Matthew Homann

Matt Homann called today - just to say "hello" and introduce himself. What's the big deal about that?

Well, you see, prior to his call, I did not know Matt. Some small number of minutes prior to his call, I had fired off a short e-mail message to Matt, praising him for the new look and style of his blog. In an infinitesimal matter of time, the phone rang - and it was Matt - just calling to say "hi" and "thanks." That's really cool... and also very kind of Matt.

Many of you are still saying (or thinking), "Nice form. Dale Carnegie would have been proud ... but what's the big deal?"

Here's the big deal. The big HUGE deal is the uniqueness and immediacy of the blogosphere. Blogging just shrunk my world - in a good way. In less than five minutes, my message traveled to Illinois, was read by Matt and then my phone rang. A hundred years ago, this exchange of communication would have taken a week--IF we knew one another. But really, we would never have known one another ... nor would we have been able to publish business ideas and philosophies ... nor would we have been able to gather news from around the globe into a single point for reading. None of it would have been possible. NONE.

What a cool world we live in! What a cool time to be alive!

By the way: I read Matt's site The Non-Billable Hour regularly. It's nothing short of fantastic. While Matt's work world is one of law and law firms, his ideas, observations and analysis are applicable to most business development or marketing situations. He also conceives and implements unique feature items (like the Five by Five) and content formats. It's catchy, sticky stuff that's way ahead of the pack.