Today I interview Michael Margolis, and he tells us how to tap into your superhero origins to create the most important page on your website – your About Me page.
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Podcast Transcript: 5/10/2011
Hi, this is Jim Hopkinson; I’m your Marketing Guy, bringing you the marketing trends that matter. Welcome!
Today I interview Michael Margolis, and he tells us how to tap into your “superhero origins” to create the most important page on your website, your “About Me” page.
Jim Hopkinson: Hey everybody, this is Jim, welcome to the podcast. Today I have a fantastic guest, Michael Margolis, who is the dean of Story University and the creator of a new program called, “The New About Me.” So, welcome, Michael.
Michael Margolis: Hey, what’s happening, Jim?
JH: So, you’re kind of out on a personal mission to help people reinvent their bio as a story. So, talk about that for a second.
MM: Yeah, you know, I think part of it for me is; I sort of think about this as personal branding minus the icky stuff. I started realizing my own journey over the last few years; I went through a lot of reinvention in my career, and I’d always been a story teller. But part of what was missing for me is I think personal branding, in many ways, it’s sort of has made a lot of us kind of feel kind of gross. Or sort of like, “Ahhh, do I have to be that obnoxious person who’s like, look at me, look at me, aren’t I cool?” Jim, I don’t know if you realize how much of a big deal I really am.
JH: [Laughter] Yeah, do you have a podcast, do you have like an icon with your photo on it, like I do? “Look at me, right?”
MM: Well, unfortunately, actually, I do like, I’ve got T-shirts and I’ve got mugs and I’ve got a manifesto and a blog, and I’ve got all sorts of stuff. But, it’s less about having the stuff and it’s more about your persona and how do you share more about who you are in a way that people can actually connect with you and relate to you.
JH: Yeah, cause it’s really hard right now, a lot of people have used social media to do this, right? It’s a great thing – you can have your own podcast, your own blog, you can have a Tumblr account and do videos, and it’s a great thing and you want to share this, but, you don’t want to be “that guy”, right?
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Three years. It’s hard to believe I’ve been doing this podcast for that long, but on April 16 2008, The Hopkinson Report was born.
Just 2 weeks later on April 30, I recorded my very first podcast interview ever, speaking with Alexis Ohanian about their up-and-coming site reddit.com. It’s interesting to go back to Episode #3 (and 4) and hear where reddit was at the time, and also just how new and nervous I was with the whole process.
So, it was with great pleasure that I got to sit down with Alexis this week for Episode #149 and compare notes, as we’ve both come a long way.
Reflecting back on reddit years later, I asked:
How have things changed since you started reddit?
What would have you done differently?
How did they just pull off 1 billion page views with just 6 employees?
What was reddit’s theory on development and iteration?
What was the key takeaway as a founder of reddit?
Jim interviews Ross McLean, Executive VP / Group Planning Director at ad agency Draftfcb
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Recorded at SXSW Interactive in March, I sat down with Ross McLean, who is the Executive VP / Group Planning Director at ad agency Draftfcb in Chicago to talk all things digital marketing.
In the interview, we discuss:
- Thoughts on SXSW
Our impressions in year 2 (Ross) and year 3 (Jim) at SXSW.
Will it keep getting bigger?
Will it jump the shark?
Where is the conference going?
Will it outgrow Austin?
This week I interview entrepreneur John Murch and his motto, JFDI.
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John Murch is a good friend and well, a lot like me. He’s a geek at heart, a fellow Computer Science major, and his interests include SEO, entrepreneurship, Tim Ferriss, cars, the iPad, SXSW, and helping others with their projects.
We co-founded a meetup group called NYC Masterminds to bring together people in the world of design, social media, internet marketing, programming, and app development, and well, if we could just find some more time away from working on our projects, we’d host more meetings.
The intention of our meetup group was to help people find and develop side projects and get them off the ground.
For me, it was my salary negotiation class, which eventually became an eBook, and then was picked up by a mainstream publisher (Salary Tutor goes live on Amazon on April 1, 2011!).
John has a very different and unique product: uBlanket, a site that allows you to take your old favorite t-shirts and convert them into the ultimate curl-up-on-your-couch-and-watch-The-Dark-Night blanket.
Today’s guest is Erin Fitzsimmons, a graphic designer whose amazing work directly led to a book deal
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“i like type. big type, small type, medium type. fancy or sans fancy. i like what happens when you fuse type and pictures, creating visual worlds for the viewers to explore. lately, i’m happy simply doing something creative before i fall asleep. at the end of the day, i’m just a girl who likes type a bit too much.”
– Erin Fitzsimmons
There are many ways to judge a person when hiring them. You can ask friends for recommendations, view their resume, or check out their website.
But also pay attention to their bio.
A bad example was when a potential intern tweeted to me about a job, and her Twitter bio was “slacker extraordinaire.” #Fail.
But in reading Erin Fitzsimmons’ bio above, how could you NOT think that she would be passionate and incredibly talented when it came to print and book layout.
In this week’s podcast, we cover the following topics:
- Erin’s path from photojounalism major to photo editor to book cover designer
- How Erin and I got connected, and the recap of our first meeting of the minds
- Erin’s process for negotiating to do a freelance job for a book on negotiation
- At what moment Jim closed his eyes, made a wish, and clicked the mouse
Today I interview the amazing Rana Sobhany, and we talk about her new book and how to market iPhone and iPad apps.
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Trying to keep up with Rana Sobhany is sort of like trying to gather up a handful of ball bearings after you’ve dropped them down a steep hill. While wearing mittens. And rollerblades. We were introduced at the opening party of the 2007 Wired Store, and since then there are many words I’ve used to describe her:
- Friend
- Former podcast guest (Episode 38)
- Guest speaker in my NYU class
- Entrepreneur
- Former tennis star
- iPad DJ
- World Traveler
- Speaker
And now Author.
And in fact, fellow author. In the podcast I do a quick reveal that I have signed a book deal and will be developing my own iPad app. But more on that in a future episode.
In this super fun and energetic podcast, we focus the first part on how she got the book deal, and the rest answering specific answers to the question: How do I market my iPhone or iPad app?
Today we’ll talk about a new online coupon service that’s been described as Mint meets Groupon.
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We’ve got an interview this week, the first of 2011.
I talk to Faisal Qureshi of the company Offermatic. With all the hype around Groupon and other competitors, it was great to speak with someone doing something really unique and new in the space.
In the interview, we talk about:
- What Offermatic is and how it works
- Faisal’s background and what led to the founding of Offermatic
- The current pros and cons of “daily deal” sites
Then we get down to details
- How Offermatic offers “Bank Level Security” for your private information, without ever asking for your name or credit card information
- Why they are different than Groupon and other competitors
- How they built their list of beta users before launch
Finally, we have tips for marketers
- The most important thing to know as an entrepreneur
- What we online marketers can learn from his company
This week I ask you to please answer 10 quick questions in my year-end reader survey, and I cover the top trends of 2010 as I go.
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What a year this has been in the digital marketing world. From the continued surge of Facebook and the movie surrounding it, to the launch of the fastest selling consumer electronics product of all time — the iPad — and the disruption surrounding that, it’s been a fascinating year for digital media.
I’m going to ask you a favor. Before you read the rest of this post, please answer 10 simple questions about the show and this blog. Whether you’re a longtime fan, or this is the very first episode to grace your eyes or ears, it’s invaluable for me to get feedback on the direction of the program.
Bonus! One reader will win a Hopkinson Report t-shirt!
I am to do two things with this show…
#1 is to entertain and #2 is to inform.
Those go hand-in-hand. If I keep your attention and make you laugh but you get no value, that doesn’t work.
If I give some helpful hints but bore you to death, you’re not going to stick around either.
Quick example: Q: Why should you do a survey, how do you create one, and how much does it cost?
A: You should put together a survey to make sure you’re continually serving the customer. It doesn’t matter if you’re a major retail business, a publisher, a podcaster, or even a small-time blogger. You want to make sure your customers and readers are happy, and the best way to know that is to ask them. Things change over time, trends evolve, and you want to make sure you’re still on track.
This week we have a rock star guest, Dan Ciporin. Who better than the former CEO of Shopping.com to talk about holiday shopping trends, group buying, and how e-commerce companies can leverage social media?
Dan Ciporin is a partner at global venture capital firm Canaan Partners, whose early investments included match.com and doubleclick. A decade ago, Dan was CEO of Shopping.com where he oversaw growth from zero to over $100 million in revenues in just five years, culminating in the company’s IPO in October 2004 and later acquisition by eBay in 2005.
He was also a Senior VP of MasterCard International, where he was responsible for the marketing and product management of all online global debit products. Now he’s investing in social commerce companies like OpenSky and new e-commerce innovators like Gemvara.
We discuss:
- 2010 holiday trends
The recession… Dan thinks people are ready to buy again (but in a 2010 way, not a 2007 way)
Jim thinks the iPad and Kindle will be far and away the most popular gifts this season… Dan agrees, but adds two more hot tech items
- The origin around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and whether the trend still holds
- Group buying: Trend or here to stay?
We talk about the incredibly successful Gap Groupon case study. Why it was important to the Gap brand overall in the big picture, and what the two things a retailer is looking for when trying to do a promotion such as this (and Jim suggests a third).
- How do e-commerce companies leverage social media?
- Mass customization, the ability to mass produce something that is very unique to each customer
- What is the best way for companies to reach customers?
- What are the best ways for consumers to get deals?
- What trend is happening now, but will be even bigger next year.
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Today’s interview brings together so many things that I love about this podcast… meeting cool people, digging into the mix of marketing and technology that created a successful project, and hearing a great story of an entrepreneur that worked really hard, and with a little luck, some great decisions, and the help of social media, achieved his goal.
In this case, the story is about Matt Rix, a Canadian Flash developer working full-time, that learned how to program on the iPhone, sketched out a puzzle-style game called Trainyard, topped the popular game Angry Birds at one point in iTunes, and by next year, will leave his full time job in order to pursue his dream of developing games and other apps full time.
Along the way, he gives great insight on:
- The evolution of the game
- How he tapped the international market
- The importance of a tutorial in his game
- The best day to launch an app
- How to leverage social media to launch a successful app
- The key turning point for his success
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play the full interview it below:
Below is a full transcript of our conversation:
Jim Hopkinson: Welcome everyone, this is Jim. Today on the phone I have Matt Rix who is a Canadian developer. And the reason he’s on the show is kind of a success story – bit developer, bit entrepreneur, and he’s used Social Media, and the App Store, to develop a game that ended up beating Angry Birds and making some money on the side and he’s going to tell us the story today. So welcome, Matt.
Matt Rix: Hey, how’s it going?
JH: Great, great. So what part of Canada are you dialing in from today?
JH: Excellent, and so, you work fulltime for a company called Indusblue, and there you do iPhone app development, as well?
MR: Yeah, I do iPhone and iPad app development; usually not directly for ourselves, but for big name clients, like TV channels and stuff like that.
JH: And so the main story, though, is you’ve had this kind of whirlwind tour of an app being successful and everyone likes to hear these success stories. Have you been interviewed by any other media outlets or any fame, or just nerdy podcasts like me?
MR: Yeah, just a couple things. There’s been a couple blogs and sites that have done written entries and stuff, but nothing too much yet.
JH: Well, give us little bit of your background, how did you get here, did you have a computer background coming into it, and any kind of entrepreneurial spirit; what led you to this point?
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