The Art of Speed: Conversations with Monster Makers

The “Art of Speed” panel at SXSW: Evan Williams, Cali Lewis, Mike Cassidy, Tim Ferriss (Photo: vantan)

I had a blast organizing and moderating the “Art of Speed” panel at the incredible SXSW conference a few months ago. It was standing room only (at least from what I could see), and I learned a ton from some of the best at creating monster hits.

Here is the recording for those of you who missed it. It’s about 60 minutes total but can be listened to comfortably in little chunks.

The description:

The Art of Speed: Conversations with Monster Makers

This session will focus on how to accomplish huge things in little time. From near-overnight IPOs and massive cult followings, to instant NY Times bestsellers and runaway viral campaigns, learn tricks from those who have created monsters of buzz, fame, and fortune…

The panelists:

Evan Williams - co-founder Twitter/Obvious
Evan is the founder of Obvious Corp, a San Francisco-based web product development company and co-founder of Twitter (my Twitter here — full post on uses/abuses of Twitter coming soon), a micro-blogging and social networking site. He was also a co-creator of the software used as the basis for Blogger, one of the first web applications for creating and managing blogs. Blogger was acquired by Google.

Mike Cassidy - Benchmark Capital (Name unfamiliar? Click here.)
Mike has been the Co-Founder and CEO of three start-ups: Xfire (acquired by MTV for $110M), Direct Hit (acquired by Ask.com for $500M), and Stylus Innovation (acquired by Artisoft for $13M). Mike has a BS and MS in Aerospace Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Cali Lewis - host and producer of GeekBrief.TV
Cali is the host of GeekBrief.TV, a three to five minute video podcast, covering new technologies, consumer electronics, and Web 2.0 projects. Along with her husband, Neal Campbell, they started GeekBrief.TV on December 23rd, 2005. Five months later, they began producing the show full time with support from PodShow Network and advertisers. Cali has co-hosted Call For Help with Leo Laporte, and appears regularly on MSNBC and The Lab with Leo Laporte.

Tim Ferriss (that’s me)
Please note that I was asked to also be a panelist and not just the moderator, so I’m participating in the discussion, not being a mic hog :)

5 Tips for E-mailing Busy People

picture: http://helpdesk.ugent.be/img/email2.jpg

Here are a few notes on this e-mail and what makes it more likely to get a response:

1. It’s short and what he’s requesting is clear. No “let’s jump on the phone for 10 minutes; it’ll be worth your time.”

2. He made an impression in our initial meeting, and he hasn’t irritated me with zero-content “keeping in touch” e-mails. He hasn’t worn out his inbox welcome.

3. He makes it clear that he’s doing his part and has explored other avenues before asking for my help. It’s amazing how many would-be mentees or beneficiaries ask busier people for answers Google could provide in 20 seconds. That puts you on the banned list. Explicitly state what you’ve done to get answers or help yourself.

4. He used the executive recruiter referral trick. Seldom will a headhunter call a gainfully employed CXO-level executive and ask them to take another position. They’ll instead ask the exec if they know anyone who might be interested in position X. The intention is clear (might you consider this job over your current employer?), but it gives the executive a comfortable decline option.

5. He makes it clear that it’s OK if I can’t help or if I’m too committed elsewhere. This — paradoxically — makes it much more likely he’ll get a response, which he did.

The above 5 tenets should be considered for any e-mail to someone who probably deletes more e-mail in a day than you read in a week. If they appear in media regularly, assume that you are competing against at least 100 similar requests.

E-mail is like food. Good recipes produce good results, but you need to follow the proper steps.

The 4-Hour Workweek hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list!

Last Friday, the impossible happened and a lifelong dream came true: The 4-Hour Workweek hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list! Thank you all for your incredible encouragement and support.

More unbelievable, this week 4HWW is simultaneously #1 on the NY Times and #1 on the Wall Street Journal business bestseller lists.

How is this possible? How could a book from a first-time author — with no offline advertising or PR — hit both of these lists and stick for three months and counting?

The book was turned down by 13 of 14 editors, and the president of one large book wholesaler even sent me PDFs on historical stats to “reset my expectations”–it could never be a bestseller. The odds seem impossible: there are more than 200,000 books published each year in the US, and less than 5% ever sell more than 5,000 copies. On a given bestseller list, more than 5 spots could be occupied by unbeatable bestsellers like Good to Great or The Tipping Point, which have been on the lists for years.

On a related note, how could a blog that didn’t exist six months ago now be #2,835 on TechnoratiAlexa ranking of 9,615? with 874 incoming links and an

Is it all luck? I don’t think so. Luck and timing play a (sometimes big) part, but it seems to me that one can still analyze the game and tilt the odds in their favor. I don’t claim to have all of the answers–I still know very little about publishing–but I’ve done enough micro-testing in the last year to fill a lifetime.

The conclusion, in retrospect, is simple… It all came down to learning how to spread a “meme“, an idea virus that captures imaginations and takes on a life of its own.

Tips for Personal Branding in the Digital Age: Google Insurance, Cache-flow, and More…

Photo: IbrahimZen

Branding is no longer for Fortune 500 companies and Madison Avenue agencies with excessive budgets and inadequate tracking.
Personal branding is about managing your name — even if you don’t own a business — in a world of misinformation, disinformation, and semi-permanent Google records.
Going on a date? Chances are that your “blind” date has Googled your name.
Going to a job interview? Ditto.

Here are 4 tips for preserving or promoting your name, whether personal or business, in a digital world:

1. Get Google insurance:

Register the URLs for your name and variants, and consider creating a blog. The objective here is to own the first 1-5 results that appear on search engines if someone searches your name. I don’t think most people should be bloggers, but having a Google-friendly and SEO-rich blog platform like Wordpress or TypePad that is updated even twice per month as an online journal is worth the investment for having first say in your image. This recommendation comes from Mike Fertik, CEO of the much-buzzed ReputationDefender.

2. Remember to maintain positive “cache-flow”…

Twittered a drunken message after a tequila shot or five? Put up a webpage with text or photos you now regret? Even if you delete a webpage or portion of a page, this deleted content can often be found via a cached version of the older page on Google. Think before you commit something to semi-permanence on the Internet with an impulse “publish”. It’s easier to put up than it is to take down. Good dirt hunters — or just head hunters and job interviewers — will find your MySpace page and related “private” pages, and I’d suggest you do similar research in kind before initiating serious business relationships. I found the MySpace page of a vice-president at a PR firm I was considering once, and it contained racist remarks, sexual innuendo, and all manner of incriminating descriptions… and it was the second result on Google for her name! Do you think that more than a few media have Googled her name from her e-mail signature? Do you think that could affect if her calls or email are returned, and how much your retainer produces? Of course.

3. Check Wikipedia for character assassins and review as needed:

Wikipedia is the low-hanging fruit of choice for novice character assassins. It’s amazing Pagerank and sheer incoming link volume will put it at the top of Google searches, so be sure to review it for personal and business misinformation and disinformation. If the vandalism is rampant, nominate the page for deletion. Don’t be caught unawares like one great journalist I know who was shocked to find appalling misinformation and sexual references in her Wikipedia entry several months after someone had initially published it as a slanderous joke.

4. It’s better to create a category that to fight in one.

Being first and then striving for perfection — instead of fighting to be best in a crowded space — is the fastest path to mindshare.

I didn’t want to be pigeonholed in the broad and boring “work-life” or “career” categories for several reasons, so I needed to create a more appropriate label. This is how “lifestyle design” emerged, which offers me the ultimate calling card: one I dominate as I define it. The concept is not just about working less but about designing an ideal, often aggressive, lifestyle. I produced a simple and understandable label for both media and people looking for an alternative to the current options. From The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, one of the few “marketing” books worth the investment:

“Miller Lite was the first domestic light. It took an importer five years to say ‘If there’s a market for a domestic light beer, maybe there’s a market for an imported light beer.’ The result was Amstel Light, which became the largest-selling imported light beer.”

Create instead of imitate. From an SEO standpoint it’s more effective, and from an intellectual and explicative standpoint, it’s more much accurate. The current collection of labels are often to broad to encapsulate an innovation you want to turn into a meme or movement.

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Get smart and get real. You, Inc. exists whether you want it to or not.

Manage your personal brand so you can benefit from the new digital landscape instead of suffer from it.