Build your own launch : 5 steps to your own PR

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Vik

So you want to launch your new site/app/product?

We recently launched our site, and while I’m not a PR person by any means, I think there are a few straightforward things people typically do wrong. Given that the site we launched was not itself our product – i think its fair to assume that anyone could get the same result.

One day, we had no website. The next day, we were at the top of Google. We had 15+ articles, 40+ pickups, and surfed 80k pageviews. Lots of signups, emails, phone calls, etc. It was a good launch by most metrics.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions on how we got the word out, so thought I’d write it up here. I didn’t do anything extraordinary, just tried to connect with people on a human level and kept a tight pitch.

1. Stay press-quiet before launch – There’s a lot of talk out there about ‘stealth mode’ and what you should or should not tell people about your company in early days. My opinion is that stealth mode is dumb. However, news needs to be new in the press, to create more temporal contrast before and after launch. If you’ve been posting your product on the blogs, facebook, and everywhere else, your launch will be less interesting. However, even if all your friends know about what you’re doing, but there hasn’t been an article — you might still be news.

2. Build real relationships – The journalists who write the news are real people! I find so many who think of getting mentioned in the press as if it were some machination of the ethers. Different publications tend to have different angles, and individual writers have their interest areas just like you do. Asking an electronics publication to cover your food review app will be just as odd and unsuccessful as asking a writer who likes to cover pop culture to write about your obscure documentary. Then again, if you take the time to understand publication and writer, and share your launch like a secret handshake — you will have more success and might even make some friends in the process.

3. Pitch a compelling story - The same launch event could be written as an interesting story, and as something boring as all hell. While it helps of course, to be working on something legitimately important, and something that has a real impact on the lives of people, and materially different from what’s already out there — we all know that isn’t always the case these days. So craft your stories using these simple rules, and then publish it as a press release. You can see an example of ours here. There’s a lot already out there about writing a press release, so I wont rehash.

I lied, I’ll rehash real quick.
1. Headline – hands down the most important for readability and SEO purposes. Keep it simple: New <Product Category>, <Company Name> Launches today, <Top Key Benefit>
2. Timing - Embargo until <launch date>. If you don’t know what that means, its a polite request not to write anything until that date. This way, you can take a week or two sharing your message, and ask everyone to write about it the same day. This isn’t rude – everyone likes knowing tomorrow’s news.
3. Problem – As simply as possible, what’s the consumer’s problem
4. Solution – As simply and to-the point (no jargon allowed) how do you solve it.
5. Testimonial – What do your customers have to say about it? (Hint: it needs to rock their socks)
6. Competition, other details or some other commentary. No one will read this deep into your release.

Try to keep the whole thing to 300 words or so.

4. Collect – On the day the article is supposed to come out, and perhaps a couple days earlier, check back in with your friends in the press. See if there are any unanswered questions, any missing visuals they want like screenshots or photographs. The easier you make your story to write, and the harder you make it to forget, the more likely that it will see ink. No apologies and no begging. There’s no news without people to make it.

5. Publicity goes both ways – Once your article comes out, why would anyone read it? If no one is going to read it, why should anyone write about you again? Getting the article is only half the job. Once it’s out, mobilize your network. Post on facebook, tweet and retweet, put it on LinkedIn, email it out. Get everyone you can to do the same. Literally. I probably made some people upset. Every time an article hit, I made sure to do my part. Journalists like the attention as much as you do. Be invested in your coverage – its the least you could do to thank them.

Launch coverage only happens once. Make the best of it.

—-

Neither our launch nor this post would be possible without the insight and patience of Liz Bacelar, my PR coach. You would have to be under a rock not to have heard of Decoded Fashion, so check that out and sign up.

5 things Fashion Week can teach any business about capturing the customer

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Vik

Yes, this week is fashion week.

Most people have no reason to notice it — after all, nearly none of us are fashion designers, retail buyers, or other ‘industry’ types — but somehow there’s no escaping it.

At its core, its merely a trade show. Vendors show up with their wares, buyers see if they like them. But the mythology makes it larger than life.

How different would your life/business be if your customers whipped themselves into a frenzy just because you were showing off your latest stuff?

Here, in no particular order, are the 5 things I’ve learned from FW this year.

1. Float audacious rumors – Weeks before the event, people and the press are buzzing with excitement over leaks, rumors and predictions. Why? The leaks are usually of powerful people or beautiful products. The rumors are about things that impact the lives of normal people (even in a somewhat indirect way), and the press is so closely aligned with the buyers or the producers that they may as well be colluding.

Chances are, you don’t spend time crafting your product into sex. Into colluding with the press (or even your competitors). Into crafting a drama that’s larger than life.

Then you wonder why no one cares about your product.

2. Deliver spectacular oversell - Fashion Week events are among the most mysterious I’ve ever seen. You can only go into a show with an invitation – and getting an invitation from someone you don’t know personally can be challenging. The rooms are dark and sensuous, the products are displayed to all the senses — with music, lights, aromas, celebrities all interacting like a symphony of rainbow sprinkles. The best part is — runway items nearly never make it to the shelf. Just like concept cars, they are an artistic view into what could be. They capture the imagination and attention of the customer in a way that the current, boring product never could.

Betsey Johnson threw a show that involved acrobatics, gigantic flowers, bold colors and more. Was your last product demo just you and your powerpoint? How long did you spend thinking about the experience of your product? How often do you dare to make your customer work to win you over?

3. Involve the press and the consumer – On its own, Fashion Week would be a cool event, but the propaganda makes it surreal. The major trade pub, WWD livecasts photos and tweets non-stop. Bloggers and magazines vie for VIP spots, party passes, interviews and peeks. Even consumer media is in a state of constant uproar.

Chances are, you haven’t orchestrated such a reaction to your business. Sure you’ve written a press release for your big huzzah. You might have even paid a PR person/agent/massivecompany to help you get the word out. But have you truly partnered with

4. Be a character – Have you ever seen Karl Lagerfeld or Diane Von Furstenberg talk about their product? They are spectacular. Every bit the embodiment of their brand, brilliant, devoted, and so intricately interesting that we simply must buy their product.

Think about the last time you spoke to a client. Were you focused on standing out or fitting in? On surprising and delighting or in meeting expectations?

Get into it.

5. Surf a trendwave – The things that most people talk about aren’t the esoteric details of the products on display — but rather the human connection, the aspiration, and the interesting connections drawn by skilled designers to our lives.

A ton of the chatter is about who’s in the ‘front row’. Often, the coveted front row is given not just to the customer, but to celebrities, artists, friends of the designer, socialites and VIPs. This is interesting! Who are these people? While the bees buzz about the gossip, the product looms large in the background.

Lots of the products also had tie ins to pop culture. There was some social and political commentary, but perhaps no cross-promotion as memorable as Helmut Lang’s claim that this collection was inspired by the TV show ‘Game of Thrones’. I’m sure that garnered them twice as many views than other people with similar quality product.

Get out there and get it done.

Best practices in creating thrilling and engaging video content ON A DIME

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Vik

We all know that video content is the current/next big thing. Its really part of the natural evolution from painting, to photography, to video as a way for people to connect, be entertained, sell products and build internet-celebrity-feifdoms.

The issue is: you could paint with a peice of paper, and take pictures with a camera — but making a good video involves lots of tech and moving parts. By the time you figure out how to hold a camera steady, edit footage, and overlay music, you could be hundreds of hours (or dollars) in the hole.

How do you make sure that your time, effort (and perhaps capital) are well spent? Lets meet my friend Josh Bernhard, the creator and producer of the hit independent show – Pioneer One. (if you have been under a rock and have not yet seen this award-winning peice, you are in for a treat. http://www.pioneerone.tv/)

We’re also going to meet my friend Nick Buzzell – the founder and head of NBTV Studios (http://www.nbtvinc.com/) and a veteran producer of shows, music videos, web series, features, interactive content and more.

First, the design step. Who is going to watch this? How long should it be? What all should you think about before picking up the camera?

Josh is the consummate artist. Driven by passion to tell stories, move people, and to defy the establishment while he’s at it.

Josh says:

I’ve always wanted to make a TV show. Before packing up and moving to LA to work as a barista for 5 years, I decided to see if I could actually do the work I wanted to do independently. Internet distribution isn’t a new idea and everyone knows how much more accessible digital filmmaking tools are today. There’s such a thing as super-low-budget indie film, but there hasn’t really been a truly independent drama series, in the mold of a regular series for television. Having distributed my first feature The Lionshare through VODO.net and their network of BitTorrent sites, and seeing how it caught on, I thought it would be the perfect way to put out a series.

The idea for the show itself probably came from a mix of Josh’s interest in Cold War tensions and the similarities it held with things as modern as the healthcare debate in the US. He found it interesting that when people have a strong ideological worldview, they could completely disregard facts when they don’t fit with it. If people will flip out about health insurance, how would they react when a Cold-war era cosmonaut appears from space (or Mars!) Spoiler alert: They flip out.

Nick Buzzell, has often been on the other side of the table – taking pitches from would-be storytellers to see if he wants to take the raw idea and create the kinds of videos that win award and acclaim all over the country.

The people involved with a project are just as important to him as the pitch itself. Open-minded, flexible, non-traditional people who are just willing to get it DONE. Sound familiar? Great content creators are entrepreneurs.

Then, you have to write. Yes, even if it is “reality” content.

Josh knew he was going to create an epic, six-part season for Pioneer One – which also means that he knew what was going to happen in each episode, how the characters would arc, where it ended, what was revealed, and a lot of what was said, before filming a minute. Partially because this helps keep all the story points in mind, but more realistically because once you start shooting (especially if trying to minimize costs) you will be pulled into editing and production, and will not have the time or energy to play with the words.

While you might always discover things over the course of production or conversations with sponsors/advertisers, remarkably little changed for Josh and Pioneer One.

As once put (paraphrased) by the writer J. Michael Straczynski (The Changeling, Babylon 5): Imagine a mountain range from afar. Imagine getting closer and closer to it. Certain details begin to appear that you didn’t see before. What appeared to be one giant peak from a distance is actually one peak behind another. It’s the same mountain range that you saw at the beginning but your perception of it changes as you go through it. You discover a short cut that wasn’t apparent at the beginning.

Nick Buzzell often finds people trying to fit their story to a format, rather than the other way around. Today, you don’t need TV to create viewership or advertising revenue — content is king. Why make TV content that has to be in fixed half hour blocks when the web has no rules? If you saw AMAZING content that was five minutes long, will you remember that it was hilarious and entertaining? Or will you be upset that it wasn’t in a 30 min format?

People often think that celebrity personalities are the answer when a show concept isnt taking off. While its true that they can bring some “mainstream” viewership, there’s only real value if their character works. For example, compare the difference in show quality between ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians‘ (real characters and drama have led to multiple seasons and spinoffs.) vs ‘The World According to Paris’ (poor viewership, and general lack of entertainment)

Josh adds that famous people generally don’t come for free. When working quickly and on a tiny budget like Pioneer One, they worked outside of the SAG and wouldn’t really have been able to afford the minimum day-rate. Its the difference between operating a union-run factory and an independent one.

Finally, you have to shoot/edit/produce it

Once you have your idea, your general story, and the people pulled together that are needed to make your content, you have to make it do.

Josh and his team were prepped to do all the production themselves, and got to it. They shot all the scenes, and dealt with all the moving parts. There’s people, locations and schedules, lots of money is spent to for food/travel/equipment/props, etc. It’s also the part of the process, for Josh, where you have to make the most compromises. Things that you wrote down or that you planned for can all of a sudden fall apart in a single day.

The weather can change, you can lose a venue, the cops can arrest your star. But you plan as much as you can and hope for the best.

The whole show really comes together in post-production. Editing can completely make or break the show, no matter how good the script was or how good the footage is. A single frame too long or too short can affect your perception of a moment. And we agonize over these details.

Once it’s edited together, every shot is manipulated. The color is corrected and graded (for shots to match one another, and then the overall look adjusted to create a mood or a look) and there are usually a good number of visual effects shots. But most of them are invisible—things like erasing an actor’s taped marks on the floor that were never meant to be in the shot, or digitally compositing what’s supposed to appear on a computer of television monitor. It’s a lot of work.

For Nick Buzzell, this is where heroes are made. There is a visceral and often ineffable difference between amateur-stacked-Youtube videos and the masterful works of art that create a sublime emotional response. For most people who are not already pro-level videographers like Josh, this means turning to an expert like Nick for production. While you could, ostensibly, assemble your own crew of camera, editing, effects, and more — the end-to-end perspective and alignment of working with a pro shop results in better results, and often a lower cost to the producer (that’s you).

Where is this going? What’s the future of video content?

Josh has started work on the second season of Pioneer One (again, if you haven’t seen it, you should. (www.pioneerone.tv)

Nick and folks at NBTV are doing some interesting things are are likely to really change the way we as consumers will interact with the world around us. Much of it is too top secret to mention, but I’ll put it this way. If you had to guess what kinds of projects a major content creator was into, what would you guess? Full length feature films? Prime-time sitcoms? commercials?

Think about this: new distribution systems have gained real traction recently (Hulu, Netflix, Youtube, Vodo and more) and will lean less and less on the legacy for content. Exhibit 1: Justin Beiber. The old system is rife with kings and their rules, whereas the web is unregulated and ripe for some wild-west action. As more content creators see digital as plan A rather than plan B, lots of interesting things will happen. As brands discover that they don’t need to merely be advertisers in this brave new world, even more interesting things will happen.

New-school creatives like Josh can harness (rather than fear) the power of BitTorrent to reach an estimated audience of over 8.75 MM people. Not bad for a show that cost less than $100K, entirely raised from its audience. Much better on costs and viewership than the TV production The World According to Paris.

Closing thoughts:

Like many hit-driven industries publishing, music labels, and even venture capital – tv and movie studios tend to take lots of guesses on products that they then hope for the best on. In a given year, $5B is spent on producing TV pilots with a 1% success rate.

What would happen to the industry if it was full of people like Josh, with the entrepreneurial spirit to do the testing step with $100K and their own initiative. Would we change the game? Would we still need the industry?

Many thanks to these guys for sharing their time and insight to help me pull this together.

Josh Bernhard is the creator and writer of dramatic series ‘Pioneer One’.
Nick Buzzell is the President of NBTV Studios.

This year, refuse to give up.

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Vik

I’m not much of a runner. I used to run sprints, but any distance over 400m or so, and I would get blackout-intensity shinsplints. It was embarrassing. On occasion, I like to think of my self as an athlete, but the truth is that I spent much of life unable to run very far, tied down by paralyzing shinsplints.

I felt like Peter in this episode of Family guy

Two options really: give up, and stick to the segway, or else do some learning and figure out how to beat this thing. The body is a machine like any other, after all.

Faster than a speeding rent-a-cop

So I did some research. Shin splints are the result of shear strain, typically on the periosteum of your tibia (shin bone). If your calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus) are much stronger than your “shin” muscles (Anterior tibialis) the contractions forced onto it each time your foot pronates can be very painful. Add to this a high-impact running style that encourages this movement and you’ve got a recipe for (painful) disaster.

The common solution to this is to get orthotics. Fancy pieces of plastic that you can stick into your shoe and medically adjust your walking style. Human beings evolved to run — the medical solution felt like I was somehow cheating myself.

Bear with me for a second. This post is not about running.

It seemed there were two paths to a solution: Strengthen the weak muscles in my leg, and change the way I run.

The new exercises added about 5 minutes to my workouts, and changing the way I run took about a month of really trying. (details at the end of this post)

The result: Now, I stop running only when I get bored. No shinsplints. All it took was an attempt at calfsplints.

This is my advice to people when they tell me they’re stuck — whether that means writer’s block, or a sticking point in a sale, or a creative conundrum in their product. Break down your problem into its simplest parts, and try the exact opposite of what you’re doing.

I’ve seen too many people give up on easier obstacles than this one.

This year, refuse to give up.

— Sidebar: details on my cure to shinsplints

This part is about running. I’m not a doctor or a runner — just a guy who isn’t afraid to try something.

Issue 1: Bone periosteum shear due to strength mismatch between my calf and my tibialis muscle strength.

Solution: Strengthen the muscle. I did mainly two exercises for this — which I found to be most accessible.

Standing Toe Flexion: Pretty simple. Stand at the edge of a stair (or any edge) and move yourself from having your heel below the stair to standing on your tippy-toes.

Do this:

Toe Flexion

Seated Dorsiflexion: If your gym has a place to do weighted calf raises, use it. Instead of the typical calf raise motion, where you would raise the weight with your toes, point your heel and lift the weight by pointing your toes all the way back.

Do this:

Dorsiflexion

Issue 2: Heavy impact running style that encouraged a high shear movement.

Solution: Run smarter. Human beings evolved devices perfectly suited to the run – our feet.

If you look at the way barefoot runners run and the way your typical recreational jogger runs, you will immediately notice two differences. Barefoot runners land each step on the ball of the foot, usually softly cushioned at the knee. “Modern” runners, coddled through life on sneakers with thick and cushiony soles land hard on the heels, with very little cushioning from the outstretched knee.

So I ditched my super comfy running shoes for much more basic ‘barefoot’ shoes. I was among the first people I know to wear the now super-popular Vibram 5-fingers everywhere. And I learned to run in them.

– Sidebar’s Sidebar:

My good friend Laura (somewhat famous for being the youngest woman to run a marathon in every United State) knows a thing or two about running. Her advice for life or running, barefoot or not is similar: take issues and break them down, tackle them one at a time.

“I wanted to keep running 10 miles a week, which was a super easy goal if I thought of it as 1-2 miles a day. Now, when I wake up late, I can ALWAYS get in one mile. and it’s changed my mentality from “I will only go out to run if it’s going to be a long intense workout to every 1/2 mile gets me closer to my goal”

Her post on this gets right to the point: When 10 miles (or 10 sales, or 10 pictures, or 10 lines of code) seem like too many — just run them two at a time.

Wild Idea Wednesdays: JetBoatCycle

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Vik

What does the perfect vehicle look like to you?

To me, it dodges traffic like a motorcycle, soars in the sky, and skips waves like Diddy in a tux.

A Jet-boat-cycle. If that’s not crazy enough — how about this: I think it’s possible. AND – possible to make commercially available for < $100K.

Amphibious seaplanes have been around for a while, so lets assume that making them reasonably functional as boats is as simple as tweaking the skids/hull and adding an engine.

The remaining question is: Can we make a vehicle that is within US FAA light-sport classification (no two-year pilot school necessary) and compactly runs on the road?

Some stanford folks think so.

I think I know what I want for my birthday this year.

Getting meta on business model: MODELCRAFT

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Vik

Business Plan: Collect underpants...profits!

There are a lot of startups out there that don’t make a lot of sense as businesses. That’s not what this post is about — after all, a great product and clean execution can often trump less-than-ideal models. However, when we’re talking about a small team with limited time, chasing wild geese in different directions can have a precious cost.

I’ve been asked a lot recently to put my apparently legend-(wait for it)-dary whiteboard skill to help people focus their efforts, and came up with the slide below in the process.

I’ve used this to help guide friends away from the ledge, and to inspire new ideas for projects that I may bring to life one day. The thought is that a successful business must do at least one of these things well, and great businesses often do well a full path from discovery to transaction.

The basic theory is that across categories and customer groups, a customer must discover a product, do some analysis (even if for a split second), decide that they want it, and then pay for it. A business can facilitate just one or all of the above. In each specific case, there are strategic tradeoffs to how these things come together — and that, my friends, is Modelcraft.

I’ll put down a few of my favorites:

Apple App Store:

Apple sells a bunch of cool products, obviously. But the App Store platform is interesting in ways that the phone/pad/mac businesses are not. They get people involved, and turn out some really interesting nuggets of software. The Apps themselves are curated – you have to apply to get in – and nearly half of their big advertisements are for apps or the app store. Reviews are encouraged, and many are available for free or in light versions. At an impulse price point, you can easily go overboard without noticing it, and even though lots of people write apps, Apple collects all the money.

Netflix Streaming:

Netflix has two main products: the discs and instant streaming. This is about the streaming. I’ll treat the iphone/ipad and other ways of delivering the streaming as the same thing for a moment.

They’re an aggregator — and do a lot of work getting content from studios and other content owners. The movies are reviewed by millions of users — and instant playback means you can try watching something for a bit before really deciding if you choose to. Besides, movies are movies — no surprises in what you’re getting. Since picking a new movie is very easy, and doesn’t cost anything when you’re already signed up, you can do it on impulse — you’re already paying (or can now choose to) for a subscription.

Don’t even get me started on the Qwikster fiasco.

New York Times Web:

The Times is a well known brand, but for a while, struggled with their web edition. Every single article is something of an advertisement for the service, and you can read a bunch for free. To many people, the news is objectively useful, especially as it relates to the world and its opportunities. There’s real FOMO here too, as not receiving the right news in a timely fashion is as much a liability. Once you’re signed up, no need to pay again, you’re on the subscription.

Is this perfect? Of course not. Business are nuanced and tender things. However putting down what you’re trying to do and really looking at it rationally might spark new ideas or save you from expensive mistakes.

Do with it what you will. I’m out!

—

How to read this chart: This section has more detail on each of the components of the Modelcraft chart.

Step 1: Discovery — if people don’t know about your product, they can’t buy it.

Advertising – The product is seen in ads and discovered the old-school way
Press – people learn through mentions in the press or stories about the benefits of the product
Live/Events – A human interaction delivers an introduction to the product. This includes parties and other fun stuff.
Social – Customers share the product with their friends, typically through a social network and typically incentivized or otherwise designed by the company.
Curated – Part of the value being offered includes a creative cut on a subset of products available in the category.
Aggregated – Part of the value being offered includes an expanded selection of products in and around the category, typically with searching or filtering to help discover a particular product.

Step 2: Analysis — Why is the product great? There are many ways to find out.

Reviews – People consider the product by reading the thoughts of people that have bought or tried it already.
Trial – The product is available for free (usually in some limited way) to get people to see that they want it
Social – People can ask their friends what they think of the product (like ‘reviews’ but from people they know)
Experts – Thought leaders in the category or in the customer group offer their endorsement or expert critical review.
Value – When products create tangible or objective benefits, the cost/benefit leads to a value-driven analysis
Utility – When a product is itself useful for some kind or work or activity, its usefulness is considered
Coolness Factor – Sometimes, stuff is just hot. Great design, trend, pop-culture and more can lend a product coolness

Step 3: Decision Components — with all the facts in place, how does the customer decide?

Impulse/Gut – Usually reserved for small/inexpensive items, the right placement and positioning can create fast purchase decisions
Fear of Missing Out – Limited availability or exploding deals can create urgency to buy
Unique/Standard – Depending on the customer, having a product that is so different can be a decision factor; for others, having something very normal can do the same.
Need – When a product solves a known and current issue, legitimate need is a factor
Price – When something’s a good deal — it’s a good deal.

Step 4: Point of Transaction — Once you have the yes, where does the cash go?

Brand – The brand that produces the product takes the money.
Multi-brand – A retailer who is not the brand is reselling it
Affiliate – A third party is neither the brand nor a reseller – but are affiliate to the product
Peer – People can buy from each other
Subscription – People choose to buy once, but future transactions happen automatically

How does your model look? Feel free to download and use this. I know it isn’t perfect, but I’ve found it useful. Would happily take any feedback on ways to make it better.Modelcraft (PowerPoint)

Top 5 Lessons Learned from Boardwalk Empire

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Vik

I just got through Boardwalk Empire. It was all the things that the critics and fans say about it: entertaining, gratuitous, spectacular, and perhaps a little dark. However, I also found it instructive. I don’t mean literally of course (right guys?) but rather metaphorically when applied to my life as an entrepreneur, a thinker, and a friend to my friends. Perhaps you’ll agree with me, but if not, see #5 below.

Before you write off this whole exercise as ‘just a TV show’, keep in mind that there are some genuinely great teachers involved: Martin Scorcese, Terrence Winter, and much of the actual history that inspired the story.

Without further ado, the top 5 lessons learned from Boardwalk Empire:

5. Chumps come and go, but bosses are forever

One of the most basic surface-level observations is that there’s a big difference between the town plebes (who live in modest houses, wear modest clothes, and eat modest food) to the contenders that rub elbows with bosses and are trying to climb up in the world. Thats all good stuff: when in doubt, aspire to greatness. However, of those who are trying to play he big boys’ game, many are chumps. Total chumps. Chumps lose sight of the big picture, of the people that are important, and of the consequences to their actions. On the boardwalk, that will get you shot or screwed. Even while Hague is on the opposite side of the table to Nucky, he offers his perspective: “Guys like Edge come and go. Bosses like us are here to stay.” The real life takeaway: great people operate with great perspective.

4. Always take good advice (but only good advice)

Everytime someone recommends killing someone on the boardwalk, the recommendation is acted upon. (see: Nucky, Horowitz, Jimmy, The Commodore, Chaulky, etc). It doesn’t always work due to #1, below — but that’s a different story. The takeaway is to surround yourself with people you can trust see # 2, below, and if you do that right, you should also respect the perspective provided by your advisers. The converse is also true, as finally proven by Jimmy. The takeaway: creating a poorly selected roundtable can create advisors who are not really looking out for you, resulting in downfall.

3. Always offer more than you take (but remember to take)

As we observe Nucky in action. We see again and again that even though he’s a gangster, classically corrupt politician, and racketeer — he never turns down a favor, and gives away money like candy. But he’ll take too, when the opportunity strikes. The $1MM price tag of bailing out AR may have flown by the modern viewer — but before the gold standard fell off and with sharply lower general costs of living, that’s more than $25MM in purchasing power today. Well played, Nucky. Interesting that he is later lectured by AR to be patient and opportunistic. The takeaway: be as generous as you can, and wait for the opportune moment to take what’s yours.

2. Value trust above all else

One of the main differentiators between chumps and bosses is that bosses are true to their word (whether what they’ve promised is good or bad is a different question) while chumps are caught scheming and backstabbing blatantly. The people that bosses allow themselves to rely on – Chaulky White, Daugherty the AG, Capone, Luciano and even Jimmy (until he starts over reaching) have relationships built on trust and cemented through mutual favor debts. Or, if you’re AR, take our life insurance policies against your staff. Total boss. The takeaway: you’re only worth your word. Protect it’s value and expect the same of others.

1. You cannot take down a boss (but the boss can take down anyone)

Each time one of the major bosses faces a major adversity (Rothstein and his World Series indictment, Nucky and his mutiny, Horowitz vs Jimmy, Hague with Senator Edge, Torio vs the Greeks, Chaulky vs the Klan), they are given the chance to show why they are indeed a true boss. They show persistence, resourcefulness, creativity, and shrewd understanding of what the people around them want. In fact, in each of the major challenges above, the boss not only comes out on top, but creates one or more strong allies in the process. The takeaway: stay strong when things look their darkest. If you’re a true boss, you’ll come out stronger on the other side.

And if not, at least you made room for the rest of us.

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My thanks to my Clothes Horse cofounder Dave Whittemore who inspired a discussion that inspired this post.

Event as a startup. TEAM matters. (Eventology 5 of 5)

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Vik

(This post is part of a 5-part series. Check out the overview if it’s your first time here.)

There’s a special kind of craziness that describes a person who wants to create a great experience for others, raise money for a cause, or both. It’s really not very different from the kind of crazy needed to go start a company. In both cases, the journey is much more difficult on your own than with a great team.

In addition to a formal team, many of the people you reach out to while making your event happen may want to help, especially if you can sell them on how much it will help them. Your venue may have press hookups, your press contacts could know potential partners, and your partner organizations might own a place to throw the party.

I fully agree with Rebecca Zhou of Raise Cache when she says “people will gravitate toward you if it’s right.”

Rebecca had grandiose plans for Raise Cache long before it came together. She knew that she was going to need some help. So she started where any of us would start — with emails to friends and a few posts on Craigslist.

After receiving lots of interest, she found 10 people to interview, tested half of them on a task, and ultimately kept two of the strongest on board.

Just as you would carefully flesh out a team if you were starting a new company, put people on your event staff who are strong at things you are not, or enjoy the work that you don’t. “People have different likes,” Rebecca says, “let people do what they love.” This strategy often leads to serendipitous discoveries — after Rebecca tested one of her potential team members on writing invitations, she found that the team member had a great writing voice — which led to the development of the Raise Cache blog.

In addition to early recruiting, the Raise Cache team made organic community involvement easy. All of their planning documents were in google docs and shared with everyone they worked with — everyone they spoke to was enabled to help. Friends made introductions to VIPs, VIPs brought on sponsors, sponsors donated materials and made introductions to people who became friends.

It’s like the circle of life.

By bringing on select talent, enabling the community, and keeping an open-door policy (in addition to having an interesting and inspiring event) you can harness serendipity to do what Rebecca calls “building an army”.

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I hope you enjoyed this series on event throwing best practices. If this was your first read, feel free to check out the overview, as well as the posts on negotiating the venue, crafting the story, selling tickets and sponsorship, tracking finances and this one on the team.

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(Note: This post is part of a 5-part series on events and party planning. Jump directly into a subtopic here)

My many thanks for the superstars who helped me pull this together:

Judy Allen – event guru and author of 10+ books, including Event Planning The Ultimate Guide
Rebecca Zhou – Hackstar, UI/UX designer and self-taught event planner extraodinare behind Raise Cache
Kelsey Recht – Founder and CEO of Instevent – making event planning easier through expertise and technology
Gina Jagtiani – Veteran event planner in NYC and New Orleans, Founder and CEO of eventiveworld.com, and social media empresaria

More MONEY, less problems. Keep your event ROI-positive (Eventology 4 of 5)

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Vik

(This post is part of a 5-part series. Check out the overview if it’s your first time here.)

Whether you’re throwing your event simply for fun, or whether you’re doing something for your business, you’d be crazy not to worry a little about the dollars.

There are some known costs that you will have to keep an eye on, like:

Venue costs – mostly rent
Staff – door, servers, bar, DJ, clown, firebreathers, etc.
Food/beverage – snacks, entrees, dessert, beer/wine/liquor
Setup/equipment – stage, lights, sound, photography
Other stuff – miscellany

As well as some sources of cash, which in most cases are less known than the costs:

Ticket revenue – sell tickets in advance or at the door
Sponsorship dollars – Let companies sponsor in exchange for advertising and exposure
Debt/finance – If you know that the above is coming but need the money now, you might bridge the gap by borrowing

And of course you should negotiate hard and hustle like crazy to push down costs and pull up the income.

But what happens when things don’t go to plan?

Sponsors pull out. Ticket sales don’t fill out. DJ gets greedy. It happens to the best of us — even to the pros.

Judy Allen, event planning guru and the author of several books including Event Planning The Ultimate Guide has a lot of experience with people messing up their financial plan. She says that at a high level, you need to know what an event will cost if no sponsorship dollars materialize — that happens with so many events all going to the same companies for sponsorship dollars. Ideally, the revenue from tickets should cover all costs and make money if no sponsorship dollars come in at all. That way when you do get sponsors, it’s all cream. Many non profits make the mistake of not leaving enough lead time for corporations to go through the decision making process around which non profits and non profit events they will be choosing to align themselves with and sometimes those dollars are assigned a year out or more. This = sad people at the nonprofit.

The best planners have flexible costs that can scale up or down as the money comes in. Kelsey Recht of Instevent understands the importance of flexibility in the plan. She says there are event spaces for every budget, so if you are on a tight budget go for an off day or no minimum space. Although the general rule is people will pay for a good event, you have to give them something in return e.g. free drink, light food. Payment also decreases attrition. On the negotiating side, find out what type of venue or supplier you want and consider their down times to get good deals. For example, LES bars will give great deals on weekdays. Midtown bars are great weekend party destinations.

When Rebecca Zhou was putting together the plan for Raise Cache, she wanted it to be epic. And it was. Everything from the venue selected to the layout to the lighting and the snacks came together perfectly. The plan, however was infinitely flexible.

While still collecting sponsorship, she had a forceranked list of the venues she could pick, their costs, and how many attendees each one would support (as that would affect ticketing revenue as well). Once decided on the spot, she had allowances for nuanced flexibility. At any dollar amount, there was a specified number of lights, number and type of speakers, cases of booze, arrangements of furniture and more. This way, if she had come a little short of the goal, the team wouldn’t need to start thinking then about what would get cut — just find the right line in the spreadsheet and the answer would be there for them.

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So you’ve picked a place, got some interest, and sold some tickets. Additionally, a solid financial plan is critical not only to a profitable event, but also to keeping your team in line — the topic of the final post in this series.

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(Note: This post is part of a 5-part series on events and party planning. Jump directly into a subtopic here)

Want to be the first to know when the next post comes out? Sign up for the mailing list!

My many thanks for the superstars who helped me pull this together:

Judy Allen – event guru and author of 10+ books, including Event Planning The Ultimate Guide
Rebecca Zhou – Hackstar, UI/UX designer and self-taught event planner extraodinare behind Raise Cache
Kelsey Recht – Founder and CEO of Instevent – making event planning easier through expertise and technology
Gina Jagtiani – Veteran event planner in NYC and New Orleans, Founder and CEO of eventiveworld.com, and social media empresaria

Pound the PAVEMENT. Sell your heart out. (Eventology 3 of 5)

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Vik

Coffee?! Coffee is for closers only.

(This post is part of a 5-part series. Check out the overview if it’s your first time here.)

So you’ve got the perfect place for your event, and and you’ve seeded the story with some great VIP’s and a really intriguing hook. Maybe your VIPs are enough to fill your event with people — and if that’s true, ignore this post and get yourself a pina colada instead.

Otherwise, you now have to fill the bleachers. It used to be that all you needed was a guy with a soapbox and a megaphone to scream your event to people — but that’s illegal in many places now…

The blogs and popular media are rife with stories about how using technology and social media and text messages can convert an otherwise challenging task into the press of a few buttons. Shenanigans. While it’s true that the occasional mix of zeitgeist and personality can carry a viral campaign — its tough to engineer in a scalable or repeatable way. The vast majority of successful events that I studied for this post got their people the old fashioned way: by selling them.

Gina Jagtiani of eventiveworld.com concurs. Forget wasting time and effort on so-called “uncommon” methods, she suggests. Just promote your event in any possible way. Perhaps it’s a common way for a reason, because it works!

Run through this checklist, and see how many tickets you’ve sold by the end.

1. Ask your VIPs to spread the word. Tweet it out, post on their bookFace, blawg it. Email their newsletter or community list. Take all the easy wins first.

2. Spread the news through all your own social channels. For corporate events – include LinkedIn too.

3. Make it a great deal. If you have sponsors, give away some of their stuff. If not, get something bigger and nicer to auction off. Spice in benefits to the attendee like access to cool people or broader incentives like benefit to the community. At the end of that, if you’re selling a $10 ticket and also offering $20 in giveaways and a raffle-ticket chance at something bigger, all while helping the community — that’s a winner.

4. Pipeline and follow up. There’s nothing worse than not having sold enough tickets AND running out of people to talk to about it. How do you get people to sign themselves up for your pipeline?

When Rebecca Zhou was out promoting Raise Cache, she made sure to build her list. First, she stopped by the New York Tech Meetup — one of the largest natural gathering places for her target audience, and offered free tickets to the first 10 people who shared a message about the event online. In exchange for 10 tickets, she got 300 people posting and discussing the event — many of whom ended up buying a ticket.

Second, she set up a brilliant plan to raise money for her cause and build pipeline with the same stone. People were encouraged to teach Skillshare classes and donate the proceeds. In the process of a few people teaching great classes, hundreds more were involved as students — most of which ended up donating more to the cause or buying tickets.

When that’s not enough, renowned expert Judy Allen and author of Event Planning The Ultimate Guide is a fan of harnessing the media to bring people larger more public events. If you’re event is private, you probably don’t want to spend the effort getting onto the front of the Times.

Pitching the media doesn’t need to be expensive either, even though things that feel expensive can be sexier for the press. For example, one bridal expo used the draw of having a wedding cake covered in over a million dollars worth of diamonds at the event. The cost was minimal but the coverage was maximum. The cake designer got to showcase their talents, the jeweler got to display their wares and the major hard cover costs were insurance for the gems and security. Win-win-win.

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You might be feeling pretty smug now that your event is really coming together. You got a great place, pulled in key members of your community and sold a bunch of tickets — but we still need to make sure we stay in the black. Stay tuned.

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(Note: This post is part of a 5-part series on events and party planning. Jump directly into a subtopic here)

Want to be the first to know when the next posts come out? Sign up for the mailing list!

My many thanks for the superstars who helped me pull this together:

Judy Allen – event guru and author of 10+ books, including Event Planning The Ultimate Guide
Rebecca Zhou – Hackstar, UI/UX designer and self-taught event planner extraodinare behind Raise Cache
Kelsey Recht – Founder and CEO of Instevent – making event planning easier through expertise and technology
Gina Jagtiani – Veteran event planner in NYC and New Orleans, Founder and CEO of eventiveworld.com, and social media empresaria

Viktorious

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Event as a startup. TEAM matters. (Eventology 5 of 5)

More MONEY, less problems. Keep your event ROI-positive (Eventology 4 of 5)

Pound the PAVEMENT. Sell your heart out. (Eventology 3 of 5)