Several months ago, I had the chance to go into the studios at the CNet offices in San Francisco to record a session for something called a “Business Book Brief” that runs on cNet’s companion site for business called BNet. The video has been produced, professionally edited and is now online on the BNet site. Check out the video below for a brief introduction to Personality Not Included and let me know what you think.
Sep
16
It’s shaping up to be a busy Tuesday, so today’s post is a guest contribution of sorts from an interview I recently gave to my friend and fellow marketing blogger Mack Collier in advance of the highly anticipated MarketingProfs Digital Mixer that I’ll be speaking at in October. Enjoy!
Q: You’re a very popular speaker and have a constant list of conferences to which you’ve been invited to speak. But it seems there’s a new marketing/social media conference popping up every day,
and for potential attendees it can seem a bit overwhelming. What are a few things that attendees should look for from an event to ensure that they will get their money’s worth.
A: You’re right, there are a ton of events coming up, and it’s tough to choose which ones to spend time at. The most obvious way most people probably evaluate events is by the quality of the speakers who will be there. That’s a measure I use to decide where to speak as well. The quality of the programming is also important in terms of what the session topics are and how the event is organized in relation to what you are most interested in learning about.
The other thing I would pay attention to is the companies who will be exhibiting or sponsoring the event. They have had to do the work to determine if the conference is worth spending money to sponsor, so any
event that can bring in a good assortment of sponsors is obviously doing something right.
Sep
05
This is part of the PNI Q&A series where I share responses to common questions about the book.
I would sum up the difference between my book and others in two words: entertaining and useful. As I wrote the book, I focused on living up to these two themes. I wanted to write a book that was actually fun to read (I know, it’s an odd way to describe a marketing book, but stay with me). To do that, I have more than a hundred stories in the book, from how a small restaurant in DC with just 8 seats creates one of the most unique dining experiences in the world to the story of LiveVault made the intensely technical subject of data storage approachable, fun and viral. The useful part comes from the structure of the book which has two main parts. The first part is the theory of personality in business and has six chapters with lots of stories that you could probably finish in a few hours on a quick plane flight. Along with all the stories are links to guides, tools, checklists and other resources in the second part of the book. That part is all about action and helping you to put the theory of the book to work for your business. This isn’t meant to be just a big “theory” book, it’s all about applying the lessons to your business.
Jun
14
Welcome to all of you BzzAgents who are making it to this site as a result of Frogpond campaign that I recently launched this week. I’ve been reading furiously trying to keep up with the nearly 2500 reviews and comments that you have left about this site and the book and contrary to what you might think, I don’t have a team of people to help read all of them so I’ve been going through all of them myself! From what I have learned so far, there are basically three categories of comments:
- Not interesting - for BzzAgents who are just not into business and don’t know anyone who runs a business or works in business … the book didn’t have much to offer.
- Like the book, but the website was confusing - many people read and enjoyed the excerpt (though many people wished for more content from the book to consume). Others thought it could be interesting, but were confused or turned off by the website.
- Loved it and bought it - this was my favourite category (obviously!) of people who loved what they read on this site or through the excerpts and said they would go ahead and buy the book.
I haven’t done a full analysis, but these categories seemed about equal in their spread (33% each). As I spent some time this weekend thinking about what to do to incorporate this feedback, I decided to focus on two things. The first was to correct some BzzAgents who thought the campaign was run by a big organization (it wasn’t … it’s just me). The second was to offer the second group from the list above more information to hopefully address their concerns and help them figure out if the book may actually be useful for them or someone else they know.
To that end, I redesigned the main section of the homepage to use a better description of what the book is all about. In addition, I’m releasing another book excerpt of material, available at www.personalitynotincluded.com/pnibonusexcerpt.pdf. This excerpt is the first several pages of Chapter 6 and should give even more of an idea of what the book is about. Happy reading and if you’re a BzzAgent and made it here, let me know if any of this helps!
Jun
03
Tomorrow evening at Busboys and Poets in downtown Washington DC, there is an event that I’m particularly excited about for two reasons. First, because it’s a very unique format and will be highly entertaining, and secondly because it’s one of my first appearances talking about the book that will be focused on small businesses. The event is a live edition of Jonny Goldstein’s highly popular Jonny’s Par-tay podcast. For those who haven’t heard Jonny, he’s got a style that is extremely engaging and unique - probably the reason why his podcast is one of the most popular in the DC area. For those of you with longer memories, you’ll also remember that Jonny won the prize for Best Interview as part of my Virtual Interview Contest - so he’s clearly got personality as well and our conversation should raise some great topics. Even if you can’t make it to the live session in DC (it’s currently sold out), you can tune into the show live tomorrow evening (June 4, 2008) online from 7pm EST to 7:40 EST.
During our session, we’ll chat about the necessity for personality, how it works and answer lots of questions from entrepreneurs and small business people about the power of personality. Attendees will also have the chance to get their own signed copies of the book. Also, a special thanks to Network Solutions for sponsoring the event. Shashi Bellamkonda (the “Social Media Swami” at Network Solutions) has been a great champion of the book and has taken on the role of “accidental spokesperson” at his company to help them connect with more small businesses in a really innovative way by participating in social media and hosting events like this one. Thanks to his strong marketing efforts, the session sold out within a couple of days of announcing it. Given the popularity of this event, we’re already thinking of doing another one in DC in the coming months and perhaps expanding the event format to a few other cities as well.
Link Love and Thanks to Sponsors:
May
27
Paul Dunay, a fellow marketing blogger and creator of the Buzz Marketing For Technology Podcast just published an interview we did together a few weeks ago. His show is one of the best for BtoB technology marketers looking for a great professional interview series - I highly recommend subscribing to get all of Paul’s updates.
Below is the transcript and notes from our show: