by Joe Domaleski | Jan 29, 2024 | Blog, Business, Columnists, Community, Front Page, News Center, Opinion, Top News
Idon’t necessarily consider myself a “prepper,” but I do like to be prepared in case of emergencies. When I was a Boy Scout, I was taught to “Be Prepared.” We often think of emergency preparedness as having supplies and plans in place for first aid, food, water, battery power, shelter, important documents, and money. Those are all good and necessary preparations, but how about communications? Instant communications with cellphones and the internet have spoiled us. What happens if those forms of communication fail? It’s admittedly old-school technology, but amateur (ham) radio works when other forms of communication fail.
Before there were cellphones, the internet, or even television, if you don’t count smoke signals and signal flags, the world’s first form of wireless communication was radio. The ability to hear voices, music, and news through thin air was (and still is to me) somewhat magical. I’ve always had a personal interest in radio. As a middle-schooler, I enjoyed building crystal radio kits that allowed me to hear distant radio stations from around the world without batteries! Shortwave radio stations allowed me to hear news and music from faraway places like London through the BBC World Service, the Soviet Union (now Russia) through Radio Moscow, and obscure Pacific islands whose primary connection to the world was radio.
Joe (KI4ASK) & Mary Catherine (KI4HHI) Domaleski at the 2023 Fayette County Amateur Radio Club field day event in Brooks, GA. Photo/Bryan Macera
Closer to home, I enjoyed listening to scanners – not the type of scanner you hook up to a computer to make copies of documents, but radio scanners that gave me the ability to listen to our police, fire, airport traffic, and more. Radio opened up a whole new world to me, and I remained fascinated with it all through high school. Yes, Radio Shack was one of my favorite stores at the mall.
My first exposure to two-way radio (meaning that I could listen and talk) was probably a set of GI Joe walkie-talkies that my brother and I got for Christmas one year. We had fun riding around the neighborhood on our bikes, talking on the radio about “secret missions.” Go watch “Stranger Things” – Dustin was me in high school (although I was a little skinnier). During the CB radio craze of the late 70s, my father put one in his truck, and I enjoyed talking to people as we traveled down the highway, saying things like, “Breaker One-Nine, this is the Little Polack.” Yes, my CB handle was “Little Polack,” and my dad was the “Georgia Polack.”
In the Army, we used radios a lot, but as an officer, I had a soldier assigned to me as my RTO (Radio Telephone Operator), so most of my radio communications went through him. While I was in the Army, I learned about something called MARS (Military Auxiliary Radio System), where a group of amateur (ham) radio operators helped relay information to/from home using radio and phone patches. Satellite phones were becoming a thing, but my dad said MARS actually helped him find out about my birth while he was in Vietnam.
The world changed dramatically on September 11, 2001. By then, cell phones were very prevalent, but it became clear to me that we had an overreliance on the internet and cell technology. I saw firsthand how many people in New York were literally cut off from the world, even as they were in the middle of the action. We knew more about what was going on by watching it on TV at home than the people directly involved in the situation. This was a wake-up call for me to become more individually prepared for communications. Remembering what I knew about the usefulness of ham radio, I decided to get my license the following year.
Jack Parks (KO4WBM) and Bryan Macera (K7CPT) operating a portable ham radio station during a club picnic. Photo/Joe Domaleski
Becoming a ham radio operator requires taking an FCC multiple-choice test administered by a group of certified Volunteer Examiners. It’s not a hard test. In fact, the questions and answers are made public. Most of the test questions pertain to some basic rules and radio knowledge. Once I got licensed, my wife Mary Catherine decided to get licensed, so she took the test. We found ham radio useful for keeping in touch around town. While she was driving the minivan around with our kids, I could talk to her on the radio and save precious cellphone minutes. Back then, you paid for cell phone calls by the minute. Ham radio was and still is free. My ham radio callsign is KI4ASK, and her callsign is KI4HHI, both of which were assigned to us by the FCC.
For the past twenty years, we’ve found ham radio to be both a fun and useful hobby. Here are some of the things we’ve done with our ham radio licenses:
- Maintaining contact with each other and friends on hiking trips, where cellphone coverage is spotty.
- Supporting local events like the Tri-PTC Triathlon, PTC Classic 15K, Run the Ridge 5K, and others with radio communications.
- Providing weather spotting assistance to the National Weather Service through their Skywarn program.
- Going on “fox hunts,” which are scavenger hunts for hidden radio transmitters.
- Talking to people around the world, which was especially fun during the sequestered COVID-era.
- Listening to what’s going on in Eastern Europe and the Middle East firsthand.
- Talking to astronauts aboard the International Space Station!
- Making friends right here in our community through the Fayette County Amateur Radio Club.
- Sending email over the radio without the internet using Winlink.
- Sending text messages over the radio without cellphones using APRS.
- Supporting our first responders with backup communications through ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service).
- Assisting Georgia Emergency Management (GEMA) / Homeland Security as volunteer auxiliary communicators through the AuxComm program.
If the grid goes down, we know what to do and how to stay in touch with each other and members of our community. In order to help people in our community learn about this fun and useful hobby, the Fayette County Amateur Radio Club and Fayette County Parks and Recreation have teamed up to offer a one-day “ham cram” class and testing session on Saturday, February 17th. I bet some of you reading this article have thought about getting a ham radio license. Now’s your chance.
For more information about the upcoming ham radio class, including registration, please go to the Parks & Rec registration site using this link.
Full disclosure – my wife Mary Catherine is the Assistant Director of Parks & Recreation. I’m a Past-President of the ham radio club. This was her idea to offer the class, but it’s one that I fully support. I’ll be one of the instructors, as will a team of others who are committed to helping you pass the test and earn your license on February 17th.
Members of the Fayette County Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) provided support to the 2023 Tri-PTC Triathlon. Pictured here with Tri-PTC President Allen Leonard (on left). Photo/Kim Bramblett
We have a very active ham radio community here in Fayette County. There’s a network of five radio repeaters that have the ability to provide communications across the county and even link with other communities for statewide coverage. If the towers go down, we have the ability to do simplex, point-to-point communication. Lots of people in our community have their license, including our 911 Director, Katye Vogt, and the Publisher of this paper, Cal Beverly. Among the ranks of our members, we have people of all walks of life including students, first responders, educators, business people, retirees, and young adults.
So many of us, myself included, spend a lot of time on the internet. You are reading this article through a web browser, and you’re probably active on one or more social media outlets. I am as well, but what if all of that goes down? How would you get the news, find out what’s going on, or talk to your family? Ham radio is a hobby that’s both fun and useful. It’ll work when all else fails.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to comment here or contact me directly.
[Joe Domaleski, a Fayette County resident for 25 years, is the owner of Country Fried Creative – an award-winning digital marketing agency located in Peachtree City. His company was the Fayette Chamber’s 2021 Small Business of the Year. Joe is a husband, father of three grown children, and proud Army veteran. He has an MBA from Georgia State University and enjoys sharing his perspectives drawing from thirty years of business leadership experience. Sign up for the Country Fried Creative newsletter to get marketing and business articles directly in your inbox. ]
by Joe Domaleski | Jan 22, 2024 | Blog, Business, Columnists, Community, Front Page, News Center, Opinion, Top News
Our local business community needs your help. Two weeks ago, I wrote about trends facing small, local businesses in our community. Several readers reached out to me directly and asked for my thoughts on how to support the small businesses in our local community. This topic is timely, not only due to the current state of the economy but also because it’s the new year. The new year is traditionally when many of us resolve to do better with habits, resolutions, and personal goals. Consider setting a personal goal of supporting our local businesses more this year. Before listing ways you can support the local economy, let’s consider why that even matters. Please note that everything in this article applies equally well to our small, local non-profits. They need our support also.
Choosing to support local businesses is an act of community-building.
Let’s start with this newspaper. Unlike other news websites, the publisher of this online newspaper has chosen not to put up a paywall to generate revenue. In order to promote free speech and access to the news, revenue comes from advertising – unobtrusive, well-behaved, local ads that don’t pop up and block the content. Revenue is needed to help pay the staff who keep it running and the costs associated with maintaining one of the most popular websites in our community. Unlike other websites, this website is not run by robots or AI – it’s run by real people who report the news, write columns, and contribute hand-written content like this column I’m writing for all of you. Would you like to help? If you own a business, consider advertising. I advertise my own business, Country Fried Creative, on this site. I can tell you that it’s cost-effective and will be seen by more people than most of the other more traditional print and broadcast advertising. If you’re a consumer who doesn’t own a business, talk to your favorite businesses about supporting the paper by becoming an advertiser. Having a free press is vital to our community, but it needs funding in order to operate.
I recently read a short book entitled, How to Resist Amazon and Why by Danny Caine. The subtitle of the book is “The fight for local economies, data privacy, fair labor, independent bookstores, and a people-powered future.” Caine is the owner of a small, independent bookstore – Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas. I won’t summarize the book here except to say that it was a real eye-opener. Support Caine’s efforts and order a copy online to read what he has to say. Like most of you reading this, we also use Amazon – it’s fast, inexpensive, and efficient. Yet, I’m also thinking maybe some of the things I order online should be sourced locally. Caine makes a persuasive argument that supporting local businesses is critical for fostering diverse, vibrant communities. He also touches on the implications of Amazon’s dominance, such as its impact on the publishing industry and its contribution to economic inequality.
When you support a small business,
you are supporting someone’s dream.
It’s not easy running a small business, staffed by local employees. The economic odds are stacked against us. Know that every dollar you spend is going to real people in our community who are trying to support their families. I have a great team, who are underpaid. Most of my peers who own businesses feel the same way. It’s hard to compete with big companies that offer big wages because they have monopolies in their industries, get lucrative government contracts, have access to lots of funding, and obtain subsidies that us small businesses don’t get. Despite that, we’re not looking for a hand-out. We’re willing to work for it, but we would like your support. If you agree and think it’s important to support small, local businesses here are three ways you can do it (even without money).
Shop local – if you’re looking for a place to eat, buy products, or purchase services, look in your community. The well-established ones will probably have a lot of marketing and will be easy to spot. Seek out those businesses who aren’t well-known – they need your money more than those with big marketing budgets. I don’t know about you, but I always enjoy discovering a place that I didn’t know about – especially in our community. There’s one area of the county that’s become our Hollywood. I think that’s great and I’m over there a lot myself walking around the lake (if you see me, stop and say “hi”), but what about the rest of our community that’s not the focus of all of that attention? Consider shopping local with less glamorous businesses. They need your support.
Members of the Fayette County Amateur Radio Club enjoy a group dinner at the historic Olde Courthouse Tavern on the square in Fayetteville. The Tavern is a small, locally-owned family business. Photo/Joe Domaleski
Support local – it’s easier than ever to support a small business online even without money. Consider following local businesses on social media and help them expand their reach by sharing, tagging, and commenting on their posts. Leave a positive review online. Sign-up for their newsletters. Seek out businesses (and non-profits) who need more online exposure and help them with some social media love. Doing this costs nothing. It’s human nature to follow a trend and popular things. It’s disappointing to see things trending that feature bland (and AI-generated) content. Some of that is cranked out right here in our community. Unfortunately, the way the algorithms work – popularity creates popularity (and many of those numbers are fake). Look for the content that’s clearly not well-financed and appears to be more homegrown. The big media players have plenty of attention, how about your favorite restaurant that doesn’t have many followers? Help them out and it costs nothing but a quick click!
Be kind – show your appreciation to the folks in the community who’ve invested time and money to keep the local economy vibrant. Check in with small business owners and employees to see how they’re doing. Even if you have a bad experience, resist the temptation to complain about it online. One bad review can destroy a business. Instead, talk with the business owner and help them get better and improve. Have patience and understand that small businesses have fewer resources than big businesses. You’re more likely to get better in-person service with a small local business than you are with the faceless large corporate entities and national chains. Let’s work together to help our local economy thrive especially those lesser known small, local businesses who need to get more exposure and attention.
In order to help the small, local businesses in our community get more attention and better marketing, I have partnered with the publisher of this newspaper to launch the Fayette Marketing Initiative. We intend to help local businesses get the attention they need, even if they don’t have much of a marketing budget.
If you’re a small business owner, let us know – we’d love to help you. If you know of a business or non-profit that needs marketing help, perhaps you would consider sponsoring them for the program.
Last year, a person of influence contacted me to pay for my company’s services to help promote a non-profit that couldn’t afford it. Now that non-profit is doing well and all they needed was some marketing. Who else in our community needs more publicity, especially if they can’t afford it?
You can contact me using the Fayette Marketing website or directly via email.
Supporting local businesses is not about charity; it’s about choosing to invest in your community and in the people who live in it.
[Joe Domaleski, a Fayette County resident for 25 years, is the owner of Country Fried Creative – an award-winning digital marketing agency located in Peachtree City. His company was the Fayette Chamber’s 2021 Small Business of the Year. Joe is a husband, father of three grown children, and proud Army veteran. He has an MBA from Georgia State University and enjoys sharing his perspectives drawing from thirty years of business leadership experience. Sign up for the Country Fried Creative newsletter to get marketing and business articles directly in your inbox. ]
by Joe Domaleski | Jan 15, 2024 | Blog, Business, Columnists, Community, Front Page, News Center, Opinion, Top News
What is your purpose in life? I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. As a young man, I was mostly focused on getting through school. As I entered adulthood, my focus was on fulfilling my military service and getting started in life. Once I got married and started having children, my primary focus was on making money and providing for my family. These are all natural and typical American pursuits. Our family was very active in Church and we volunteered in the community, but if I’m honest our efforts in those areas were secondary to our other activities. My life’s path may be similar to yours. The first major “leap of faith” I took was starting my business twenty years ago. As I’ve shared previously, this was one way I attempted to bring together my goals of providing for my family and serving others in the local community.
Now that I’m in middle-age, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. Raising a family and running a business has been my life’s work so far, but what kind of legacy do I want to leave in the final third of my working years? Is it to make a certain amount of money? Is it to have a certain headcount of employees? Is it to win some kind of award? Is it to land a certain kind of client? As I think on these things, the following quote really resonates with me.
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?'”
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
If all goes according to plan, this article will come out on MLK Day, and many of you will have the day off from work. You may choose to spend the day at one of the many MLK Day celebrations. Perhaps you’re going to participate in some kind of community service event that honors the tradition of making this a day of service. Not everyone has the day off. It’s always seemed ironic that often times the people associated with a holiday are often the ones least likely to get the day off. As you look around the community, many businesses are still open. This is because they are open to serve their customers and because they need the money, particularly the employees. Please consider supporting those that have to work today.
During his lifetime Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a lot to say about a wide variety of subjects. Known primarily for his impact on civil rights and social justice, he also had quite a lot to say about work, professions, and community service. Here are some of my favorite MLK quotes related to work, purpose, and dignity:
- “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”
- “So often we overlook the work and the significance of those who are not in professional jobs, of those who are not in the so-called big jobs. But let me say to you tonight, that whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity, and it has worth.”
- “Do you know that most of the poor people in our country are working every day? And they are making wages so low that they cannot begin to function in the mainstream of the economic life of our nation.”
- “We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society.”
- “Set out to do a good job, irrespective of race, and do it so well that nobody could do it better.”
- “If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets so well that all the host of Heaven and earth will have to pause and say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper, who did his job well.’”
- “Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
- “If you can’t fly then run. If you can’t run then walk. If you can’t walk then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”
- “The time is always right to do what is right.”
- “We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice – not in love with publicity but in love with humanity.”
Those are some powerful quotes. Dr. King was such an eloquent speaker and writer that any commentary I would offer on the above wouldn’t do them justice. Let’s let those statements stand on their own merits. If you are a business leader in our community, take pause to reflect on Dr. King’s messages to us. If you are a worker, regardless of profession, do the same.
Indeed, Dr. King also said, “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” Regardless of what your role is in our community, please take the time to consider life’s most persistent and urgent question.
In closing, I’ll add the following which Dr. King wrote from a Birmingham jail:
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
[Joe Domaleski, a Fayette County resident for 25 years, is the owner of Country Fried Creative – an award-winning digital marketing agency located in Peachtree City. His company was the Fayette Chamber’s 2021 Small Business of the Year. Joe is a husband, father of three grown children, and proud Army veteran. He has an MBA from Georgia State University and enjoys sharing his perspectives drawing from thirty years of business leadership experience. Sign up for the Country Fried Creative newsletter to get marketing and business articles directly in your inbox. ]
by Joe Domaleski | Jan 8, 2024 | Blog, Business, Columnists, Community, News Center, Opinion
Let me start out this article by getting to the main point — 2024 is going to be a year of change and adjustment for businesses of all sizes, but particularly small, local businesses.
We all had to adjust to the changes brought on by COVID a few years ago. I think most of us thought things would go back to “normal” after that, but they haven’t. Change is part of life, but it seems change is happening at an accelerating rate.
Here in our local community, I see how rapid change has really impacted some folks in a very positive way, but it’s really left others in the dust. As a 25-year resident of the area (and my wife a lifelong resident), I’m probably somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. Some areas of our community are not even recognizable (which isn’t necessarily bad) from what they looked like just a few years ago, while other areas haven’t changed in 100 years.
My company was started in 2003 because I wanted to make some changes in my life. Change can be uncomfortable, but it also presents opportunities, as it has for me and my family. It’s been my experience that small businesses have the ability to pivot and react to change quicker than larger organizations. That doesn’t mean it’s simple, but it’s easier to change a 10-person company than it is a 10,000-person organization.
The author speaking to the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce in 2023 about business trends during the business outlook summit. Photo/Joe Domaleski
Like most small business owners, I’m generally grounded in the present while looking ahead towards the future. I’m often asked what I see as future trends, but my answers normally come out as informal dialogue with colleagues and other community leaders in an informal setting.
In this article, I’m going to put my “predictions” into writing. We can see how well I nailed it at the end of the year. Most of the news and economic predictions are provided at a national or state level. I’m going to focus on change as it applies to our small, local businesses like mine.
1.Artificial Intelligence (AI) will become an important part of small business operations.
Last year, ChatGPT showed up out of nowhere and not only caught the tech giants off guard, but it also surprised most of us. Seemingly overnight, we all had access to a free tool that we could use to generate content and answer questions using regular language. We’ve had access to other forms of AI for several years now, but this ability for AI to create things is new (aka generative AI).
Most organizations, mine included, tried out some things using AI and I’ve written about that previously. This year, AI is going be less of a toy and more of an important tool used to increase productivity, reduce costs, and speed up time-to-benefit. People who learn how to use it will become more productive and valuable. Businesses (and employees) who don’t catch on or refuse to use it will get left behind.
For those old enough to remember, this is very similar to the desktop computer (PC) revolution in the 80s. Prior to the PC, mainframe computers were in big rooms operated by specially trained staff. Once the PC came out, everyone had one on their desktop. It’s that way with AI right now. Wading through the hype to figure out how to safely and securely implement AI into key business operations is going to be a high priority for most organizations this year.
According to IBM in the recently published 5 Trends for 2024,
“People who use AI will replace people who don’t”.
2. Creativity will become the number one job skill for businesses of all sizes, particularly small businesses.
Matt Candy, global managing partner in generative AI at IBM, has said, “the jobs of the future will be filled by those who can work with AI using language and creative thinking. AI is ‘learning to talk our language’”. Yes, I think AI is a big enough deal that my top two trends deal with it. Whereas my first trend was about the technology itself, this one is about people.
Creative people will find novel ways to innovate, ideate, and generate things using AI technology as a tool, much like an artist uses a palette and paintbrush. People who just crank out AI content for marketing materials, blogs, social media posts, and other purposes are actually going to hurt their organizations.
I don’t know about you, but I’m already tired of AI-generated advertisements, photo enhancements, and bland robot-written content. In this new age of robotic content, people are going to crave human-generated creations. As tempting as it is to fill up a blog with ChatGPT written content, don’t. AI detection systems are freely available and Google favors people-first content.
3. Customer service will continue to be a challenge for most businesses.
No matter what kind of business you have, some customers (typically older ones) expect direct human interaction via phone calls, meetings, and in-person service counters. Providing in-person service is not as easy as it used to be. Ask any business leader and one of their top challenges is workforce development, whether you’re trying to hire servers or engineers.
Not only is it hard to attract qualified labor, but it’s very difficult to keep up with wages. I’ve seen our own payroll costs double in the last three years, mostly driven by inflation. This is why many businesses opt for automated customer service solutions such as online help, chatbots, and order-entry kiosks. Younger people seem to be more comfortable with these types of solutions and, in many cases, would rather have a self-service option than have to speak to someone on the phone.
If you’re a business leader, it’s not either-or, it’s both — you have to be able to provide both “live customer service” and automated “self-service”. Speaking from experience, we love interacting with our customers, but it can be challenging because everyone wants to interact with us in a different way — email, web portal, text message, phone call, or appointment. This stratification of customer service models is especially true in our community which tends to skew towards an older, more traditional population. As a middle-aged person, I can operate comfortably in both models of customer service, but it doesn’t mean that it’s easy or cost-effective.
4. Agile business models will work their way into many industries.
Armed with better data and automated processes, businesses will be more agile in responding to changing market conditions. Slow-moving organizations (and people) will continue to fall behind. Leaders will be challenged with the need to be responsive, but not overreact.
As a society, we are increasingly becoming bored and impatient. We want what we want, when we want it. Most of us have a smartphone that enables us to get immediate gratification for reservations, information lookups, communication, and product ordering. Technology will enable quicker feedback and execution of business strategies.
It used to be that only large businesses had access to predictive models to associate something like ad spend to customer acquisition. Those types of analytics are now available to the smallest of businesses. In particular, AI is ruthlessly effective at spotting patterns and trends in data.
I think most businesses are already implementing agile business models and it’s my hope that the government catches up. Here in our community, we are fortunate in that most of our municipalities and governmental organizations are trying to find ways to be more responsive to the needs of its citizens. As long as change is tempered with the desire for improvement, I think being agile is a good thing for any organization.
5. A return to profitability will become the number one goal for most businesses.
At first blush, that seems self-evident. I don’t know of a single business or non-profit that wants to run at a loss. On the other hand, I know many business leaders, especially local ones, who put the needs of their people above the financial needs of the organization during the “survival” mode of the pandemic.
I’m proud of our local business and community leaders who came together during those times. I personally enjoyed participating in some of the “support local” business initiatives of the times. We live in a new era. After the bumpy ride of the pandemic, businesses began to recalibrate by hiring new people and implementing new technologies.
This, among other factors like supply chain disruptions and the current wage-price spiral, has contributed to inflation. Inflation tends to cool off the economy. While some industries thrive no matter what’s going on with inflation, it’s been my observation here locally that it’s caused a cooling off in the demand for many of the products and services from our B2C (business-to-consumer, retail) and B2B (business-to-business) small businesses.
In short, people are eating at home more and spending less money. You don’t have to be an economist to see the impact of inflation here in our community. Returning to profitability is important so that businesses can cover increased expenses (labor, materials, operating costs) and maintain operational viability.
So there you have it, my top five small business trends for 2024. Obviously, there’s a lot more going on in our community and the world at large than what I’ve listed. Change is not easy, but the rapid and thoughtful adoption of AI has the potential to really help businesses, particularly small businesses, grow to new levels of success. This year will see the creative, human-centric use of technology usher in a new era of agility and profitability, just as the PC did for those of us back in the ’80s. The journey will be bumpy. Organizations that figure out how to thrive in this environment will come out on top. Others who are slow to learn and adapt will get left behind.
Yes, jobs will be lost or reclassified, but new jobs will also be created. That’s not a bad thing, although growth sometimes hurts. The web and internet didn’t exist when I was in college, yet for the past twenty years, I’ve been running a marketing agency that got its start doing web design. There will be new jobs and business opportunities in the next few years that haven’t even been thought of today.
Being a leader is never easy, and making decisions that may negatively impact people can be tough. Focusing on the greater good sometimes necessitates making a change that “rips the band-aid off” so that the pain is temporary. I don’t know what kind of changes you are considering for this new year, but whatever they may be, I wish you much success and know that I’m out there with you. A friend of mine recently shared the following quote with me:
“As a leader, you do what is right, not what is convenient and comfortable.”
[Joe Domaleski, a Fayette County resident for 25 years, is the owner of Country Fried Creative – an award-winning digital marketing agency located in Peachtree City. His company was the Fayette Chamber’s 2021 Small Business of the Year. Joe is a husband, father of three grown children, and proud Army veteran. He has an MBA from Georgia State University and enjoys sharing his perspectives drawing from thirty years of business leadership experience. Sign up for the Country Fried Creative newsletter to get marketing and business articles directly in your inbox. ]
by Joe Domaleski | Jan 1, 2024 | Blog, Business, Columnists, Community, Front Page, News Center, Opinion
Welcome to the start of a new year. It’s a chance to hit the reset button and start the year off with new goals and objectives. There are plenty of articles out there about setting general goals and resolutions, so we won’t cover that here. What I do want to focus on is one specific goal that I have and that is to spend more time learning and honing my own skills. Most of the readers of this newspaper tend to be middle-aged (like me) and older, so learning is even more important for us than younger people. We’ll come back to the reason I make that statement in a little bit.
For now, I’ve decided to adopt the personal theme of “New Year, New Skills.” This theme is one that applies to me as both an individual and as a business leader. In this post, I’ll delve into why continuous learning is particularly crucial for us in middle age and beyond, and how it impacts innovation and the vitality of our businesses. First, let me share a bit of personal history to make this more relevant.
The author with a vintage portable computer from 1982, the Osborne I (still works) with 64K RAM, Z80 processor, two 5 1/4″ floppy disk drives, and a 300 baud modem. Photo/Joe Domaleski
Ever since the dawn of the desktop PC (personal computer) in 1980, I’ve had a fascination with technology. In high school, our class was one of the first to study computer programming (thank you Coach Horsley). My father taught data processing at DeKalb Community College, now Georgia State University Perimeter College. Dad bought one of the first portable computers, the Osborne-I “suitcase” computer which I had access to at home to further enhance my learning (see adjacent picture). In college, I decided to study Computer Science at University of North Georgia (formerly North Georgia College). Because Computer Science was in the Department of Mathematics, I ended up getting a dual degree in Math/Computer Science. Not only did I study computer programming, algorithms, and compiler construction, I also studied a lot of math including numerical analysis, calculus, statistics, linear algebra, and matrix math. Calculating dot products on matrices is not something I ever thought I’d see later in life, but I was wrong.
After my stint in the Army, I entered graduate school to work on my MBA at Georgia State University. One class I particularly enjoyed was decision sciences. In the class we used computers (mostly Lotus 123 spreadsheets) and statistics to solve business problems and perform optimization analysis and forecasting. Often times I decided to write my own programs to solve these problems. After class one day, I started talking to one of my professors who mentioned something called a “neural network” as an emerging concept for computer aided decision making. Knowing that I had a background in computer science he asked me to collaborate with him on creating a rudimentary neural network (written in the C programming language) to do financial market graph pattern matching. The math behind neural networks was and still is matrix math (just 4 years earlier I thought I’d never see a matrix again). We did some good work and I was invited to apply to pursue further studies as a PhD candidate. I decided not to pursue a PhD, even though I had been accepted into the program, in order to start a family and make money.
Fast forward 30 years later and I want to be student again. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve learned a lot by being a consultant for the first 10 years of my career and even more by being a small business owner for the next 20 years. But something has rekindled my original interests in math/computer science – yes, the re-emergence of Artificial Intelligence. Faster computers and 30 years worth of Internet data has finally brought AI out of the lab and onto our phones. Most people don’t give AI a second thought, as it has crept into your life by tagging your pictures, planning your routes, suggesting what movies to watch, recommending music you might like, and serving up a steady stream of social media (and ads) on your phone. Some people are blindly using it to generate bland written content and sterile images (please don’t do that, we can tell the difference). Others are using it to good effect by helping them almost like a personal assistant. But this isn’t a story about AI, it’s a story about learning and why it’s become important to me again.
As a middle-aged person, it’s not lost on me that my career has peaked. No, I’m not retiring but as I’ve mentioned in previous articles, the story isn’t about me anymore – I’ve done the things I’ve wanted to do and as the “old guy” it’s my job to mentor and support younger people to help them succeed such as my adult children, the staff at my company, and other aspiring leaders in our community. Yet, I’ve been toying around the idea of a “Second Act”. How can I keep my mind sharp, stay relevant, and pursue earlier interests that I put on hold? Learning!
In our home office keeping my skills sharp by working on a Google PageRank project for a class in developing AI applications using Python programming. Photo/Joe Domaleski
In a recent article for Scientific American (June 2023), Dr. Rachel Wu and Dr. Jessica Church Lang have written a compelling article entitled “To Stay Sharp as You Age, Learn New Skills.” It’s worth a read. There are countless other articles you can read about the benefits of learning, participating in hobbies, doing puzzles, and other “brain activities” to help us stay sharp in the second half of our lives. Young people are generally better at learning than older folks. For many, learning tends to peak by age 40. Other than some professions having mandatory continuing education requirements, most working professionals over 40 tend to stop formal learning. Over 50, which includes me, many tend to not want to learn anything because we’re set in our ways. That’s brittle thinking and leads to obsolescence. I think it’s possible to leverage “older knowledge” with newer learning and skills. In my case, what’s old is new again in the form of AI which is powered by concepts I learned over 30 years ago – matrix math and neural networks!
So, what are some of the benefits of learning new things?
Enhanced Cognitive Function: This is just a fancy way of saying that learning new skills stimulates the brain, helping to keep you sharp. As was mentioned in the Scientific American article above, this can be particularly beneficial in delaying or reducing the risk of cognitive decline associated with aging. Let’s start learning right now by looking up the word “neuroplasticity.” Consider how that relates to the learning experience.
Improved Memory: Engaging in learning activities has been shown to improve memory. When we learn new things, we exercise our “memory muscle”, which can help in retaining information better and for longer periods. By the way, have you seen my car keys?
Increased Emotional Well-being: Learning new skills can boost self-esteem and confidence. It provides a sense of accomplishment and can be a source of joy and fulfillment. I know one recent innovation of learning is to “game-ify” the process where certain learning goals attainments are rewarded by earning points and unlocking achievements, just as you would in a game.
Social Engagement: Often, learning involves interacting with others, whether it’s in a class setting or online forum. This social aspect can be vital for older adults, helping to combat loneliness and build a sense of community. This was impacted a few years ago by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it also lead to the development of more online community learning. I personally like a mix of both online and in-person learning.
Keeping Up with Technological Advances: In a world where technology is also changing, learning new tech skills keeps us connected and able to engage with modern tools, from smartphones to the latest software. For example, I originally learned spreadsheets with SuperCalc, followed by Lotus 123, then Microsoft Excel, and now Google Sheets. The concepts are the same, but the tools have evolved. Pro tip for some of my peers, stop using Microsoft Powerpoint and consider using Canva! My staff helped me learn about that one.
Physical Health Benefits: Some learning activities, especially those that involve physical activity like dance classes or yoga, can have direct physical health benefits, aiding in maintaining flexibility, balance, and overall fitness. Learning doesn’t just have to be a brain activity. Last year I took up ballroom dancing so that I could dance at my daughter Alex’s wedding. I’m still not that good at it, but it was a great learning experience.
Adaptability to Change: Learning new skills helps us (particularly older adults) stay adaptable in a changing world. This adaptability is important not just for personal growth but also for understanding and relating to younger generations. I am constantly learning things from younger people and strive to keep an open mind about new ways of doing things.
Career Enhancement: For those still in the workforce, learning new skills can lead to career advancement or even a change in career paths. Learning helps keep people competitive in the job market. Ask an employer (including me) what the number one challenge is and we’ll tell you it’s finding a qualified workforce with the skills to do today’s work and a willingness to continuously learn in order to be prepared for tomorrow’s work. Back to AI – if you are not learning about how to use it (both its strengths and weaknesses) you will be left behind in the workforce.
Intellectual Curiosity and Lifelong Learning: Fostering a culture of intellectual curiosity can lead to a more fulfilling, enriched life. It keeps the mind active and engaged, crucial for maintaining mental agility. I enjoy learning new things, solving problems, and staying relevant. Learning helps you to be a more interesting person at parties and other social gatherings.
Creativity and Innovation: Learning activities expose us to new ideas and perspectives, which can ignite our own creative processes that lead to innovation. Creativity and innovation are two of the most important success factors for a business, especially in today’s algorithm-driven world. Indeed, one reason I have renewed my interest in AI is to peer back into the “black box” to see what’s going on. Most people don’t bother fact-checking or understanding the how/why of things. I think that’s a mistake.
The author’s Harvard University CS50P – Programming in Python certificate of completion. Photo/Joe Domaleski
So back to me and my goals for the new year. What have I personally been doing to learn and improve my own skills? One of the ways has been to write this weekly column. I’ve always enjoyed writing, but haven’t had much of an opportunity until recently. One of the best ways to get better at something is to do it. I’m very appreciative of the support and feedback about this column that many of you have given me in person and on social media. Another way that I’m trying to be more deliberate about learning, is to take formal online classes. I recently completed a Harvard University CS50 online class about Python (it’s not a snake, it’s a modern computer programming language used in AI and data science) and am enrolled in a class right now where we’re actually developing AI applications. I’m looking forward to applying those skills with our marketing clients. At work, we’ve been fostering a culture of learning and skills development by encouraging staff to obtain industry certifications. Certification programs help encourage and validate skills development. Every team member participated, including me.
As I start this “New Year, New Skills” endeavor, I invite you, my readers, to join me. Let’s challenge the stereotype that learning is just for the young. Whether it’s rekindling an old interest, picking up a new hobby, or enhancing our professional skills, let’s demonstrate that age is just a number when it comes to learning. Not only will you be setting a good example for others, but the young people in your life will be glad you’re making an effort to stay relevant and up-to-date. Let’s make this year not only about achieving our business goals but also about personal growth and intellectual enrichment. Remember, the journey of learning never ends, and it’s never too late to start. You may find out, like I did with matrix math and neural networks, that your original knowledge is still valid, it just needs an update to be relevant in today’s world.
[Joe Domaleski, a Fayette County resident for 25 years, is the owner of Country Fried Creative – an award-winning digital marketing agency located in Peachtree City. His company was the Fayette Chamber’s 2021 Small Business of the Year. Joe is a husband, father of three grown children, and proud Army veteran. He has an MBA from Georgia State University and enjoys sharing his perspectives drawing from thirty years of business leadership experience. Sign up for the Country Fried Creative newsletter to get marketing and business articles directly in your inbox. ]
by Joe Domaleski | Dec 25, 2023 | Blog, Business, Columnists, Community, News Center, Opinion
Happy Holidays and hello, winter. It’s Christmas for some, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Winter Solstice for others. No matter what you celebrate, it’s customary to gather together with our families as we wind down the year. This time of year is not only a time of celebration, but for me personally, it’s usually a time of reflection and planning. For some reason, we’re either around a lot of people during the holidays attending parties, dinners, and gatherings, or it’s just my wife, Mary Catherine, and me in a quiet house. I love being with family, but I also enjoy periods of solitude.
During periods of quiet, I normally try to work on some things around the house and get caught up on my personal “to do” list. What I look forward to the most, however, is some quiet time to just sit and think. Years ago, I learned how to be more deliberate about thinking after reading a book entitled “Thinking for a Change” by John C. Maxwell.
“Your thinking, more than anything else, shapes the way you live. It’s really true that if you change your thinking, you can change your life.”
– John C. Maxwell
Maxwell, perhaps best known for his books “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” and “Developing the Leader Within You,” is one of my favorite leadership authors. Twenty years ago (the same year I started my business), he actually came to Fayette County and did a national broadcast originating from the newly established New Hope Church South Campus. Perhaps some of you reading this were there that day, it was a huge crowd.
Autographed copy of Thinking for a Change by John C. Maxwell dated 3-28-2003. Photo/Joe Domaleski
While I was there at the Maxwell event, I picked up one of his lesser-known titles, “Thinking for a Change.” The message was simple, but it quickly became one of my favorites of his many books. His emphasis on the power and potential of “just thinking” really inspired me to be more deliberate about how I approached thought.
In the book, Maxwell makes the case that all actions and endeavors begin and end with thought. He maintains that there are different types of thinking skills and outlines each one of them in the book. Here’s a quick summary of those key skills and what they mean to me personally:
Big-Picture Thinking: Seeing beyond the day-to-day to understand the broader scope and future direction of my business and my life. I probably struggle with this more than any other type of thinking. It’s hard to think about the big picture when you’re drowning in the details of “here and now.”
Focused Thinking: Applying concentration and focus on key goals and challenges in order to make decisions and solve problems. I actually enjoy this type of thinking the most, but I have to be deliberate about tuning out distractions from emails, messages, and other non-urgent things that sometimes feel urgent.
Creative Thinking: Coming up with new ideas to drive innovation. Creativity allows individuals and organizations to develop new ideas, products, and services, which can lead to breakthroughs, excitement, and forward progress. This is what my company is best known for, and it’s actually part of our company name – Country Fried Creative. For me personally, the challenge isn’t the creativity part (because I have a great creative team) but it’s the application of that creativity to specific situations.
Realistic Thinking: Assessing situations objectively with facts, data, and experience. Oftentimes creativity is tempered with reality. Brainstorming shouldn’t be constrained by reality, but reality definitely comes into play before implementing ideas. As a business owner, I have to assess the feasibility and market potential of our creative ideas. Realistic thinking gives us the proper context for doing that.
Strategic Thinking: Planning effectively to achieve goals and objectives. This is different from big-picture thinking, which often isn’t constrained by goals and objectives. Strategic thinking considers various scenarios and paths. I often consider the best case, worst case, and probable case when it comes to strategic thinking. Risk vs. reward comes into play when considering strategic thinking.
Possibility Thinking: Empowers people to look beyond apparent constraints, envisioning what could be achieved. For me, this is the classic “Can Do” thinking where anything is possible. It’s all about being a leader of hope.
Reflective Thinking: Taking time to ponder and learn from past experiences. I do this a lot, perhaps too much. While it’s important to consider the past, it’s even more important not to dwell on the past in such a way that it becomes baggage. Experience gleaned from reflective thinking helps in realistic thinking to avoid past mistakes. However, focusing too much on the past can limit possibility thinking and future potential.
Going beyond popular thinking: Challenging the “crowd mentality” in order to see and do things differently. Unfortunately, this has become increasingly hard to do as computer algorithms dictate what we see. This means not just following the path well-trodden but daring to think independently. It’s about questioning the status quo and considering alternative perspectives or solutions that might not be immediately obvious or widely accepted.
Shared Thinking: Collaborating with others can help expand perspectives and generate better ideas. There are so many tools available to facilitate collaboration that it would seem this would be a “no-brainer.” Yet, each one of us works differently in a group setting. Optimizing frictionless collaboration without stifling group creativity is probably one of the top business challenges of our time. Work-at-home vs. work-at-the-office is a hot topic with businesses. I personally think a combination of in-person and remote collaboration has worked best with our team.
Unselfish Thinking: Focuses on how things affect others, including employees, customers, family, and members of the community. In business school, I was taught that the purpose of a company is to maximize profit. While profitability is important for financial viability, I’ve come to learn that a business has a moral obligation that goes beyond profits. For me, simply considering the question “How can this idea help people?” can lead to thinking that can help people and the community at large. Purpose first, and then profits often follow.
Bottom-Line Thinking: Concentrates on thoughts and activities that can generate measurable results. Being results-oriented is an important part of being a leader. Out of necessity, sometimes those results need to be immediate and short-term, like achieving year-end financial goals. At other times, the results are more long-term and sustainable in nature. Focusing on results ensures that big-picture, possibility thinking can lead to positive outcomes that are beneficial to all concerned.
The author reading John C. Maxwell’s Thinking for a Change. Photo/Joe Domaleski
If you’re like me, then perhaps you’ve never really thought about thinking. “Thinking for a Change” was a real eye-opener for me. Embracing Maxwell’s thinking styles, from big-picture to bottom-line thinking, isn’t just about business success; it’s also about enriching every aspect of our lives. May your holidays be merry, reflective, and filled with thoughtful moments. Enjoy your holiday family time, but create some space for thoughtful, deliberate, and creative thinking. Happy New Year, everyone – let’s make it a thoughtful one!
[Joe Domaleski, a Fayette County resident for 25 years, is the owner of Country Fried Creative – an award-winning digital marketing agency located in Peachtree City. His company was the Fayette Chamber’s 2021 Small Business of the Year. Joe is a husband, father of three grown children, and proud Army veteran. He has an MBA from Georgia State University and enjoys sharing his perspectives drawing from thirty years of business leadership experience. Sign up for the Country Fried Creative newsletter to get marketing and business articles directly in your inbox. ]
