Saul Colt - The Smartest Man in the World!

In 2010 I hope you all become a F.O.S!

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 16:19:00 +0000

I had an interesting chat with Krista Neher the other day about some ideas I am playing around with around SXSWi and ways to build the brand and make a huge splash for Thoora.com (for those not paying attention, Thoora is what I am up to now and it is awesome so please check it out) and Krista asked me an great question.

"Are you looking for the attention to go to Thoora.com or to yourself?"

Krista is crazy smart, knows me well and is no nonsense so coming from her this is a perfectly reasonable question. My answer (obviously) was I want the attention to go to Thoora and I want it to live up to it's potential but at the same time I want people to know I helped get to where it is because I have an ego, I want to be the guy known for building brands and communities and also know from experience that girls are attracted to success.

So in an effort to build my own brand a little and get one step closer to fulfilling the dream I spelled out for Jewish Santa I have decided that all year (2010) I will be offering a cool item to people who self identify themselves as a "F.O.S." (Friend of Saul).

For the first part of the year any time I travel (starting with this week to San Francisco) I will have with me two "F.O.S." iPhone cases and to get one all you need to do is be one of the first two people who ask!

Pretty sweet deal huh?

I chose iPhone cases because they were not only cool but it was the one item I could think of that I could put my face on that P.Diddy has ever graced (we are now competing)

These are top notch cases and will protect your phones with the same style and class that I live my life but in the future I see these cases getting you the best tables at restaurants and invites to fly in private jets...but that will still take a little time.

So if you see me at a conference etc make sure you say hi and let me know if you are a Friend of Saul!

I am an award winning Word of Mouth marketer!

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:54:00 +0000

Over the holidays my friend Pete Cashmore (yes ladies, we are friends and he is just as handsome in real life) wrote a post about how there was currently 15,740 "Social Media Experts" on Twitter.

That is a ridiculous number and one so big that it would almost be impossible to differentiate yourself within. This kinda makes me feel a little sad for all these experts because it takes a lot of hard work to be an expert at something and to have so many others with the same expertise you could almost make an argument that there is no expertise in actually becoming a Social Media Expert.....and that is kind of the point.

Social media is just a set of tools and a mindset that can be learned quite quickly with very little guidance. Pick up Mitch Joel's, or Chris Brogan/Julien Smith's books and you will have the foundation to start experimenting. If you are looking for help ask questions before you hire people and since there are so many of these experts out there be selective and remember you are the client with (hopefully) clear objectives beyond "We need a Facebook Fan Page" and always remember the wise observation I dropped on a group of folks recently while speaking on a Social Media Panel for Media Bistro and that was "all it takes it takes to become a SME is Get some business cards"

You may be saying to yourself that I am writing this because I am pissing on the ground and marking my territory but in truth I have never been a Social Media Expert nor do I want to be because the designation is far too limiting for what I do.

I am an award winning Word of Mouth marketer who happens to understand Social Media and uses it as a way to create interesting and talk able experiences.

In the new year I hope everyone aspires to be something more than just one of 15,740 all doing the same thing and brand themselves by actual skill because a shift is coming where people will have to start proving their expertise and not just talking about it.

Happy New Year everyone....even the Social Media Experts.

SaulColt.com - Smartest Man in the World - Year in Review!

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:23:00 +0000

One a year bloggers and such are allowed to recycle old posts and call it a "Year in Review" post. In these posts people add a slew of links to previously written stuff that they think will be of some benefit to their readers just in case they missed it the first time around.

I was hesitant to do this because I tend to zig when others zag but have decided to conform this one time because I went back and read some of my old posts and realized that there is some real gold in there. (you get to decide if I am joking after you read some of the posts)

So without further rambling I now present you the 6 most read post of 2009 as well as some other hidden gems that I liked writing and think you may enjoy as well!

Small Business takes Passion.

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:05:00 +0000

I have a good friend who goes on and on about the SodaPopStop in Los Angeles. he swears by the place and even had at Coke in glass bottles (from Mexico) at his wedding directly from this shop. I haven't had a chance to visit personally but did find this video interesting because there is a little history on soda as well as some real small business lessons in here.

Hope you enjoy!

Thanks to Chow.com for shooting and originally posting this.

I wish you could see Twitter the way I see Twitter.

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:21:00 +0000

Twitter is a listening tool. Twitter is a sales channel. Twitter is a customer service platform. Twitter is a PR channel. Twitter is cocktail party. Twitter is Twitter. Twitter is a great place to meet chicks.

Get people started talking about Twitter and you will hear all these things because they are all right...and all wrong.

Twitter in reality is a lump of Play Doh.

I spent some time yesterday with Liz Strauss (pictured) and our conversation (and her insights) sparked this idea because she reminded me that no two people share the exact same twitter experience.

What Twitter is to you is dictated by who you follow and what content you are exposed to. If you only follow family members or people in the Ben Affleck fan club then your view of Twitter will be as if it is the most niche conversation site in the world.

Now if you go the other way and follow thousands of folks with no specific common link or are just following people because they follow you or because they are shiny you are going to find yourself in a situation where you are sitting in a room with people talking at you from every direction.

These are two very different extreme scenarios but it gives you an idea on why like Play Doh, you get to dictate what Twitter looks like to you and if anyone jumps into your stream who "ain't your cup of tea" you just can just block them and go back to shaping your experience to what makes you happiest.

...and speaking of Twitter. I just passed 10,000 tweets and to commemorate the historical moment I made a little video.

10,000th Tweet message. from saulcolt on Vimeo.

Video of Gary Vaynerchuk from DemoCamp Toronto with Saul Colt (thats me!)

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:02:00 +0000

I am pretty luck that I am exposed to and have the opportunity to participate in a lot of cool things. A few weeks back I was lucky enough to interview Gary Vaynerchuk as part of Democamp Toronto 24 (#DC24). In the interview we touch on some interesting ideas around Social Media, Customer Service, Customer Expectation and of course Wine.

Thanks to David Crow, Jay Goldman, Leila Boujnane for letting me do this as well as Satoshi Takano for filming this and letting me re-post it here.

Gary Vaynerchuk in Toronto @DemoCamp 24 from Satoshi Takano on Vimeo.

Take a look at let me know what you think.

Abraham Lincoln, JKF and Lady Gaga walk into a bar...

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:20:00 +0000

People who know me, know I can be a little impulsive. I get my mind set on something and I tend to dive into whatever "that" is and try to wrap my head around till I feel as if I can hold my own in any conversation around whatever the topic is.

I know this is kinda weird but in some ways it best describes me and how my mind works.

The current thing I have been burning brain calories on is "news"....and when I say I have been thinking of news I mean how news works and not just how many ladies are becoming instant millionaires thanks in part to the media and Tiger Woods.

When I do obsess over these topics I usually find some silly fact in my head that may be true or not and begin my journey. So in the case of news I have always been fascinated by the fact that when Abraham Lincoln was killed it took almost a month for the news to reach most of the population.

Jumping forward but staying with the theme of Presidential tragedies, On November 22, 1963, a nation huddled around a single news source to learn from Walter Cronkite that at 1pm CST - 2pm EST President Kennedy passed away. At the time this was as close to real time news as possible.

Now, thanks to Michael Jackson and Tiger Woods we are learning that news is instantaneous and people are growning accustomed to receiving it right away. No longer is there a single trusted source or even a handful of trusted sources. Citizen journalism can be as accurate (and faster) as major news outlets and don't even get me started on the how TMZ has changed what a "Breaking Story" actually means.

An interesting example (at least I think so) is recently Lady Gaga preformed a concert in Toronto and had restricted media from this performance (she might be doing this for the whole tour but I only know about the Toronto show for sure) and while there was no formal media there was still more chatter then any show would receive a year or so ago because people were posting twitter reviews of each individual song as well as almost real time You Tube clips from the show. Now I realize that Lady Gaga is not hard core news but the fact that people not able to attend the show could still experience the show in close to real time is a powerful shift in the way news will be delivered in the not so distant future.

"Search Engines will become the Police Scanners of the news room" - Richard Budman

My friend Richard said this to me and it got me thinking that with all this content being added to the internet it is possible to (still using the Lady Gaga example here) review an event pretty authoritatively without actually attending but by using the tools that are currently available.

This is an exciting time and it will be interesting to see what people do with it.

Now my Mom isn't the only one who thinks I am a genius.

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:52:00 +0000

Most people know that I am a HUGE fan of cool Word of Mouth marketing.

There are bunch of people who do it very well and a big chunk of them will be speaking (with myself) at the World of Mouth Supergenius event in Chicago on December 16.

Shameless plug aside this post isn't bout the conference and more about what the organizers did to promote the event...you see they mailed a t-shirt to all the speakers with a customized discount code as an incentive to promote your appearance. I love this idea, I love free t-shirts and I love offering discounts to people who read my blog and perhaps like to follow what I am up to.

It makes perfect sense that a conference about Word of Mouth marketing would do something Word of Mouth worthy so for that I am getting on the bandwagon and joining folks like Jason Falls and writing a post about my shirt...but unlike Jason I can't show you a photo cause my shirt is being held at Canadian Customs or something so I just made my own :)

Here is a video of Andy Sernovitz explaining the idea behind the shirts and if you are interesting in attending please use the discount code SAULISMYHERO for a $101 off the cost of the conference.

Product design is all about knowing when to add a Vagina.

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:19:00 +0000

Disclaimer: As always the ideas expressed here are mine alone and do not reflect those of my friends, family or employer.

I was very excited to see in the most recent issue of Toronto Life Magazine an article about interesting ideas coming out of local innovators. The reason I was excited was because two people I respect a great deal (Catherine MacIntosh from Zerobaggage.com was idea #19 and Aynsley Deluce from Parkingspots.com was idea #11) were featured in the magazine for their ideas and achievements and while they are both women their inclusion in this post has no relation to the title.

Idea #17 on the other hand is what the title refers to so here goes.

Le Trung, a 34 year old engineer has developed the first robot with feelings and while this achievement is amazing I found his story interesting because of how he made this discovery. Le began building his lady robot in his parents basement with the goal of her to help his parents with basic household chores like make coffee etc. After some time he thought (and I am putting words in his wordballoon here) it would be better to add some lady parts and forget the whole coffee making tasks.

Aiko, the ladybot is the first robot able to react to physical stimuli (yes even in her robotic vagina...ok mostly in her robotic vagina) and can also imitate a pain response. All the jokes aside (and I wrote 54 of them around the fact that his fly is open in the photo to the fact that he keeps his robot lady in his parents basement) I found this interesting because I have always believed that great product design (physical or software) starts with someone filling a need for themselves and over time molding the product or service to the needs of the people using it and/or paying for it.

But in this case Aiko was created initially to fill a need for others and ended up with the sole purpose of being filled with the needs of her inventor. (that is a funny joke no matter what language you speak)

I still firmly believe that putting your customers needs first in product design is the absolute best thing to take in to consideration and to be honest I only wrote this post because I saw an opportunity to make a real business case example with the word vagina in it....because that word makes me giggle.

Takeaway for people who don't feel like reading the whole post : Don't screw your products...it will only distract you from your actual goals...and you might just end up in a magazine saying you screw your products.

Ted Williams, Frozen Heads, Colt45 Malt Liquor, My Speaking Tour. Confused? You wont be after reading this...

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:38:00 +0000

When I was much younger I used to live and breath all things baseball. I connected with baseball because I loved the stories and the personalities of the game and now as I get older I realize I have a lot in common with Ted Williams.

Ted hit over .400 for the Red Sox, I hit over .400 for my High School Baseball Team

Ted wore #9, I wore #45 (still wondering why I never got a Colt45 endorsement deal)

Ted has been decapitated and cryogenically frozen somewhere in Arizona....OK so maybe we are not that alike except for one thing.

I always loved the story about Ted Williams and his lifelong dream to have people say to themselves as he left any room....

"There goes the greatest hitter in the world"

I feel the same way as Teddy Ballgame on this one but my years of playing professional baseball are behind me so instead of that I am hoping people will come see me speak and say to themselves as I leave the room

"There goes the best speaker on the topics of Maketing, Social Media, Customer Service, Entrepreneurship and Community Building in the world and I don't mind if he was looking at me from the stage like I was a plate of delicious BBQ because I got so much information from his talk that I am now inspired to do something great"

But to make this happen you are going to have to come and see me speak....and lucky for you I am going to be in the following cities between now and the end of the year. Montreal, Toronto, New York, Boston and Chicago. See below for more info and please please please support the fine people who have invited me to come and be with all of you!

Sproutup Montreal
November 17th at Brutopia in Montreal

The amazing folks at Sprouter.com have invited me to speak in three cities with them in the next month with the first being in Montreal. If you are not familiar with Sprouter.com you should take a look as they are doing events geared to helping entrepreneurs as well as thier online collaberative tool that was just written up on Mashable.com Please RSVP if you can come out!

Impact National Conference

November 20-21st at the Westin Harbour Castle Hilton (Toronto)

I am super excited to speak at this conference as the majority of the attendees will be students either finishing up college/university or entering their last years. I will be speaking about Entrepreneurship and ask the students to look inside themselves and see if they have entrepreneurship characteristics in them and if they do I will advise them to drop out of school and start a company. Should be an interesting day!

Canadian Women in Communications

November 25th, 2009 - Webcast

Details on this are still being worked out as far as content of my talk but I said yes without hesitation because I thing this will be an interesting group of folks to pal around with.

Media Bistro Panel - Social Media and the Customer: Focus on Community Management
December 8th at Comix in New York City

Exactly a year (and a day) earlier than this talk I had the pleasure of speaking for MediaBistro on a Social Media panel with Tony Hsieh, Craig Newmark, Lynn Johnson, Jeff Howe and Thor Muller and I am overjoyed to be invited back for the sequel to that original talk. This time around the all female panel will be made up of myself, Valeria Maltoni, Amber Nasland and Shirley Bradley and I guarantee it will be informative and talked about to till at least the end of the year!
Rsvp to attend here!

Word of Mouth Supergenius Conference

December 16 - Chicago

I will be talking to a group of Supergenius' to be on how to create offline chatter and unlike many talks I give where I rely on my good looks and charm and speak about how wonderful I am and what I have done in the past I have been asked to speak here about the future and create a step by step formula that people will take away with them so there can be a "little Saul" in a whole new group of offices all over America. This is going to be a great event and if you are interested in coming you can use the secret code "Saulismyhero" to get a $101 discount on the cost of the course and a hug and kiss from me on the day of the event. For more information on this event please click here

I hope to see some of you at these events and as always I appreciate you sharing your time to read my blog.

"I am not quitting, I am just planning my comeback"

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:27:00 +0000

I was thumbing through Canadian Business Magazine two months ago and found a quote that stuck with me. The quote was from Michael Lee-Chin talking about selling his "baby", the investment company AIC. When asked how he could walk away from his dream he simply said:

"I am not quitting, I am just planning my comeback."

I love this quote and have been thinking about this for a while since I started a new role at my job. I haven't spoken about this publicly yet so I guess this is an announcement of sorts but I am no longer part of the day to day operations of Zoocasa.com and have moved to a larger role as Evangelist/Strategist within Rogers Ventures (an investor in Zoocasa.com) and will be adding what I can across all the porfolio companies as needed.

For the next little while I will be focusing most of my attention on Thoora.com but like everything I do I will never beat you over the head with messaging and such. I am always going to be me and I hope you all watch what I am up to in this very exciting time in my life.

One that like Micheal Lee-Chin, I am treating like my comeback opportunity.

Super Quick StartUp Advice

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:47:00 +0000

Here is another installment in my series of super quick [possibly tweetable] Business Startup Advice.

"The best entrepreneurs have a combination of a desire to create amazing things coupled with the unwillingness to compromise in anyway to achieve this."

Do you have this?

Can a loyalty program actually make you less loyal?

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:10:00 +0000

I don't have many rules when it comes to my blog posts. I occasionally talk about inappropriate nudity and share too much about the views and opinions I have but one thing I never do (and this is really my only rule) is that I don't take cheap shots at brands....or really ever say anything negative about brands because as someone who represents brands myself I know what it is like to get dumped on and just don't feel like being "that guy".

That being typed I am going to share an experience I have been living through for more then 8 months and it got me asking "Can a loyalty program actually make you less loyal?"

So I travel a lot and doing such I joined an airline loyalty program because, well I like free travel and all the things that come from special attention.

Much to my surprise and delight last February I received in my mailbox 6 upgrade certificates to fly the friendly sky from the front of the plane where I can only imagine is similar to the Playboy Mansion. This excited me and instantly began looking forward to my next trip.

You see by sending me these certificates the airline is hoping I get so used to the pampering and private bathroom in business class that I will not be able to return to the commoners of the back of the plane and from that point forward I would pay the extra fees associated with the higher lever of service.

This might have worked because I am impressionable and all, except for the fact that since February (when I got these) I have flown 10+ times and have never been able to redeem these certificates because the I purchased discounted seats and not the full fare ticket (does anyone pay full fare ever?) and on top of it all these certificates will expire at the end of November.

This was an enormous missed opportunity for the airline because not only am I a chatty girl who would have encouraged others to upgrade so they could experience the airplane grotto for themselves but beyond that they have actually made me care less about who I fly with.

So I ask you...how effective was this surprise and delight?

Takeaway for people who don't feel like reading the whole post : If you want to give something away for free...give it away for free. Don't make people work to give you money.

Super Quick Startup Advice

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:17:00 +0000

Here is the first in a series of super quick [possibly tweetable] Business Startup Advice.

"Building a category through PR and awareness is very expensive but telling your own story isn't."

I hope you find them helpful.

Would it kill you to wish me a Happy Birthday?

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:32:00 +0000

Yesterday was my Birthday and everyone forgot....and when I say everyone I don't mean my family, or friends. They remembered and are awesome. The "everyone" I am talking about are the companies and brands I interact with on a daily or even a weekly basis.

I preach about "the little things" a lot because I know customer care is a differentiator and sending someone an email (even automated) on their Birthday goes a long way to making them loyal and happy to spread the word about whatever you are up to.

Think about all the companies that have your Birthday in their Database.

Credit Card Companies
Banks
Car Dealerships
Social Media Sites
Message Boards
Loyalty Programs

The list goes on and on. So if you are in possession of your clients B-Day's consider doing something small with that info because it is more valuable then you think.

Oh...and just to be fair I did get one and only birthday greetings from a brand and feel they deserve a shout out! Jinxworld.com (a comic book message board by Brian Bendis) Go check them out!

I want to be the Amazing Randi of Social Media...or why am I offering you my hard earned money.

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:04:00 +0000

Most people who follow technology and business probably know about the $1,000,000 (that's one millions dollars) prize Netfilx awarded a team of folks for developing a better movie recommendation algorithm but did you know that there is another 1,000,000 prize out there waiting to be claimed?

Since 1964 James Randi has had a cash prize for anyone who can prove the existence of paranormal activity. The reward started as $10,000 and over time has now grown to over $1,000,000 and while it has been challenged a few time it has never been awarded.

These two things, plus a conversation I had over dinner with a very well known social media author and practitioner got me thinking that we need a similar challenge in the Social Media space....why you ask?

Well, It is my belief that there hasn't been a new idea in Social Media in a few years and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing because essentially we are still in the very beginning of all of this it should be a slight concern since things that don't change and evolve tend to die off and become irrelevant.

So in an effort to kick start a movement that takes Social Media beyond the "Listen and Engage" stage I am putting up a cash prize of my own.

Send me your thoughts and ideas and lets figure out the next great discovery together...and if being a part of something cool isn't enough then do it for the money (as shown below...yes that is the whole prize for now)

Aaron Patzer from Mint.com explains how to start up a Startup!

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:08:00 +0000

I try very hard not to write about things that others had written about because I try to come at things from my own angle and through my own filter but after reading this post from Techcrunch titled "Everything You Wanted To Know About Startup Building But Were Afraid To Ask" I knew I was going to break my little rule....well kinda. I am not going to re-write their post or even comment on it but I am posting the video of Aaron Patzer (CEO of Mint.com) explaining what it takes to start a Startup...because it is amazing.

So if this interests you I suggest you check it out and feel free to leave a comment!

Mint CEO Aaron Patzer on Startups from Techcrunch on Vimeo.

The definitive "How To" guide to use Twitter on the iPhone.

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:56:00 +0000

Chris Brogan recently wrote a blog post called "How I manage Facebook" and it immediately gave me the idea to write the post that you're reading now but I admit I hesitated for a few weeks because I kinda see this as a "trade secret" as to how I am able to manage and react to conversations on twitter in an almost real time fashion even when I am away from a computer...but I noticed something interesting today while I was speaking at a conference for people reasonably new to twitter that changed my mind. You see as I was explaining how to use twitter I could see a few of the prettier females in the room were really impressed.

So in an effort to impress pretty people everywhere I now present you The DEFINITIVE "how to" guide to use Twitter on the iPhone.

*disclaimer* there are many ways to do what I am about to explain so in all honestly I am using the word "definitive" the same way coffee shops say "world's best coffee" but this is a great system and it works for me plenty well.

Next to this is a screen shot of my phone and you will notice that I have three separate iPhone Twitter Clients.

The the three are Summizer, Twitterific and Echofon (formerly Twitterfon). I use all three as they all offer me a quick way to accomplish different tasks quickly and easily.

My main twitter app is Echofon/Twitterfon.

This app pretty much works like they all do and the only reason I use it over others is because I find it easy to use. As you can see from the screen shot, it shows me 200 updates at a time from my friends list and also separates all my DM's and @replies (mentions) so I can find this stuff quickly and with a single touch. It also lets me add/remove and even block people with just a few clicks and this is the app I use when I am just reading twitter and seeing what is going on in my main stream.

The second App in my tool box is Summizer.

Summizer isn't a feed type app in the way Echofon is because Summizer is search tool with the ability to save searches. With Summizer I have set up close to 50 keywords and people I care most about and I use this as my catch up tool as well as my focused "quick glance" tool. Basically when I am on the subway or using one of those rooms with the stick figure gender character on the door I will fire up summizer and find out what is going on with my closest friends or see if people are talking about the company I work for or other companies I respect and monitor unofficially and without permission...and I also rely on it to keep me informed at a moments notice if I need to respond to anything falling in my set up searches.

Now it should be said that I could easily set up all sorts of searched in Echofon and basically accomplish the same results and purpose that I use Summizer for but I find it simpler to keep them separate so I can be more focused and responsive this way.

The last app I use to complete my DEFINITIVE (please see disclaimer above) how to is Twitterific. I used to use this app as my exclusive Twitter client and was happy with it but switched to Echofon one day because I just tried it and liked it (and I understand Tweetie is pretty amazing as well) but I still come back to Twitterific when I get an inspiration to tweet something quickly. You see as much as I love Echofon I find it can take half a minute to a minute to load up and Twitterific loads up crazy quick and lets me share with the world very fast the pearls of wisdom I share because I know people rely on me for my witty quips, observations and self promotion.

So just to review...this by no means replaces the ease and reliability of a desktop application like Tweetdeck or Seesmic Desktop but this does give you a head start in creating a mobile command center in the palm of your hand and while I claim this to be the best way to manage your twitter accounts on the go I will also say that this is just my opinion and I haven't gone looking for a more polished way because this one works crazy well for me but if you have a different opinion I would love to hear all about it in the comments section of the blog or just go talk about it on twitter, because chances are I will hear about it from one if not all of my installed apps!

Are you an Entrepreneur?

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:34:00 +0000

Accoring to dictionary.com the definition of an Entrepreneur is as follows:

en⋅tre⋅pre⋅neur

A person who organizes and manages any enterprise, esp. a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

I bring this up because I have been thinking a lot about being an entrepreneur lately. Thinking so much in fact that I have been looking at ways to re-invent the whole idea of entrepreneurship and the best place to start, in my mind at least is with the definition.

So here is my work in progress and I would love to hear what your thought are on the matter.

en⋅tre⋅pre⋅neur 2010 version

Entrepreneurs are people who like to experiment and fix things. They make corporations nervous and don't always make the best employees. Entrepreneurs have minds of their own and a embarrassing wealth of ideas. Entrepreneurs have a habit of moving in on their superiors and whenever possible claiming power roles for themselves. Entrepreneurs are willing to take huge personal risks to reach their clearly defined goals and while they they don't always end up on the winning side of things they have the fire and passion to keep trying.

I truly believe Entrepreneurship is a frame of mind and you don't have to be the founder of something to be a brilliant Entrepreneur.

SO I ask you.....Are you an Entrepreneur?

I have a distinctive voice...come hear it!

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:26:00 +0000

I really need to spruce up my blog and make it more of an info portal instead of just blog posts. The reason I have been thinking about this is 'cause I am getting asked more and more to speak at conferences and infect young minds with my ideas and would love to have a place to tell you all about these appearances without writing a blog post about them.

But until I find some time to do that (or to breath) I am just going to have to fill you in here about my speaking stuff and hope you will come and support the fine folks who see me as a big shot.

So without any further buildup, here are the next 4 opportunities to come out and hear me speak, teach and try to get pretty girls phone numbers.

Canada Post - Think Inside The Box Conference

October 7th at the Toronto Board of Trade

I will be talking in front of Canada Post folks as well as invited guest and the general public about customer service, social media and why making out with your customers is something every company should make a goal in their outreach.

Impact National Conference

November 20-21st at the Westin Harbour Castle Hilton (Toronto)

Canadian Women in Communications

November 25th, 2009

Details on this are still being worked out as far as content of my talk but I said yes without hesitation because I thing this will be an interesting group of folks to pal around with.

Word of Mouth Supergenius Conference

December 16 - Chicago

Please come to any or all of these events if you can and it goes without saying that I am available to speak just about anywhere (including prisons, schools, conferences, weddings and funerals) on the topics of Social Media, Customer Service, Entrepreneurship, Office Culture, Dating and Community Building so please invite me places and I will preform feats of amazement for you and your crowd.

Zappos gave me an idea....

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:06:00 +0000

About a year ago I was honored with an invite to take the world famous "Zappos Headquarters" tour in Las Vegas. An avalanche of blog posts have been written about the tour from many different perspectives and I can confirm that the tour is a great experience and one that probably inspires people to try to copy something about the way Zappos and Tony Hsieh operate their company. I make this assumption because I know it did for me.

Many things stuck with me from the tour but the thing that stood out the most happens to be the first thing I noticed when I got there....you see right at the front door (yes, in the lobby) there was two pretty big book cases containing what you would expect to be on a bookcase...books. But unlike a usual bookcase, these ones had probably less then 15 titles in total with each title almost getting an entire shelve to its self and being the kind of person who loves to read I asked someone what the deal was with the books and was told that the books are hand picked by the Sr. Management as things worth reading and the books are provided free for the staff.

These are new books and this is not a lending library...these books are there to be taken and read but there is no mandate to do so...only a suggestion and an opportunity.

I love this so much that I decided today to try to work this into where I work and on this here blog I am going to share with you the first handful of books I would stuff my shelves with....so here goes (in no particular order):

A Sense of Urgency by John Kotter - Quite Possibly the most thoughtfully inspiring book I have read in the last little while and has changed the way I look towards business building an motivation.

Manging By Henry Mintzberg - I haven't read this book yet but Henry Mintzberg is one of my favorite disruptive authors and happen to love his book Managers not MBA's a great deal.

Managers not MBA's by Henry Mintzberg - This book formed by opinion on the difference between Entrepreneurs and MBA's and is something I read once a year.

Trust Agents By Chris Brogan and Julien Smith - Both Chris and Julien are people I consider friends and are super smart in the ways of connecting with people online and profiting from those connections. This book doesn't just talk about the ways but walks you through strategies to do on your own and is a valuable read.

Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel - Mitch, another friend is one of the true thought leaders in the digital space and while I admit I haven't read the book yet (it is on my nightstand) I know from reading everything else Mitch has released through his blog or podcasts that this is something that people in an organization can learn from.

and finally....Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk - Because Gary is Gary and everyone can use a little of Gary's hustle in them.

Keeping staff inspired can only benefit your work environment and while this isn't the only thing you should/could do it certainly wouldnt hurt to share a book every know and then..cause as I learned as kid, Reading is Fundamental!

The Five Questions you need to answer before starting a business.

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:56:00 +0000

So far in my not so short life I have started four companies on my own. Out of the four, two have been pretty successful (in a ridiculously low standards kinda way) and two were pretty forgettable...but having a .500 batting average is pretty good by any ones loose standards and while I don't have all the answers I have learned some things along the way, and I am going to share something with you now.

Coming up with business ideas is easy...I have 100 a day but I may only have 1 or 2 really good ones a week/month and the way you figure out the good from the bad is simple:

Run your idea thought the 5W's

Pretty Simple huh?

Well it is...all you have to do is ask yourself the following.

Who - is the product/service for and do they really need it?
What - is the product/service and will people pay for it?
Where - will people get it and can you scale this distribution channel?
When - can you get it to people and will there still be a market at that time?
Why - are you doing this? (passion, profit, does it solve a pain for people, ego)

If your idea still holds up after the 5W's then you might actually have something worth spending some time writing a business plan for, if it doesn't (like my idea for a mobile gentleman's club in the back of 18 wheeler trucks) then just move onto the next idea.

Cause ideas are easy, great business's are hard.

Everyone wants to save the Whales...I want to save the Blue Jays.

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:20:00 +0000

I have written close to 600 posts on this here blog (579 to be exact) and one of my favorites, and according to my blog stats it is one of the most popular, is my post on how I would save Playboy magazine.

I had fun with that post because I like coming up with ways to save things people like..or once liked. So in the spirit of my Playboy post I am back with another way to save something, and this time it is the Toronto Blue Jays.

Now before I go any further I MUST say that the company I work for is affiliated with the Blue Jays so MORE THAN EVER I have to stress that these ideas are my own and do not reflect those of my employers...and while I do not work for the Jays I think they should hire me to implement these ideas cause they are all gold.....GOLD I tell you.

The reason I think the Jays need saving is simple. People don't care and no one goes to the games. This is sad to me cause I have been a fan for a long time and have many great memories at the ballpark....so much so that I can prove that I was the inspiration for the original Blue Jays mascot (BJ Birdie...but that is a story for another post) and seeing the stadium 2/3 empty is disappointing.
Ok...enough lead up...the way I would save the Jays is simple...I would treat them like a Minor League Baseball team. Now to be clear this is not a comment on their performance but rather a promotions philosophy.

In the minors teams are a little hungrier to get people in the park and some teams take amazing steps to make the environment fun. My favorite minor league stunt is "Nobody Night" in Charleston, SC where for one night no one was let in to the park (even though they had tickets) so the official attendance would be zero and instead of letting folk in they set up the parking lot as a huge event party where people could watch the game and have a good time...and no one was upset because they were apart of something cool.

If the Jays took HUGE strides to make every night a surprise people would come no matter how the team was playing or who the visiting team was. The opportunities are endless but here is a starter list of cool stuff to do.

Replace the two worst sections in the bleachers (that no one sits in now anyway) with Hot Tubs and sell those sections at a premium.
Sign Jenny Finch (Olympic Woman Softball Pitcher) because she would attract a crowd and can actually pitch...maybe.
During Pride Week offer same sex marriages in the out field.
During the Toronto International Film Fest show movies on the Scoreboard with the sound on a local radio station and if the promotion is a hit you keep doing it and call it Drive In Movie Nights.
Mascot Nights where anyone can get in free if they are dressed in a real furry costume.
Allow a few fans per game to do their own play by play broadcast from a in house frequency and people in the stands get the choice to pick their favorite.
Turn the outfield bleachers into a soup kitchen a few games a month.
Make a few games a year an event that you cant even buy a ticket to and instead they have to do cool things to get them.
Every person who is sworn in as a new Canadian Citizen gets honored one game a year and the swearing in ceremony can be during the game.
Mass Weddings in the outfield.
Wacky Wonder Woman Wednesdays (People dressed as Wonder Woman get in free)
...and finally Dating in the Dark (Speed dating in the stands)

The sky is the limit here and the general idea is make the stands so ridiculously fun that people will talk about them and more importantly return, and return with friends.

Also and this part is obvious. If that jays really want some attention they should not only take some of these ideas but also think of the PR possibilities in hiring me to execute them. It would be exactly like the time the Twins had that 14 year old manager in the movie Little Big League or when the Cubs signed that kid to pitch for them in the movie Rookie of the Year except I am not a kid, this isn't a movie and I always guarantee a happy ending.

Jays, Call me, you have my number :)

Social Media Talkers vs. Social Media Doers.

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:13:00 +0000

I am kinda lucky cause I get to go to a lot of conferences. Conferences are fun because you get to sleep in other peoples beds and every now (I have been told) and then you get invited to really sleep in other peoples beds.

Even luckier than going to a lot of conferences is that I get invited to speak at a lot of conferences and try to accept every invite I receive, cause you never know when the invites will stop coming.

When I speak I talk about a slew of different topics with interesting examples that almost always involve myself as a case study. I dont do this because I am an ego manaic (an argument could be made) but because I am the only person who can really tell you what was going through my head when I dreamt up whatever idea or concept I am talking about.

I was at a conference recently and I sat through two separate presentations from two people with nothing memorable to their credit explain (as fact) why Zappos sold/merged with Amazon and the best part was that the two speakers who spoke one after the other had opposite opinions...and this makes perfect sense because well, the only person who can really tell you why the sale/merger really happened is Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos) and some of his business associates...and this got me thinking about how easy it is to be a social media talker and how few social media doers there are.

I am using Social Media as an example here cause it is easy and makes for a snappy title but in reality I am talking more about people in general.

So still with the conference speaker example (and I can come up with many more examples if you want them) why not make some minimum requirements to speak at a conference....something like you need to have done something.

Pretty outrageous huh?

...and by something I don't think it even has to be a successful "something" since you can learn more from people failing then you can from the stuff where everything goes well. Conference presentations should be about your projects and learnings from the time YOU did something and not a new spin on something you read in INC or Fast Company.

If you can't point to a handful of url's showcasing your accomplishments and you are not willing to present about yourself then what are you really talking about?

Sure there are exceptions like people talking about Metrics and such but even that can come from a personal angle with personal insights.

If the goal of a conference is to teach or inspire then the goal of the conference organizers should be to invite doers and not talkers because people who "do" are usually the ones that inspire...and people who talk, well they are just talking.

P.S. If you are reading this and thinking I am being harsh and making it harder for people to "break in". I see it as the opposite and if you want to become a doer as apposed to a talker just go out and do something, make some content, stop repeating other peoples stuff and discover something on your own...I promise, you will sleep better at night...and get more of those conference invites to sleep with others.

*UPDATED* I have gotten a slew of (and by slew I mean 4) email/DM telling me that this post is harsh and that in fact I am a consultant (this is true...you should totally hire me) and I don't know what I am talking about. All I can say is that this is my opinion and I stand by it. All it takes today to become a "social media expert" is getting a shiny stack of business cards and that is kind of the problem. If you show results you are a doer. If you can point to projects and says "That was me" than you are a doer. Anyone who thinks the solution to any companies problems is to sprinkle a little facebook on it and set up a fanpage and walk away is not a doer.....and if you own a home that is mobile and 5 cars that aren't..you might be a redneck.

Is it possible that Dov Charney is smarter than us all?

noreply@blogger.com (saulcolt) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:48:00 +0000

I have never been diagnosed with OCD not do I think I suffer from it but I certainly do have a some obsessive tendancies in me. This isnt anything that people need to worry about and what I mean by this is that once something interesting gets in my head I usually try to read everything I can about whatever it is until my thirst for knowledge is satisfied. I have done this for topics like Comic Book History, P.T. Barnum, Baseball, Movie History, Business and Marketing and most recently I have been focusing a lot of energy on the Startup Fund Y-Combinator and the Ceo of American Apparel, Dov Charney.

Dov Charney is a facination of mine and I have written about him a few times before on this blog. Part of what fascinates me is that if you look past the AA ads and if you look past the sexual harassment suits and the wacky stories that have been written about Dov in the press there is actually a lot of substance to the man.

Of course I say this without having met him nor am I making light of the seriousness of his harassment allegations but in a time where few (new) brands are cutting through the clutter, he has.

American Apparel does interesting things.

Like make a dress that can become dozens of different looking outfits with a little tinkering and they even made a serious of YouTube videos to show you how to do it.

Dov Charney does interesting things.

Like spend a lot of money and devote a lot of time fighting Immigration reform and trying to make the world...er Los Angeles a better place to work for a segment of the work force.

So taking all this into consideration is it possible that Dov Charney uses the nudity and the public masturbation as a way to not be taken seriously while at the same time he is really just smarter than us all. A modern day P.T Barnum who does remember that experience and image are important if you are going to capture people's imagination. American Apparel is as well known for their "everyman" plain t-shirts as it is for the skin tight cool kids clothes, so in a way they have built a lasting brand without putting all their eggs in a "fad/trend" segment....if this was done on purpose I would say he is probably showing us what he wants us to see.

Or maybe he is just a guy who likes to masturbate.