We arrived at the end of the 2012. WHAT A FUCKIN YEAR!

I worked as SEO for Zalando, taking care first of the italian market, then of the nordics, and at the end of the southern region (France, Spain, Italy). I worked with awesome people, I met some jerks, I had the honor to discover some real geniuses. I lived with my amazing Giulia, in Berlin (Germany), and we changed house, neighborhood, friends. It was a really intense year, and I think I’m tired enough I need a break from the city and from the every day life.

My blog: it was really cool to interview a lot of people, to talk to many SEOs and marketers in general. I don’t know if I’m going to keep doing interviews in the next year, I didn’t planned this yet. I would like to write more, but just because I like to raise the voice when I’m seeing things that are broken.

Nope, as visitors, my blog did not go up that much, but that’s ok I suppose, since my effort on it is really small, since I have other priorities, like reading, listening to a lot of music, do real stuff (or at least try). Of course even in 2012, music was a BIG part of my life.

Ok, so, here some considerations, with the help of some lyrics taken by the album “With Teeth” by NIN.

via http://pushthemovement.tumblr.com/

Why do you get all the love in the world?

yeah why? let’s stop for a minute and think how lucky we all are. There’s so much shit around, that small things are the greatest when you think about it. Like when you wake up in the winter, in the cold, and you take a hot shower. Like when you come home and your girlfriend fell asleep on the sofa while waiting for you. Like when you can change something, or at least try to raise a discussion. I think I’m lucky, and people have trouble to realize that for themselves. Stop complain. Like James Murphy said: “Best way to complain is make things”.

Don’t you fuckin know what you are? Go on get back to where you belong

I had experiences that made me think: why are you acting like this? I’m looking around and I’m seeing people who do not really understand what they actually are, and they become jerk, selfish, acting like “yeah, you know, I’m the greatest, you are nothing”. From what I learnt as manager of a big international team, I can say best way to act is to know what you are, without being the boss you probably hate when you were an intern. Talk and act as human being. One of the best moment of 2012? I had the chance to sit down with ALL the members of my team, interns included, ask them: tell me things you don’t like and I – or we, the company – need to improve. Simple uh? For many people this is unacceptable. “I am a manager, a big one, so I’m not gonna do it”. Let’s be humble, and good things are gonna happen. ALWAYS.

There are times, plenty of times I wish I could let it go

…and still, I’m not able to. How immature of me! I need to let things go, because sometimes best way to act is to IGNORE people and situations. I tend to put my heart on things, and I suffered a lot for this, in the past. Resolution for 2013: take stuff easier and concentrate myself on things that really matter!

Will you bite the hand that feeds?

I started to have less fear in doing it. You tend to act like: “I have a salary, I’m relatively happy, so better shut up, and keep perpetrating the status quo”. But then I look at my team, at myself, and I realize that it’s time to bite the hand that feeds me. We all need to do it, because a “why” or an “idea” cannot be dreaded, but it should be rewarded. And let’s bite that hand if needed, because sometimes the pain makes open the eyes and see things. Sometimes who feeds you needs to be awakened.

via http://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/2/1381893941

Love is not enough

Love is awesome, but I realize how many times I had to keep love acts distant in order to do my job in the best way possible. I have to say it’s really difficult to me, but I know that’s required when you need to take important decisions. Plus, there are tons of other stuff who keeps love away, like when you need to protect someone from the outside world, being kinda rude in order let the message enter her brain, soul and heart.

Every day is exactly the same There is no love here and there is no pain.

This is exactly what I think when I’m seeing ghosts around me. Ghosts are those people who are just doing what they’ve been told, without thinking with their brain. I mean, how you let people to fuck with your brain in this manner? Who are they? And in many companies I’m seeing ghosts. From interns to CEOs, there are tons of ghosts. There is no love, there is no pain: just there to press keys in front of a PC, waiting for six o’clock, and see more money at the end of the month. There is simply no emotion. Don’t get me wrong: I know money at the end of the month are extremely important and blah blah blah, but ghosts people tend to create and put themselves in a world thinking they are not able to get out anymore. It’s so simple: take a map of the world and put a needle where you are. You see how big the world is? And it’s there for you, it’s waiting for you to change something, to have an awesome idea, to fix all the broken things. Wish for 2013: don’t be a ghost, be ALIVE.

via http://www.behance.net/gallery/Rainbow-Connection/6235927

You’ve finally found the place where you belong

Yeah, thanks Trent, you are right. I found it: it’s ME, that place is my head, my heart, and maybe 5 people in the whole world. Find the place where you belong, because it will keep you safe when the rest of the world is collapsing.

Kind of drifting into the abstract

I’ve been watching very closely the online marketing community and I’m seeing a lot of abstract things. When I talk with people working for other companies, or even with some colleagues of mine, I’m seeing a lot of abstract stuff. Yeah, for sure cool, so you can even show someone like me you spend very well money for studying at private universities and so you can justify the fact you bought a title, but I DON’T CARE. It doesn’t click with me. And the best part: most of the time does NOT click even with your users or customers. And still we spend ages to talk about abstract stuff, because WE think it’s important or because you read it in a book at economics class, a book written by a 75yo professor and published in 1957. You can win the abstract by talking with the users, with the customers. Stop talking difficult, because there is a big need of simple things.

via http://www.behance.net/gallery/Editorial-Illustrations-Part-II/6227585

I’m not looking to stand up real high I’d be happy to crawl

Because it’s where people I’m interested about are. People I admire the most are not in high position, do not write 1322 posts a day in a blog, or they don’t have 45600 twitter followers, maybe they don’t even have twitter. But they are people who understand other people. That’s something I can give to companies, after I met a lot of them: STOP LOOKING TO YOURSELF, and start looking to your people. Because the company belongs to them, it’s time you learn this.

She turns me on she makes it real

Just a name. Giulia.

via http://www.behance.net/gallery/Editorial-Illustrations-Part-II/6227585

The line begins to blur

Yep, at the end of an intense year like this, yeah…the line begins to blur. You start seeing things differently, and you realize you grow quite a lot in the past few years. There’s so much to do, so much. And I’m here to do it, to talk, to discuss, to do stuff, to complain less, to make someone else smile, to love a bit more and hate a bit less.

Beside you in time

I need to stay closer to some people. I know that. Because I’ve seen how important and amazing is to make someone happy, to make someone smile. Yeah, to do it I need to be enlightened by people who share the same light, people who click with me. But there are few out there. And I need, I want to be more close to them.

What if all the world you think you know is an elaborate dream?

That’s why there is no time to lose. We need to get up, and start changing things. NOW. Get out from that bubble you live in, because you can do a lot, and there is A LOT to do. Let’s focus on what we are able to do best, and let’s start making questions, questioning things who need to be changed. Let’s make the sentence “well, it’s like that, you cannot really change it” obsolete, and let’s replace it with “now I’m gonna show you how I can change it”.

via http://blog.yimmyayo.com/

Here is my last post for 2012. Thanks for reading.`