This is part of the series: How to work remotely from Buenos Aires

Working while traveling is great, as long as you leave enough time to do the fun stuff!

Here is a list of 10 things to do in Buenos Aires, Argentina:

1. Chill out, eat, or work from one of the many great cafes.
Two favorites for me included Mott with their impressive bar (Top photo, above) and Bar 6.

2. Indulge in amazingly grilled steaks and fine Malbec Wine
Restaurant recommendation: Campo Bravo

3. Have a drink or dance at one of the many clubs and bars.
BA is a night owl city… several times, no matter how late I tried to stay up, I couldn’t even make to the clubs before they OPENED (one night I was there well past 11 and they didn’t open until midnight; at another I was there past 1:30am but it wasn’t going to get going until 3am).

There are enough places along Honduras Street in Palermo for anyone to choose from.

4. Running or walking in Parque Tres de Febrero, their version of Central Park,

5. Recoleta Cemetery
A cemetery is a highlight? Oh yes. The architecture and history is impressive and experience was better than expected in the place that Eva Peron (Evita) is buried.

6. Taking Tango lessons
Definitely the highlight of my trip, I enjoyed the rush of trying to learn something completely new being taught to me in a language I didn’t understand with people I didn’t know in a crowded, sweaty, basement at La Viruta in the Armenian Cultural Center.

7. San Telmo street fair
Not the most exciting thing in the world unless you are really into antique and crafts, but still on the “must do” list. Check out San Telmo and wander around on a Sunday.

8. The colorful buidlings in La Boca
Very hyped and dripping with tourist traps, it’s still a must-see location, especially for photographers.

9. The government buildings of downtown
Touristy sites to see include the “pink house,” the obelisk, riding the old school subway and other things.

10. Taste a bit of home
There are Ex-Pats from every country scattered throughout the city, so if you need to feel at home again, I was even able to catch an NFL playoff football game at Casa Bar.

Note: the one thing I was DYING to do was to see a soccer (futbol) game. However, when I was there it was the height of their summer, so now I “need” to go back.

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.

Jim has a high-energy interview with author, speaker, and social media pro Krista Neher.

- Download podcast: Via iTunes | Save to computer (Right click, Save As)
- Play it below:

This week I had a great interview with with author, speaker, and social media pro Krista Neher.

As usual, for the full interview — and trust me, we had great energy and lots of fun sharing stories — make sure to download and play the podcast. The summary below highlights what we cover:

Krista’s background
- Her start at Proctor and Gamble
- Working on marketing for brands like Tide and Folgers Coffee
- Her transition to a startup
- The founding of Bootcamp Digital, which teaches companies how to use the web and social media to build their business

Her travels from Canada to Cincinnati
- What does that have to do with bowling?

Social engagement
- Not the kind of engagement you like – we’re talking on a train to New Jersey

Boot Camp Digital
- What makes a truly good social media program?
- Huge opportunity to show businesses how to do their own social media
- “You’re doing it wrong” – what is the #1 thing companies are doing incorrectly with social media
- Why “free” social media is a problem

Monetizing social media
Top 2 reasons people join a fan page
1) To get coupons and discounts
2) To learn about new products
These easily can convert to new sales, but are they incremental sales?

Her Book – The Social Media Field Guide
- Most social media books target a certain area
- Some people still need a true marketing plan around social media, but don’t know how to do it.
- Covers all the tools to get businesses to think more strategically – not immediately jump to Facebook
- ‘People need to get a grip about new sites.’

Institute for Social Media at Cincinnati State
- Social media nerds in white lab coats?
- Testing mice on angry birds?
- No… how do you get a comprehensive overview of social media industry without going to a conference or just reading websites?
- Certification – what do other industries do to certify professionals?
- Answer: Show they know and can apply knowledge of industry; Instruction, tests, application of information

Speaking
- Can reach lots of people all at once
- How she made herself a better speaker
- Some speakers have 1 presentation they do over and over (usually around a book), while others customize every speech they do
- She built it up 100% word-of-mouth
- The key turning point in her speaking career
- The two ways she is able to charge clients, and how to prove value

Speed Round – What’s the trend around the following:
Facebook
Google +
Twitter
Tumblr/blogs
Instagram
Foursquare
Youtube
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Klout

A true or false game: Can you guess what are the things that influence your Klout, and which are made up?

——————-
Learn more about Krista:
Bootcampdigital.com
KristaNeher.com
WinAtKlout.com

Note: Some links in this post contain affiliate links

Jim talks about how to overcome fear in your life and Jonathan Fields’ new book Uncertainty.

- Download podcast: Via iTunes | Save to computer (Right click, Save As)
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One of the best compliments anyone ever paid to me actually had to do with this podcast. I was walking down the street in New York with my girlfriend at the time, and we were talking about the origins of how I started this show. I was recanting about the things I had gone through, pitching the idea to Wired, setting everything up on the technical side, designing the website, and lining up people to interview and topics to talk about. Now that it is up and running a weekly routine, sometimes I forget how much effort went into the initial setup.

We stopped for a moment and she looked over at me and said,

‘You never once thought about what would happen if it failed, did you?’

It was an interesting question… one that caught me by surprise and made me stop and really think about the answer, transporting myself back through time to put myself in that place when I was just starting out. I thought long and hard, did an honest assessment, and then gave her my answer:

‘No. It never once crossed my mind that this venture could fail.’

For some reason that exchange has stuck in my mind since that day. Was this something unique to me, or did a lot of people go about life in the same way?

In this case, I’m guessing I wasn’t too stressed because I probably didn’t view it as having a lot at stake. It was more of a fun project that I was doing on the side and wasn’t costing me any money.

But I could see a situation where a lot of people might worry about failure:
- Wired had made a commitment to me to put this podcast up on iTunes
- It would live there with my name and face on it, for millions to see
- I’d need an endless stream of topics and guests for content
- I had never done a podcast before in my life, and thus the show could, well, suck

Not a single one of these thoughts entered my mind.

Then I thought about a few situations when fear, personal safety, and finances really WERE a factor (ones that regular listeners know well)
- In 1998 I declared I would quit my job and move to a new city, even without finding a new work first
- I then moved 3,000 miles away from home to a place where I knew no one
- The day before 9/11, I signed a lease on my NY apartment, yet never once thought about not moving here, despite enormous uncertainty
- I spent months of hard work and more than $1,500 of my own money writing a book, not knowing if I would ever sell a single copy or download

Was I ever afraid in these situations? I’m not sure fear is the right word.

What about you?

Think back on some life-changing decisions in your life. In retrospect, what were you feeling when you took a chance and decided to leave that job you hated, speak your mind in a tense situation, or take a chance and kiss that cute girl or guy?

What I think you’ll find, is that around the time of most uncertainty and fear, is the time you grew the most – whether things worked out or not.

As I look back for a pattern in the times I was able to overcome my fears, I would offer the following tips:
1) Listen to your heart. If your gut is telling you to make that move or launch that product or leave a bad situation, it’s probably right. You can’t fool that voice inside.

2) Acknowledge the negative, but focus on the positive. Do not bury your head in the sand and ignore the potential obstacles that could derail you, but don’t obsess over them.

Worried about money? Build up a small backup fund first. Can’t sleep at night without healthcare from a full-time job? There are many plans for freelancers that will cover you. Once you have a backup plan for some of your fears, focus your energy on all the good things that could happen.

3) Allow fear to motivate you. There are countless athletes that will tell you that a fear of failure is their greatest motivation. They are so afraid of missing that last second shot in front of millions, that they use that as motivation to practice more until they are confident that they are prepared for anything.

Which brings us to a man named Jonathan Fields.

I don’t remember when he first popped up on my radar, but I’ve been reading his blog over at JonathanFields.com for a long time.

I soon realized that we had a lot in common.
- Blogging. We both had the same blogging style, talking about business, entrepreneurship, marketing, and new media… mixed with the funny, cocky, pop-culture mix that only a New Yorker could possess. But I often found myself finishing one of his posts and saying ‘Darn, I wish I had written that.’

- Speaking. We were both public speakers. But while I am just beginning to get invites to larger events, he has already spoken at SXSW (my application to do so is in), World Domination Summit (I’m on the waiting list to attend), and TED (add this to one of my long-term goals).

- Writing. We were both authors. While Jonathan had already published his first major book Career Renegade in 2009, his second book and my first had their major due dates around the same time, so we were able to swap a few emails around the stress that occurs during this process.

- Fate. Then I found out something that I almost wish we didn’t have in common: September 10, 2001. While this day served as a turning point for me, signing my lease for my move to New York, it was equally as pivotal for him, as it was the day he signed a lease to open his own yoga studio. As we know, the next day changed everything.

- Friends. The final surprise item that we have in common? I knew for a long time that if I decided to spend the money for a high-quality book trailer, that I wanted to use Michelle Vargas and her crew to film and edit it. I made the plunge and on our kickoff call, I asked them if they’d specifically worked on any book trailers before. Her response? ‘Yes! We just finished one up last week for this author named Jonathan Fields!’

The difference? While my trailer was light and fun, Jonathan’s is very powerful. Check it out:

So how does this all tie together?

When you’re afraid of something, an important thing to do is to find someone that has been down the same path before and follow them.  Seeing that someone else has had the same fears and overcome them can make your path seem less daunting.

So I’ve seen what Jonathan has done as a blogger, speaker, and author, and it makes me want to do it much better.

He’s also crushing it for the launch of his second book, Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance which goes on sale Thursday September 29, 2011.

- For the first part, he put together some very very cool offers designed to move not just 1 book, but packages of multiple books. This is something I had hoped to do with my launch, but didn’t end up pulling off. He even made a hilarious offer to shave your company logo in the back of his head and dye his hair any color you want if you buy 10,000 books.

Me? I took him up on his offer and bought 3 books, so that in return I would get some coaching from him in a group session. See the offers here (note: he only has these up fora limited time).

- For the second part, he reached out to his ‘tribe’ and motivated them to spread the word. As a reward, he is giving away 5 personal coaching consultations.

So to give full disclosure, yes, a small reason I am writing this post is for the chance to win that personal consultation. However, I really feel I can learn from him, and if I become a better writer, speaker, and author, that helps those of you out there listening to me right now. I also really like supporting fellow bloggers and authors, as they have supported me. It’s called community and karma, people.

In terms of the Uncertainty book itself, I saw a sneak preview of the book awhile ago and it immediately pulled me right in. However, it was password protected format online, and I don’t like reading that way, so I am waiting to get the actual book in the mail to read the entire thing. Then I can give an honest review on the entire book itself.

OFFER FROM JIM

In the spirit of the topic, maybe you as a listener look up to me just a bit. I’m not trying to brag here, as I know I’ve been very, very fortunate in the things I’ve been able to accomplish in my life. I have a lot to be thankful for. Perhaps you yearn to live in New York, want to start a podcast, write your own blog, or publish a book, but some kind of fear is holding you back and you hope someone can give you a few pointers.

If that’s the case, do the following:
Write me at marketingguy [at] wired.com and tell me your “fear” story
The best one that I select will receive
a) One of the copies of Jonathan’s book that I bought (US addresses only)
b) A 1 hour Skype consultation with me about any topic (blogging, podcasting, salary negotiation, career planning, etc)

Looking forward to hearing from you!

———————
Note: Some links in this post contain affiliate links

Jim interviews Rey Flemings, the cofounder and chief executive of Stipple, a company trying to revolutionize online photos.

- Download podcast: Via iTunes | Save to computer (Right click, Save As)
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Photographs. With billions of Facebook photos being tagged, Tumblr, Flickr, Instagram, camera phones, Flip cameras, low-cost high-res DSLRs and more, there’s no doubt there’s huge numbers — and business potential — around this industry.

One of the companies trying to take advantage of this is Stipple. I spoke with cofounder Rey Flemings, and you can listen to the entire podcast for his insights. Highlights include:

What is Stipple?
Imagine this: You tag a photo in Facebook, but your friend grabs it and brings it outside Facebook’s network and puts it on their blog. Thus, you lose all of the tags.

Stipple allows anyone with a photograph to tag it and stay connected with a photo. This allows you to add tags, media, and commerce hooks around and products to sell. Once tagged, the data you specify stays with the photo throughout the web.

Stipple also offer publishers the ability to connect their sites to the “Stipple cloud.” Thus, when photos are published, they can connect back and earn publishers a revenue share.

Rey’s background
Previous to Stipple, Rey founded a company called Tennman Digital, which was an incubator in San Francisco that helped make early stage investments in companies.

This included helping celebrities like Justin Timberlake. While Jim lobbied that Justin should be given carte blanche to host Saturday Night Live every other week, Rey talks about the double-edged sword of being a celebrity investor.

The path of how he started the company
Where was the opportunity? Rey asks, “After moving from film to digital, has there been any true innovation for photographs?” He started looking for what the next big thing would be for photos.

The problem he set out to fix: Once you take a photo and goes out on the web, you lose all connection to it. Stipple will let you:
- Monetize
- Search for the photo
- Remain in touch with it
- Receive real-time analytics
- Tag once, have it stay together

Four killer use cases
1) You have a local business making wedding cakes in San Francisco. Wouldn’t you like every picture of your wedding cake to link back to your website Joe’s Bakery with the ability to contact you? Then find out 500 people moused over it and 37 clicked more info.

2) You’re Toyota. Wouldn’t you like to have every photo of a Camry on the web in your control? And say for a Labor Day Sale, tell people about 0% financing. Then change to a NEW promotion on every photo with one click.

3) Or how about Nike uploads photos of their athletes, and is willing to pay 5 cents per click. A blogger with a sports blog or publisher go to the Stipple Marketplace and can embed the photo on their site and receive revenue when someone clicks ‘shop’ within the photo.

4) Lastly, A band could upload a photo embedded with a single in it, then upgrade it with the band video 2 weeks later.

I added, what if every GQ slideshow we produce had the photos tagged that identifies what the model is wearing: jeans from J. Crew, shirt from Calvin Klein, watch from Seiko, etc

The tech side
- Uses Javascript similar to Google Analytics
- Monitoring done via a dashboard
- Bloggers can use affiliate codes

There’s no doubt photographs on the web are a huge market. If this company can help track and monetize them, Stipple will cause a ripple in the industry.

People talk a lot about their real-world career, but sometimes it’s the part-time jobs of youth that define you as a person.

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What do you do for a living?

When you’re asked that question in “real life,” you rarely start with your current job and go all the way back to your very first part time jobs. But in a way, what you did for money as a teen, be it babysitting, lifeguarding, or cleaning out your Dad’s garage, can have a profound effect on your life.

OK, so the jobs I list below aren’t really THAT crappy (it made for a better headline), but they weren’t always glorious either. However, they did teach me some valuable life lessons.

As always, listen to the podcast for the full show. Highlights below:

The Job: Paperboy
Lesson Learned:
- Consistency (If you didn’t deliver every single day, someone was not going to be happy)
- Delayed gratification (Friends want to play baseball? Not till your route is done)
- Value of money (You mean the harder I work, the more money I’ll have for arcade video games? Ah, I get it now)
- Stay away from large German Shepherds (Seriously. I was chased and bitten several times)

The Job: Dishwasher
Lesson Learned:
I NEVER want to be a dishwasher.

Sometimes it’s just important to learn what you DON’T want to do

The Job: Working in a Warehouse (Part 1)
Lesson Learned:
There was an industrial park near my house growing up, and I had jobs packing orders. The first was for four time Boston Marathon winner Bill Rodgers. I learned that sometimes even fame isn’t enough (creditors showed up one day and bolted the headquarters shut), and that GoreTex was a cool invention.

*Note — in the podcast and above I imply that his business was shut down. Turns out that his Faneuil Hall Store has been open since 1977. However, something went down that day… the details are just sketchy (hey, it was 26 years ago!)

The Job: Working in a Warehouse (Part 2)
Lesson Learned:
The second job was at a place called The Gatepost. All the items we shipped were women’s clothes, they went to a women’s clothing store, and every employee was a woman. Except one: The owner Mike. He took me under his wing and taught me two important life lessons: autonomy and trust.

In the first case, noticing that I was surrounded by mountains of pink t-shirts, Guess jeans, and ESPRIT bags, he reached into his wallet, took $20 of his own money, and told me to go to the mall and buy any posters I wanted to put up in the warehouse. While I can’t remember the specifics (I’m guessing Van Halen, Larry Bird, and a Porsche 944), the freedom of controlling my workspace was exhilarating.

The second thing he did raised the bar even higher. Five of the stores were at least an hour from the warehouse, so delivery trucks brought the weekly stock to these locations. But the sixth store was just a few exits down the highway.

First, Mike taught me one of life’s greatest lessons: How to drive a 5-speed. We started out in the warehouse parking lot on his giant Isuzu Trooper II. I’d get going as quickly as I could through first, second, and third gear, slamming on the brakes as the guardrail at the end of the industrial park approached rapidly.

Next, he sat calmly in the passenger seat (no doubt suppressing his terror) and allowed me to drive the shipment to the store with him, uttering confidence-building tips as this green 17-year-old revved his engine and darted out into traffic.

Lastly, one day he just said ‘you’re ready’ and tossed me the keys, kicking me out of the nest and onto the southeast expressway at rush hour.

The Job: Cleaning the bar on campus as a freshman
Lesson Learned:
1) A little greasy, dirty, hard work never killed anyone
2) The job was at the highest payscale on campus
3) That pay could be dramatically increased when mopping up dozens of dropped items of drunk seniors – who were fond of a game called ‘quarters.’

The Job: Working in a Warehouse (Part 3)
Lesson Learned:
I learned four valuable lessons from four people.

First there was the warehouse manager Mike. One winter break I showed up to work, excited to stay on campus for the week and work there full-time. But Mike was surprised to see me, and said he never actually promised me any work. While sweating it out, he paused and said, ‘Well, I guess since you’re an Eagle Scout, I can find some stuff for you to do.’ I had forgotten that I had listed Eagle Scout on my resume, and that he told me his sons were in scouting and working their way toward the highest award. Lesson? You never know what kind of connection will help you in your career.

Next there was Don, a warehouse lifer who was always amazingly upbeat and positive. Every single day he had a new joke for me. Every. Single. Day. They weren’t always funny. They were quite often distasteful. But every company needs a Don.

Also there was Brian, which was a really interesting situation. He was a really nice guy, pretty quiet, and hard working. Picture him as your every day, middle America worker. Showed up at 9, had lunch at noon, punched out at 5, and drove down the street to the bar for a few beers before heading home. What made it interesting, was that this was a bar very close to campus, and often our paths crossed. What I learned from Brian is to be humble and treat others with respect.

Here I was at 19 years old, in the prime of my life, getting a college education, and ordering a round of shots at the bar, surrounded by drunken fraternity brothers and loud sorority girls. And I bet a lot of them were thinking, ‘Ha, look at these poor townies, what losers.’ And right next to me was Brian, keeping to himself, just wanting to enjoy his beer before going home, probably thinking, ‘look at all these spoiled rotten kids, I wish they would leave my bar and go back to their shiny dorm rooms.’

Whenever I was in this situation, I always took the time to separate from my friends and go over and talk to him, knowing how hard he worked, and showing that our age difference and situation didn’t make me any better than him.

Last but not least was Al. Also a warehouse lifer, he was the complete opposite of Don. As an energetic 19 year old, I burst into the warehouse each afternoon for my 3 hours of part time work before heading back to campus to study or catch the end of happy hour.

One day Al pulled me aside and told me, in so many words, that I was ‘working too fast.’ In other words, I was pulling the orders faster than he could pack them, which made the shipments pile up and Al look bad. It was an awkward position to be put in, but I slowed down my productivity a bit. But eventually, I couldn’t keep up the charade. Being slow and unhappy was his problem. All I could control was myself.

I learned awhile later that Al had been fired for ‘accidentally’ running over his foot with a forklift and then filing a bogus workman’s comp claim. You can’t control the ‘Al’ in your company.

After reading the book Strengths Finder, Jim asks if it is better to capitalize on strengths or improve weaknesses

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Are you a well-rounded person? Maybe you shouldn’t be.

I had the chance to read a book called StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath, and the entire book can be summed up with one theory: People spend too long trying to improve their weaknesses, when they should be capitalizing on their strengths.

Listen to the podcast for the full review, but here are my highlights:

How I found out about the book
Love when this happens:
- Co-worker walked in with it, and it sounded familiar
- Then I remembered that the Internet Business Mastery guys had talked about it, and I had it in the back of my mind to check it out
- Of all people, my hand therapist perked up when I mentioned it, as it was required reading for all the employees at her business
- When I walked in to Barnes and Noble, there it was prominently being displayed – at 30% off

The crux of the book
- Story 1: If a student brings home three A’s in English, writing, and history, and three B’s in Spanish, communication, and geography, but a C- in algebra and a D in geometry, what is the first thing a parent or teacher does? Get those math grades up! Of course math is important, but what if they doubled down in the language and writing categories?
- Story 2: The movie “Rudy.” Here was a guy with unbelievable determination, who worked so so hard to make the team and practice with them, enduring hardships and ridicule, only to get in for 1 play in 1 game. Sure, we love the underdog, but what if he had applied himself to something he was really good at?
- They’ve developed series of questions that analyze thousands of data points, grouping them into 34 themes that tell you what your strengths are
- Each book comes with a special code for one user, which you then go online and take

Downsides of the book
- It’s really short – just 30 pages of content before setting you off to do the test. Maybe that’s a positive in that you can read it pretty quickly and get results, but I was looking for more juicy findings
- The test only tells you your 5 top strengths. On one hand, that emphasizes the whole theme – just work on what you’re good at. But on the flip side, it would be super valuable to know what you are BAD at, so that you can partner with or hire those people that compliment your skills.
- My skeptical friend poo-poo’d it, saying that it amazes him that this guy will make millions of dollars stating the obvious. I definitely did think about the fact that the people most likely to buy this book, are people that are honed in on exploiting their strengths, and thus buy into it, but I didn’t care.

What we can learn from it
Start with what it told me. Found it incredibly insightful. Here were my 5 traits:
- Significance
- Focus
- Maximizer
- Individualization
- Achiever

Then it goes into how you can use each one and learn from them.

Let’s break those down:

Significance
- People with this theme want to be very important in the eyes of others.
- You help individuals be stronger in the face of life’s challenges.
- You sometimes sense you are a bit overzealous making a name for yourself, advancing your career, or promoting your projects.
- Perhaps you wonder if your zeal displeases certain individuals.
- You derive much satisfaction from doing whatever you can to help people prosper.

Wow, this sure made sense. What better venue than a blog and podcast to try to look important? And yes, I constantly worry that I over promote myself, and if people are saying ‘this guy is so full of himself.’

But look at that last one. I do whatever I can to help people prosper. So it sounds like I am completely locked in with my strengths, considering that I published a book that literally does exactly that, helping people make more money through negotiation.

Focus
- Document goals, take direction, plot your future, and follow through
- Leave very little to chance when outlining goals and push yourself
- You let little, if anything, distract you from your goal
- You might expend more physical or mental energy doing your job than your peers
- Need to make progress toward one or two goals to feel successful

Again, they nailed it. I always have a detailed plan around life, career, and other projects, and I’m relentless in achieving it. Yesterday I didn’t get a lot done, and it killed me.

Maximizer
- Concentrate energy on what you know you do well
- Being average at best and mediocre at worst is unacceptable to you
- You honor due dates and work well with deadlines
- Punctuality is a trait for which you are known
- People who have little or no sense of time’s importance often frustrate you

Examples:
- A friend tried to get me to take classes in English literature and French painting, but I always wanted to double down on speaking, software, technology.
- Another friend noted all the books on my shelf were about the same three topics: business, money, and sports.
- Competitive in sports I do well… running, biking, soccer. But not in darts or swimming.
Time important explains my rants for concession stands or checkout lines

Individualization
- You enhance your own quality of life each time you reach out to someone in need of assistance
- You help individuals acquire knowledge and gain skills
- You are a fine instructor, trainer, and tutor.
- You delight in helping all kinds of people.

What can I say? Isn’t that what this podcast is? It helps explain why I do this every week for free… because I get so much from helping people. That’s why I love mentoring interns. That’s why I teach classes. That’s why I love speaking and educating. It delights me. And how crazy is it that on the day I read my assessment that I am a fine tutor, that I got my copy of the final version of my book, called Salary Tutor?

Sorry for the plug. Didn’t you hear the part where I’m overzealous about talking about myself?

Achiever
- People in this theme have a great deal of stamina and work hard; they take great satisfaction from being busy and productive
- You go out of your way to stay informed about newsworthy topics
- Numerous people count on you to tell them about information updates
- You have a gift for living in the moment, and thus need to produce meaningful results each day
- You expend mental energy thinking about data and measurements, and aim to understand what the numbers really mean.

I definitely consider myself a hard worker, and hey, I stay on top of all the newsworthy topics and marketing trends so you don’t have to. It’s good to know you’re counting on me. The part of analyzing numbers and understanding them really relates to my job. Just today I was breaking down analytics for some ad banners that we ran this month.

What it means for you
OK, so how can taking this test help you out?

1) Always keep learning
I really believe that life should be an ongoing series of learnings. Never stop improving yourself and learning new skills. By finding out what you’re good at, you life can be more productive and you’ll have a better chance of liking your work.

2) Learn what NOT to do.
For a short time, management at Wired wanted me to take on more of a Business Development role. It was a good step up, but I knew in my heart that touchy feely networking, schmoozing, and big picture strategy wasn’t my strength. In a way, I was lucky that it fell through, so I could go back to the numbers and what I do best.

Don’t let yourself get sucked into a position where your skills aren’t being utilized. In fact, you could use this data to appeal to your boss that you would be better suited elsewhere.

3) Make smart partnerships
If you have a business, don’t try to do everything. You see this a lot with entrepreneurs. I find that most successful modern startups are paired with co-founders where one person is the organized, tech-heavy, process person, and the other is the outgoing, salesy-marketing type.

4) Know thyself
So go ahead… think of this as just another new-age, feel-good business book. There are certainly plenty of them out there. You can take the mantra of ‘focus on your strengths, not weaknesses’ and apply it as you see fit without buying the book or taking the test.

But for me, even just gleaning a few take-aways was well worth it. My gut feeling told me that I should pursue more educational opportunities, like speaking, writing, and teaching. The results confirm it.

And I liked learning that it was in my DNA that I keep obsessive to-do lists and love nothing more than checking them off, and am so disappointed when I don’t get to everything I wanted. Actually knowing that I am wired that way, helps me almost take a step back and laugh at myself and try not to be so caught up in it.

And I guess hey, if I wasn’t the type to be keeping up on the latest topics, analyzing the trends, and delighting in helping others, you wouldn’t be listening to this podcast or reading this post right now.

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Today I interview Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn and self-published author of the religious thriller, Pentecost.

- Download the podcast via iTunes
- Download the podcast to your computer (Right click, Save As)
- Play it below:

For the full interview — a must-listen for anyone wanting to self-publish their own book — please listen to the podcast.

Summary of Topics covered:

Joanna’s amazing journey
Joanna Penn has had quite an amazing journey from the UK and a Theology major at Oxford (hence the religious thriller), all the way to New Zealand and Australia, and now back to the UK.

As a full-time IT employee, she started her writing career with non-fiction books such as How To Enjoy Your Job and the basic ways of marketing.

She once tried to do the full-time author route and take an extended period of time off in order to write “The Great American (Australian?) Novel,” and tried signing on with traditional publishers, but it didn’t pan out.

Intrigued with the rise of digital publishing, print-on-demand, and using social media as a marketing platform, she started a blog and podcast called The Creative Penn. Joanna immersed herself in everything going on in the industry, and became a trusted source for information, while also interviewing dozens of authors.

One recent post broke down the current publishing landscape into four quadrants:

Eventually, her writing solution was to go to her employer and reduce her workweek to 4 days per week, freeing up more time to work on her religious thriller, Pentecost.

Joanna then takes us through …

8 steps needed to self-publish a book

1. Choose your topic
Joanna always wanted to write fiction, and got her inspiration in Venice at the Pentecost dome at St. Marks.
Pro tip: All the top authors think in terms of a series… building a story around a character that readers can follow from story to story. Hook ‘em once, and they’re you’re audience for many books to come.

2. Editing
Joanna stressed the importance of hiring a pro editor. Yes, you can go through your own work, but you’ll miss something.
Pro tip: Release chapters and ideas out to your readers… they’ll help you out, feel involved, and become your biggest fans.

3. Design
Book cover design is very important. Joanna used a freelancer at Thebookdesigner.com.
Pro tip: Once again, crowdsouce. Joanna posted several versions of her book cover online and let her readers vote. The winner surprised her, but was rated most favorable by a margin of 20%.

4. Formatting
Getting the book into the right format can be a pain… pay someone to do it.
Pro tip: Check out Smashwords.com.

5. Upload your book go Amazon
Head to Kdp.amazon.com… it’s free to to upload in Kindle format, and your book will be live in 24 hours!
Pro tip: The Kindle has the largest marketshare of eBooks

6. Pricing
Joanna started her book out at $2.99, the average price for indie books and based on a lot of research by excellent author/blogger Joe Konrath.
Pro tip: She dropped the price to 99 cents because her goal was to get the biggest audience with her first book, not make the most money. Sales took off.

7. Tracking sales
Two keys to success on Amazon are reviews and sales. The book rose to #2 in religious fiction, #2 in action adventure, and #300 overall.
Pro tip: Once Amazon’s algorithm gets involved it will start recommending the book to other buyers

8. Marketing an eBook on Amazon
As any good marketer knows, its good to be everywhere. She has the following:
- Website
- Podcast
- Blog Interviews
- Twitter
- Trying for awards
- Appearing on TV
- Public speaking
- And a book trailer

Pro tips:
- Her favorite marketing avenue is on Twitter: @TheCreativePenn
- Don’t spend too much money on traditional advertising
- Check out Kindle Nation Daily, which Joanna used, with sponsorships for $99 to $299

Final Summary:
- Success breeds success. Do well on Amazon, get good reviews, get good rankings, and it becomes a snowball effect.
- Write a good book. All the marketing in the world won’t help if the product is sub-par. Put in the effort.
- This is a new reality: It’s a bit of hard work, but everyone can do this.

Also see:
Joanna also interviewed me on Skype video for HER blog. Here’s how it went.

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Jim gives his observations from the NY Auto Show. Is the industry advancing, or is it all just marketing bling?

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

Episode #150! Thanks to everyone that has read the blog and listened to the podcast over the years.

It seems things have come full circle… In Episode #1 of the Hopkinson Report podcast, I compared the iPhone to a Porsche, and asked, “Has the iPhone reached ‘no substitute’ status?”

Well, the iPhone is still going strong, with Apple on track to make $100 billion dollars in 2011. It sold 18.65 million iPhones in the quarter, an eye-popping 113 percent increase over last year, destroying Wall Street’s consensus estimate of 16.6 million units.

As for Porsche, I get to them a little later.

When I talk about marketing cars, I think the interesting thing is that companies have to market them all the time. A user might buy a car only once every 3, 5, or even 10 years, so car companies have to be building this brand and trust constantly.

Let me give you a personal example. My aging parents were looking for a car to replace their aging 1999 Toyota Camry. Since I love cars, love research, and love negotiating, I was excited at the challenge. I narrowed it down to four basic car companies that they would lease: Toyota, Honda, Ford, Hyundai.

The truth is, I knew I really couldn’t go wrong, as all the cars were virtually identical when it came to price, options, features, and gas mileage.

Here was what I decided on:
Toyota Camry – Looked solid all around, but in the end I had limited time and didn’t even get to test drive the Camry. While others might have said, “I love the Camry, let me just upgrade models from 1999 to 2011,” in our case it was kind of the opposite. We felt that going from one Camry to the next was kind of boring. Why not mix it up a bit.

Honda Accord – Speaking of boring, you can’t get more safe than the Accord. This isn’t a bad thing… it’s a safe bet, very reliable, and has been around for decades. But since this was a lease, I was a little less concerned about resale value. In the end, I steered away from the Accord because I didn’t like the experience in the showroom with the sales reps, and it was more expensive.

Ford Fusion – To their credit, a strong marketing presence in the past few years was enough just to get Ford into the Final Four. I’m not sure I would have considered this car a few years ago. A strong effort, but not quite enough.

Hyundai Sonata – In the end it was the Hyundai Sonata that did just enough of the little things right to put it over the top in this competitive battle.
- First, the experience was good. The dealership was professional without playing any “let me talk to my manager” bull**** and the sales rep was very straightforward.
- Next was styling. To me, the car just looked much more stylish. Like a brand new 2011 look and feel, as opposed to a continually updated model each year.
- The interior was solid and had a great feel
- It had a better base engine… 190hp vs 169, 177, and 175 with the others.
- The negotiated price was right

But enough about the stats, what about the marketing?

When I looked back at my blog and podcast, I had talked about Hyundai in episode 23, 28, 52 (coverage of the 2009 Auto Show), 91, and 140.

That’s five times over 3 years, some good, some bad, but they were top of mind. You know what?

That’s true marketing. Earned marketing. Multiple mediums. Lots of trust built and money spent.

But I’m a little worried about the auto industry going for the quick fix.
When it’s fake, you can see right through it.

Here are 7 examples of what could be too much marketing bling:
(summary below… listen to the podcast for full descriptions)

1) Bling Car
See the photo at the top of the post. This car was made purely for bling value and to bring attention to it, so that’s transparent at least.

2) Spokespeople
The uber coiffed and professional models strutted around the cars like Vanna White crack me up. I can’t tell if this is a good gig for them (just one speech to memorize) or a bad gig (they’d rather be acting).

But I do know one thing… when the Dodge spokeswoman was talking about “Adaptive Cruise Control with forward collision warning,” she literally said “…so you don’t have to worry about any forward collisions.”

Really? I don’t have to worry about accidents? Is that a little bit of hyperbole? Just a bit?

3) Detroit
I’ve talked about this before… I’m rooting for Detroit. I really am. Check out this fascinating article in GQ titled “Destroying Detroit (in Order to Save It).”
But the Chrysler 200 – the one Eminem drove in the Super Bowl ad… it’s not quite there yet.

4) Audi on Checks In
Audi had a Foursquare check-in. They were trying, but I’m not sure it was the right audience for this.

5) iPads
Several car companies tried to integrate the hottest tech gadget for the show, mostly with success.
- Porsche used iPads for data collection, taking my name and address in order to send me more information. It was fast and efficient.
- BMW used iPads to actually display data about their cars. A step up from just a standard piece of paper listing options, but maybe a bit of overkill.
- Hyundai‘s Equus model comes with an iPad for the user manual in the glove box. Again, maybe a little bit of overkill and trying to capitalize on the iPad’s buzz — why not just say “Buy an Equus, get a free iPad — but when they start to add other little things like the ability to schedule service appointments, they’re getting there.

6) Prove you were here
This was a promotion Chevy did, where users could get their picture taken in a car, then upload it to Facebook or other social media sites. I liked the idea because it works in this environment… it’s fun, gets people sitting in the cars, and has a viral element.

7) Electric Car test driving in the basement of the convention center
This was a little strange to me. Of course I believe electric cars are eventually going to be our future, but it was a little bit of a circus atmosphere to have people in line waiting to drive one.

But I understand it because in the same way that car companies have to spend years introducing a brand, it could take decades to really win over the public and prove to old-timers (like me) that it’s time to change to a hybrid or electric car. Cars will continue to evolve as they become more like computers, but it might take some time.

As for Porsche? They had a great little social media case study.

It went like this:
- Porsche was the first car company to get to 1 million fans on Facebook
- They created a custom 911 saying thank you, with 28,000 names on it
- Fans could search for their name on a microsite
- They made a “making of” video of the process

Are we at the point where liking a car brand is worth it for them to put your name on an actual car? Well, I thought it was a very interesting program, a good test for them, and you know those 28,000 fans — probably the most loyal followers they have — are going to spread the word all over Facebook.

But what if Porsche offered to give me the Facebook-branded car because I was such a big fan. Would I accept it? Aahhh, I don’t know. It might be a bit too blingy for me.

This week I interview entrepreneur John Murch and his motto, JFDI.

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

John Murch is a good friend and well, a lot like me. He’s a geek at heart, a fellow Computer Science major, and his interests include SEO, entrepreneurship, Tim Ferriss, cars, the iPad, SXSW, and helping others with their projects.

We co-founded a meetup group called NYC Masterminds to bring together people in the world of design, social media, internet marketing, programming, and app development, and well, if we could just find some more time away from working on our projects, we’d host more meetings.

The intention of our meetup group was to help people find and develop side projects and get them off the ground.

For me, it was my salary negotiation class, which eventually became an eBook, and then was picked up by a mainstream publisher (Salary Tutor goes live on Amazon on April 1, 2011!).

John has a very different and unique product: uBlanket, a site that allows you to take your old favorite t-shirts and convert them into the ultimate curl-up-on-your-couch-and-watch-The-Dark-Night blanket.

The concept is simple… we all have some old t-shirts that we don’t wear anymore, but can’t bear to get rid of. They may be old fraternity/sorority shirts that hold special meaning, a collection of t-shirts from running races or triathlons, a souvenir from the 1996 Olympics, or the time you saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1991.

In the interview, we talk about:

- His straightforward entrepreneurial attitude; how JFDI — just freaking do it — keeps him focused and allows him to create sites within hours, not weeks or months

- The incredible story of how he and his co-founder went from idea to concept to revenue-generating business in such a short amount of time

- The topics include the programming language used, the shopping cart checkout system, the website design template, the unique customer-facing offline/online production system they created, and yes, even how to find a quality seamstress

- John gives tips on marketing a startup, from simple postcards that can be handed out to interested users, getting noticed in the startup community, to being featured on MSNBC television

- There’s also a charity element: With each uBlanket order, there is extra shirt material created. Instead of just throwing it away, uBlanket uses it to make blankets for homeless children throughout the country. They have partnered with Project Night Night, a non-profit organization serving over 25,000 children each year, to help distribute these blankets.

- He also is trying some unique advertising from one of my favorite guerilla marketing companies (Hint: It involves t-shirts and I interviewed them in Episode 73).

Don’t just sit there, listen to the podcast, then click to learn more:
uBlanket.com | Demo
uBlanket on Facebook