Author Archives: Jason

Mark Hovind webinar: Economic Review and projections/thoughts

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I did a really interesting webinar with Mark Hovind a year or two ago about the recession. Instead of the crap you hear about in the news, which is usually influenced by one bit of information and leads to “the sky is falling” or “we’re done with the recession so you should stop whining,” Mark’s analysis comes from studying decades of economic indicators (sounds boring, I know, but it’s really intriguing) and showing trends and patterns.

I’m telling you, this is really, really interesting stuff.

Click the link below to register:

Economy Review: Recession News, Double Dip – Where are we headed?
Join us for a Webinar on November 15

Register here:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/890616194

This is one hour webinar starts at: 4pm PST, 5pm MST, 6pm CST, 7pm EST.

Title: Economy Review: Recession News, Double Dip – Where are we headed?
Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Time: 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM MST

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Browser Cleanup: What I’m reading

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Here’s what I have open… good stuff! I am posting this hear so I can come back to it later, but I want to close the tabs in my browser :p

How Klout got Klout.com (the domain name).  Fun story of an entrepreneur who really wanted the domain name…

The Most Effective Habit For Entrepreneurs – love this because it totally supports one of my most favorite JibberJobber posts from years ago called Substantiate Yourself

Facebook’s Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston. I love this for a few reasons.  First, I hate how everyone in IT/web thinks they have to move to Silicon Valley in order to have a successful business/company. Second, I hated the Facebook movie.  It was dark.  It was shady.  It wanted to make me distrust all-things-business.  I know they haven’t done everything perfect, but where was the playbook?  Seriously.  The stuff in this post makes Mark seem so more real and down to earth and genuine than the movie did. And the quote at the end?  KILLER:

“The biggest risk is not taking any risk…In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”

Amen.

Corporate Branding: The Denny’s Brand

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What does the Denny’s brand mean to you?

To me it means “the place my wife doesn’t want to go.”

That says a lot, doesn’t it?

Check out this TechCrunch post: The Entire $1.65B Acquisition Of YouTube Took A Week, Was Negotiated At Denny’s

I’m guessing that was the largest business transaction that was negotiated at a Denny’s restaurant (happy to be corrected on that one). What a moment of pride, right?

But…..

Steven Chen YouTube founder and super-rich guy, said, about deciding where to have these secret negotiation meetings:

“We didn’t want to meet at offices, so we were like, ‘Where’s a place that none of us would go?’”

Ouch. Probably need to scratch that one off the Denny’s Accomplishments brag sheet.

Branding and Understanding

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Last week I got an email from someone who used JibberJobber to help organize her job search. She gets that part:

“I appreciated your presentation, your tips and your enthusiasm. I used Jibber Jobber during my 7 month job search. It is an excellent tool and I enjoyed using it.”

Awesome!

Then, she said:

“I started a new job on October 3.”

Uh oh. This is usually where they say “I’m good now – see ya later!”  I’m thrilled when my users get a job, whether they use JibberJobber or not, but I dislike how so many put their career management on hold while they have a job 🙁

But Colena GOT IT.  Instead of breaking up with JibberJobber she wrote:

“Having attended your presentation, I now have a reason to continue using the tool even though my job search has ended.”

Let’s go back to the title of this post: Branding and understanding.

I want people to use JibberJobber to help them navigate (organize and manage) their job search.

However, many people somehow miss the idea that once they land a job, they could be unemployed fairly quickly, and they need to do stuff, like grow and nurture their network, and work on their personal brand.

The JibberJobber brand clearly conveys that JibberJobber is a tool for job seekers.

Does it stop there?

For many people, it does.

The understanding of JibberJobber is that it is for active job seekers.

But there are others who use JibberJobber as a relationship management tool:

  • happily employed professionals who know they need to be ready for a transition, even if the writing isn’t on the wall
  • unhappily employed professionals who are worried about a pending transition
  • freelancers and contractors who might have a day job, but also have outside clients they need to keep organized
  • Authors who are interested in self-marketing (since the publishing companies don’t do it for them), and recognize the value of a relationship management tool
  • Small business owners, like myself, as well as professional speakers (like myself!)
  • Songwriters, who recognize that getting a hit song depends on your ability to network, as well as your talent,
  • and many others…

Job seekers see one facet of the brand, and they understand some of the potential, thinking they understand all of the potential.

This is a HUGE issue for all companies… companies who have clients who don’t “get” what they do.

This is a HUGE issue for job seekers, who have branding issues.

How do YOU help your clients/audience understand your brand, your offerings, and your value?

This question can help your job search end faster, or help your company grow bigger.

Ignore it at your own risk.

101 Alternatives to a Real Job, Bees, Speakers

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Wednesday night I was listening to the great Mark LeBlanc speak to about 50 professional speakers on how to “grow your business.” More on that later.

I normally don’t day dream, but at the break I had a conversation with Brad Barton about making money as a beekeeper. I asked him how much money you could make, and his answer surprised me. I was excited to include it in my new book, 101 Alternatives to Real Job.

When Mark LeBlanc started up again, I let my mind wander to a future visit with Brad’s family.

I imagined that I was with his kids, we were dressed in beekeeper suits (the kind the bees can’t get through), and someone had a video camera. I thought it would be cool to actually get some video of me for one of the chapters… somehow a few bees got in my suit and started flying around, and I got a few stings.

It was kind of comical, and a bit scary (this is one of my I DON’T EVER WANT TO BE IN THIS SITUATION scenarios), and I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing during Mark LeBlanc’s presentation…

Ah, the mind! It’s a beeeeeautiful thing :p

If I never would have been born…

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A few days ago I was talking to my seven year old daughter, telling her the story of a time when I could have died.  (she likes the story, and requests it often)

She said, “wow Dad, I’m glad you didn’t die.  If you died, we wouldn’t be here!”

I said, “yeah, mom would have married someone rich, handsome and a good singer!”

She says, “DAD!  You are that!”

“I’m what?” I ask…

Her reply: “You are rich!  You own your own company!”

Yes I am.  Very rich 🙂

Freemium Models: Must Read

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I am doing some research on freemium models, and specifically the upgrade page (technically, I’m looking for design ideas to enhance the “user interface” (aka: UI)).

I came across an excellent must-read post for anyone who thinks they want to do freemium, written by John Greathouse, who was involved in the precursor (?) to GoToWebinar  (BuddyHelp). I can’t find much info on BuddyHelp… but hey, that was internet eons ago.

Anyway, John writes How To Make Freemium Customers Generate Revenue For Your Startup. Go read it, as he seems to have identified a lot of pitfalls that you can avoid.

Competition Sucks. Or Does It?

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When I started JibberJobber, there really wasn’t any competition.  I’d get on the phone with a career center and they’d say “wow, that is brilliant!!”

No one had heard of a relationship manager just for the job seeker (job search CRM).  It was novel.

That was good and bad… bad because I had to educate people on what it was.  Job seekers didn’t immediately get why they should use such a heavy duty tool.

Then, I got my first competitor.

I have to say, I hate competition. I hate losing, and I hate having to compete.

But everyone said “competition is good!”

I thought “I’d rather not have any competition.”

This week, by Tuesday morning, I had learned of TWO new competitors in the job search CRM space.  One is ____ and the other is ____. (nope, not going to link to them :p)

Are these two competitors going to be good for the space?  For our clients?

Who knows.

Before they came along, over the last five years, I’ve seen about 9 others come out.  I refer to them as “me-too” plays.  They mimic or copy JibberJobber.  One even got a software team to develop accounts on JibberJobber so they could rebuild what we had.

Two of them are now out of business.

They couldn’t figure it out.

Another one, I’ve been told, doesn’t “get” the job seeker. I heard that from a user of mine who started using them.  They don’t “get the job seeker like I do,” I was told.

Is that my competitive advantage?

No, but it might be a component of it.

Competition – good or bad?  I don’t know.

But I do know this: I have a window of opportunity, and it will only be open for a period.  I have to take advantage of that, because when it closes things are dramatically different.

I saw that with my last company.  We tried, the window closed.  End.

Not this time.

I know a song that gets on everybody’s _____

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My five year old daughter couldn’t stop singing this phrase over the weekend:

I KNOW A SONG THAT GETS ON EVERYBODY’S … NOSE, EVERYBODY’S NOSE, EVERYBODY’S NOSE!

How cute is that?

She also calls an ear worm a “head worm.”

Why?

One day a great song came on the radio (I don’t know which one) and she said “TURN IT! TURN IT!  That song gets stuck in my head!”

I said “oh, that’s called an ear worm… when you can’t get it out :)”

Taking one word from her description and one word from my description, she said, “I don’t want a HEAD WORM.”

Love it 🙂