La próxima vez que me veas distraído con varias cosas, por favor, recuérdame este post.

Photo by Elsie esq.

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I think one of the things that distinguishes a “regular” entrepreneur from a successful entrepreneur is the ability to focus. You hear this a lot from entrepreneurs: “I am multitasking” or “I am working on a million things at once”. I think it is often necessary to multitask when you are an entrepreneur. But it is not such a good idea to multitask because you are working on a million projects at once. So, multitasking for a single project, ok, multitasking for lots of projects, not so productive. I am training myself to focus on a single project at a time.

Next time you see me too distracted with several things, please, remind me of this post.

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One of the things we are developing around the adventure is a guide for grownups (and here we include parents, teachers, librarians, etc). We have asked the teachers who tested the product and it is something they all would like to have. The guide will include some recommended activities and learning points related to the story. We’re working on it, and hope to have it within the next 2 weeks or so.

Al principio estaba algo decepcionado. Siempre se oye cómo tal o cual empresa hizo un lanzamiento spectacular. Pero luego leí este post del super-gurú de marketing Seth Godin.

“[…] the relentless quest for media validation doesn’t really pay. If you get it, congratulations. If you don’t, that’s just fine. But don’t break the bank or your timetable in the quest.”

Lo que quiere decir no es que no se necesite la publicidad, sino que no deberíamos obsesionarnos con “el lanzamiento”. Ahora me siento algo major, mientras continúo con mi lanzamiento… mi lanzamiento lento.

Photo by CarbonNYC

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Ok, I have to admit that the launch is happening slowly. One of the reasons is that I worked so hard on getting the adventure done that I really did not prepare the launch as well as I should have. Bad, bad planning…

At first I was a bit disappointed. You always hear about company so and so and how they made a big splash on their launch. But then I read this post from super marketing guru Seth Godin.

“[…] the relentless quest for media validation doesn’t really pay. If you get it, congratulations. If you don’t, that’s just fine. But don’t break the bank or your timetable in the quest.”

His point is not that you do not need publicity, but rather, than you should not obsess about “the launch”. Now I feel a little better, as I continue on my launch… my slow launch.

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Blast off…
We have launched the first Pancho&Pita adventure: “¿Dónde están los pollitos/Where are the Chicks?” We are all very excited to have finally gotten to this point. Thank you very much to everyone who has collaborated in this project. I hope to be able to work with you again soon.

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Today I found the answer to a problem that I had been thinking about for several days. The problem itself will be irrelevant to everybody else, but I’m going to share with you how I came up with it. I took a shower.
Yep, it’s that simple. I took a nice 15 minute long shower and the solution to the problem came to me. It came very naturally too. I was intrigued by this and decided to do some research on whether showers help people stimulate the creative process. It seems that way for many other people.
Now, from my experience, the key to using the “shower method” is to (1) not rush it and (2) not really try too hard. In other words, this won’t work if you are rushing to get to work, or if I am obsessing over the problem. So there you have it. Well, that’s my method, but I will let you use it too. I hope it helps…

Si alguna vez estás en Manhattan y tienes un hijo, o te gusta la animación, tienes que hacer este tour. Vé. Visita los estudios de “Little Airplane” en el South Street Seaport. Son los creadores de la serie The Wonder Pets. Hay algo diferente, especial en este sitio. Quizá sea el calor de la gente. Quizá sea el nivel de detalle y trabajo que ponen en el programa. Quizá sea el hecho de que la oficina sea un edificio antiguo con una rueda de molino que se usaba para mover un ascensor (bueno, quizá no sea eso, pero estuvo muy bien). Lo importante es que todos nos divertimos muchísimo. Y además, nos gustó a mi mujer y a mí tanto como a nuestro hijo.

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Ok, so living in New York can sometimes be a pain. It is crowded and dirty, and expensive. But once in a while you get to do really cool stuff that’s hard to do anywhere else. Like getting a personalized tour of the studio that makes one of your child’s favorite shows. And meeting the people who do it, and watching all the stages of the process, including a live orchestra recording. And as a bonus, your son gets to record his voice next to the characters.

If you are ever in Manhattan and have a child, or enjoy animation, this tour is a must. Go visit the “Little Airplane” studios at the South Street Seaport. They are the creators of the amazing show The Wonder Pets. There is something different, special about this place. Maybe it was the warmth of the people there. Maybe it was the level of detail and thought that they put into their show. Maybe it was the fact that their office is an old building with an ancient wheel that used to power an elevator (ok that’s probably not it, but it was cool anyhow). The bottom line is that we all had a blast. I am pretty sure that my wife and I loved it as much as my son did.

Así que ahora me veo inmerso en el mundo del marketing y ventas. Y aunque no soy un experto en ninguno de los dos campos, me he dado cuenta de que, sorprendentemente, los encuentro muy interesantes. Es muy probable que me veas con mi gorros nuevos de marketing y ventas. Espero no acabar como el sombrerero loco de “Alicia en el País de las Maravillas”…

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I used to know nothing about marketing. I mean nothing. Zero. Nada. But the realities of trying to make a living making a product –anything- is that you either sell your product or you don’t get to make any more products. It’s the difference between having a hobby and having a business. And frankly, making a quality educational game is NOT a hobby. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy making games and I hope to make many more in the future. But if you are trying to do them right, these projects take lots of time, effort and money, all of which need to be compensated to be sustainable.

So now I find myself immersed in the world of marketing and selling. And although I am not an expert in either one of those categories, I have found that, surprisingly, I find a lot of this stuff interesting! Chances are for the foreseeable future you will see me wearing my new marketer/salesperson hat. I hope not to end like the mad hatter from “Alice in Wonderland”…

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The COO of Gamestop -the leading videogame retailer- acknowledged that Hispanics are one of the big growth groups in the videogame market. He is actually betting big on this market, and does not quite understand how there are no more games made for and by Latinos. Of course that’s something that we already knew. By the way, this is exactly what lead me to start making a game for my own son.

http://hispanicmarketweekly.com/featureArticle.cms?id=1866

Ok, so we are a little late. OK, we’re a few months late. But we did it, we’re done. The beta version of Pancho&Pita is out the door, in the hands of our beta testers who so far are excited about the outcome. We will need to make some small adjustments, but the bulk of the game is done. Now comes the really hard part…

Lo primero resulta obvio a cualquiera que haya visitado YouTube. Lo segundo no es tan obvio, pero es mucho más peligroso. José Luis se dió cuenta de ello de la peor manera. Mientras sus niñas veían un video infantil, casi se dieron con otro video que definitivamente no era para niños.

Eso es algo que también me pasó a mí una vez con mi hijo. Así que, por favor, cuidado con estos sitios gratuitos…

Photo by Picture Perfect Pose

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There is a very good blog that I read called “Wanna jugar with migo” (http://wannajugarwithmigo.blogspot.com/). It is written by Jose Luis Orozco and has great ideas for teaching Spanish to kids. Some of the ideas have to do with free content available online, in places like YouTube. In enjoy free stuff as much as anybody, but the problem with some of these places is that (1) the quality of user-submitted videos is not consistently good and (2) the specific material is not always suitable for children.

The first issue is obvious to anyone who has ever visited YouTube. The second one is not so obvious, but it is much more dangerous. Jose Luis found out the hard way. As his girls watched a children’s video, they almost ran into another video that was definitely not suitable for children.

That is something that also happened to me once with my son. So please, beware of all these free online resources…