A lot of people go through life fearing risk. It’s not hard to see why either, risk is a big thing. You can lose a lot and you can gain a lot, but either way you learn something. Now, I’m not talking about the risk that goes into gambling, I’m talking about the risk that goes in to betting on yourself. You know, a while ago I was very much interested in the stock market, I actually came quite close to being a broker a Morgan Stanley, but then one day, I saw the branch manager come into the office and let several of the employees go, one of which hired me. This made me think and then I realized, why do I need to invest in somebody else?
Archive for May, 2008
Friday’s Food for the Soul (Investing in Yourself)
May 30th, 2008
Everything You Do Is Marketing
May 29th, 2008
Marketing is no longer a position that you fill at a company. Marketing is not a television commercial or a radio advertisement. Marketing is not a piece of collateral you send off to reporters, bloggers, or journalists. Marketing is everything you do and every interaction you are involved in.
Every time you have a business meeting with employees, investors, etc. that is marketing. Every time you talk to someone at a bar about your company or service, that is marketing. Every presentation you give and every online and offline conversation you participate in is marketing. I used to work at a marketing agency a while ago that presented monthly reports to clients. At the end of the report the last page would say “thank you.” What kind of marketing is that? Why not let the company know about any news, announcements, updates, or new products/service that you have?
This is crucial to remember, especially for a startup. Everyone at a startup company is marketing, everyone! Startups build their brand and their image based upon the initial interactions that take place between users (press, etc.) and the employees (although they are usually the founders). Most people identify with a company because of the founders/creators. You are the marketing and PR department!
Thanks for reading
Pitch Me? Strike Out!
May 25th, 2008
I find it fascinating that marketing folks still spam pitch me (and other bloggers). I mean we’re talking about people with fancy titles like “VP of Marketing” or “Director of Marketing” who go online, copy and paste their pitch and then hit send. Now, how exactly did you get to be in charge of your [...]
What Can You Learn from Virgin America?
May 23rd, 2008
Recently I flew on Virgin America airlines from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I haven’t flown on Virgin American in a long time and I was pleasantly surprised and impressed. There are a lot of airlines out there that we can all choose to fly on and in fact I usually just fly on Southwest [...]
