John's Music Blog

Mike Worhach, President and CEO of Sepaton, walked into the Starbuck’s where I was meeting  Paul Gillin this morning, and said, “Every time I see you, you’re taking notes.” Confirming once again that it’s important to surround yourself with people smarter than yourself, I was having a follow-on to my meeting with Paul last week.  Paul has been amazingly generous with his time, given that he has started writing another book.  I’m eight chapters into his book from last year (2007, for those of you who are keeping track), The New Influencers, and I wanted to pick his brain on how he might be able to help one of our clients.  But I also got an added bonus, which was getting a few quick tips that could make a big difference for anyone.  Here’s one. (more…)

Paul Gillin was kind enough to meet me for coffee on Friday morning.   Paul and I go back a long way.  He played a key role in the success of TechTarget, and I spoke at one of his first conferences, the highly influential Storage Decisions conference.  When we met for coffee this week, Paul  brought with him an autographed copy of his latest book,  The New Influencers , which I am reading, while on a 3-day holiday in Syracuse, New York.   Who wouldn’t want to be in Syracuse, the land of lake-effect snow, in the middle of winter?  But it’s a great place to go to catch up on reading.

 As part of my New Year’s resolution, I’m determined to become more engaged in the “new social media.”  There are a couple of reasons.  The first is that, while I have an enormous network of contacts, I need a more effective way to maintain communication.  The second is that, I have several clients that need a more effective way to reach potential customers and influencers than traditional marketing approaches provide.  (more…)

I added a new link on the resources page of the blog a couple of weeks ago, and thought I would add a post, just to ensure you take a look.  The link is to The Funded, which is an online repository of customer experiences in working with venture capitalists.   The customers are in large part entrepreneurs that received venture backing, or at least sought venture backing.  The site contains commentary of these entrepreneurs regarding their specific experience in working with various venture capital firms. In some cases the postings contain  commentary on individual partners at those firms.  Postings are allowed only by approved writers, and there is a public and a private section.  The private section is viewable only by individuals who are approved to post commentary.  VCs are excluded from posting – along the lines of not allowing the horse to guard the oats.

What I learned in reading through the public and private posts is that there are individuals with some very strong opinions, both positive and negative, regarding particular VCs.   I also confirmed what I had long known: It doesn’t take long to spoil a good name which was years in the making.  And finally, if someone attacks you unjustly, someone else will rise to your defense, but the voice of the attacker will likely be louder.  If you are seeking venture capital, I would suggest at least a review of the site to see what has been said.  It’s not an end point in an investigation regarding a particular VC, but it is a data point. If you are a venture capitalist, I would recommend having someone monitor the public portion of this and any similar sites.  It may provide an early warning to problems in your company’s client-engagement process or in partner behavior.

I had a long conversation with one of my nephews, Mike, this evening.  He had a lot to report, including record sales this week at the restaurant he co-founded with his brother Chris.  The topic turned to one of my favorites, which is “personal brand.”  I’m acting as a part-time mentor for Mike, and I want him to start focusing more on his personal brand.  By that I mean he should begin to take an active role in determining what people think of when they think of Mike. 

One of the suggestions that I made was to consider starting his own blog to begin creating his personal brand, independent of his restaurant’s brand.   He could start it on the restaurant business.  I did a quick Google Blog search and came up with several interesting sites.  But then I asked Mike what he was really passionate about.  Mike is really passionate about cooking.  Certainly his restaurant, Black and Brew, gives him an opportunity to experiment some.  And he tells me they have been changing a number of things in their second year of operations.  These include evolving the drink and food items to appeal to a mixed, more-mature crowd, meaning, not only the local college students, but also the 25 – 45 year old age group.  This change enabled them to avoid the after-college-is-out sales drop they experienced last year.   On the culinary side, it is still a largely sandwich and soups place, however. (more…)

My brother, Ken, has often said, “If you focus narrowly enough and spend a few months researching intensely, you can become the world’s leading expert on a topic.”  The key here is focusing narrowly enough.  As you can tell, if you clicked on the link, Ken became, if not the, at least a leading expert on affiliate marketing. 

Because Ken focused on affiliate marketing, he created something else which is valuable for many of you who are trying to launch a new venture.   He created a community.  And from that, he also created a virtuous sales and marketing cycle.  Ken started with a service, which he developed, sold and delivered by himself. Later, he built training materials and supported the authoring of several books, which, indirectly helped promote the service.  He’s now developed a conference business that helps promote the training materials, which helps promote the service.  More than that, however,  he has built up a community of similar companies and actively promotes and speaks at the conferences of his competitors.  And I’m reasonably sure that he retains at least a small sliver of the revenue that passes through his affiliate program to a competitor.

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We had some interesting conversation around the office this week.  I was doing some research and wanted to see who I knew in my LinkedIn network that might know someone at the company I was researching.  My partner looked at one person’s LinkedIn profile and wondered aloud about how the guy’s current employer might react to reading his profile.  He said, “It reads like a resume’, and it looks like he’s looking for a job.”  So my partner and I talked for a bit about how the world has changed.  Employees may have great company loyalty, but only as long as the company shows them similar loyalty.  It’s not a one-way street.  So employees (and executives) are taking more interest in developing their own network and personal brand, independent of their employers.  If the employees are treated right, their employers will benefit. 

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