Tech journalist Gina Smith had never been on TV when she was asked to appear on PBS to debate Steve Ballmer of Microsoft about Windows ’95. It was a gutsy move, but she said yes because she was determined to let consumers know her criticisms of Windows ‘95. After the interview, she was worrying “Whoa, should I have actually done that?” when ABC called and asked her to be the tech correspondent on Good Morning America and World News Tonight. And that’s how Gina started her TV career: by saying yes to opportunities, taking risks and sharing her passion.
Gina is also the New York Times bestselling author (with Steve Wozniak) of iWOZ: From Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-founded Apple and Had Fun Along the Way. She’s a radio host, wrote an award-winning column for the San Francisco Sunday Chronicle, wrote a book about DNA, and now she’s a partner in First 30 based in San Francisco, which is an incubator firm for tech start-ups.
During our conversation, we talk about Gina’s serendipitous career journey and her current role at First 30, and:
- How getting a text from a friend who met Steve Wozniak at a Grateful Dead concert turned into a book deal
- Bringing great ideas to life: getting the guy who’s been working in his basement for 7 years a patent, an expert team, and a million dollars in funding
- The Purple Cow: what Gina looks for when deciding which projects to back
- Ripping the band-aid off: how to reject people without making them resent you
Learn more about Gina’s company at www.first30services.com.
Listen to my interview with Gina Smith
Posted on August 31, 2010
If you’re a small business owner, I hope to heck that you’ve heard of John Jantsch, the man behind Duct Tape Marketing.
With Duct Tape Marketing, John has created a system for marketing your small business, so you can forget about the hype and guesswork, and counting on consultants to decode the mysteries of marketing. John’s system will get your business beyond the clutter and into the limelight.
John is insatiably curious, admits to getting bored easily and is a voracious reader of 100 blogs and 4 books a week. During our conversation he shares his wisdom about:
- How social media years are like dog years
- His “light bulb” moment about the secret to marketing small businesses
- The 2 biggest mistakes that John sees over and over, and make him smack himself on the head every time
- How to turn your biz into a “Referral Engine” that people love talking about
- Creating a brand that’s as cool as Apple (don’t worry.. you don’t need their budget or iPads)
You can read John’s award-winning blog Duct Tape Marketing here (it’s a Forbes fave and Harvard Business School featured marketing site) and follow him on Twitter at @ducttape.
Posted on July 13, 2010
Here’s a full and frank declaration: Andrea J Lee’s one of my very favourite people on the planet. She’s as funny as she is generous as she is smart as she is innovative. She’s been hanging out at the edge of coaching and also what it means to be a thought leader for as long as I’ve know her.
She was the COO of CoachVille, then the largest coaching community in the world. She’s written several books, the most recent being Money, Meaning and Beyond. She runs large events engaging people on the quest to be a thought-leader and a successful entrepreneur. And she’s constantly practicing what she preaches as she reinvents herself and her business time and time again.
In our time together we chat about:
- How the Tiananeman Square protests – Andrea was in China at the time – helped awake one of the deepest choices about Great Work
- The power of ‘galvanizing energy’ – and how to find it
- An inspirational insight from Buckminster Fuller that will help you play your life out fully
- And why cleanliness is so much more than a good bar of soap
The doorway to her various enterprises – including her blog – is www.AndreaJLee.com and you can follow her on Twitter at @andreajlee
Posted on May 6, 2010
Today Scott Belsky’s new book hits the shelves: Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles between Vision and Reality. It gets to the heart of how to do more Great Work, and I’m a raving fan. Pick up a copy, and re-listen to our interview that I first posted in January 2010.
“It’s not about ideas, it’s about making ideas happen.”
I love that statement. I know from my time teaching and consulting on innovation and creativity that actually having ideas, when you know how, is pretty easy. But actually executing ideas – ahh, that’s a different matter. Scott Belsky is the CEO and founder of Behance and what he stands for is making ideas happen. Behance operates the leading online platform for creative professionals – which means, helping creatives find a place to get together and to think about, how do we make our ideas happen? Scott and Behance also run the 99% Blog and the 99% Conference.
In this interview we talk about:
- Why looking to the short-term can be a powerful execution strategy
- How to overcome the tragedy that most ideas are born and lost in isolation
- And why ‘acting without conviction” is a handy strategy for keeping things going
You can follow Scott on Twitter@behance, on the Behance website and on the 99% Blog.
Posted on April 15, 2010
