Wherever I go, there I work (and play)

Take a walk with me through the woods while I debate whether having a smartphone and data plan are worth it for me. While trying to simplify, cut down distractions, and lessen the noise in my daily life, I am unsure if having a web-enabled device in my pocket at all times is necessarily a good thing.

For some, it’s a requirement. But I work from home or wifi-enabled public locations. If I’m neither of those places, I don’t want to be working or tempted to work. I want to be catching fish, focusing on my family, or just enjoying whatever moment is presented to me.

There are three main areas where I question whether having the web available at all times is good for me:

1. I want to spend less time on the internet, not more. By subscribing to a monthly data plan, I’d feel like I was wasting my money if I wasn’t using it.
2. I’m trying to reduce the number of “in-boxes” in my life and the number of times I check my email daily. Mobile web/email would add at least one more.
3. When I’m not working, I want to focus on not working. If I’m in my canoe, going for a hike, or out on a date with my wife, I want to enjoy those things for what they are at that moment, not how they’ll sound in a Twitter update.

What do you think? If you use a web-enabled smartphone, does it simplify your life?

We’re all different and what works for one person might not work for another. I’m just debating what makes sense for my lifestyle today. Smartphones are everywhere and I even had one for a short while a few years ago. I realized it didn’t make sense for me then and I’m still not sure if I really need one. I’m the AnywhereMan, not the EverywhereMan.

And yes, I will probably change my mind on all of this next week.

Working from wherever we want means we spend a lot of time on the phone. In fact, I personally have very few in-person meetings since so few of my clients are local. Most of them live in places much much warmer than the northern regions of Minnesota. But that’s another story…

Phone skills are essential for maintaining a level of confidence with the person on the other end of the line. They might be a prospective client, co-worker, boss, or current customer, but whoever they are it’s going to help your career to carry a phone conversation with the right amount of command.

Essentially you need to communicate not only what you are saying clearly, but also that you understand what the other person is saying. In person, this is a lot easier. A head nod or simple grin can do the trick. However, on the phone you are invisible to the other person.

Here are six little tricks I’ve learned for having effective command of phone communication.

Delay your excitement

It’s important to start the conversation off right. When you pick up the phone and answer, use a friendly tone but save your most excited tone of voice until after the person states their name. Make the person feel like you were happy before they called, but hearing their voice was a nice surprise. Don’t overdo it, though.

Make sure the other person is receptive

If you are the party placing the call, make sure you ask the other person if it’s a good time to talk. I am notorious for diving right in and forgetting to check with them first. Getting permission at the very start of the call lets the other person know that their time is important to you, and as a result they’ll likely be more engaged in the call. Some have referred to this concept as the Golden Rule of phone communication.

Another tip with this one: if you something in the caller’s background such as a phone ringing, baby crying, etc., make sure you ask them if they need to tend to that. Again, this communicates that their time is important to you.

Make sure you are receptive

You should also make sure that YOU have time for the call. If you’re trying to get something else done while talking on the phone, it will be obvious to the caller. If someone calls you in a whirlwind moment just let them know that you’d like to call them back when you can give them full attention.

Wait for the pause

This is a tough one for me because I like to give verbal feedback to people as they are talking. If they are describing something to me, I’ll nod along with an “okay” here and a “yeah” there. Sometimes this works on the phone, but I’ve noticed that a lot of phone systems, especially mobile phones and Skype, will delay your words just a little bit and actually cut the caller’s signal to your phone for a split second. The caller will then stop talking a lot of times and wait for you to finish, but you have nothing to finish because you were simply giving quick verbal confirmation.

Instead, wait for the other person to finish what they are saying before you try to give any sort of confirmation. Imagine you’ve got duct tape over your mouth and the other person has to tear it off once they’re finished with what they are saying.

Use their name

Sprinkling the other person’s name throughout the conversation gives confirmation that you are focused on them. Don’t overdo it, but doing this will make the caller feel like you are much more “connected” to the conversation. Really.  Think of conversations you’ve had where people say your name once in a while versus not saying it at all. Which one made you feel more connected? It’s a simple, easy method that makes a huge difference.

Imagine you are on the radio

The big wall of phone conversations is the fact that you cannot see each other. I use a lot of hand gestures, but those do no good on the phone.  One thing I’ve learned is to imagine that you are the host of your own radio show. The person you are talking to is your guest and (this one will really inspire you to be interesting) there are people listening in on your call.

This will totally change the way you approach a conversation. You’ll ask better questions, you’ll ramble less, and you’ll use a tone of voice that is much more interesting. You’ll sound much more professional.

If you’re a user of a phone app such as Google Voice, you might even try using the in-call recording option to record a few of your phone conversations. Go back and determine the things that would or wouldn’t work for a radio conversation.

Getting better at communication in general

Many of the tips I post here are the result of reading “How To Talk To Anyone” by Leil Lowndes a few years ago. It’s an excellent resource for brushing up on the ways that you communicate. The book is mainly focused on communicating in person, but there are a few chapters on phone communication as well.

I don’t know if I’ll make a habit of posting "think out loud" articles, but I think my decision-making process for the following scenario may be beneficial for those of you in the same boat regarding your mobile phone service. Please share any advice or additional questions in the comments. I would love to hear what you have to say.

A few posts back I discussed the setup for my "office" phone. It’s a great setup and I have no complaints. However, in addition to the office phone line I also have a mobile phone (as I assume all of you do as well). Here’s the scoop…

I originally signed up for the plan I’m on in November 2007. The original carrier was Unicel, and they have since been purchased by Verizon so I am now officially a Verizon customer. The plan I use gives me 600 anytime minutes, free incoming calls, free incoming texts, and all the usual night/weekend stuff. Plus my wife has a 2nd phone on the contract. This deal costs us $59.99/month. It works out great because I rarely call out but get a lot of incoming calls.

However, now that Verizon is our provider, our original Unicel phones lose their charge much quicker because we are both on "roam" at all times. Verizon has offered us the chance to upgrade our phones with a new 2-year agreement but there’s a catch with that too: We can’t keep the plan we’re on. So instead of our current plan, we’d have to go to a $69.99/month plan for 700 minutes, incoming calls are NOT free, incoming texts NOT free ($5/month/phone for 250 texts each), and all that fun stuff.   Also, neither one of us are "texters". I simply use text alerts from Google Calendar to remind me about meetings, birthdays, etc.

I really don’t mind Verizon at all. In fact, I think they’ve got the best network out there. And normally I’d just find a decent phone I like and just take the hit and go with the plan that will cost us an extra $20/month for essentially the same service we already have.

One problem is that I’m also in the market for a decent pocket HD video camera. I’d like to have something such as a Flip or Sony Webbie that I could have with me at all times in case something came up that could be useful on AnywhereMan or any of my other sites. If I can find a phone that offers HD or near-HD video recording with 16:9 ratio, I’d totally go with that.

The other problem is that I’d like a Wi-fi enabled phone so I can access web and email. I do NOT want to pay an extra $30/month for web access on my phone since I am around Wi-fi networks 99.9% of the time. Verizon DOES offer Wi-fi enabled phones such as the Samsung Omnia, but the catch is you have to have the $30/month web access feature in order to use this phone.

I’ve looked into AT&T as a possible option for an alternate carrier, and the iPhone itself is Wi-fi enabled. But, again, they lock you into a $30/month web access charge in addition to the fees you’ll already be paying for your minutes. You cannot get out of this as long as you use the iPhone on their netword. Not an affordable option for me right now, plus I haven’t heard consistent reviews on AT&T’s actual service. Like I said, Verizon has been great both in customer service and network performance.

The other options in my region are Sprint and T-Mobile. Both seem to have similar rate plans. T-Mobile’s actual phone plans are cheaper, but they tack on an extra fee just for Wi-fi (not mobile web) access. And since I had T-Mobile at one point when we lived in St. Paul and had issues, I have doubts over how well their service could perform here in the north woods of Minnesota.

So essentially I’m looking for a decent plan and a phone that has Wi-fi and HD video recording. I don’t know if this even exists, but if I just go with a basic plan and basic phone, I’ll essentially need to carry my phone, my newly purchased Flip or Webbie, and my iPod Touch for Wi-fi at all times. This doesn’t make sense: carry three devices to do something that a single device should be able to do? There should be a device that offers all three of these things, and I should be paying for the DEVICE and not locked into some ridiculous and over-inflated plan where I pay an extra $30/month for a feature like mobile web which I’ll never use.

I feel like the iPhone 3GS is close, but being locked into that extra rate and paying $200 for the phone doesn’t work for me. I’d be paying an extra $560 in the first year to make that happen.  This is money that could be spent on much more useful things, like groceries or taking my kids to the zoo.

So, what advice would you have for me? What are you using for your mobile phone these days? Should I just resolve to carry THREE devices at once?

Also, doesn’t it seem backwards that I was able to get a great rate plan from the "little guy" (Unicel), but when they get bought out by a much larger corporation (Verizon), the deals get worse?

In today’s video I discuss the “office” portion of my phone setup. When I started my own freelance business I didn’t want my mobile phone to be the primary number I provided to my clients. I therefore set out to find the best office phone option based on both cost, quality, and portability.

Here’s the phone I reference in the video:

Philips VOIP841 PC-Free DECT 6.0 Wireless IP Phone

When I bought the phone it was around $110, but I’ve seen the price vary a ton since then.  Now it’s not uncommon to see them go for $200+.  Look around for the right deal.

 
How do your customers call you?  Tell me about your phone setup in the comments below.