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.

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.

Hi all!

Just wanted to drop you a line to keep you updated on a few things.

1) Happy New Year!
I hope you had a great 2011 and spent some relaxing time with friends and family over the holidays. I visited my parents in the Boston area, lived Christmas through the wide eyes of my sister’s three kids (6, 4, and 1 1/2), went on a “man date” to the mall with my friend Fitz and his new 7 month old (are strollers allowed on escalators? what if the baby isn’t in it?), and through technology, saw my brother’s 2 year old energized with Christmas spirit via Skype.

2) What WON’T change about The Hopkinson Report in 2012
The blog and podcast will be back in late January, and should follow the same high-energy, deep-dive format that you know and love. Each week I will continue to cover the topics of social media, marketing, and technology. Additionally, I will have a little bit more focus on personal branding and career development, since I am no longer working full-time and am living the “independent lifestyle.” I’m not at a 4-Hour Workweek yet, but maybe some day.

3) What WILL change about The Hopkinson Report in 2012
- Wired. As I mentioned in my final podcast, the show will no longer be associated with Wired or Conde Nast. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, and I’m sure I will be referencing content from the magazine and website from time to time, and maybe interviewing people that I had worked with. But the views of the show will entirely be my own, and I won’t be directly promoting any Wired events or products.

- New look. After several years with the same design, I plan to update the look and feel of the blog, including a new color scheme. I plan on making it easier for new visitors to the site to get started, and for long-time listeners to find their favorite topics.

- New sound. The opening and closing theme song will be updated from a generic, rights-free Garageband song to one of my favorite songs from my 1997 rock-pop band, The Nasties! It actually was a good opportunity to track down my old band mates on social media to make sure they were cool with it, and reconnect a little. No word yet on a reunion tour.

- New technology. My Blue Snowball microphone has been great and I think I will continue to use it, but there has always been the issue of interviewing guests. This might be the year I upgrade to a full mixing board with multiple microphones for interviews. Additionally, I am looking into a handheld digital recorder for remote interviews.

- New video? Let’s face it, I know video is a rabbit-hole. To do it right, you need a good camera, then you want good external microphones, a green screen, editing software, graphic and text overlays, special effects, and then before you know it, you’re spending every night in a pitch-black room till 4am working on the perfect transition effect in Final Cut Pro.

However, there is no question that YouTube continues to explode, and would attract more traffic to the site, as well as give readers a new perspective on my thoughts. I am making it a goal this year to incorporate more video into the blog. To be clear, this is not going to turn into a video podcast show, but rather, I might have “30 second rants” or a “Jim How-To” embedded on the site to supplement the content.

- New hosting. I have to give a huge shoutout to Cliff Ravenscraft aka “The Podcast Answer Man.” As you can imagine, it’s a little complicated trying to figure out how to transfer 175 archived episodes from old servers to new ones, choose a new hosting company, update and redirect XML and RSS feeds, and so on. I heard about Cliff from Pat Flynn and the Smart Passive Income Podcast (he interviewed him here), and we jumped on a consulting call in late December to discuss all the options and get things straight. He was a huge help.

The plan is to move the media files to a site called Libsyn.com, which is the world’s largest podcast network. They host 15,000 podcasts serving over 18,000,000 downloads, so we should be in good hands. They also have improved reporting so I can give special shoutouts to listeners in Luxembourg.

Also good news: As a podcast subscriber, you shouldn’t have to do anything to receive new episodes; you should be redirected automatically.

Want proof that Cliff is the real deal? Check out the podcast studio setup he has in his home [envy]:

- New Sponsor(s). I am thrilled to announce that The Hopkinson Report will be sponsored by Freshbooks in 2012. You may recall my interview with Saul Colt way back in January 2009. Well, we’ve been friends now for 3 years and he’s been an amazing contact. In Saul’s role as the “Head of Magic” at Freshbooks, his job is to find cool people and events to associate with, and I am honored that he has chosen me.

Furthermore, I can honestly say from the bottom of my heart that this is a relevant sponsor. As you may know, I have a multitude of side projects, including my book Salary Tutor, speaking gigs, consulting work, and so on. I have set up my own entity (Hopkinson Creative Media, LLC), but all of this requires you to maintain separate business records for accounting purposes. While I am great with Excel, Freshbooks takes it to the next level and handles reports, invoicing, expenses, billing, and so on.

Last month I took the time to import everything that I had hacked together in a spreadsheet and uploaded it to Freshbooks. It worked great, and I was instantly able to see my profit/loss for the year. Then I imported my HCM logo and used it to send an invoice to my first consulting client. It was easy and made me look really professional. OK, enough gushing, but it really IS a cool product with an easy to use interface and great customer service.

What’s great about this relationship for you, the listener, isn’t that you will be bombarded with banner ads and 4 minute commercials (that wouldn’t be great at all). Rather, Saul is an innovative word of mouth marketer that a) will allow me to pass on to you cool case studies he comes across and events that he puts on and b) introduce me to amazing people to interview for the show.

Interested in sponsoring The Hopkinson Report and exposing your product or service to a group of tech-savvy, social-media-connected, hyper-influencers? Contact me for a media kit.

So there you have it. Are you as fired up for 2012 as I am? I hope so.

Jim

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.

*** UPDATE 11/6/11 ***
Good news, Hopkinson Report fans!

I have been told that I WILL be able to maintain control of past, present and future content for The Hopkinson Report. This is great news for me and I sincerely appreciate Conde Nast understanding the depth of personal commitment I put into this blog and podcast for the last 3+ years.

So what does that mean moving forward?

Well, now that I will be pursuing a freelance career of speaking, teaching, and writing, I am going to take a moment to step back and see where this blog and podcast fits in with my overall goals. I would love to get reader feedback. Here’s where I think I am so far:

Previous Content
- All of the 175 episodes will remain as an archive. One thing that I had wanted to do for some time, which will become a nice project for me, is to create a system both for new users arriving at the site, and for all users to get to past projects.

WordPress is not great at archiving, so someone that is brand new to the site might be overwhelmed to see a list of shows, dated in reverse chronological order. What if they are looking for interviews? Or Facebook help? Or iPhone news? They’ll have to search and dig through everything. I have always tagged and categorized my posts very well, so I will need to work off of this.

The model I will loosely base this off of is Pat Flynn over at Smart Passive Income. He uses three elements:
1) When you land at SmartPassiveIncome.com, the top ‘post’ has a ‘Don’t know where to start?’ banner to direct newbies.
2) On his Getting Started page, he explains what the blog is about, and the benefit to the reader, including a video.
3) Lastly, he has a Best of Smart Passive Income page that categorizes all the top posts within each topic that he covers.

The Hopkinson Report — The next generation
- Audio podcast — not sure if I want to keep doing this. The main advantage is interviewing people, which I really, really enjoy.
- Blog — This will most likely remain my outlet for blogging, but the topics may expand
- Video Podcast — I think it is doubtful that I will do a full “video podcast.” The production time is just too much, and my gut tells me there is a very limited market for long form video.
- Quick hit video — What I might want to invest time and effort into is short form video (under 90 seconds). I’d love to create a “set” in my apartment with proper lighting, greenscreen, and illustrated screencapture video from a monitor. That would be fun and effective.
- Mailing list — I’d like to build out a mailing list and/or newsletter.
- Redesign — Short term I will be removing Wired branding, but once the new direction is decided, I will give the site a refresh.

What say you? Please provide your feedback in the comments below or write me via email.

Special Announcement 11-4-2011

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Hey fans… I have an update for you. Friday, November 4th will be my last day at Wired/Conde Nast

As of right now, the future of The Hopkinson Report is uncertain.

There are a few options here:
- Things will go on as totally as normal
- I will lose access to the archives, but continue moving forward in the same format
- The Hopkinson Report might remain, but take on a new direction
- I might do a completely new podcast, with a new name, on slightly different topics
- And yes, there’s a chance, that this might be the final podcast I do. If that’s the case, 175 episodes was a good run and nice number to end on

How will you know?

1) Check here on TheHopkinsonReport.com. I SHOULD be able to do all updates here.
2) JimHopkinson.com should be done by the end of November. Right now this redirects back here to this website, but as you know, I have been documenting how to set up a website using this as an example.
3) Follow @HopkinsonReport on Twitter, as this SHOULD remain my own

This situation has come up quickly, and I will be able to share more in the future.

I want to make some things perfectly clear.
- It has been an honor to do this over the past 3 1/2 years.
- I’ve learned an immense amount about digital media and marketing, hope you have too.
- The people have been the best. I’ve met so many amazing and talented entrepreneurs.
- I am ecstatic about the new projects I’m going to be working on.

Thank you, the listeners. Stay Tuned.

Jim

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.

Jim interviews co-founder and CEO Kevin Hartz of Eventbrite.com.

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This week I had a great interview with with co-founder and CEO Kevin Hartz of Eventbrite.com.

Eventbrite is a simple but powerful tool to manage, promote, and sell out your event. I’ve used it in the past and can attest that it takes the process of planning an event — be it a class, a meetup group, a yoga retreat, or a concert — and makes it simple and professional.

As a user, the interface is clear and easy to understand, and makes it feel like you are buying a ticket from a professional ticket agency.

As an organizer, you can plan the fun things about your event, without having to worry about building an RSVP system, creating tickets, or collecting money at the door.

As usual, for the full interview make sure to download and play the podcast.

The summary below highlights what we cover:

- How Kevin got his start, first as an angel investor in PayPal, then co-founder of Xoom, and now co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite.com
- How Eventbrite is “Democratizing Ticketing,” bringing the tools that the pros use down to the consumer level
- An example of how Eventbrite helped a major technology conference with their ticketing
- Eventbrite’s custom-developed iPhone app that lets organizers scan tickets
- How people with a special skill can run and profit from events using Eventbrite

- Using their motto ‘No event too small, no event too large,’ Eventbrite partnered with the Robin Hood Foundation, a non-profit that raises money for the homeless. Using their ticketing system, they held a benefit concert featuring the Black Eyed Peas in New York’s Central Park for tens of thousands (NY Times coverage).
- Their international expansion into the UK, launching October 25, 2011

- Lessons learned from working side-by-side with his spouse (and whether or not work discussions carry over to the weekend)
- Lessons learned from being a successful entrepreneur
- The #1 formula for success as an entrepreneur

Finally, Kevin covers what he thinks are the three biggest trends in technology and business today:

1) Social media integration

2) Mobile (iOS vs Android, and the transition from desktop to the mobile device)

3) The “Big Data Movement” (Using algorithms similar to Netflix, they can use the massive amounts of data collected on servers to help sell more tickets and enhance the user experience — if you like this event, you might like this; Using data, analytics, and visualization to help fight fraud; letting organizers see information too, with a dashboard that can show things like time period for biggest sales and tickets sold via certain sources such as Facebook)

So whether you are planning a conference, a class, or a kickass birthday party, check out Eventbrite.com.

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

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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.

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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!

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