…doesn’t mean you need to yell or be abrasive to get your point across.

…doesn’t mean I can read your mind and write/design/build something based on your vague parameters.

…doesn’t mean you can’t get in the trenches and get your hands dirty.

…doesn’t mean you have to be perfect or know everything.

…doesn’t mean we want to hear all your random stories unrelated to work more than once.

…and choose to have no life doesn’t mean that your employees hate their nights and weekends.

…doesn’t mean you have to fly first class or get picked up in a Towne Car.

No boss is perfect.

Employees don’t expect you to be. Chances are you’re the boss because you have a wealth of knowledge, experience, or both. Most employees would love to acquire a bit of both under your tutelage so…

… be patient when we have questions. Especially good ones.

… refrain from yelling (unless we’re one of those knuckleheads that only respond to that).

… provide constructive criticism. “You did (this) well. I feel you could’ve done (this) better. Here’s how I think I would’ve approached it.” I’ve never found a more successful formula.

… give ample direction so that we have a good feel for what you want us to accomplish. If we look lost, we probably are. We’d rather only do it once too.

… pull up a chair, brainstorm with the team, lend a hand. We’ll have a lot more respect for you. (My current CEO unloads furniture off trucks with the warehouse crew).

… admit when you don’t know something. Don’t get intimidated when an employee is more knowledgeable about something than you. That just means the team is stronger. You should be striving to hire people good enough to take your place eventually anyway.

(I see so many bosses trying to surround themselves with young, subservient employees that will suck up to them, won’t challenge the status quo, keep their heads down, and just be thankful for a job. Is there anything worse than an egotistical boss?)

… act like our boss. Maybe you can be our friend too, but that’s a fine line. We’re probably not inviting you to happy hour and we don’t want to hear an abundance of your personal stories in which you try to impress us. They don’t, and we certainly don’t care once you’ve recycled it multiple times.

… we’re all for working hard and paying our dues (eh, this is probably debatable for half the workforce), but there has to be some semblance of balance. Don’t get cranky on Friday afternoon because we’re anxious to go out with our friends and you’ll be working Saturday (by choice). And please don’t call us on our days off unless it’s important.

… transport yourself to your heart’s content, but I still think it’s dumb.

I haven’t been in the workforce that long so most of these I’ve collected via friends horror stories, but I do think that some of these solutions are fairly universal. I also think ego is often the root cause of a bad boss.

I want to hear what you have to say. What are things you’ve experienced that really turned you off/hindered your ability to do well? What solutions would you offer? If you’re a boss, how do you combat these negatives? How is your approach different? Where am I off base?

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But how do managers find the “right” players? Most of the time, particularly for entry to mid level gigs, they post a job description and countless people come calling, all trying to differentiate themselves with a few bullet points.

Just one reason why you should never read another resume. Going through endless resumes and vetting out the best for interviews is a process that only works if you have the time and resources to really do your due diligence. But who does any more? (Union Square Ventures is the exception, not the norm).

So how then do you assemble the perfect team? It’s a lot like networking, actually. They say build your network before you need it. Hiring managers should be determining who they want and planting that seed before they need them.

Stanley “The Coach” Woodward, of the New York Herald Tribune assembled one of the best sports staff’s ever for a newspaper. How?

By using what he described as a scouting system, the Coach studied out-of-town news papers, and when he spotted a good story, he began a file of the writer’s work. If it was consistently excellent, Woodward waited for an opening, then brought the man to New York with talk of “the big time” and possibly a pay raise.

This is essentially the strategy Amber Naslund has used to build her Radian6 team. I suspect it happens often for VP, CMO, President positions, but I’m not yet privy to that culture.

If you’re a manager, how do you assemble your team? Do you look for hungry unemployed workers, fresh-faced college graduates, or do you try to recruit talent from other organizations?

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A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from Brenton Gieser who is a new media rockstar and he’s telling me about this new venture/movement he’s getting involved with. A couple of days later I’m on the phone Arielle (see below) and I’m learning all about GenJuice’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Tour. Needless to say it’s definitely something I wanted to be affiliated with and so I sat down (virtually speaking) with the three co-founders of the tour, and wanted to share with all of you what I learned and why you should be interested.

1.) What is GenJuice and why should people care about it?

Arielle: Well, GenJuice is simply an annual Gen Y innovation and entrepreneurship tour. This is our first year doing this and we are learning a ton, but this year we will travel to 13 different cities and videostream our entire experience on our blog. We will shoot video with young incredible entrepreneurs in each of the cities and hold our “unconference” events in each city.

Virgilia: Nice one Arielle. To add to that point, GenJuice is an avenue for aspiring and early stage Gen Y entrepreneurs to network with other similar minded individuals and hopefully solidify their own business ideas and find a potential partner/team member/co-founder. As well as having live videostreams on our blog, we will also broadcasts from each event through online podcasts.

2.) What was the inspiration behind launching this initiative?

Arielle: I can tell you a little about what inspired me to launch GenJuice and Virgilia & Danielle can tell you about what inspired them to come on board. I started GenJuice for a variety of reasons. It started off as a way to bring entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds but all under 30 together. We would just meet in coffee shops and help each other, trade intros, etc. In February, the concept of the tour came about as a way to expand the entrepreneurial mindset of the Silicon Valley beyond just this area. We wanted to promote Gen Y innovation and entrepreneurship nationally (and feel like rockstars while we did it).

Danielle: I first worked with Arielle when I was Editor-in-Chief of a student magazine at Berkeley. She managed the marketing for our magazine launch party, and it was a huge success. I was really impressed by her energy and her ideas and strategy around buzz marketing. From that point on, I knew that we would co-found a company or work together very closely in the future. When the GenJuice Tour came about, I was ready to jump on board. Sometimes, you just have to take that leap!

Virgilia: I initially had the notion of launching a project with a very similar mission to GenJuice. After briefly chatting with Arielle, I realized that GenJuice had the potential of being a truly viral movement with endless possibilities ensuing from our pilot tour. It’s a good learning lesson – understanding that instead of going off and doing your own project, partnering with other brilliant individuals with similar goals will result in a more powerful and sustainable organization. We want to empower young innovators and trendsetters to follow their dreams, just like we are!

3.) It’s relatively easy to make introductions, but what kind of resources will be provided to enable these new friendships, partnerships, etc. to thrive AFTER the tour is over?

Virgilia: We will keep track of all the attendees through Google Docs (the 6th member of the GenJuice team) and will share this document with each city’s attendee following the tour. We will essentially create a database of everyone who attended the tour and allow various methods using our online blog to facilitate constant communication and encourage lasting relationships.

Danielle: Yes, through planning the GenJuice Tour and what I learned previously from attending various conferences, it is very important to extend the online engagement that you make with people via email or twitter to an offline exchange. That’s where the meeting of the minds happens in real-time and where the magic happens. We’ll be creating this effect with GenJuice.

4.) What makes the GenJuice team special? What can a young professional learn from this team in particular that they couldn’t get elsewhere?

Virgilia: Great question Ryan! Our team is unique in the fact that we have come together to produce this nationwide tour in just 3 months. Organic growth has been our mantra not only for GenJuice, but for our team. We anticipate facing roadblocks and thus when we encounter them they only spur more ideas and we tailor our overall strategy immediately. We are continuously changing and learning from our mistakes, taking these lessons learns and implementing them, and growing our team with rockstar team players who help balance out the rest of our team.

Arielle: I completely agree. I’ll just add that our team does one thing well that I’ve never seen done anywhere else. We are fluid. We’ve had several mistakes. Many problems and issues came up when planning our first national tour, as you can imagine. Yet, whenever a problem arose, we already had three or four ideas on how to shift our strategy and still get the same result. I’d say all entrepreneurs need that ability; the ability to move quickly and solve complex problems in the heat of the moment.

Danielle: I would say that we are three, unstoppable women who are phased by no amount of obstacles. Lack of press? We’ll get the word out. Lack of funding? We’ll find a way. I think it is the leanness of our organization that makes us strong because at the end of the day, we know that if we don’t do it, then it’s not getting done.

5.) Why focus on just Gen Y?

Arielle: Oh pick me! I want to answer this one. Personally, what inspires me more than anything is seeing my peers do incredible things. Sure, it’s great to see older or seasoned entrepreneurs discuss their success – but it’s ten times more powerful to see someone who looks like me, sounds like me and is a part of my generation talk about how we can innovate. The Gen Y leaders we’ve met and connected never fail to inspire me and I want GenJuice to do the same for everyone we meet across the nation.

6.) How can we get involved and/or start supporting the cause?

Danielle: I’m glad you asked, Ryan! You can visit our site GenJuice.com to purchase your tour tickets. We have some amazing Gen-Yers coming to our unconferences, so you definitely want to be there to make those connections. Then, follow us on Twitter (@meetgenjuice) and give us a shout out to let others know about the GenJuice movement. If you’re interested in donating your space for the GenJuice Tour events or want to let us crash on your couch, reach out to us. And lastly, we are welcome to additional tour partners and sponsors. Visit our Indiegogo site (http://indiegogo.com/GenJuiceTour) to find out how you can help. Thanks so much, Ryan!

Who is Arielle Patrice Scott?
Arielle is a student entrepreneur obsessed with innovating while young, and encouraging other young people to do the same. She launched GenJuice as a way to encourage more young people to launch new ventures and projects. GenJuice is a national 12-city wide tour with events to help young aspiring entrepreneurs meet potential co-founders and team members. For more details about Arielle you can follow her during the tour at GenJuice.com, read her blog at TheArielle.com or follow her at @ariellescott.

Who is Virgilia Singh?
Virgilia is in love with the concepts of innovation and sustainability and has founded and managed a variety of projects. She collected experiences in the corporate world while working for Booz Allen Hamilton, building a product innovation strategy for Intel, and advising a UN Ambassador on how to empower women economically worldwide. Virgilia recently left her stable full-time position in DC to co-found GenJuice, a tour launching this summer that is geared towards connecting and highlighting young innovators and entrepreneurs across the nation. You can get in touch with her at virgilia@genjuice.com or follow her at @virgiliasingh.

Who is Danielle Leslie?
Danielle Leslie left her Sales and Business Development role at social gaming startup RockYou to take a risk on a fast-moving project called GenJuice. Danielle will be evangelizing innovation and youth entrepreneurship in Summer 2010 during The GenJuice Tour. Danielle loves discussing marketing and new business models and believes that with the right marketing strategy, anything can become a home run venture. You can get in touch with her at danielle@genjuice.com.

A couple of weeks ago during #u30pro chat we were discussing the notion of being overwhelmed in the workplace, and one of my good friends happened to catch a few of my insights and suggested that I turn them into a post.

Most of the things people were overwhelmed with involved managing client expectations, co-workers that don’t pull their weight, and a lack of communication.

Aside from being honest with your boss/co-workers about your state of mind, which was probably the #1 recommendation from the masses here were a few of my tips:

1.) First, take a step back, take a deep breath, go for a walk. Second, prioritize what HAS to be done & do that first.

If you’re overwhelmed you’re not going to be effective so it’s important to step away and get your bearings straight first. I’ve found a bit of sunshine, a trip to the vending machine, or a quick call to a parent or a friend is a great way to calm down and come back to your desk fresh.

Many times the state of being overwhelmed comes from staring at a long to-do list, but you have to realize that you can’t complete all the tasks at once. Quite a few people have been discussing the triage approach of late, and I think that it’s a very applicable here. Triage is a process of prioritizing patients based on the severity of their condition.

You can only do one thing at a time so pick the most important thing, focus, and knock it out. What’s due end of day? What can you do after-hours that doesn’t have to be done until the following morning? What can you catch up on next week after things have settled a bit?

2.) Keep things in perspective. The world usually won’t end if you mess something up. Stay in the present, and tackle one thing at a time.

I thought when I left school and entered the workforce everyone would be uber-efficient, but that’s just not true. Just like in school, people often wait until the last minute to get something done. I know middle managers from huge companies that ask for slides from co-workers by Friday end of day, and don’t have half of them Sunday at midnight.

I’m not condoning this, nor am I advocating procrastination or excuses on a regular basis; however, people do anticipate mistakes and missed deadlines. If you’re overwhelmed because you screw up or it’s just physically impossible to complete something on time, it’s important to communicate that to your client, co-workers, etc., preferably before shit hits the fan.

As long as you don’t make a habit of it, understand that these things happen, it’s going to be okay, and start immediately doing what you can to rectify the situation and overachieve moving forward.

3.) Finally, being overwhelmed isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s completely dependent on your REACTION to being overwhelmed and if you’re capable of channeling it into useful, positive energy.

I suspect this depends on your definition of overwhelmed, but like anything else in life your reaction to what happens to you is key. You can get flustered, incapable of finishing your work, feel sorry for yourself, task team members with pulling some of your weight OR you can make up your mind that in the scheme of things this will be a tiny blip on your life’s radar (and even tinier on everyone else’s) and find a way to conquer it. And guess what? It’ll happen again, and again. That’s life. Get used to it!

Photo Credit: PhotoBlackburn

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In lieu of some breathtaking analysis (Ha!) I wanted to respond to Sam’s ‘10 Things You May Not Know About Me‘ Meme with five things of my own. Please feign interest.

1.) I almost died when I was two days old. I don’t know all the details, but I had a blockage in my urethra that was causing mass kidney failure. I try to remind myself that I’m lucky to be alive, and that I’m here for a reason, to do big things and impact the world in a positive way. I have two scars on my lower stomach as a result. I use them as an excuse that the “fat can’t spread out, and that’s why I can’t get an 8 pack.”

2.) Speaking of 8 packs, I actually had one in Jr. High. When I was in Jr. high I ran a 5:15 mile, but after freshman year my running partner was diagnosed with anemia and stopped running. It was never as fun without him. I ran cross-country casually during football season, but wasn’t allowed to run track during baseball season. My 3-mile PR is around 17:15. I never beat that 5:15 mile or had an 8 pack since then. But I do believe in the power of running. If you can defeat that voice in your head that tells you to quit when it hurts you can learn to accomplish amazing things in life.

3.) I was a state ranked chess player peaking as high as 14th in the state for my age in both 7th and 8th grade. (Man, I peaked young didn’t I?) I quit because the travel for tournaments cut into my sports time, but I was never the 14th best baseball player in Texas, or even the 14th best second basemen. I played college ball, but maybe I should’ve stuck to chess. Ha! Chess taught me a lot about patience, problem solving and focus – all things that still help me today. I doubt you can beat me in chess, or hearts.

4.) My grandfather is like the John Wooden of college rodeo. Not only did he win 4 national titles as a competitor, but he coached Sam Houston State to 8 national team titles and host of other individual titles – more than any other college or university in the nation. I suspect I get my passion for teaching from him, and would be surprised if I taught a collegiate class at some point during my career.

5.) I talk to one or both of my parents every single day. I remember my peers in Charlotte office looking at me like I was crazy when I mentioned this, but I have the most awesome, supportive family ever and my parents are my best friends. I realize I’m very fortunate that I have their support no matter what, and I try to reciprocate that by learning from them, and talking to them every chance I get. When I get where I’m going, I’ll definitely have them to thank.

You guessed it. Now it’s your turn. Either share in the comments or write a post of your own telling me 3, 5, 7, or 10 (I don’t care about the #) things about you. Finally getting to meet so many friends at #sxsw has left wanting to know more about all of you. Share away.

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We have all heard the old adage, “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” It is about helping each other achieve goals and working towards mutually beneficial relationships. But, are we spending way too much time constantly interacting with the same people?

Everyone has a goal with social media. For many, (especially in North America) there is some element of monetary profit, whether that includes independent consulting work, landing yourself a great job, or even scamming others. For everyone, a goal on Twitter is to share a message with the public, whether it is your own or someone else’s. The time we spend talking, interacting and retweeting helps us meet new people, build relationships and even make new friends.

For this argument’s sake we will use the term “relationship” or “interpersonal tie.” With the help from a sociology article by Mark S. Granovetter written back in 1973, I’d like to prove that there is actually more value in a weak tie or than a strong one.

[Granovetter, Mark S. The Strength of Weak Ties. Volume 78. American Journal of Sociology, Issue 6 (May, 1973).]

In my mind, a study on social networks (connections of people, not tools like Twitter) back in the 70s is applicable because there are elements both then and now that have a strong influence on what I believe to be human nature, rather than simply being a reflection of a current societal trends. If we don’t look at the past, we’ll have a hard time understanding what is going on in the present!

Before I jump into it, I want to define ‘The Strength of Ties’ similarly to how Granovetter does by assuming it to be a linear relation. Hopefully we can agree that the strength of relationships is increased by combination of the “amount of time, the emotional intensity, the intimacy and the reciprocal services which characterize the tie.” Using these guidelines, we can intuit whether a tie is strong, weak or non-existent.

The strategy of Granovetter’s paper can easily be applied to Social Media in 2010. He shows how the strength of an interpersonal tie relates to macro aspects like diffusion, and social cohesion in general, among factors. It is important to understand that small-scale interactions have a huge impact on larger scale patterns of communication and, in return, these general trends affect small groups.

We’ll keep all peer groups small for argument’s sake. Let’s say we have a peer group of strong ties between persons A, B, C & D and another group comprised of persons E, F, G & H. It would be hard to create more than 10 to 30 strong ties per year, so this small model isn’t completely unrealistic! Let’s also say there is a weak tie between A & E, for example, which connects the two strong networks. I argue that removing this weak tie will do more “damage” to the transmission of information than the removal any of the strong ties in this model.

We are all bloggers here. We’ll use blogging as an example to show that whatever you are trying to diffuse to the masses can travel a wider social distance, and thus reach a larger number of people, when passed through weak ties rather than strong ones. If someone announces their blog post to close friends, and these friends do the same thing, many of the group will hear about the post multiple times. This is because people with strong relationships tend to share similar ties within their social group. After a week goes by and the motivation to spread the word about your epic “How to Sway Drones, Kill the Queen Bee, & Take Over the Hive” blog post dies down, the spread of information is much more likely to be limited to a few cliques than a blogger with many weak ties.

Those with many weak ties are the best at diffusing information.
Do you think Chris Brogan, Amber Naslund, Ben Casnocha, John Moore, Penelope Trunk, Mitch Joel, Brian Clark, Guy Kawasaki, Joseph Jaffe, Darren Rowse, Seth Godin, Jason Falls, etc… all achieved their success on Twitter by only building and maintaining strong relationships? No.

These people got into social media early and made themselves innovators and opinion leaders. In fact, anything they said was new and exciting! By maintaining weak ties and “droning” early adopters who would then pass this information on to their strong ties, these people have achieved an amazing amount of success. This becomes a growing cycle in which their views matter so much that they hardly even need to worry about making the effort to maintain weak relationships! All they have to do is respond to most of the people who casually tweet them and watch their messages diffuse rapidly.

Sure, some amazing bonds are created along the way and this is great because these people can support you emotionally, give you a trusted opinion, and inspire thought. But I believe that it is possible to create too strong of a relationship. Eventually, something will happen where you cannot maintain communication with that person for a couple weeks, for example, and you will let them down because of some commitment IRL (In Real Life). This creates a chain reaction of slips in mutual support and takes the “us” out of “trust” [just made that up!]. A relationship with sporadic contact is easier to maintain.

Again… Here is the early model of the Twitter network when we got started:

Over time we have grown through the early adopter levels, and we too want to provide the web with new and innovative ideas. I’m sorry to tell you, but if you want your ideas out there, you need to create some weak connections. This “weak tie” label does not mean that you do not care about these people, it just defines how much time, intensity and intimacy you devote to these interactions, as well as how much reciprocation you expect from these contacts. It comes down to who influences you and whom you influence. I realize that we were not the first ones to get into social media, so there are many people with a stronger influence than us and we should listen to what they have to say. We have embraced the fact that we have a role as both innovators AND as early adopters.

Shift Model:

Maybe this has been food for thought. Hopefully, some readers will realize that maybe they are spending way too much time interacting with a select few, which creates limiting cliques, while others may realize that it is good to seek out and respond to new people all the time.

Success in online communications takes strong critical thought, an open mind, respect, and checking your ego at the door.

*I found this article through Gavin’s blog http://servantofchaos.typepad.com/soc/2007/10/the-strength-of.html. Thank you.

Bryan is a Social Media & PR Intern with Jobsonica. He is passionate about marketing (strategy, account & creative), personal branding, and social media. My favorite thing about Bryan is how well he understands and practices the value of reciprocal relationships. He currently resides in Montreal, Canada.

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Though some people called him Negative Nancy, he was right, and we see it more often than we care to admit. In the comments Monica asks two important questions, “How do people know when they’ve become drones in someone else’s community?” and “How do we take down those that use social media to do this to people?”

To answer her first question, I suspect the overwhelming majority doesn’t have a clue when they’ve become a drone. For their benefit, some symptoms of drone syndrome include, but aren’t limited to:

• Nodding along with everything you read, never challenging the author
• Reading something like “work harder than other people and you’ll succeed,” knowing it’s as generic as the advice from a Tarot card reader, but accepting it just because technically it isn’t false
• Re-tweeting their posts without reading it just because they’re your friend, you respect them, etc.
• Referring everyone to their work regardless of their actual need

Since the history of time the average person wants someone to stand up and say, “this is what we’re going to do, follow me.” Many of you that read this post probably don’t fall into this category often, but you sometimes do.

How many times have you just wanted you friend, your significant other, etc. to just pick a movie, place to eat, etc. It might not be EXACTLY what you wanted to watch or what you were hungry for, but if it isn’t completely blasphemous you’re down. Besides, it’s easier than continuing to argue/be indecisive, right?

That is kind of what I liken this current epidemic to, picking out a movie. If someone’s content is ‘good enough’ you’ll go along with it. Calling out their taste in movies doesn’t work, and choosing your own movie and watching it in the back bedroom probably isn’t a very good solution either.

So then how do we answer Monica’s second question?

We’ve already acknowledged people just want someone to lead, and maybe that’s the key here. Maybe you have to consistently craft content so great that at some point they get tired of watching Channing Tatum try to act and they realize that The Hurt Locker will blow their mind.

And it’s hard. If it wasn’t the drones would easily see the trap they’re falling into and they wouldn’t aimlessly agree with everything someone else writes as he/she steps on their head like a rung in ladder to the top of the blogosphere.

For most people calling them out only makes you seem jealous. Pointing fingers at the drone questions their intellect (and nobody is going to respond well to that).

The solution is to get out of the fishbowl, make it a competition, and find a way to win. Drones are notoriously nimble bandwagon fans and when they see you take the lead they’ll try to ride your coattails. When they do, don’t manipulate them. Demand they call you on your bullshit. Demand they challenge you, and push you to keep stay atop your game. Then deliver the goods, not re-packaged generic garbage.

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If you’d like insight on how I would employ similar techniques for your small business feel free to shoot me an e-mail at ryanstephensmarketing (at) gmail (dot) com.

Enjoy!

1. Let’s assume you just opened a martial arts studio. You’re ready to begin classes. You have no students. What are the top three things you’re going to do to get the first fifty?

The problem with this question is the assumption that you should open a martial arts studio prior to acquiring any students. I think the first thing you’d want to do is start having conversations with other martial arts influencers and people wanting to learn the practice. Begin developing a reputation as someone who is knowledgeable about martial arts and then start providing value and building a community. Whether it’s offline, online, or both, the key is to get a handful of true fans that want to learn from you, and are willing to spread the word about your brand. Then you open the studio.

2. Do you think Twitter is a good tool for martial arts schools to be using? What do you think would be the best way for them to utilize it?

That depends. Are people who are interested in martial arts participating and having conversations about the discipline on the platform? A quick glance at http://search.twitter.com/ reveals quite a few people talking about martial arts so yes, it’s probably a sound tool. The important thing (unless you have a tiny niche) is to go where people are already talking and join the conversation – WHEREVER that is.

There’s countless ways to utilize Twitter. The BEST way is probably to engage people interested in martial arts that could potentially become your customers. You could also build Twitter lists of martial arts influencers, students, students by geographic location, etc. You can share links to good articles, videos, etc. I won’t inundate readers with examples, but there’s hundreds of ways to utilize Twitter provided it’s a medium your audience responds to.

3. Do you have any insight into how instructors could take your advice on building their personal brand, but not on what others want/think/expect?

All I mean by that is that people shouldn’t let others influence the path they want to take. So many people follow this unwritten protocol where they insist on being politically correct and ridiculously agreeable because they don’t want their personal brand to suffer. The problem with that is you become ordinary, and you don’t stand out to anybody. A lot of people think Dane Cook is hilarious. Plenty others think the guy is a total douche. The key is to be whoever you are without worrying about what others think. Define your brand on your terms and you’ll earn your true niche of fans.

4. Tell us about the tagline of your site: Building Intimate Business Relationships.

I think relationships (and ideas) are the foundation of good business so I’ve tried to create a platform where I can wax poetic about how important relationships are. People don’t associate with a logo the way they can a person, and people want to do business with people they like. Nobody wants to push 1 for the menu and the automated voice. I’m probably oversimplifying it, but that’s what it boils down to for me. Being genuine, helping people, and cultivating reciprocal relationships that ultimately help both parties achieve their goals.

5. Martial arts competes a lot with soccer, baseball, football, and other youth sports. What would you do to hold the competing sports at bay and retain more students?

I don’t think I’d actively try to hold other sports back. I think I’d do my best to tell compelling stories about martial arts. I’d try to highlight the benefits and unique selling propositions both for the sport and for my particularly school/studio. In lieu of competing with other sports, you might even try marketing martial arts as a supplement to other sports. Increase your concentration for baseball, discipline for football, quickness for soccer, etc.

6. Where would you place your focus more in 2010: Print Ads, Online advertising, or Other? Explain?

Again, it’s really dependent on the audience you’re trying to reach. Where are they? What do they respond to? There’s something to be said for a company, big or small, that can bring people together and engage in personalized and meaningful way. Personally, I’ve found this to be easier online. I don’t think it’s a coincidence a lot of money is shifting away from traditional advertising methods and towards the online stratosphere. I think it’s all about evaluating what you’re trying to accomplish and using the tools, mediums, channels, etc. to connect with your target audience in a way that makes sense (to them).

7. We like unconventional. What’s your top unconventional marketing tip?

Being yourself. Too many people, companies, brands, etc. want to follow others, to imitate rather than innovate, and to stick with what’s work for others, what’s worked in the past. I have a lot of respect for companies like Crispin Porter + Bogusky that aren’t afraid to take risks.

The truth is that I’m not the most creative person in the world. I like executing the simple things at a very high level. Put it this way: If I were a chef I wouldn’t use really fancy techniques. I would try to cook simple flavors better than everyone else.

If that’s not your approach, try to use the element of surprise to do things nobody else is doing. If it’s been done before, chances are it’s not that unconventional. Andy Nulman is the master of leveraging surprise.

8. Online video is getting big and will probably overtake many other forms of advertising in 2010. How do you use online video in your hypothetical martial arts school?

I would probably just show them the wise ways of the West Virgina Ninja.

Kidding aside. I would test a variety of different segments and see what people were responsive to. You could host very short videos where you demonstrated a move, discussed a mental aspect of martial arts, gave a tour of your studio, showcased student sparring matches, etc. The possibilities are endless.

I suspect there’s plenty of proud parents that would love to go online and watch little Johnny perform his moves on YouTube. It would give them something they could send to their friends, who could show their kids, who could become interested in your studio as well.

9. Lots of martial arts schools have trouble differentiating themselves from the other schools in their area. Facing this reality, what do you decide to do to make sure your school is the purple cow?

Pick out one thing (or a couple of things) that you want to be the fabric of why you do business. Execute relentlessly. Maybe it’s some of the strategies and/or tactics mentioned in this interview, and maybe it’s something totally different, but find something you can be the best at it. Then do that everyday with as much passion and as much respect for your students as possible and the rest usually takes care of itself. It sounds simple, but it’s the truth.

10. What is your first reaction regarding martial arts or the martial arts industry?

I know virtually nothing about martial arts aside from a few bloopers I’ve watched on You Tube, but I have great respect for people that have the discipline to hone a craft that has the ability to positive influence both their mind and body. That said, I’m pretty sure I could take Chuck Norris is a street fight.

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[Ryan's Note: I have a lot of respect an admiration for my community of readers and as a result I've been protective of this space and reluctant to allow guest posts. One, it's silly of me to think that you could learn everything from me when there are so many smart people out there. And two, since I rarely do this you know that I think highly of Rich and feel confident he's delivered the goods. Enjoy!]

I really love telecommuting. Want to know what I love more than telecommuting? Working for an employer that provides telecommuting as a productivity option. It is empowering to employees, and, well, let me stop there; I’m getting ahead of myself.

During my professional career I’ve worked for two companies thus far. Each had different opinions on telecommuting. The first company, Company A, was a staffing agency, and they didn’t allow telecommuting (unless you wanted to work after hours or on weekends). The second company, Company B, was a global software company, and telecommuting was allowed and even encouraged when needed.

Experiencing life as an employee in these very different companies gave me a first-hand look at why organizations should provide telecommuting as an option to its employees. So why should they? Here are 6 reasons:

1. Empowers Employees

Just having the option to telecommute will make an employee feel powerful and in control. Employees have busy lives outside of work, and if they know they are able to work from home when a situation comes up, they will feel that much better about their employer.

2. Less Pointless Meetings

Most meetings are poorly run, eat up productivity, and don’t have a point. When employees telecommute, managers are less likely to call a random, bullshit meeting that takes you away from your work. When the meetings are actually important, the employee will want to drive in, or fly in to attend.

3. Little to no Interruptions

How many times have you been in the office, working hard on meeting a deadline, when another employee stops by and starts chatting? More than you would like, right? A little bit of office chatter won’t hurt, but a lot is counter-productive.

4. Goodbye Commuter Stress

Driving to work sucks. People with a 10-15 minute commute should consider themselves very lucky. Most people probably report at least a one-way commute time of 45 minutes. Commuting forces us to sacrifice time, sleep, and the availability to perform other life activities. Introduce telecommuting and employees will be more refreshed and much less stressed.

5. Go Green Initiative

Does this need explaining?

6. Swine Flu

I’m sure you are aware of Swine Flu, but do you remember the Avian (bird) Flu, and SARS? It seems a new global pandemic scare pops up every couple years. When things like this come up, a company is responsible for protecting its greatest asset – its employees. Telecommuting is among one of the most effective methods for minimizing spread of infectious disease among company employees, while also keeping it from spreading around the globe.

If you are ready to play devil’s advocate, I know what your next two questions will be.

What about morale?
Most companies suck at morale. It usually starts and ends with management. When a company employs poor management, no matter which way you slice it, morale will suffer. At least with telecommuting, employees can avoid some of the stresses listed above.

What about employees staying focused while working at home?
This question is stupid. If I’m working from home and want to take 15 minutes to watch Regis and Kelly or do my laundry, then so be it. Don’t I take a 15-minute break when someone stops over to chat, or when a 15-minute random meeting is called? How about smokers? How many breaks do they take to go smoke outside during the day? When people aren’t working, it is pretty easy to tell. If a company trusts its employees, that trust will pay dividends.

What are your thoughts on telecommuting? Have you worked for a company that disallowed it? If so, how did it make you feel?

Rich DeMatteo is the creator of Corn On The Job, a job search, recruiting, and HR blog. Rich is a Philadelphia area HR/Staffing professional with experience in both agency and corporate recruiting. Connect with him through Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, or subscribe to his blog.

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A benefit of less, or no meetings is having enough “alone time” to let creativity flow and accomplish more without interruption. 37signals also prefers co-worker interaction to be the exception rather than the rule. Fried explains, “The conventional wisdom is to be together all the time. I think it is poisonous. Having too much of anything is bad for you. It’s better to appreciate the interaction you do have. We’ve made ‘away time’ the norm, and ‘together time’ the exception, so it’s something that people look forward to. — Jason Fried (37 Signals)

I’ve been obsessed with Jason’s approach to management and business design for quite some time now, and I’m not sure if it’s because it’s innovative, challenges the status quo, or if it’s just self-affirming for what I envision to be a really awesome and productive environment.

Just last week I discussed tactics for improving meetings stating that I often find meetings to be disruptive. Creative people need significant windows of time in order to process thoughts, develop strategy, code, write, etc. Task-hopping, meetings, and perhaps now togetherness (?) can be detrimental to those windows.

Sure it’s great to be able to turn around and ask a co-worker a quick question, but what if it comes at the expense of the co-workers concentration. Does she lose 10-15 minutes out of her day thinking about the thought she just lost? Getting back on task?

If you sent them an e-mail (or used task management software, Google Wave, etc.) they could answer on their own time, at their convenience, but then does that cost you valuable time on your own project?

I don’t know the answer. Collaboration can be invaluable and it’s certainly necessary, but how does that collaboration manifest itself in your workplace? If you only get together 3 times a week for an hour do people come more prepared with pressing questions and maximize that designated time?

Maybe what Jason is saying resonates with me only because I’m one of those people who needs time to process and work through things. I’m easily distracted, and can have a tendency to task hop. If I’m in the zone I don’t want to be interrupted.

But would it hurt my feelings if I wanted to bounce and idea off someone and they were too busy? Would I trust employees and/or co-workers to determine for themselves the importance of their questions/interruptions/distractions?

Maybe the answer is infinitely more complicated. Maybe a leader knows their subordinates well enough (an employee their co-workers well enough) that they know you can always ask Theo a question because he’s quick on his feet and can easily re-immerse himself. But don’t bother Cynthia because she really values her alone time in 2-hour spurts. If you send her something, she’ll answer during a break.

I certainly don’t know the answer so I’m looking forward to learning from you in the ensuing conversation in the comments.

Is alone time important? Is togetherness potentially poisonous? What kind of worker are you? What’s your ideal working environment for optimal productivity?

Photo Credit: dearoot

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