Radio Free Enterprise

I’ve conducted scores of interviews of prospective employees and have been aware for years that one should never ask a job candidate their age, marital or parental status, religious or political affiliation, etc.

But it turns out that there are a number of other questions that an employer should steer clear of in order to stay out of legal hot water. Check out this article by Jody Gilbert on TechRepublic to learn about ten questions you don’t want to ask.

Just two weeks ago I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, This Week In Tech with Leo Laporte.

Leo was interviewing a young man named Justin Kan, star of his own lifelong version of The Truman Show on Justin.tv. Justin’s claim to fame? He’s made a commitment to LifeStreaming - providing live Internet video of everything that happens in his life 24/7 from a camera mounted on his head. Sound like fun?

Beyond the obvious privacy and logistical issues, the technology Justin had to cobble together was nothing short of daunting - and expensive. But that was two weeks ago, an ice age in Internet time. Today anyone can do the same thing Justin is (if they care to), with no hassle, at no charge and in no time.

UStream.tv allows anyone with a digital video camera (webcam on up) and a high-speed Internet connection to stream their images live to hundreds of viewers worldwide at no charge.

Just like YouTube and other sites which allow the free posting of pre-recorded videos, UStream.tv will no doubt be filled without a great deal of dubious content. But the opportunity for business owners, sales professionals and business groups to broadcast their live events to the world via streaming video is profound.

And the potential to leverage UStream.tv as an Education-Based Marketing medium is also enormous. I’ll be very interested to see where this new channel takes us in the coming months and years.

I’m not sure whether Jott is revolutionary or evolutionary but I do know that I will be using this amazing new service from this day forward.

Jott combines telephony, voice messaging, voice recognition, email and an online-accessible database to create an amazingly simple yet powerful communication medium that every business owner can put to immediate use.

Here’s how this free service works: You call a toll free number and a robotic female voice asks, “Who do you want to Jott?” You respond “Me.” After a tone, you dictate your message to yourself, then pause to indicate you are finished. In a few seconds the voice says “Got it!” and then you hang up. Shortly thereafter you receive an email with a text transcription of your message along with a link to play the original recording.

You can Jott messages to yourself, to individuals and to groups. For example, in less than 30 seconds with a single toll-free call to Jott, a sales manager can inform his entire team that the sales meeting has been rescheduled.

The Jott web site does a great job of explaining how the system works and the ways that people are using it. It’s easy to register and import your entire contact database.

I’m going to be using Jott to send myself reminders, email customers and vendors, schedule meetings - and a thousand other things - every time it occurs to me, even when I’m on the road.

Just came across this comprehensive list of terms used in private equity and venture capital transactions.

It covers everything from Accredited Investor to Weighted Average Antidilution.

This document is another excellent example of Education-Based Marketing from a site called VCExperts.com You can download the glossary as a Word or html document or refer to it online.

VCExperts.com makes their money by providing information, training and publications targeting people on every side of a private equity transaction. They claim to have over 50,000 users per month.

I can tell you from my own experience that being able to speak the language of private equity is critical for anyone “venturing” into the world of venture capital. You don’t want to find yourself across the table from a Type A investment banker or VC, not being able to track what they are saying. With that having been said, understanding their lexicon is only your first challenge!

Nonetheless, this glossary and VCExperts.com appear to be great resources for you to tap into.

Several years ago I had an idea about posting educational videos on the Internet on arcane but interesting topics like, how to build a roaring fire in your fireplace, how to parallel park, the basic rules of football and baseball, how to bake bread, change a diaper, set a table, make a bed, plant a flower garden, etc.

Each video would be only five minutes or shorter, offering just the essential information you needed along with links to resources for more details. Kind of like a video instruction manual for life. My idea was that users would generate the content and vote on each video’s value. The best videos and producers would rise to the top, attracting the most eyeballs and creating the most advertising revenue. I registered the domain name FiveMinutesOn.com but did nothing further.

Over the past couple of years, multiple companies have come forward with various flavors of this same concept, with greater or lesser degrees of marketplace success. The most recent one I am aware of, is being created nearby to me in Great Falls, Virginia.

Knowlera Media’s approach is to locate subject matter experts of every stripe and then send professional videographers to do 2-camera shoots of them in HD (high definition video). Knowlera pays for the production and editing and posts the video online. The expert gets free video exposure and the ability to post the content on their web site. But Knowlera owns the rights to the content and receives all revenue derived from it.

Their site has not yet gone live but they are already shooting and editing content. My friend Wes Crawford, who is a master musician and music teacher, has contributed his knowledge to a couple of drum instructional videos for Knowlera.

If you are a coach, consultant or other type of subject matter expert who would like to share your knowledge with the world under the terms outlined above, drop by MonkeySee.com and fill-out the form on the Experts page. Then stop back here and let us know what you think.

This is a great way for any business person with specialized knowledge which brings unique value to an engaged audience to do some high-quality Education-Based Marketing - at no charge!

Radio Free Enterprise is intended to be supportive and instructive to business owners and those who wish to become self-employed. So why would I share an article with you that lists the 5 most annoying habits of successful entrepreneurs? To be supportive and instructive.

The article in Fortune Small Business magazine is excerpted from the book “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” written by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter. It outlines 5 behavior patterns the authors have seen displayed repeatedly by successful entrepreneurs, behavior which ultimately impedes their companies’ growth and annoys the heck out of those working with them.

The behaviors include an inability to stop being competitive in every phase of life, having to say “yes, but…” every time someone approaches them with a new idea, and a tendency to play favorites among employees. None of these indicate malice or evil, they’re just human nature for a high-strung Type A personality. But they can be real obstacles to taking a business to the next level.

My suggestion is to read the article and consider buying the book. You might just meet someone you recognize!

How can a small Brooklyn jewelry design firm with no marketing budget capture worldwide attention for their innovative products? By posting a fascinating video on YouTube.

Clearly a big success factor here is the uniqueness and camera appeal of their product. This video contains no words, music or special effects and yet has been viewed over 2 million times. The product literally speaks for itself.

Nonetheless, this marketing channel was not available prior to the explosion and adoption of video sharing sites. Anyone can tap into this. And an increasing number of small business owners are. Call me for ideas on how your company can connect with this incredible marketing opportunity.

Is there an aptitude test for entrepreneurs?

Many people have created tests which purport to tell you whether you have what it take to found and operate a successful small business. But I’m not sure how accurate they are.

My belief is that any human is capable of achieving practically anything, provided that they are sufficiently commited. As for necessary aptitudes, wow… I’m not sure a list that long is appropriate for a blog posting.

The Wall Street Journal’s StartUp Journal has a test that I took myself before sharing it with you. It measures your motivation relative to Achievement, Affiliation and Power. Fortunately, my primary motivation being Achievement aligns me with what the survey describes as “most entrepreneurial people.” Unfortunately, based upon my answers to their questions, I wasn’t terribly motivated by any of these factors.

My guess is that the way they phrased the questions didn’t really connect with me. I only “Strongly Agreed” with two statements and did not “Strongly Disagree” with any of them.

Take the test for yourself and see what you think. Then post a comment on your results.

Several weeks ago I posted a podcast on Radio Free Enterprise on the topic of Touch Marketing. The audio came from a teleseminar I had presented entitled: Touch Marketing for Real Estate.

Below is a 40-minute video of a presentation I made to a small group of successful entrepreneurs who belong to CEO Focus, led locally by DC-area business guru and consultant, Henri Schauffler. These people run businesses which generate between $2 million and $25 million in annual revenue. They get together monthly to share ideas and challenges, brainstorm and hear speakers like myself present on topics of interest.

It appeared as though those in attendance felt they got a great deal of valuable information from this presentation. I hope you will as well.

I reference a number of marketing resources in the video. Below are links to each:

Constant Contact email marketing service

SendOutCards online printing and mailing system for personalized postcards and greeting cards

AudioGenerator system for creating online “Audio Postcards”

I’ve never heard of Todd Brown before. Now that I have, I’m not sure that I’ll buy what he’s selling when he gets around to trying to sell it to me.

But there’s one thing that I know Todd Brown and I agree on: giving away free information is a great way to build your book of business. He and I both believe in and are practitioners of Education-Based Marketing.

Todd has put together a page full of nine free informational videos entitled Habits Of The Top Internet Marketers. I watched the first and second - and half of the third - before I decided I had had enough.

But that’s okay because a great maxim of Education-Based Marketing is that you want your audience to either turn up the volume or change the channel. I chose to do the latter for a number of reasons including the green-screen background effect he’s using, the tone, volume and tempo of his speaking voice, and because I didn’t find myself learning anything new or interesting.

Others will find great value in his message and turn up the volume to 11 by opting into his email list.

The primary point I want to drive home is that Todd is reaching a huge new audience of potential customers by casting his bread upon the waters in the form of potentially valuable information available for the asking. If you’ve watched or listened to any of my information on Education-Based Marketing, you’ll know that I believe he’s onto something.