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Make Your Marketing Mark.

The temptation of tough economic times is to cutback on marketing, but research as shown that companies that maintain marketing expenditures during recessions emerge stronger. Often business leaders follow the lead of consumers and reduce their spending when hard times hit. Evidence encourages the contrary. Businesses that maintained or raised their marketing during the recession had significantly higher sales after the economy recovered in a McGraw-Hill Research study that looked at 600 companies from 1980 to 1985.

Choosing to spend less during a recessions leaves businesses in a less competitive position when the economy recovers. Those who spend less have also missed an opportunity to be the only voice in the room – customers continue to be aware of advertisers even when they have cutback on spending for the recession period and your business can present as the only option in the market when the consumer returns to purchasing. Such was the case for VRBO, an Expedia-owned vacation rental marketplace.

When COVID-19 hit and people stopped traveling, Airbnb cut their ad spending. During this period, VRBO outspent Airbnb 10-fold in advertising, spending $90.8 million in advertising from January to February 2021 compared to Airbnb’s $8.9 million. As a result, VRBO’s bookings recovered by 61%; Airbnb’s bookings dipped by 15% during the same time frame.

So, continue to invest in your marketing and make the most of this moment.

Give the Present of Online Presence.

The pandemic pushed us to rely on digital capabilities, but there’s more you can do to optimize your online presence.

Social media accounts offer a consistent connection with customers and can be used as an extension of services. Retail businesses may already be familiar with listing their products on web platforms for selling, but legal and accounting firms may have yet to realize the value of delivering professional advice on a livestream, or a therapist can make a video modeling an effective boundary-setting conversation.

In an age where a large part of the consumption is spent before the wallet comes out, investing in being in the places where your consumers are will disseminate information about your business and form relationships regularly. Consumers are already consuming media, so invite them to consume yours!

Find the Federal Opportunities

To rebuild the economy and infrastructure post-pandemic, there is lots of funding going towards states and localities from federal legislation. Small business owners should look into opportunities for funding and federal contracting. Owners part of an underrepresented population or part of an underserved community can additionally apply for certifications intended to improve their access to corporate representative and supplier diversity professional contracts.

• Good Jobs Challenge
• Minority Business Development Agency
• ByBlack initiative
• Women Impacting Public Policy

Additional certification opportunities can be found at:

• National LGBT Chamber of Commerce
• National Minority Supplier Diversity Council
• Disability: IN
• Women’s Business Enterprise National Council

Commit some time to exploring the opportunities ripe for your picking. These resources are intended for you to use them, so don’t let them pass you by this year!

In its own words: Welcome to our blog about ChatGPT, the revolutionary chatbot that uses advanced natural language processing technology to understand and respond to user inputs. ChatGPT is so advanced, it’s almost like it has a sense of humor! (Well, almost.)

I asked ChatGPT to introduce this blog for me. And although it’s not quite as funny as I am (right, guys?), it certainly does the trick.

ChatGPT has come on the scene as a language model trained to deliver human-like responses and conversations. Being one of the first, anyone can access it on a friendly web-interface and give it a try. Becoming a sort of friend in its own right, variations of ChatGPT are becoming remarkably capable of delivering coherent, digestible information.

Not only can they provide facts, but they can also create business plans, paper topic ideas, and even original humor. Users are having a blast asking the artificial intelligence (AI) system to create writings using peanut butter and VCR humor and in the style of a man going on tangents about the pumpkins he grew – yes, seriously. 

Users can ask them questions like we used to ask a Magic 8-Ball, although these answers are coherent prose about black holes and egg incubation rather than “it is certain” and “decidedly so” – although answers might intersect at existential questions. Users can also clarify their request to achieve more applicable and precise results, like in this sample from the Open AI website. 

Its creators and users are also finding more serious applications, such as spotting and fixing errors in code and answering open-ended analytical questions, the types that appear on school assignments and examinations.  

Some academic entitles worry about the potential for plagiarism, given the ease of use. Students could, potentially, rely on the AI writing creations for creating their assignments. This will likely be “field tested” by students, but, as this temptation is recognized and perhaps submitted to, it is also an opportunity for educators to rely on other techniques for evaluations.  

“AI platforms like ChatGPT are prompting educators to re-evaluate traditional methods of assessment and instruction- as an instructional designer I’m excited by this opportunity to promote student-centered alternatives,” said Alissa Harrington, Senior Instructional Design Specialist at McDaniel College.  “Ultimately, it’s important for teachers to have conversations with students about AI platforms like ChatGPT and leverage the technology to create learning opportunities around misinformation and unbiased content.”

Although chatbots seem to operate with discernible confidence, they are not always correct.  

Cade Metz of the New York Times reported “But they do not always tell the truth. Sometimes they can even fail at simple arithmetic. They blend fact with fiction. And as they continue to improve, people could use them to generate and spread untruths.” 

This ability to take what they have learned and shape into something new is what makes them compelling storytellers, already entertaining millions of users. This willingness to be inaccurate is also what makes them likely not the best fit to author a research or work assignment on your behalf – creators remind users that the creation is a research project itself. 

As people test ChatGPT, the system asked them to rate its responses. Through reinforcement learning, ChatGPT uses the ratings to define its functions and even gain the perspective – and maturity – to admit when it’s wrong to the user. 

Fixing the issue of untruths and incorrect answers all at once is a challenge as there is no source of truth given to ChatGPT during the reinforcement learning (RL) training and it assumes intentions of ambiguous questions, rather than getting clarity – we know what happens when you assume, you make an…. you know the rest.  

Like us navigating the applications of AI, ChatGPT will continue to experience and intake feedback to better understand its contributions. Until we know for sure, we can certainly enjoy its humorous contributions. 

Try ChatGPT for yourself! 

Have a comment or experience with ChatGPT? Want to learn more about Artificial Intelligence or another topic? Email me at molly@carrolltechcouncil.org and let’s continue the conversation. 

Giving back gives more than we might realize. Research suggests giving to others benefits not only them, but our own bodies and minds as well.

A BMC Public Health study results indicate that other-oriented volunteering – giving for the sake of helping another person, rather than for our own gain – has significantly stronger effects on mental and physical health, life satisfaction and social well-being. When we volunteer for altruistic reasons and express concern and care for other’s needs, regardless of how it affects us, we benefit our bodies – and likely each other – more. 

In self-oriented volunteering, the volunteer’s motivation is defined by the desire to develop social networks, acquire skills or evade personal problems and it is not as effective for our health, nor is it likely to be as effective for the people we are serving. This suggests volunteering benefits are better when there is not an expectation of compensation, but that does not mean there is no “pay.”

In giving, we are “paid” with the feeling of pride and joy that arises from having served someone – a smile on their face, a genuine thanks. We also can reap the benefits of supported community members – a veteran with the newfound resources to find a job they love or a kid with a safe and fun after school program. We can build our communities stronger for the individuals we know and lives we build.

There are additional correlations between wellness and volunteering: volunteers may experience a lower rate of mortality than those who do not, according to an observation of an analysis of data from the Longitudinal Study of Aging. In another study by the American Society of Pain Management Nurses, individuals suffering from chronic pain experience a decrease in the intensity of their pain, disability levels and depression when they served as peer volunteers.

There is also positive indications for disease prevention: volunteerism may be an effective, non-pharmacological intervention for incidence of hypertension. Such is a risk factor of cardiovascular disease, stroke and mortality. Participants in a Carnegie Mellon University study who had volunteered 200 hours or more in a year were 40% less likely to develop hypertension than non-volunteers.

Extending this observation on volunteering and heart health, an analysis by AmeriCorps using health and volunteering data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Center for Disease Control, it was found that “states with higher volunteer rates are more likely to have lower rates of mortality and less incidence of heart disease.” 

Service may just be the secret for the health and wellness of ourselves and our communities. On this GivingTuesday, find let’s serve our bodies, and each other.

GivingTuesday is an opportunity to use your individual power of generosity to connect and support your communities through acts of kindness, time, talent and treasure. “All around the world, we are joining forces and leaning on each other – and this generosity tells us that we will achieve the better, more just world that we all seek,” writes the GivingTuesday website.

You can donate to the TechWorks program and help us support our veterans. We are equipping them with laptops and the digital skills they need to become connected with social and employment opportunities. 

Driver, roll up the partition, please. 

Last month, Maryland put legislation into effect pertinent to farm owners and relevant to anyone who owns property.

In May, Maryland joined twenty-one states in enacting a version of the “Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act.” Maryland’s new “Partition of Property Act” aims to help families preserve wealth and legacies held in real property by protecting them from predatory sales, tangled titles and pressured decisions on property and ownership division.

The legislation serves to provide a pathway encouraging collaboration and equity. Previously, when all heirs had equal ownership (and were known by law as tenants-in-common) any one heir could force the sale of the property and have resulting funds divided amongst heirs, known as partition by-sale. In this process, the property is often sold at below the fair market value and strips heirs of an opportunity to acquire wealth – in the form of land or fair compensation. This partitioning was a common approach for settling disputes among heirs and a speculatively desired proceeding for real-estate to acquire property at below-market prices.

The “Partition of Property Act” seeks to change the Maryland partition law to protect owners of tenancy-in-common property by requiring notification of property stakeholders and a fair market-based valuation of the land and by creating a road map for buyouts and partition.

1. It creates a notice requirement.
   • Alert all property owners at the same time;
   • Put forth effort to identify and alert heirs known and unknown;
   • Mark the property conspicuously to bring the community’s attention to the property’s status.
2. It demands property valuation by
   • An appraisal OR
   • Evidence OR
   • Court determination based on appraisal plus evidence OR
   • Owners come to an agreement.
3. Offers buy-out options by
   • Giving co-owners the right to buy-out those who don’t want the property at all.
4. Encourages partitioning aside from the common by-sale.
   • Dividing the land into parts, known as partition by-kind, is a required consideration for the courts.

If there is no buy-out or partitioning of the land in-kind, partitioning must be done in-sale, meaning the property must be valued on an open market to receive a fair market price.

When deciding the value of the property, with this legislation the courts must consider various inputs to the lands use and consequences of partitioning such as:

• Practicality of dividing the property;
• If partitioning will cause the property to be materially diminished;
• Impact of co-tenants on the land (eg how their actions have improved the value of the property);
• Sentimental value.

Supporters of this legislation expect it will create a pathway to clear titling and encourage collaboration among stakeholders. It is in-line with allowing farmers to go through the re-lending process to access funds available in the Inflation Protection Act through re-titling.

The full impact of the legislation will be seen as it enters the “real world” and is employed by courts and property heirs and landowners, who now have a better footing to protect and manage their property.

Read the bill language here. 

TikTok is creating an inclusive culture of influence – it’s time you include yourself and your business.

With an algorithm that maximizes discoverability, TikTok is equalizing opportunities for brand exposure and engagement. And, it works. Creating TikToks and interacting with viewers as a brand personality is becoming a huge part of marketing, press and presence for small businesses.

73% of users report feeling a deeper connection to brands they interact with on TikTok versus other apps. The unique style of the platform makes viewers feel like they get to “know” a brand, and that’s in large part because of the content brands make.  

At the TikTok Small Business Workshop hosted by the 2022 TEDCO Tech Fair, the resounding advice for business users was “make TikToks, not ads.” In this vein, brands should not post videos advertising a product or service – instead, they have to sell what viewers are buying: entertainment and earnest engagement.  

Brands are expected to contribute equally to the culture. Businesses on the platform are side by side with creators. In this way, they are competing, collaborating and creating content alongside average and exceptional TikTokers. Businesses are at the liberty of the trends and techniques valued by viewers.  

Market to the mobile. Videos must be vertical, at a 9:16 aspect ratio, to achieve high engagement. Viewers don’t like to see content that has been pulled off other platforms, as it will appear if the video is horizontal or not filling the entire screen.  

Make some noise. TikToks do well with voice-overs, songs and trending audios. Various noises are often layered atop each other and complimented by on-screen captioning. TikTok makes it easy with an extensive library of popular music and voice-over sounds. TikToks branded to or making use of trending audios do very well on the app – so pay attention to what’s popping! 

Mold your message. Emphasize your message or tell your entire story with on-screen captions. This engrosses your viewer in more types of mediums and makes the material more accessible. Captions are easily created in the app’s editing tools.

Manage your minutes. The optimal duration for a TikTok is 21-34 seconds – never go below 10 seconds! This is because the completion rate of videos is what moves the algorithm, so you want viewers to be able to finish your videos and even watch them again. Editing tools exist within the app, so you can do all the work right there.

Make your mark! Pick up the camera and shoot. The best content is not the stuff that’s highly produced – it’s the stuff that’s authentic to you and your brand. Check out some ideas for tapping into that authenticity and the narrative you have to share with some recently trending templates for small businesses: 

 If none of these spark your creativity, jump on the app and discover what trends and techniques that speak to you and your brand. TikTok offers support to businesses, accessible through tiktok.com/business and impact.tiktok.com.

Most importantly, lead with authenticity. When you share what you love, you’re sure to attract the people that love it too. Happy TikTok-ing!

Folks often join economic development organizations with the hope of meeting other businesses and resources that will lead them to new opportunities and connections. While community groups like Carroll Technology and Innovation Council are usually identified for those working in Carroll County, they can also offer great services to those who live here and work elsewhere. 

Opportunities to connect and serve arise all around you when you are connected to your community. That is what has been true of David Shaffer’s experience living and being involved in Carroll County, despite not doing business here.  

“We live here,” said David Shaffer, who has lived in Carroll County since 1990, started a family here and was one of the founders of the then Carroll Technology Council. “I don’t like it, I love it,” he said of his Carroll County home and life. 

Although the ability to move his business here has not been possible, Shaffer still finds great opportunities by involving himself in the Council’s programming. 

“The tech council, like other organizations, allows you to form those relationships and there’s a lot of information that’s apart of business,” said Shaffer, referencing the Council’s past sessions on insurance and policy education events. “It’s just not all IT stuff, it’s a wide, wide range.”  

The CTIC offers programming intended to advocate for inclusive workforce policies and practices; educate individuals on topics connected or related to technology; improve access to workforce training and development; and promote innovative and inspirational ideas. The CTIC is able to extend technology access and education programs with the support of our members.

Schaffer resonates strongly with the Council’s goals of philanthropy and people. “You’re not there to get clients and customers, you’re there to develop relationships and give back,” he said of the social and educational events and programming. 

Although his business operated in Baltimore County, Shaffer did not feel thwarted from joining and serving the Council. “The resident component is critical,” said Shaffer. “It was very important to me, since I lived here, to give back.” 

If your home is in Carroll County, you can expect to find a home at your Carroll Technology and Innovation Council, too. “It’s great to get to know the people who live with you.” 

With Labor Day having just marked the end of summer and beginning of fall, you might be wondering how to hold onto that summer heat… While the Carroll Technology and Innovation Council doesn’t yet have the capabilities to spark a flame for your nightly fire, we can invite you to be ignited by the passionate people coming to the Ignite Carroll Stage. 

“Ignite is an opportunity for people in our community to hear many different perspectives in one place, in a short amount of time,” said Chris Abell who is organizing Ignite Carroll 10 and has presented in the past. The Ignite concept puts multiple speakers in front of an audience, giving them 5 minutes apiece to enlighten the crowd. “It allows for people to come together or start a conversation about topics they didn’t know they were interested in.” 

With a slogan like “enlighten us, but make it quick,” it seems most fitting that I hold this blog about Ignite to the same sentiment. So, let’s dive into what Ignite is all about.  

Who gets on stage? 

“Anyone can give an Ignite Talk,” said Firen Forrest, Ignite Talks President. If someone has something that sparks them, they have what it takes to be on an Ignite stage.  

Speakers share two things: a burning idea and the guts to get on stage and share it with the crowd. What they talk about and how they do it is up to them.

Coming to the Ignite Carroll stage this year is a lineup of folks ignited about everything from managing dreams and mental/behavioral health stigmas to the point of pointe ballet and the power of music. They are people that we know already – or will feel like we do by the end of their talk. 

“Getting up on stage and sharing yourself with your community is what Ignite Talks is all about—being vulnerable, sharing your passion, your insight, what motivates you or intrigues you,” said Forrest. 

What can I expect as an audience member? 

For each presentation, in 5 minutes, speakers will tell their story over the course of 20 slide presentations that auto-advances every 15 seconds. These constraints breed creativity for the presenter and, Forrest mentioned, sometimes creates “wacky situations” as the speaker tries to speed up or slow down to keep in time with the slides.  

“The talks are short and punchy, and they’re often presented in a way that makes you think about the subject in a new way—an “aha” moment or an angle you weren’t anticipating,” said Forrest. 

The style of the evening moves at a quick and compelling clip and the bite size presentations allow the Ignite audience to hear from over a dozen presenters on one fun, fast paced night.  

“If you find a talk boring or just not your thing, you know it’s only going to be 5 minutes until something fresh and new comes along” added Forrest. 

Why should you attend? 

“A night of Ignite Talks rallies a community and gives that community a forum to know each other more deeply, to connect, and inspire each other,” said Forrest. “And after 2+ years of pandemic and isolation, we really need that.” 

The energy of an Ignite night is uniquely invigorating. Audience members have described the evening being electric and entertaining – an event they look forward to time and time again. Every year and every speaker is different, so you’re bound to learn and see something new.

You may also walk away with the motivation and inspiration to step onto the Ignite stage yourself next time.

Where can you see an evening of Ignite Talks? 

Passionate people are building up and taking to Ignite stages across the world from Sydney, Australia to Accra, Ghana – and our own Carroll County, Maryland on October 19, 2022. 

The Carroll Arts Center doors will be opening on this high-energy evening at 5 pm and the action will be taking place from 6 pm to 8 pm. This year will once again be hosted by the brilliant and energetic Vince Buscemi. 

Get your tickets today and follow @carrolltechcouncil on Instagram to see speakers spotlighted in the weeks leading up to Ignite Carroll. 

Since the pandemic, businesses have adopted remote technologies and practices remarkably quickly, realizing what is possible for work models. In our next chapter of “normal,” we are met with an opportunity to realize the advantages of more flexibility for employees and the possibility of a hybrid model. 

The Harvard Business Review directs businesses to consider the evolution of: 

1. Jobs and Tasks 
2. Employee Preferences 
3. Projects and Workflows 
4. Inclusion and Fairness 

All these elements have been affected by the shift from “being place-constrained (working in the office) to being place-unconstrained (working anywhere)” writes Lynda Gratton of the Harvard Business Review. No longer does work begin and end at the doors of an office building or on-site location. Instead, it has developed the capability to take the shape of wherever we are – sometimes being a laptop pulled into bed or propped up on a beach chair… I won’t tell you which I’m doing at this moment. 

The nature of work has also shifted from “being time-constrained (working synchronously with others) to being time-unconstrained (working asynchronously whenever they choose)” writes Gratton. Email threads and impromptu Zoom calls have commonly replaced regular hallway run-ins and office pop-ins.  

Gratton crafted a 2×2 matrix to illustrate the dimensions of this movement of Time and Place. The model displays work arrangements between the traditional office setting working 9 to 5 and the hybrid model of working from anywhere at any time.  

To best understand and respond to the potential of what work can look like, we must consider not only how to optimize benefits, but also how to minimize downsides. 

Setting up for success: Acclimating to new arrangements 

1. Jobs and Tasks 

Consider what a job needs for success and center adaptations on these identifications. For example, if you find that having live conversations is necessary, then a scheduled synchronous time may be necessary to supplement other people’s shift online.

“When thinking about jobs and tasks, consider how key productivity drivers—energy, focus, coordination, and cooperation—will be affected by changes in working arrangements,” writes Gratton. 

Specific needs can be met with specific directions – sounds intuitive, but it can be tempting to look for blanket answers. Try to hone in on specific issues and opportunities and identify corresponding directives. 

2. Employee Preferences 

Lifestyles, personalities and career status play a large role in adaptation choices. By centering choices on the diversity among these statuses, employees and employers can make choices proportional to their needs and wants.  

Norwegian energy company Equinor has taken the approach of surveying employees about their preferences and assigning personas with hybrid work guidelines. Although you might not have a survey handy, you can do the work of asking about: priorities for interactions, focus abilities and desires for collaboration.  

Considering how circumstance and preferences affect job capabilities can inform your decisions and get you closer to a reality that will foster an optimal work life.  

3. Projects and Workflows 

When deciding how and where we work, it’s valuable to assess arrangements for project and workflow commitments and conditions. As we reformat habits, there is a natural opportunity to observe what has been done and can be done.  

What should not emerge from this time of work in the pandemic is a layering of flawed processes. Using what we have learned from our recent experiences and from years of work life prior, we can inform processes that best suit projects and workflows.  

Consider aspects of banking that are now virtual. At one time, we thought it necessary to have face-to-face meetings and in-person signatures. By observing remote abilities and inviting redesign, a more efficient process has emerged.  

4. Inclusion and Fairness 

When adjusting places to each person’s need, we need to be careful of the different results. Varying degrees of flexibility and freedom can give rise to accusations of unfairness.  

Emphasize decision making based on working capabilities and preferences. In circulating more information, individuals will be able to recognize what care looks like for individuals and the business as a whole. This could look like creating space for people to pitch ideas, normalizing conversations around care by having them regularly or facilitating conversations between different job holders.  

People can be and will feel better represented in the process and the results when they are given opportunities to offer feedback. 

Hybrid work strategies will inevitably look different from business to business, person to person. A commitment to checking-in with ourselves and each other regularly can help propel us into equitable and suitable work that makes us happy. 

Day-to-day aggravations become a source of suffering when we choose to personalize negative influences and events. This happens when we view problems as being intentionally, individually targeted at us. In “The Art of Happiness,” Howard C. Cutler describes this act of personalizing pain as “the tendency to narrow our psychological field of vision by interpreting or misinterpreting everything that occurs in terms of its impact on us.”  

When we approach obstacles in life only by how they affect us, what could be viewed as an inconvenience or a potential point for progress feels very encumbering – sometimes even paralyzing. As the 14th Dalai Lama said of these feelings, we “add to our pain and suffering by being overly sensitive, overreacting to minor things, and sometimes taking things too personally.” 

In deciding a problem is unfair, we might just give ourselves another problem – oh bother! In addition to the problem at hand, we now must grapple with an immense feeling of ‘unfairness’ that threatens to distract and consume us, pulling away the energy we need to tackle the true challenge at hand.  

Allowing our emotions to feed the fire of a problem will grow the flames sky high – and billows of smoke that cloud the paths forward. 

However, problems themselves do not inherently cause suffering. It is in our control whether we choose to lament and labor over the odds and ends of justness. When we can focus on the problem at hand and abandon the debate of whether we deserve it, solving it becomes an exercise rather than a source of pain.

Let’s work this out.

Our ability to solve a problem with this perspective starts with how we define it: “The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution,” once said Albert Einstein, and he was… like… really good at solving problems. 

Consider some of the ways we can reframe characteristics of a “problem”  

• Self-imposed, circumstantial or other imposed limits may not be tools of oppression, but rather aids for channeling creativity;  
• This moment may be the opportune time you would have hoped to react to in hindsight to a greater problem you now can avoid; 
• This could be the excuse you were hoping for to acquire certain tools, skills and resources now needed for the solution required. 

Applying these reframes may allow you to see the problem as an opportunity – like those uber positive people that may have made you ponder “how do they do it?!”  

Entertain the ways this problem could be useful; allow your mind to be malleable and your process to be flexible. A supple way of thinking allows us to integrate conflicts and inconsistencies into a path forward. With an adaptable approach, we can maintain our composure; with a belief in compassion and progress, we can maintain our optimism. 

When the fight feels too fixed.

We can feel stifled in our actions when we see the problem being long-lasting or permanent. We might be sensing the issue is deeper and will always be unescapable, or we may see a tenuous journey ahead. However, there is nothing in life that doesn’t change – including the problem.  

All things are transient and under the influence of other factors. If we remind ourselves that the problem can change, and that its existence is determined by other factors, we can forge for a solution and identify ways to influence it – even if only our perspective of the problem at first.  

Keep it practical, not personal.

No matter how much you may have to grapple with the problem, defining it and seeking the solution, it is invaluable to remember that you are not defined by the problem. When we identify ourselves with the issue and its characteristics, it can be difficult to progress beyond. Even if the problem successfully revealed information about you, it is not you.  

When I do find myself churning with emotions and personalized pain, maybe even to the point of experiencing intense emotions of hatred or resentment for the source, I ask myself: what can I learn about me in this moment? It’s almost like saying to myself “okay, you want to get personal? Let’s get personal!” This often allows me to identify a problem within and redirect my attention from the source. Although this problem of emotions still presents a secondary problem, reframing this is a practice of making that inclination towards personalizing pain more manageable. Like any mindful awareness of our emotion and thought processing, it’s a practice, and this type of mental training will take time.