I'm not adjusting to my CPAP machine very well. Seems like I'm trading one reason for waking up in the middle of the night for another reason for for waking up in the middle of the night. For instance, last night when I finally got back to sleep I had the weirdest dream—I dreamed I wrote a TOP post about designing the marketing for the new Nikons that are going to be announced on Thursday!
Ha. It must have been the result of eating too soon before bed, and reading this:
A book JH recommended the other day. It's a fun, fast-to-read book that I'm enjoying, probably because it reinforces my belief that many companies don't market themselves very well. Al Ries is a friend of JH's. It's even more fun because it's 25 years old and the examples paint a picture of the time when "Seinfeld" was new. Remember Lotus, for instance, of 1-2-3 fame? And back then, Acura had twice the market share of Lexus, and both looked like they were going to clobber Mercedes-Benz. Ah, history.
By the bye, some of you might think so, but none of the professional photographers out there think that this subject is off-topic for this blog. One thing I was told early on in my (so far unsuccessful) attempts to make a living as a professional photographer*: "professional photographers spend more time marketing than they spend photographing."
Hard to believe this must-read is already more than ten years old. But read the reviews, don't take my word for it.
Mike
(Thanks to JH)
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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
JG: "I believe having your ideas stolen—er, used—without any sort of acknowledgment happens a lot to those who work in the hobbyist press. You're having a conversation at dinner or talking at a trade show and they just slip out, as these things do. I know of at least three instances where it happened to me while I was a member of the audio press. And when, like you, I brought it to the attention of the guilty parties, they all looked away and/or shuffled their feet and whistled, instead of admitting to what they had done. Worse, because the nature of my job required that I remain in the good graces of the industry, I had no alternative but to suck it up, lest I ultimately get screwed a second time and by myself! So, yeah, I know exactly how you feel about this. 8^/ "
Joseph: "Everyone I know who has sleep problems and is told they need a CPAP end up in the same place as you. And many of these people abandon the device after a couple of months of sleepless nights. One can't but wonder if these are being prescribed a bit too broadly. Frankly, I think it's a scam."
Paul: "Concerning the CPAP: Stick with it. Try to use it every night but don't force yourself if it's really bothering you and try again the next night. Eventually you'll find it easier. It took me many weeks of trying until I finally got used to it. Very rarely now does it bother me. Getting diagnosed and using my CPAP machine changed my life remarkably for the better. Stick with it and be patient with yourself!"
Michael Perini: "Ries & Trout is a classic that, despite dated examples, is full of good advice. I met Jack Trout several times as he was a semi-regular speaker at management conferences. And yes, no matter how hard we tried, applications of what we learned were always imperfect. As corporations grow they become less efficient and less nimble for lots of reasons (some are even good reasons). It is a cost of size that can be partially offset by focus and attention to customers' needs—it never can reach the efficiency of a good small enterprise. But being large can give you economies of scale, and resources for R&D (or just make you big and slow). Marketing on a large scale is hard. Just look at Apple, the most successful corporate enterprise ever, yet we all have a list of things it is 'doing wrong,' and some of our gripes are undoubtedly true. As for marketing, every business has to spend more time marketing and servicing customers and other more mundane aspects of business than they do 'producing.' It’s just that when people enter the photography business from being a good non-professional, many forget that the less attractive aspects are critical to success."
You can build a better mouse trap but if no one knows about it you'll have a garage full of mouse traps.
I recommend "Confessions of an Advertising Man" by David Ogilvy.
Posted by: Speed | Monday, 20 August 2018 at 09:48 AM
Seinfeld might have been new in 1993 ... but Lotus (along with their friends from WordPerfect and Borland and almost every other large Microsoft third party developer in that space) was already well on the way to gone, about to be crushed for good by the 3.1 and later versions of Windows and Excel (really Office).
It's hard to really convey how much of a lock Microsoft had on most of the computing industry between around 1993 and the mid to late 2000s. They even almost survived the Internet, but could not quite figure out how to do phones in a way that would make a dent.
Posted by: psu | Monday, 20 August 2018 at 10:06 AM
I mean, Microsoft obviously survived ... I just mean their position of great power and mind-share in the industry did not.
Posted by: psu | Monday, 20 August 2018 at 10:07 AM
Try and persist with the cpap. I found it made a major improvement to my quality of life.
Posted by: David Boyce | Monday, 20 August 2018 at 10:50 AM
I'm another one with Sleep Apnoea. I have a Phillips machine with the humidifier attachment. The mask is a Res MedQuattro™Air. That's a mouth and nose mask.
I've had to shave my beard off where the mask touches my face. This decreases the amount of leakage, which can, just a few inches from my ear, be noisy enough to wake me up. I breath in through the mouth and that makes my mouth dry, hence the humidifier.
I fairly often wake up in the morning to find that I've taken the mask off in the night, and switched off the machine; I don't remember doing it, usually. This happens less often now I've shaved that part of the beard.
You may find the mask is difficult to get to sleep with, if the room is too warm. Last night, I had to get out of bed, open the window, and wait until the room cooled down a bit.
Sleep hygiene (getting to bed at a regular hour and not too late) is something I struggle with, but it's supposed to help.
Posted by: Roger Bradbury | Monday, 20 August 2018 at 10:57 AM
6 months. That's how long it took me to get accustomed to the CPAP. I'd wake after just a couple hours and tear off the mask. But the mask-on time increased with each passing week. Eventually, I got to the point where I could not sleep WITHOUT the CPAP.
So, nevertheless, persist.
Posted by: MikeR | Monday, 20 August 2018 at 03:21 PM
Fully agree with you, Mike, that most companies don't do a particularly stellar job of marketing themselves. Based on that, I'd love to hear from you, and the TOP community of companies that you think DO do a good job of marketing.
Also agree of the importance of professional photographers having an effective marketing capability as well. I've heard from a number of established professionals that successful professional photography is 95% marketing and 5% photography.
Regarding books along those lines for professional photography, here's two others I can recommend:
Photography: Focus on Profit by Tim Zimberoff (https://amzn.to/2OSb3cq)
The best one I've found, though, is also the most up-to-date:
Best Business Practices for Photographers by John Harrington.
His latest edition is over 300 pages long and the last version was just published in 2017 (https://amzn.to/2wg22lR)
Folks interested in these books should please consider using Mike's affiliate links.
Cheers.
Posted by: Stephen Scharf | Monday, 20 August 2018 at 03:36 PM
Speaking as a physician (not an expert in sleep medicine) who happens to have sleep apnea and use a CPAP, please use your machine. Go back to your provider to get any help you need with making it work for you. Some people need to experiment with masks and straps but problems are usually fixable. If not properly diagnosed and treated, sleep apnea will shorten your life. Right heart failure is not a trivial condition. Like many "popular" conditions, it may occasionally be over diagnosed, but if you know your doctor and trust her/him, the use of a CPAP machine can be literally lifesaving.
Posted by: Eric Brody | Monday, 20 August 2018 at 05:17 PM
I've been a CPAP user since July 2000, and I've never had any trouble using it. I love it. I'm 100% compliant. To me, the feeling of cool air being gently pushed into my lungs is like leaning over the rail of a ship at night in the tropics. I call it my "Assisted Breathing Machine". I sleep well. Stick with it, it's important.
Posted by: Peter Croft | Monday, 20 August 2018 at 07:54 PM
Yes, getting used to a CPAP can be difficult. At first it may seem a bit like trying to sleep in a hurricane.
Not original to me, but stick with it. Mine changed my life.
Both the "harness" and the pressure have to be exactly right. If necessary, make an appointment with your prescriber and bring in the machine so they can check it over.
In my experience, masks that cover only the nose may work better with beards, one of which I think you may still have.
Use the ramping feature if your machine has it.
Sorry for all the unsolicited advice, but generally I think there's just one thing wrong (the thing varies) that makes people give up too soon. Eventually it will feel entirely natural.
.
Sadly, it won't do a thing for the other reason us more mature gentlemen have for getting up in the middle of the night.
Posted by: Scott Paris | Monday, 20 August 2018 at 11:01 PM
I woke up at 3 or 4 every morning with the CPAP mask removed (by me) in my sleep. Then I was switched to BiPAP and have been using it successfully for 20 years. (The pressure is lower, and it adjusts for breathing in and out.)
Posted by: Bill Mitchell | Monday, 20 August 2018 at 11:19 PM
I have minimal Sleep apnea. I had only limited difficulty adapting but I noted little benefit so I quit. My sleep efficiency has gone to the devil so I’m going to retry.
My wife took some time to adapt but she goes nowhere, does nothing, withoutusing her machine during sleep. She still tries new masks 20 years later. Her first mask quest took over a year.
Years ago a partner attended the rollout of a federal malpractice mitigation law by the feds, pres. Bush presiding, in front of a sea of docs in the Alton IL area. There were 2 Afro-Americans in the mostly attentive happy visible crowd on the news photo. One was my friend, nodded off just over Bush’s left shoulder (from missing his CPAP machine the night before) in front of all of God’s creation. He suffered our teasing quite well. His headaches vanished when he used it. I only wish I saved the online image, can’t find it
Years ago, in a family conference about a major illness of a 50s-60s lady, her husband repeatedly fell asleep snoring loudly in the chair about 4.5 feet from me. He did not like his machine.
Sleep Apnea is real. It can kill and it certainly can interfere with your lifestyle. It may well be over diagnosed but if you have compatible symptoms anda moderately positive test I feel one is foolish not to tryto fix the problem.
Posted by: Nature lover | Tuesday, 21 August 2018 at 02:58 AM
All these books are great, I suppose, but what if you really hate doing marketing and sales?
Posted by: Robert Roaldi | Tuesday, 21 August 2018 at 07:40 AM
Mike, is CPAP fitting okay? You should not hear noise or hissing air. Make sure it's comfortable. It's not unlike wearing contact lenses. It takes several weeks to get used to it. But keep at it, it's very Important that you use it. It could make a fifference between sleeping well and other health problems
Re. Fred
[Thank you Fred. I'm sticking with it, because I had atrial fib problems this past Spring that landed me in the hospital. (Just for tests.) If those problems are being caused in part by OSA (obstructive sleep apnea) then I'm willing to go to whatever lengths I need to go to to ameliorate the problem.
The machine is still waking me up 2-3 hours into sleep, but, oddly, if I can get back to sleep again I tend to sleep for a good long time and actually feel rested when I wake up. Thanks for your help! --Mike]
Posted by: Fred Haynes | Tuesday, 21 August 2018 at 04:12 PM
Well, Robert, you struggle and, if you get lucky enough with big enough clients, then you'll find agents who want to have you on their lists.
As the good book advises, to him who hath shall be given...
Did I hear anyone mention the word fair?
Posted by: Rob Campbell | Tuesday, 21 August 2018 at 05:14 PM
A friend of mine recommends this little device he's been using for years: https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Dental-Guard-Instructions-Anti-Bacterial/dp/B07BBSRFPN He says if during molding it to your teeth you move your lower jaw forward it will prevent snoring and apnea.
I've never used it can't comment (I'm fine with CPAP). If you can't successfully adjust to your machine you may want to try it. However, I think you should keep trying the CPAP. Maybe a different mask can help? I use ResMed Quattro full face mask and shave every day to prevent leakage. It still leaks sometimes when the pressure rises to the upper limit.
During my first weeks with the machine, I often took off the mask in the middle of the night to give my face some rest and then fell asleep without it. Recently it happened again and the next day I felt horrible. The improvement was gradual, not sudden, and once I got used to it even a half night without CPAP makes a big difference in how I feel next day.
Mike, don't give up!
Posted by: alex-virt | Thursday, 23 August 2018 at 09:40 AM