TED Community » Michael Decklever
About Me
My interest in marketing started way back in high school when I took a marketing class because it was taught by my elementary school football coach. I took to it quickly, joining DECA, managing the school store (we tripled sales in the first year), and eventually heading to college for my marketing degree. After undergrad, I wasn't quite ready to head out to the real world, so applied to graduate school. Somehow I convinced the University of Washington...the #2 marketing program according to U.S. News and World Reports...to take a guy straight out of undergrad.
Two years later, armed with a couple of marketing degrees, I started my career in Marketing Communications with Comcast. I was involved in traditional advertising activities such as Direct Mail, print, radio, TV, etc.
After a couple years, and a couple of successful changes to the Direct Mail program, I headed to a more "traditional" MBA position as a marketing manager for Philips Healthcare. My start was supporting our internal sales team through the development of collateral, pricing strategy and analysis (i.e. price setting, promotion development) and other direct support activities. Now, I'm in a product manager role where I'm responsible for working with internal teams to develop the next software releases and developments on our systems.
Over the past year, my desire to find something to keep me out of trouble has started to lay the foundation for a new business idea I have in my head that I am trying to figure out how to launch. I purchased a house with the intent on rehabbing it and reselling it. It worked, but it also ignited a passion in me. I've since purchased another property and have my eyes on my more. During this time I've had an opportunity to work with many contractors and experienced a lot of room for improvements. Transparency in pricing, timely communication, and specialization in certain types of projects offer a lot of potential. So now I'm trying to bootstrap a general contracting company with little more than a few bucks, a couple of ideas, and a passion for helping people make their houses into homes.
- Location:
- United States, Cleveland, OH
- Current organization:
- MDeck, LLC
- Past organizations:
- Philips Healthcare
- Current role:
- Owner - Manager
- Gender:
- Male
- Areas of expertise:
- Marketing, Pricing, Direct Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Medical Device Marketing, Remodeling, Rehabilitation of housing
- I am:
- Blogger, Foodie, Idea generator, Job-seeker, Marketer, Startup
- Associations:
- American Marketing Association (AMA)
- Languages:
- English
- My website links:
- Deck on Food, Deck On Homes, MDeck, LLC
- Universities:
- University of Wyoming, BS, University of Washington
More About Me
I'm passionate about
Marketing, Home Remodeling, Do-it-Yourselfing, and becoming my own boss.
Talk to me about
Projects, your experiences as a start up, pitfalls and traps, tips and advice, and anything else that you want to share. I'm an open book!
People don't know that I'm good at
Speaking, and working with my hands.
My TED Story
I don't even remember how I came upon TED in the first place. It might have been a Tweet I saw or a Facebook post. I just know that when I landed there, the wheels started spinning. I started by watching talks about business, seeking out some of my personal favorites like Seth Godin. Then I started watching ones on science. Then I started just watching anything. It's turned into a bit of an obsession, one where I watch 2-3 talks a day while I'm eating lunch or skimming e-mails. I feel inspired to do more. To find new ways to look at things. To learn. And ultimately to find my way deeper into the TED community.
Comments
Favorite talks
This member doesn't have any favorite talks yet.
TEDCred score: +0.40 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.
A comment on Talk: Mark Bittman: What's wrong with what we eat
Take for example a conversation that my girlfriend overheard today. The gist was "I want to eat healthy, but don't you go to the bathroom all the time? I'm afraid that if I eat salad, I will be in the bathroom all the time? And isn't it expensive? I mean you can get a hamburger from McDonald's for $1, but their salads are $6!"
While the first part of this excuse is a new one to me, the second definitely isn't. But how do you get someone to understand the impact of their choices on the environment, and the costs there? How do you get them to think about the costs to themselves from eating such poor quality food?
A comment on Conversation: Do you find it difficult to engage in intellectual conversations with people in general?
The other thing is I think you have to work at finding what people find interesting and intellectually challenging to them. You state specifically that you want to talk about things that stimulate YOU. And while you might find the Higgs Boson and the LHC fascinating and interesting, others may not, or simply may not have wanted to dedicate their time to that. It doesn't mean that they are intellectually challenged. I consider myself fairly intellectually astute, but couldn't carry on a conversation about this topic. However, I think I could talk fairly intelligently about things like marketing and general business, economic trends, and health care. On TED, I gravitate toward the business talks and some of the psychology and sociology presentations because I find those interesting.
I think you have a couple of options. First, find people who have the same intellectual interests as you as was stated a few times I'm sure. There are definitely groups for it. Second, it might take a little work to find the stimulating conversations that you want, but they can be had with the group you are around (which will be good for you and your relationship). Turn it into your own personal case study. What is your theory for why they are easily entertained by what you consider trashy television? What is it about society that makes these types of shows successful? What are the underlying interests that people have? I have found that most people are deeper than trashy shows and sports if you are willing to probe a little and listen deeper.