;)

• don’t just find the influencers directly
• an email to scoble won’t really help.
  • you’re competing in the busiest channel
• in person is the emptiest channel
• don’t be a traffic bigot
• go to thought leaders not just traffic leaders
• big fan of brian obenkirk
• lots of the top traffic readers dig his blog
• indirect endorsement

• it’s quality not quantity
• spending a lot of time with a handful of people and bonding is the key
• those few ppl went out and spread the word
• if you only have marginal interactions who cares
• enthusiasm is contagious

• your pc’s not quite ready yet
• just read these manuals for a bit (?)
• try to get paperwork out of the way before first day
• source control, phone number, project list is sitting there when you show up
• immediate meet with mgr and set expectations
• set a tone with your pace
• here’s the project plan and projected timeline

• start with a clean feature set
• don’t just be psychic on the userbase with features
• don’t just convince yourself it’s good
• you launch with a simple feature set and watch what features people like
• with x-fire we do an update every two weeks based on user feedback
• usability testing:
  • everyone talks about it but nobody really does it
  • just go to some random person and sit down with them
  • tell them to talk out loud
• bring the engineering team in to listen to feedback.
  • you’ll be stunned.

welcome ori

glad we’re in “experimental” eh beppu ? :)

It’s on my local server, though.

WiFi was cutting in and out, so what else could I do?

When I get it moved over to metanotes.com, it’ll be interesting to compare and contrast the note taking styles.

• how to balance with a family life?
• cassidy gets home at 6 every day and goes for a run at lunch
• every day there’s going to be a crisis so i just make myself go
• he has 2 kids, 9 and 11
• very strong negative correlation btw the # of nights a family has dinner together and the amount of adolescent problems
• dinner together is so important

• meals with family and friends
• low expectations (laffs)

• features !
• how do you do your brainstorming ?
• ev: it’s pretty chaotic
• 17ppl always think of features
• sometimes engineers just sneak them in (laffs)
• we’re trying to develop more of a process but i don’t want the process to get in the way
• twitter doesn’t do UI testing but we talk about it (laffs)
• what do we want as users?
  • you can over-analyze and think “it’s going to bother them”
  • you’re a user, what do YOU want?
  • you can take chances with that but still put on the beginner’s mind and think ‘what’s the right thing”
• google’s got that ingrained in the company
• what would solve this problem for me?
• also getting as much feedback as possible
• your users are verbose to begin with and they can loudly demand features from you
• that absolutely figures into it
• get ppl in a room and we do things very visually
• ev writes to figure it out
• he tries to write about it, then we make pictures and then just build stuff.
• no secrets here.

• cassidy is “mr ready fire aim”
• internal team morale issues
• a small team with high morale is very hard to defeat
• if the morale is really high they can go for five months without salary
• my fave biz book is The Six-Day War
  • it’s amazing what the israelis did in 1967
• companies are usually defeated by internal friction
  • staff hates each other and positions themselves internally instead of fighting the enemy
• the key = don’t rush over internal friction issues
• if there’s something happening just talk to them
• the spiral of anger happens sometimes
• sometimes ppl say piss-me-off stuff
  • 80% of the time they didn’t want to start the cycle
• let’s take ten minutes and get happy again

Now I can be in two rooms at the same time – Ori

• it’s not about mistakes
• “i love our viewers” = lewis
  • forum (mine or others)
  • twitter is a huge part (we talk and they at-reply us)
• get out there and talk to the people
• if you’re going to build an audience, you need to BE your audience
• you’re doubling over weeks!
  • how is it spreading?
• we created a loyal audience
• they’ll tell other people
• they found the show and watched all the back episodes
  • then they take it to their office
  • word of mouth
  • getting them involved with other ppl in yr audience

• twitter wasn’t my idea
• he likes products he likes using himself
• built-in marketing angle
  • but that’s not where he’s thinking in terms of exploitation

• start with A and start making phone calls
• “it’s time to find another job” said ferriss to himself

• propels business forward
• focused in such a way that there was no doubt that it was going to happen
• you can’t really fake that
• it has to be real
• that focus you just can’t even explain
• something that pushes you forward

• other than neglecting usability testing?
• what are the biggest time-sucks
• get the best developers!!!!
• find these people and passionately recruit them
• invite new hires over to dinner and send them flowers when they get hired.
• some ppl can make mistakes in getting those key people motivated
• we’re in a hurry but will take good enough? NO. will come back to haunt you.
• “yeah they’re pretty good” is off my list.

google gears :)

no pressure brother

• you should look at subtracting things as a way to improve them

;-)

• even if it has nothing to do with your life
• some amazing golf book got propped

• the pain point of info overload was so acute that they were drawn to a low information diet idea.
• l.i.d. is following the market that was responding to it
• i got drunk and talked about it and it stuck.
• personal outsourcing
  • outsourcing my online dating
  • teams of people in india are getting him dates
• stumbling effort to do video here & there
• at best tolerable

• a book about how to manage sw dev
• not 100% busy
• you’re a lot less flexible
• empty spaces where you can respond
• managing people is easier when you have extra people

• any tips on finding one?
• ferriss: “i knew nothing about social media when i was planning how to launch my book”
• publishers are scared stiff by computer stuff
• he had to find someone to teach him about this world
  • to avoid wasting time on tech fads that pass fast
• keys:
  • be very humble and very upfront about that
    • “i think you’re really interesting because you ask a lot of questions”
    • i ask questions about simple stuff: “what the hell is ruby on rails”
    • then they’d have a tough time defining it which would launch a very cool expert debate.
    • women are better at this
  • if you contact the mentor don’t fake friendship!!!
• the first two lines should be cred builders – that’s the first thing
• who are you and what do you want from me? are the questions they have.
• “here’s my question, i’ve tried this this and this, i can’t find the right answer.”
• expect no more than a two-line response.

• ferriss got in touch with this guy who was writing a similar book
• this author contacted him ten months beforehand so he could review it
• you can pull the trigger easier on a hire if you’ve built the friendship earlier

• if there’s one person that seems out of reach go for it you never know
• how to basically get a hold about just about anybody
• five minutes of goading have gotten responses from CEO of google.
• if you send a fedexed package to warren buffett he’ll read it !!!

• promoting too early is a huge mistake
• the first ten shows you’re going to look back on
• it’s going to be bad no matter what
• we started our show without any experience
• when we started it, we decided to do the show and THEN bought the camera
• the first three months were very difficult
• we were already growing an audience with audio/video sync issues still unresolved
• people still watched b/c it was still early in podcasting
• “get your show underway”

it’s never too early to promote.

just be honest.

you need the user feedback.

• buy lunches
• ev has never grown a massive company

• they liked to bring their chairs with them when they move from firm to firm
• great job of forming relationships without any particular agenda
• three years later you may tap that relationship
• it’s super important to create huge networks
  • 6000 ppl in outlook
• ultimate frisbee comrade got hired and it worked so well
• talent = the key is do it ahead of time by keeping your list
• who would I hire if i could start right now?

• everything’s crashing down on you
• you’re very busy now
• mike: i keep my to-do’s on an excel spreadsheet
• resort it every night
• longterm & shortterm separated
• but don’t focus exclusively on either
• if something’s on the longterm list too long it should get bumped up to shortterm
• get all the shortterm stuff done that day
• ev: ask “does this really matter?”
  • to my business and my future
• the most popular post on my blog is “the art of letting bad things happen”
  • the reality is that every day is going to be a crisis
  • there’s never a good time to do something important
• you have to ask yourself
  • can i let these supposedly urgent things fall?
  • many are just delegated to you from others
  • just to block out everything so as to fix up the one or two things that really matter
  • most things that fail are no big deal because the damage is reversible.
• if you miss a colleague’s urgent sat. night email
• “but, no, well it was really urgent !”
• “make me feel important” is a subliminal in urgent messages

• oh that cracks me up, “analytics masturbation”

• “we facilitate owners of property to rent out their property to renters” – questioner
• look at ZIPCAR
• they got hyperlocal and focused on segmenting and dominating specific neighborhoods
• this is what i did in the tech blog world
• really focusing on a segment and dominate it
• if you have this marginal interaction with different markets or people that’s not a consolidated winning approach

don’t just “feel” productive, actually BE productive.

• schedule something non-work-related that is compelling
• design a lifestyle
• schedule bracketing activities that begin the day or end the day (or workweek)
  • prepay for cooking classes or a personal trainer
  • feel guilty for not going every day

• do anything to explain diff’t concepts
• those concepts were attributed to me.
  • “author of the four hour workweek”
• if people don’t believe in the concepts, it doesn’t matter how much you plug: it won’t sell.

• tons of books on it
• having a few points of contact pays off at SXSW
• don’t skimp on time you spend to get tons of b-cards instead
• that approach fails – you want depth
• meet, then email (don’t call and bother on phone), each email takes 1/2hr to craft (read their stuff)
• make sure you have relevant ideas to tell them about
• i probably got responses from 80-90% of them
• find one feature to promote
  • or “five interesting pages” for that influencer
• make it crystal clear what the connection is

• partner with podshow
• someone who knows what they’re doing in the ad space
• that way we could concentrate on creating the best show possible
• if we don’t have a great show, nothing else matters
  • audience wouldn’t stick
• do we want to go after all of that themselves?

• makes them hesitant to make changes
• respect the wishes of current users
• but it can make you get stuck
• 80% of the right idea but early choices may be loved by early adopters
  • keeps you from the mainstream
• blogger was an FTP tool

• “you’re the expert”
  • that is your world
  • you are the expert in that field
• go out and involve yourself in the community
  • forums
  • don’t just say “i’m an expert, come to me!”
  • go out and answer questions
  • put your sig in it: don’t forget that.
• answering questions is a great way to get involved
• be that person people go to