Dan Schawbel: Personal Branding as a Gen-Y'er

I was cruising through Entrepreneur.com, looking for an interesting article to read and write about. I came across an article about Dan Schawbel an incredible, hard working entrepreneur. Schawbel is 27 years old. Being 24, I try to find stories relatable to my demographic and/or experience; It helps me to gain insightful advice from someone similar to me about possible challenges. Schawbel being from my generation, I was very excited to read, “How a Gen-Y’er Launched a Personal Branding Firm” by Young Entrepreneur Council.

Dan Schawbel’s road to entrepreneurship started in 2007 with a blog dedicated to personal branding. That turned into a magazine titled about the subject. His work gained him a job at a business magazine as an “up-and-coming personal branding expert” and a promotion at his full time job to social media specialist (that’s right, he was holding down a full time job, while blogging, running a magazine, and contributing to another publication). All along, Schawbel gained attention within the field of personal branding. In 2009, he wrote Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future. Finally, as of this year, Schawbel turned all of his work into Millennial Branding LLC and quit his full time job.

Russia Wanted a Makeover, an Ad Makeover

Does a country need an ad/marketing agency? I didn’t think so until I read “Selling the World on Russia (Leaving Out the Spies)” by Andrew Kramer. It turns out that Russian Officials were so concerned about it’s worldly image and the affect the image had on opportunities that, a few years, they hired various agencies to work on this image. The article profiled one of those agencies, Adore Creative, and Rupert Wainwright's, its CEO, adventure working with Russia.  Adore Creative’s job was to create a video for the 2013 World University Games, the 2014 Winter Olympics,  and the 2018 World Cup, three videos in total.

Russia wanted to shed the stereotypical images of its country. Wainwright wanted to “normalize” the country within the ads because “If people see that sense of normalness, he said, ‘the country will de-demonize itself’” But it wasn’t so simple for Wainwright. The Russian Officials were zealous on shedding Cold War images that their idea for the Olympic video was “a black-and-white montage of post-Soviet street protests and the Berlin Wall falling down…”, not very appealing as a promotional video. They also wanted to include a host of their philosophical ideas and imagery. Wainwright eventually worked with the tough demeanor of the officials to create videos which, along with the other work from the other agencies, helped Russia to earn rights to host all three of the games they submitted videos to.

The article presents a country as a client as a potential clash of ideals and a challenge for the agency.  Having contributed to Russia’s win to host all games is an accomplishment for Russia and the ad/marketing agencies which took them as a client. Wainwright stuck well to his guns; giving the Russian officials what they hired Adore Creative for, the ability to host three international games, three opportunities for Russia to reshape its image on a Worldly stage.

Tech Companies & Wi-Fi Failure

 I’m used to using Wi-Fi in coffee spots, campus libraries, classrooms, and in my home, whenever a random signal comes my way from the strip of restaurants near my apartment.  From my experience, the largest crowd I’ve had to share a connection with was a class of maybe 100 students. If I went to a tech conference, especially one hosted by reputable company, I would expect Wi-Fi and I would expect it to work well, regardless of the amount of people at the conference. Well, according to Verne G. Kopytoff’s “Wi-fi Overload at High Tech Meetings”, Wi-Fi often fails at such conferences.

Within the tech community, tech conferences are the norm. As expected, attendees come to the conferences with all of their Wi-Fi capable devices and usually use Wi-Fi during the event. Due to large attendances, hundreds or more than a thousand, the Wi-Fi connection usually fails or slows immensely. According to Kopytoff, this happens a lot, these are two of his examples: last month at Web 2.0 summit, attendees got to hear from various tech power players, unfortunately the Wi-Fi failed; and at the unveiling of the iPhone 4, Steve Jobs’ presentation was delayed due to overuse of the Wi-Fi. The conclusion is that Wi-Fi is not for large crowds.

Economy Got You Thinking about Direct Sales?

In this tough economic climate or, at any time, in which you felt light pockets, direct sales may have crossed your mind. Maybe not that exact term, but you might think of someone who sells Avon, Mary Kay, or any other product which is sold door to door, through personal contact, and/ or sell “parties”. Direct sales have a mystery to it. On one hand, those recruiting sellers boast the flexibility and lucrative income. On the other hand, some direct sellers do it as extra income, which questions if it is lucrative enough to be the main source of income. Michelle Goodman peeled back a little of the mystery in her article “Direct Sales: Golden Opportunity or Hype?” on Entrepreneur.com.

The article starts with a profile of direct salesman, Elvi Valenzuela who, within two years of joining his mother in direct sales, makes $12,000 a month.  Success? Well, according to the article, Valenzuela works 40 hours a week and just started to make the income he reported. Amy Robinson, spokesperson for Direct Sales Association states: “the median income for direct sellers is about $2,400 a year” or $200 a month.

Goodman gives three guidelines to think about when concerning direct sales:

Be Realistic about Sales

Set Your Own Hours

Weed Out the Scams

The conclusion about direct sales: it is hard work and will take time to build towards a lucrative income, if one is possible. There is no legal magic product that will give you the income often thought of for direct sellers. So, if you plan on venturing into the field and want to successful, plan on staying for a while.

"Net Neutrality" Means...

Tuesday the FCC approved “Net Neutrality”. It is suppose to guarantee internet access for all consumers. I read Wall Street Journal’s “Internet Gets New Rules of the Road” by Amy Schatz and Shayndi Raice and “Most of the Internet Grumbles about FCC Net Neutrality Rules” by Jennifer Valentino-Devries to get a better understanding of the meaning of the passage.

For consumers, internet providers “can't block legal content from websites, or ’unreasonably discriminate’ against companies like Skype or Netflix that want to use broadband networks to provide video or voice services” (Schatz and Raice). Although, Schatz and Raice’s article mentioned providers attempting to create a pay tier system for internet usage. “Net Neutrality” creates more transparency about such pricing. In fact, providers have to provide more detailed information about all pricing.

For internet providers, they have been given the right to manage web congestion. Meaning that the loophole to providing service is if disruptions are part of “managing” congestion. The providers were also given permission to create a pay tier system.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Colleagues Rating New Woman Hires

Accounting Firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) of Dublin had a very interesting tradition for new women hires. According to “Accountants Caught in E-mail Chain Rating Female Employees” by Mary Plummer, a few junior male staffers would email a top 10 list of the women based on their attractiveness and it included their photos. This email was then forwarded to other men in the company. The women on the list were entry-level employees.

PWC found out about the emails due to the story leak in an Irish newspaper. Unfortunately, for the women mentioned in the emails, their photos have been published in newspapers throughout Great Britain and Ireland.

The response from PWC is from spokeswoman Johanna Dehaene:

"We're taking this extremely seriously at the highest level of the firm… We obviously regret this has happened…the impact has been compounded by the printing of the photographs”… [Dehaene] adding that the company has met with the women several times. "The focus here at PricewaterhouseCoopers is on supporting the women."

This incident brings about two important topics: work environment and privacy.

Skype: Moving On to More Markets

 Skype. It is very popular and well known. Many friends and family members “skype” across long distances. Oprah even uses it now to talk to Guests not present on her set. Skype users who talk to other Skype users pay nothing to use the service. But if Skype users contacted non-users, Skype gets paid. According to “Skype Looks for a Spot in Offices and Cellphones” by Verne G. Kopytoff, Skype wants more paid users, the wireless industry, and a piece of the business communications industry.

After seven years, being brought and sold by EBay, Skype has a new CEO, Tony Bates. His previous job was “[leading] [Cisco Systems] enterprise, commercial and small business division”. His plans for Skype are ambitious. The company only has 6.5% of consumers paying. Not a very appealing outlook for investors as the company has filed for public offering. Here is the gist of the plan presented in the article.  

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DVR Users & Advertisers

DVR users are watching commercials. When DVRs emerged, the marketing industry believed consumers would take advantage of the fast forward button and skip commercials. “The Myth of Fast Forwarding Past the Ads” by Brian Stelter reports the Nielsen Company clarified to marketers that DVR users, who playback programs within 3 days of recording, have increased their commercial viewings by 44%.  

This is great news for advertisers. The only issue is they must modify their advertising to appeal to those users watching commercials up to 3 days after their intended viewing. The article reports some advertisers are advertising early – using ads relevant for longer periods of time. The other tool has been to use contextual ads, ads using aspects of shows during which they advertise. The example used by Stelter is Toyota commercials during “The Walking Dead”. The commercials use zombies, the main subject of the show. The other great example is the various Superbowl commercials which all connect by using some reference to football.

The best part of this DVR user demographic: it is the ideal audience for advertisers. According to the article, the demographic includes young watchers and more financially set consumers, as DVR users are cable subscribers. Now, advertisers can rest assure that they have an audience and we, the audience, will watch more relevant, interesting ads. 

Is Video On Demand Trying to Kill the Theatre?

Just as consumer demand has given rise to Netflix and caused problems for the cable industry (wrote about this topic in post Netflix vs Cable/Media Company), NY times Brooks Barnes reports it has now encouraged video on demand (V.O.D) for newly released films. His article “A Hollywood Brawl: How Soon is Too Soon for Video On Demand?” states that while movie theatres have 120 days of exclusive showing for released films– some studios want to put those movies on V.O.D. in 45 days. Thus, cutting theatre exclusivity down to 75 days.

For major studio produced movies, theatres are not happy with the idea of losing exclusivity and possible ticket sales. For independent films, theatres have been a little more open. According to Barnes, within the independent film industry “experiments with the timing of video-on-demand have been occurring for some time.” Considering that independent films usually have limited releases in theatres, theatres can gamble a little more with sharing films with V.O.D. The case study for the article is the film “All Good Things”. The film was actually released first on V.O.D, in which the film made $10 million in sales. Then in theatres, “ticket sales averaged about $19,000 a theater — a strong performance by specialty film standards.”

Theatres might be willing to work with the independent film industry, but with major film, that future is not to close.  Many within the film industry spend a lot of money and time making theatre-ready films. Blu-rays and HDTV have given at home viewers the ability to get theatre-at-home experience but it still isn’t the theatre (unless you are the few lucky who have actual theatres in your home). Also, according to article, V.O.D could run from $10 to $30 per rental. This price is the same as movie theatre ticket prices. Movie theatres will fight for their right to 120 days of major studio films and their consumers might not be so easy to give up the theatre experience considering the only convenience is watching from home.

Résumés: 10 Overused Words

LinkedIn told CNN and now CNN’s Mark Millan is telling you… these are the most used keywords on résumés:

1. Extensive experience

2. Innovative

3. Motivated

4. Results-oriented

5. Dynamic

6. Proven track record

7. Team player

8. Fast-paced

9. Problem solver

10. Entrepreneurial

If you believe these words rightfully express you and your résumé, take the time to describe the qualities that define those terms, or review your résumé to see if it expresses the terms without the need to mention it. For example, “extensive experience” is very unnecessary considering the résumé is your experience. On LinkedIn, you have the option of making your entire experience available (compared to physical résumés which are usually capped at 1 or 2 pages). Therefore, “extensive experience” is repetitive if the résumé speaks for itself or exaggerative if there is no actual extensive experience. 

One last important point: don’t pay to have your résumé done, especially if you cannot afford it. Résumé and career books are resourceful investments, but don’t pay someone to actually do your résumé. Taking the time to research résumé advice can lead to you learning valuable ways on making a great résumé. Also, you might be able to access free résumé tips from career professionals either working for your state or at colleges/universities within your area.

Music Blogs, the Music Industry, and Government Seizures

The government seizure of Limewire and other programs accused of copyright infringement has extended to blogs. I recently read “Piracy Fight Shuts Down Music Blogs” by Ben Sisario and found that music blogs, which “leak” anticipating music, have been seized. The featured blog in the article is OnSmash.com whose founder Kevin Hofman told his side of the story. Well, it seems that the website seizures might prevent “copyright infringement” but also disrupts a marketing business model amongst recording labels, managers, artists, and music bloggers.

According to the article and Hofman, the way his blog works is that, most times, he is given exclusive music by labels/managers/artists. The purpose of which is for Hofman to “leak” or post the music so as to create virtual buzz about said music or artist. Similar to the way celebrities give exclusive stories to magazines. Hofman is well known and accepted with some of the artists the government is accusing him of stealing from. Thus, creating a conundrum: “While the Recording Industry Association of America wants to shut them down, the rank and file of the record labels — particularly in hip-hop circles — uses them as marketing tools and publicity outlets.”

Johnson & Johnson: Recalls and Succession

I previously wrote Johnson and Johnson recent recall in “Johnson and Johnson: Recalls Do Not Help”. In that article, I expressed the belief that J.&J., as a whole, just didn’t get the impact of the recalls on their brand. It seems J.&J. finally got the point. Yesterday, NY times Natasha Singer reported in “J.&J. Puts 2 in Line to Succeed Chief Executive” that J.&J. had made moves to promote two executives, one of whom will succeed the current CEO William C. Weldon. While “a company spokeswoman said in an email that Mr. Weldon ‘has no plans to retire'”, according to the article, Weldon had taken criticism for his handling of the recalls that plagued the company.

The two promote executives are:

Ms. Sheri S. McCoy. She will be vice chairwoman of the executive committee. New responsibilities are “to supervise the pharmaceuticals group; the consumer group, which includes the McNeil unit; and corporate affairs.”  Thus, McCoy will be handling the source of the recalls, the McNeil Unit.

Mr. Alex Gorsky. He will be vice chairman of the executive committee. New responsibilities will be “to oversee the medical device group, the global supply chain and government affairs.”

Big congratulations to the new junior partners. The article gives a brief history of the two’s history in the company and they should be proud of themselves. As for Weldon, who doesn’t plan to retire, he doesn’t have to retire to be replaced. With these two promotions, the company has rewarded good work and made it publicly clear that they have handled the recall by strategically placing people in positions to take over if Weldon becomes useless. 

Let UBS Tell You How To Dress

When I initially read “Dress to Impress, UBS Tells Staff” by Elena Berton, I laughed. UBS is in the process of refreshing their brand, appearance being part of the brand, UBS published a 43-page dress code for their staff. The funny part of the story is some of the codes previewed in the article are so similar to appearance advice people are usually afraid to say straight to the offender's face. Such as, for women, "Make sure to touch up hair regrowth regularly if you color your hair" and for men, warnings "about using hair dyes to mask their advancing age, since 'artificial color contrasts excessively with the actual age your skin'".


Seriously, I think its sad when companies have to micro-manage hygiene and appearance, especially 43 pages worth. But UBS probably wanted to prevent an "I didn't know" moment with employees who are not aware of expected standards. Some people don't know obvious standards of the work place or the strict standards of a particular company. Let this be a lesson: appearance is essential to all brands, including personal brands. You will be judged by your appearance, in almost all aspects of the job, from interview to promotion. So, in an interview or training, don't be afraid to ask detailed questions about dress code standards.

Netflix vs. Cable/Media Industry

Is there a war between Netflix and the cable/media industry? It’s obvious that Netflix is a major competitor to the industry but I didn’t know the detailed issues between the two entities until I read “Time Warner Views Netflix as a Fading Star” by Tim Arango. The success of Netflix has angered the cable and media industry. The opening of the article spells it out:

“For the past year, executives at big media companies have watched Netflix with growing resentment — for its success in delivering movies and television shows via the Internet, for its stock price nearly quadrupling, for its chief executive being named businessperson of the year by Fortune magazine.”

When Netflix came out, it was great for media companies as the consumption of mailed DVDs lead to the purchase of them. At the time, DVDs was a major revenue stream for the movie industry. Now, Netflix is streaming media content at a low price, which translates into very low revenue for the companies who license the content.

The cable industry is incensed because many people are choosing to opt out of cable, leading many to suspect content streaming is to blame. While the “cable opt out” or “cord-cutting” can be attributed to networks that provide online episodes, Hulu, and Netflix, all of the anger is solely targeting Netflix. Arango did point out that Netflix was able to get licensing deals at great prices, including a $25 million a year deal with Starz, well below the price the cable industry pays. This also leads the industry, including CEO of Time Warner Jeffrey Bewkes, to believe that Netflix was given an unfair advantage.

Silly Bandz: Feeding a Trend

Have you noticed colorful, shaped rubber bands seen on many tweens and young children? Those decorative bands in the shape of symbols, animals, and other outlined objects are a trend. I’m not exactly sure the actual spark of the trend. What I do know is its popularity has sparked other rubber bands within the market. The original multicolored, cheap, shaped rubber band, in the American market, is by Silly Bandz. Rob Croak, the creator of Silly Bandz and its supplier Brainchild Products (BCP) Imports LLC, was featured on Entrepreneur.com in “Trend-Spotter: The Man Behind Silly Bandz” by Tim Beyers.

This entrepreneur got the idea by seeing similar bands in Japan (which is the reason I state Silly Bandz is the original in America) and felt it would flourish in the American market. Thus, he started Silly Bandz and now, is the main supplier of this trend. The most exciting part of the article is reading the ways in which Croak finds success within this trend. We all know trends can last long but, with children and tweens, trends can last for a small moment before another eye-popping item comes along.

Johnson & Johnson: Recalls Do Not Help

What’s going on with Johnson & Johnson? The other day I found out another J&J product, Rolaids, is being recalled. The first thought in my head was “Again?”. According Parija Kavilanz of cnnmoney.com, “13 million packages of various Rolaid medicines following consumer complaints of foreign materials, including metal and wood particles” were recalled. The response from J&J McNeil division is that it's a third party issue. Days before the recall, Kavilanz wrote another article stating the FDA warned J&J to get their act together and still found more violations.

At this point, I do not care if it is Johnson & Johnson or their third party affiliates who are feeding the problem. The heart of the matter is Johnson & Johnson is the face of the problem and therefore, this is their problem. Considering the power and established brand of the company, J&J needs to do a better job to control their recall situation. It seems the FDA, congressional hearings, and consistent bad press is not enough for the company to act better. Stating the problem as due to a third party sounds like an excuse. It could be true but unfortunately, the string of recalls has now rebranded J&J an untrustworthy company. 

Etsy: Bringing Back the Story

Etsy was featured on Nightline last night. According to the program, Etsy has 400,000 sellers, 6.9 million members, and $273 million in sales. These statistics are only a small reason for the feature. Etsy is an ecommerce site solely selling hand made items. The founder and CEO Robert Kalin is a carpenter and Etsy was his way of building a community of people who appreciate, sell and purchase handmade items. He believes there is not enough emphasis on or space for items made by actual people. There disconnection between product and person. With handmade items, people are involved through out the entire sale process. Etsy believes in allowing crafters and buyers to share the story behind the product. For Kalin, such stories are lost within the retail world of machine made products. Kalin has no favor for bigger entities; according to the program, he doesn’t like Wall Street, which clarifies that Etsy will most likely stay independent.

Groupon Founder Andrew Mason Speaks aka Groupon Says No! Part 2.

I was very delighted to read Andrew Mason’s interview with NY times in an article titled “What’s Next For Groupon’s Founder” by Evelyn M. Rusli. I heard that the Groupon founder was quirky but had never read an interview from him. I expected a straightforward acknowledgement of rejecting Google and a clear explanation. Rather than an interview focusing completely on Google, Mason gave a short interview revealing more about himself and plans for Groupon.

Regardless, if you believe Groupon is smart or dumb for rejecting Google, Mason deserves credit for knowing how to dance well in an interview.

“We will also emulate Amazon in the sense that we don’t talk about the competition.”

“Luckily we don’t need to say anything. We just need to keep running our business. Most people don’t understand — I’ll just leave it at that.”

Opportunities and Your Résumé

Last night, I decided to catch up with my guilty pleasure, “Real Housewives of Atlanta”. During the most recent episode, one of the “housewives”, Sheree, is making moves towards her acting career. She was previously taking acting classes and had been given some “good” news by her acting coach. Her coach had gotten her a play to do; it’s unpaid and would only require two weeks of commitment. Sheree’s response (to the camera): she is a grown woman with grown bills and two weeks of her time is asking a lot. Sheree was also informed she would need an agent and her coach got her an agent audition. At this audition, the agents asked Sheree a few questions regarding her experience. Sheree had done two plays. When asked which plays, she could only remember one and forgot the other. This prompted one agent to ask did she enjoy doing the play she forgot.

Unpaid Opportunity

I understand doing free work is not always appealing, especially when one cannot afford to do so. I have certainly been there. I support myself completely, which leaves me with little opportunity to do unpaid internships/jobs. I do this blog for free but it’s done on my own time, from home. But, I have never been offered a two week unpaid job that will further my career. Two weeks is a small enough commitment for some people to do. Sheree may have grown bills but Bravo does pay its reality stars and she has been on the show for three seasons. Actors and actresses are often asked to do unpaid work so as to build their résumé. If your career is important, you have a job, which will not be jeopardized by a two-week commitment, and you have two weeks to spare, take the opportunity. Two-week unpaid résumé-boosting opportunities are not always available.

Your Résumé

I know my work history. When I interviewed for my present job, I spent the night before and the hours leading up to my appointment rehearsing my résumé. I reminded myself of important dates, great moments, challenging moments, and anything about my work history employers typically ask for and want to know during interviews. So, I was disappointed in Sheree, who claims to be serious about her career, for not remembering her previous work. You should always know your history, especially for a job interview, networking events, and job fairs. Your history is about you and during interviews, employers/ agents do not know you but expect you to know yourself.

You don’t have to care about the show to understand my main points about it (the show is not business oriented so watch only if you like drama). The points are to evaluate opportunities relative to résumé boosts it can give and your ability to commit to them, and failing to know your résumé translates into a failure to know yourself and disbelief in claims that you are serious about your career. 

Alicia and Others are Alive Now! Was It a Fail?

Previously, on World AIDS Day I wrote Alicia Keys is Dead! Social Entrepreneurship is Alive!.  Within this post, I made the prediction the campaign would be over in about a day or so. I did the math; the campaign wanted $1 million, at $10 per person, the campaign needed 100,000 individual donations. Alicia Keys has more than 2 million Twitter followers and not to forget Kim Kardashian, Jonelle Monae, Lenny Kravitz, Elijah Wood, and many other celebrities also joined the Digital Death Campaign. Therefore, only a small portion of their followers needed to donate. The campaign ended yesterday, almost a full week since it started. I have read some people consider the campaign a disaster because it took longer than expected and half of the donation was given by billionaire Steve Rahr. While my prediction was wrong, the campaign still received $500,000 from fan donations. But I will choose to give both the half glass full and empty observation.

Glass Half Empty:

Despite not giving personal tweets, Alicia Keys still tweeted about her death and where to make donations. When I hear of Digital Death, I assume a real Digital Death as in no tweets, whatsoever. So maybe, the tweets seemed as if the celebrities were bluffing and couldn't stand being "dead" for long. Stick to your guns during a campaign which is dependent on your actions.

Fan did not donate the full $1 million. For some people, it seemed arrogant that celebrities would believe Digital Death could be a good motivation. Maybe some fans didn't care so much if celebrities died.

Glass Half Full:

Fans did donate money, half of the requested amount. Some fans did care or maybe some people felt $10 was not too much to ask for charity regardless if they cared about their celebrities being dead (which is my category as I donated $10 and couldn't care less about celebrity tweets).

The campaign created major exposure for Keep Child a Alive and was a very creative. It encouraged other non-celebrity people to sacrifice their lives for the charity, which can be seen if you go to buylife.org, the campaign's website Any social entrepreneur can appreciate positive media buzz surrounding their cause.

In The End..

...it was worth the try considering the exposure and the participation of some fans. I do not consider the campaign a fail. This was the first major public campaign for Keys and Keep a Child Alive. Not every first attempt is going to be a complete success, especially when its for charity. While I agree the celebrities should have seriously digitally died, I'll choose to look at this campaign with a "glass half full" perspective and hope that social entrepreneurs do not become discouraged but inspired. I believe those who consider the campaign a failure are basing it on the celebrity factor and Keys not reaching her $1 million goal from her fans. From a strictly business point of view, Keys failed at her goal but through Keys and others only sacrificing personal tweets and Facebook time, her charity received at least $500,000 before Steve Rahr donated the rest. Even if Rahr did not donate his share, Keep a Child Alive gained $500,000. That's $500,000 the charity didn't have last week. I don't consider the campaign a complete success but partial fail for the celebrities and success for the charity.

What are your thoughts? Was it a disaster? A success? Both? and Why?

AT&T + iPhone = The Worst Carrier

AT&T is now the worst carrier. Or, so Consumer Reports says. Today, I was informed so by the article of the same leading sentence from cnnmoney.com.  Almost half of the AT&T subscribers surveyed are iPhone users. Most of them stated the most dissatisfaction. This being sad news considering the mobile carrier gains “2.6 million wireless customers last quarter, half of whom were new iPhone customers”.

What I fail to understand is why AT&T did not come out on top considering the near perfect conditions? While all companies were preparing for touch screen phones, Apple was the first to premiere their iPhone, to great fanfare. This grand premiere was exclusively granted to AT&T followed by the next models and the new iPhone 4. The article stated about 6 million AT&T subscribers are iPhone users. 6 million new customers, within the last three years, all because AT&T had the iPhone. So what does AT&T do with exclusive rights and millions of new customers? They provide mediocre service. Their service fails to match up with the technology of the iPhone. Thus, their biggest critic becomes these users.

AT&T’s Response:

"We take this seriously and we continually look for new ways to improve the customer experience," said Fletcher Cook, spokesman for AT&T.

It might be too late. It might be three years and millions of angry iPhone users too late. In 2011, in a few months, Verizon will sell the iPhone. While AT&T iPhone customers defect and Verizon gains new subscribers, the rest of the cell phone industry and customers will scratch their head wondering the reasons AT&T failed on a great opportunity.

Divorce Lending. A New Industry?

Stacey Napp went through an 8 year divorce battle. The process of paying for her defense within the battle was funded through personal loans from her family and friends. She walked away from the battle achieving the settlement she wanted and a new business idea. She started Balance Point, a divorce lending company.

The company is about a year old and according to "Taking Sides in a Divorce, Chasing Profit" by Binyamin Appelbaum, is already funded from investors and has already lent out "$2 million to 10 women seeking divorces". This is a new company venturing within the world of legal lending. It has been able to receive support due to being based in Los Angeles, which has a lot of expensive divorce battles.
Her purpose: the lending provides the client with an even battleground as legal fees can become expensive forcing the client to not fight as long as the other (former) spouse. The audience are "people with marital assets between $2 million and $15 million" and those who wish to reach an end to the battle. For proft, Balance Point does not charge a fee but takes a percentage of the settlement.

I just love the way in which this company has been created. The use of experience as an appeal is personal and will seem endearing to prospective clients. According to Appelbaum, unequal legal representation in divorces is very common. It is not as if the company is feeding divorce but providing an obvious solution to a common problem. The means of profit through percentage of settlement as opposed to fees means clients are not stuck with a lot of fees and the company stands to profit much from high profiled divorces. The caveat will be clients who do not go forward with divorces, long divorces, and small settlements. The company has yet to make profit but Napp should be commended for turning a personal experience with a common problem into a business. Appelbaum's article left me wondering if legal lending is a new industry ready to emerge or a hidden one not given much attention.

note: I'm not trying to make a point about divorce but about the business.

Groupon Said No!

By now, you should know Groupon has turned down Google’s almost (so far reported) $6 billion offer for the company. The basics: Groupon is a high valued site, which brings together retailers and consumers so as to offer good deals. Through the website, people are able to share such deals using social media platform. Google wanted to purchase the website expected to have a value of $1 billion for supposed $6 billion. Groupon turned down the offer.

People are left wondering the reasons would Groupon give up the chance to let Google take them over. Recently, I read "Google's Groupon Groping Reveals the Shifting Power in the Web World" by Paul Smalera". Smalera gave a web dichotomy perspective for the turn down. Smalera stated Groupon is a social website where as Google is more search oriented and has not been so successful with social ventures. Groupon might feel better being acquired by Facebook (if they were interested) or any other giant social media company, which could then integrate better with the website. The other point made is Groupon would want to be taken by which ever company could mature it the best.

Smalera’s perspective is very fascinating but when I first heard of the decline, I observed from a different perspective. The control perspective.

Some entrepreneurs are start-up junkies. This is a term I took from the reality show of the same name that goes behind the scenes of a start up. The CEO of the company, Ron Weiner had started up various companies and sold them for high value. Some entrepreneurs start companies with the intention of eventually selling. Other entrepreneurs start companies and intend to maintain control of their creation. This intention might explain Groupon’s decline.

Groupon might want to stay independent and maintain control over the progression of the company. As far as growing, Groupon might believe it can help itself grow more and that continuing to do so under their control, the company could gain more value. My point is we can’t always assume such a decline is due to a defect in Google. Simply put, maybe, Groupon doesn’t want to have a Google takeover.

Groupon was supposedly in negotiations for a week. So I could be wrong; Groupon might just be bluffing or waiting for the next bidder. I’m just offering a different perspective. But remember this: Just because an entity is bigger, more powerful, and has more capital does not mean everyone wants to be owned by them. There is enough space for many web based companies to thrive and the natural progression of the web should not be eventual takeovers of smaller companies by bigger ones.

Note: For references to Google and Groupon, the links go to crunchbase.com. I just discovered this database of tech info. Its similar to a wikipedia for technology. 

The Apprentice: Lessons to Learn

The Final Two Ended Up Being Clint and Brandy

Trump felt that Liza was not able to defend herself well during the numerous times she was in the boardroom. First lesson of the show: know your elevator speech. I talked about this briefly on my last post "Networking is a Job". All three were asked the reasons they should stay. Clint exclaimed "I'm a CEO in a box" and went on to name his credentials. Brandy also named her credentials and experience. Liza had a more subjective approach, deciding to talk personally about why she should stay. Compared to the other two, her elevator speech was not as compelling. As I mentioned, Liza has a problem defending herself (maybe that will be another post), and at this moment, where she was one step away from leaving, her elevator speech should have been on point. I clearly saw the reason she was sent home.

The Task

Team Clint, consisting of Mahsa, Steuart, and Poppy will be running the dinner gala with Liza Minnelli as the performer

Team Brandy consisting of Stephanie, Liza, and Anand will be running the VIP golf tournament

Team Clint

Clint realized he took on the larger task of handling Liza Minnelli's rider, the list of items a performer requests present in their room before performance. Clint admitted he wanted to handle the larger task so if the task was done successfully, he would seem like a bigger winner . Everything was fine. The signage is ordered, most items on the rider are obtained, and an outside caterer had been hired to handle Liza's food. Then, the caterer backed out last minute. Clint and Steuart were then left to find a company able for the job. While catering to a handful of people is not a big issue, doing so the day before an event is a problem as most catering companies were booked and had no room to take on another order. But this is not Clint's fault, unlike the next issue. 

During the apprentice, when I was just about to tweet about Liza, I immediately went to my google bar and googled her last name.  Clint did not that for signage totalling $4,000. Mahsa discovered the mistake and thought it was one poster but she and poppy realized it was the everything. The team only had $1000 to $1400 left. This leads to the next lesson: don't misspell important names.  Liza is the star; you don't want to piss her off. Maybe Liza will give her famous laugh and take it as joke.  But the misspelling will look bad to the guests and Trump. I'm not a star but I remember when a corporate executive commended me on a "job well done" and spelled my name wrong. My name was also spelled wrong on the company website. I took it in stride and still enjoyed the moment. Still, I was left thinking how could an executive not double check the spelling of someone's name. I wasn't "google-ble" but Liza Minnelli is well known. This mistake left me in shock and very disappointed in Clint. 

Team Brandy

From the beginning, Brandy leaned heavily on Liza who is a golf  player and formally, part of the Kenyan golf women's team. Brandy had no knowledge of golf or the way in which a tournament is run and gave Liza much room to give her expertise. Brandy doesn't know anything about golf, but she did not have to consistently tell everyone. Next lesson: Do not play dumb. Even if she knew nothing, she should have kept her confidence and done some research for information.  It's okay to have a more skilled person than yourself working for you. But you must still place yourself as the leader. Not every leader is an expert, but leaders must exhibit confidence.  When Don Jr. came to assess the progress of the team, Brandy failed to speak. Instead, Liza and Stephanie spoke for her. 

The task moved along. Then, Brandy comes up with this big idea to ask Trump who he would like to play golf with. Before I even knew his decision, I knew this would be a problem. Never make promises you cannot keep. So let's say Trump wanted to play with Kathy Griffin. Brandy would have to assume Kathy Griffin does not already have a partner or other plans which would deny Trump his wish to play with her. Then, if Kathy did not wish to play with Trump, Brandy would have to get back on the phone and say to Trump "Sorry, I promised you your partner but I failed". So, what was Brandy to expect when asking Trump the question? Trump picked Liza, who had earlier proven her golf skills. Unfortunately, Brandy would be one person short during the big event. Brandy and Stephanie sat there with "oh god" looks on their faces because they realized they made a promise and they cannot break.

The last moment for Team Brandy was the photographer who went to the wrong Trump National Golf Course. The photographer stated Brandy did not confirm the correct address and he was two hours from the correct location. From my experience working with outside contractors and facilities, I have had people lie when they make mistakes. So, I will not say for sure Brandy failed to give the correct address. I will instead state the next lesson: cover your ass(ets). Brandy should have emailed the address to the photographer, texted the address, or given the address over a speaker with her team in the room. Therefore, if the photographer made a mistake, there would be someone else, an email, or text to confirm who was at fault.  Either way, Brandy started her event, a person short and a photographer late. 

My Prediction: I have none to give. At the half way mark, I thought Clint was doing well. With both teams having vital problems, I was left with no clear winner. 

Networking is a Job

I remember the first networking seminar I attended on my college campus. I went because I knew nothing of networking. While my family is big, I have a small immediate family. I didn't know any family friends with access to jobs and/or opportunities. When I went to college, I met friends whose families had careers I wanted in the future. But I never, ever pursued a friendship hoping to get an internship or job offer. I never asked the family members of my friends to discuss their careers. It just seemed so opportunistic.

As I began to read more business related magazines, this networking term came up so often. Considering my background, I thought I was a sore loser at having come from a family of no opportunity. So, there I went to this networking seminar. I was told about the alumni student network where I could contact alumni in a particular field. Then, I was told to never ask for or hint to wanting a job/ internship. I was confused. If a student interested in my career contacted me, wouldn’t I assume they wanted a way into this career field? Is networking just talking and acting as if the purpose is not an opportunity? Or is it a way to access opportunities? The seminar didn't answer my questions.

I eventually learned networking skills; Mainly through my experience working in the catering equipment department of a catering company. The group of people I worked with was small and I got to know so many so well. When I left, I knew I could always depend on them. I learned networking is often about keep up with friends but when an opportunity is relative to a friend, this friend would probably want access to it. The rest of my networking knowledge came by reading, listening and watching more on business and careers. One immense amount of knowledge has come from, Tom Henschel’s “the Look and Sound of Leadership” podcast. Such podcasts as “Elevator Speeches” “I talk too fast” “Networking” “Act ‘as if’” and many others are very helpful. Henschel is an executive coach and his podcasts are free. Go to itunes or his website for access.

This week, I read “Five Ways to Take Charge of Your Own Networking” by Ivan Misner on Entrepreneur.com. The article was a guide to being the networking expert or Chief Networking Officer of a small company. Misner's point is, most likely, an entrepreneur is their own CNO and he gives five guidelines:

1. Participate in two or three networking events each month, and follow up with people you meet
2. Touch base with past business contacts by making two personal phone calls each week
3. Use postcards and greeting cards to stay in touch with people throughout the year.
4. Take good care of your database
5. Always thank your referral partners

I won’t go into the details of each guideline as the article is thorough enough. Misner is speaking of networking as a career and business necessity. It is also for individuals. While we are living vicariously through technology, word of mouth is still a strong networking device.

I am still learning to network, slowly building up my contacts and gaining more confidence in representing myself to others. One important aspect of networking I learned is being able to represent myself and learn my own elevator speech. That is, being able speak confidently about myself, present myself well, and to, within a few minutes, fully explain who I am, goals, and purpose. Most times, all one has is a few minutes to gain an great opportunity.

Las Vegas Ranked 5th Worst Economy in the World

The lights. The strip. The hotels. The casinos. The reflection of the Vegas Strip lights off a windshield. This is the definition of Las Vegas as shown in movies, shows, and commercials. Being from Los Angeles and loving all things real estate related, I have been such a fan of Las Vegas business. From “Flip That House” locations in the city, former reality show “Caesers 24/7”, all of the travel channel specials on Las Vegas, and so many other specials and shows dedicated to the city.

Las Vegas represents hospitality heaven, entertainment galore, and gamblers paradise. All of which are dependent on real estate. Las Vegas is nothing without its snazzy clubs and well themed real estate. The city had a booming industry and high valued real estate, making the city an attraction for newcomers to take advantage of metropolitan opportunities in the midst of the desert. Also, Las Vegas was a constant metamorphosis, demolishing and rebuilding its landscape to maintain tourist attraction.

Well... Las Vegas is ranked the fifth worst economy in the world. Brookings Institute and London School of Economics composed a study looking at metropolitan areas all over the world and ranked Las Vegas number #146. It is surprising to find Las Vegas ranked so low but its not shocking to hear the city isn’t doing so well. As the real estate crisis swept the country, cities with highly appreciated real estate were hit the hardest and are still struggling to bounce back to neutral. Las Vegas is one of those cities. Their economy is so dependent on real estate that the crisis halted further construction and deflated property all over the city.

The effects from the crisis:

• At this time, Las Vegas cannot reinvent itself. All of that demolishing in order to create the next grand or modernized hotel is on pause for now. Therefore, halting construction jobs, hospitality jobs, and more tourist money from coming into the city.
• Deflated property. While the low prices are great for homebuyers and developers with great credit and long term plans . The devalued market is horrible for people looking for a place for a few years or developers wanting to develop and then sell. When it hits the bottom, the market can only get better and then slowly climb up. Las Vegas experienced great inflation in the market, so it might not have hit its bottom yet. This means I can buy property today in Las Vegas but if I need to sell and leave in few years, due to a new job or planning a family, I wouldn’t gain any value from selling the property. I might only break even.

I don’t think Las Vegas is done. Truthfully, the city will probably struggle for more years. In fact, the news has been reporting this is true for most major cities hardest hit by the crisis. Stephen Brown, director of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas' Center for Business and Economic Research*, believes the city's long term potential is dependent on the U.S. economy. This holiday season was a major comeback for retail. Soon, people will start spending more on domestic tourism. If the economy gets better, the cities will too, and Las Vegas will begin to move towards positive. Las Vegas is not too big to fail but its legacy and reputation will help it to stay afloat.


*Paraphrased from "Report Says Las Vegas has World's Fifth-Worst Economy" by Maya Srikrishnan and Bradley Blackburn

Alicia Keys is Dead! Social Entrepreneurship is Alive!

Alicia Keys is digitally dead. Today is Worlds AIDS Day.  To raise money and awareness for Keys’ charity Keep a Child Alive for children orpaned from the AIDS epidemic, Alicia Keys and other celebrities are digitally dying. No twitter, facebook, vlogs or blogs for them. When $1 million total from individual contributions has been donated to the charity, they will comeback alive. 

I admire Keys savvy on this project. While the sole motivation for charity donation should be to contribute to a social cause, Keys realizes this isn't so. If it were, charities wouldn’t have to work hard to raise money.  As a celebrity, she is aware that people invest a lot as fans. Millions of dollars of fan money go into tours, music, movies, and any merchandise with their favorite celebs name on it. She figured why not take a break from the digital world and wager fans will donate to keep their favorite celeb digitally alive. 

A social entrepreneur is an entrepreneur who creates a business for the sole purpose of donating profits to a social cause and maintaining the business.  Alicia keys’ passion for social causes have manifested into her being a savvy social entrepreneur. Her project, Digital Death, is an amazing integration of social media and celebrity. Best of all, it is for charity. The marketing campaign has been well thought out. For about a week, the web has been splattered with pictures of celebrities posed in Buylife t-shirts, some in coffins to further spread their “death”, “official” last tweets and video testaments. It should take up to half the day for $1 million to come in. With $10 per fan, Alicia Keys having about 2 million followers, others celebs with thousands and thousands of followers, this event should raise well over 1 million dollars and I hope it does.

*you can go to buyalife.org or text “ALICIA” to 90999 to donate. For more info on the charity go to keepachildalive.org. For more information about World AIDS Day, got to worldaidsday.org. 

source for picture