Scott Smigler's BlogFounder of Exclusive Concepts and Conversions On Demand

A year or so ago I received a random call from a high school teacher asking me to come speak at her school. I said I would be happy to, and I asked her how she heard about me. It turns out she teaches a class on entrepreneurship, and some how my story had made it in the textbook without my knowledge.

The funny thing is that it just happened again. I was browsing Amazon, and I decided to do a search on my last name. I came across a book called Automatic Wealth for Grads… and Anyone Else Just Starting Out by Michael Masterson.

Link

I logged in, took advantage of Amazon’s “search inside” feature, and sure enough I found a passage that tells my story of entrepreneurship. The story was 3 years old, but it was pretty accurate.

What’s strange is that people are using my story without calling me for it directly. It’s kind of fun… but i’m always happy to get a phone call about something fun like this:)

Once, someone asked me what my favorite day of the year is. I thought hard about my answer. New Years is great, because with the passing of a single day you start a brand new year with a blank slate. Growing up on the Jersey shore, the 4th of July has always been up there as well.

For me, however, my favorite day of the year is Election Day. And yes, I know that sounds very geeky, although I’ve always thought of myself as kind of a civics geek.

I like Election Day so much because it is really a day of substance. It’s a day when the people of America have an opportunity to take control of their democracy and cast a verdict that will influence the direction we move in for the next few years. So many people have dedicated their lives to causes that allow us to vote, and many more have died in battle to preserve the rights that allow us to shape a more perfect democracy. To me, voting is not about patriotism though… rather, it is about fulfilling a responsibility to a country that offers its citizens limitless opportunity, and to the people who made that so.

I know where i’ll be the night of November 7 – i’ll be watching the results stream in, eager to learn the direction the people of America have chosen for us. Don’t forget to vote.

I was at a party this weekend and towards the end I started thinking about something that has always bothered me… It takes way too long to say goodbye!

When I am ready to leave a party, or a social gathering, or even a business meeting – the only thing that I can think about is leaving. Either I’m tired, or I’m bored, or I have somewhere to go to, and I can’t think about anything but leaving.

My desire to leave is generally not a commentary on the party itself. I had a good time this weekend with people that I like a lot – but the fact stands that when I’m ready to go, I’m ready to go.

Well, this time, when I was ready to go, I turned to one of my friends and I predicted that it would take our group 28 minutes to leave after initiating the “goodbye” process. Fortunately, my estimation was a little bit off. The goodbye process only took 24 minutes.

I think the longest goodbye process I’ve experienced was at my high school reunion. It easily took 2 hours to say goodbye. I’d make it to the door and then one of the people I was with would get pulled into conversation. Then she would make it to the door and I would get pulled into a conversation. After an hour, when I thought I was free and clear, the husband of one of my teachers pulled me aside… he said, in a skeptical tone, I hear you have your own Internet business. Of course, I answered, “yes.” He then asked me to explain the world of Internet marketing to him, after which a one-hour Q&A session followed. Normally I love to be asked about what I do… but not once the goodbye process starts.

The next time you’re at a party time how long your goodbye process lasts.

I returned from a one-week cruise today. It was a long overdue family vacation. We visited Cozumel, Costa Maya, Belize, and the Bahamas. We were joined by family friends, which made for a big, fun-loving group! Pictures are coming soon, too.

Trip highlights?

- Watching my mother go parasailing in Cozumel (I’m still shocked she got up there)
- Scuba diving in Belize (I highly recommend it)
- Morning Margaritas in the rain in Costa Maya (what a day)

What was also cool about this trip is the sheer fact that I was able to be completely disconnected for a full week. 2 years ago I could barely take a day off without compromising my business. Now, thanks to a great staff and managers, I was able to leave for a full week with the full confidence that everything would go on without me, and that our clients would receive top-notch service as always. It’s just an amazing feeling knowing that I have such an incredible and dynamic team around me.

As for the title of this post, “123 Emails,” that refers to the one negative thing about going away on vacation: coming back. Over the week I received about 1,000 emails, and I responded to 123 of them today. That’s a personal record for me. Fortunately a significant percentage of the 1,000 emails were spam – which means I’m almost caught up!

If the relative frequency of Google searches related to a major news story is an indicator of overall public interest, American people were far more interested in learning about the Rove leak scandal in July of 2005 than the Foley scandal.

The graph below from Google Trends shows the number of times “rove” has been searched for relative to the number of times “foley” has been searched for on Google.

Even if you’re just a casual online news/newspaper reader or television news watcher, you certainly could not have escaped news of these scandals. What’s interesting is that people flocked to Google more in reaction to the Rove scandal than in reaction to the Foley scandal, despite the substancial coverage the Foley scandal is receiving, the proximity to the November election, and the potential that the Foley scandal will lead to the Speaker of the House resigning.

This morning I had the pleasure of speaking at The Presidents’ Forum of Boston, organized by The Entrepreneurship Institute (TEI). The event was attended by over 100 CEOs and Presidents of small to mid-market companies ranging in size from $3 million to $100 million.

There were some dynamic speakers today with very interesting stories to tell. Colin Angle from the iRobot Corporation spoke, as did Randy Papdellis from Ocean Spray Cranberries.

I was fortunate enough to speak on a panel with Sandy Lish of The Castle Group, and Don Kaplan of Kaplan Marketing. The subject: How to use marketing to bring your business to the next level.

An interesting discussion is guaranteed when you bring in the principal of a successful PR firm like The Castle Group, an experienced marketing strategist like Don Kaplan, and an Internet marketer like myself. That goes double when you are speaking to a group of sharp CEOs.

We didn’t agree on everything, but we all seemed to agree that businesses are best served when they take the time to develop a real marketing strategy, such that they approach marketing (PR, direct response marketing, Internet marketing, viral marketing) from a strategic mindset, rather than a tactical one.

I particularly enjoyed my fellow panelists because, although they’ve become leaders in the kind of marketing that pre-dates the Internet, they’ve still spent the time to understand and (where appropriate) embrace the Internet. Unfortunately, a lot of marketers don’t even know what the word “blog” means.

Herb just posted this on our company blog.

I don’t have time for a long post (well, it is fairly long, but it is stream of consciousness… no editing), but I wanted to comment on something substantial that is happening right now on the Internet.

In my last post, I discussed Joe Trippi’s book, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

As the title implied, and as the book discussed, a revolution in media is taking place, and for once, the television set will have a very small roll to play.

Why? People don’t like TV. It’s a push medium. You get to see what media execs want you to see. You get to see what everyone else will like… what has mass-market appeal, as opposed to what you and a few (or many) people like you in the world want to see.

I know what you’re thinking. Everyone has a TV, and people watch many hours of TV every day. How can Scott suggest that people don’t like TV?

The answer is simple: People are hungry for entertainment, and the TV has been their best option.

The revolution that is taking place now… that is at a turning point now… is that the world is being given another option. A new medium that satisfies their individual need not only for entertainment, but for learning, and a whole lot more.

People are being given an option that allows them to decide what they want to watch, when they want to watch it. An option that allows them to participate rather than simply assume the role of spectator.

The Internet is taking control out of the hands of media execs who make decisions based on the needs of corporate America (the people who buy advertising), and it’s putting control in the hands of all of us. In the end, this benefits customers and corporations alike (those who “get it.”) Media execs have a reason to be nervous.

Case and point: Millions of people have watched videos of a young 20-something on the Internet with the nickname “Brookers.” Brookers films clever, goofy, and quite quirky skits of herself and posts them on YouTube.com for the world to see. Brookers is not backed by big corporate dollars… she is backed by her home computer, a $100 web cam, and imagination.

Here is one of her videos:

Now, I can see a 55 year-old corporate executive watching the video and saying to himself… jeesh, isn’t this dumb? That was my first reaction too. But if that is your only reaction… You don’t get it. At least not yet.

Yes, the skit is a bit goofy… but here is the news flash: So are many of us! Sometimes people want goofy, out of the mainstream entertainment. Not so goofy yourself? Don’t worry. MSN has launched a video service that satisfies another need… the need for news. Why wait for your nightly news, when you get get your news, online, whenever you want it? Your news won’t be provided by Internet hobbiests… it will be funnelled in from the TV networks (NBC has already started). Google and AOL have video sites up as well.

Brookers posted her videos, and the people responded. They love her. NBC is scared of her, and they are scared of this revolution. They are so scared of her… the girl who made the video above… that they hired her. They are using her to recruit people like her into an online network, which is a bit scary (big media companies will try to corportize this movement… but I don’t think they will be able to).

It’s all a question of supply and demand. There is enormous demand out there for entertainment… and because Brookers offers a particular, and fairly unpredictable form of entertainment that people want… en masse, she has become very popular. Cable TV stations wish they had as many loyal subscribers as Brookers had… and they wish they had the viral buzz that Brookers has.

This will be big. Companies, large and small who ignore this… who do not pay attention to it, who do not explore it, will miss opportunities at best, and will jeopardize their long-term survival at worst.

Have thoughts? Please comment!

I just finished reading Joe Trippi’s, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” There are a number of things I should be doing on this fine Sunday morning, but I feel compelled to catalog my thoughts having read the book cover to cover yesterday.

This is not so much of a “review” of the book; it is more like a reflection. Here is a brief overview, but if you want to know more about the book – read it!

Joe Trippi was Howard Dean’s campaign manager in the 2004 Presidential election. Trippi has been involved in elections since his college days, working 110+ hours weeks at times to “get his guy in office.” These long hours were typically for the Presidential elections. And since Trippi tends to go for the underdog, these were quite challenging hours.

In his book, Trippi talks about giving the election back to the people. Actually, it’s more like… recognizing that the election BELONGS to the people. He talks about the detriment caused by television commercials, and its 30-second attack ads that inspire Americans to think in 30-second quips, rather than engaging viewers and asking them to think for themselves. Television, at its core, is a “push” medium. He contrasts that with the Internet, which is, at its core, a “pull” medium. One medium creates demand by telling you what you want (TV), the other satisfies demand (Internet).

Trippi demonstrated the power of the Internet when he linked up to MeetUp.com from Dean’s website early in the campaign, and watched as 600,000 people used the MeetUp website to get together offline… and to organize in order to promote Dean locally, share ideas, and clean rivers. That tool, combined with the overall concept of an “open source” campaign that was transparent, and enhanced by the people on a constant basis (helped by blogs, transparent fundraising goals, and e-mail) propelled Dean further than he should have gone… to the point that he was the front-runner for the Democratic nomination.

The genius of Trippi’s management of Howard Dean’s campaign was that he quickly realized that the campaign was riding on top of a powerful bull whose will would not be denied. If the Dean campaign tried to reign in that bull and steer it for its own tactical objectives… ostensibly censoring, or at the very least, controlling its will and objectives, the bull would have tossed the Dean campaign off its back and would have continued on, taking its funds, and its activism with it .

When I was in high school I saw Howard Dean on TV. I thought to things: 1) This man is special, because, as it seemed to me, he would stare down the barrel of a gun before compromising his principles, and 2) It’s sad that a man like this could NEVER be President.

I was lamenting the current status of our society.

Whether you are a democrat or republican, you should be able to respect another man or woman, even if he or she holds views that differ from yours. I can say that I respected Howard Dean as I watched him on TV in high school, and the fact that this man was so close to winning the Presidency, a man with too much integrity and character to EVER have the chance to be President (at least these days)… is utterly amazing!

What took place in Howard Dean’s bid for his party’s nomination is more than a phenomenon. It’s more than an anomaly in politics that future campaigns will learn from in order to raise more money, and foster more supporters in future elections. What took place was a demonstration of something much bigger than that. It proved that people could be inspired to take action. That they would flood in to the good fight. To fight for what they believed in or felt passionate about… to fight to change the world, whether or not they have a chance to win this battle or not.

It demonstrated that if you build it, they will come. And they will come in exponentially growing numbers.

Trippi argues that these lessons are not merely lessons to be embraced by Presidential campaigners, but by everybody… everybody who serves a constituency composed of individuals who share a common cause. He argued that Ford Motors should use the principles of online, Internet communities to allow its customers to work together and build the car they want to buy. The thinking? Who will help you build the more economically viable car… a focus group that represents your customers, or your actual customers!

Trippi argues that institutions, regardless of whether they are political in nature, or corporate in nature… must recognize that change is inevitable, and if you fail to recognize that the people have the power, thanks to the Internet which helps them organize, you will be swept away in their wrath.

This is demonstrated by Dean’s campaign, which is only one of many examples that show how powerful online communities are, and their power will only increase with time. Again… it is simply amazing that Howard Dean got as far as he did… he had no right being so close to victory, and but for people… the minority of people… who allowed themselves to believe in a candidate who SEEMED to have integrity, simply because he had integrity… who allowed themselves to resist the powerful force of cynicism that crushes idealism in so many, Dean would not have gotten so far. Trippi invited the people to the Dean campaign… they accepted the invitation, and were the first ones to the party, and the last ones to leave. They brought the food and drink, and the cleaned up once the party was over. The Dean campaign provided the location… and they did the rest.

That Dean did as well as he did proves the following:

1) There are millions of people in this country who actually do care, who do have a hunger for knowledge, who are open-minded, who are willing to fight for what’s right, who want to change the world.
2) The right candidate, with the use of the Internet, can harness these people that are used to being ignored, who have a hunger inside them to do something positive. These people are the real minority… the thoughtful few with the ability of inspiring their neighbors, and the desire to do so if only someone would listen.

If we build it, they will come. That is what Joe Trippi proved.

Trippi, like it or not, YOU are the pioneer of this movement. You didn’t create it… it is the people’s. But you are one of the first who not only “got it,” but who “applied it.” Who saw it work in the real world.

Where do we go from here?

Since 1998, 4 million people have died in the Congo (aka Zaire) from hunger and disease. Half have been children. Yes, 2 million children have died because they lack food, nutrients, and basic healthcare. Approximately 1,250 people are still dieing each day.

Despite this disaster of monumental proportions, our attention is elsewhere. We’re focussed on sensationalized news stories and life within our respective bubbles.

I’m no better. I’m caught up in my day to day life, and I could be giving more of myself. But apathy should not be an excuse for ignorance, and so I want to do my part in raising awareness, even if its among the very few people who read my blog.

Quoted in the NY Times today:

“About 30,000 children have been forced into militias, while untold thousands of girls have been raped, according to the Unicef report. Children labor under toxic conditions in gold and diamond mines…

One 2-year-old boy, Amuri, struggled to breathe on a hospital bed while doctors and nurses went through the motions – attaching one of the hospital’s scarce pulse-oximeters to his tiny index finger, placing an oxygen mask over his gasping mouth. But they knew it was too late. A few moments later, Amuri’s eyes rolled back in his head, his chest stilled and he was dead. Bring something for us to wrap the boy, a nurse called out.”