Chip Griffin: Pardon the Disruption

Book Review: How to Do Everything with Podcasting by Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson

My friends Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson of the For Immediate Release podcast have written a stellar new book that will appeal to anyone interested in podcasting.  Aspiring podcasters will find a solid how-to manual.  Current podcasters will discover tips and tricks they may have overlooked.  And the curious will get a great understanding of what podcasts are, how they are created, and what their value is.

How to Do Everything with Podcasting contains over 300 pages of goodness.  Shel and Neville use a great mixture of text and visual aids to help communicate their message.  The tone is simple but not condescending.  Broken into chunks, this book also serves as a great reference (and I suspect it will get dog-eared on my shelf as I keep going back to it).

The book contains five main sections:

• Get Started With Podcasting. Here you learn what podcasting is, how to listen, and where to find interesting podcasts.  All the basics one should understand before seriously contemplating creating a podcast.
• Produce Your First Podcast.  I suspect this will be the most appealing portion of the book for most readers.  It includes all of the information you need from a hardware, software, and distribution perspective to get started.  It meets a range of budgets, from a very simple $20 setup to options to spend hundreds of dollars or more.  Shel and Neville explain scary terms like "compression" and "normalization" and explain what they are and how they can improve the quality of your podcast if you choose.
• Refining Your Podcast.  Here's where this book really sets itself apart from others in the market.  Shel and Neville are communicators, first and foremost.  Many podcasting books come at the topic from an audio background, but these two start with the substance.  In this section, you learn to determine the objectives for your podcast, understand your audience and what it wants, and how to incorporate format choices that meet these needs.  Ultimately, the authors make the point that podcasting is a tool, not an end in itself.  Determine what you want to accomplish, and then decide if a podcast is the right medium.
• Make Money with Your Podcast.  While admitting up-front that profitability is unlikely to be the foremost goal for most readers, the authors do a nice job of identifying potential revenue streams for those who may be interested.  Featured are less obvious ideas that many may overlook, including merchandising, to go along with typical advertising and sponsorship scenarios.
• Use a Podcast As a Business Communication Tool. Again, they're communicators so this section builds upon the foundation set in the third section on objectives.  Shel and Neville outline clear ideas on how a podcast could be used in a business setting, including for building reputation, marketing, internal communications, customer dialogue, and more.  They even include an explanation of when you shouldn't use podcasting as a tool.

There weren't many misses that I noticed, but one did jump out at me. There's no mention that I can recall about a software tool called the Levelator which is an invaluable tool for beginning podcasters to improve the audio quality of their podcast for free.  I'm pretty sure they plug it in their workshops, so I'm not sure why it missed the cut in the book.

And one other thing: it would have been nice if the publisher could have come up with some different graphics between sections.  They simply repeat the cover art, so by the end of the book it gets really old! :)

Of course, there's much more to the book than what I've been able to describe here, so I encourage you to check it out for yourself.

In addition, the book's companion web site includes additional resources, including a video demonstration by Shel of one of the more complicated techniques described in the book.

Technorati Tags: How to Do Everything with Podcasting, podcast, Shel Holtz, Neville Hobson, For Immediate Release, podcasting, book review, business books

Book Review: Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston

A few months ago, I picked up a copy of Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston, but I didn't get a chance to read it until this past weekend.  Turns out to be an excellent read.  At first, I was skeptical of the notion of reading transcripts of interviews rather than a coherent story, but it really seems to work.  Included are conversations with 32 founders of tech startups, ranging from older companies like Apple and Lotus to the hot, hip young companies of the recent boom like Flickr and 37Signals. (See the tags below for the full list of company founders included)

Between this and Ben Casnocha's book this weekend, my reading has caused me to do a lot of reflecting on my own entrepreneurial experiences.  (And it certainly fuels my ever-present itch to start more new companies -- enterprises in their infancy are my passion.)

Because of the variety of companies profiled and the different backgrounds that each founder brought to their own startup, the book does a great job of exploring different paths to success.  Certainly common themes seem to exist throughout, but this book demonstrates that there's no right or wrong answer to any startup question.  Ultimately, each entrepreneur must follow a unique path.

A few examples of things that popped out at me as I read:

• The interviews with Steve Wozniak of Apple, Dan Bricklin of Software Arts (VisiCalc), and Mitch Kapor of Lotus took me back to my days of programming on cassette tapes in BASIC for the TRS-80.  But more important, it shows many of today's younger entrepreneurs that memory space used to be a huge commodity and tight, efficient code was key.  Today, computer programs tend to be much more bloated since memory and hard disk space are cheap.  In the current environment, the focus is on lean hardware to make everything lighter and more power-efficient.
• Ray Ozzie on hiring: "In a startup, you're on this mission together.  Everyone has to feel that, and you have to hire people who are willing to believe in something they are trying to accomplish.
• More Ray Ozzie on the real reason to take investors on: "I funded the first few years [of Groove] myself.  But eventually I took money from Mitch Kapor and then others.  Not so much because I needed it at that point, but because I knew that, ultimately, you cannot accomplish something completely on your own.  You really need to develop a network of people who win when you win."
• Paul Graham, founder of ViaWeb, on deals: "Never believe it's a deal till the money's in the bank.  Even at the point where you walk in that room to sign the final papers, there's still a 10 percent chance the deal's going to fall through.  At the point where people say, "We want to buy you," the chances of it falling through are like 80 or 90 percent.  So you can't let yourself believe.  If someone wants to make you an offer, fine, but don't change your plans based on that.  Just keep going."
• Ron Gruner of Shareholder.com: "I think that bootstrapping the company on a quarter of a million dollars made us a little myopic.  We became so proud of that fact that we didn't find the middle ground.  I think that in '98, '99, or 2000, we could have taken a million, $2 million of capital, at a very attractive valuation, and retained control and grown the company twice or three times as fast as we did."

My only nit with the book really, is that I would love to have seen a companion offering or a few chapters outlining the key themes that Jessica picked up on in her interviews.  I'm certain after spending that amount of time with all of those successful founders, she would be able to do a decent discussion of the lessons and themes that permeated those talks.  Of course, that deviates from the "in their own words" format, but I still would have enjoyed it.

Technorati tags: 37Signals, Adobe Audition, Alliant Computer, Apple, ArsDigita, Blogger, Bloglines, Craigslist, Del.icio.us, Excite, Firefox, Flickr, Fog Creek Software, Gmail, Groove Networks, Hotmail, Hot or Not, Lotus, Lycos, Marimba, PayPal, Research in Motion, Six Apart, Software Arts, Tickle, Tivo, TripAdvisor, ViaWeb, WebTV, Yahoo!, Y Combinator, Jessica Livingston, Founders at Work, book review, business books

(Partial) Book Review: The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

There's been a bit of buzz in the blogosphere over The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, so despite its absurd-sounding name, I picked up a copy to read.  Unfortunately, it was pretty much what I expected.  I only made it about one-third of the way through when I came across a piece of advice I was compelled to take: "Practice the art of nonfinishing."  He writes: "Starting something doesn't automatically justify finishing it.  If you are reading an article that sucks, put it down and don't pick it back up."

Tim takes organization and work-life separation to an extreme.  The entire focus is on cutting corners while still being, or at least feeling, "rich."  There are morsels of good ideas speckled throughout the portion of the book I read, but they all get carried to the extreme.  For instance, rather than the potentially helpful advice to turn off the alert beeps when new email arrives and checking email in a more controlled manner, he brags that he looks at email for just one hour, one day a week.  And when he travels abroad, he doesn't check voice mail at all, he says.  I kid you not when I tell you this is what he writes about that:

But what if someone has an emergency?  It doesn't happen.  My contacts now know that I don't respond to emergencies, so the emergencies somehow don't exist or don't come to me.

The final part of the last sentence is what the author apparently overlooks.  All he's really doing is pushing the work off on someone else.  It still needs to get done.  And that's what's wrong with the book.  It's essentially an arrogant approach focused on manipulating rules and people to get what you want.  Unfortunately, if everyone followed his advice, nobody would be working and there would be nobody left to leech off of.

My advice for how to find more free time?  Skip this one unless you're one of those folks who believes you really can get rich quick with no real effort.

Technorati tags: The 4 Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss, Timothy Ferriss, book review, business books

Book Review: My Start-Up Life by Ben Casnocha

I just concluded Ben Casnocha's crisp and informative memoir -- quite a feat for a 19 year old.  My Start-Up Life covers the eight years of his career as an entrepreneur, beginning at the age of 12.  I believe it was Brad Feld who pointed me to this book and he has a cameo role or two in the book.

Ben does a nice job of capturing the early years of an entrepreneur's life.  Although he experienced them earlier than most, the lessons and challenges are very similar to what others -- myself included -- have faced in starting companies for the first time.  Of course, he had unique challenges to confront as well.  He had to get Mom or Dad to drive him to meetings for the first few years since he didn't have his license yet and in high school his grades suffered significantly as a result of his entrepreneurial activities.

Nevertheless, there's a lot to chew on here for anyone who has started, is starting, or is considering starting a company.  Everything from funding (including entertaining memos he sent to his Dad asking for his first "friends and family" money, as well as angel and VC efforts) to hiring, product development, and sales.  But even if you're not an entrepreneur, this book offers lots of great anecdotes and ideas that will help you do any job better or improve your career path. 

Reading this book today has filled my head with a bunch of ideas for my own blog posts, so I can attest to the mental stimulation value of his book.  And he has a crisp, clear writing style that wastes little time on platitudes and navel-gazing and focuses more on sharing his lessons learned and vision.  Some of what he says strikes me as a bit off the mark, but that's the beauty of entrepreneurship -- we all do things differently.

The only structural complaint I have with the book is excessive use of sidebars.  I found them to be a bit distracting because they broke up the flow of the narrative.  Often they provided real value, but I would prefer that they be presented inline at an appropriate breaking point rather than in a call-out box often in the middle of a paragraph.

Some things that jumped off the pages for me:

• Chapter 4 (I refuse to use the gimmicky "4.0" styling employed by the book) has a great sidebar about "Why Some People Get More Stuff Done."  In short, these people are: committed to themselves, focused on "good enough" not perfection, focused foremost on the short-term, held accountable by sharing their goals with others, and devoted to taking the first step.
• In hunting for a COO as employee #1 for the company, the final 3 candidates were interviewed by the company's advisory board.  "We're not here to pick the best of three.  Rather, we're here to see if there's a superstar -- by our budget -- who can lead Comcate to the next level.  If none of these guys blows our skirt up, we will keep searching."
• "I have an analytical turn of mind and enjoy being around more creative types (who don't wear tattoos and have tie-dyed hair)."  Though I'm more Brooks Brothers than beach bum, I've learned over the years not to judge people by appearance, so this is one area where Ben might want to expand his horizons a bit.
• "I would spend an hour or more to customize the look and feel of the product for each city -- it makes a big difference."  Amen to this.  Prospects love seeing personalize product demos.
• Pricing is the subject of a sidebar in Chapter 10 and is well worth reading.  Ben correctly points out that most start-ups have trouble in this area.  Poor pricing in the early days can sometimes be difficult to resolve later on, especially if you price too low (people appreciate discounts more than price hikes).  He also points out: "How you price your product affects how good your product is thought to be."
• Another entrepreneur who got started as a teenager, Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com, wrote the forward, but he's also the subject of a sidebar on "cold-call emails" in Chapter 12 where Ben focuses on personal branding (hey, Mitch Joel, you should have this guy on 6 Pixels of Separation!).  The focus is on turning cold emails warm by Googling your target and otherwise gathering information to make yourself relevant and valuable in your opening email.
• The ever-present tension between management and development teams reared its head at Comcate.  If you're on either side of this fence -- and let's face it, if you're reading this blog you probably are -- you should at the least pick up Ben's book and read Chapter 13 ("The Product Development Process: Cheap, Good, or Fast?") to understand the tension and see how it was resolved in this case.
• "Dare to be Mediocre: Good Is the Enemy of Perfect" is one of the sidebars in the product development chapter.  This resonates with me because I have 3 simple rules for those I work with.  One is "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."  (The other 2 I'll share in an upcoming blog post.)  The sidebar includes a good anecdote about Google making a good compromise in its cafeteria, understanding where to cut corners.  Ben says the food is great, but the tables and chairs suck.
• Ben properly stresses frugality.  He also emphasizes the value of time.  Both are correct.  But he offers conflicting anecdotes on rental cars.  On the one hand, the COO was spending money on Hertz and Ben and his Dad felt that was wasteful.  On the other, he relates a story about going with a cheap rental agency and it taking 2.5 hours to get the car.  My point of view is like the Google food example: save money where it makes sense.  I use Hertz because with their Gold service you can walk up, get in the car, and drive away.  Saves 30-60 minutes by avoiding lines, paperwork, etc.  My time is more valuable than the $20 a day I might save.
• "One issue of the New York Times contains more information than somebody in the Middle Ages was exposed to in an entire lifetime."  It's a cliche, but true.  It also underscores why people find themselves overwhelmed by information and why a real opportunity exists for creative thinkers to solve the information overload problem (or at least make it better).
• Early in the book -- I can't find find where as I write this -- Ben talked about the difference between wants and needs when it comes to customers.  It's easier to get prospects to pay for "antibiotics" than "vitamins."  Steve Bracy, our EVP at CustomScoop, prefers "painkillers" to "antibiotics" in this analogy (as do I), but the point stands.  If your product solves a problem it's more likely to sell than one that just adds icing to the cake.

The book concludes with Appendix B which provide 30 days of tips (1 a day) about how to make yourself a better entrepreneur (and, as I said before, even entrepreneurs will benefit from most of the advice).  It's a great list and I highly recommend reading it.  Lots of good ideas you can implement this month. 

Technorati tags: Ben Casnocha, My Start-Up Life, entrepreneur, book review, books, business books, Brad Feld, Mitch Joel, personal branding, angel investing, startup advice, startup funding, venture capital, career advice, Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com