I do not know who Jake Bronstein is.

I'm simply a huge fan of Jonathan Fields and the Good Life Project. So, whenever Jonathan releases a new episode (which you can now subscribe to as a podcast), I watch it. It is not uncommon for me to have to make a scramble for my Moleskine and pen as the episodes unfold. Jonathan is one of the most compelling interviewers out there. In fact, he's not really an interviewer, but much more of a conversationalist.

Embrace the squiggle.

This past week has been a crazy one. Crazy in an amazingly great kind of way. After a long wait, I finally got to release my second book, CTRL ALT Delete, on Tuesday. Since then, it has been all about promoting the book without letting the balls drop at Twist Image. A lot of my waking hours are busy spent speaking to media outlets about what this book is really all about. In the second half of the book (called Reboot: You), I talk about the value of having a squiggly career. How the most interesting and successful people I know didn't have a very linear trajectory. How it will not be uncommon for many of us to have 4-5 different careers in our lifetime (as opposed to 4-5 different jobs in our careers). Jack Bronstein is the epitome of a squiggly career. Too many people feel trapped and compelled to stay the course. Too many people think that a linear career is the prudent and true path.

Squiggly is interesting. Squiggly is better. If you don't believe me, please watch this:

By Mitch Joel

Yes, today is my Birthday.

I'm not big on birthdays. That's not true. I'm just not big on my own birthday. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I never got the pony that I wanted when I was a little kid (joke!). I've received a bunch of kind birthday wishes already (many thanks). With that, many people have also said that they are going to buy a copy of my new book, CTRL ALT Delete, today as "birthday gift." And, to be honest, that's just amazingly awesome.

Still, it feels a little self-serving.

I not only can't stop anyone from doing that, because I do want to encourage as many people as possible to buy CTRL ALT Delete (that is the job of selling a book), but I certainly don't want to spend my birthday hawking the book. So, here's what I decided to do: I am going to give $5 for every book sold today to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada's Light The Night Walk. Every year, I take part in the Light The Night Walk because one of my best friend's daughter had Leukemia (you can read the full story here: Fighting Cancer... Again). She's fine now, but she is one of the lucky few. So, if you buy a book today, please email me your receipt (mitch@twistimage.com) and I will make the donation in your honor.

A little less-self-serving.

Regardless of how well this little birthday wish does, I am also committing $1000 to the walk as a birthday present to myself and on behalf of all of you. Thank you so much for reading, listening, following and, yes, even buying CTRL ALT Delete. Birthdays are a moment that allow each of us to reflect on how lucky we are. I am very lucky to have all of you in my life. Thank you for inspiring, pushing, provoking, sharing and caring.

It means the world to me. 

By Mitch Joel

Have you seen the CTRL ALT Delete experience yet?

My latest book, CTRL ALT Delete, came out two days ago. In an attempt to create attention and interest, the team at Twist Image put together a very compelling story about business today. So far, the experience has been getting some rave reviews in places like Twitter and Facebook, but - for the most part - people are still misunderstanding what this all means. When you put things into context, provide the data to back it and present it as a story, you would think that the information would wake people up.

It rarely does.

It turns out that people still - wrongly - think that CTRL ALT Delete is a book about social media (it isn't). It turns out that people still - wrongly - think that CTRL ALT Delete is a book about marketing (it isn't). CTRL ALT Delete is a book about business life. We see facts, stats and data points all day long. We 're exposed to information, like we live in a world where more people have a mobile subscription than access to safe drinking water. We live in a world where Google's advertising revenue is greater than that of the entire print industry. But, beyond trying to catch our jaws as they hit the floor, what are we doing about it? We all struggle - deeply - to highlight companies that are handling this moment of business purgatory (as I call it) well. We can't simple rattle them off. There are not a lot of great case studies (or simply not enough of them). Worse, each and every one of us struggles to figure our how to evolve professionally and bring the best "you" to work everyday. Will the company accept my new way of thinking? What will my clients and peers think? Is this too radical for our industry to handle?

What choice do we have?

In 2009, I published my first book, Six Pixels of Separation. It was a book that I wrote to demonstrate how technology, media our new inter-connected changes the very fabric of what it means to be a brand, create marketing and the relationship between consumers and these brands. It was a book that exposed the strategies we used at Twist Image to grow our business from a handful of employees and clients, to our current state of one hundred-plus full-time employees in two cities and working with some of the most iconic brands (we are one of the largest independent digital marketing agencies in North America). I don't write this to brag, but rather as social proof that there was (and still is) alternatives to how to grow and market any business. In CTRL ALT Delete we have entered a world where the very fabric of business has changed forever (I break these out into five major movements in the business book), but brands are still not doing much about it. It didn't end there. I felt that it would be unfair to write about these five movements without also spending a healthy chunk of time discussing us - the individuals - who are now entrusted to thrive in this new business environment.

Go through the CTRL ALT Delete story.

I encourage you to spend a few minutes going through the CTRL ALT Delete digital experience (you can do it online, on your tablet or smartphone). Keep a notepad nearby, answer the three questions that are a part of the experience and then think about two things:

1. Your business.
2. Your life.

Ready for a reboot?

What's your take? How well-prepared is your business for this world that is not only constantly changing, but that has changed (dramatically)? How well-prepared are you, personally and professionally, for a world where we'll no longer change jobs 4-5 times throughout our careers, but one where we will change careers 4-5 times throughout our lifetime? It's funny, all of the staggering stats about the new reality in our world still triggers fear and anxiety. In reality, the feeling should be excitement and anticipation of a world that offers up a whole new layer of opportunity, wonder and amazement.

Do you still perceive this reboot to be something negative? You should not.  

By Mitch Joel

Channel surfing got weird.

There was this episode of All-Star Celebrity Apprentice this season that revolved around each team's ability to create a television ad for the consumer electronics company, LG. It wasn't really about a particular model of television or kitchen appliance. It wasn't about some new-fangled technology that would allow their washing machines to clean your clothes through some kind of micro-parcel technology. It was all about how connected these devices have now become. The television, the smartphone, the washer and dryer and yes, even the refrigerator are now "smart." Smart in a connected sense. Smart in not just being connected to the Internet, but in how each device now has a touchscreen that offers up all kinds of information - from operating data to content (like recipes based on what's inside the fridge). Screens are everywhere. Screens are connected. Screens are mobile. Screens are increasingly getting cheaper and more ubiquitous.

Welcome to the one screen world. 

Not too long ago, I was asked to give a presentation on the state of digital media and how well brands are intersecting the worlds of marketing and technology. Prior to my closing keynote presentation, there was a panel discussion about the state of media. One senior media executive was discussing the power of a four screen world. I thought that he had made a mistake. I was familiar with the concept of three screens (television, computer and mobile), but four screens was something new. Eventually, he unveiled that the fourth screen was the tablet. It's still somewhat shocking to think that the iPad was first introduced on April 3rd, 2010, and we now live in a world where more iPads are being sold than any PC manufacturer sold of their entire PC line (and this has been a constantly growing trend since 2012). In fact, all of this shores up to the notion that it's not about three screens or four screens. It's about one screen: whichever screen is in front of me. In a world where screens are connected and everywhere, the notion of even counting them seems arbitrary, at best. Don't believe me, speak to somebody who is currently sporting Google glass.

The true tale of a nineteen year old.

My niece is nineteen years old. When she was sixteen years old, she would come home school, take out her laptop, plop down on the couch, lift the computer lid, turn on the TV, plug in her earbuds, so that she could listen to music on her iPod, and her BlackBerry was always within reach. From afar it looked like she was running NORAD. Fast-forward a mere three years, and now she comes home from school, takes out her iPad... and that's it. All of that core content is now readily available on the one screen (in one way, shape or form). From content (in text, images, audio and video) to communications (chatting with friends on Skype or via Google Hangouts)... it's all readily available on this one device that rules them all. Yes, we are seeing a massive uptick in consumers who are using companion devices (meaning, they are watching TV but have their smartphones nearby), and while the industry does refer to it as a companion device, the truth is that you're not watching the television with one eyeball and your iPhone with the other. The only screen that still matters, is the screen that is in front of you. 

It's bigger than you think.

While most people are busy paying attention to the fact that Yahoo just bought Tumblr for over one billion dollars, they're forgetting something profound about the last acquisition of chaotic proportions (when Facebook bought Instagram for close to one billion dollars as well). In the Newsweek article, Instagram Will Take Facebook Into the Mobile Age (April 16th, 2012), journalist Dan Lyons so appropriately wrote: "The Internet was all about websites. Then came the iPhone and Android, and today the only reason anyone creates a website is to promote a cool new mobile app." And here we are, today, with over a billion smartphones in the world and they are outnumbering the PCs. Within the next decade, virtually all mobile phones will be smartphone, meaning 6 billion people will be constantly connected. And, as if the exponential growth of the one screen world is not scary enough, we currently live in a world where more individuals have a mobile subscription than access to electricity or safe drinking water (more on that here: Putting Global Mobile In Context).

So, how are the brands stacking up?

Not so well, thanks for asking. According to a recent survey by Adobe, 45% of marketers still don't have a mobile presence, and this is happening at the exact same time that eMarketer is reporting that 15% of online retail sales will take place this year via a mobile device (sales will reach nearly $39 billion in 2013, which is up over 56% from 2012). If ever there was a time to embrace the notion of the one screen world, this would be it. Businesses are still splitting hairs of what is the Web, what is the smartphone, what is the tablet and what is TV in a world where consumers are shoring these screens up into one. They have a constant and consistent desire to simply have the content they want on the device they want, when they want it. Sadly, most marketers are thinking about how they are going to advertise on a mobile screen, instead of hunkering down and figuring out what the customer's new expectations are when everything from their washer and dryer to their television and smartphone are hyper-connected to one another. Instead of curling up into a ball or sticking the proverbial head in the sand, what we're truly seeing in this day and age is a massive global opportunity - unlike anything in business that we have seen before - to take the mobile lead. By the looks and sounds of the data and the exponential growth in consumer demands for these devices and the content on them, the one screen world is poised to make websites, social media and e-commerce combined look like a joke in comparison.

Are you ready? Is your brand ready?   

The above posting is my twice-monthly column for the Harvard Business Review. I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original version online here:

• Harvard Business Review - Welcome to the One-Screen World.

By Mitch Joel