2016 – CGW's Blog

My 2017 Resolutions

My resolutions this year are taking a more personal tone.

January: Say No — Drop projects, protect my time.
February: Read WOC Monthly — I’ll pursue writers of color I don’t know well yet.
March: Recommit to Duolingo — I want to return to the Spanish language learning tool I’ve enjoyed.
April: Published Project — I have a pair of writing projects I want to push forward.
May: Max my investments — I need to get smart about how I invest, dropping stocks and options and go more traditional. I’m feeling the retirement planning bug, even if I’m 35 years from there.
June: Domestic trip — Keep the tradition alive.
July: Launch a Product — I want to learn about launching a prototype.
August: International trip — Where to this year?
September: Story Shuffle Podcast — I will do something with the storytelling event I’ve hosted for years.
October: Newsletter Growth — I’m playing with a personal newsletter, now I want to expand who is reading it.
November: Finish Basement Plan — Let’s do something with my big empty basement.
December: Host Family Christmas — Wouldn’t that be nice?

I turned 30 and fell out of shape. Here’s what I did about it

Not long after my 30th birthday early this year, I had what might be called a commonly American experience. I noticed I had suddenly gained a bunch weight — going from weighing something like 190 lbs, where I had been for years, to 220 in what felt like just a couple months. I also just felt worse.

That puzzled me — my diet hadn’t changed much, I was still (somewhat?) active, with basketball and bicycle commuting and frequent walks. What went wrong? I had been a skinny kid my entire life: why would I gain weight? …This wasn’t entirely because I turned 30, right? (Oh my were my friends amused by this).

It took me more than two months to figure out the pretty straightforward answer and the rest of this year to do something about it.

Continue reading I turned 30 and fell out of shape. Here’s what I did about it

Folio magazine called me among the country’s 100 most important media leaders

Magazine executive trade publication Folio listed me on a list of the 100 most important magazine media leaders.

My cofounder Brian and I were listed for our work with Technically Media.

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Here are some things I’ve learned about being a better writer

For its age and influence and subjectivity, writing is one of those crafts that require great study and practice, though they don’t guarantee success alone.

The ordering of words has always been a great love of mine. I’ve been writing at length for as long as I can remember in whatever medium I could find. I’ve spent the last 10 years developing my news writing form, a tradition I have great pride in. However I’ve tried to keep developing my creative storytelling instincts too — fiction being a complimentary but wholly distinct offering from the nonfiction I know best.

Here’s some of what I’ve learned. (I continue to update this post, though I also have bigger ideas here)

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What I’ve learned about letting go teammates

When an employee leaves your company, it almost always fits into one of a few clear buckets: they left on good terms, or bad terms, or you let them go yourself.

She found a better role, and you aren’t matching the offer. Either because you don’t want to or that you can’t, you don’t meet or exceed compensation or responsibility or title or something else that the new role offers, though she would be willing to stay.
She’s quitting, and so you can’t do anything about it. Whether or not for another role, she wants to leave your company (maybe it’s time or maybe there’s a problem).
You’re letting her go. Because of budgetary or strategy reasons, her role is being eliminated or fundamentally changed. You could think of this as anything from convenient (downsizing on someone you don’t think was a good fit anyway) to painful (someone you really appreciated but didn’t have the role or place for).
You’re firing her. Because of performance or actions, she is being removed from the organization. There is an array of euphemisms and agreements that mask these, often for optics.

Happily most have left Technical.ly on good terms. But I have experience with them all. Here are some things I’ve learned about the process

More than 80 percent of employee turnover is attributed to bad hiring decisions, according to Harvard Business Review.
HR executives try to put a financial cost on replacing staff, something like 20 percent of a mid-level manager’s salary, according to SHRM estimates. So, say, replacing a $50k manager has a cost of $10k on the low end of estimates.
When you’re letting someone go, have a script, make it quick, stay on message and get out.
You have to play favorites. I didn’t act decisively enough when a particular teammate whom I wanted to retain announced she had gotten another offer. It was before I better understood the crude, if effective, old ‘rank and yank’ concept: fight for your top performers, train your middle performers and cut your lowest performers. The concept is that you’re aiming to continue to strengthen your team.
And the insight can help you predict whether you yourself are being demoted or laid off.
Follow specific steps to get the deed done.
Be transparent with the team. Clarify whether it’s a lay off or someone is fired for cause.
Lay offs are tough as hell.

3 trends I learned this year that totally shook my understanding of the American economy

I learn new big foundational truths every year. Yet for some reason, three trends in particular that I learned this year meaningfully shifted how I understood my country, in particular the work I do in reporting and organizing around economic development.

They’re so important and telling that I admit I’m a little embarrassed I only really understood them this year.

Continue reading 3 trends I learned this year that totally shook my understanding of the American economy

“I want a thousand 100-person companies”: a few notes on my part of a profile on Curalate CEO Apu Gupta

Writer John Marchese profiled Apu Gupta, the CEO and cofounder of image intelligence startup Curalate, in Philadelphia magazine this month. It’s a good piece, so read it.

(Last year, Phillymag kindly profiled my cofounder and I too )

I’ve followed Apu and Curalate since their earliest days and been long eager to discuss entrepreneurship ecosystem building in the Philadelphia region — as I do in a dozen other communities in the country. (Find Technical.ly coverage of Apu and Curalate, including the offices we shared).

Business communities need to grow new, dynamic companies. In a still young Philly tech startup sector, we’ve asked the question of whether Curalate will be that region’s next big story, as part of building its scene further.

So in trying to contextualize Apu’s importance, John joined me at our annual Super Meetup this summer and asked me some questions. I wanted to share a few more thoughts on the piece.

Continue reading “I want a thousand 100-person companies”: a few notes on my part of a profile on Curalate CEO Apu Gupta

Listen to my interview on the MediaShift Podcast with Mark Glaser

After bumping into news industry veteran Mark Glaser at the national Online News Association conference in Denver and talking shop, he invited me onto his MediaShift podcast.

Listen below.

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What I learned at the Online News Association 2016 national conference

I’m a fan of the Online News Association‘s annual conference. I’ve been before and went again in September to Denver, getting the chance to speak again too.

My favorite part of the conference is the chance to catch up with peers and meet new friends, largely to check in on whether I think my organization is still sharp. As a local chapter organizer for ONA, I got the added treat this year of networking with other local organizers too. But helpfully I do often find a handful of traditional conference sessions on topics I’m thinking about and learn some things, particularly tactical tips and tricks. I wanted to share some of what I learned.

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The speed of government (and other institutions) is a feature not a bug

Recently a few ideas came together for me that made me want to acknowledge something that might be obvious to others. It isn’t directly related to the Election but it offers a timeliness.

At their best, institutions, and governments specifically, move slowly by design. Like the plan for charter schools influencing school districts, the very hope for startups and other young organizations is to be a place for risk and experimentation.

By merger or sheer influence, the best of these ideas should survive their way through bureaucracy and other obstacles. Others won’t survive. Though that has worked for so long in much of American political life, we were just reminded of how vulnerable that still is. But that isn’t the real goal.

Continue reading The speed of government (and other institutions) is a feature not a bug