One of the first things I remember from starting out with my first job in the IT industry back in 1999, was that everybody and their dog needed a webpage. These days it seems like it’s a bit of history repeating. Sadly to me it’s seems like the promised land of social media ended up getting to be just like back in 2000 -  this time around it’s just on steroids and speed combined.

To me this has never been about the tools. I don’t like them much. Some of the even seem incredibly shallow to me.

Im a people person. I create (and rock it) for a living. Those of you who know me well, know that I can really frustrated if things Im passionate about aren’t used for their full potential. I don’t think social media as tools are used to their full potential. They are used for a campaign pitch and to get more money out of the clients because some sort of hip edge, diversity and misused connection known as social media. It frustrates me when I see a social business agency or social agency or whatever-they-choose-to-call-themselves, who doesn’t really contribute with a lot themselves, but just keep passing links around from others about social media. Who keeps hyping the hype. Who promises their clients that everybody will be listening to them because they are using the tools – and not because they have anything smart or great to say. Just because they are there.

Remember 2000 ? where everybody had a website because it was a “window” to the company?

Guys we’re still windowpeaking. And we’ll keep doing it until we understand that it’s about identity, content and proactivity.

The tools? it’s really the last thing you should worry about.

It truely is.

ps. the picture is of our new dog at home. He’s called Jarvis and is still just a little puppy. He’s amazingly bright and cute though..

This essay by Jonathan Harris entitled “our digital crisis” has moved me deeply. (I found it via Swiss Miss).

Especially these lines:

“Our online tools do a great job at breadth (hundreds of friends, thousands of tweets), but a bad job at depth. We live increasingly superficial lives, reducing our relationships to caricatures and our personalities to billboards, as we speed along at 1,000 miles an hour.

We trade self-reflection for busyness, gorging ourselves on it and drowning in it, without recognizing the violence of that busyness, which we perpetrate against ourselves and at our peril.”

Sometimes, I think that people forget that things that are putted on the internet are real. Facebook events really happen (even there’s about a 50 % no-show). Social needs to be more than tools and clichéed buzzwords that everybody is talking about. It needs to have substance and be able to be implemented.

It needs to be what’s behind the billboard, and not the billboard in itself. It needs to be the processes, the substance, the flow, the thoughts.

It needs to be you. You need to be respected and accepted because your real. Not superficial. Not just a billboard.

Things are quiet on the blog these days, but pretty hectic everywhere else, moving houses is such a big deal and I am looking so much forward to settling in, the transition is driving me slightly mad these days, maybe because there’s so many unsolved issues. But around 2 weeks ago I was so lucky to attend Roskilde Festival in sunshine. It was such a great time and probably one of my favorite festivals ever. (bands rocked, friends everywhere and great weather, what’s there not to like. Laura and Sami drove down from Helsinki to attend the festival as well and Sami made us come to this really cool and weird concert with the finnish band: Circle. It was a weird blast, but after a while people starting really getting into it – and I must say, it’s the first time I’ve ever witnessed a simulated decapitation of the singer by the bassist – with a guitar.

After the show the band members themselves started to clear away  their equipment. It made me burst into a “be your own roadie” statement. One that I promised I would look into more on the blog. I mean being an online rock star and all (ahem=) Im the one to toy around with the statement as well.

And if you think about it “be your own roadie” isn’t really a bad statement for a company that wants to be more like a rockband. If you’re a rockband and you are your own roadie, it means that you’re relying on yourself to get things done. Epic.  In my world it’s often the “being my own roadie” that’s the most exhausting, but also the place where you really can feel the entrepreneurial freedom. It means that even though you’re the band, you’re relying on yourself to make the show go on. Taking away the excuses for not getting things to happen for you and taking responsibility and not blaming the world for everything.

It’s up to you.

You need to do it yourself. Create it yourself. whatever.

Be your own roadie.

One of the startups I am really excited about these days is Fashiolista – based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Fashiolista works with a bookmarklet that lets you collect fashion you love. Here’s a view of my personal style on fashiolista:

For me, it gives me a total view of what I am into fashionwise, and it’s not something I have given a lot of consideration before. I would love to have a permalink so I could share my personal style with other people. I was just informed by the team that the link to my style is here.

Anyway I think that Fashiolista is going to be huge. For people like me, who’s into fashion, but not THAT into fashion – it’s a very fun eye-opener, and get this – fashiolista became a “go-to” place in my online browsing habits relatively fast. Now if you can catch my attention like that, I think you have a real shot at growing your site. Anyway because I was awestruck with my returns to the site, I decided to interview the guys behind fashiolista. Also because I have an idea that services like this is going to change the online shopping experience so it becomes more social, and products starts to find us, instead of us continuously browsing for something “cool”. anyway, enough babbling -  here goes :

1. where did the idea of fashiolista come from ?

The idea actually came to us after a brainstorm with students from the Amsterdam Fashion Institute. Our goal, from the start, was to help girls shop online and get inspired about fashion.
We had been trying different things before. Most of them involved combining the items from different shops, which resulted in a massive collection of for instance dresses or shoes. We actually found that this approach didn’t make shopping much easier, maybe even harder

When we came up with the idea for Fashiolista, every girl we showed it to was instantly excited. So we knew we were on to something good.

2. how did you begin to execute the idea?

We started off with the design and user experience. One of our partners is a great designer. We than build the whole website as a prototype in a relatively short time. We had to work fast, because we wanted to launch at The Next Web conference in Amsterdam at the end of April.
- and what where the biggest challenges ?

By far the biggest challenge was keeping it simple. It always very easy to keep thinking of more features. Our designer, Thijs, was great in helping us keep the website clean and elegantly simple.

3. what have you done to get people to sign up and get the word/buzz spread around it?

We launched the product at The Next Web conference with a fabulous fashion show. That was really starting with a bang. We actually ‘flipped the switch’ right there while we were on stage. After that, we didn’t do much marketing. The concept just spread viral. In some strange way, it ended up in Brazil where we were featured on several blogs and by teen magazine Capricho. That gave a lot of exposure. Now we get many visitors from people talking about Fashiolista on Twitter, Facebook and Orkut.

4. what do people like about the site ?

They love the fact that they can save all their best fashion finds and share them with the rest of the world. Building your personal fashion feed is really addictive.. Users also like browsing the thousands of handpicked items on the website, discovering new items, stores and brands. It’s inspiring!

5. what is your favorite thing about having a startup ?

It’s really exciting to do. When you build a website from scratch and people actually love it and use it, that’s the greatest feeling in the world.

6. if you should give some good advice on making your own startup what would that be ?

Make sure you have great people to start your company with. Don’t give up, keep trying until you get it just right!

7. anything else you want to add  ?

Help us spread the love for fashion at Fashiolista.com!

8. where can people find you guys ?

Online at http://www.fashiolista.com, Twitter: @fashiolista
If you want to meet us in person, our door is always open… our offices are in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

I got back from Roskilde Festival sunday night. Monday was for catching up on stuff and today I feel like creative writing. It’s fantastic, because it’s one of the things I love the most, the total flow of needing to get things down on “paper” and shared away for inspiration.

These days I feel like im in some sort of vacuum waiting to burst out. It was the same when I released “return on involvement” in Danish last year. And with the english book “return on involvement” coming out + my new e-book (working title “social media value chain”, which I still need to find out if I can publish calling it a value chain without getting myself in trouble).

Another things that’s on my mind is the process of moving. We are (still) selling our gorgeous apartment and we’re moving back to my childhood home in Elsinore (about 50 km around from where we live now). Talking to the bank and facing the “when will your apartment be sold” question or “how many has been out to see it” makes me tired.

But – I turn to writing and researching for clients and myself. Now, one of the things that popped up in my curly head today, was a fun trick that I think will help you gather acknowledgement and fame (and make you into the rockstar that I KNOW you want to be).

One of the most important and interesting parts of my business is to figure out what people are saying about you. Both the lovers and the haters, the likers and ignorers (the people who ignore you for some apparent reason) and the rest who hasn’t had the chance to meet you yet. There’s a couple of things that always gets me going and makes me put myself on the spot all the time.

These things are the facts that:

- I believe that about 10% of all people in the world will be straight out negative about you. If you expect that, then the path to being your fullest self and daring to be different isn’t that hard. You will experience that some people thinks that what you’re most passionate about is the most stupid waste of time. Accept that these people are around and get going. Don’t focus on them. on the contrary I choose to believe a lot of people thinks that what I do kicks a**. I need to believe that – you do too.

- It takes quite a long time to get people to find out what you actually do – don’t worry they will come around if it’s for them.

- “They” will screw you over. it’s likely to happen so why not expect it?

- I will come out of every situation stronger.

- That you need to think about these things in a positive way, otherwise you wont publish your next piece of brilliant content, or the next – maybe it’s not exactly accurate, but it get’s your self-esteem up and makes you dare to be yourself. You’re on a special mission and nothing is going to stop you. You’re doing something that no one else has done before – because it has that magic touch of you on it.

But a way to direct this and to strategize around people, is to get aware of what it is that you want people to say about you. Put it down on paper.

So here’s the questions I asked myself (and my own answers below):
Why do you want the lovers to love your work ?

Because they think it rocks. Because it gives them value and that kind of “Henriette” insight and creativity that they didn’t know they where looking for. Because it’s made to inspire. Because it will make them more money and have their business running better… (and that’s also why I believe that Toothless Tiger (aka. my business) has been in business for 5 years, and is still going better than strong=)

Why should/would people hate you ?

If you think I’m an obnoxious woman, who likes to voice my opinion and whom you can’t stand. Don’t like me. Not even on facebook. Don’t retweet. Don’t sign up for my newsletter.  It’s ok. Question my authority. Tell your friends to hate me too. I’m fine without you. No worries. You will be fine without me as well.

Why do they like what you’re doing ?

Because they are inspired by me and my work. They think I am a creative individual who gives them value.

Why do they choose to ignore you ?

One of the things I continuously say in my head is that they deliberately ignore me because they are afraid of me – sometimes I even say it’s because they are jealous. I need to believe that  it’s because I am better, faster, smarter, sexier and more insightful than them

What do you want the in-betweeners to say after the first time the read/hear/see you ?

That I gave them insights they haven’t thought about. That my ideas where genuine. That they would love to work with me at some point.

This is a giving exercise to do. It helps you position yourself. Now look at the answers to your questions and figure out: how will you make it happen ?

1. You take a sticker, steal an old hairpin from your daughter, a piece of paper and a scissor.

2. attach the sticker to the hairpin

3. Put the paper behind the hairpin (and on the opposite of the sticker)

4. cut the paper so it fits the sticker

5. Put it in your hair with the other sticker hairpins =)

Oh and now that we are in the girly corner – check out the newest present for myself:

“hmmm” you might ask yourself – “is that the Camilla Skovgaard Saw Wedges that Henriette has been dying to possess for the past year ?” YES it is. I need them for my speaker tour in the fall. I will never take them off again. They are so divine and so great to wear. My precious. I feel out of this world in them=) They rock. They fit my style. They scream Henriette =)

Today I am heading down to Roskilde Festival – a place I have visited at every opportunity I’ve had since 1997. Anyway this year there’s a lot of connectedness tools going on down there (foursquare camp, tweetups etc.) and I will attend as much as it as I can.  It’s awesome sitting here looking on twitter at the #rf10 tag and see what people are doing down there – I can’t wait to participate myself.

At Roskilde Festival 2007 I worked with a client of mine Jaiku.com – one of my favorite webapps of all time (and I may still add, in my opinion used to be superior to twitter as a microblogging tool), and one of my favorite clients of all time. We tried to set up to use Jaiku.com as a part of the “roskilde community” site (before it was integrated in the overall site=). I think we where around 30 people using jaiku at Roskilde 2007. It was good fun.  I remember @shevy and @aj42 and @wendelboe and I tried to plan a meetup – it was really hard though because the jaiku client drained our phones of batteries.

This year – three years down the line, things have changed and the apps are everywhere – the online/offline relations are booming and it’s a joy for me to see -  My only problem is that if I bring my iphone I will run out of batteries in a day or two. I am thinking about bringing a really old nokia instead – but then I will miss out on all the geolocated fun.

It seems like the collective education of the crowd when it comes to social apps has come so far, where as in my camp 3 years ago people where sitting and asking if I was a reporter or why I was fiddling with the phone all the time. When I said that I was updating the internet they looked puzzled to say the least. Today I don’t think anyone will ask that question. It’s a part of people’s behaviour nowadays. Even though some of it are slightly geeky, the 3 people who asked me questions about “updating the internet” will probably poke a person or two on facebook or send a tweet.

It’s amazing how fast the collective education of the crowd has gone. I wonder where we will be in 3 years =)

by the way – this blog is probably going to be quiet while I am down there – I will however upload pictures to my flickr, so you can have your daily share of me (if you miss me too much=)

I like lists – no actually I LOVE lists – I just get a bit pissed off when they are gender specific. I used to do gender specific bloglists myself.

And currently I am in a process of getting a new design for henrietteweber.com – both because it’s needed – but also because this amazing blog is turning 5 years old on the 21st of june (I even had a blog before that for a couple of months on blogger.com – but I don’t remember where I putted it.. I have always blogged because I love it. It’s the ventile. It’s my outburst and thoughts that are coming out here, instead of in my teenage poetry books that I still dread to read. I know my blog is probably my  number one reason that people want to work with me. Because they like what they read. I want to do a link session on the new blog and give something back to the people who inspires me so much. So I started building the list from my perspective and network and I thought “hey, people on the blog would probably appreciate this as well” so here goes: (ps. some are in danish, swedish, english – and if you think you should be on the list or I have forgotten you – let me know m’kay ?)

julia lahme – danish blogger who can write you to pieces

elektronista mag – great resource for women, gadgets and tech

paula marttila – geek girl and startup lady extraordinaire

natasha friis saxberg - overall fantastic =)

Ton Zylstra – great grumpy old guy (not at all in fact but go read =)

Elmine Wijnia – (creativity redefined)

Ulrika Rudkvist – we share the same pathways

Rebecca Caroe – really great business blog

dseneste – Great danish blogs on digital tendencies

Kim Bach -  friend and überfantastic guy

noochi – inspiration from the b2b scene

novemberborn – my digital kidbrother (yes I did call you that =)

Blending the mix – Pauls excellent blog on web 2.0, social media and you know -the works

the olle jonsson morningstar – I think Olle’s blog was the first blog I read- geeky but fantastic

tveskov.com – Great approach and thought provoking

Judith W – Swedish blog about social media

Niclas Strandh – Digital PR blog that rocks

Doktor Spinn – also digital PR blog that rocks  – but with a different perspective

Jardenberg Unedited – overall amazing

Anders Sporring – great guy and fantastic ideas on social media

I found this blog post yesterday by Charlie Hoehn via Hey Amber Rae.  A lot of things came together in my head after reading it  – the best part of it is:

“My favorite part of The Dark Knight is when the Joker is talking to Harvey Dent in the hospital, and he says: “Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it! You know, I just DO things… I’m not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.”

And therein lies the best career advice I could possibly dispense: just DO things.  Chase after the things that interest you and make you happy.  Stop acting like you have a set path, because you don’t.  No one does.  You shouldn’t be trying to check off the boxes of life; they aren’t real and they were created by other people, not you.  There is no explicit path I’m following, and I’m not walking in anyone else’s footsteps.  I’m making it up as I go.

It’s harder, for sure, and kind of scary sometimes.  But it will allow you to look at yourself in the mirror and know you’re playing by your own rules.”

Especially the “stop acting like you have a set path, because you don’t” line really got to me. Those of you knowing me pretty well as a business owner and an entrepreneur knows that I have had some trouble aligning me with the whole “structure and goal setting go get’em, this-is-who-we-should-contact-today thing”. It’s not something I really like doing and so far I have done really great without it, but as the business grows and as I get smarter, I know I have to get someone inside Toothless Tiger that loves to scheme and plan, somebody who wants a set path – because I really don’t. I know I’m supposed to expect me to have a set path. But -it’s not for me, not right now at least. I became a business owner because I love the freedom to choose what to do next. I basically love the magic of the moment and the un-planning part of it.

That I can (like what I am doing this summer) spend all my time on my favorite clients, writing new products and staying at home with my daughter playing and creating and find out the moving process (we are moving to a house in my hometown Helsingør (basically it’s my childhood home we are buying from my parents) – and selling our awesome apartment 12 km from the city center of Copenhagen)

I love it. I am a dog chasing cars as well. I am not into the whole “getting there”. I just want to run free and do my thing.

I am currently reading the book called “the element” by Sir Ken Robinson. Ken’s thoughts on education has inspired me for a long time, and it’s one of the reasons that I have chosen that my daughter is starting in an alternative school after the summer. Combined with my personal experience on how I have always wanting to be creating instead of competing, I am really fearing that the educational system is not only not embracing the rapid changes in the world, but they are educating people for a world that maybe doesn’t exists anymore.

I can only think of my own education first in primary school, then in commerce college and then at CBS. I am sad to say that no where along the lines was the discussion brought up, that maybe it would be wiser to create markets yourself – instead of competing for it. Keep on doing creative cool stuff that would have people getting nearer and nearer to you ( or further and further away from you – if they don’t like what you’re doing). Creating market share instead of competing for it. And start educating kids to take a stand, be a standpoint themselves and to create their way through life, instead of bashing other people down and compete for every single thing. I don’t know about you – but competition stresses me out. I love the fact that people who wants to work with me, most of the time wants to work with me because I am Henriette Weber, and not because “i do social strategies, counselling and speaking” – to me it’s not important.

It has been a long process for me to go from being bullied in school because my outlook was different and I was “weird”. To being the person shouting the loudest in the room trying to get everyone to understand my point of view and how they could use it for their business. To being me today – at peace with being the eternal outsider, a cool girl resting in herself and making money on being myself. And having people listening and involving because they, like me, thinks my points are as valid as everybody else. I think it rocks! Mostly it rocks because I have started to believe in it myself. I know you guys have gotten my back all the time =) but I needed to think of myself differently and that has been the hardest part.

One of the things I am most proud of, is that I am able to do this everyday. I make a living being myself. I still have to make a living and be able to get that fantastic red MG B roadster from 1954 that I adore. But I am buying a house soon and things are really good on my end (yep now I am bashing the idea of being the suffering entrepreneur living in a cardboard box down the road.) The biggest differences in my business life has been where I have busted my cute little behind and creating stuff – being structured and putting great ideas into context.

To me, the creative parts (or the products if you will) is what people has remembered me for and it’s really what’s making a difference to other people.

So what are you creating ? are you creating at all ? otherwise get yourself in gear and start creating something that’s important to you – and I bet also to a ton of other people out there