Category Archives: Business

Career Dreams vs. American Dream

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I’m busy working on my 101 Alternatives to a Real Job book.  Two days ago I was on the phone with someone and I said something like this:

“We are so busy chasing our career dreams (meaning: the traditional job) that we are giving up the American Dream.”

I thought that was profound, especially as the elements of the career dream has changed so much in the last decade.  Before, it meant steady, secure, pension, benefits, safety.  Today it doesn’t have much more meaning than what you might get as an unattached contractor.

The American Dream, though… ah, the images that conjures up!  Hope, freedom, prosperity, reward for ideas or work… have we lost sight of this American Dream?

Before all the American Dream haters come out, I’m not saying that big corporate greed, or small corporate greed, is part of the American Dream.  I’m saying that a chance to earn a reward, whether it’s on your one acre farm, or on your family’s 20k acre property, is yours for the taking.

The American Dream is not about “what I was born with, so I’m limited,” it’s about opportunity for everyone, if they only want it and work for it.

PR Firms, publicity, advertising, goals and LIES

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I started my business about 5.5 years ago.  I envied any company that got ink on a magazine, newspaper, radio, TV show, etc.

Envied might be too light of a word.  I was full-on jealous.  I wanted it.  I wanted the media to notice the amazingness that was JibberJobber. Life-changing.  Made the old invention of sliced-bread stale and moldy.  My new thing was so very awesome.

I was perplexed that media wouldn’t talk about.  Local media, national, etc.  No one would talk about JibberJobber.  Even when unemployment went up, no one would talk about it.

Well, traditional media wouldn’t talk about it.  I had many blog interviews, podcasts, blogtalkradio, etc.  But I had people say “until I read about it in the Wall Street Journal or New York Times, I don’t care.”

I just didn’t understand.

And then I started to piece the puzzle together.

Traditional media has an agenda.  They write what the *think* you want to read.  They sensationalize.  They dramatize.  It’s not about NEWS, or what’s newsworthy.  It’s about rankings, revenue, ads and your eyeballs.

Why write about a job website they can write about serious issues, like Lindsey Lohan?

After all, that’s what we want to consume, isn’t it?  That’s what sells papers and magazines.  Michael Jackson’s death.  Princess Diana’s death.  That is what we buy.

There’s another part of the equation, though.  What gets printed has a lot to do with the PR firm.  I knew PR firms would charge from a few thousand to ten+ thousand PER MONTH to get stuff in print, or on the TV.  I didn’t have that type of money.

Here’s a MUST read article for any entrepreneur to better understand PR a bit: What some PR firms aren’t telling their clients

I’d like to focus on the last point: PR rarely drives sales.

After my LinkedIn book came out I had a choice experience. US News and World Report wrote a FULL PAGE article on me (that was in their print magazine).  They had a photographer drive out to meet me at a conference I was speaking at.  I was an almost-celebrity. I felt that finally, media was recognizing what I was doing. It was flattering, fun, awesome.

I did not see an increase in book sales or JibberJobber signups.  I saw no measurable increase in anything in my business (I got one speaking gig out of it, which is great….).  For a full-page article I expected much, much more.

And I got nothing.

Except the chance to say I was in that magazine.

My point?  Be careful where you spend your money.  You can spend A LOT on PR.  And that PR might not result in anything more than bragging rights.

Someone tell me I’m wrong.

100% Communication. Job Search, Entrepreneur, whatever…

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I have convinced myself that the job search is 99% communication.

Owning a business, or managing a team, is also all about communication.

Here’s an article that will help you communicate much, much better:

The 5 Words That Kill Potential Sales

Whether you are in sales or not, the impact of this article is profound.  The author presents a word, and then says what to use instead.  The meaning changes significantly…

Do you realize how powerful your words are? They are not “just words.”  They have a meaning… whether you intend that meaning or not.

Aside: my wife was talking to me about something Will Smith said… I googled it and haven’t verified, but think this is it… something about “your thoughts and words have physical power…”

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.

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.

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.