Let’s face it. We all have PLENTY of ways to meet other people ONLINE.
What we really need are more ways to meet people socially — in real life.
- Studies show that up to 80% of jobs are found through networking.
- Salespeople have long known that face-to-face meetings are crucial. People like to buy from people they like and people they’ve met.
- While online dating has exploded and the chances of meeting your soulmate in a bar after 2am dwindle, the sweet spot of putting yourself in social situations with people you have things in common with is a pretty good option.
- And finally, if we all don’t stop spending 12 hours a day staring at some kind of screen, a little bit of our soul gets lost.
That’s what makes GrubWith.Us, a new service that is using the power of the web and social media to get people interacting over great meals, so interesting.
[Disclaimer: If you despise Apple products, you may want to skip this post. But there should be something in here for everyone.]
Oh man, it’s like Christmas. I can’t contain my excitement. After weeks and weeks of deliberation and research, I just bought a new computer. And since I’m the guy that many people turn to for advice, I’m going to give you every piece of knowledge that I have.
Why should you trust me? It’s in my blood. I’m a geek. I used to buy and read something called The Computer Shopper. Do you know what that is? It’s a magazine that lived from 1979-2009 — with a peak in the 80s and 90s — that advertised computers. That’s it.
To call it a magazine is an understatement. It regularly topped 800 pages! There were probably 5 articles. It was the size of a phone book and just page after page after page of ads. Glorious ads for the latest and greatest computer parts and peripherals. This article by Jason Scott tells more.
So I urge you to listen to my advice – but then make sure you are making the right decision for you. Two reasons. In February 2009 I wrote a curious blog post about buying a netbook and was just as excited, although reading it again now, you can tell right from the title that I was caught up in the hype, not making an informed decision.
Secondly, I decided to buy a desktop. A guy at work that I trust that talks computers with me bought a powerful desktop awhile fairly recently and says he rarely uses it and now regrets it. Apple says that more than 70% of their sales are laptops. Am I living too much in the past? We’ll get to that.
Jim interviews Byron Bennett, owner of a NYC chocolate shop about how a small business uses Facebook, Twitter, QR codes, Websites, and his experience with Groupon.
It’s one thing for media companies to be on social media, but lately I’ve been fascinated with how small businesses are doing this. I met with Byron Bennett, the owner of The Chocolate Library, a small-business in Manhattan’s East Village and we discuss the challenges he faces.
Besides, he just happened to bring along some of his amazing inventory of chocolates from around the world. He tells me that 97% of people enjoy chocolate.
Count me in as one of them.
Summary of Topics covered:
BACKGROUND
- Byron’s background at a wine store before he started this business
- Why wine stores and supermarkets need a kiosk to help shoppers
- The similarities between wine and chocolate
- The effect of luxury goods during a recession
- The story behind the “library” classification in his store, and how he ended up on The New York Times.
Today I interview Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn and self-published author of the religious thriller, Pentecost.
- Download the podcast via iTunes
- Download the podcast to your computer (Right click, Save As) - Play it below:
For the full interview — a must-listen for anyone wanting to self-publish their own book — please listen to the podcast.
Summary of Topics covered:
Joanna’s amazing journey
Joanna Penn has had quite an amazing journey from the UK and a Theology major at Oxford (hence the religious thriller), all the way to New Zealand and Australia, and now back to the UK.
As a full-time IT employee, she started her writing career with non-fiction books such as How To Enjoy Your Job and the basic ways of marketing.
She once tried to do the full-time author route and take an extended period of time off in order to write “The Great American (Australian?) Novel,” and tried signing on with traditional publishers, but it didn’t pan out.
Intrigued with the rise of digital publishing, print-on-demand, and using social media as a marketing platform, she started a blog and podcast called The Creative Penn. Joanna immersed herself in everything going on in the industry, and became a trusted source for information, while also interviewing dozens of authors.
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.
- Download the podcast via iTunes
- Download the podcast to your computer (Right click, Save As) - Play it below:
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?
Jim gives his take from the Wired Business Conference
- Download the podcast via iTunes
- Download the podcast to your computer (Right click, Save As) - Play it below:
On Tuesday May 3 I had the privilege of attending the third annual Wired Business Conference in New York City, “live tweeting” from the @WiredBiz Twitter account.
A lot went on and there were some impressive speakers with fantastic insights.
In the podcast, I look at 6 take-aways from some of the world’s best thought-leaders:
Speaker: Bill Gates
Takeaway: Money+Brains = a good thing
I came away very impressed with Mr. Gates. He said that the amount of IQ being spent thinking about energy now vs 20 years ago is night and day. I’m glad that he is one of the brains thinking about this.
To successfully publish (or self publish) a book, you need the right team behind you. Here are the 10 people you need to know.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
When I announced on the podcast several weeks ago that I had landed a book deal, I promised that I wouldn’t talk about it unless there was a topic that I felt I was bringing true value to you, the listener.
Of course, that’s always in the eye (or ear) of the beholder, but I think with the success of the iPad and the Kindle, the digital revolution we’ve seen as people are producing their own podcasts, videos, music, blogs, and photography with consumer level tools, that there has to be people in my audience saying…
This week I interview entrepreneur John Murch and his motto, JFDI.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
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.
Jim talks Oscars, t-shirts, and four rules for knowing when to measure metrics.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
Sometimes my podcast is a packed information source that includes a rant, and sometimes it’s a rant that happens to contains a few valuable nuggets. As always, the goal is to entertain and inform.
First up in the podcast is an Oscars rant about bad speeches.
What they do wrong
- Utter shock
How the heck are they in utter shock? It seems as if they are not shocked that they won, but as if surprised their name was called at all. It’s as if they were a contestant on the Price is Right!
My problem is, you KNOW you have a 1 in 5 chance of winning! You’ve known this for a month! Why the utter shock?
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