There’s something about great, simple ideas that people gravitate to.  My recommendation for folks is to take their original idea, even if it’s a different version of a currently respected and known idea, and boil it down for a while until it becomes so simple that anyone can understand it in under a tweet.  140 characters is all you need to get a concise and complete idea across.

As my friend and role model Gary Vaynerchuk communicated in his 2008 speech circuit, if you think you have a feel and you know you have the knowledge  you have to take a shot now because the gatekeepers are gone.  Take a crack at starting a podcast regarding a subject you love and move as quickly as you can to creating a set of content that multiple groups of folks want to listen to.  Crazy things can happen when you simply put yourself out there so stop being self-conscious and live the life you deserve to live.

Not one to force my writing (and probably the reason why I always sucked in timed writing assignments and tests in school) I looked for something to do.  For some reason, the thought crossed my mind to watch “Lemonade” since I hadn’t seen it since the week it premiered on Hulu.  It’s especially timely given the fact that the economy appears to be losing the minimal gains we’ve seen since the start of the year.  More and more people are losing their jobs and I like to think that “Lemonade” is part of the rehabilitation process for not only those who get fired but for us as a nation and community.

There was one clear scene in the movie that jumped out at me that I will end up referencing in the ebook — one of the interview subjects talks about just doing something, anything, interesting with the time that they’ve been given by being laid off.  It’s a recurring theme throughout the entire film.  People getting back in touch with their passions in life and making the best of that and in a lot of cases starting businesses around those passions.  At worst, it’ll give you and the person you’re interviewing with something interesting to talk about other than your “professional” experience.

While I have a contracted assignment currently, I readily accept that I may be as little as 30 days away from being unemployed again.  Scary doesn’t even begin to describe the feeling that it brings in me.  In that spirit, I’m going to start doing things publicly again.  It’s time for me to start putting myself out there online a lot more than I have since I started this short term contract.  That being the case, I’ve decided to again take part in the 30 in 30 (or 31 in 31 in August’s case) of producing a blog post every day.  These posts may not be the longest or most researched pieces but they’ll be from my current perspective and will touch on many of the things I care about.   But it won’t stop there.  I’ll be interacting a hell of a lot more on blogs, twitter, facebook and brazen careerist.  I may even venture into LinkedIn Answers and writing/editing a Wikipedia post as well.

August is all about content and doing the things I want to so that I can take the next steps in my life, whether they include a normal job or not.  It’s going to be a ton of fun and I hope to have you come along for the ride.

credit: flickr genbug

This morning Milind and I got to talking over IM. Our conversation revolved around downloadable content and entrepreneurialism. Milind echoed a statement that has been said by many industry pundits. He said, “It’s an exciting time to be alive.” It’s statements like that which always leave me a little miffed. I typed back “Do you think that people didn’t think that it was a great time to be alive when TV was 5 years old?”

People see the world the way that they want to. No one wants to think they lived at the worst time ever. Even those who lived through the Great Depression didn’t believe it to be the worst time ever.

Our conversation then made a stronger move toward entrepreneurship. Milind echoed a point that the barriers are now gone. Our mutual friend Gary Vaynerchuk has said may times. Once again, I wanted to challenge Milind’s beliefs here because I think his statements show he’s thinking about only his own experience. Given his own experience, he’s perfectly right. There isn’t a better time to be an entrepreneur. Overall though, is this the best time EVER to have been an entrepreneur? My thought process is we’re getting close but we’re not there yet.

I posit that the best time ever in America to have been an entrepreneur was between 1890 and 1925. The number of truly revolutionary technologies makes today’s changes look like we’re going in slow motion. The electrical grid was starting to roll out across America and many families were becoming familiar with the light bulb. Shortly after, telephone adoption rates were getting to the point where network effects were starting to play their expected parts. Planes and cars were invented in this time period and then became accessible to the affluent public and the immigration laws worldwide wouldn’t even have hinted at the insane system most countries now have.

Most importantly, as an immigrant you could get off a boat get to your final destination city by train and after working for an existing business for a bit while learning English you could legitimately start your own business leveraging these technologies and could reasonably rely on your local community to support you if you provided great products and excellent service. The general mass marketing techniques that became the norm with nationally syndicated radio stations and escalated to another level by television ended small mom and pop shops to compete due to a number of issues. Some still survived though. They innovated and provided even higher levels of service.

We’re quickly getting close to the best time ever to be an entrepreneur due to digital distribution and key platforms like cell phones becoming almost ubiquitous globally. If I were to look at the past events between today and 1985 the ability to be entrepreneurial and create not just a survival level of compensation is good but not great. We’re still not there yet but yes Milind I do think it’s a very exciting time to be alive and working to become an entrepreneur.

I suspect the 35 year golden age to start being an entrepreneur starts in 1989. That being the case, what are you doing between now and 2024 that will help you start the next generation of great businesses that will dominate the 21st century?

No matter your profession or your spot in life, it’s important to remember that we are all running our own marathons (so stop trying to get to the finish line in two hours).

As with anything, success takes hard work, a good team, a little bit of luck, and time. It takes most of us eighteen years to even be in a position to leave the comfort and security of our parents’ homes. Life is not one big get rich quick scheme; it’s a process, and it’s important to remember that from time to time.

As someone who very much agrees with Sam and his boss, friend and mentor Gary Vaynerchuk, I understand that being patient and willing to consistently work is something that is required to complete the “marathon.” What always interests me is how people break down their super high level goals into steps that they can take daily.

For instance, let’s say you want to become a known brand in a given space. Following Sam’s advice you can create compelling, relevant content daily for 18-36 months and if you’re good people will naturally notice. You’ll come up on the right terms in Google, you may even get the opportunity to speak at an event or to a small group. All of those are stepping stones to becoming the larger brand.

What I have experienced both personally and watching the other people I’ve worked with is that there is a huge disconnect between the goals they want to achieve and the actions they are taking today. It’s to the point that even I’m thinking about taking my desktop image and changing it to the list of two things I want to do professionally for the next 36 months and posing the question underneath, “Is the stuff you are working on today directly helping you get to these goals?” If the answer is “no” that may be even more dangerous than if I hated what I was doing.

I’m fortunate though and I’m working for people who I genuinely like and want to help so I’m willing to take a good portion of time to help their business and personal ambitions. I have to actively balance that with my own goals though and be smart about how I spend my time each day.

I’m extremely interested in hearing how you take the large goals and bring them down to steps that you can take daily? Do you run into the same issue I have where your daily actions won’t lead to the end results you want?

Before the hater-pants come on, I’m not saying that you can’t market your business using these social platforms but rather that it’s not the most effective way.

When I first learned about marketing in my undergraduate program all the methods to speak to a potential user base were one-way: company to consumer.  All was well in the world of TV, radio and print since companies got to keep control of their brands.  Social media was in it’s infancy right as I was graduating.  It’s been chronicled on many blogs that social media has allowed customers to now define any company’s brand as they see fit. These consumers have the capacity to create more content online than a Marketing department ever will.

A couple weeks ago I began looking at social media’s DNA and where it would fit inside an organization. I’ve come to the conclusion that Social Media isn’t the child of Marketing.  Marketing is Social Media’s uncle.  Close relationships between the two exist and there’s some clearly shared DNA in the content creation and analytics.

So that begs the question, who are the parents of how companies should approach social media? Short answer: Business Development and Sales.

Both Biz Dev and Sales teams pride themselves on being able to talk with anyone and more importantly connect with each individual in a different and appropriate way.  This is identical to the core of what social media “marketing” has been all about.  Creating one-to-one relationships that begin to build trust and move closer to the phenomenal type of marketing every professional is after: word of mouth.

It’s extremely important that the folks handling the day to day on a company’s social media campaign have real names and faces because it’s this familiarity with users that engenders trust.  Think about the frustration of calling in to a call center for assistance with an ongoing issue and receive a different representative each time. Each time you have to re-explain most of the situation and if the rep isn’t fully engaged in their job you’ll be asked to repeat normal resolution steps even when they didn’t resolve the issue the first time you tried them.

If you’ve been given a higher status, through either large purchases or the potential for making them, most companies will assign a single person to answer any questions you might have.  These concierges cost more to hire, train and keep on staff but their customer’s happiness can be a big difference in a company’s bottom line at the end of the year.

Social media offers plenty of opportunities for business development as well.  Content redistribution deals (podcasts, retweets and blog articles), affiliate linking, online ad purchases and joint ventures are available pretty much everywhere in this space.  The individual or team running social media must not only be capable of spotting these opportunities but also must have the authority to negotiate and sign deals with only a quick review by legal and top executives.

Overall, marketing is a good start for social media as copywriting and certain style guidelines across all mediums are set up but after that point I think by moving these operations into sales and business development is more in tune with social’s DNA. What do you think?

The first bit of business I’m really excited to talk about is that I made an appearance on The Ren Men Show in last week’s episode.  I can not be more excited about this show and the principles that these guys are teaching and that’s exactly why I decided to fly up to Las Vegas to interact with Alan and Grant and see if we couldn’t learn from one another.  My interview starts at 6:35 but seriously watch the entire episode.

Episode 15 – The Ren Men Show from The Ren Men Show on Vimeo.

These guys get lifestyle design and I couldn’t be more excited about working with them in the future in some kind of capacity.  Also a big shout out goes to Zach Daulton the Ren Men cameraman who I got to spend a little time with before he went to bed and the boys and I went on the THRILL on top of the Stratosphere.

I was fortunate enough to make the trek out to Austin, Texas over the course of the last week and attend SXSW.  Amazing convention, some great panels (ustream CEO definitely at the top of my list), but more than anything seeing old friends and cementing new ones was the difference.  This year’s event was huge though so I didn’t get to see everyone but the Vaynermedia crew and my own #coolkidsofsxswi (yes, Grant I’m stealing your hash tag now) made this an experience I’ll never forget.  You’ll see all of us on an upcoming 1/2 episode of the Ren Men Show.

Speaking of video podcasts, I’ve made a pretty huge decision that the next massive skill set I’m going to tackle in short order is video production and post production specifically for podcasting.  I’m pretty sure I have the format of the show I want to do all locked down and I’ve got most of the equipment purchased already.  I’m shooting for a 3 month lead time to learn all I need to about Final Cut Studio, my Canon HV40, green screens lighting and all the post-production magic that makes for a great podcast.  Gonna go it alone to start but that could change if I feel like great people I know could substantially contribute to the show.

Huge thanks to the Ren Men and the SXSW crew for being nothing short of amazing over the past few weeks.

Observe

This is the first step after initial discovery.  People take time to observe the landscape of a situation or how the results of an action look.  This first section can also include reading a lot of books, articles and blogs.  This is where most folks try to gain the knowledge so they can replicate the success that they have seen others have on platforms.  Unfortunately so many people get stuck in the observation stage because that’s what they’re taught in school to do: acquire information and regurgitate it.

Contemplate

The next stage that people get to is the point where they either want to replicate the actions or an opportunity to do so simply presents itself.  This is where people allow themselves to think about the possible consequences of their proposed action and it’s in this place that a lack of self confidence kills projects and people’s ability to create what they want from life.  They give themselves all the reasons in the world to simply give up and eventually fall into a state of learned helplessness.  I think this is why so many folks (myself included) consume self-help books and yet never change their behavior.  They get in their own way and prevent themselves from simply trying to see if they can achieve any results.

Execute

This is the step that so few people get to, regardless of project size and scope.  It’s these folks who risk their own reputation and go out and do something.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been approached by students and other audience members after I speak who say they “could never” speak in front of large crowds.  On one hand that makes me really sad because I know that most folks have a great perspective and if they sat down and boiled away all the regurgitated crap that there are some real original thoughts in there that I can learn from.  On the other hand it makes it easier for me to get speaking opportunities so thanks I guess.  The people who get outside their own head and begin to execute are the one’s who are heralded as being thought leaders and icons of their area.  That simply isn’t the case, they’re simply the ones who had the self confidence or simply lacked fear about stepping out on the public square and risking embarrassment.  To be honest, it takes a lot of chutzpa to do this the first time in any area of your life but I know that for me, my friends and even the folks who I have had the honor of mentoring it’s worth doing every time.

What do you think of what I’m proposing?  How can you improve this model to make it even simpler and wide reaching?

The first person I’d like to call out is Annie Sorensen (@anniesorensen, anniesorensen.com).  She’s so elevated herself from being a work contact that I’m hesitant to even tell folks that I met her because of my job.  Incredibly intelligent and she has the ability to do anything that she sets her mind to.  Top that off with the fact that her husband Nate is one of the few people who I’m desperate to spend more time with.  He possesses such a cool confidence that I wish I had more of.  I suspect that I’ll have to make a trip out to Kansas City to see them both before too long.

The next group of folks that I have to thank for making me feel appreciated are the entire Polcyn family.  I knew that Grady (@gradypolcyn) was a stand up guy but I had no idea his parents, sister, aunt and girlfriend were all at the same quality of character.  Massive thanks to Glen (@bgfinancial), Becki, Grady, Paris (@parispolcyn), Jessie and Chantel for making me feel like family the entire time we were in Vegas.  I can’t wait to hang out with each of you again and I’ll be crushed if I have to wait until the next Vemma convention.

The final person who I’ve looked forward to interacting with over the last couple of weeks is none other than a member of the RenMen crew, Grant Peelle (@grantpeelle, renmenshow.com).  It’s amazing to me how much I’ll do to help people who I think are hustling. Every time I receive a DM from Grant or I finally pin him down on the phone I feel like I help bring in to focus the social media puzzle just a little bit more for both him and his and Alan’s (his business partner) entire organization. Such a satisfying feeling knowing that he’s not only seeking my counsel but then immediately putting it to work for his business.  I get the sense that he’s feeling like this is a one way street though where he’s constantly taking from our interaction and I won’t hesitate to say this publicly: Grant you’re teaching me how it’s possible to be actively be involved in many different businesses simultaneously.  The Big Bang Dueling Piano bar has a location out there in the C-Bus that I haven’t been to yet….we might have to resolve that soon as part of me swinging out there to hang for a bit.

Who are you grateful for either entering your life or stepping up in a more meaningful way since 2010 started? Leave a comment, @ reply or email me if you’re not quite ready to share that information publicly.

Barring the last three days which have been absolutely crazy (and will require me to go back and write more substantive posts) I am going to call the 30 in 30 for January a huge success and the numbers show that.  This more than anything proves that the idea of hustle and creating any content on a regular basis can grow an audience.

Are there some things I would do differently if I were to do it again? You bet. Has this experiment changed the way I think about blogging? No doubt. Will it affect my future behavior on this blog? Without question.  Should be fun to move this one in a direction that hopefully will help both you guys get value and get to know me a bit better.

Anyway I got to go crank and make things happen with the crew.