September 1, 2010
5 Steps to Better Conversation
We’ve all come across individuals in our life who just seem to be great conversationalists. They seem to just have a “natural knack” to truly “engage” and “connect” with other people, almost immediately.
I think it goes without saying that successful people, by default, are good communicators, right? The ability to articulate your passions, interests and ideas is of primary importance to any entrepreneur. Nothing conveys the spirit of self-confidence and intelligence better than a affirmative and captivating conversation.
Like all skills, becoming a good conversationalist, and communicator for that matter, is a skill that can be cultivated, improved, sharpened. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up along the way that have helped me become a better communicator:
- Say what you think, not what others want you to say, or what you think they want you to say. There’s never a substitute for authenticity.
- Listen. Listen. Listen. As our mothers always said: “you’re not learning anything when your mouth is open.” Remember, a monologue is not a conversation.
- Only give advice when requested. The fastest way to bring the flow of conversation to a screeching halt is to impose a suggestion on someone, who hasn’t asked for it.
- When your interest lies in the PERSON, and the not the SUBJECT of the conversation, you’re sure to have a much more mutually enriching experience.
- “Silence plays an important part in effective conversation just as it does in music.” Milton Wright (1936)
All my best,
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Posted by Jay
September 1, 2010
Enthusiasm
“Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
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August 27, 2010
Google Voice gets an upgrade!
I’m sure many of you are already using Google Voice for your desktop. If you’re not, simply put — it lets users make and receive calls via their Gmail interface.
Well, hold the phones! (all pun intended)…this week Google Voice is being integrated right into the browser via Gmail! And lemme tell ya, the quality is really impressive (certainly comparable to Skype if not better).
All you have to do, is download the Google Talk plugin for your browser and you’ll be able to make calls to any U.S. or Canadian phone number, directly from Gmail! (you can also use it internationally for a super low per minute charge)
I can’t tell you how beneficial I’ve seen this tool be for friends and associates that have issues like weird cell reception and the like. Most importantly though…it’s FREE!!
Check out the video above for more information about how to use this great tool.
Have a great weekend everyone!
All the best,
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Posted by Jay
August 24, 2010
Security 101
Internet security is currently as hot, if not THE hottest topic in technology today. Between the Wikileaks fiasco, congressional hearings with Facebook, and everything in between, web security is tip of the tongue in the tech community (and poised to emerge as the next big thing in service-oriented web commerce in my opinion, just watch.)
Cyber-crime is something that ignores age, gender, geography and any other distinguishing factor of the web user. Security situations like: identity theft, email hacking and the like, usually occur as a result of the individual’s habits, and an unawareness of risk.
As entrepreneurs, we are lucky enough to be free from the feudal-like “ball and chain” of cubicles and office hours. We’re free to work wherever we like, whenever we like. And now, with the increased availability of high speed Wi-fi everywhere (kudos to you Starbucks) it’s now easier than ever to set up shop for the day just about anywhere.
AVG, who provides free Anti-virus software (similar to Norton), has an incredible research team that looks into fascinating geographic patterns of cyber-crime, as well as providing tips and tools to help keep your personal web security ahead of the curve…Or at least in step with it!
Here’s a couple of quick tips to keep yourself protected:
1. Remove sensitive data if possible and back it up before you leave for travel.
2. When using another computer make sure you disengage the option to “remember your passwords” or to “keep me logged in”
3. Be sure to NEVER store any passwords or login details when using public machines. Never.
4. Clear the cookies after being connected to a public network. And a general rule, once a week.
5. If you’re not using a Mac (which you should 
be sure to keep your anti-virus (Norton, AVG et. al) software up to date. Also PC check the Windows Update site for critical updates. (IMPORTANT)
6. If you are using a DSL or cable internet connection, be sure and install a firewall. ZoneAlarm is good – and free!
All the best,
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Posted by Jay
August 20, 2010
Small Victories…
Ambition:
Ambition. An entrepreneur’s best friend, and often, fiercest enemy.
Ambition fuels our passions. Ambition is the source of sleepless nights, and joyous celebrations. It blinds us at times — lights our path during others.
It’s the end of the week, and one cannot help but take inventory of what has been accomplished. Did I get the garage organized? Did I update my Twitter page? Did I follow up with the leads I was supposed to? Did I run 10 miles?
We live in a world where the pace of our lives seems to increase everyday. There is always more to do, and seemingly less time to do it in. It can feel at times like we are stuck on a treadmill, chasing after that dangling carrot. A nibble here, a nibble there. But…always just a touch out of reach.
Well my friends, trust me, you are not alone! Every entrepreneur, regardless of their success, deals with this everyday. But the key is, at least as I’ve found in my progression a entrepreneur, is to cherish the process. Cherish the small victories. The steps FORWARD.
One of the oldest, and most cliche sayings in the world is: “ROME wasn’t built in a day.” It’s one of the oldest because…well because it’s TRUE!!!
Peaks and Valleys are natural aspects in the life of an entrepreneur. But those who flourish are not those who become discouraged by what has been left undone, but instead, those who celebrate the small victories of what HAS BEEN DONE. The progression, the journey.
“It doesn’t matter if you try and try and try again, and fail. It does matter if you try and fail, and fail to try again”- Charles Kettering
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August 18, 2010
The Bootstrapped Entrepreneur
So…you’re driving down the highway on the way from….wherever, and it hits you!
Boooom! Booyah! Kerplow!
The Golden moment! Divine inspiration! THIS is the idea you’ve been waiting for! It’s absolute genius! No one else (at least as far as you know) is doing this exact same thing.
NO ONE!! Muhaaa haaaa!!! “Honey were goin shoppin! I’ve got a million dollar idea!”
Well that idea very well may be worth a million dollars, but for all would-be entrepreneurs, it often feels like you NEED a million dollars to MAKE a million dollars. With the economy still in recovery, the impetus to pioneer on your own, stake your own claim, and launch a business can be a frightening prospect, and seemingly insurmountably expensive.
I will be the first to say that is ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE. Successful businesses are started everyday with nothing more than passion and an idea. A great article today in the Wall St. Journal profiled three entrepreneurs who started their businesses with less than a couple hundred bucks!
Click here for the full article.
“The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings than endings” – David Weinbaum
All the best,
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Posted by Jay
August 16, 2010
Entrepreneur State of Mind…The New Dork
First of all…my goodness this song is hilarious! (I’m a straight sucker for spoofs of any kind to be honest) But…what’s truly amazing is just how TRUE it all is!
It hit me that the song is sort of less an Anthem, and more the celebration of a Blueprint, right? A Blueprint that is being perpetually redefined and transformed by everything from new modes of access and funding, to better models of launch execution and revenue sharing.
New intersections of creativity and commerce are revealed daily. Ideas are created, supported, funded and realized. What will you do with the intersections of YOUR creativity?
By the way, the last line was definitely my favorite:
“….This goes out to all my people starting businesses, DOING WHAT YOU LOVE!!!”All the best,
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August 12, 2010
Why Apple is the “Apple” of Tech
I’ve been an Apple fan for the last five years, ever since I bought my first Macbook Pro Jan 2005. (This computer is still used ever day by one of our friendly support staffers.) And of course I’m not alone. Apple is one of the most valuable (only second to Exxon) and loved companies in the world. Other companies strive to be the “Apple” of their industry. People want to be seen using their products. Tests have shown people get more creative when using MacBooks. What’s their secret?
This is something tech columnist Farhad Manjoo investigates in his latest article for the great business mag Fast Company [http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/147/apple-nation.html] He asks the simple question “How does one become the ‘Apple of [insert industry here]?’” I’d never really considered why I like Apple’s products so much. But it turns out I like them because I like the way they do business.
Here are some reasons I give these guys my business, and more importantly, my respect.
They don’t pay attention to what hyperactive, shortsighted tech bloggers are saying. Not simply because they don’t care — which they don’t – but because
they don’t even want to know. Steve Jobs, and his cohort of tech and design geniuses, know exactly what they want and 
how they want to make it.
Why bother listening to anybody else?
Lesson: Visionaries rarely give a lot of attention to what others are doing. Only those without vision care about the competition. And as far as listening to the suggestions of the populace, Jobs favors one of my own favorite quotes, from Henry Ford: “If I’d have asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, A faster horse!”
Often, the public doesn’t know what it wants. It’s our responsibility as entrepreneurs to discover what the public doesn’t yet know it wants.
Apple only puts out one or two products a year, because everyone in the company is on the same page. They focus all their efforts on a few things of high quality. Google is more decentralized, and they put out more stuff, but of course most of those products fail, badly. Apple puts all their efforts behind a few high-quality things, and then insures that those things succeed.
Lastly, and of specific relevance to CarbonCopyPRO, Apple’s customer service is beyond reproach. When you buy an Apple product, you’re starting a personal relationship with the company. If you have a problem with your computer, your requests don’t get off-shored to a faceless customer service rep in Dubai. You reach out to highly informed and sympathetic Apple experts over the phone or web. Or you stroll into an Apple store and talk to a Genius’s face.
Jobs calls the Genius Bar the “heart and soul” of every Apple Store. He understands that customer service is of paramount importance to the success of any company. Despite the fact that we’re becoming more and more wired every day, we’re still human beings, and we need the company of other human beings to assist us now and again; to motivate us and empower us to persist and prevail.
For the above reasons, Apple gets my business and my respect, along with a probably unhealthy anticipation of the iPhone 5!
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Posted by Jay
August 11, 2010
Building your Internet “Batphone”
I think we all have a couple of friends who seem to be about 25 minutes ahead of the rest of the world? It’s like they walk around with a red “batphone” in their back pocket and whenever the next packet of “late-great-paradigm-shifting-revolutionary-whoobity-haha” information breaks — they are the first to talk, tweet, post, re-post, like, poke etc. about it!
Certainly, Twitter (amongst others) has a lot to do with the rapidly increasing speed of our information consumption. Along with the boundless and ever growing amount of RSS feeds popping up, we are truly moving into a “real time” environment of living. Safe to say the Pony Express ain’t coming back anytime soon!
But…with all that available, just how do we funnel the relevant information? The information that is helpful or pertinent for OURSELVES, OUR BUSINESS, OUR INDUSTRY?
Well here is an interesting tool that I’ve found useful when doing market specific research:
ICEROCKET: is a real time blog and trend search engine. So… let’s say you want to know what people in the “blogosphere” are discussing, searching or sharing, about maybe GOAL SETTING (similar to a post I wrote here) you can use ICEROCKET to see just who and where they are talking about it.
Website: http://www.icerocket.com/
“Information is not Knowledge”
-Albert Einstein
All my best,
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Posted by Jay
August 10, 2010
Google and Verizon, should we be worried?
As I’m sure you’ve all seen by now, Google and Verizon’s announcement today has more than just a handful of people in a bit of an fuss. (heard of savetheinternet.com?)
So… just what does the Google-Verizon proposal mean for the future of information online? Will it kill “net neutrality”–or save it? Is this a corporate response to the growing volume of discussion of implementing universal “standards” to the web space.? Is this a digital treaty, or an annexation?
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps issued a one paragraph statement on the Verizon-Google announcement.
“Some will claim this announcement moves the discussion forward. That’s one of its many problems. It is time to move a decision forward—a decision to reassert FCC authority over broadband telecommunications, to guarantee an open Internet now and forever, and to put the interests of consumers in front of the interests of giant corporations.”What do you guys and gals think? Read the actual statement for yourself by Clicking Here, and let’s start a dialogue about this.
All my best,
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Over the last five years, JAY KUBASSEK went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing the internet based business industry with the 2007 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, an internet marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries co-owned by his business partner, Aaron Parkinson; and the successful launch of [...] [Full Bio]
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