Welcome!

You’ve landed on the blog and podcast page of Jim Hopkinson: The Hopkinson Report.
Let me give you an update in Top 10 FAQ format:

1) What is this site about?

The Hopkinson Report was a blog and podcast that ran just about every single week between April 2008 and November 2013 — 6 straight years and more than 250 episodes!

For the first four years, it was co-branded with Wired.com (where I worked) but then was rebranded from an entrepreneurial perspective, focusing on high energy conversations around career and lifestyle.

2) Is the site still active?

Yes and No. Because of the huge amount of content I produced, the site still receives quite a bit of traffic. So while I’ve decided to stop publishing on a regular basis, you can still browse the archives online and I’ve kept the entire podcast catalog available on iTunes.

3) So what are you doing now?

Great question! I’ve decided to focus almost all of my attention on my salary negotiation business over at SalaryTutor.com. I help ambitious professionals overcome the fear of negotiating their salary, by giving them confidence and the skills they need to get paid what they deserve.

4) Sounds cool. How do you do that?

I actually credit starting this podcast — and doing it for years for free — with many of the skills I now use:

1. Courses: I stayed up with technology and trends, and built several amazing online salary negotiation courses, complete with HD video instruction, downloadable templates, a How Much Am I Worth guide, and Improv-trained actors for the fun scenarios with the Evil HR Lady.
   See post #231: How I launched my online course
2. Consulting: I got incredibly good at interviewing people, seeing how they tick, and recommending a career and negotiation strategy through 1:1 consulting.
   See my Interview archive: Episodes where I interview people
3. Writing I developed my writing chops, which led to a book deal with Grand Central Publishing.
   See Post #141: How this podcast landed me a book deal
4. Speaking: I got great at presenting, so now speak on career topics.
   See Post #74: Public Speaking Tips with Mitch Joel

5) Are you still on Twitter?

Of course! You can follow me @HopkinsonReport

6) Will you ever do this or another podcast again?

Sure! I loved the long-form podcast format and am totally open to starting this back up or doing another one in the future. Ironically, since I stopped, podcasting has had a big resurgence.

I listen to about 10 different podcasts right now, with my favorites being Tim Ferriss, Smart Passive Income, Adam Carolla, Bill Simmons, Tropical MBA, Sleeping with the Boss, New Business Networking, Eventual Millionaire, and Internet Business Mastery.

If you’re a business looking to sponsor a podcast, or have a podcast and need an experienced host, drop me a line.

7) What else are you working on?

The great thing about being a “solopreneur” is that I have the freedom to pursue multiple projects, usually around new media and career development. In addition to my salary negotiation business, I write for Salary.com and SUCCESS magazine, teach social media at NYU, teach blogging and Twitter for Mediabistro, and run the occasional Reboot conference.

One thing I’m really excited about is taking the knowledge of building my own online courses and helping other thought-leaders and entrepreneurs build out their own platforms. For example, in early 2015 I served as editor, producer, and director on a great course by a legendary screenwriting guru, so contact me if you or someone you know is looking to bring their content online.

8) What is your favorite post?

Like a father with 250 children, it’s hard to pick my favorite. But for obvious reasons, I really enjoyed my in-depth posts on travel:
How to work remotely from Buenos Aires
How to work remotely from Thailand
Travels to Japan and other Travel Tips

9) Who was your favorite guest?

Once again, I can’t choose just one, although you can take a look at my top 15 interviews. The main takeaway was the awesomeness of meeting cool people doing cool things anytime or anywhere, and always having the following line in my back pocket: “The work you’re doing sounds amazing… would you like to be a guest on my podcast and talk about it more?”

10) So what do I do now?

• Probably the best place to start is my Archive page, where you can search the site, browse by category, and see my top 15 episodes and interviews
• Follow @HopkinsonReport on Twitter
• Send me an email to say Hi (or bye)
• I’d love it if you’d sign up for my mailing list over at SalaryTutor.com. Not only will you get my Negotiation Mindset course free, but you’ll get some fun advice and career tips from me delivered right to your inbox.

Thanks to all my fans, followers, readers, and listeners over the years. It’s been a pleasure and I’m sure I’ll speak with you soon.

– Jim

Find out what revenue streams are key for short and long-term growth.
– Download podcast: Via iTunes | Save to computer (Right click, Save As)
– Play it below:

Cashflow

Cashflow might be the most important element of any small business. You can have a great business idea, be an incredibly hard worker, and have all the mentors and connections in the world, but unless there is money coming through that door on a consistent basis, the business isn’t going to last too long.

How many times have you read about new startups and their burn rate, which is defined by Wikipedia as “a measure for how fast a company will use up its shareholder capital… if the shareholder capital is exhausted, the company will either have to start making a profit, find additional funding, or close down.”

For an individual entrepreneur, it works the same way. If the cash flow isn’t coming in, they might have to borrow money from friends, find more clients, borrow on credit cards, or go back to working a full time job.

In the pursuit of wealth and building a business, I propose that there are 3 types of income that solopreneurs should strive for:

1) Consistent Income

Consistent income is what feeds the bottom line of the business, and frankly, pays the bills. This is money that you can count on to come in without fail month after month, serving as a baseline for basic expenses.

Let’s look at some examples:
Joanne is a talented web designer. She left her full time job last year at a major publishing company to go out on her own and build her own business. Because she was so specialized in what she did and her old company really loved her work, they agreed to keep her on retainer, paying her $3,000 per month in exchange for being available to do small projects such as ads, banners, emails, templates, and website design projects as they come up.

Read the rest of this entry »

Verbal and non-verbal tips to getting paid what you deserve. See our special course bundle.

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

Body + Mind

A tilt of the head, a subtle glance, touching a certain part of the body… there are dozens of tiny micro-expressions that people make in every single conversation that project meaning – all without saying a word.

Mastering the hidden science of body language can give you an enormous advantage when building relationships, meeting new people, or even going on date.

Combine this knowledge with tips on how to negotiate your salary, and it can also make you some serious money.

That’s why I’m so excited that I had the opportunity to partner on a project with Vanessa Van Edwards, a published author and behavioral investigator specializing in body language and human lie detection. She writes for the Huffington Post and has appeared on CNN, the Wall Street Journal and Business Week, speaking to audiences around the world on nonverbal communication. See more of her work at ScienceofPeople.org.

Together, we created the video above explaining four key tips that combine my expertise – salary negotiation – with her expertise – reading body language – to supercharge your next ask for a raise or promotion in your job.

Four steps to asking for a raise, and the body language cues that go with them.

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Why it’s important to sample.

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

The Perfect Life?

Imagine a 42-year-old man named Sam. When he was a kid, his father, an insurance salesman, would take him out for vanilla ice cream. He was very good at math in high school, and in his senior year he met his sweetheart, Karen. On their very first date, he took her out for vanilla ice cream.

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Remember back when a field trip meant everything?

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

Asking Permission

Although I feel like it’s a phrase that’s been used a million times, I still remember the first time someone told me, “It’s better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.” It was an executive at ESPN and remember him saying it with sly look in his eye, as if we were getting away with something. And maybe we were.

Take a second and go back to your elementary school days. For months on end during the school year, the routine was the same… you rode a big yellow school bus in the morning, you worked your way through the same structured class schedule every day, the same teachers taught the same lessons about history and math and science that had been taught to the kids last year and the years before that, and you ate the same boring lunch in the same cafeteria.

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