Douglas Karr

Site Donation to Indianapolis Pack the Pantries

DK New Media was recognized for the work it did in providing the Indianapolis Pack the Pantries initiative with a new web presence. Pack the Pantries is a city-wide effort that raises awareness about issues of hunger in our community and encourages residents to help their neighbors during the holiday season when the need is greater. All donations benefit Midwest Food Bank and Gleaners Food Bank…

DK New Media has completed building out its Podcast Studio in downtown Indianapolis in 2015 to further develop the use of audio recording and podcasting for the Marketing Technology Blog (surpassed 3 million downloads), for their clients’ online marketing efforts (recorded webcasts, professional interviews), and for other regional companies to utilize. With over 6 years of experience in new media…

When I was young, I learned a story about a man that dynamically changed the culture of his region and grew quite a following. The cultural changes he taught were a threat to the established religion so the religious leaders collaborated and influenced government to pass laws that tried to stop the changes.

The man continued his teachings, though. The religious leaders were furious and said it was blasphemous... that his teachings were in direct conflict with their scripture. The man fed, served, and even washed the feet of people that were imprisoned, corrupted or rejected.

The man continued to teach and accepted anyone who would listen to him and asked his followers to do the same. The situation brought terrible attention to both the religious leaders and the government. It got so bad that they convicted the man, whipped him in public, put a crown of thorns on his head, and made him carry a cross that He was eventually crucified on.

I read a quote recently that's continued to inspire me:

The problem with our country right now is that everyone is looking for opportunity but no one is teaching people how to create opportunity.

Tonight I was speaking at an YEA! event, invited by Starla West International​. It was an amazing time with some young entrepreneurs - these kids were engaged and fun to get in front of. As I grow older, I have to figure out a way to work to inspire more young people - it's so incredibly fulfilling.

My topic was ecommerce and I hope I made a lasting impression - speaking to the motivation of how people buy, the value vs cost of a transaction, the behavior behind purchasing online, as well as how to optimize sites for trust and conversions. We didn't get into the nuts and bolts of the technology - because it's really not a factor anymore.

There's such opportunity for these young men and women because they only realize now what's available now - not the technology challenges and pain in the butt that ecommerce has been for the last decade. They can go buy a domain, launch a store, and take credit cards without programming one line of code and paying barely anything every month to get started.

At the peak of the evening was speaking to a young woman who wanted to sell her own beauty supplies via ecommerce. I asked her if she knew who Madame Walker was and she didn't. I seriously can not wait until she looks up Madame Walker (you should if you don't know). Madame Walker built an empire right here from #Indy selling beauty supplies and training beauticians. She was the first black female millionaire in the United States.

These young men and women are writing business plans, doing investor presentations, and launching these businesses as part of their program! I think in a few years, they'll probably be my clients :).

Most people think that because I'm a free market guy that I'm anti-union. That couldn't be further from the truth, I actually think unions are an outstanding premise and have had a huge impact on industry in our country.

I was reading an article of recent that spoke to the continued decline in labor union participation. Another site juxtapositioned real wages increasing over the chart, basically providing a conclusion that the death of unions hasn't had any impact on wages over time.

While that may be true, I don't believe there's any correlation between the two. I don't have staff nor resources to do the appropriate research but I don't believe it's capitalism that's killing unions, it's the Democratic party.

Before you scream and yell, hear me out. In the early days of unions, it wasn't out of the ordinary for people to literally work to death while their employers reaped the profits. Unions were absolutely necessary - pitting the forces of the worker against the greed and abuse of out of control employers.

Over time, Unions and the Democratic party have become fairly synonymous with their push for workers rights. This President is no different - pushing for family leave and mandatory vacation time for full-time employees.

I'm not blaming Democrats for the demise of Unions... it wasn't on purpose. But over the last 50 years, as Democrats took worker issues and put them into legislation to cover safety, minimum wage, overtime, work hours, rest periods, retirement, retirement, and now even healthcare... the American worker has all of the foundations of their employment protections legislated.

Laws have replaced Unions.

Think about it - 50 years ago, you would gladly join the union and pay a price to ensure the corporation came to a contract agreement to ensure your safety, minimum wage, overtime, work hours, rest periods, retirement, and healthcare benefits. It was absolutely worth the cost and the combined fight.

But what is there to fight about now? Not too much left, is there? And as the economy declines, regulations are applied, and employment taxes levied... companies are moving the jobs overseas to countries without the regulations that we have here at home.

It's not just Unions that are dying, it's the American worker. 

If the relationship between employer and employee were freed from the bonds of legislation, regulation and taxation, I have no doubt that unions would make a demonstrable comeback.

I often tell people I’m a liberal who doesn’t believe in big government. I’m being honest. My problem isn’t with those who are compassionate and want government to assist others. And my problem isn’t with those who want self-reliance and fiscal responsibility.

I want both. You can hear the howls already when I state something like that, but I’m a firm believer that it’s possible.

Many of my friends on the left make comparisons of us to a country, for instance, like Canada… or a modern European country. They want to restrict gun usage, they want to increase minimum wages, they want to offer free university degrees, they want single payer healthcare systems.

I take issue when liberals wish to have the federal government run things:

The size of our country makes many of those centralized systems virtually impossible to run efficiently. Everything that’s accomplished by the federal government in this country takes longer, is more expensive, and doesn’t work as well as the private sector or local government. We have a huge land mass, and some of our cities are larger than some of those countries we compare ourselves to. We’re more diverse with a vast difference between classes. When people rank the United States, it’s ridiculous because there’s no other country like us. We are #1 of 1 countries like us, unlike any other.

The country was aptly designed as the “United States of America”, not the “American Federation”. The Constitution was purposely written so we lacked both a royal class and everything not run by the Federal government would be run by the States. I fear we’ve forgotten these things.

But I don’t take issue when liberals want the state and local government to do these things.

Case in point was both the left and right screaming hypocrisy that Romney had a statewide healthcare program in Massachusetts but he rejected the Affordable Healthcare Act - even though it had common designs and even common architects.

Why isn’t it hypocritical?

Because one system was chosen by the State government and the other was forced by the Federal government. States that did not wish to be part of the ACA were still forced to be part of the ACA. In my opinion, that’s ridiculous and unnecessary. 

Wyoming has the lowest population at just over half a million people - plenty of people to support a single payer system or a free market system with plenty of competition. And at a state level, it can be efficiently run without having the overhead of a federal bureaucracy. And local people can hold the local government accountable.

The problem with a federal government is that we now take funding from states that do an incredible job for their residents and we give it to others - depending on who is in power in which committee or who requires a bailout because they’re so fiscally irresponsible. 

A great example is the California Bullet Train between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The state is in a financial shambles, but it’s launching an initiative using federal dollars knowing that they can’t even afford to maintain the system - unless federal dollars continue to get thrown at it. So why is it that someone from Connecticut has to pay for a train from San Francisco to LA? I have no idea.

Well, now you might then think that I’m against mass transit. Absolutely wrong! I’ve watched light rail transform two cities I lived in - Vancouver, BC, and Denver, CO. And I supported local taxes going to the projects in each community. Because they were local!

I don’t believe in a profitable prison system and I don’t believe in the war on drugs. I don’t believe in having to get permission from the government to get married. I believe you should be able to own whatever weapons you’d like. I don’t believe in a national department of education. There’s not a single reason why states can not operate these systems independent of the federal government. And they can run them as conservatively or liberally as their citizens wish.

IMO, when we centralize power and money like we are doing with the federal government, we’re doing the very opposite of the foundation of liberalism. We’re creating a royal class within this country where billions or even trillions of dollars can exchange hands without the voter really having any say nor any benefit. The result is monumental waste and a larger gap between the haves and have nots.

Our power class in this country does not have to abide by healthcare laws, investment laws, tax laws, finance laws… Doesn’t that sound like royalty to anyone else? I watch as the Executive and Legislative branches now get to hand select what laws they wish to enforce, who they charge or excuse, hold private concerts, take private jets on fundraising trips… and no one even blinks.

There are even laws now that apply harder sentences for crimes against elected officials. Really? Since when is the life of someone in power more important than the person on skid row? How does that possibly match liberal ideology? How is that equality?

And now if you criticize government officials, you’re being disrespectful. Disrespectful of what? The foundation of our country is that every person is equal - from the President to the person on welfare. He is NOT royalty, he is my equal. [Gasp]

The great thing about running liberal programs at a local or state level is that citizens have the right to:

Vote on whether or not they want them. Without having to get programs that conflict with their ideals or even their economies.

Hold the leaders accountable. Local leaders are accessible and held more accountable than federal bureaucrats.

Manage the budget effectively. Local revenues can’t be printed or taken from other localities, they have to be paid for.

Best of all, citizens have the right to move. Want to live in a liberal state? Go to Vermont. Want to live in a conservative state? Go to Texas. You’re free to move where your ideology is a great match.

When the federal government takes over, there’s no where left to move.

I believe in education (local), I believe in assisting those in poverty (locally), I even believe in single payer healthcare systems (locally). I believe in virtually everything that many liberals espouse (outside our Constitutional rights ) when it’s voted on and governed at a local level.

A young woman writing a dissertation on gender equality asked me some questions as a marketer. I wrote back that she may not appreciate my response since I don't believe in gender equality but she graciously asked me to respond anyway.  Here's what I responded:

I don’t believe in gender equality because there are too many contributing factors to make a comparison. I believe in gender exceptionalism. I believe that there are things that are exceptional about women and things that are exceptional about men (as well as others that don’t classify themselves as either). So when you take something such as “income” or “healthcare costs” and make a comparison across gender, I don’t believe they’ll ever be the same nor should they because you’re not taking into consideration all the underlying factors.

I believe that we need to teach people to respect the individual and identify the traits of that individual that make them exceptional, not aggregate or average the statistics and then state that they are “not equal”.  For example, how could you possibly state that there’s gender inequality between a stay at home mother and a man that has an executive position where he works and travels. The mother, in my opinion, has a much greater value as you measure her impact on the world since she’s chosen to mentor and raise the children. Even though the husband may make a ton of money. 

IMO, money is not value and should never be the scale of value in society. Why don’t we, instead, value happiness? Or value peace? Or value kindness? Or sincerity?  I don’t measure my personal success on the profit of my business. I’ve had years where I’ve been in massive debt and I’ve had years where I’ve lived comfortably. My success and happiness has been guided by the children I raised as a single father and seeing them mature into happy lives. 

I’m a huge fan of the Dove marketing campaign because it was not about gender. It was about society and the media’s impact on women’s opinions of their own self-worth and beauty. By identifying them as INDIVIDUALLY beautiful, each person was treated exceptionally. In other words, they were not treated as women, they were treated for their personal beauty.  As for the marketing value, I’m confident there was a ton of brand recognition associated with the campaign so the impression of Dove as a brand was furthered by the effort.

The most difficult problem to overcome with marketing to gender is that you can easily make the mistake of jumping into a stereotype. I watch funny commercials with bumbling fathers and I wonder what kind of message that sends to men who haven’t become fathers yet. I watch commercials with beautiful, thin models and I wonder what kind of message that sends to the girl who can’t achieve those dimensions.

If I were to sum it up, I would never pursue a gender-based marketing effort with a client, but I might instead work on a persona-based marketing effort that targets the individual rather than stereotypes or makes assumptions based on gender.

Last year, I read The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. I have to be honest and say that I actually spent a day at Borders last year and finished reading that book right there in the cafe! My kids were at their Mom's for the weekend and I sat down with the book to see if I'd like it. I wound up finishing it and putting it back on the shelf!

That's a little strange for me... most folks know that I'm a book hound. I love owning books and am a 'hardcover' snob. This may have started when my Mom got me The Hardy Boys collection as a kid... in hardcover. My hardcover problem is so bad that the other day I was at our Indianapolis Marketing Book club luncheon and noticed someone had a hardcover of Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends. I was actually jealous!

I digress! Anyways, I was at Starbucks a couple weeks ago and noticed For One More Day by Mitch Albom. I felt a little guilty since I enjoyed Mr. Albom's last book and didn't actually pay for it, so I purchased a copy. I started the book last week and finished it this morning. I love reading in between my work - it clears my head and helps me focus my attention. That may sound a little weird... but if I work non-stop on a project for days, I often have to leave it to regain focus and productivity.

I would recommend this book to anyone. For One More Day is a story that will inspire children, parents, spouses, and even divorcees. There is a message in the book for everyone. Imagine you could spend one more day with someone you loved and lost. How would you spend it? Mine is fairly easy... I miss my family and wished I spent more time with them. I think I do a great job at balancing priorities with my kids, Katie and Bill. Outside of them, though, there's not much time for my other family members.

If I lost any of them today, I would have regrets... and that's something that bothers me. My sister is someone I've grown away from over the years, I'm not sure why - we just don't have a lot in common. I wish I were more of an uncle to her kids. She's got fantastic children, Conner and George. And her stepson is actually serving in the war right now. I know in my heart that Deb is probably not a big fan of the war, so her intense appreciation and respect that she shows her stepson is inspiring.

My grandfather and my grandmother on my father's side are both folks I dearly miss. I was able to spend time with them before they passed on and feel confident that our time was well spent. My Grandmother, Mary Karr, was someone who would cry every time I remember driving away from her home in Stratford. Towards the end of his life, I remember my Grandfather, Alexander Karr (The "A" in Douglas Alexander and my son William Alexander) doing the same. After he lost his wife, he almost passed away from loneliness. He was blessed in finding Marge and had a girlfriend that saved his life. My Grandmother on my Mom's side passed away a while ago. When I was young and in trouble, I lost the respect of my "Nanny and Papa" for quite some time. I was lucky enough to gain my Nanny's respect before she passed. That was an enormous relief to me. I am still close (as close as you can be from Indiana to Florida) with my Papa, Douglas (yes, the Douglas in Douglas Alexander). Papa is an inspiration to me... he's got broadband, a suped-up computer, and he mixes and works on his music collection daily. I believe my son has some of his gifts when it comes to music. He's an incredibly wise person - has lived throughout the world and has a great respect for other human beings.

My Mom is a selfless person. For the time we weren't close to her parents, I know there was a void in her life. My Mom has come to appreciate spending every moment she can with her parents. I know that when she lost her Mom, it was a huge loss in her life - but no one tried harder to make up time than my Mom. Now she does the same with my Papa. I think my Dad even gets jealous of the time she spends with my Papa. But the truth is that my Mom would do anything for any of the men in her life (me included). My Mom and I had a tough relationship growing up, but I love her very much. I don't remember her ever holding anything over my head (though she still tells me to drive safely... my tickets and accidents from my youth always fresh in her mind).

Mom and Dad mean the world to me. I wish I lived closer to spend more time. Perhaps when my kids are off to college, I'll be afforded that opportunity. My Dad has found a new zeal for life in his working retirement, and I enjoy how upbeat he is on the phone. My Dad had an up and down career as a leader and manager - but I never see him happier than when he's crafted something with his own hands. He's just as talented at crafting people as he is at crafting wood, though.

My parents have always been there whenever I was in trouble. I'm sometimes too proud to ask for help - but they never make me feel sorry for doing so. They are incredible parents!

One piece of advice in the book is to love your spouse, your kids AND your marriage. I think this is something that my parents have done. Though they have some darn good arguments... my Mom calling Dad some great names, and my Dad irritated at what money Mom spent today... they both love their marriage and that's why they've stuck it out. There were times when it would have been easy to split up - but it was something beyond their love of each other that made them stay together. That's something you don't see much these days. It's sad, but husbands and wives seem more like cars nowadays... something you trade in every once in a while.

I'm forever thankful for my kids and believe I have one of the best relationships that a father could have with his children. My son, Bill, amazes me every day. You can see why on his most recent post on his blog - he's an inspiration to his friends, and to me. He's starting to really build a great relationship with his sister, too. Katie is always on the go. This weekend, she spent time with her friend helping to paint their apartment. Katie came home with paint all over her - and never happier. At 12, she talks a lot about being an Interior Decorator. She came home chatting that career up again.

Truth is, I don't really care how much money my kids make or what career they choose. I just want them to be happy - with their family and their friends. There's nothing more important! I love each person in my family very much and regret not spending more time with them and not telling them as much as I should.

Here's more evidence in support of the theory that communications service providers often use data throttling solely to make more money for themselves.

It seems sometimes corporations take very simple issues and make them complex to simply disguise what's actually happening. Even worse, they rely on the ignorance of our elected officials to pass regulations or loopholes to enable their behavior.

Simply put, AT&T and the other ISPs are still throttling users who utilize a lot of bandwidth under legacy unlimited bandwidth packages. For some, that may seem fair - as bandwidth demands continue to grow on mobile devices, it seems only fair that AT&T and other providers didn't realize that was going to happen, so they needed to reverse the practice.

I say that seems fair, but you have to look at the larger picture. For every user that's hogging bandwidth, there are hundreds of users that barely reach their bandwidth limitations. As a business, that means that the demands all work out in the end... and most likely work out in AT&T's favor.

So here are some ideas:

If there's literally bottlenecks because of heavy usage, then I'd say that AT&T sold capacity that it knew it didn't have. That's not the customers' fault, that's AT&T's fault.

If it's okay to throttle heavy user bandwidth, then the opposite should be fair, too. AT&T and other ISPs should pay back customers for unused bandwidth. I'll hold my breath.

How much more money does it cost the ISP to send more data packets through existing fiber and other networks? This isn't a utility like water where there's a cost to generation... the equipment is up, running, and waiting. The cost is additional capacity when their thresholds for equipment has been exceeded - but it barely costs anything to send data through existing networks.