I recently moved the delivery time of my beloved newsletter to be Sunday morning (well, that’s when it launches here, though my New Zealander and Australian friends all get it on Monday). In the process, I talked to people about sharing this information over breakfast, and with a “second cup of coffee” sometimes. I basically set a scene in the reader’s head that we were having a personal chat over breakfast. Ask yourself this: in trying to reach others for whatever your goal may be, is it facts or emotions that will win them over? Which do you think plays the bigger…
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Most Topular Stories
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Create a Setting and Connect With Emotions
chrisbrogan.com13 May 2012 | 10:26 pm -
Creepy
BuzzMachine8 May 2012 | 6:18 amI just reamed an ITN producer who emailed me this clip about Google seeking a patent for using background noise in audible search requests and wanted to talk to me “off the record” (why he’d offer that, I don’t know; bad reporters’ reflex) to find out what “worries” I had about privacy and security. Note well that he didn’t ask me what I thought of the technology — whether I thought it was good or bad, how I thought it could be used positively or negatively, what its potential is. No, he showed his bias clearly by asking me to tell him… -
Digital analogs are no longer sufficient
Seth's Blog16 May 2012 | 2:00 amThe parking meter was rebooting. I guess we're supposed to walk to the other end of the garage and find one that's working. We're seeing digital awareness coming to just about everything. In this case, it was the parking meter near the library. Of course, it's not really a parking meter, it's a centralized fee collection system that saves the town a lot of money. It's easier to collect from, certainly, it doesn't waste the time of meter readers (who get alerted as to what spaces aren't paid for, as opposed to checking them all) plus it doesn't let a new parker enjoy a few minutes of the last… -
The Fallacy of Information Overload
Brian Solis15 May 2012 | 6:50 amSome of you know me through my work in studying how social media and disruptive technology impact business and culture. Others have worked with me in translating insights into action and change within the enterprise. Every now and then, I share another side of myself that evokes the aspiring social scientist in me as I explore how all of this is affecting us as individuals and human beings. Not a day goes by when I’m not asked about whether or not the social media bubble will finally burst. Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Foursquare, Pinterest, this all has to be too much right? More… -
Mass Relevance raises $3.3 million in new funding
Lost Remote16 May 2012 | 12:36 pmAnother burst of cash for the quickly-growing social TV space: this time, Austin-based Mass Relevance has closed a $3.3 million series A round led by Austin Ventures. The company says it plans to use the investment to accelerate growth among media, entertainment, consumer brands and retailers. It’s hard to believe that Mass Relevance launched 15 months ago. Today, the social filtering and display service — which is hooked into Twitter’s firehose for real-time curation — serves 120 clients including the “Big Four” networks, 7 of the top 10 cable networks and…
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chrisbrogan.com
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Create a Setting and Connect With Emotions
13 May 2012 | 10:26 pmI recently moved the delivery time of my beloved newsletter to be Sunday morning (well, that’s when it launches here, though my New Zealander and Australian friends all get it on Monday). In the process, I talked to people about sharing this information over breakfast, and with a “second cup of coffee” sometimes. I basically set a scene in the reader’s head that we were having a personal chat over breakfast. Ask yourself this: in trying to reach others for whatever your goal may be, is it facts or emotions that will win them over? Which do you think plays the bigger… -
Nobody Reads Agency Blogs- Or Why You Need Skin in the Game
7 May 2012 | 6:57 amThanks to Jason Falls, I just read this post about how many marketing agencies are closing down their blogs and tweeting and Facebooking instead. “Nobody reads agency blogs, and there are so many out there it’s impossible for people to keep up anyway,” said Sam Weston, director of communications at digital agency Huge. Nobody Reads ANY Blogs- If They’re Boring I’ll tell you without even having to look why nobody reads a blog: because it’s boring. Because it’s poorly written. Because it’s utterly self-referential. Nobody has time to read junk. Why would you? -
Constraints
5 May 2012 | 9:43 amI was at a live performance the other night where Jacq sang and played with Girish, and I had a great conversation with Reggie, the drummer for the night. (I am SO sorry that I don’t know your last name, Reggie.) We talked about the fact that his typical drum kit for events is usually like 30 or so pieces, but that he decided to go minimal for the event. He had a kick drum, a snare, a tom, two cymbals, and a cowbell. What Reggie said was something like this, “I really enjoy this, because it means I really have to use what I have to get the expression I’m aiming for. I… -
Pattern Break
2 May 2012 | 9:17 pmWhen you wake up in the morning, you check your emails, probably from your phone. First thing. Yes? Why? There’s no good answer to why. Even brain surgeons can wait until they’ve done other things before checking in on the world outside of your immediate proximity. So why do you do it? Because it’s a habit, a pattern. Do you read the top tech and marketing blogs? Why? Why do you read this blog? Because you’re subscribed? Are you getting something from it? If no, then why are you still doing it? Twitter and Facebook are hugely pattern-driven. They thrive off the same… -
Where Should You Put Your Content?
30 Apr 2012 | 7:44 amI’ve been asked by subscribers of my personal newsletter how I decide what goes on my blog and what goes into my newsletter. I think the answer differs depending on your strategy, but I’m more than happy to tell you how I view it. I put information that sells on my blog, and information that nurtures in my newsletter. Information that Sells My job, because people seem confused these days as to what exactly it is I do or am selling, is to help mid-sized to larger companies build business (revenue and growth) by improving their use of the human digital channel (social media, email…
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BuzzMachine
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Creepy
8 May 2012 | 6:18 amI just reamed an ITN producer who emailed me this clip about Google seeking a patent for using background noise in audible search requests and wanted to talk to me “off the record” (why he’d offer that, I don’t know; bad reporters’ reflex) to find out what “worries” I had about privacy and security. Note well that he didn’t ask me what I thought of the technology — whether I thought it was good or bad, how I thought it could be used positively or negatively, what its potential is. No, he showed his bias clearly by asking me to tell him… -
Consumer Reports’ moral panic
3 May 2012 | 4:42 amI’m very disappointed in Consumer Reports for falling into the moral panic about privacy and social services. Today it issues a survey and a Reefer Madness report that covers no new ground, only stirs it up, over privacy and Facebook. Let me address instead the survey. In its press release, Consumer Reports says — as if we should be shocked at these numbers — that: * 39.3 million identified a family member in a profile. Do we really live in a world where it should be frightening to talk about our family? * 20.4 million included their birth date and year in their profile. And… -
Social (network) pressure
1 May 2012 | 6:08 amBy adding an organ-donation tool to Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is setting up a dynamic of social pressure for virtue. Is that always good? Now getting us to sign our drivers’ licenses so our vital bits can be harvested to save others’ lives is a moderately low-impact decision. But what about the occasional calls for folks to sign up to be tested for a marrow transplant — as in the drive for Super Amit? That’s no easy decision. Imagine tomorrow, God forbid, one of your Facebook friends needs a kidney. There’s a tool staring you in the face asking you to get tested… -
Journalism Inside®
20 Apr 2012 | 10:42 amI wonder whether we should be teaching journalists to embed themselves and their abilities into the world rather than always making the world come to them. Thinking out loud… The other day, when Amazon peeved me by suddenly trying to sell me software — who has bought a box of software in years? — it occurred to me: After software left store shelves, demand for the programmers who make it has only grown. So why, as newspapers, magazines, and books leave shelves, is there not more demand for the journalists who make them? Companies are clamoring to hire more programmers and… -
A new BuzzMachine
16 Apr 2012 | 3:26 pmAt long last, and by popular demand (and disgust at my old design), BuzzMachine is reborn thanks to my son and webmaster, Jake. After I’d let my old design go to seed, he didn’t much like me calling him my webmaster. So he took matters into his own hands, rebuilt my WordPress installation from scratch, fixed all kinds of things I’d messed up or neglected over the years, and — best of all — gave me this wonderful new look. The image above — like the photo on the old header — is of a paper-making machine: the old origin of buzz. I’ve been…
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Seth's Blog
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Digital analogs are no longer sufficient
16 May 2012 | 2:00 amThe parking meter was rebooting. I guess we're supposed to walk to the other end of the garage and find one that's working. We're seeing digital awareness coming to just about everything. In this case, it was the parking meter near the library. Of course, it's not really a parking meter, it's a centralized fee collection system that saves the town a lot of money. It's easier to collect from, certainly, it doesn't waste the time of meter readers (who get alerted as to what spaces aren't paid for, as opposed to checking them all) plus it doesn't let a new parker enjoy a few minutes of the last… -
Hard work on the right things
15 May 2012 | 2:00 amI don't think winners beat the competition because they work harder. And it's not even clear that they win because they have more creativity. The secret, I think, is in understanding what matters. It's not obvious, and it changes. It changes by culture, by buyer, by product and even by the day of the week. But those that manage to capture the imagination, make sales and grow are doing it by perfecting the things that matter and ignoring the rest. Both parts are difficult, particularly when you are surrounded by people who insist on fretting about and working on the stuff that makes no… -
Worldliness
14 May 2012 | 2:41 amIntelligence is the combination of knowing a lot about a little while you also know a little about a lot. Deep domain understanding helps you create analyses. Your ability to understand how a particular system (no matter how small) works allows you apply a confident analysis to new systems you encounter. Once you know everything there is to know about nuclear physics, soccer or the praying mantis, it makes it easier to understand new systems. At the same time, it's impossible to be smart without also being aware of the wider world. That's because it's the random interactions and the… -
The reason the customer is always right...
14 May 2012 | 2:08 amIf you insist that they are wrong, they stop being your customer* (if given half a chance). People spend their time and attention and money in places that make them feel valued. *There's nothing wrong with asking customers who are wrong to leave. Just be sure you do it on purpose. -
Dedicating the merit
13 May 2012 | 2:02 amFor an author, one of the nicest parts of the traditional book is the dedication page. The dedication is far more than an acknowledgement to someone who helped you write the book, it's a permanent signpost, a capstone to the work of a year or more. Even if the person you've dedicated the book to can't read it, the writer benefits from the knowledge that a connection was made and that a memory was preserved. Here's the thing: you can dedicate just about anything. A project, a meeting, a tweet. You don't have to tell anyone but yourself. This blog post, like all the posts before it, has a…
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Brian Solis
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The Fallacy of Information Overload
15 May 2012 | 6:50 amSome of you know me through my work in studying how social media and disruptive technology impact business and culture. Others have worked with me in translating insights into action and change within the enterprise. Every now and then, I share another side of myself that evokes the aspiring social scientist in me as I explore how all of this is affecting us as individuals and human beings. Not a day goes by when I’m not asked about whether or not the social media bubble will finally burst. Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Foursquare, Pinterest, this all has to be too much right? More… -
Music, Film, TV: How social media changed the entertainment experience
10 May 2012 | 7:56 amSocial media is more than a digital water cooler for TV and movies. The global conversation that takes place around events and the experiences people share based on what they watch teaches us about consumer preferences. More importantly, their activity influences behavior. Behavior counts for everything. Studying it is just the beginning of course. In order to understand and eventually steer behavior, we must translate activity into insights and in turn, translate insights into actionable strategies and programs. The Hollywood Reporter recently published an exclusive poll about social media… -
The future of TV is more than social, it’s a multi-screen experience that needs design
7 May 2012 | 11:19 amThe future of television is much more than social; much in the same way that the future of media is too, more than social. Social is a fabric; it connects the individual nodes that make up the human network. But, social however, is not a means to an end. And, as such, the same is true about the working theories driving Social TV. Understanding the role social plays in how viewers connect with programs and other people is essential to defining the future of television. Over the years, I’ve written much about my vision for the long overdue convergence of not only web and TV, but also how the… -
The Path from a Social Brand to a Social Business
2 May 2012 | 9:17 amI’ve been a long-time supporter of MediaTemple’s (MT)Residence program along with Gary Vaynerchuk, Neil Patel, and many others whom I respect. I wanted to share my “7 questions to answer to become a social business” with you here.. Social Media is pervasive and is becoming the new normal in corporate marketing. Brands who get this right are starting to build their own media networks rich with customer connections numbering in the millions. Right now, Coca-Cola has over 34 million fans on Facebook, but they’re hardly alone. Disney follows just behind with 29 million… -
Do Customers Really Matter to Your Business? Prove it.
30 Apr 2012 | 8:21 amFrank Eliason and I have known each other for many years. We’ve shared the stage on many occasions, he’s made an appearance on Revolution, and most importantly, I’m proud to call him a personal friend. Frank has championed the adaption and transformation of customer service during his time at Comcast and at CITI. Never one to shy away from sharing his opinions, he’s certainly bullish on where service needs to be as a function and a philosophy versus where it is today. In fact, he’s gone so far as to call out social media customer service as being a…
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Lost Remote
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Mass Relevance raises $3.3 million in new funding
16 May 2012 | 12:36 pmAnother burst of cash for the quickly-growing social TV space: this time, Austin-based Mass Relevance has closed a $3.3 million series A round led by Austin Ventures. The company says it plans to use the investment to accelerate growth among media, entertainment, consumer brands and retailers. It’s hard to believe that Mass Relevance launched 15 months ago. Today, the social filtering and display service — which is hooked into Twitter’s firehose for real-time curation — serves 120 clients including the “Big Four” networks, 7 of the top 10 cable networks and… -
Comcast rolling out Skype for TV with social features
16 May 2012 | 11:39 amThese days, millions of people call their friends and family on their computers, but Skype is steadily making inroads on TV sets, too. Comcast announced today that its Skype for TV service just launched in Seattle and Boston, with eight more markets launching by the end of the week. The $9.95/month Xfinity add-on includes an HD camera, Skype adaptor and full-keyboard remote control. Once you’re wired up, you can access your Skype contacts — even import from Facebook — and video call from your TV. Here’s a grandma who’s clearly thrilled with your call: Beyond the… -
Turner Broadcasting invests in social video site Funny or Die
16 May 2012 | 7:55 amWhen Funny Or Die launched in April 2007 — a startup co-founded by Will Ferrell — it enjoyed an early-mover advantage in jumping on the wave of socially-shared video. Today, it sports 1.7 million Facebook fans and 3.8 million Twitter followers who help contribute to the site’s 6 million unique users and 60+ million video views per month. Those numbers — and Funny or Die’s creative track record — has led to a minority investment from Turner Broadcasting, part of a strategic partnership announced today spanning content and sales. For starters, Turner’s… -
SNL to stream live backstage on the Color app
16 May 2012 | 7:28 amI was confused when I first saw an email about an app named Color and its upcoming debut on SNL. After all, Color launched as a photo-sharing app that used geolocation to serve up photos near you. But in recent months, Color has pivoted into a live streaming app that ties to Facebook. And coming this Saturday, SNL will be streaming 30-second blurbs from backstage via Color — all part of a Verizon promotion for its 4G service. Got it? Ok, things move fast these days. Let’s start with features on the new Color app. Download, authenticate through Facebook, and it serves up photos and… -
Univision announces social video network UVideos
15 May 2012 | 8:23 pmAs the upfronts roar on, Univision (they reach 97% of Hispanic households in the US) is the latest TV brand to make major digital and social announcements. The network announced today at their upfront the launch of UVideo Digital Network and a brand new social experience with Facebook. We interviewed Kevin Conroy, president of Univision Interactive Media and Enterprise Development about the big announcements. According to their announcement, “Univision will kick-off live chats with its personalities and celebrities through Facebook Platform.” As part of the launch of the UVideos…
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Holtz Communications + Technology | Blog
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FIR Speakers and Speeches: Neville Hobson on Reputation Management at Internet Speed
16 May 2012 | 10:21 amOn April 26, 2012, FIR co-host Neville Hobson gave a keynote presentation at this year’s annual conference of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII) in Dublin. The overall conference theme was Reputation Management in the Age of Digital. Could we genuinely have foreseen the extent to which technological innovations would have disrupted our way of working? asked the PRII. How social and digital media, in particular, would have given rise to consumer power and citizen journalism? Or that we would face unprecedented competition from a new wave of competitors? These are powerful… -
Taking the “second screen” beyond television
15 May 2012 | 7:39 amThe “second screen” is gaining momentum. Watching television, once the epitome of passive media consumption, has become an interactive activity. Instead of sinking deeper and deeper into the sofa, people are sitting forward, smartphone or tablet in hand, finding engaging content related to what they’re watching and conversing with other fans of the same show. This week and next, the producers of the ABC series Revenge are planning a to entice people to watch the last to episodes of the season when they are aired, rather than catching it later on DVR or online, by offering a… -
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #651: May 14, 2012
14 May 2012 | 1:26 pmContent summary: FIR interview with Grantoo co-founder and CEO Dimitri Sillam is up. The Speakers & Speeches file from Neville’s talk in Dublin is coming this week. Neville recounts the talk he and Philip Sheldrake gave at the Wikimedia UK Annual General Meeting over the weekend. A discount code is available for FIR listeners interested in attending Like Minds Exeter 2012. News That Fits: brand humanization is not a social media fad; Ragan Communications promo; the rise of social influence marketing with Klout and PeerIndex; listener comments discussion; CustomScoop’s… -
Research is at the heart of successful social media training
11 May 2012 | 1:50 pmThis is the third installment in a series on social media training The best social media training effort is one that has been tailored to your organization’s requirements. Off-the-shelf training programs may cover the basics, but the basics will get you only so far. The payoff can be huge if you invest the time and effort to get the information you need to make sure your training addresses the unique circumstances of your company—and every company has unique circumstances! That’s why research is the most important phase of the training development process. What you need to… -
The need to be vigilant with contractors isn’t unique to social media
10 May 2012 | 10:41 amEvery now and then I read or hear something that leaves me shaking my head in dismay. That happened today when reading a piece on Search Engine Watch titled, Top 5 Reasons Why SMBs Should Fear Social Media. Aside from the link-bait headline, it was the last item that led to my dismay. Under the label, “Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations Agencies That Have Hung a Social Media Shingle,” author Tim Judd writes… It doesn’t mean they understand content that engages, promotes, or converts prospects to customers. “There are very few experts in social…
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Bad Pitch Blog
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Three Online Newsrooms That Don't Suck
23 Apr 2012 | 3:13 amAfter considering why newsrooms need to change to stay relevant, I have three newsrooms that are changing, and a fourth that re-sets the bar completely. All of the newsrooms represent brands with big investments in owned media and media relations.1) Starbucks: With 19,555 stores in 58 countries, Starbucks generates a ton of media interest every day. To the brand's credit, its newsroom is well-organized and uses visuals to help tell stories. It offers visitors a feature story and related content, including video and photo content -- all armed with sharing tools. -
Online Newsrooms in a Content Marketing World
19 Apr 2012 | 3:42 amAre online newsrooms still relevant?Spoiler Alert: Richard and I agree that online newsrooms are still relevant -- when they're done well. But their relevance has shifted. And there are many ways this relevance could increase. This is especially true if you consider how much has changed in the last five years across paid, owned and earned media.>screen does the blurry transition to note we're considering the changes<Publishing: Content management platforms have decentralized publishing. Every year publishing platforms become cheaper and more powerful than before. This has… -
Big Data Porn & Infographic Gruel
9 Apr 2012 | 7:56 amHave you witnessed content format drive audience assumptions about its quality? I remember when .pdf files seemed to transform PR content into intellectual capital. It was bad enough that I wanted to take Greek text (loremipsum), put it into a .pdf file, offer it to folks online and track the downloads. It seems that an audience just assumes a .pdf equates to good content.We're seeing this concept with infographics. And since PR people have more access to good graphic design capabilities, we could conduct the above experiment with infographics. Just add some percentages, pictures and voila:… -
Speculative News Releases & Bad Pitch Mad Libs
17 Mar 2012 | 3:22 pmA few bad pitches have us seeing red on St. Patrick's Day. OK, we've seen worse offenders. But it's been too long since our last post. So we're calling out assumptive news releases and even making you some "Bad Libs."The Assumptive News ReleasePromoting the fact that “it’s an honor just to be nominated” can be considered news. But speculating outcomes or promoting news before it’s a fact is presumptuous at best.Take the tech news release sent our way noting that tech brand X is “expected to redefine” tech category Y. Well, I’m expected to do things too. But sometimes I… -
Social Voting? It's Madness (All Year Round).
17 Mar 2012 | 2:27 pmEarlier this week, an ad rep for a media brand came to us with a sponsorship package that revolves around social voting. Social Madness riffs off college basketball's bracket-style competition, its calendar-inspired moniker and it marries them with a social voting program.We've documented our issuewith social voting in the past. Even Geoff Livingston weighed in on the topic for us. The only voting competition we put up with is from SXSW. And that's because you have no choice if you want to speak at the Austin-based interactive festival.Misguided, Traffic-Driving SchemeAccording to the Social…
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Dave Winer's "Scripting News" weblog
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Should you learn to code?
16 May 2012 | 9:08 amI have to weigh in on this. You should learn enough about anything to find out if you love it. I had no idea I was good at writing software until, on a lark, I enrolled in a Computer Science class at Tulane University in 1975. So I'd say, looking back, that was a good thing. If it worked out for me, why not give it a shot. But programming is at one end of a spectrum. It's like mountain climbing or spelunking, not like bungee jumping or hiking in the Alps. Programming is hard. And it's definitely not for everyone. I think the reason well-intentioned programmers get irritated by the sudden rush… -
Quick idea for Quora
16 May 2012 | 8:51 amQuora just raised $50 million. Quora is a very nicely done piece of software. Almost everyone thinks so. But I also think they're too late. There are already plenty of corporate blogging silos for people to write into. And the demand for them never was that high. So I think it would be interesting, with all their money and nice software, if they tried a pivot. Here's the idea... 1. Position relative to wordpress.com. A simpler more modern, better-designed version. Updated. 2. If possible release the back-end as open source, so you can complete the picture. If not, start work on that, and make… -
Chrome is better, day 2
16 May 2012 | 8:23 amI'm now four days into using Chrome as my primary browser, after switching from Firefox. Top-line review: My work is better. Not just in the browser, everywhere. Having a strong competent tool in web browsing brings confidence to all my writing and programming work. I started a thread about this yesterday. A story. When I got angel funding for my first company, the lead investor arranged for the company to get me a car. I had been driving a rented Dodge Omni, month to month, a real piece of shit. I didn't have credit, or money for a down payment. So every month I scraped together the rent for… -
Run against the Republican Party
15 May 2012 | 9:59 amI saw Romney interviewed on Fox, and all the arguments about him being awkward and a flawed human being, to me, are unconvincing. To balance those, I look at what I know about the President. Honestly, measuring one man against another, it's a draw. The reason I'll almost certainly vote for Obama in the fall is that he is not a Republican. The thought of them controlling the government again, is a real motivator. I saw what they did in August with the debt ceiling. And I see it coming again and again. This is a party that's taken a very wrong turn. I think a United States run by Republicans is… -
Chrome is better
15 May 2012 | 8:34 amI've spend a couple of days working fulltime in Chrome, and it's improved my workflow.
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Penelope Trunk Blog
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Attention to problems matters more than solutions to problems
10 May 2012 | 10:22 pmFortune magazine has started reporting about family in corporate life. We all know corporate jobs are messed up. Fortune magazine is a monument to how messed up corporate life really is. In November, Fortune wrote that the company that Sheryl Sandberg, a working mom, runs, has employees “on lockdown” and their kids come to the office to say goodnight before bed. In December Fortune reported that to get his almost-top spot at GE, John Krenicki relocated his family 11 times while the kids were growing up. Working at GE requires the same type of sacrifice from a family that the US expects… -
How to choose a career if your interests are wide
8 May 2012 | 9:04 amI’ve spent the last five years learning about farming. At first I couldn’t even tell the difference between a hay field and an oat field. Now I can tell when a planting is late. I have learned enough about cattle to sort them for breeding. I don’t do as good a job as the Farmer of course, but I won’t miss any that are really bad. I have learned how to milk a goat, even though I’m terrible at it. Now it’s spring, and the farm is incredible. There are baby animals everywhere. The farmer is letting the piglets slip out of their pen. The piglets run all over… -
What we can learn from the lies people tell
4 May 2012 | 11:46 amI love watching people lie. I know that I probably have the same feelings the liars do, the feeling of being stuck. I like to think about what I do when I have that feeling, how people cope with it, and how much pain we can handle before we become our worst selves. Lately, I’ve been thinking about these lies and the feelings that provoke them: 1. The lie about expectations. Have you heard of Ashley Madison? It’s the site that caters to married people who want to cheat on their spouse. We could debate about the ethics of that business model (or this one), but I think Ashley Madison… -
How to make amends for bad behavior
1 May 2012 | 5:38 amPhoto by Roz Joseph c. 1970 It used to be that the reason people hated me was because I offended them. Poor social skills. I’m sure you can imagine, but if you can’t, here’s the post about how I spoke at a women in business blogging event and I offended everyone by telling them that their blogs sucked and how to fix them. Maybe I should set up a coaching business where I tell people how to fix their blogs, but really, most people don’t want to know. It’s like going to couples therapy. It’s a lot of work. And there’s always the hope that great sex can make up for everything else. -
5 tips for business travel
27 Apr 2012 | 9:00 amIn the airport a fight attendant said to my six-year-old son, “Where are you going today?” He said, “California.” She said, “You’re a lucky boy!” He said, “Actually, I’m really tired of going to airports with my mom.” This is because I’ve been taking him on all my business trips. And he is learning something important about business travel: It’s really, really hard to do a lot of it, and you need a strategy. To be sure, there are people who travel almost every day of the year. I think they’re nuts. They don’t have a life. I’m talking about…
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blog maverick
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The Coming Meltdown in College Education & Why The Economy Won’t Get Better Any Time Soon
13 May 2012 | 5:34 pmThis is what I see when i think about higher education in this country today: Remember the housing meltdown ? Tough to forget isn’t it. The formula for the housing boom and bust was simple. A lot of easy money being lent to buyers who couldn’t afford the money they were borrowing. That money was then spent on homes with the expectation that the price of the home would go up and it could easily be flipped or refinanced at a profit. Who cares if you couldn’t afford the loan. As long as prices kept on going up, everyone was happy. And prices kept on going up. And as long… -
Some Olympic Thoughts
22 Apr 2012 | 4:43 pmMy position on NBA players and the Olympics has not changed since I first wrote about it nearly 8 years ago. It was stupid then. It has not gotten any smarter. The following is an article put together by Brett Morris that provides an additional perspective and some more details that to me, re-enforce my position. ### When the Miami Heat’s Dwayne Wade said he thought “guys should be compensated” for participating in this Summer’s Olympics, he received a great deal of public backlash for being “un-American,” and “selfish,” from all walks of life… -
The Greatest Business Risk You Don’t Know About – Your Business Will Be Sued Over Patents
18 Apr 2012 | 11:53 amYour business is at risk. For a lot of money. No matter what type of business you are in, you are susceptible to a patent infringement lawsuit. The worst part about this risk is that there is nothing you can do to protect yourself. You are a victim in a business world horror movie. Unfortunately , there is no one to scream “no don’t do it. Don’t open that door” and protect you. All the doors are open and the trolls are all attacking. Why wouldn’t they ? Put yourself in the position of a patent troll. If the laws changed in your industry so that if you… -
Dont Follow Your Passion, Follow Your Effort
18 Mar 2012 | 12:47 pmI hear it all the time from people. “I’m passionate about it.” “I’m not going to quit, It’s my passion”. Or I hear it as advice to students and others “Follow your passion”. What a bunch of BS. ”Follow Your Passion” is easily the worst advice you could ever give or get. Why ? Because everyone is passionate about something. Usually more than 1 thing. We are born with it. There are always going to be things we love to do. That we dream about doing. That we really really want to do with our lives. Those passions aren’t… -
I Hope Yahoo Crushes Facebook in its Patent Suit
13 Mar 2012 | 1:10 pmAnyone who reads this blog knows how much I hate patent laws. I think 99pct of the time they are anti-competitive, corruptive, impede creativity and innovation and can kill small businesses. I think the ratio of patent law doing a good job protecting company IP vs it being used purely to negatively impact competitors or to troll for un-earned revenue is probably 1000 to 1, or worse. When I read that Yahoo was suing Facebook my immediate reaction was disdain. As I thought more about it, I came to realize that this case could be the water shed moment that causes enough people to recognize…
