During this evening’s closing keynote speech, there was a running gag about Kevin Pollock selling his badge to people in the crowd. I think in the end he got a nickel for it. So, after the session, I went up to Mr. Kawasaki and offered him $1 for his speaker badge, which he turned around and handed to me with his trademark big smile.
Guy was a fantastic host this evening to an incredible panel. He’s a brilliant business strategist and Author. I think this badge is worth a few bucks to contribute to the #beatcancer Twitter campaign that’s been going on this week at Blog World Expo here in Las Vegas.
What do you think? What should I do with it? Comment or tweet me.
Here’s a clip I took today during this morning’s keynote at BlogWorld, “The Death and Rebirth of Journalism”, with a panel consisting of (from left to right) Joanna Drake Earl (Current TV COO), Don Lemon (CNN News Host),Jay Rosen (Journalism Prof at NYU and Blogger), and Hugh Hewitt (Radio host and lawyer). The panel was moderated by Brian Solis (Principal of FutureWorks).
In this video, Don Lemon is describing his feelings about social media vs. big media.
I should note that Mr. Lemon took a few major checks against the boards this morning at this panel discussion, and in my personal opinion, while some of them were rather tough, some of them were deserved. There were some heated moments when I turned my head to see if there were any security guards in the room. Being that I was sitting in the very front row, not 10 feet away from these panelists, I admit at times I felt rather uncomfortable, uncertain how far people might exercise their obviously strong feelings.
The essential points from the Blogger community amount to that they find traditional media to be slow, cumbersome, incomplete, and not without a certain amount of unjustified self-assurance that comes across as arrogance. The traditional media claims not to feel threatened by social media, and furthermore, they want to work with social media to form a more “horizontal” system of news gathering and distribution, rather than a “vertical” one. “Let us in the loop,..” they ask. (This particular comment inflamed the Bloggers in the audience, who felt that they were being asked to do the “dirty work” of data-gathering for journalists, rather than being treated like equals.)
Another heated point related to the issue of fact-checking. While it’s true that the gatekeepers of traditional media make judgements about what to report based on what they feel will be of greater interest to their viewers (read=have greated ad-selling potential), they also perform an essential task when reporting on events: fact-checking.
Lemon openly stated that of course the system could not be perfect, and it was simply not possible to fact-check every single bit of information before it makes the airwaves. Bloggers however, want it understood that while there are some “bad apples” who perpetuate misinformation, perhaps maliciously or more often simply out of ignorance, most bloggers consider themselves ethical enough to want only to report that which can be substantiated and which they know to be true and accurate.
The debate will doubtless rage on for decades more, but this was a very interesting event for me to witness. As I said, heated moments, which made for stimulating and thought-provoking conversation for the rest of the day.
Here’s a quick interview with Vikram Narayan, President of Freado.com, which produces two great new promotion tools for self-publishing Authors. Think Social Marketing for Authors at high speed.
This 15-minute interview introduces Freado.com and BookBuzzr.com, which allow any Author to promote a book excerpt, promote how to buy their book, and almost any other marketing info you can think of. These tools make it easy for any blogger or website to pick up and display your book, plus, there is direct integration for social media tools like FaceBook and Twitter.
All Authors know how hard it is to drag traffic to your website, but these tools about outreach – it’s about pushing your stuff to where the people already are. As Vikram rightly says, “… marketing your book online consists of a number of small activities that need to be done regularly… making your book extract available on your blog or on your facebook profile is very basic… and this takes your book extract to where the traffic is.”
(Note: I say in the recording that it’s early June, 2009, but it was actually recorded this morning, July 10th, 2009. What can I say – I recently gave up caffeine.)
Last night, my old Rotary Club in Langley surprised me with an unanticipated accolade – I’m now a Paul Harris Fellow.
The Paul Harris Award is the highest award given worldwide in Rotary, and my club chose to bestow this honour on me in recognition of my contributions to the club website, and the website of another special Rotary event. I was one of three honourees, along with my friend and fellow Member Fred Clark and new club Member Ana Sawatzky, whom I don’t know yet, but she sure has great taste in shoes.
As per the Rotary website, “The Paul Harris Society is named after Paul P. Harris, founder of Rotary International. Paul Harris formed the world’s first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, on 23 February 1905. His intention was to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. Today, Paul Harris
Society contributions to The Rotary Foundation support a wide range of humanitarian grants and educational programs that enable Rotarians to bring hope and promote international understanding throughout the world.”
If you are looking for a fulfilling volunteer opportunity, I strongly encourage you to examine your local Rotary Club. Rotary has had a profound impact on my life, and is even responsible for introducing me to my husband of 17 years, as we were introduced by someone in his Rotaract club at the time. Rotary has been not only the most significant and rewarding volunteer opportunity I’ve ever had, but has been a second family for me. I found myself overwhelmed with emotion several times last evening, as I looked around and saw so many friends that we miss so very much since moving to the gulf islands. I only managed to keep it together due to great conversation and fun company. (And, two glasses of wine didn’t hurt.)
To the Members of The Rotary Club of Langley Sunrise, in Langley BC, Canada, thank you so very much for this honour. Please know that I am extremely grateful, and that this award moves me to not just continue, but to expand my involvement within Rotary International.
Listen LIVE this Wednesday and call in with your questions for Rick Passek, author of The Freshman FlyFisher. We’ll talk about niche marketing for self-publishers.
You can call in LIVE with your questions at (347) 205-9352 during the show, which runs from 3:30 to 4:40 Pacific Time on Wednesday December 17th, 2008.
Rick is a really entertaining personality, and I was very proud to edit his book. Anyone who is thinking of self-publishing a niche title really should listen to this interview, as Rick really will tell it like it is, warts and all. See you on the air!
On the advice of his publisher, Unger set himself up on LinkedIn with the express goal of promoting his book. In this 13 minute interview, Unger tells us that over half of the visitors on his website have come from LinkedIn and the group that he started. Within 1 month, he had several of his retail locations sell out of his book, and he had gathered over 600 connections.
Unger’s success is probably about the fact that he manages his cross-connections extremely well. He’s a true Renaissance author, in that his product offerings match his communications, he interracts with his group connections regularly, and he is very good at generally putting himself out there. What a good mentor for new self-publishing authors.
I invite you to call in to the show with your questions from Female Authors at (347) 205-9352. This is a great opportunity to ask a well-respected speaker, author and entrepreneur about your own business.
If you don’t want to dial in live, you can also submit questions via the live chat window available at the link above, or via skype at my user ID: “peggy.richardson”.
Catherine DeVrye is a former IBM Executive who now tours worldwide offering speaking and corporate coaching. She is the author of several books, but most lately the author of Hope Happens: Words of enCOURAGEment for Tough Times, and her autobiography, Serendipity Road: A Memoir, which was nominated for the Australian National Biography Prize. Her books have had positive reviews from everyone from Jack Canfield (author of the Chicken Soup series) to Sir Edmund Hillary. Catherine was kind enough to give me some of her time this past Monday here in Las Vegas.
Catherine here talks about how small and micro businesses, like self-publishing authors, can use added value and good customer service to not only keep the customers they have, but add new ones. And all of this can be accomplished without spending a dime.
I met Catherine a year ago in Sydney Australia, where she has made her home since 1973. But she spent the early years of her life far from there, in an orphanage in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Catherine has a long and extremely interesting biography (click to her site at GreatMotivation.com if you’d like details) which is now told in her autobiography. She has dined with Princes and Prime Ministers, she has cycled over the Andes and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. But she is now best known as a corporate speaker on the topics of change management and customer service.
Catherine’s remarks about not being afraid of change are so important at all times, but especially now as many small businesses close their doors in light of the current worldwide economic slowdown. She makes some very interesting points and offers examples of how even a one-person operation can maintain a successful business philosophy.
Here’s the ebook I should have written, “Getting Real” by 37Signals. This brilliant eBook is about what all of us should apply to our virtual businesses, whether they be about software or not.
For years, I’ve been preaching about “writing backwards”, and for that matter, doing all sorts of business activities backwards. Here is another company saying exactly the same thing. And they’ve done it without debt, without funding, and with only 7 people.
Working backwards means to build any product, service or business and start from the experience of the consumer. What does the customer want to see? What do they need? What is really going to work for them? And, what will they tell their friends about?
This is defined in the book as, “Getting Real starts with the interface, the real screens that people are going to use. It begins with what the customer actually experiences and builds backwards from there. This lets you get the interface right before you get the software wrong.” Sound familiar?
How many of us whined about upgrading to Windows Vista? I know I did. But what was the true problem? I know that my problem was too much. Too many clicks to get done what I wanted, too many features that I never use. Microsoft is stuck with the worst kind of problem – a massive market, so they must be all things to all people. They must design and execute features that will never be used by most people, so that they can keep the specialized applications of their product viable. But the rest of us are not burdened by this, and 37Signals states this clearly, “Getting Real delivers just what customers need and eliminates anything they don’t.”
When writing, building a product, designing a website, and almost any other business activity, we must first consider the reader, the user, and the consumer. They are who we must design for, and for their real, tested, and verified needs. We cannot design for our assumptions about the user. Talk to the user, ask them questions, and test throughout the process. This is why 37 signals will continue to thrive, building products that I use and love.
Teaching children to be writers teaches children to be readers. My clever 2-year-old hopped up the other day into her little recycled school desk, grabbed my desk calculator, and slammed it down on the desktop like a notebook computer. A moment later I heard her little fingers tickling the keys. When I asked her what she was doing, she smartly told me that she was “writing stories”.
Children can write stories as soon as they can hear them. There is a publishing program for children based in Virgina called “Book in a Day”, which was founded (and still run) by Kwame Alexander, who serves as the President.
As per the BookInADay.com site, “…Alexander has worked as a literacy trainer, creative writing teacher, poet-in-the-schools, and writer-in-residence. As an author, he has written eleven books, including Do The Write Thing: Seven Steps to Publishing Success. As a publishing professional, he has published more than 100 authors. Though Book-in-a-Day is a relatively new program, it is an extension of more than fifteen years of his literacy, literary, and publishing work. ‘Our goal is to tap into students’ emotional intelligences, connect with them in a powerful way. By publishing student work, we can open those doors,’ says Alexander.”
The BookInADay model can be used in any school or group for children, thanks to the documentation developed by the program. “In Book-in-a-Day, students learn how to write a wellcrafted poem, or piece of prose, and how to publish their own work for public consumption. This writing and publishing program is built on the belief that students become avid readers and writers when they assume complete responsibility for becoming authors. When students see the fruit of their labor and the response from readers, a permanent reading/writing connection is made that will transform the way they view and appreciate language and literature.”
As soon as my Dolly is able, I plan to use a POD like Lulu to help her publish her own book. In fact, I think she already understands the concept, because when a new book comes into my office, she always asks, “Mine?”
. Other success stories include Tony Eldridge’s 
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Last night, my old Rotary Club in Langley surprised me with an unanticipated accolade – I’m now a Paul Harris Fellow.
is published by Wiley in Canada and the USA, and he’ll be here to talk about marketing, especially for female entrepreneurs and authors.
, and her autobiography, 
, which was nominated for the Australian National Biography Prize. Her books have had positive reviews from everyone from Jack Canfield (author of the Chicken Soup series) to Sir Edmund Hillary. Catherine was kind enough to give me some of her time this past Monday here in Las Vegas.
. As a publishing professional, he has published more than 100 authors. Though Book-in-a-Day is a relatively new program, it is an extension of more than fifteen years of his literacy, literary, and publishing work. ‘Our goal is to tap into students’ emotional intelligences, connect with them in a powerful way. By publishing student work, we can open those doors,’ says Alexander.”