Oliver Tani

I’ve been working with interactive agencies, online marketing companies and even served as the in-house internet marketing person for the better part of a decade now. I have recently made the move back to being an independent consultant. By recently, I mean it’s been exactly 24 hours. In order to be successful, I knew that there were a few things I would have to do. Below are some ways that I know that I’m going to need to do in order to remain successful and on my own.

Treat each day as a normal work day.
This doesn’t mean get up, fight traffic and hate the entire world before you get to the office. What I mean is that it is very important that while you’re just walking into your home office or living room, or back patio, you should still treat it as you’re walking into a working environment. I would never walk into an office setting in shorts and flip flops, so I made sure that when it was time to work, I was dressed and ready for the day. If you don’t do this, you’ll surely find yourself in the same shorts and flip flops when the end of the work day rolls around.

Keep your reputation strong.
One thing I have done over the last few years is create many positive working relationships with people. I have made sure that I have always had my best foot forward when it was important and that I always gave more of myself than I did the time before. You want to make sure that whenever you put your name on something, that it is the best thing you’ve ever done. If I’m not proud of my work, I won’t put my name on it. Your reputation, especially in the online marketing world is like a viral resume of sorts in the fact that you can be recommended for jobs and consulting work without even knowing it.

Stay Organized.
Calendars definitely help, whether it’s Outlook, Google, or even one of those hideously big desktop calendars that your teachers had in 3rd grade. Merely writing down appointments, calls, and meetings chronologically has helped me tremendously. On my first day out on my own, I had about four meetings that I had to make sure I was ready for. I make sure that every single meeting invite I have is synched to my Blackberry and I set the meeting reminders for 30 minutes ahead of time. This helps me never miss something important. The other thing that I do is keep lists. When I first sit down to work, I always create a list of things that I should do, and things that I have to do. I know it sounds so simple and elementary, but it has really helped me.

Create Goals (and see them through).
I have a few goals as far as how much new business I need to bring in to get to a good client load and how much money I need to make to live comfortably. Everything I do and work on, I make sure somehow ties into either my short-term and/or long-term goals. You have to know what you’re working for or you may not always see the value in doing something.

Stay Connected.
Probably the most important thing for me to do would be to make sure I’m staying connected in the industry. Staying connected can mean three things to me. First is the internet connection. Seriously, in this day and age, how many internet outages should we have!? Nothing’s more frustrating than having emails that you can’t get to when you’re on a tight deadline or not being able to access your online tools etc. Secondly, staying connected to me also means that I’m current in everything that’s going on in the industry. In my business, I have to know what’s happening, when algorithms shift, when best practices change and any other relevant news. The last thing, but most important is staying connected to people. If it weren’t for the people I’m currently connected with, there’s no way I would’ve been able to make such a smooth transition to working on my own. Most of my contract work and consulting gigs I’m working on right now are because these people that I’m connected to have referred them to me.

Well I know this was quite the post, but I had to make up for not posting in about a month! I guess now I’ve got nothing but time on my hand, so this blog is yet another way for me to stay connected!

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Friday. It’s supposed to be a happy day because we’ve got a 3 day weekend coming up and I’m going out of town to relax. Only problem is sometimes when you’re sitting in an office, working your butt off, you forget to stop and breath. Growing up in Hawaii, we had what’s known as “Aloha Friday”. This doesn’t just mean that we all put on our favorite Aloha shirt and start doing the Hula until our Spam and Poi are ready to be consumed…

No, Aloha Friday was more of a feeling of joy and happiness that all your stress and endless days that you’ve endured throughout the week will soon be over. Although you may have the same amount of work on a Friday that you would on a Monday, or Wednesday, there’s a calming sensation that has entirely consumed you. There is no more stress, no more people driving to work, pissed off because they’d rather be at home. Instead, you have people in the office in high spirits, bringing in foods to share for breakfast and invites for a spirit-lifting team lunch.

On days like this, I wish we could institute Aloha Friday into every company throughout the world. While I know this is never going to happen, I can still don my favorite Hawaiian shirt and let my mind float back home to the islands for a little calming getaway. A little Israel Kamakawiwo’ole always seems to help…

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So I finally had the chance to rent “Thank You for Smoking”, which is a Satirical comedy follows the machinations of Big Tobacco’s chief spokesman, Nick Naylor, who spins on behalf of cigarettes while trying to remain a role model for his twelve-year-old son. The movie was absolutely brilliant. As smart as this movie was, there were so many factors that I hadn’t caught which is why I was glad I went with some of my friends. It was pointed out to me that throughout the entire movie, ironically, no one was seen smoking a cigarette.

Rob Lowe’s character was great. When Nick Naylor (played by Aaron Eckhardt) asked him when he sleeps, Lowe replied “Sunday”. That’s exactly how I feel sometimes.

I guess I’m just glad how intelligent movies can still prove to be. In a world of Stick Its and Fast and Furious 3’s on the rental shelves, it’s refreshing to see that people are still capable of thinking when it comes to making some of today’s movies.

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Some say these guys are the biggest posers ever. I simply can’t believe those people. I mean, they’ve got some guys who want to actually create rap albums with them. Plus, that balla “Cripmoney” backs them, and although people say he’s probably the biggest idiot in the world, I think he’s got a ton of street cred to go around… I just say, Share the wealth Cripmoney, you’re making the rest of us look bad.

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