"I've Got a Golden Ticket!"

This is success. A clear and defined plan with specific (timeline and financial) measurable goals to track success. Hallelujah

Mr. Lütke determined before the competition that it would have to inspire at least 600 new accounts to be successful. New customers, he figured, would spend a minimum of $24 a month for six months to compete, translating to at least $86,400 in revenue for Shopify…So far, Shopify has signed up more than 1,000 new Web stores, already exceeding the expectations of Mr. Lütke, who expects 50 to 100 more participants to sign up by May 1.

Courtesy of NY Times

While chatting with my friend Jason  this week he said “…by the way I’m launching a Twitter Game Show site tomorrow called “Find That Tweet“. I think you’ll like it.”  Just wish I thought of it! How clever. We were talking about how he used to hide cash for twitter users, like Tony Hawk ended up doing with skate decks.  The official launch day was yesterday and I was hooked!!! All I needed to do was find a tweet after watching video clues and I win money. The coolest part is he set it up so when I tweet it out a link is created in my tweet via his system and if someone clicks and starts playing and they win I get some money from them winning too! Crazy sick and so super smart plus a ton of fun.

I get A LOT of emails, tweets, Facebook messages, LinkedIn requests and phone calls looking to connect with me for my resources and/or partnerships. I’m excited to share the wealth and see those around me succeed.  If I believe in you, not just your product, I typically find a mutually beneficial opportunity to connect someone to.  As the years go on the requests are multiplying in order to run my company effectively of course I need to be careful with my time managment.  Jason Fried of 37 Signals blocks out specific weekly phone hours to connect with customers, business education seekers and fans.  So as of late after receiving a request I respond with the questions, “What goal are you looking to achieve….how can I help?” And people seem to not know how to react.  I am not looking or expecting anything in return and that just seems confusing to most.  This is probably why the basic utility of social media seems  so complicated.  It is indeed basic.  You listen to your audience and what their interests are and then you offer resource or insights based on their interest. That’s it.  Pretty simple right? Or am I the one missing something….   I welcome your feedback.

This week I am reading “Getting Real” by 37 Signals AMAZING insights and perspective on how to manage time and build an effective organization. It’s been sitting on my desk for about a year to read. I wish I picked it up sooner. It’s that good.

I just had to blog about this… Tactical Corsets . What else would I wear NYE to protect myself from all the midnight chaos….  I first saw the Lovely Amanda Coolong demonstrating what a Tactical Corset is at Bar Camp LA.  Talk about events  not to have been missed in 2009.  I’ll let the video speak for the fashion statement itself.

Here is footage provided by Sean Percival of Lalawag

Tactical Corset from BarCampLA 2009 from sean percival on Vimeo.

ShoeBoxed and Pre Planning on an index card – no joke. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

Shoeboxed is the Netflix for receipts and business cards. I do my hustle thing, getting sh*t done, place the receipts and business cards in a big shiny blue Postage Prepaid  envelope and wahla a few days later I get the most amazing organization of accounting and contacts I have EVER seen. I know too.  I meet A LOT of people.  I used to have my assistant scan everything using Neat Receipts. Even bought their super Desktop machine. But still with all the scanning errors it was costing me to have someone go through every contact and piece of paper for accuracy. Then through the golden gates of resources I met the owner of ShoeBoxed at SXSW. It took me close to a year to actually start using the system. My ego was probably stuck on the $500 bucks I spent on Neat Receipts when I could have been spending only 10 bucks a month with ShoeBoxed and no assistant cost!!! I am telling you. If you run a  business, meet people and don’t use Shoe Boxed you are just simply crazy. You want to be wasting time.

And those simple plain boring INDEX cards are a goldmine of productivity. Don’t believe me? Just look at the famous GTD (Getting Things Done) blog . Yea I was going crazy keeping 10 to do lists on dry erase boards in my office, house, sticky notes, JOTT express, RTM (Remember the Milk) until a friend who seems to get EVERYTHING done said I just write it all on an index card the night before for that day and order them in sequence of priority after I’m done writing each task.  “Come on… that’s it?” I said.  He informed me that keeping multiple to do lists devalues each one and by having to open a to do list in a computer makes it not so accessible. So with an index card in his pocket at all times he just crosses off each task as they are completed.  Then at the end of the day he transfers anything not done to the new index card for the following day and rips up the one for that day.  And let me tell you ITS BEEN WORKING!!!  I complete just about everything.  Only difference. I think I’ll start burning each card when I’m done.  Lots more fun