Entrepreneur and world traveler Chris Guillebeau shows how to start your own business for $100 or less.

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I’m really starting to believe that there truly has never been a better time to start your own business.

Here’s why:
- The bad economy actually helps … you no longer have a blanket of security with your job
- There is a career revolution going on … more people working freelance, more freedom in the workplace, the ability to work remotely
- Tons of support for startups … meetup groups, funding, kickstarter, skillshare, etc
- Everything you need to get started online is either free or cheap … web hosting, email, blogging platforms, photo and video editing programs, etc.

So why haven’t you started your own business?
Or at least a side passion project?
Are you still skeptical?
Maybe you think that’s for OTHER people?

Great question.

You might be able to find the answer in a new book called the $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau.

In researching the book, he interviewed 1,500 people that fell under the following qualifications for their business, of which about 50 made the final cut for the book.

- Cost $100 or less to start
- Generating at least $50,000 in revenue per year (which happens to be about the average HHI in the US)
- Willing to provide full disclosure of that income
- The business couldn’t require highly specialized skills
- Less than 5 employees
- Drawn from case studies worldwide

Why I love the IDEA (as well as the content) of this book.

First off, I love the concept of this as a book idea. Is there a widely-held belief that it is difficult to start an online business? BAM. Do some research, find a whole bunch of people that HAVE done it, interview them, and then present the case studies along with other valuable information about how they’ve done it.

There, I just gave you your next book idea. Are you passionate about cupcakes? Does everyone you know feel that it’s a passing phase and think you can’t have a successful cupcake business? Go interview the top 50 cupcakes stores in the US and dispel those myths and reveal the key to success.

Same thing for taking good photos, losing weight, learning to speak a foreign language, overcoming asthma, or creating an app for the iPad. Find a bunch of people that have done what you want to do, and figure out how they did it.

Here’s what we’re going to do today. I got to meet Chris in person but he was incredibly busy in the middle of his book tour, so he was nice enough to do an interview over email. I have a few topics around the book I’d like to discuss first. You can see the outline below, or play the podcast to get the full content. Then, we’ll get to his questions.

Thoughts around Chris’ marketing style and books

1. The phenomenon of getting on someone’s radar
a. How did I become aware of Chris?
b. What is the World Domination Summit, and who is speaking there?
c. What is The Art of Nonconformity?
d. My meeting with Chris at SXSW
e. How I became aware of the $100 Startup

2. The power of connecting with an individual
a. What Chris did at the book signing that surprised me
b. How a busy author responds to email
c. The importance of taking time to answer reader questions

3. What all that means
a. Taking a long view of marketing your business
b. Every interaction counts; people remember the small things
c. Build out many touch points
d. Build a strong network

4. The Art of Non-Conformity
a. Set your own rules, live the life you want, and change the world
b. Is there a better alternative to grad school?
– Option 1: $32,000, 40 hour thesis, 3 readers, slight expert recognition, “Good job” from 3 people, diploma
– Option 2: $9/month for hosting, 40 hour manifesto, 100,000 readers, broad expert, thousands of comments, speaking/boo
c. Chris’ amazing goal for World Travel

5. The $100 Startup – take aways
a. The Mattress story
b. Should you really “teach a man to fish?”
c. The “frequent flyer mile guy” story

Jim Interviews Chris Guillebeau about the $100 Startup

Jim Hopkinson: Describe yourself in 3 words

Chris Guillebeau: Persistent, flexible, caffeinated.

JH: “I want to travel more” is at the top of almost everyone’s bucket list, yet the average American spends more time in the bathroom than on vacation. You’re nearly complete with your goal of visiting every country in the world. What’s something the average person can do to break their paralysis and get started?

CG: Just go somewhere. Seriously. It’s easy to let aspirations get out of control to the point of paralysis. Most everyone can conjure up a fantasy vacation, like hiking Kilamanjaro or ten days in the Seychelles, and so they delay travel until the day they’ll take that trip (for which they’re really not planning, anyway).

Meanwhile, taking a quick trip to Canada or Mexico is much more likely to get the ball rolling for prioritizing travel than planning a once-in-a-lifetime getaway that you might never end up taking.

JH: Like you, I’ve seen a very strong trend in people pursuing their passion and discovering a career lifestyle. Do you feel this is truly a new thing, and if so, what has been the main driver of this?

CG:I think that this career “lifestyle” might just be a new iteration of a trade in the way that one’s craft or work used to be an expression of person’s lifestyle and skills. We’ve only been on the assembly line for a century or so—and I think most everyone is sick of it.

Technology, the economy, and of course the personality of the Millennial generation have all converged at just the right time to allow people to begin to do exactly what they’ve been wanting to do for decades. For many of us, that means getting out of the factory and getting back into the world.

JH: Marny from NY Creative Interns was at my Reboot Workshop Conference and donated your new book to us to give away as a prize. When I asked her about it, she said she had an extra because they asked you to donate 20 books, but they were thrilled when 120 showed up. Classic case of under promise, over deliver?

CG:Well, they should have actually received 200. So if they received less, that’s more like underdelivery—which hopefully wasn’t the case!

JH: I’ve been promoting the advantages of launching an online business for years, but people always have their doubts. In your new book, The $100 Startup, you interviewed 1,500 entrepreneurs, each making more than $50,000 a year based on businesses that cost less than $100 to create. Was there a common thread among the people you spoke with?

CG:The case studies were diverse and came from many different backgrounds. What they had in common was an ability to create something useful to the world, not just something that they were personally excited by. In addition, I think it’s fair to say that most of the unexpected entrepreneurs were fairly curious (they wanted to know everything about their topic of interest) and also somewhat persistent (if the first idea didn’t work, they shifted to something else).

JH: Once someone has created an online business, in your experience what has been the best way to market your product and get the word out and drive revenue?

CG:People often underestimate just how much momentum it can take to get attention. It’s important to understand, though, that relentlessness isn’t some major commitment you make to incessantly bug the heck out of people; it’s really more a determination to systematically build relationships and alliances that ultimately work together to create a movement that’s bigger than yourself.

I always recommend you start with people you know. When you think about it, you probably know lots of people. How can they help? Is there a way you can invite them to participate? Then once you have one customer, treat that customer like the most important person in the world. Chances are, they’ll lead you to others—if you do your job right and improve their life.

JH: What’s the most valuable piece of advice you can give to people looking to start their own company?

CG:Think long and hard about what you can make, offer, or provide that other people will value enough to pay for. All successful businesses, no matter how large or small, come from this model. And here’s a bonus: Don’t wait. Every day you wait puts you a day further away from freedom.

JH: I am attending your World Domination Summit in July. What should I expect?

CG: You should expect to have a good time, meet fun people, and be challenged. WDS is centered on the question of “How do we live a remarkable life in a conventional world?” Everyone answers that question in their own way, and everyone participates in helping others.

Hopkinson Report Disclosure: I received a free, pre-release copy of the $100 Startup when I saw Chris speak at SXSW, but otherwise was not compensated for this interview in any way. Amazon.com affiliate links used where available.

Today: The importance of owning your own domain name, and suggestions for alternative website names.

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What happens when someone Googles you?

Seems like an innocent question, right? But go ahead and ask 10 random friends and see what they say.

- Some are confident and know that the top results are their own website, or a LinkedIn page or Facebook.
- Others have a popular name, and thus can’t quite make it to the frontpage.
- Some have positive results come up, such as a listing at a conference or something with the college alumni, but nothing special.
- For the unlucky, an unflattering photo or comment appears near the top of the list.
- And for some segment of people nothing comes up, and they don’t care.

As I’ve talked about many times, it’s easy for someone like me, living in New York City and completely immersed in all things media, to have a distorted view on a topic like this. Not only do I have a blog and a podcast and a book, but I actively own websites and purposely try to make sure my results rank high.

Just the fact that you are listening to my podcast or reading a blog like The Hopkinson Report, means that you probably have a certain degree of knowledge about your results, and are probably proactive in controlling it.

And yes, there are plenty of people that don’t know and don’t care.

However, there are maybe millions more that WANT to have a presence on the web, but don’t know how to get started. If that’s you, I’m going to show you how at the end of this post. But first off, here are…

4 reasons WHY you should own your own domain

(Listen to the podcast to hear me dig deeper on each of these topics)

1) Rank higher in search
If you’re establishing a personal brand or starting a business, you’re going to want to own your own domain. While major sites like LinkedIn and Facebook will bubble to the top for newly established people on the web, Google’s algorithm weighs exact searches heavily. So if your name is John Doe and someone types John Doe and you own JohnDoe.com and it is a legitimate site with good content on it, eventually that will bubble up to the top.

Ironically, I am a bad example of this. If you Google Jim Hopkinson, in most cases The Hopkinson Report.com shows up before JimHopkinson.com. The reason for this is that this site was established in 2008, and has hundreds of links back and forth to major sites like Wired, and tons of content. Meanwhile, I launched JimHopkinson.com within the last six months. But if you’re starting from scratch it might work differently for you.

2) Hide negative search results
It’s not always easy to remove that drunk photo from college that comes up in a search, but by registering your own name, you can make efforts to try and make sure that your domain comes up ahead of it.

3) It’s crucial for job seekers
Every job seeker should have their own domain. According to the NY Times article Social Media History Becomes a New Job Hurdle, “75 percent of recruiters are required by their companies to do online research of candidates, and 70 percent of recruiters in the United States report that they have rejected candidates because of information online.”

4) Reserve your name or children’s name for later use
Even if you don’t have plans for yourself or a business now, you might want to reserve your name so no one else gets it. Also, many parents are registering their children’s names, whether to put up some baby photos and videos, or just have it set aside if they become the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.

But what if your name is already taken?

IE, Your name is John Smith and JohnSmith.com was snagged long ago. Never fear. Here are…

7 suggestions for alternate website names:

(Listen to the podcast to hear me dig deeper on each of these topics)

1. Use another domain extension
Option: Register JohnDoe.net, JohnDoe.co, JohnDoe.org, etc.
Pros: Address remains short and easy to read.
Cons: You may need to constantly remind people that it is not the most common .com address. Be aware of what actually does live at the .com address, as at least some people will go there accidentally.

2. Add a middle name or initial
Option: Register JohnTDoe.com or JohnThomasDoe.com.
Pros: It uses the common .com extension and works if people are familiar with your middle name.
Cons: It’s a little more unwieldy and harder to remember.

3. Add a clever modifier to the name
Option: Register TheJohnDoe.com, YouveGotJohn.com, OriginalJohnDoe.com, TheRealJohnDoe.
Pros: Very “Twitter Celebrity-esque and works for some people.
Cons: Harder to remember, feels forced, and tells everyone you couldn’t get the domain you wanted.

4. Add an internet based word to it
Option: Register JohnDoeOnline.com, JohnDoeWebsite.com, etc.
Pros: Pretty straightforward and keeps your name as you want it.
Cons: Harder to remember.

5. Create a new word or company name
Option: Register DesignFroggle.com, DesignForSocialChange.com, etc.
Pros: Using a fun or generic word worked for Amazon, Google, and Yahoo. Just as easy to promote your company as yourself.
Cons: Harder to find unique names vs. back in the 90s. You still won’t own your name.

6. Tie your name to your location
Option: Register JohnDoeNYC.com, JohnDoeInSeattle.com, etc.
Pros: Ties your name and brand to a specific part of the country.
Cons: You can never move.

7. Tie your name to your profession
Option: Register JohnDoeDesign.com, ArchitectJohn.com, etc.
Pros: Ties your name and brand to your specific industry.
Cons: You can never change jobs.

3 things NOT to do

1. Use dashes
Option: Register John-Doe.com
Pros: Straightforward.
Cons: It’s one thing to see this written, it’s another to say it. Every time you tell someone your website, you’ll need to say “John Dash Doe.”

2. Use Numbers
Option: Register Website4JohnDoe99.com
Pros: Nothing.
Cons: Again with saying it out loud… you’ll need to say “The word website, the number four, john doe, the number ninety-nine.” You can do better than that.

3. Try and be really clever
Option: Register J0hnDoe or JohnDoh! or YouveGotSexyJohnny
Pros: You are clever for 1 minute.
Cons: People will be annoyed for a lifetime.

So how do you make that first step?

It’s easy to think about hiring a designer or installing WordPress or planning a huge web presence. But if you’re just getting started, you just want a simple landing page, or you just want something for companies to find while you are job seeking, here is my suggestion:

1. Buy your domain GoDaddy.com
2. Set up a free about me landing page
3. Redirect the url (yourname.com) to the landing page.

That way you look a little more professional and can put jimhopkinson.com on your resume and business cards and not about.me/jimhopkinson

This is incredibly simple, takes less than 10 minutes, and can be up and running in an hour, so I tell people.
Get Your Name Today!

And to make this simple, I created a website called, you guessed it,

www.GetYourNameToday.com

Two quick caveats
1. As of this post post on May 9, 2012 I’m still putting the final touches on the site and on the video tutorial, so depending on when you read this, it still might be a bit of a work in progress. But it’s about 95% done and functional, so check it out and let me know what you think. You can click the contact link on the header and send me an email, or hit me up on Twitter: @HopkinsonReport

2. I want to give full disclosure that I am a member of GoDaddy’s affiliate program, which means I earn a small commission if you sign up by clicking the link on the site. This does not in any way affect or increase the cost of your domain — think of it as a small ‘thank you’ if you found the information I presented here valuable and time-saving for you.

So don’t wait another minute to grab your domain because someone might snag it from you… Get Your Name Today.

You’ve quit your job and are ready to start a new business.

What are 10 things you can do to make smart decisions without breaking the bank?

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If you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance you’re thinking about quitting your job, you just made the conscious decision to do so, or the choice got made for you and you were laid off.

No matter what your situation, you may be thinking, what the heck do I do now?

The idea of starting your own business or transitioning to a freelance lifestyle can be overwhelming, so today I’m going to tell you where to start. Here are my suggestions for:

The first 10 things you should do when starting your own business

1. Define and control the message

The first thing you need to do is decide what happened and what your basic plan is moving forward. If you were laid off or fired, definitely check out The Hopkinson Report Episode 180, You’ve been laid off: What to do in the first 60 minutes.

It’s very important to be able to speak to your situation clearly. In some cases, it’s easy, not to mention fun. Your message might be, “After 21 years in the corporate rat race as a lawyer, I’ve decided to leave my role as an attorney and focus on my passion for helping others, by starting a non-profit that helps inner city parents get legal help that they need.”

If you were laid off, your message might be “My company recently restructured and my job as creative director was eliminated, so I am taking this opportunity to launch my career as a freelance designer helping photographers build websites to showcase their work.”

Additional things to add might be how people can help you out as you get started, which could include client referrals or testimonials for your website.

2. Relax and regroup

While the reaction for many is to immediately jump into action and attack this new stage of life, I think it is beneficial to take a break and regroup for a bit. I’ve heard from many people that took several weeks off after a layoff, just because they hadn’t had a real vacation in years while at their previous job.

Never got to take that 3-week safari in Africa that you’ve been planning for a lifetime? Take an honest look at your life. If you don’t take it now, will you ever find the time to go?

However, this time for self-reflection doesn’t mean you need to spend your entire severance check on a bungalow in Tahiti with an infinity pool halfway around the world. Maybe it’s just a few weeks around the house doing those projects you never got around to because you were too tired. Or maybe it’s a week camping with the family at a National Park and going on a nature hike to clear your mind. Take a little time for yourself.

3. Finalize Severance, Cobra, Benefits, Health Insurance

Take the time to make sure you fully understand any severance package your previous company has offered. If needed, have a lawyer go over any documents, and don’t be afraid to negotiate any items you feel should be included. Most likely, your employer wants a clean break and wants to avoid a disgruntled employee, so there’s a chance they’ll relinquish to make you happy.

Next, figure out your health insurance, as this can be one of your most costly expenses and a source of stress. The easiest method would be to change over to a spouse’s plan if that is an option. Otherwise, another alternative is to stay under your current plan via Cobra. Going on your own, consult resources like the Freelancer’s Union or speak with friends that own their own business to see what plan they recommend.

4. Assess money issues/unemployment

Once your health insurance situation is set, turn to the rest of your finances. If you are eligible for unemployment, sign up for that immediately and set up a reminder to claim your benefits on the same day every week. Speak with your financial planner if you have one, or sit down and do an honest assessment of where you are.

- What are your exact monthly expenses?
- What can you reasonably expect for income moving forward?
- How much savings do you have?

You might want to take immediate and sometimes drastic actions to cut costs. For example, cutting down on eating out, cancelling services like cable TV, excessive cell phone features, subscriptions such as Netflix, or any large planned purchases.

5. Get invested

However, it is important not to be penny wise and pound foolish. Even though your high speed internet access bill might be costly, you’ll need it to surf the web for jobs and network online.

This also might be a time to INVEST in yourself. For example, even though I had just lost my job, one of the first things I did was head to the Apple store and upgrade my aging 4-year-old iPhone to the newest model and plop down $1200 on a new Macbook Air.

Sound counter-intuitive? Perhaps. But I knew that as a freelancer, speaker, teacher, and consultant, I would be working around town and around the world with my laptop constantly at my side. Not only would the faster processor make me work more efficiently, but lugging my current 5 pound model wouldn’t be doing my back any favors. Lastly, because I’d be on my cell phone with clients on a consistent basis and not utilizing a landline at the office, I needed a phone and service I could trust without dropped calls or them yelling “You’re breaking up! I can’t hear you!”

There are a few more things you’ll want to invest in to present a professional brand. If it’s been awhile since you upgraded your closet, get yourself a few “go-to” outfits to evoke the image you wish to project. Once again, you don’t need to break the bank, so we’re not talking half a dozen Armani suits at $4000 a pop.

For me, it was an opportunity to go through the 7-8 suits and sportcoats I had in my closet. A few were in great shape and I brought them to the dry cleaners to be pressed. Several were outdated or never fit right, and I donated them to charity, making sure to take the write-off. Four of them were in great shape, but the sleeves were too long. For about 10%-20% of the cost of a new suit, I had them professionally tailored and the difference was amazing.

[Note: According to GQ's Style Guy, your cuffs should at least half-cover your watch, and a half inch of shirt cuff should show below your jacket cuff, just as a half inch of shirt collar should show above your jacket collar.]

Lastly, another great investment is your brand presence online. For just $12 a year you can secure your own URL on GoDaddy.com, and for free you can redirect to About.Me page or your LinkedIn profile. On the higher end, you can hire a designer to create an elaborate web presence, including a color scheme and design to carry over to business cards.

6. Get organized

In short, get your sh*t together. Clean up your workspace. Organize the files in your home and on the computer. Back up your hard drives. Throw away anything you don’t need, and put the important stuff where you can find it. If your home and life feel organized, so will your business.

7. Assemble your team of experts

Assemble your team. Even pro golfer Phil Mickelson has a swing coach, so don’t be afraid to ask for professional help. Although it doesn’t come cheaply, the following professionals can often save you time and money in the long run:

- Financial planner: For assessing your financial status and investments while you build your business and look for work or clients
- Attorney: Can help you set up an LLC or other business entity
- Accountant: Can help you navigate the tricky world of entrepreneurship and self-employment taxes
- Business coach: While they can be expensive and an experienced mentor can be a good substitute, often times a career coach can be worth the investment as they can help you accelerate your earnings

Also see: The Hopkinson Report Episode 147: The 10 people you need to successfully publish (or self publish) a book

8. Embrace community

Realize that if you are suddenly working from home after a long career in an office, you might be in for a culture change. Some people thrive on their own, but others miss the banter of the office and need a larger sense of community.

For some, the perfect answer is a coworking space. Whether it is a monthly membership or just purchasing a day pass and working remotely once a week, coworking spaces are a great answer to getting work done while interacting with others in your situation.

9. Network network network

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to network. In fact, I set up 21 networking meetings in the first 60 days after I left Wired and started working for myself (yes, I kept a spreadsheet), and they were enormously helpful. Of course, not being in the office 9 to 5 and being able to take long coffee meetings at all hours of the day was a nice perk. But what was interesting was that this ended up not being just a one time set of meetings with my connections as I was building my business, but rather something that has continued on constantly in my business.

It’s also important to align yourself with key influencers in your network. Some connections will be more valuable than others and help you take your business to the next level, so be aware as you build this team of people closest to you.

10. Commit to your health

Lastly, there are turning points in your life when you can choose one direction over another.

- A month after losing my job I started having very bad back pain. Was it my bed? A sports injury? Stress? None of the above. I traced it back to the fact that I was now working at my home computer for 8-12 hours a day, and my chair was a basic wooden kitchen chair from IKEA.

The solution was to tap into several points I’ve mentioned… investing in myself, cutting costs, embracing the community, and committing to my health.

Rather than buy a cheap office chair, I did a ton of research on the best chairs on the market, tried several to see which fit my body type best, and decided to invest in a top-of-the-line Herman Miller Mirra chair worth $1200. However, I embraced the community of Craigslist, cut costs, and was able to buy the exact one I wanted from someone across town for $250 and a $10 cab ride.

- If you’ve spent years going out to lunch with co-workers at the fast food place near the office, only to put on a few pounds and get accustomed to that post-meal haze, if you’re working from home, you have a choice. Stock your fridge with healthy foods that will fuel your body throughout the day.

- Finally, if you’ve lost your job and are thinking about cutting out that monthly gym membership to save money, make sure it’s the right decision. Richard Branson, one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time was asked to answer the question, “How do you become more productive?” His answer was a simple two word answer: “Work out.”

For myself and millions of others, working out leads to lower stress, better sleep, higher self esteem, healthier eating habits, better posture, and just a boundless amount of additional energy to out back into your business.

Once you have these 10 things in place, you’re ready to attack your new business.

Haters gonna hate! How to handle negative feedback on the internet.

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“Hey Jim, I wanted to let you know your first post was live. Thanks again and I can’t wait to read more.”

The email came from my new editor Aaron over at Salary.com, where I’d signed on to write a few columns per month. I was excited to see my first post, which was titled “Foul Ball: How One Interview Question Can Lose You the Job.”

It was a fun little article that really dug into a single aspect of my intern hiring process when I was at Wired. In a nutshell, after listing quite a few qualifications that I was looking for in a candidate, from marketing savvy to technical know-how, just for fun, at the end of the ad I listed a bonus question: What is my favorite baseball team?

The goal was two-fold. First, to continue the fun tone of the posting and to find someone that had a sense of humor, and second, to see how many candidates utilized their internet research skills to get the answer.

The article goes on to describe how that single question surprisingly worked as an amazing reflection of the quality of candidates that made it through to the next round.

When I scrolled to the bottom of the article, I saw that there were several comments, and that’s when my heart skipped a beat. Let me share some with you:

The Haters

“I’m sorry, but this article makes you sound like a narcissist.”

“Sorry, but this article makes you seem like a megalomaniac.”

“I agree this article makes you sounds like a d-bag that no woman in her right mind would want to work under.”

“I read the piece… My deduction is that it was written by a stuck up self serving pompous person who considers himself to be “corporate elite”… I can only imagine what it would be like to have the author as an immediate supervisor.”

“You should be ashamed of yourself! This article really makes you sound like a horrible person!”

“Such an arrogant little man.”

Ouch. Those are some pretty pointed comments, right? What’s interesting is that salary.com uses Facebook comments, so the old defense that people are cruel on the internet is because they are anonymous doesn’t hold. Maybe that was worse! I could actually SEE the photos of the people looking back at me!

My first and most immediate concern was that I had written something technically incorrect or false or offensive.

Right now I am writing up to 10 articles a month, writing and responding to 5 different email accounts, managing 2 Facebook pages, a LinkedIn profile, Foursquare check-ins, and 3 Twitter accounts. Sometimes I write early in the morning before I’ve had coffee. Sometimes I write at 2am when my brain is shot after a full day. I am going to make mistakes.

Also, more and more of our opinions are displayed in the public eye, and with the 24-hour news cycle that we live in, people notice. It could be a politician with a camera phone or a talkshow host on the radio. One slip and you’re done.

Look at the example of comedian Gilbert Gottfried. His IMDB lists him in more than 100 titles. He was an Aflac spokesman for more than 10 years. He had sent more than 3,000 tweets. But he was fired based on a handful of inappropriate jokes on twitter. He’s a comedian!

It had a little while since I had received such immediate feedback from my writing, and to be honest, I climbed out on the ledge a bit, firing off an email to several trusted sources to get their take.

The Feedback

The editor: My first email was to Aaron. Because this was my first post on his site, I wanted his advice on how they handled things. Do they delete comments? Ignore them? Respond to them? Should I clarify something in the article? His advice was that his writers often jumped into the comments to interact with the readers, but advised me “not to start a flame war.”

Mentor 1: My next email was to one of my mentors at Conde Nast. I knew she’d be uniquely qualified to give me the perspective from the company angle to see if I had stepped over the line somewhere.

Former interns: Next, I went right to the source. Those close to me know that mentorship is a huge part of my lifestyle, and that I stay in touch with people that have worked for me. I wanted to get their take on the matter, and make sure I had the facts straight.

Friends and family: This was more of just sharing the story and looking for a little sympathy. The majority of the feedback was of the “Eh, ignore the haters” variety. My friend Phil said “Welcome to the World Wide Web. I’m a bit surprised you would send me an e-mail asking me about this, but I can also understand why. You of all people know that once you’re in a position like the one you’re in, and once your work is exposed to the masses, there’s BOUND to be a portion of the online population who you’re going to rub the wrong way. Don’t listen.”

Mentor 2: Finally, I had great talk with the current mentor that I speak with weekly, who helped me re-focus and put everything into perspective.

In the end, I’m actually a little embarrassed how much I let it get to me. I know from the book Strengths Finder that my personality has a cruel twist of fate… one of my strong characteristics is that I am comfortable teaching people and putting my opinions out there, but another is that I can be more hyper-aware about what others think about me.

The most important thing you can do from this, or any experience, is to learn from it. Here is what I suggest:

How to react to negative comments:

1) Ask questions
The first thing to do is go back and re-read what you posted.
- Is there anything you said that was inaccurate? If so, move quickly to correct it.

- Did you accidently say something that could be offensive? If so, issue a genuine apology.

- Is there any truth to their comments? You might have to dig deep to look at this one. Am I a horrible person, a terrible manager, or a little man? No. But could I be considered a narcissist? Well, lets look at the facts. I’m first born, I’m a Leo, I enjoy public speaking, and I started a blog and podcast in order to spread my ideas to anyone that wishes to listen. So while I don’t enjoy the term narcissist, lets just say I am not shy when it comes to expressing my opinions.

2) Consider the source
A comment from a CEO on a NY Times column should be weighed more heavily than one from BiggButtz93 on YouTube.

My mentor sent me an article called Is everyone entitled to their opinion? from Seth Godin, which sums it up very nicely.

If you like, you can also go deeper. What do you think the commenter was really feeling when they lashed out? I realized that my post was on a job-oriented website, and the gist of the column was a tricky interview question. It’s easy to take the leap to assume that some of the readers of that site might be suffering through a long bout of unemployment during this recession, and feel that the hiring process is fixed against them.

3) Have a plan
Look at your type of writing, your level of exposure, and your personality and have a plan.
- Are you the type to simply say “I will never read the comments.”
- Perhaps you’ll take the middle ground and read over the comments quickly to get some feedback, but not react to them.
- A third way to go is to jump right in and go toe-to-toe with the audience, explaining your side and engaging in a conversation.

If the discourse is happening on your own blog, or you are a community manager of a major brand, it’s helpful to have a policy in place. Have a terms of service that outlines what is and is not acceptable from users.

4) How to respond
If you do decide to wade into the shark-infested waters, do so with purpose. I can’t explain how important it was for me to have a support team in place to first get the perspective of those I really trusted.

The next thing you might want to do is to step away and give it some time. That can be extremely hard to do when people are attacking your brand, and there are times when you’ll want to respond immediately.

However, in my case, as the article circulated to a wider audience, a funny thing happened. As people saw the negative feedback and looked closely at the article, they stepped in to defend me. If I had come to the site 24 hours after it posted, I would have seen that only 20% of the feedback was negative, as opposed to the 80% when it first launched.

A good phrase to keep in mind regarding this is “Dilute, don’t delete.” What this means is that in most cases, you should not delete the vitriolic comment. This only serves to “feed the trolls” and make them angrier. Far better to have 5 positive comments appear to outweigh the 1 negative one.

The exception to this is when the comment is truly offensive. Where to draw the line? This is something you can outline in the policy in step 3. For example, some sites may ban comments if they contain profanity, threaten other users, or reveals personal information.

When replying, swallow your pride and leave your ego at the door. Respond from a position of helpfulness.

5) What it means
What could possibly be a positive outcome to people attacking your character? Well, it could mean that you’ve taken things to another level. Elvis Presley, MLK, JFK, and just about every other musician, politician, writer, or celebrity will tick SOMEONE off when presenting an alternative viewpoint. Congratulations, you’ve struck a chord.

A hearty discord mans you’re sparking conversation, moving people to action, and growing as a content creator. Trust your gut and use it as fuel to become even better.

Jim talks with short-term peer-to-peer rental company Roomorama to find out how you can host or rent an apartment anywhere in the world.

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It’s been recently called “The Third Office.” The lines have blurred, as people “work” from their office, their home, and more and more frequently, from a third office, which could be a local coffee shop, an airport lounge, downtown Singapore, or anywhere you can get a mobile signal. Sometimes it’s a coffee shop IN Singapore, minutes after landing in an airport.

One of the companies leading this new “Gig Economy” is Roomorama, a peer-to-peer short term rental marketplace. The concept is simple… anyone can rent out their apartment while they are away and collect income, and they can just as easily stay in one of Roomorama’s 36,000 cities worldwide. The benefit? Usually much less cost than a hotel, while keeping a local flair.

Since I “buried the lead” a bit in the interview, I want to congratulate Roomorama on their breaking news:

Roomorama And Lofty.com Merge Online Rental Sites, Take $2.1M Seed Round (via Techcrunch)

This is great news for the team, including my friends and co-founders Jia En Teo and Federico Folcia, who I interviewed way back in Episode 26 in October 2008.

This time around, I sat down with Lindsey Piscitell, Director of Global Marketing, and Nicole Padovano, Manager of Marketing and Partnerships.

Listen to the full interview to get the entire scoop, but here is what we talked about:

- Their expansion from 30 cities to 36,000 worldwide
- Lindsey’s background, including her “big break,” when she went to fashion event and one of the assistants at the event was a no-show, and she jumped in, did well, and ended up getting a job out of it.
- Nicole’s background, including never getting tired of talking about travel, and her would-be rockstar life.

How does Roomorama work?
- Roomorama is a peer-to-peer short term rental marketplace, catering to young, upwardly mobile, educated people who are not looking to rough it, but shy away from the hotel model and want to live like a local.
For the host – it is free to list, the Roomorama team vets the property, speaks to the host to make sure it exists, and then it is open for people to send in inquiries
For the guest – they are informed about inventory, understand it’s not 5 Star hotel, but will interact with enthusiastic people about their city, who are also more likely to show people around

- On the business side, Nicole works for with the perks program, which includes luggage shipping, car service for the airport, restaurants, spas, etc. She works on outreach in acquiring new perks, and also partners with art music and international events. One thing is for sure, people love give-aways, whether it is a tote bag or free concert tickets.

Handling the competition: The question that needs to be asked:
Coke and Pepsi. Apple and Microsoft. Avis and Hertz. Any good business has it’s competitors, and this marketplace is no different. Although they were founded within a few month of each other, Roomorama’s main competitor AirBnb grabbed a lot of splashy headlines when the Silicon Valley-based startup received (according to Crunchbase) $7.2 million in funding in November 2010 and $112 million in July 2011.

So while it might get annoying when people say “Oh! You’re just like AirBnb!” and assume that Roomorama is a new player to the game, the fact is that in many ways this has been helpful. This happens in business all the time, because people want to easily ground what a company does based on a model that they know. For example, “We’re the Netflix for video games” or “We’re like child day care, but for your puppy.” So I asked…

How has the presence of AirBnB affected Roomorama?
Lindsey explained that a great thing is that any press that they get, the benefit comes to them as well. My guess is that whenever a major publication is talking about the new trend in renting out your home, the party line goes “Online sites such as AirBnb, Roomorama, and others…” For example, this New York Times article Surfing for a Vacation Rental.

Additional reading: Is there room for more than one Airbnb?

Lindsey went on to explain that in many ways, the industry is still in a stage where raising awareness is important, so they to make the concept of Roomorama more familiar.

What makes them different?
- 80% of properties are serviced apartments or owned by property managers
- It’s less about sharing bedroom in someone’s apartment, vs. staying in a professionally managed property.
- Roomorama is a bit more premium and higher level service

With their concierge program, Roomorama might also be the better for business travelers, who expect things like wireless internet and a washer/dryer, and they have the people in each city deal with that.

Since Roomorama was bootstrapped by a NYC couple, while AirBnb was a Silicon Valley startup with $120m in venture funding, what differences do you see in how they are run?

There is still that last hurdle to get over… Handing over keys to a stranger. How do you ease that fear?
- Employees and founders do it
- Customer service works around the clock
- Verification process. Doesn’t go live until it has been verified
- Identity checks (since the beginning)
- Cancellation policy
- Certified guest status

How does the money change hands?
- Roomorama takes money and keeps it in escrow
- 6 digit payment code mailed to the guest when they book the location
- Once they go to the property, ensure that it is legit, they hand that code to the host, and the payment is released to the property owner
- Therefore, guest knows that if they show up and the place doesn’t exist or not what promised, they’re not going to hand over the code
- It protects both sides

What trends are you seeing in the marketplace?
- People are latching on to idea of “repurposing their space” (home, apartment, empty office space)
- People want to be tour guides in their city
- The “gig economy” is the future
- The “third office”

Examples of Roomorama clients:
- Some pay their entire mortgage by renting out their place
- A people quit their day job and only rent out their properties for work
- Big example… the co-founders Jia and Fede quit their day job for this company

How can I list my apartment to make it most appealing?
- Photos photos photos
- As much details as possible

The big news: Roomorama is merging with Lofty.com
- Lofty is based in Europe
- Largest aggregator of short term rentals in the world
- $2.1 million funding injection
- New company will be called Roomorama
- Perfect match since Lofty has incredible inventory, Roomorama has a great process

How do they maintain work/life balance?
- Nicole – startups can be hard work and long hours. Try to be out by 630, most likely 730
- Lindsey – often there till 9pm or longer
- Try to make work environment fun with high morale. Just remember because this is something that they care about and believe in and think is fun. Don’t let that slip away. Everyone should work at a startup at one point

How often are they looking at people’s postings?
- Part of the job (“regretfully”) have to pour through gorgeous lofts in Tuscany
- Always looking at cool new things

Favorite travel destinations
- Lindsey got to go to Singapore… then over to Bali for a week
- Nicole’s recent favorite: Spain
- Most popular destinations are global cities:NYC, London, Paris, etc
- On the rise: Southeast Asia and Australia… embracing the idea of opening up their homes
- Wildcard city… Phuket

Most valuable piece of business advice?
Lindsey – trust your instincts. In a startup, not a lot of experience in many areas. Troubleshooting all the time. But entrepreneurs also have something deeper inside. What makes sense to the mass market? Through all the trials and tribulations, trust your instincts and don’t lose site of that.

Nicole – Listened to interview with Ben Silbermann, founder of Pinterest, who said “Don’t take everyone’s advice”

Roomorama.com
Facebook.com/roomorama
Twitter/roomorama
Blog-o-rama

Losing your job can be a traumatic experience. What you do in the first 60 minutes can have a huge effect on how you handle it.

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It’s the relationship equivalent of “We need to talk.”

You stroll into the office on a Friday morning that seems like every other, upgrading to a large coffee to push away the headache from last night’s extra glass of wine at dinner. You comment on some reality show drama to your co-workers, then head for your desk to start the day.

However, your boss catches you just as you’re about to sit down, surprising you with the innocuous request:

“Can you step into my office for a moment? I need to chat with you about something.”

Ten minutes later your world is crashing around you. You know that your supervisor specifically explained the situation – it was as if they were reading off a script – but your brain couldn’t process all the buzzwords like “hierarchy restructuring” and “corporate reorganization” and “economic budget constraints” because your mind was racing trying to process the one truth that was abundantly clear:

You’ve lost your job. What you do in the first 60 minutes is crucial.

Here is a 6-step action checklist:

1) Control your emotions

Everyone reacts differently in a crisis situation. In fact, emotions when losing your job are similar to unceremoniously getting dumped by your boyfriend or girlfriend: anger, confusion, disbelief, sadness, fear, and self-doubt.

We’ll start with the obvious and say that while angrily throwing chairs around might make you feel good in the moment, it’s going to reflect badly on your integrity down the line. Likewise for bursting into tears. Although it may be difficult, you’ve got to spring into action and think logistically.

Resist the urge to press for more details… Is this about my performance? What can I do to change this? What if I take a pay cut or vow to work harder?

In reality, all of these things have been considered already and the decision has been made. There’s nothing you can do about it, so focus on actions moving forward.

2) Evaluate your timeline

In cases with high-level executives or when sensitive company information is at stake, someone from Human Resources – and possibly security – may instantly appear to confiscate your ID and escort you out of the building.

In other examples, you’ll be asked to stay on staff for a few more days, allowing you to have a “soft exit,” wrapping up projects with existing clients and transferring knowledge to whoever will be taking over your job (always an awkward transition).

Determining which scenario is happening to you will dictate how quickly you need to do the rest of your tasks.

3) Back up your files

What a company fears most (besides the chair-throwing incident) is a disgruntled employee stealing private company information. To be clear, a scenario where a laid off salesperson grabs their “Rolodex” of client names with the intention of luring them away is both illegal and unethical.

Further complicating things in the digital age are the myriad of passwords that employees have for company servers or social media sites. With access to a company’s brand page on Facebook or Twitter, an angry employee can spread his displeasure to millions within minutes.

According to the 2008 FBI/Computer Security Institute Computer Crime and Security Survey, losses due to attacks from inside the company happened 49% of the time, resulting in an average loss per respondent of $288,618.

Again, I want to emphasize that I am not advocating taking any company property that doesn’t belong to you. The fact is, most employment contracts specify that everything you do and create while at the company is legally theirs. No questions asked.

However, what about retrieving personal information from your work computer? Is it a good practice to keep your work files and personal files completely separate from each other? Of course. But some people may not have a computer of their own. So if the only place the seating chart spreadsheet for your upcoming wedding resides is on your company laptop, your boss will usually understand.

In the middle can be a gray area. What if you work at a non-profit and there are photos of you at a charity event that you hosted for the company? What if you work at an advertising agency and edited an award-winning video, and want to use that in your portfolio? The relationship you have with your employer will dictate how these questions are answered.

4) Inform the people that work for you

When I was most recently laid off, it was very important to me that the four employees that I managed hear the news directly from me. They surely knew that something was up when they received an urgent request to drop everything for a meeting, and the news came as a shock to them. However, they felt better that they were able to hear the entire story first-hand, and then be able to ask questions.

5) Get everything in writing

There’s a good chance that the company is way ahead of you in terms of the details of your departure. Consider all of the possible elements:
• Determining your last day
• Receipt of your last paycheck
• Claiming unused vacation time
• Severance pay
• Bonus eligibility
• Continuation of health benefits
• Retirement savings accounts
• Unemployment assistance

There’s no way that you can process everything at once, so be sure they give you everything in writing. Do not sign anything until you’ve had time to go through all the details and ask any questions.

6) Control the message

This is one of the most important steps in the process, but one that few people consider. In the new economy, people are becoming their own media companies.

Even if they have a full-time job, they “market” and “advertise” themselves as they craft their own personal brand on Facebook, Twitter, online video, and photos.

What they need to do in this case is also be their own publicist.

It’s a sad fact that any kind of office turmoil will immediately be followed by office gossip. Human nature dictates that there will be some people thrilled to be the first person to inform everyone, “Did you hear the news? Joe and Sue just got fired!”

Rarely are all the facts correct as the gossip spreads, and the sentiment at best is “Poor Joe, he must be devastated” and at worst “I bet it was because he failed on his latest project.”

What follows is the outline of an email that I sent to employees in my department that I was close to, and the intention behind it.

“Hello, by now you’re probably aware that my job was eliminated this morning during the reorganization.”

[This addresses the situation, emphasizes the fact that it was a result of the restructure and not performance-based, and gives people words to repeat].

“However, I will be here through the end of the week to help with the transition. During this time, you don’t have to “tip-toe” around the issue so feel free to stop by.”

[When something like this happens in an office, people don’t know how to react. In my case, I immediately saw how awkward everyone was, as they didn’t know whether to avoid me or to console me. I broke the ice by telling them I was fine and this made sense to them since I cooperating during the transition].

“In fact, rather than feel sorry for me, you’ll probably want to wipe the smile off of my face since I’m actually really excited. As you know, I have a myriad of side projects including my book, my blog, and speaking opportunities. I’ve already started researching working remotely from Buenos Aires.”

[Is this bragging a bit and putting a PR spin on the story? Yes. However, the reason it works is that it was 100% true. People knew of my side interests, I had already started developing a plan to quit my job in the next 6 months, and I ended up keeping my promise – I was working from a café in South America exactly 6 weeks later.]

If done right, the sentiment can turn from “That poor person lost their job” to “Hmmm, I kind of wish I didn’t have to work either.”

The gossip crowd loves when someone is blindsided by news, so another alternative would be to say “I knew with this economy no job was safe, so fortunately I’ve kept my resume up to date, I have a wide range of professional contacts, and I’ve already started planning out companies that I am going to reach out to.” By doing so, you’re showing that you are being proactive about the news.

The final step I took was emailing a group of employees, vendors, and contacts outside of my immediate department. For me, this included the editor in chief of both Wired Magazine and Wired.com, the close staff I worked with in the San Francisco office, and all the various mentors and fantastic coworkers I had worked with in this large company over the past 5 years.

I quickly detailed the situation, said what a privilege it was working with them, and gave them helpful information on who to contact for my old obligations, and how to keep in touch with me in the future. Again, it really helps if this was true. I really did enjoy my 5 years there, and made a lot of good friends. High-level executives don’t like to be caught by surprise with information, so they appreciate being told the facts right away and being in the know. Everyone can be gracious when things are going well, but taking the high road when situations change shows your true character should your paths cross again.

By following these action items, not only can you avoid burning bridges, but you can actually build some on the way out. That’s a good thing for any kind of relationship.

Photo above: The sold-out crowd at the premier Reboot Workshop Conference.

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Jim sits down with business partner Nate Cooper to talk about how they created, planned, and got sponsorship for a successful conference in less than 60 days.

Below are the highlights from our conversation. Listen to the audio to get the entire lowdown.

In this podcast we answer the question:
What the heck were Jim and Nate thinking planning a huge conference with no experience?

We break down the steps as follows:

1. Choose the right business partner
Hear the back story of how Jim and Nate connected. Working with the right business partner can make all the difference in the world. We were connected through two different mutual friends, and found ourselves in a position to help each other out.

- Nate wanted to learn more about book publishing.
- I wanted to pick his brain about entrepreneurship.
- We both wanted to quickly get to work on something awesome that would help people and maybe make a little money.

While Nate had a background running events at Apple, and I’ve run large events at SXSW and well, everything from fraternity parties to impromptu roofdeck concerts in Manhattan, we just knew that we could pull it off.

Most business partners are like the odd couple: The sales guy and the tech geek. The CEO and CTO. The person that is good with numbers and the person that is good with people. However, I’d say that Nate and I share far more similarities than differences. While he brings a laid-back Brooklyn vibe and more technical street-cred and my more corporate background matches my Manhattan address, we both are geeks at heart, love to teach, and both brought a very large network of friends and business connections.

2. Come up with a good name
We talk about how we came up with the name Reboot. Like true geeks, we didn’t start with a concept, or something quirky… we started on the web. What is a name that we could come up with that represented the conference, but was also an available URL.

We went through a brainstorming session, throwing out words like bootcamp, career, kickstart, jumpstart, and so on. In the end we had our winner because we were able to secure RebootWorkshop.com (for our 1 day event), RebootWeekend.com (if we want to expand to two days), and RebootNation.com (for when we take over the country).

3. Decide on the format
I think the thing that really made the conference work was our unique format, which was culled together from various sources.
a. The main structure was based partially on the Startup Bus Accelerate “unconference,” which Nate had attended recently.
b. We wanted the day loosely structured, so that we could change things on the fly and adapt to what was working
c. We needed to introduce our 10 speakers and give an overview, but wanted to avoid death by Powerpoint. I suggested the twist of “Ignite-style” presentations, which forced presenters to get their message across in 5 minutes flat. Every speaker had 20 slides, which auto-advanced after 15 seconds. It was a little nerve-wracking to present, it was fun, and it worked.
d. Allow time to network. This was built in during lunch, in between sessions, and afterward.

4) Secure speakers through our personal network
Nate and I talk about how getting amazing speakers was actually the EASIEST thing for us. Both of us brought a strong network to the table and we quickly listed out a group of 15-20 people that might be interested. From there, we narrowed down dates, availability, and relevance to the topic. The list of speakers is available on the Reboot Workshop website.

5. Sponsorship
We knew that we had a valuable audience, but would a sponsor step up to the plate for a brand new conference? We were going to find out.
Here are the steps we took:
a. Create a media kit talking about the audience and the speakers
b. Reach out to your network
c. Divide sponsorships into levels
d. Be willing to exchange sponsorship status in exchange for promotion

Saul Colt stepped up right away and said that Freshbooks would be a premier sponsor of the conference. Now, was this “cheating” since Freshbooks was already a sponsor of this podcast? I say no. We still had to have relationships in place, we needed to bring a targeted audience, and we needed to pull off a 6 hour event without a hitch.

We also named THIRTEEN contributing sponsors that helped us out in many different ways, from promoting the event to their audience, to donating supplies and prizes.

6. Location
When it comes to location, let me tell you it is NOT inexpensive to rent out a large space in New York City. Thus, once again we worked connections, decided on a space and lined it up early. We went with the New Work City co-working space, which is where Nate was working from as a freelancer. Tony and Peter were amazing and gave us access to set up the night before, and the huge loft was great for our purposes. Plus, the key was that everything we were talking about in the conference — leaving your job to go out on your own — gelled with what New Work City did, which is support independent workers.

7. Create a web presence
With any modern business, you need a web presence. Nate and I talk about how we did so quickly in three steps:
a. Built on a low-cost premium WordPress theme
b. Hired a designer for a professional logo treatment
c. Build the site based on best practices from other conferences

8. Collecting money
OK, now that you have a product, how do you collect the money? Once again, we didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. We wanted to use an established site such for commerce that would easily integrate into WordPress, so we chose Eventbrite.com. One of the main advantages, was their ability to give custom, trackable discounts.

9. How do you market your conference?
What did we learn from marketing the conference? How do you get the word out? We touch on several topics:
a. Using each speaker’s extended network
b. Networking at meetup groups based on the conference topic
c. No magic bullet, you might have to go to an event of 200 people to make 2-3 key connections that will attend and tell friends
d. Hire a photographer and video person for future marketing
e. Partnering with key groups around the city and offering unique deals to spread the word

10. Pricing
One somewhat controversial decision was pricing. We made it just $40 (including lunch) so that it would be accessible to all and make it a complete no-brainer to attend. Our goal as unknown entity for our first round was to keep a low barrier to entry and then blow people away with value. Still, others urged us to make the event free -or- charge upwards of $200 or more. Download the podcast to find out the one key move we made halfway through that encouraged earlier signups.

11. What didn’t go right?
Of course, we’d be lying if we said everything was PERFECT. In fact, I don’t think we even mentioned that I got violent food poisoning the night before, to the point where I lost my voice, barely made it through my speech, and at one point lost hearing in my right ear! We explain the one thing we’re definitely going to outsource for the next round.

12. The future of Reboot
With the success of our first conference, we’re excited to not only do more, but to make this a real business entity. We’re focusing on three things:
a. Reboot Newsletter sponsored by Emma email, to let people know about future events and speakers that support the Reboot brand (sign up here)
b. Reboot Happy Hours used for pure networking and fun, held regularly to build the brand and promote the conference. Find Reboot Happy Hours on Meetup.com
c. Quarterly Reboot Conferences, maybe even a summer getaway conference

Get more info at RebootWorkshop.com
Want to become a sponsor? Email nate [at] rebootnation.com

Jim kicks off the newly branded Hopkinson Report Blog and Podcast, highlighting three powerful workplace trends

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WOW.

I am SO excited to be back doing The Hopkinson Report podcast.

JUST WOW.

Where to begin?

I think a good way to do this would be to look at the past, present, and future.

PAST

For those that may not be familiar with the show, I am the former Associate Director of Marketing at Conde Nast Digital, and was also known as the Wired Marketing Guy. I started The Hopkinson Report podcast in April 2008, and did 175 episodes over the next 3 ½ years.

The show covered ‘the marketing trends that matter,’ and when I look at what categories I tagged my posts in over the years, here were the most popular subjects:

• 107 tags under social media/new media
• 96 tags under marketing case studies
• 93 branding/advertising
• 87 for pop culture/entertainment
• 80 under interviews
• And on the line with New York City, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, and Career Development

This was a tremendous labor of love and fantastic side project, and I want to thank Wired again for giving me the opportunity. I was able to build my brand, keep on top of the latest trends, and most importantly, made a ton of fantastic connections.

During my five years at Wired I also developed a number of other side projects, including teaching social media at NYU, public speaking, writing a book on salary negotiation and getting that published in 2011, and writing or appearing on sites such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The New York Post, Payscale.com, and others.

Just as I was beginning to feel my career at Wired and Conde Nast was winding down, I was getting restless, and had been planning on my exit strategy to be able to work on these projects. Then a funny thing happened. My department went through yet another reorganization, and in the process my job was eliminated.

For anyone that has been through this, you know the range of emotions. Looking back, I was 5% stunned. I was 5% bummed.

But I can honestly say that the next 90% of emotion was excitement.

I realize this is not the first reaction for the vast majority of people when they find out they no longer have a job. In fact, it is often quite devastating.

However – and I think this is really important when I talk about the future of the show – I think that…

There are three reasons why I had this attitude.

1) Flexibility. I am single and thus don’t have a wife and 3 kids and 2 dogs and a big house in the suburbs and huge mortgage payment and 5 healthcare plans to maintain and thankfully listened to my financial planner when they told me to put aside some money in an emergency fund. I have friends and family members who are in that situation and I know it can be really, really hard. I feel for them.

2) Experience. I was laid off after 18 months at my first job. I was laid off at the end of my 8 years at my third job. I had been through this before and while it is unnerving for sure, I maintain that both times it was by far a more positive thing and massive growth experience. It’s not always easy to embrace change, but having been through it before made it easier.

3) Preparation. Because I had been through it in the past, I had planted seeds for side projects in the event it happened again. I had sketched out alternative forms of income, and built a very strong network around me. So when it happened, I was more than ready.

I am excited to tell you that Conde Nast graciously allowed me to maintain all my archive content, and that can all be accessed through the archive tab on my blog.

But enough about me and enough about the past. Let’s get to the present.

PRESENT

The podcast is moving in a new direction. It will be the same, but different.

First of all, why change what you were doing?

Great question, and one I debated long and hard. First of all, I didn’t want to lose any of my existing audience. It would have been very easy to keep moving forward with the same exact topics.

It was actually while I was working remotely in a foreign country that I made the decision. Three reasons:

1) Embrace change. I’ve done the same format for 3 ½ years. Yes, it was working, but it was time to mix things up, try something new, and as Jonathan Fields would say ‘lean into uncertainty.’ So hence the new content direction, the new icon, the new color scheme, the redesigned website (by the amazingly awesome Meghan O’Neill of Monday Designs), and the new music – which by the way is from my first rock band, The Nasties.

2) Align goals. When I was obsessed with sports, I worked at ESPN. When I was obsessed with technology, I worked at Wired. The formula that has worked with me is to do things that are completely aligned with my lifestyle. It’s hard coming up with original content week after week, so it better be around something you are immersed in daily.

The fact is, I am no longer the marketing guy at a major corporation doing this stuff every day. So why should my blog still be about that?

3) Emerging trends. Here’s the analogy I’ve been telling people. You know when you decide to buy a new car, and you narrow it down to say, a Mini Cooper, and then EVERYWHERE you look is a Mini Cooper? Is that because there really ARE a lot of these cars, or is it now that your eyes are open and you see the trend more clearly? To be honest, I don’t know.

What I do know is this.
- I sensed a trend in the late 90s that the internet was a big deal. Yeah, so did a lot of people, but I did something about it and it paid off.
- In the late 2000s I saw that social media was a relentless force and I was able to embrace that and work it into my career and lifestyle. Again, I wasn’t the only one.
- Right now I see another trend that could be big and aligns with my goals, so I am going to jump into it headfirst.

That trend is the way that we approach our career and lifestyle.

Let’s go to some stats.

NEW WORKFORCE

• Forbes recently had a cover story around Social Power and the Corporate Revolution. Employees and customers would be calling the shots, not corporations.
• They noted that 54% of Millennials want to start a business or had already started one. Although I am an old man firmly in the Generation X category, I work with Gen Y constantly and have seen how things are evolving.
• They cited a study where 96% of women said that being independent is their most important life goal. This doesn’t mean that they don’t want to marry and have kids some day. What it means is that they want to do so on their own terms.

NEW COMPANIES

• Bloomberg Businessweek had an article that noted that the number of startups surged 60% in 2011 after a six year decline. Startups aren’t anything new, but they’re making a comeback. Lots of entrepreneurs may have waited for the recession to pass just a bit, but they’re jumping in with a vengeance.
• They report that 400,000,000 people worldwide are now engaged in entrepreneurship

NEW ATTITUDE

• The January issue of Fast Company interviews several pioneers – both young and old – proclaiming ‘The Secrets of Generation Flux.’ The group includes Baratunde Thurston from The Onion, Beth Comstock from GE, and Pete Cashmore of Mashable.
• The story focuses on this new generation that embraces instability and not only tolerates, but enjoys, recalibrating their career.
• One quote that caught my eye from Danah Boyd, a senior researcher at Microsoft, advisor to Google, and former non-profit worker: “People ask me, ‘Are you afraid you’re going to get fired?’ That’s the whole point: not to be afraid.”

Is this lifestyle for everyone? No. I realize by changing focus a bit, I may lose some people. But hold on.

The things that will empower this new way of thinking … truly enjoying what you do, having more flexibility in your life, and working on cool side projects, are the same as what I’ve covered before, including:

• Embracing the latest social media trends
• Keeping up with transformative industries like digital publishing
• Hearing about new and emerging companies through interviews
• Building a personal brand
• Harnessing new technology and gadgets

Best of all, the STYLE will be the same, especially since I will be dedicating more time to it and not just as a side project.

That means I am going bring it with high energy every single week.

It means you’ll get deep-dive case studies of what is really going on out there.

It means you’ll hear interviews with people driving the growth of the digital age.

And it means you’ll get more of someone walking the walk, not just talking the talk. Think it would be nice to work remotely from Buenos Aires? I’m going to show you exactly how to do it since I’VE DONE IT.

FUTURE

So what’s going to happen in the future? Here are some things I want to accomplish in 2012:

More video – Filming and editing video is time consuming and often difficult, but it is also fun and an enormous opportunity. I feel that it is a very important skill to have in the coming years, so I am going to dive right in and do it. Like the podcast, it might take me a few months or even all year to get really good at it, but I’m bringing you along for the ride.

Interviews – I already have some great plans for SXSW this year, so am looking forward to some great interviews.

You might be asking, but Jim, how will you make money?

Ah yes, the question nobody likes to address. And trust me, as excited as I am right now, all of this is an experiment right now. I feel I have the drive and confidence to make this happen, and am loving this lifestyle so far, but I completely reserve the right to sell out and go back to a full-time job in 6 months or a year if that’s how things play out.

Here’s how I am going to approach it.

1) Multiple revenue streams. I won’t be making all of my income from the podcast, so I won’t be totally reliant on this.

2) Affiliate marketing. For those unfamiliar with this, here’s how it works. Let’s say I’m talking about how to create a website for your business. This is a very relevant topic and one that I get asked about all the time. If I note that my hosting company is Dreamhost, and you end up using Dreamhost by clicking on the link in my post, they give me credit for that. Here’s the key. I will only do this with products and services that I am using and trust. I’ve been on Dreamhost for many years and have 3 websites running on it, so I can speak to both the pros and the cons from experience. The good part is that it doesn’t cost the user anything extra.

3) Products. I might look into writing an ebook or recording a webinar on an incredibly in-depth topic, and offering that for sale on the site. Again, the vast majority of content on the blog will always be free. For example, the new hosting company for my podcast files has the ability to offer a mobile app for the show. I hesitated at first since I would have to charge $1.99. But if this is something that users want, and it is a totally optional purchase and in no way affects users listening to the show on iTunes or from the website, it could be an option.

4) Sponsors. I am excited to have Freshbooks.com as the premier sponsor for the new Hopkinson Report podcast. Freshbooks is a fast and simple invoicing and time tracking service that help you manage your business. Again, all of the other factors apply.

- First, this is relevant service since I am going to be talking about people starting their own business or side project. It aligns with my goals.

- Second, it is a product that I am actively using right now to manage all of my expenses and invoicing. I am loving it, and so is my accountant.

- Lastly, it doesn’t cost the user anything. You can sign up for a free trial if it is a product you are interested in. I might do a quick read each show, and you’ll see a banner on the website, but the upside is, it enables me to do the show, and they’ll have resources to hook me up with cool guests, prizes, and so on.

I am looking for 2 more high-quality, relevant sponsors, so if you, your company, or someone you know wants to reach an awesome audience of people like you, please drop me a line at Jim [at] thehopkinsonreport.com.

So to sum up:

1) The Hopkinson Report is back, and it has a new website, a new look and feel, a new sponsor, and a new direction.
2) I will continue to bring you high quality conversations around new media, technology, and personal branding, including interviews with people driving the growth of the digital age.
3) I feel there is a significant shift in the workplace happening, resulting in new types of businesses being created, a new type of workforce at those companies, and a new attitude toward work and lifestyle.

If you can’t already tell, I am completely thrilled to be back behind the mic and writing again. I can’t wait to bring you amazing content every week, so please stay tuned and spread the word.

Thank you.

Over the weekend of November 11th, I experienced what seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime trip. I was fortunate to be chosen as one of several “new media influencers” to try out a new service called “Lux Delux.”

But in reality, treating yourself to an amazing experience filled with top of the line customer service doesn’t have to be once-in-a-lifetime; Lux Delux aims to be the chosen service for anyone that wants this experience throughout the year.

SETTING THE SCENE

Location: Where else but Vegas, baby? When you’re talking over-the-top entertainment and anything goes, Las Vegas has to be one of the top destinations in the world. Our specific destination in the desert? The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. I had never stayed there before and it didn’t disappoint.

The Hosts: Out hosts for the weekend were Lux Delux founder Andy Hsieh, social media guru Helen Todd, and a team of “Luxierges” making sure that everything went according to plan.

The Speakers: Special guest speakers from Facebook, Foursquare, and the co-creator of Farmville.

The Superheros: Why Superheros? I honestly felt like my fellow guests were assembled like some hand-picked team of social media all-stars. Each one of us had a special super power that they brought to the table, and by the end of the weekend we were all “superfriends.” The other distinction? Our “Hall of Justice” was in a casino hotel.

Here are just a few:
Benedict Corpuz is a world-traveling flight attendant that lives on Foursquare. He tells us that the San Francisco Airport is the #1 destination for check-ins (more than 400,000), and he holds the lofty title of being the mayor. Want proof? He has 58 check-ins there in the last 60 days.

While the entire group is very active (hyperactive?) on Twitter, Calvin Lee has racked up some impressive numbers for an individual, with more than 70,000 followers and 150,000 tweets send. In comparison, I’m at 3,300 and 2,300 respectively.

My former co-worker Sara Zucker is an amazing fashion blogger and a Tumblr God. When not acting as the Community Manager for Glamour, her Tumblr account is followed by more than 40,000 people for the latest news and style.

Christine Martinez is a power user for a service you may not even know about, Pinterest. This service is an “online pinboard” and serves as a way to collect, organize, and share things you love from around the web. Never heard of it? Better get going… Christine already has more than 700,000 followers.

Myself and the other attendees had similar superpowers, providing expertise in blogging, Facebook, fashion, travel, and all things social media. It was the first event where having your phone out, taking photos, tweeting, checking in, and texting was not considered rude, it wasn’t frowned upon, and it wasn’t done on occasion under the table… it was HIGHLY ENCOURAGED and EXPECTED, and done constantly. Don’t worry though, we’re trained professionals in multitasking.

The experience
I’d like to start out with a quote that I will paraphrase from Gary Vaynerchuk, a strong proponent of customer service. I believe he ranted about this when I saw him speak at SXSW a few years back, saying “The level of customer service at companies is so terrible these days, that when someone like Zappos comes along and really focuses on it, people are completely blown away.”

What he is saying is not a commentary on how good the culture at Zappos is (it’s amazing), but how bad it is everywhere else. This gives companies that want to focus on a top of the line experience a huge opportunity in any market. It doesn’t matter if you are selling shoes and accessories online, wine and liquor (Gary’s family business), books, consulting, and speeches (Gary’s individual company), or a trip to Vegas… FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.

And that’s exactly what Lux Delux has done. During our round-table discussion, we were trying to pinpoint on a fitting description — a luxury version of Groupon? Just uttering that felt like we were insulting the founders, but hold on. In marketing a new product, it’s important to “ground” users with something they are already familiar with. And since everyone knows what Groupon is, Lux Delux can then make a very clear distinction: Groupon is all about DISCOUNTS… about getting to the lowest common denominator, where consumers are simply looking for a bargain (often with no loyalty to the venue), and merchants are often losing money.

To contrast that, Lux Delux is all about the experience and the value. Here’s how it evolved for us:

- Helen and Claire are in constant communication leading up to the trip, with detailed logistics and a phone number for any questions
- You arrive at the airport and are greeted with a smile and a Starbucks smoothie before being escorted to the hotel Kanye-style, in a black Cadillac Escalade SUV
- The “home base” for the weekend is the former Real World Suite at the Hard Rock
- Upon arrival at your room, there is an iPod playing a custom playlist based on your favorite songs, and a massive bag of your favorite snack (I went with Twizzlers).

What’s interesting is it’s tough to impress a New Yorker, even in Vegas. World class restaurants, 24×7 entertainment, fantastic people-watching, celebrities, and the ability to get just about anything, any time? Yeah, we’re with you on that. The one thing they CAN do, however, is to give you a hotel room that is 2-3 times the size of your studio apartment. That always gets us.

Friday night features an amazing group dinner, drinks, and desserts, with each stop unfolding by a host saying “right this way” and immediately bringing us to our prepared table.

Saturday was the time to get some work done, as we heard presentations from Foursquare, Facebook, and @zamland, the co-creator of Farmville. This seemed to benefit all involved, as the superheros gained some social media insight on upcoming projects, gave their feedback to the companies, and Lux Delux could gain learnings for their official launch.

Along the way were some more unique experiences:
- Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (Andy’s brother) coming to speak to us
- A one-on-one meeting with the curator of the Hard Rock’s memorabilia
- A behind-the-scenes backstage tour of the hip hop performance team “Jabbawockeez
- A tour of “Stitched,” a bespoke boutique clothing store at the Cosmopolitan, which doubled as a whiskey tasting venue
- And finally, a “dress to the nines, get your groove on, and bypass the enormous line” trip into a VIP area at Marquee nightclub to end the night.

In the end, there are two take-aways for me.

First, it’s about people. As I told the group during our roundtable, I’ve done 175 episodes of The Hopkinson Report, but it’s the 60 or so interviews with amazing entrepreneurs that really stands out for me. We’d assembled some of the most dialed-in social media people in the industry, and we had synced up across all platforms in the weeks leading to the trip, following each other avatars and gleaning information from tweets and bios, but it wasn’t until we met in person that a bond of friendship really formed. The same goes for the Lux Delux staff… it’s the people that deliver the customer service.

Second, it’s about the experience. Will there be people that think this service is extravagant? Of course. But this is no different in every facet of life. If everyone viewed a car as simply a way to get from point A to point B, we would all be driving Honda Accords and there would be no need for BMW or Porsche or Mercedes. If everyone looked at clothing as something functional and not style, we’d all be wearing khakis and tshirts and there would be no Vogue or GQ. And if everyone viewed food simply as nutrition, we’d be eating chicken and vegetables every night and never indulging in a Filet Mignon or sushi.

We can’t all be rock stars. But for those looking to be treated like a rock star, even for a single night or single weekend, there is Lux Delux.

Blogger Disclaimer: In exchange for feedback and consulting with their marketing plan, Lux Delux provided all activity, travel, and accommodations to me for this experience.

Discover the three best ways to engage with readers on Facebook

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Facebook continues to be the social media giant. It’s funny to look back at Episode 105 eighteen months ago back in May 2010 when I wondered whether recent privacy events could signal the fall of Facebook, and I went through 7 reasons the mighty giant might fail.

Needless to say, they’ve recovered from some of the issues I posed, including privacy concerns and revenue generation. In fact, the New York Times and Wired ran a stories about a group of students that were taking on Facebook with a new product called Diaspora, and it gained some pretty good buzz.

Where are we 18 months later? Well, Diaspora seems to be in alpha release still and in retrospect, was just a tiny fly on the back of a Rhino. And that Rhino would be Google Plus, which Facebook seems to be going head-to-head with and still winning.

Of course by now if you’re a brand, you have already have a robust Facebook page. You’ve updated some graphics, built up your following, and have widgets on your website to drive people to Like you on Facebook.

But now that you have fans on Facebook, how do you engage with your audience?

I’ve been running the Wired Facebook page for some time now, and am also managing Community Managers for four other Conde Nast brands. Needless to say, we are seeing lots of feedback and data, and are constantly trying to glean learnings from our users.

I recently did a deep-dive analysis of 60 days of Facebook posts on Wired, analyzing 250 posts for a theory that I have, which I’ll share with you in a moment.

But what I came up with his week was a fairly obvious observation, but one that I think can still really help The Hopkinson Report readers. When you’re posting something on your page, you need to have a goal.

Ask yourself, what is the purpose of this post?

Keep in mind that Conde Nast properties have magazine and websites and are content publishers, so if your business is retail or selling a physical product your mileage may vary, but in general when I looked at all the ways you can interact, three became clear.

The three pillars of Facebook engagement

1. Driving traffic
The first type of post is to drive traffic to your website. For the extreme newbies out there, the steps are:

a) Choose the ‘Link’ option and post in a URL from your website

b) This will bring up a thumbnail option if you have a photo on your page. I highly recommend that you do so that it catches the reader’s eye, and note that if you have multiple photos on your page, you can page through them and select the best one.

c) You can also edit the title and description of the post that is automatically brought in by facebook by clicking on the text.

d) Lastly, you write a description of the article you are posting. It can be the same as the title from the post itself, or you can customize it. It’s a good practice to word your text with a call to action to nudge the reader in that direction.

Again, the goal here is to actually encourage people to LEAVE Facebook itself and go to your website. The reason you would do this is to get them to read an article or view a slideshow (where you have ads that generate page views and revenue) or buy a product on your site.

Example:
Wired Product Review team takes a look at the new iPhone 4S. Click here to read their full review on Wired.com.

2. Driving comments
The second type of post is meant to keep people ON the Facebook page and engage directly with readers. Driving people to your website in step one is great, and might be what you ultimately want to do as a business, but if you constantly are asking people to leave Facebook and do something for you, it becomes robot-like.

In order to engage on a new level, it is important to ask questions, respond to your fans, and get fans talking to each other. There are a few ways to do this.

a) Post a link, but ask a direct question. In this model, you are doing Step 1 and posting a link, but how you write your status is much different. To build on the example above, you might say ‘Wired reviewed the new iPhone 4S this week. Do you feel that it is a significant upgrade over the iPhone 4, and how does it compare to the top Android Phones?’

In a perfect world, readers will go to your site, read the article, give you page views, and then return to Facebook to give their opinion. But in many cases, people already have made up their mind about the iPhone, and will go right to the comments and speak their mind. And let me tell you, the iPhone vs Android battle is alive and well.

b) Ask a question without a link. In this manner, you are asking an open-ended question about a topic that your audience is familiar with, and driving people right to the comments.

For example, we might simply say: ‘It’s seems clear that the smartphone race is going to come down to Apple vs Android. Leave a comment below to say why you chose one platform over another.’
The goal of this is to spark a discussion on your Facebook page and get readers interacting with each other. It’s a good practice for you, as the brand, to jump in and stoke the fires a bit and keep things going.

3. Driving shares
Facebook has only recently surfaced the statistic of ‘shares’ on a brand’s page, but it’s a helpful one. This tells you the reach that you are getting BEYOND your immediate audience. If one of your readers feels compelled enough to take your content and distribute it to their friends, then you’ve really nailed a topic that people like.

By sharing content, it has the true chance to go viral, as one person exposes it to their several hundred friends, and then those people might share it again to their several hundred friends.

What drives shares? A great story will be shared. A great question will be shared. And of course, you can be blatant and say ‘Like this post? Share it with your friends.’ But one of the best ways to drive shares is through PHOTOS.

Through the proliferation of cameras on mobile devices, high-end DSLRs, quick blogging services like Tumblr, and apps like Instagram, photos are being shared on the web at dizzying pace.

Photos are eye-catching, evocative, and let’s face it… people have ADD and are lazy. Sure, they can spend a few minutes coming up with an intelligent response about the advantages of Android as an open platform, but it’s a heck of a lot easier to see a killer photo of a planet and share it on their wall.

In my research, I determined that users were:
- 1.5x more likely to comment on a photo
- 2.5x more likely to share a photo
- 3.5x more likely to like a photo

So there you have it, the 3 pillars of Facebook engagement. Depending on your brand and your goals, you should determine what the best mix of posts will be for you. It’s important to keep it diversified, but whether you split them 33% each, or decide to go 70% photos is up to you.

I’m off to go take some photos.