellow who attended that day… small world.

How do you interact with people?
I know for me, if it’s business related I can jump in no problem, but if it’s a social gathering I tend to hold back or stick with a close few… odd I know.
Have you ever considered that interacting with people is actually an art and that it takes time to develop?

Cheers,
Matthew A. Hawkins

A lot of changes.

I’ll be sharing about those changes in the near future, but I want to create a list (I like lists) of things I’ll begin posting beginning this week:

1) Some After Effects tests I’ve been playing around – thanks to the awesomeness of Andrew Kramer

2) Contest entries I have coming up – that are non-voting style (I’ve learned too well now)

3) Lessons from business

4) Business opportunities I’m taking now and very, very soon.

5) AND MORE… always more.

I’ve recently decided to kill my Facebook account and for a number of reasons. I like writing on my blog and I haven’t been. This place gives me a chance to get a little creative and share some more than I do on Facebook.
I also got tired of FB not letting me dislike stuff, stuff like stupid FB groups and pages… and farmville. People and farmville make me go nuts, something something something.

So I’m back on the blog and looking forward to sharing some very cool stuff.
Cheers,

Matthew

Have you ever looked closely at Tina Fey? I mean like really really closely. Most people don’t notice it. Most people say “I never saw that before” after you point it out to them.
Would you like me to point it out to you?
On her left cheek Tina has a large scar. It’s from an incident quite some time ago. No one is quite sure what happened as she hasn’t really talked about it. So my friend Dean pointed out that Tina talked about this scar in Vanity Fair… so I correct myself on her not talking about it much, instead she only talks about it a little bit HERE To her it’s no big deal.
Had she let it bother her, I don’t think she’d be so popular in showbiz.
Did you know that she was the first female lead writer on Saturday Night Live? What would have happened if she was too self-conscious and gave up on fame and stardom?

I’ve been listening to a great audio book: The Pixar Touch. Thanks to Tim McAlpine for the recommend.
Did you know that before Toy Story came out (Pixar’s first computer animated full feature film) that they were 50 million dollars in the hole?
Did you know that even Disney at one point thought that computer animation was a waste of time and money? Pixar started as a company apart from Disney and continues to be a separate, but connected company.

Nothing great will happen without adversity and/or failure.
I’m feeling inspired and challenged to push through the failure and look at the bigger picture, look to the dream.
What do you do when you face adversity and failure?

It reminds me of this blog I wrote awhile ago – READ THE POST HERE – 5 part series

Cheers,
Matthew A. Hawkins

After filming various people, in various locations and piecing it all together, we found that the different looks didn’t fit together. The stories were amazing, but aesthetically it just wasn’t working. It reminded me of an earlier post: check it here.
With the way things go, we had already started late on our videos (equipment hadn’t arrived till later then we would have liked – so can be the world of production). So, Thursday (3 nights before we had to show our video on Easter Sunday) we decided to re-shoot. Thursday at 7:30pm we went out to re-shoot 4 of the stories. My good friend Jason was persistent on coming with me that night… little did I know that I would need him there.

In the first 20 minutes of filming the first story, my wife called me and said she was having some problems with the baby (she is 21 weeks prego). I ran from the shoot and left Jason and Shawn behind the cameras.
Deb had to spend the night in the hospital, but after tests and checks from the doctor, she’s at home on bedrest and baby is doing fine. While in the hospital, Deb said to me, “you left filming people’s everybody stories, so that we can have an everybody story of our own.” It’s true. I feel we’re still in one, but we pray for good things to happen and for deb and baby to be safe and healthy.

Curious how the video turned out?
Well from uploading the footage on Thursday night (7d footage is a synch, but the real time firewire XHA1S is sure way longer to load up, cursed tapes), I spent the next day in and out of editing, visiting the hospital, taking care of my boys (with the help of our incredible neighbors) and then got some real time to sit down and start editing around 6pm of Friday night. 4am the next morning I was done. A crazy day and an awesome result:

Recently, I did something that made me think of that old birdhouse mailbox (not exactly the one that is shown above).
On my way out to visit a friend I noticed a whole bunch of daffodils in the middle of the highway. I decided that I needed to stop on my way home and pick a huge armful for my wife.
So on my way home at midnight I pulled over to the middle of the highway, four way flashes on, and trekked into the highway median field. I had my sandals on. There were a bunch of thorn bushes. I pushed on and gathered a whole bunch of daffodils for my wife.

When I got home I wanted my wife to see my awesome gift I got her. It was 1am. She refused to get out of bed (she’s 20 weeks pregnant and very tired and sick). I thought this would make her night. She didn’t agree.
Heck it could have been a flipping diamond necklace downstairs and she still would have insisted on sleep. So, we fell asleep until the storm outside woke us up:
Debbie: Should I unplug my computer.
Me: Yeah.
PAUSE
LONGER PAUSE
Me: You want me to unplug it don’t you?
Debbie: Yes Please.
Me: Um, no you do it, then you can go see your present.
(Yeah I know… romantic!)
Deb went downstairs and checked out her present. She came back upstairs and asked me, “Did you and Kyle go steal these from city hall?”

I love stationery stores. I would probably love working in a certain paper/printer sales company too.

I found out about Behance when I was looking for a good project management tool. From the get go I loved the way their design looked. It made me prod further.
Since then I’ve used their online Action Method for a project (combined with their free iPhone app) and have really liked it. My only problem – I don’t have what I think is enough work to warrant paying for their services… yet. That will come in time. (They have a very cool set-up for projects, including an option of having fellow co-workers to be a part of your action steps and simple check points to make sure everything is right on track.) You should check it out – HERE

So that said, I checked out their printed materials and knew I needed to give it a try. I just got the package in the mail yesterday and well, just check it out:

I loved the box the way it came and from there it just got better and better!

Both of my products were packaged very well (even though it’s just $15), but what I loved was the attention to detail. If you look at the book on the right, the bottom strip had creative and encouraging words for making ideas happen.

This book is the one I love and I think will be used the most (even though the action pad are just the papers from the action book, the action book has such a nice feel and sound to it!). Inside it has a little booklet on how to make the Action Book the most effective. Very cool! Just about ready to “show my ides some respect“.

To say I’m excited about these new purchases would be a lie. I’M VERY EXCITED.
I’m looking forward to moving forward with a few new initiatives of my own and getting some solid project management behind them will make a world of difference. This is gonna be good!

Cheers,

Matthew A. Hawkins

Here’s my life in the last month and for weeks to come:
Each morning I wake up to two boys climbing into my bed and wanting to immediately go downstairs.
They have one thing on their mind: food. More accurately, cereal and milk.
From there it’s onto wearing the days batman and robin capes and playing with action figures and cars.
I rush quickly to get showered and dressed and to check that Deb can make it downstairs ok. She is 13 weeks pregnant right now and feeling very ill.
Poor girl. My boys say that to her too now.
I go to work. I always have my family in the back of my mind. How are they? Are the boys fighting each other? Is Deb hurling?
My work, is work. It can be very rewarding, but to be completely honest, it’s not always that much fun.
I go home either on the bus or in a car that sounds like a bus.
I never know what to expect when I open the door when I get home.
Will there be any carpet visible? Will the kitchen still look like a kitchen?
I think I struggle with OCD. Messes and me don’t get along very well. At all.
I clean up, air out the house (Deb can’t do smells too well right now), it’s freezing.
I either ‘make’ supper or I actually make supper.
Deb and the boys come home. Debs been working and looks like she will keel over.
The boys are hungry and want to wrestle. I get them for 2 hours to eat, play, read, watch a show, wrestle, bedtime stuff and then wrestle some more.
My favorite time of the day right now is when the two boys demand I cuddle with them before they each go in their own beds. Two boys laying on my chest.
We pray together. I pray they will be good men. I pray God’s hand to watch over them.
We have kisses and I scoop them into their beds. (The came up with the word scoop, not me).
I go downstairs and clean up again. Deb is either laying on the couch or in bed. Poor girl.
I open my laptop and do work. I still run Hawkins Media and am looking to get some new initiatives running.
For the first time since I can remember, I’m not feeling overly motivated.
I look around. I imagine what I want for my boys. What I want for my wife.
I would do anything for my kids. I would give them whatever they needed when they needed it. I know I’m a suck for them. They just show me those eyes and big bottom lip and I give in.
I just want to be a good dad.
My wife makes me want to be a good dad. Not MAKES makes me, but the two boys she gave me and her love for me and them, make me want to be a good dad.
If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have two amazing boys. I wouldn’t have a third kid on the way.
Those are my days right now. Some days its overwhelming and feels like it will never stop. Other days are so rewarding and fun.
Today was one of those days:

I wanted to see how many videos I have uploaded and how many views there have been. I did a quick overview of the number of different clients I have worked with, the different styles and attempts I made in different videos and the amount of growth I have made over the last 5 years I have been filming and editing.

The main thing I learned from looking over these numbers is that you only get better if you try. You only learn more by engaging what it is you want to learn.

They say it takes 10,000 hours doing something to be an expert. I think I have a 1,000 hours under my belt and that I’ve got a long way to go, but I was pretty excited about these numbers.

Of the 5 different channels I’m the primary uploader/creator for videos, the 268 videos I have uploaded, I have an ever growing total views of 49, 572.

I’m excited about the future of what I’m involved with and I’d love to see that total number of views for all those videos, be the total number of views for just ONE video.

One day I guess.
They are just some numbers, but they do tell a story behind them. They also drive me to want to do more. Not bad for some numbers.