Think Globally, Act Locally

Looking for Investors? Beware of Scams

2009-02-03T10:38:00.005-05:00

Most entrepreneurs are looking for investors so that their venture can be suitably capitalized. The current economic climate has made it even harder to find investors for many people and con artists love to take advantage of such situations.

Be very wary of unsolicited emails from gmail, yahoo, hotmail or other such public addresses that claim to be a specific person and are interested in investing in your venture. Believe it or not, there are people who fall for such scams, especially when they feel that they are in a desperate situation.

Someone recently filled out our contact form purporting to be the Chairman of a company based in Dubai and interested in investing. The name used is that of a real person and the company website is real as well but there were a couple red flags.

Here is the exact email:

name: Sheikh Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum
phone: +971-4-3199330
email: hasheralmaktoum@gmail.com
comment: Greetings .

Related to your advert about funding needed, I humbly bring to your notice my willingness to partner with you on this great business opportunity.

I am Mr. Sheikh Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum the Chairman of AL Fajer Group a member of Dubai International Finance Holdings. I am running a family business, I wish to continue all communications with you via this email address, as I intend to make an anonymous investment in this your offer, provided you can guarantee the security of my investment capital in your company.

You may update me with full business details and proposal for a Joint Venture partnership with you. I am looking forward for a good working relationship with your Company.
May the peace and Blessings of Almighty God be with you .

Your sincerely,
Sheikh Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum
AL Fajer Group" PO Box 1600 Dubai, UAE
Tel: +971-4-3199330
Fax: +971-4-3199331
hasheralmaktoum@gmail.com
http://www.alfajer.com

Some Red Flags

1. We currently have no advertisements on the web about needing funding.
2. This person preferred to use a gmail address for all communications.
3. "Dubai International Finance Holdings" does not exist
4. You don't put "Mr." in front of "Sheikh" (the real person actually has "His Highness" before "Sheikh")
5. The email went from an "investment" and to a "Joint Venture partnership"

I was tempted to reply and be like an investigative reporter uncovering a scam but a search on the web found that others had already done this in December 2008. You can read the entire exchange for yourself here.

As expected, it is a version of the famous Nigerian advanced-fee scam where they claim they need to transfer some money but you end up having to pay some fee to collect (there is also a Western Union version where they claim to send a check that you must cash, keep your portion and send them the rest but then a few days later the check bounces and you already sent the cash).

In this scam, the "investor" puts you on to their "Foreign Investment Advisor" in London, require you to come to London to sign the paperwork and pay them GBP 7,100 (about US$12,000). There also seem to be variations on the amount to be paid upfront to receive the investment.

This scam seems to have only recently started. Be on the lookout for more scams as there are bound to be more popping up in this economic environment.

Using Realvibez To Support Caribbean Culture

2009-01-09T13:44:00.005-05:00

In the past, we made the mistake of jumping at every opportunity that remotely related to our overall ambitions, to our detriment.

This time around we have been more meticulous while avoiding too narrow a focus. Realvibez is an "integrated media and entertainment firm focused on Caribbean culture" with the basic goal of helping content owners generate revenue. "Content owners" for us includes film, television, literature, music and more.

Our expertise lies in leveraging the web for marketing, promotion and sales, with the added benefit of being able to promote via Realvibez. That lead to us being approached to handle distribution for some titles from established people.

First was the Michael Manley DVD, his last on-camera interview, and now we are working with renowned author, Easton Lee, on selling his latest work, Run big 'fraid which has been praised by the Jamaican press and especially Barbara Gloudon (see Jamaica Gleaner article).

We always knew that we would eventually be able to grow beyond music. The goal was always to cultivate an audience interested in Caribbean culture and then be able to market multiple products to them in a way that would benefit Caribbean culture. While many things remain challenging, I have to admit that I am happy that we are making progress on this front and can't wait to secure more titles and help more content owners generate meaningful revenue.

Dealing With Disappointment

2008-12-29T12:56:00.003-05:00

Most entrepreneurs learn to deal with failure - it is something that is expected and usually used as motivation to keep going.

Disappointment sometimes accompanies failure but it can be very different too. There is a big difference between the disappointment you feel when you fail, knowing there was a 50/50 chance and the disappointment you feel when you thought you had a 100% chance of success.

We recently had to deal with that and still find it hard to get over it. When you think you have a deal sealed, especially one that is the most significant revenue opportunity in years, both because of the revenue it will generate directly and the impression it will make on potential investors, then it falls through at the last possible minute - you tend to be extremely disappointed.

It only gets worse when it was not your fault and the lack of that revenue causes a cash crunch.

One way to deal with it is to chalk it up to experience and learn from it. I guarantee you that doing this alone does not deal with the disappointment totally though. Some of it lingers and surfaces from time to time. So far I have found that focusing on the reason we started the venture in the first place helps to remove the doubt that the disappointment fosters but I have yet to figure out how to totally erase that disappointment and get some closure.

Maybe you are not supposed to get over it - it is a battle scar that will serve as a lasting reminder of the battles you have faced as an entrepreneur.

Free Resource: Payroll For Dummies

2008-12-20T10:28:00.002-05:00

Most entrepreneurs are always looking for deals and ways to reduce how much cash they have to pay out. They also want to make sure that they are following all the rules.

Inc. Magazine recently posted about a free copy of Payroll For Dummies from WIley Publishing. Sign up today to get your copy in a few weeks, it certainly can't hurt to get a free, valuable resource.

To request the book, go here.

13 Questions with David Mullings (Jamaica Observer Chat!)

2008-12-11T10:18:00.005-05:00

The Jamaica Observer Chat! (their entertainment tabloid) featured my answers to 13 questions on Wednesday, December 10. Check out the questions and answers below. My personal favourite is number 4.

1. Complete the following: I am a....

person working to be a positive role model for young people,
especially young males in Jamaica.

2. Who has been your inspiration?

I draw inspiration from many people, including my parents, Warren
Buffett, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Bob Marley.

3. Tell us one thing about yourself that people would be surprised to know..

I minored in Religion in college and read a verse from the Tao Te
Ching every night.

4. How would you spend $25M?

I would pay down all high interest debt in my family, invest in
Realvibez Media and then launch a startup incubator like Y-Combinator
in partnership with the PSOJ, find 10 people in Jamaica who need
funding, then provide a grant of at least $500,000 each if they enroll
in our free 6-month program to help get their business off the ground,
providing access to lawyers, accountants and advisors.

5. Looking back, is there anything you would do differently?

No, everything happens for a reason and each of our mistakes and
failures has made us smarter and stronger. Things happen for a reason,
we just don't understand that reason until later in life.

6. Describe your perfect date.

My perfect date would be a late dinner on a secluded beach, followed
by a dessert picnic style, a massage for both of us and then a
late-night swim all alone.

7. What's your favorite comic strip/cartoon character?

I am a big anime fan so I am a fan of Naruto. I have been watching
long before it came to the USA and I like his attitude of never giving
up, even when he fails. That is the most important trait of an
entrepreneur.

8. Do you plan to get married?

I have been happily married since May 2007.

9. What's the best thing you have ever done for somebody without being asked?

Introduced them to a potential sponsor for their venture

10. Cornmeal pudding or black forest cake?

Black Forest Cake

11. What gets under your skin?

People who choose to stay ignorant

12. How do you relieve stress?

Play videogames with my wife

13. Which family member is likely to call you at 2:00 am?

My brother Robert. He would be returning my phone call to discuss my
crazy idea that just popped into my head.

Elements Of Sustainable Companies (Sequoia Capital)

2008-12-03T12:52:00.004-05:00

Sequoia Capital, the famous venture capital firm that has funded companies like Cisco, Electronic Arts, Google, PayPal has this list as required reading before submitting a business plan to them (found here).

I believe that their track record proves that every entrepreneur should take this list seriously and build a business with the following in mind. VCs tend to look for specific types of companies and not everyone tries to build those specific types but the basic principles hold true for any venture that you are launching or already have.

"Start-ups with these characteristics often foretells the success of a business and the likelihood of it becoming an enduring company with a sustainable business plan."

CLARITY OF PURPOSE
Summarize the company's business on the back of a business card.

LARGE MARKETS
Address existing markets poised for rapid growth or change. A market on the path to a $1B potential allows for error and time for real margins to develop.

RICH CUSTOMERS
Target customers who will move fast and pay a premium for a unique offering.

FOCUS
Customers will only buy a simple product with a singular value proposition.

PAIN KILLERS
Pick the one thing that is of burning importance to the customer then delight them with a compelling solution.

THINK DIFFERENTLY
Constantly challenge conventional wisdom. Take the contrarian route. Create novel solutions. Outwit the competition.

TEAM DNA
A company’s DNA is set in the first 90 days. All team members are the smartest or most clever in their domain. "A" level founders attract an "A" level team.

AGILITY
Stealth and speed will usually help beat-out large companies.

FRUGALITY
Focus spending on what's critical. Spend only on the priorities and maximize profitability.

INFERNO
Start with only a little money. It forces discipline and focus. A huge market with customers yearning for a product developed by great engineers requires very little firepower.

How You Define Your Business Matters

2008-12-01T12:57:00.002-05:00

Most people define their business venture very narrowly and that limits the growth options or strategic partnerships in the future. Realvibez is usually seen as just a website, an Internet venture, so we take pleasure in explaining the whole plan to people and seeing the change in how they think of our venture.

The New York Times recently carried an article article about CNN's move into wire service and the plan to compete with the Associated Press (A.P.) that so many newspapers and even CNN itself has been using. The wire service will also compete with Bloomberg News and Thomson Reuters.

The President of CNN Worldwide, Jim Walton, does not define his business narrowly:

“Look at the history of CNN,” Mr. Walton said. “We launched as one network in 1980. Today CNN is more than just one network. We have a huge radio business. A huge online business. We’re about content.”

Notice that he did not define his business as just a 24 hour cable news channel, even though that is what it started out as. CNN has expanded into many areas because they see themselves as a "content company" and content can be used on multiple platforms.

Defining your venture solely by what it does could be narrowing your opportunities and blinding you to new revenue streams. Define your venture based on what it creates or does for people that is of value and you unlock new opportunities.

Recognise and Engage Your Supporters

2008-11-19T14:15:00.002-05:00

Many of us are trying to build brands for ourselves or our ventures but I believe that few people do one of the most important things: Recognising and engaging your supporters.

Musicians have proven that identifying your fans and then interacting with them is the surest way to grow a brand and bring more supporters into the fold. This is also what brands like Nike and Apple do. On the personal side, that is what thought leaders like Seth Godin do to build their personal brands and grow their spheres of influence.

Technology has made it even easier to connect with your supporters. Realvibez has a secret invite-only group on Facebook that we use as our focus group. These super fans get to provide feedback on ideas, suggest their own ideas and help to shape the future of the brand and the venture. This makes them even more supportive because they have a real impact in shaping something.

In terms of thought leadership, the traditional way is to speak as often as possible on topics you are knowledgeable about. I have been fortunate enough to speak about topics ranging from entrepreneurship to media and the online ecosystem to students from the University of the West Indies and HEART in Jamaica, the Florida Caribbean Student Association Conference, Boston College and the University of Miami.

These presentations have proven to be the best way to create supporters and make connections. People like being engaged, being able to ask questions and the chance to get answers straight from the source. This can be taken online via webinars, blogs and online discussion groups.

Thanks to the new Realvibez, we have been able to recognise our supporters and engage them because of the new membership system. In 2009 I am going to be speaking as often as possible to anyone willing to listen.

How are you planning to recognise and engage your supporters to build your brand?

Marketing Case Studies From AdAge

2008-11-17T11:48:00.003-05:00

This morning I opened my email and saw one from AdAge that was promoting their Marketing 50 Special Report with the description "Advertising Age Honors the Top Brands of the Year -- and the Brains Behind Them".

Turns out that they are not case studies in the sense of what I am used to from Harvard Business Review but they do provide some good insight. I have read through the case studies and picked my favourites.

Nintendo's Wii Fit:
They created buzz by tapping Nintendo's legion of Wii ambassadors -- many of them mommy bloggers -- this time to host "Wii Fit" parties. Nintendo also handed out units to bloggers eager to lose weight and chronicle their results online.

Result: Since the May launch, the "Wii Fit" board and game pack have sold more than 2.3 million units in the U.S. and have never been lower than fourth on the monthly list of top game sales, according to NPD Group, and likely will top 3 million in sales this year. By comparison, only three gaming titles sold more than 3 million copies in 2007.

Rihanna Umbrellas From Totes:
Def Jam Recordings, preparing to release the single Umbrella, suggested the company create a product line with the then up-and-coming songstress. The umbrella line, available at Macy's and totes.com, launched in summer 2007. A second line made its debut last February.

Result: "We put one umbrella online as a soft test and couldn't keep it in stock," says Ms. Stary, 39, who adds that today "the Rihanna umbrella line makes up 15% of our online sales, which is tremendous given it's such a niche product."

True Religion:
Jeffrey Lubell launched True Religion in Los Angeles in 2002 by giving jeans away to boutique clerks, influential celebrities and stylists.

Result: Sales have grown steadily since, soaring 170.5% to $17.1 million for the second quarter, ended June 30, vs. the same period a year earlier.

Hulu:
Jason Kilar, CEO - "...my mother had to be proficient in it in 15 seconds or less with no help from me."

Result: Within six months, Hulu was serving 142 million videos a month, making it the sixth-largest video site in the U.S., according to Nielsen's Video Census.

Flip Video Camera:
"if video could be packaged properly and become as convenient as point-and-shoot photography, it would be a huge opportunity,"

Result: As of last month, 1 million Flip camcorders had been sold in the U.S. The camera's name is its key attribute -- Flip's built-in, flip-out USB arm makes uploading video easier for YouTubers.

American Express Members Project:
The online initiative solicits AmEx card members to submit and vote on ideas for humanitarian projects.

Result: n 2008, more than 400,000 people registered to participate in Members Project, AmEx says, and 1,190 projects were submitted. The program attracted 1.8 million unique visitors to membersproject.com, up 20% from 2007, its first year. Members Project this year awarded five proposals a total of $2.5 million.

'Biggest Loser' Products:
"The Biggest Loser" may have begun life as a weight-loss reality show, but it's now well on the road to becoming a brand in its own right via licensing deals

Result: "The Biggest Loser" may have begun life as a weight-loss reality show, but it's now well on the road to becoming a brand in its own right via licensing deals

P&G's Bounty:
Bounty has three tiers of paper towels at different prices.

Result: Procter & Gamble Co.'s Bounty has reached all-time highs in market share in the past year. "Consumers recognize differences in paper towel products ... and they're willing to vote for the brands best meeting their needs," Mr. Schwan says.

Häagen-Dazs:
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, presented a concept built around a news story: A mysterious colony-collapse disorder is killing honeybees, whose pollination is responsible for the health of numerous crops, including ingredients in Häagen-Dazs.

The February launch of "Häagen-Dazs loves honey bees" included a range of media and public relations while adding a new flavor -- Vanilla Honey Bee.

Result: Häagen-Dazs says it's seen sales increase 16% for the year. Aiming to hit 125 million media impressions within a year, "we were blown away to see that we reached that goal in the first two weeks."

These case studies all provide good marketing ideas that can be modified for other ventures and brand development.

Even Brilliant People Need The Right Opportunities

2008-11-14T13:21:00.002-05:00

Entrepreneurs love to point to the success of "self-made" people like Bill Gates as proof that hard work, solid ideas and solid execution are the most important factors for success.

But is that really true?

Malcolm Gladwell, the famous author of The Tipping Point and Blink, has a new book on the way called Outliers and it seeks to explain that opportunities due to your environment have more to do with your success than just your smarts.

In a recent interview for New York Magazine titled Geek Pop Star, he pointed out the advantages Bill Gates had because of his family and location:

Gladwell cites a body of research finding that the “magic number for true expertise” is 10,000 hours of practice. “Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good,” Gladwell writes.

“It’s the thing you do that makes you good.” Gladwell shows how Gates accumulated his 10,000 hours while in middle and high school in Seattle thanks to a series of nine incredibly fortunate opportunities—ranging from the fact that his private school had a computer club with access to (and money for) a sophisticated computer, to his childhood home’s proximity to the University of Washington, where he had access to an even more sophisticated computer.

“By the time Gates dropped out of Harvard after his sophomore year to try his hand at his own computer software company,” Gladwell writes, “he’d been programming practically nonstop for seven consecutive years. He was way past 10,000 hours.” Yes, Gates is obviously brilliant, Gladwell concludes, but without the lucky breaks he had as a kid, he never could have had the opportunity to fulfill the true potential of that brilliance.

How many similarly brilliant people never get that opportunity?

I repeat the last question: How many similarly brilliant people never get that opportunity?

Success is not due to just yourself, but the environment and people you surround yourself with. That is why networking is so integral - who you know, who knows you and who you can raise capital from.

Your environment can play a real role in making things easier. Of course, that does not mean that one should look at their surroundings and resign themselves to failure.

Nothing worth having is easy to achieve.

If your current environment is not the best for your venture, it just means that you work harder and smarter, while finding ways to alter your surroundings to improve your chances of success.

Is There Meaning In The Work You Do?

2008-11-12T11:49:00.003-05:00

I came across a great post by Umair Haque over at Harvard Business Publishing titled How to Build a Next-Gen Business Now.

He lays out five steps to build such a business but it was the fifth step that caught my attention because it spoke to our Realvibez Media business.

This final step - rediscovering meaning in the work we do - isn't just the most difficult to come to grips with. It's also the most critical - because though the other steps are necessary, they're not sufficient. Without a deeply felt - and a powerfully lived - sense of meaning, every business will devolve to what the investment banks became: machines engineered with relentless precision to destroy long-run value, often implosively so.

We have found it easier to stick with our venture even when the money is not coming in because it wasn't founded just because we wanted to make money. It has more meaning than that to us - empowering Caribbean entertainment to earn more revenue on a global scale.

It is taking longer to get where we want and we started by focusing on the music industry, now slowly moving into the television and film industry, but it will get there and we keep working hard because there is meaning in the work we do.

Guy Kawasaki in The Art of the Start, starts chapter 1 with GIST (Great Ideas For Starting Thing) and number one is the following:

Make Meaning - The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning - to create a product or service that makes the world a better place. So your first task is to decide how you can make meaning.

Are you doing what you are doing to just make money or to also make meaning?

Spend Every Dollar As If It Were Your Last

2008-11-06T12:11:00.002-05:00

Times like these are when ventures prove their staying power and executives/founders reveal their beliefs about capital. Lean times always lead to the death of ventures that cannot trim fat, have a culture of over-spending or have too many executives who do not spend company cash like it was their own.

Cutting expenses and being frugal also applies just as much to personal lives.

When the money is rolling in or you are sitting on lots of capital, it is easy to overlook buying a more expensive chair or the new computer but that mindset has to be changed quickly when cash positions change.

Expenses matter more now than ever and being frugal is the safest way to preserve cash. It might even be wise to sell some items to free up capital if that money can be better deployed to generate more cash.

Some of us turned down projects in the good times because they were not directly related to the business or did not generate the margins we wanted. Those may need to be revisited and analysed under a different microscope. The wasteful spending at the height of the Dot Com boom on things like Aeron chairs came back to haunt those ventures.

This time is no different. Even if your business is doing fine, be cautious about how you spend your money and be very clear about how much each dollar is going to bring back in return.

Spend every dollar as if it were your last.

How Do You treat Your Employees?

2008-10-30T20:31:00.003-05:00

Today I reflected on my single greatest lesson in life to date: How to treat people who work for you.

A few years ago we managed to secure a large amount of money for Realvibez in Jamaica for some summer promotions. A close friend of mine, Daniel, was planning to work with a company that summer but said he would not enjoy it. He had been helping Realvibez for free for some time and so I offered to pay him the same wage as his job and come work with us instead since he would enjoy it.

He happily accepted and I looked forward to a great summer.

To this day I regret my attitude towards Daniel but it was better that I learnt the lesson then than later in life when I was managing 20 people or more.

I saw a side of me come out that I am ashamed of, a domineering slave driver who felt that just because I paid you a salary, I could dictate anything to you and you should jump at a moment's notice.

My father had to intervene once and he got extremely upset at my response - I had justified my actions by saying "I pay his salary, he is my employee".

Dad pointed out that he was still a person with feelings and that paying someone a salary never makes you their master.

That summer permanently damaged one of the greatest friendships I have ever had. It also taught me the invaluable lesson of treating people the way I would want to be treated.

If you had asked me before that summer, I would have told you all about how I would treat anyone who worked for me and I would point to existing examples. The problem was that those examples were people who volunteered, not received a salary from me.

The minute I had employees instead of volunteers, the dark side took over.

Thankfully I have learnt from my mistakes and I will never repeat that mistake, nor will my brother/business partner, my wife or my parents ever allow it to happen again.

Apply the following idea to your employees when that day finally comes:

Do not do unto others what you would not like done to you

Don't make my mistake.

Business.com Case Study: Ignore The Laughter Of Other People

2008-10-28T09:23:00.002-05:00

Every entrepreneur has had some person laugh at their idea, but few have had thousands or hundreds of thousands laugh at their idea.

I personally know someone who had the chance to invest in MTV at the inception but laughed at the entrepreneur and asked him why would anyone watch music on television.

Never let the naysayers dent your resolve, just make sure you can answer their question satisfactorily for yourself, your potential staff and your potential investors, even if you are the only one in all the above.

Business.com is now the leading business search directory in the USA but it had humble beginnings. In 1999, Jake Winebaum and Sky Dayton bought just the domain name for US$7.5 million, a record at the time.

They instantly became the laughing stock of the tech world.

In 1997, the domain name had sold for US$150,000, then a record as well.

They set out to build a business directory and in 2007, sold Business.com for US$345 million. Dow Jones, The New York Times, IAC/Interactive Corp. and News Corp. all attempted to buy it but the winner was R.H. Donnelley Corp., one of the largest telephone directory publishers in the US.

Jake and Sky had the last laugh.

The most important asset for an entrepreneur is not having public support, it is believing in your vision.

As Henry Ford said (and Mike Michalowicz promotes as the greatest entrepreneurship lesson in his book The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur):

If you think you can, or you think you can't, then you're right

Don't get caught up with what other people think about your idea.

Focus on executing your vision.

What Works for Business Contest - US$30,000 in Prizes

2008-10-25T13:34:00.003-05:00

Business.com, the #1 Business search property and a website with over 6 million unique visitors per month, has launched a contest called What Works for Business Contest.

They have invited me to be a judge for the contest and I am extending an invitation for you to enter the contest.

Today’s challenging business climate calls for innovative problem solving. Have you solved a tough business challenge? Tell us about it for a chance at a $10,000 grand prize!

This is a great opportunity for startups and small businesses to share great ideas and be rewarded with some cash. Learn more about the contest here.

David Mullings Invited to be a Guest Lecturer

2008-10-23T09:29:00.002-05:00

I am currently in Jamaica and was invited on Tuesday to be a guest lecturer at the H.E.A.R.T. VTDI in Kingston by Dennis Howard, the UWI lecturer who brought me down in February to speak at the Global Reggae Conference.

It was a last-minute request but I was prepared and was able to speak to a class of students focusing on artist management in the music industry. The topic that evening was music videos and the Internet.

One of the students joined Realvibez.tv yesterday and wrote a blog post that gives a far better account than I could ever give. He wrote:

I got up this morning feeling good, the reason why yesterday I went to my artist managment class as always, about midway in the class a guest lecturer came in...his name was David Mullings, keep in mind I'm seeing this guy for the first time.

However, he proceeded to introduce himself to the class and started to give us a comprehensive overview of the internet and some of the various social networks that were available as well as effective. Mr. Mullings also went on to introduce the class to his Realvibez website which everyone found rather interesting, he told us what was offered by Realvibez and the whole movement of the company.

So as an upcoming artist I had to be a part of this new phenomenon that is taking over...believe me when I tell u being enlightened by someone never makes you inferior it makes you greater, because you now possess the knowledge on how to approach any situation hands on...so for me blogging is new amongst a few more things that I'm gradually familiarizing myself with...so I just want to thank Mr. David Mullings again for opening my eyes to other possibilities and avenues in this music industry truly appreciated.

That is all that I can ask for when I speak to students.

I ended up giving a second guest lecture to a UWI class while on Shaggy's music video set yesterday and will post about that tomorrow.

Are you trying to inspire others?

Fail Fast, Learn a Lot and Keep Going

2008-10-19T16:14:00.003-05:00

This is a quote from David Cohen, executive director of TechStars, a Boulder, Colorado incubator that works with Millenial company founders. It was near the end of Inc. Magazine's recent cover story by my friend Donna Fenn: Cool, Determined, under 30.

Great advice indeed and reminiscent of Guy Kawasaki's book The Art of the Start.

We have had our share of testing ideas, failing and learning from them. The lessons get applied to future projects and revised versions of failed projects. It also makes us more prepared to answer people who quiz us about future plans and why we aren't doing certain things.

In Jim Collins' Built To Last, Collins writes that companies should "try a lot of things and keep what works", similar advice. He also provides some great stories of companies failing, learning, keep on going and eventually becoming great.

My personal favourites are Sony and HP. The founders created a wide range of products to make ends meet and to see where the demand was. They had tons of failures but they eventually made out fine.

Thomas Edison said:

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

So don't be afraid to fail fast and learn a lot, just make sure that you keep on trying and don't give up that fight (yes, I just channeled some Cezar).

Finally Launched the new Realvibez.tv

2008-10-17T13:20:00.002-05:00

The new Realvibez.tv has launched.

The last 6 days have been filled with tons of programming, testing, video editing and graphic design.

We spent years figuring out what we would want the ideal Realvibez website to have, pricing the development with a few different firms and constantly tweaking our plans and investor proposals.

The website has never been one that we were proud to show off - it was decent, but it left so much to be desired in terms of what we KNEW we needed to have to come across as truly professional and make it easy to update.

We FINALLY have that website, and it costed us WAY LESS than what we had budgeted - as in US$45,000 less!

We owe the new site to Ray, from 8&9 Clothing. We are launching a joint-venture with him and I was looking into the technology to run the site and ended up looking at our partner from Viacom, Flux. We quickly realized that we could use Flux to build and manage the entire website that we always wanted and immediately ran some tests.

If Ray had not pushed me to look at creative solutions instead of "just pay this guy or give up equity to this programmer", we would have continued on our merry way, planning to spend US$45k.

It just goes to show how important it is to have people around you with a different perspective. It is far too easy to become focused on the details and one-track thinking. An outsider brings a fresh perspective and asks "Why are you doing it that way? Is there a cheaper way?"

Once again my MBA brain told me to raise the money and pay the developer but my TPE best friend asked me if we couldn't do it by leveraging some partnership we already had.

Thanks Ray.

This is the first time that we are truly proud of the Realvibez website. We have gotten amazing publicity with a mediocre website and now we can get even more with a "toppa-top" website. The marketing for Realvibez has been extremely limited because we knew the site was not good enough due to poor user experience.

Now, we are going to be going all out - Oh, you thought I was marketing hard in the past?

The site is also much more interactive and allows the community to shape the content in new ways - from submitting their own photos an photo galleries to submitting their own videos.

Please check out the new site and let me know what you think. It's been a few late nights and without Robert and Kathryn helping, the site could never have been ready in time for my trip to Jamaica for some important meetings.

Disconnect To Be More Productive?

2008-10-13T15:06:00.003-05:00

I was without an Internet connection today since 9 a.m. but it actually worked out better than if I had my usual access. I had to postpone an online meeting/presentation but I was also able to get some work done that I have been pushing aside in order to complete other things.

The worked I have been pushing aside is important, I just never placed as high a priority on it as some other areas because it was offline and there were ways of getting around it. Solving the problems and getting that work done would make life a little easier but I found myself delaying solving the issue and instead developing a patch and then focusing on things I felt were more immediate.

I am glad I did not have an Internet connection today because it forced me to remember what kind of work I had to do offline and how much more important they really were. My ventures are mainly online and so I tend to focus on online-related work to complete when assigning priority levels.

I need to start unplugging for a few hours per day to evaluate what I have to do offline and get it done if it turns out to be more important than I originally thought.

Are you going to try disconnecting to see what effect it has on you?

The Only Way To Do Great Work Is To Love What You Do

2008-10-07T09:29:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine on Facebook, Ryan Coleman, posted a link to Steve Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford university from 2005 and certain parts grabbed me.

In this economic climate, more people are losing jobs or can't find jobs. I felt that sharing part of what Steve Jobs said would be an inspiration to others like it is to me.

The title of this post is a quote from Jobs referencing when he was fired from Apple 10 years after co-founding it with Steve Wozniak. He said in his second story:

I am pretty sure none of this would have happened if I wasn't fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.

Sometimes life's gonna hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.

I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love and that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.

And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.

If you haven't found it yet, keep looking and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.

I can relate to the above, as can almost every single entrepreneur.

We got hit in the head with a brick when we failed the first time around but we could not help but come back to it because this is what we love.

Just like Steve Jobs' firing from Apple, our implosion the first time around was a humbling experience that inspired our second act. It also helped us to understand just how much we really loved what we were doing.

We work extra hard at this venture because we truly love what we are doing and love the positive impact.

Do you love what you are doing and if not, why are you doing it?

Do You Visualize Your Desired Outcome Before Pursuing It?

2008-10-07T09:16:00.004-05:00

In the book The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur that I recently endorsed, Mike Michalowicz speaks early on about the importance of visualizing your goal before setting out to achieve it.

He quotes Bob Marley as the best example of doing this and achieving success.

Before Bob was a household name, he famously said:

My music will go on forever. Maybe is a fool who says that, but when I know facts, mi talk facts. My music will go on forever

Buddha said something similar thousands of years ago:

All that we are is the result of what we have thought

How often do you visualize the outcome of a meeting before heading into it?

What about the outcome of your business or assignment at work/school?

This is one of the fundamental differences between those who achieve and those who don't: Mental attitude.

Mike also quotes Henry Ford:

If you think you can or think you can't, you are right

When I was growing up and regularly attended swimming classes in Jamaica (Mr. Lopez in Waterloo for those who know or trained there) my teacher, Mr. Lopez, had one rule:

"Can't" is a four-letter badword

That always stuck with me. We could never tell him that we can't swim 10 laps, can't do the butterfly or can't hold our breath for 60 seconds.

He was like Yoda: There is no "can't", only "try"

I set out a 15-year plan broken into blocks of 5 years when I was 15 with the goal of positively influencing others, especially young Jamaicans.

I am now 27 and I have already achieved that goal and now focus on building on that foundation.

I started this blog to be able to share my lessons with others and inspire people. That too has come true and I always believed it was going to happen. I have met my fair share of people who think I am crazy for having such big goals or think I am too young to provide any useful advice, but I have never once let them trample my dreams.

Do you have "Big Hairy Audacious Goals" (BHAGS) as Jim Collins, author Good To Great and Built To Last, would say?

Be positive, surround yourself with positive people, seek out tons of advice and don't let the naysayers win.

Remember, "Can't" is a four-letter badword.

Who is Going to Invest in Reggae Music?

2008-10-06T01:11:00.001-05:00

Chris Dehring's recent article in the Jamaica Observer titled Time to bottle lightening ... and develop the Jamaican sports industry- Part I is well-needed and I hope that those with the capital to invest are paying attention.

He speaks of Reggae music, saying "It is speculated that Jamaica retains less than one per cent of a US$500-million global reggae music market - a result of our tardiness in recognising the vast potential of this cultural asset." As the CEO of a company that recently became the first Caribbean-owned company to have a revenue-share deal with YouTube.com, the largest video-sharing website in the World, and already has signed deals with some artistes to distribute their content via the web and share that revenue with them, I can attest to the fact that finding investors in Jamaica is extremely hard.

I have met a number of people who talk about supporting things like music and sports but I have yet to meet more than a handful who actually put their money where their mouth is. Mr. Dehring seems like he is not part of this 'bag-a-talk' group and I hope to see people like him allowing companies like ours to make presentations and pitches for much-needed capital in order to grow Jamaica's share of that US$500 million-per-year global Reggae music market.

The level of support and enthusiasm for what Realvibez Media is doing is far greater amongst Americans and that must change. We must support our own if we truly expect to generate significant revenues from our culture that has reached every corner of the world. No one doubts that the money is there and a number of us entrepreneurs are trying to show how we can get to it.

Where are the investors who want to support these ventures and make a good return on their investment? Where are the low-cost Government loans without onerous terms?

These ventures create jobs in Jamaica, generate revenue that will be spent in Jamaica, result in taxes for the Government of Jamaica and give us more control over our image on the World stage.

Bob Marley famously said “In this bright future you can't forget your past.”

Reggae is our past and present. There is a bright future ahead thanks to technology and Jamaica stands to benefit only if the capital is made available to entrepreneurs.

David Mullings in Inc. Magazine October 2008 Issue

2008-10-02T15:14:00.008-05:00

No, it is not a feature in the Cool, Determined & Under 30 cover story - we don't deserve that kind of press yet - it's a letter regarding business advice.

Back in August, I made a comment on The Get Ahead Guide: ScanDigital Processes 100,000 Images a Month written by my friend Donna Fenn (she is also author of the Under 30 article mentioned above).

I disagreed with the 'Expert Advice' from Christos M. Cotsako, the former chairman of E-Trade, in regards to not spending money to build a strong brand and so I wrote the following:

I agree that brand awareness is very important due to the relatively low barriers to entry.

I don`t think that a price war is warranted and so I like that they are following Apple`s lead and differentiating on something other than price. A race to the bottom only hurts both parties.

If they did want to keep the same prices but increase their margin, they could easily setup an office in an english-speaking Caribbean country like Jamaica, which is only 1 hour and 20 minutes flight from Miami or Fort Lauderdale and in the same time zone.

Controlling costs seems to be paramount and off-shoring to Jamaica would cut staff costs by two thirds, not increase turn around time and probably even get grants from the Jamaican Government.

The money saved would lead to quicker profitability and the company could use the new savings to acquire competitors because consolidation is clearly in the future.

p.s. I am more than willing to help with offshoring to Jamaica as I have the contacts in the Government and business sectors that can help.

You can see my comment here.

The actual actual Inc. magazine letter was truncated to the following:

I was intrigued by ScanDigital's business plan. I agree with former E-Trade (NASDAQ:ETFC) chairman Christos Cotsakos's assessment that ScanDigital should focus on building brand awareness because of the relatively low barriers to entry in the digital scanning field. ScanDigital is right to differentiate itself on something other than price. A race to the bottom would probably hurt the entire market.

David Mullings
Co-founder and CEO
Realvibez Media
West Palm Beach, Florida

Notice the "I agree" part.

You can see all the letters here.

A few days later someone from Inc. got in touch with me and said that they really loved it and wanted to use it for the September issue.

I kept my mouth shut in case it didn't work out - and sure enough they had to pull it because September was the big Inc. 500 issue.

They squeezed it in this month though and I only found out because a marketing intelligence company got in touch with me today after seeing it and being impressed.

Glad to know people like what I have to say.

I wonder if I am the first Jamaican to get a letter published in Inc.? Maybe I can claim the title of "Youngest Jamaican to have a letter published in Inc.", or maybe not :-)

I know that I don't hold the title for youngest Jamaican ever in Inc. magazine - that title belongs to our chief adviser (and Godbrother), Richard Powell Jr., he was part of an entire 1-year series called The Start-Up Diaries back in 2000.

Richie also made it onto the cover of Inc. magazine in January 2000 (I see the framed one each time we have a meeting) - gives us all something to strive to (and I am sure he is proud of our start).

(My dad is his brother's Godfather, his dad is Robert's Godfather, Richie was a year ahead of me at the same high school in Jamaica and his brother Josef was in my year).

David's Most Recent MBA vs. TPE Moment

2008-10-01T08:08:00.002-05:00

My testimonial on the back of the just-released entrepreneurship book, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, says the following:

"Everything they don't tell you in business school...with a twist. I found this book far more useful than my MBA for starting and growing my business. MBA vs. TPE? TPE is the far better investment!"

That isn't to say that my MBA doesn't come in handy many many times - it just doesn't end with my MBA.

Last night I had the perfect MBA vs. TPE experience and it was actually thanks to one of our advisers, not even the book :-)

This adviser is a VP at the largest Black-owned real estate development firm in America and we chatted last night from around midnight until 1 in the morning, let's call him 'B'.

We have been working hard to raise capital in the quarter that ended, mainly to build the new and better Realvibez.tv (we hate the current site because so much is missing and flawed). We got quotes from our preferred vendors, ranging from US$45,000 to US$250,000.

We decided that we would aim for "good enough" and try to raise enough money to build the lower-end site first and off we went.

I was updating B last night and said that we were still trying to raise the money to do the overhaul and B asked a simple question:

Why wait?

I paused for a minute.

When I came up with my excuse, he simply replied with:

You guys should prioritze the top 5 things and knock them down one by one. Build Rome brick by brick

That pulled the wool from over my eyes.

The first time we tried our hand at this venture, it was Realvibes.net and it imploded mainly because we were so focused on raising money and trying to do things the "expensive Silicon Valley way".

We had promised ourselves NOT to fall into that MBA/VC trap of paying big money instead of seeking out better deals.

B then said:

That is the modern Silicon Valley. Remember the old school guys built incrementally - think paypal - simple website by a guy who knew nothing and bought a book

He is so right - eBay, Yahoo and Paypal were all done TPE style and I had gotten so caught up with today's thinking that I overlooked the creative way that would also save us money and get something going right now.

My MBA thought process is to pay a company to build the whole house at once but my TPE brain says to start laying bricks right now instead of waiting on the loan approval to buy the house.

Now we are going ahead with getting one thing done for the backend of the site and then add little by little for far less capital outlay.

Mike's book has a good analogy - tacking (what you do when you are sailing).

I think I have a more mainstream one though: Golf

B sparked the thought when he said:

You have great ideas....need to always step back and distill the complexity down to the simple ideas that set the guide post for where to go

Imagine you are on a Par 3 hole (3 shots to get in for those who don't understand that).

The flag in the hole is my guide post and so I aim for a hole in one.

The smarter thing would be to pick a closer guide post, say the fairway 200 yards away, and hit the ball there. Then I can re-adjust to the new landscape, change clubs and keep getting closer, most likely making par, or even a Birdie (1 shot less than Par).

Nothing is wrong with not making a hole in one, as long as you make Par.

To use a basketball analogy - Go for the lay-ups instead of the 3-pointers most of the time because you can score more consistently.

The crazy part of last night is that at 9 p.m. I had just gotten off the phone with my good friend Ray about a joint-venture we are working on together and said the following:

We need to just get to good enough instead of trying to spend a ton of money on the website

Talk about not taking your own advice!

In Jamaica, a person in my situation would say that they feel like a "bag juice" (like an idiot pretty much).

This also goes to show why outside opinion and advisers are so vital to increasing the chances of success of a business.

The Entrepreneurship Book David Endorsed is Now Out - The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur

2008-09-30T07:51:00.003-05:00

Those of you who read this blog (or the posts that import into David's facebook profile) will know about The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur by Mike Michalowicz.

The book is now available on Amazon.com and I will use Mike's description of the book:

The book is all about growing a business without money, experience or other necessities because that is how Mike Michalowicz, the author, launched all of his companies (two of which have sold for millions by the way). In the book, Mike shows how, in fact, the lack of these things are your biggest strength.

Check it out at http://www.ToiletPaperEntrepreneur.com or on Amazon.

I endorsed the book because I found it truly helpful and different from all the other books on my list. It is right up there with Guy Kawasaki's The Art of the Start, sitting on my bedside table and being referenced every week.

I hope that you buy a copy and put it to use in your venture. If you don't find this book useful, I will personally buy the book back from you at full price - that is how much I believe in this book.

David Mullings Interviewed For Business Networking Article

2008-09-29T08:49:00.003-05:00

David was featured in an article by Dr. Mildren Culp published by the Hartford Courant today. The article, The Graceful Way To Build Business Contacts, provides networking concepts that the interviewees use that are not necessarily amongst the ones usually spoken about.

David was interviewed by Dr. Culp last month for her upcoming book on business networking (thanks to HARO - Help A Reporter Out).

Only Three Types of Entrepreneurs

2008-09-27T09:51:00.003-05:00

I recently picked up Finding An Angel Investor in a Day to see what kind of advice was in there and to get additional info on term sheets.

I found the following breakdown very interesting: Three Types of Entrepreneur

Inventors

They create a completely novel idea or invention. Such ideas or inventions are revolutionary. They're often called "disruptive technologies" because they displace whatever came before. They include products such as the copying machine, the web browser and the cell phone.

Innovators

They take existing products, technology or ideas and change them or apply them to new uses. Bringing a product like Teflon, which was developed for industrial use, to the consumer market, is an example of an innovation.

Introducers

They take an existing product and find a new market for it. The new market can be geographic, such as taking a product developed in Asia and introducing it in the United States of America, or demographic, such as taking a product designed for businesses and introducing it to consumers.

It is much easier and cheaper to be an Innovator or Introducer than to be an Inventor. Inventors also seem to get the short end of the stick a number of times:

Computer mouse - Xerox (not Logitech)
DOS - IBM (not Microsoft)
Cellular phone - Motorola (who is hurting and wants to sell that part)
Portable music player - Sony (now Apple runs the show)
Commercial Word Processing software - WordPerfect (not Microsoft WORD)
Spreadsheet program - Lotus 1-2-3 (Not Microsoft Excel)
Personal computers - Altair (not Dell or HP)
Web Browser - Netscape (Not Internet Explorer)
Search Engine - ALIWEB (Not Yahoo)
Pay-per-click Advertising - Overture (Not Google)

Even though there are plenty of examples where the inventor makes a fortune (Thomas Edison for example), the pattern is clear, especially in the latter half of the 20th century and now the 21st century.

In my next post I will talk about why inventing is over-rated and originality is better.

Focus On Needs, Not Wants or Desires

2008-09-26T09:58:00.002-05:00

It seems normal for humans to become slaves to their wants and desires but we have to overcome those, especially in business.

I was able to overcome many of mine (especially the desire to be liked by lots of people) thanks to Buddhism, Taoism and discussions with my father.

The Tao Te Ching says:

He whose desires are few gets them; he whose desires are many goes astray.

The Second Noble Truth in Buddhism says:

It is craving which renews being and is accompanied by relish and lust, relishing this and that: in other words, craving for sensual desires, craving for being, craving for non-being. But whereon does this craving arise and flourish? Wherever there is what seems lovable and gratifying, thereon it arises and flourishes.

There is this Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering:such was the vision, insight, wisdom, knowing and light that arose in me about things not heard before.

This Noble Truth must be penetrated to by abandoning the origin of suffering....

This Noble Truth has been penetrated to by abandoning the origin of suffering: such was the vision, insight, wisdom, knowing and light that arose in me about things not heard before.

"Craving" here should be read as "Attachment" to things, sometimes referred to as desire, but not always the same.

My father taught me that the value of a person is not determined by how others view them, but by what you know about yourself, your capabilities and your beliefs. He also said that I should use my own yardstick to measure success, not the yardsticks of everyone else.

We all want and desire a ton of things for our business ventures or personal lives but focusing on those is unwise.

Robert and I love to make lists of what we would love to have for Realvibez whenever new technology appears. We include the prices of each item and then we do something I think few people do:

We cross out everything that we don't actually need to get to the next stage

It has helped us to set our priorities straight every time and forced us to focus on the important things.

I challenge you to write a list of all the things you want or desire for your business or personal life, add the costs and then begin cutting away the things that you don't actually need.

You will be surprised at the final result.

Awareness is Over-rated, Focus on Positive Opinion

2008-09-25T08:11:00.003-05:00

The heading of this blog post was what Deborah Meyer, the Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Chrysler had to say during her presentation at MIXX in New York City on Monday.

Her presentation was focused on Dynamic Digital Strategies and she did a great job. She explained that in the past, automakers were focused on "building awareness" and forcing prospective customers to follow a specific sequence of steps to learn about a vehicle and then purchase.

Those days are done.

With the rise of the web and search engines, a prospective customer is just as likely to go straight to Edmunds.com for information on a specific model or category as to go to the automaker's own site.

She also pointed out that people already have their opinion of a car brand before they decide what vehicles to look at so "influencing opinion is key".

I can attest to that - I never look at American cars when I consider fuel-efficient cars, Japan owns that unique selling point and it is extremely hard to change my mind about that (same goes for price too). When I think Luxury, I look at European cars, Exotic - Italian mostly and Sports car - finally I look at the Corvette and Viper, but pay close attention to rally-bred cars (my favourite) and European cars like Porsche, BMW and Audi.

If GM was to spend money trying to make me aware of a new vehicle without trying to influence my opinion of the brand, it would be a complete waste of money.

GM is trying hard to influence opinion with the Chevy Volt - "We are just as green as Toyota" - but that's not working because Toyota got the green cred long before GM and GM killed the Saturn EV1.

GM is "Hummer" and a car company that fought better mileage standards for cars - they have their work cut out for them.

With Realvibez.tv, we have undertaken the same thing - evaluating attitudes towards the brand, company and website in different target segments.

This is also why we have not pushed hard to promote the site and do not focus on growing traffic yet - The user experience is not at the level we need in order to generate the opinion we desire from the average visitor or the potential advertiser.

The new and much much better site is in the works and if we spent time and money marketing the current site, we would have to spend 3 times as much to influence opinions.

It is far smarter to wait until we have the user experience and property we want to begin marketing and influencing opinion. In the meantime, we will work on improving what we already have.

The Danger of Debt-driven Growth

2008-09-19T10:38:00.003-05:00

Entrepreneurs are always looking for capital to grow their business or build the foundation of their venture. Most people raise money from family and friends, then borrow against their house or use credit cards.

That is not always bad but the current crisis on Wall Street is a great example of why building your house on sand aka debt can lead to tremendous blowback.

Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock.

The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.

But everyone who hears these words of Mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed.

And its collapse was great!”

This is not a quote from some billionaire like Warren Buffett - this is a parable from Jesus (Matthew 7:24 - 27 to be exact).

Building a business on debt is exactly like building a house on sand. You can use debt to grow, but you must first have a sound foundation of rock - capital that is not accruing interest payable but instead investors who are prepared to lose their money if the venture fails.

Leveraging is great at amplifying returns but a knife can cut anybody.

How Can Your Cup Be Filled If It Is Already Full?

2008-09-18T09:27:00.003-05:00

Yesterday evening my wife and I discovered an Asian boutique store in our mall and grabbed a copy of the Chinese Uncut version of 'The Forbidden Kingdom' starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li (I collect Hong Kong movies and have over 45 Jackie Chan movies).

One lesson that Jackie Chan was teaching his student stuck with me and made me reflect on the Tao Te Ching that I read every night.

The student constantly spoke about all the various styles of martial arts - Crane, Snake, etc. - and Jackie Chan asked him to hold out his cup.

The student did so and Jackie Chan started pouring water into it. When it started overflowing, the student said that his cup was full and Jackie could stop.

Jackie Chan kept pouring and the student said it was overflowing.

That was when Jackie Chan responded by asking: "How can I fill your cup if it is already filled?"

Then he explained:

The cup represented the student's brain - a vessel for knowledge - and it was Jackie Chan's job as the master to fill it but the student already believed he knew everything and his vessel was full.

Anything he would now be taught would merely overflow and he would not learn anything new.

How many of us sometimes believe that we already know everything we need to know about a specific topic?

You believe that your cup is already full and so your mind is not open to learning new things.

I love Chinese culture and lessons, afterall, they have been around for more than 5,000 years (contrast that to 200 for America).

I was attracted to the Tao Te Ching in college while I minored in Religion and studied Asian Religions. The Tao Te Ching says this:

The thirty spokes unite in the one center; but it is on the empty space for the axle that the use of the wheel depends. Clay is fashioned into vessels; but it is on their empty hollowness that their use depends. The door and windows are cut out from the walls to form an apartment; but it is on the empty space that its use depends. Therefore, whatever has existence serves for profitable adaptation, and what does not have existence for actual usefulness

The most useful part of a wheel, a jar, a pot or a house - are the hollow parts.

Are you creating the space in your own vessel to be able to fill it with knowledge?

Blinders Aren't Just For Horses: Business Lessons From Wall Street and Warren Buffett

2008-09-15T10:39:00.005-05:00

If you have been following the news, you must know about the trials and tribulations of Wall Street firms. Sub-prime losses continue to wreak havoc and all their Ivy League MBAs aren't saving them.

Some people actually believe that people on Wall Street are smarter than the average person. Hopefully the Lehman Bankruptcy, Bear Stearns crash and bailout and the sale of Merill Lynch break down that barrier.

One of my favourite movies is Wall Street, which stars Charlie Sheen as an up-and-coming stock broker who idolizes a character by the name of Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Dougles. Gordon Gekko turns out to be an amoral corporate raider who only cares about profit and short-term returns, putting on mental blinders to avoid seeing the damage he causes to the lives of other people.

Rent it today!

Gordon Gekko is what I call a "Super-Capitlaist" - a person who is motivated only by greed and will abuse the free-market system for their own personal gain, regardless of the possible consequences in the long-term.

You need to focus on what is good for the medium and long-term if you want to ensure success instead of a quick payday and then a big crash at the end.

Warren Buffett, one of my idols, is profiting right now from sub-prime loans, the same stuff that is bringing down Wall Street firms and banks around America. Read the recent Fortune article that explains how Warren Buffett avoided the sub-prime crisis.

Warren Buffett is famous for saying a few things about Wall Street and investing. Now more people know why:

The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money. After a heady experience of that kind, normally sensible people drift into behavior akin to that of Cinderella at the ball. They know that overstaying the festivities -- that is, continuing to speculate in companies that have gigantic valuations relative to the cash they are likely to generate in the future -- will eventually bring on pumpkins and mice. But they nevertheless hate to miss a single minute of what is one helluva party. Therefore, the giddy participants all plan to leave just seconds before midnight. There's a problem, though: They are dancing in a room in which the clocks have no hands.
Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.
You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out
What doesn't work is when you start doing things that you don't understand or because they worked last week for somebody else.
You can't buy what is popular and do well.
If you're an investor, you're looking on what the asset is going to do, if you're a speculator, you're commonly focusing on what the price of the object is going to do, and that's not our game.
We've long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune tellers look good. Even now, Charlie and I continue to believe that short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept locked up in a safe place, away from children and also from grown-ups who behave in the market like children.
Success in investing doesn't correlate with I.Q. once you're above the level of 125. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.
If you don't feel comfortable owning something for 10 years, then don't own it for 10 minutes.
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.
First, many in Wall Street - a community in which quality control is not prized - will sell investors anything they will buy.
I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.
The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.
We believe that according the name 'investors' to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a 'romantic.'

Warren Buffett has consistently ranked in the top 5 richest people in the World since the 90's and is worth an estimated US$62 Billion.

How different the World would be if more people just paid real attention to even one of his quotes above.

Are you focusing short-term or long-term?

Expose Your Expertise; Don't Assume It's Self-evident

2008-09-12T11:00:00.002-05:00

This morning on my flight to Jamaica, I carried my Harvard Business Review OnPoint Summer 2008 issue, Great Deal Making: The Art & Science of Negotiation.

One statement caught my eye, especially in light of how much I have focused on "thought leadership" and the article about Realvibez in the Jamaica Gleaner today: Jamaican brothers sign deal with YouTube channel

Surprisingly often, people mistakenly assume that others recognize and appreciate their experience

That statement is so true.

The article continues, saying:

Executives should take pains to ensure that others recognize and appreciate their experience.

This is advice I have taken to heart over the years and the article today builds on that for Robert and I.

Finally:

...establish your expertise early in the game, so that when the discussion turns to the business at hand, what you have to say will be accorded the respect it deserves.

I endorse all of the above.

Free Personal Branding Tips from Chris Brogan

2008-09-10T15:37:00.002-05:00

Anyone who reads my blog knows that I focus quite a bit on the importance personal branding.

Chris Brogan, someone I follow on Twitter, posted a free guide for you to download: Personal Branding for the Business Professional

I highly recommend it.

Also check Chris Brogan's blog.

Heading to Mixx Conference in NYC

2008-09-09T13:56:00.002-05:00

The week of September 22nd is known as Advertising Week and is filled with events in New York City relating to advertising.

The Mixx Conference and Expo is "the Official Interactive Event of Advertising Week 2008,...the preeminent event for marketing and agency professionals and the publishers and technology firms who help drive their efforts."

The event is going to have some amazing speakers such as Leslie Moonves, President and CEO of CBS, VPs from companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft and even workshops taught by people like the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of eBay, Michael Linton.

Anyone involved in interactive marketing, either as an agency, publisher or advertiser should make an effort to attend. Take a look at the great workshops over the two days: Mixx 2008 Agenda

Registration is US$1,400 but "Qualified Brand Marketers" and "Qualified Agency Professionals" can apply for complimentary passes here.

I will be writing reviews of the workshops once I get back.

If you are going to be there, drop me a line @ 954.686.8326

Our First Music Video

2008-09-08T12:12:00.003-05:00

Realvibez recently produced it's first ever music video, which was spliced with original clips from a Mariah Carey video, in order to support the remix entry featuring Cezar that was submitted to Mariah Carey's remix contest.

Director, editor, director of photography, lighting, the whole nine yards.

It was fun and we can't wait to shoot our first video with entirely original footage - with Damian Fyffe as director and many more of the same people on the team.

Probably a Cezar video next too ;-)

Check out the music video that the team put together: Mariah Carey feat. Cezar - I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time [realvibez reggae remix]

If I was married to any other person, this video and this song would not be a reality. Kathryn, my wife, is a HUGE Mariah fan and she was the one who told me about the competition.

Thanks Kathryn, this video and song are going to have a major impact on Realvibez (it already is getting into a book by McGraw-Hill publishing).

Note to Investors: Online Video Is The Future

2008-09-08T09:12:00.002-05:00

We have two presentations to potential investors coming up this month and I wish I could send them this article beforehand (or that they read it on their own):

Report: Hulu a more successful business than YouTube

Why?

Online video ad network LiveRail has just released a 'State Of The Industry Report' for Q3 2008. It reports that video ad spending currently only represents 2.36% of all online advertising, but that it is expected to grow over 55% next year. Right now only 20.95% of internet video streams are being monetized.

Realvibez has always focused on professional content instead of allowing users to upload their own videos...

Hulu is more successful because it has the ability to sell out its inventory. LiveRail suggests that this is due to Hulu's less 'risky' content. Hulu's "policy of only serving high-quality original content, and securing licensing deals from content owners, rather than allowing users to upload the content themselves [...] has removed the risk of copyright infringing content, or content of questionable quality; risk factors that most advertisers are anxious to avoid being associated with."

No surprise there.

I wouldn't mind if they read this one from Fortune as well: This horror show oozes money

In the last year, the site's traffic has more than tripled, to 700,000 monthly users. A source close to Fearnet says the company expects to turn a profit next year.

Only 700,000 users and getting into Fortune plus projected to be profitable - I am confident that we can do that too.

Fearnet is doing well because it's not betting solely on Web video and the advertising to support it. The company also sells ads on its television channel and collects fees from cable operators who carry it.

That has been in our executive summary and business plan since day one.

"What Fearnet.com has done well is create a community around it," said Ben Mogil, an analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners. "In many respects, it is similar to fan sites for sports teams. It has a very non-corporate feel which is a plus for fans."

And it is the same for fans of musicians and genres.

So Realvibez.tv is doing the same things for a different niche that already has a fan base to reach out to easily - Reggae music alone is a US$1.25 billion-a-year industry according to a recent U.N. report released in June - is gaining traction, is the only official Caribbean media partner for YouTube and already has a licensing deal with the number one Caribbean entertainment television station.

Who wants to invest in the future?

My cell is 954.683.8326 and I am dead serious.

What Would You Do Differently Without Debt?

2008-09-06T10:59:00.002-05:00

This was a question that I was asked in a recent GoBigNetwork email newsletter.

We all have answers to this question and most of them will be the same:

we wouldn't accept certain jobs that we don't like
we could focus on what we really love
we would have more time for family

And on and on.

But how many of us are actually working towards paying off debt? I don't mean just paying down high-interest credit cards or paying to the principal of a mortgage (which is not necessarily the best thing to do in every circumstance).

I mean how many people are trying to get a better return on your money than the interest you pay on debt?

That's what entrepreneurs do: We borrow money at a specific rate and then try to get a return that is better than that, pay down the debt and re-invest the money until maybe we won't need to borrow any more.

Debt by itself is not bad; there is good debt and bad debt.

Good debt allows you to increase your earnings: e.g. Borrow $10,000 at 10% to produce 10,000 widgets, sell them for $5 each and pay off the loan, using the remaining $39,000 to pay for other costs and pocket the profit (or re-invest it in the business; although, if you can get your operating money at 10% and then make a 100% return on that money, you might as well keep using other people's money - OPM).

Bad debt is the debt that has a stranglehold on you and forces you to do things you ordinarily would not: e.g. You have $30,000 in credit-card debt, falling behind and so you take a second-job at nights to pay it down.

Ironically, you don't even need to be completely debt-free to do things differently, you just need to be freed of certain debt.

We are personally sitting on TONS of debt from Realvibez and that has forced us to accept all sorts of things that we ordinarily would not, but the day will come when we can say goodbye to those and focus on just what we really want to focus on.

We have had a plan on how to get there and are working diligently.

Do you have a plan?

Don't Assume Your Expertise Is Self-Evident

2008-09-02T22:11:00.002-05:00

If you cut down a tree in a forest and no one else knows, will people know that you can cut down trees?

Same goes for your expertise.

In the last 12 months, I have been able to score 4 book interviews, a few press mentions and a number of blog interviews and guest posts, all because I opened my mouth and talked about my accomplishments.

I didn't simply talk about myself, I focused on speaking about my skills and achievements when it benefitted other people. No one likes a person who incessantly talks about his or herself...but everyone loves a person who provides lessons for free.

It is extremely easy to frame your achievements as a case study that others can learn from, case in point: Successful Marketing and PR On a Budget

That post both promoted my achievements AND helped people tremendously. It got our story out there more while providing detailed actionable items for other people to follow and use successfully.

If you are good at something, let people know it. Volunteer your services if you have to, but somehow get it out into the World that you have some expertise that can be useful.

That goes for people inside companies as well. Don't expect people to assign tasks to you if they don't know you can handle it.

I remember my time at JNBS in Jamaica. Anytime something web or technology-related was brought up, or things targeting Gen Y, I was called on to participate and provide my two cents. I was even brought into other meetings to provide ideas from a completely different perspective (usually involving how we could use technology to achieve the same result cheaper).

That comes from making sure people know your skillset.

When was the last time you told anyone what you were good at or capable of doing?

Business Lessons From The Golden Goose Fairytale

2008-08-29T10:43:00.002-05:00

Most people know the fairy tale about the goose that laid golden eggs, but there is another fairy tale about a goose with golden feathers.

You can read the full tale here

The basic story is that 3 brothers wanted to chop some wood for the house. Each one went to the woods with food and drink from their mother but the first two came back injured. They had met a little old man in the forest who said he was hungry and thirsty and asked to share some of their food.

They replied that "If I give you my cake and wine I shall have none left for myself; you just go your own way"

The third brother went off with stale cake and bad wine but when he was asked to share, he still offered. He was rewarded with a goose with golden feathers that lead to him marrying the princess.

The parable of the fairy tale is two-fold:

(1) It never pays to be mean

(2) Even when you don't have much, you can still share

A number of business people I have spoken with and observed, pass up countless opportunities to help others. The typical excuse is that they don't have enough money as yet or they don't have the time.

I was taught to make time for what was important to you and that money wasn't the only thing you could give.

Reading blogs by entrepeneurs, angel investors, VCs and managers has been great for me, especially when combined with speaking events I have attended.

I have far more respect for those people than the ones who have achieved amazing success but could care less about sharing pointers with others.

Recently I was asked to endorse a book on entrepreneurship, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, written by Mike Michalowicz, a frequent contributor to CNBC's The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. Even though I am sitting on tons of debt, haven't completed raising capital and can't even pay myself a salary, I felt that it was important to fly him to Jamaica to speak at the University of the West Indies about entrepreneurship.

More info @ ThinkGloballyActLocally.biz

This is one way that I intend to give back and I don't need to wait until I am a millionaire to start helping others. If one person walks away from this free event with more knowledge to benefit their business idea, it was worth every cent and what I gave up.

Luckily, I have secured a sponsor who is willing to cover all the costs, my former employer in Jamaica, which obviously places high value on supporting youth and entrepreneurship.

The event is a simple 2-hour lecture and discussion about entrepeneurship with Mike providing actionable advice. Jamaica rarely has speakers of this calibre from the USA coming to present and even rarer still are events related to entrepeneurship.

As a 27 year-old struggling entrepreneur, I value helping other entrepreneurs and inspiring young people enough to make the sacrifices necessary to make such events a reality.

There is no doubt that it will also help our venture and maybe even make it easier to raise money for it.

The most important thing though is converting a few more business people to my belief of helping others regardless of how much or how little money you have.

Are you helping others even when you have little to share like the third brother or are you being selfish like the first two brothers?

Focus On Projects With The Most Viability and Potential

2008-08-26T07:49:00.002-05:00

This post is inspired by a book I just finished reading: How To Be A Creative Genius (in five minutes or less). Gary Unger, the author, sent me a signed copy after he wrote about me on his blog for taking Guy Kawasaki's advice and it is one of those books that will be kept within easy reach at all times.

In my post, Don't Allow History To Repeat Itself, I spoke about being able to say no to "once-in-a-lifetime opportunities" because they are more frequent than we realize.

As you add more successes, more projects end up making their way to you and at some point you will have to make decisions on which projects to pursue, which to put on a shelf for later and which to pass up. You will undoubtedly see the potential in each project, but you need to figure out what is required to execute properly:

Resources needed
Capital required
Timeframe for project to generate cash flow
Return on investment
Timeline to positive returns
Benefits to the brand and the company

These are a few of the most important things to consider when selecting projects to pursue. If you can't execute properly, don't bother, no matter how great the idea is.

Great ideas are a dime-a-dozen, execution is what matters.

Mariah Carey and Cezar Remix

2008-08-25T08:19:00.003-05:00

My wife, Kathryn, is a HUGE fan of Mariah Carey and she is a member of the Official Mariah Carey Fan Club (I wanted to understand how they used it so that we could help Caribbean artists setup their own fan clubs in the future).

Back in early July she told me that there was going to be a remix contest for Mariah's single I'll Be Loving You Long Time. Voting would determine the top 10 and then Mariah and some other label people would pick the winner based on marketability and other things.

The winner would get $5000 and get the song released.

I immediately said to Kathryn - "You know what we going to do right?". She wanted to enter so I called Cezar in Jamaica that weekend and he loved the idea. We sent him the files and he went to work.

Cezar managed to rope in Preggs, a producer who plays in Sean Paul's band.

I mapped out a plan to promote the remix once we entered the contest and get people to vote for it using every available avenue - Facebook, YouTube, Realvibez and more. We agreed that we would try and shoot some additional scenes to inter-cut with the original Mariah video and we just wrapped shooting this past Sunday. We have so much footage that we are doing a separate full video - look out for those soon. Both will be out on YouTube soon.

Two weeks ago Cezar delivered the first draft and when I played it, the riddim (beat) surprised me. I was expecting something good but the riddim and then Cezar's verse literally brought tears to my eyes.

I delegated and left Cezar alone to work on the song so I expected good work, but this far surpassed my expectations and the feedback has been amazing so far. I called Cezar right after listening to the song because an email was not good enough.

When I played it for my mom, she was dancing up a storm!

The voting starts on August 29th and we are very excited about Kathryn's Realvibez Reggae remix. The video will be the first real music video that Realvibez has paid for entirely and marks the start of a Realvibez Films unit with Damian Fyffe, the director (and someone who has worked with Gil Green for years) being the resident genius.

We had fun shooting the video and this entire project has been amazing. What started as my wife's interest ballooned into a great idea that we hope will result in some great publicity for Reggae music and Jamaica.

Check out the song: Mariah Carey and Cezar - I'll Be Loving You Long Time (realvibez reggae remix)

You can also compare it to the original:

No One Is Going To Tune Into A One-Horse Race

2008-08-22T18:36:00.002-05:00

I read Jason Calacanis On How To Get PR For Your Startup: Fire Your PR Company today and wanted to share this nugget of brilliant advice:

Welcome your competitors to the race, because no one is going to tune into a one-horse race.

Look at it this way, one boat coasting across a large ocean appears lost and adrift, but ten boats trying to catch the lead boat makes it look like a race. If you're the leader, at least these copycats will make it look like you know where you're going--even if you don't.

So true indeed.

HBR Management Tip: Are You a Manager--or a Leader?

2008-08-21T10:04:00.000-05:00

Leadership talent--you either have it or you don't, right? Wrong. You can acquire and strengthen leadership skills. But first, understand how they differ from management skills.

Management is all about bringing order and predictability so an organization can cope with complexity. Leadership is about helping people cope with rapid change. For example, if your change initiative is encountering major resistance, don't focus on controlling employees' activities and solving problems to enable people to complete routine jobs every day. That's management. Instead, concentrate on motivating and inspiring; for instance, by pushing responsibility down to teams. You'll stir up feelings of belonging and self-esteem--essential for people to embrace needed change.

Today's Management Tip was adapted from the Harvard Business Review article "What Leaders Really Do," by bestselling author John P. Kotter. (Publication date: December 2001)

A Twitter Business Model?

2008-08-19T11:01:00.006-05:00

BusinessWeek has a great article that is bound to be very popular - The Trouble With Twitter.

The article points out real issues with the service which doesn't seem to have a business model (GigaOm posited that maybe they bought one in With Summize, Twitter To Buy A Clue). Everyone has an idea about a business model for Twitter and the article regurgitates the same old ones - advertising.

It also makes some rough calculations like a true dot-com financial projection sheet in an executive summary - except that there was a glaring mistake.

In calculating the potential revenue from advertising on Twitter, the article based ad impressions on Twitter's users seeing 10 ads per day. The problem is that so many people are using Twitter without going to Twitter - they can send and receive messages via SMS on their phone, or even use other services to send tweets.

How do you generate revenue from advertising if the people using your service don't need to come there and see the advertising?

Easy - sell something direct to users (I know, web startups don't seem to like this proven business model).

Twitter has the following options:

1. Offer Users Value-added Services - Worpress already does this and the model is easy to adapt. Their blog software is free but you can purchase add-ons. I am sure that Twitter can come up with value-added services users will want.

2. Charge marketers/brands/advertisers to use Twitter - I pay a monthly fee to manage my email list through a provider (most programs charge per user or by the quantity of messages). Zappos uses Twitter, see Inc. magazine's Zappos Finds a Use for Twitter. Really!, and many other companies use Twitter to quickly communicate with their biggest fans. I even use Twitter for Realvibez, tweeting about new videos uploaded to the site, news and blog posts. I would gladly pay a fee to be able to get valuable insight information on my tweets - how many read and so forth - plus be able to use such a great communications channel.

3. Focus groups - I have seen Twitter used for focus group research and would gladly pay Twitter to manage such a focus group for me. I will provide the question and the account to tweet a reply to, Twitter can choose who to send it to based on profile information.

Out of those 3 options, I believe that Twitter has the most opportunity with the second and third ones - corporate users. Companies like Apple and Nike, record labels and bands, MTV and media outlets, all of these could derive tremendous benefits from using Twitter to connect and interact with their evangelists.

Marketing people are supposed to be creative and these are just some of the ways we are already using Twitter.

Now it is up to Twitter to turn that into money and offer us some additional tools in order to generate some real revenue.

The problem with Twitter is that it has so much unrealized potential and many in the marketing world are dismissing it as a fad.

Successful Marketing and PR On A Budget

2008-08-14T08:52:00.003-05:00

Those of you who have been following these blog posts know how much PR we have started to get since last summer, with a significant ramp up in the last few months. Some people wonder if we raised enough money to hire a PR firm but that isn't the case (I wouldn't mind having the money to hire a firm to help though).

Last year I picked up a copy of David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing and PR and immediately set to work once I started reading. I wrote about the book in More Books to Read last September (the author even commented and I touch base with him once in a while now).

I became much more aggressive about promoting our story and marketing myself to build my reputation, using the case studies and "rules" from that book. It's just me doing all of this - pitching bloggers, reporters, writing the press releases, building a list of media contacts and then promoting my personal brand and my company relentlessly on social networks like Facebook and through Help A Reporter Out.

Since July last year I have applied the lessons and so far we have achieved the following for less than $1000 in actual cash outlay (my time is money but that is an investment in the business and since I own it, I will get a major return as it grows in value):

Four book interviews (two from McGraw-Hill)
Asked to endorse a mainstream business book on entrepreneurship alongside Donny Deutsch (1 of only 4 testimonials on the back cover) - The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
Quoted in a Harvard Business Review discussion recap article
Asked to speak at Boston College's Entrepreneurship Society and then securing a major feature in the school paper that called Realvibez "the closest thing to a Caribbean MTV on the web"
Quoted in an article about "Social Media in the Caribbean" for a magazine distributed to PR professionals in some 66 countries
Numerous blog interviews
Asked to write guest posts on some popular blogs
A startup advice letter to be published in the September issue of a major US business magazine
A deal with YouTube to become their first ever official Caribbean media partner, boosting our reputation and resulting in tweets and blog posts about it by Work.com, a major website owned by Business.com, the leading Business search engine
Asked to fill in for an NPR/WLRN South Florida interview about Jamaica's Independence (the Consulate Rep and the Diaspora Advisor could not make it - watch the interview)
An Inc. magazine blog post about my wife's startup that I helped launch
Approached by one of the USA's most famous ivy league schools to possibly start a blog on their site (still in the discussion stage but at least I am in discussions with the director)
Press releases picked up by major media outlets - Our RE TV release was in the Jamaica Observer's newest publication in Jamaica (The Observer is the #2 newspaper in Jamaica)
A few interviews and posts about using Facebook for business
Forged relationships with Guy Kawasaki and people at Inc. magazine, Facebook and YouTube

The only money I have actually spent is on releases being sent out though PRweb. Starting in September, we are engaging a PR firm and we expect to be able to secure even more publicity and augment my work.

My success at promoting both my personal brand and the company's one a thin budget is proof that applying the lessons learned in The New Rules of Marketing and PR really do generate results.

It also happens that David is working on a new book, Triggering a World Wide Rave!, and he could be doing a panel at SXSW Interactive. I highly recommend that you sign up and vote in order to help make this panel a reality because so many people will benefit from his incredible knowledge.

Vote for it here.

You can also read David Meerman Scott's blog over at WebInkNow.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/dmscott

David Mullings Featured in "Being Yourself Series"

2008-08-13T07:25:00.003-05:00

Gary Unger, an author and advertising consultant who has worked on campaigns for the NBA, General Motors and other major clients chose to feature me in his first post for a series on his blog called the "Being Yourself Series". The series focuses on the failures or successes after reading a self-help book.

Read it here - Being yourself series: David Mullings listens to Guy Kawasaki

My story focuses on the before and after of reading Guy Kawasaki's The Art of the Start, one of the books I recommend to everyone I meet who asks for advice. I ended up getting the feature thanks to Help A Reporter Out (HARO), a free service that has been paying major dividends for us (We will be featured in two upcoming books).

Peter Skankman, the person who runs HARO, sent out his usual list on Monday morning and I saw one that said the following:

"I am looking for stories of your success or failure from self help
books. Such as if you read Guy Kawasaki's book but your business
did not take off. Or you read Trumps books, but you're not rich
like him now. Or you bought "the secret" but the "secret" eludes
you and you read "blink" but all you succeed at was bad decisions
made quickly. Or hey, if they actually did turn your life/business
around send that in too.

My blog and book are about you being you "be yourself and have fun
doing it" is the main teaching theme. I will feature one or two
stories a week for the next month. Send text in email, no
attachments. Provide any links. Make 'em fun or funny stories."

Of course I submitted my story to the reporter and he replied that night wanting to use it as the first in the series.

We don't have a PR firm to handle this for us but I have proven time and again that small startups and entrepreneurs willing to be aggressive can secure good press mentions if they have good stories and can effectively communicate them.

p.s. Guy Kawasaki personally sent me an autographed copy of his book after we connected on Facebook last July and I treasure it (just ask my wife). I will forever promote his book because of how it has influenced my approach to business and entrepreneurship.

User Growth First, Revenue Second? - Learning From Facebook, YouTube and Twitter

2008-08-12T11:18:00.006-05:00

Image credit: StartupToons.com

Web ventures backed by VCs are notorious for focusing predominantly on acquiring users first and leaving revenue on the back burner during the early stages. The perfect examples are YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

TechCrunch reported today that Facebook Is Not Only The World’s Largest Social Network, It Is Also The Fastest Growing - of course not mentioning revenue since the article was not about that.

Their team deserves tremendous credit for what they have achieved.

However, 99% of entrepreneurs can't go about building their business this way because they don't have millions of dollars from VCs to burn through while they figure out a way to actually make money.

YouTube is still having trouble monetizing their audience and few entrepreneurs ever get that kind of big payout like Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. Repeating what they did is possible, but extremely unlikely (except during a bubble of course).

Twitter did not have a business model when it launched and still doesn't have one, but it is growing amazingly quick and I am confident they will find a model (well maybe with Summize they now have one). They have been able to do this because they have raised over US$20 million from VCs - without a business model and a clear plan to generate cash flow.

The only sad part of this is that other entrepreneurs look at these case studies and try to do the same with their startups, except that they take out loans and use their credit cards. It is virtually impossible to use the YouTube/Facebook/Twitter model without VC money and succeed.

You most likely will end up with tons of debt - I am speaking from personal experience and still have the debt to prove it :-)

Normal entrepreneurs must focus on generating revenue because cash flow is the life blood of a business, especially a startup. Study these ventures and learn from them, but understand what you can and can't adapt, otherwise you are setting yourself up for failure and some serious debt (we are sitting on around US$65,000 from the first failure when we were busy chasing users and VCs).

Bottom Line:
Have a cash flow plan early on so that as you add customers/users, your cash flow improves - you might just not need those VCs in the end.

Trusting Others Who Get On Your "Bus"

2008-08-11T14:15:00.005-05:00

Jim Collins, author of Good To Great and Built To Last, uses a great metaphor for building a great team: He says that your company is a bus and you should focus on getting the right people on it.

Who are the right people? - The ones who trust the destination of the bus and don't focus too much on the road it is taking to get there.

Once you have those people, you have to put them in the right seats on the bus and let them play their role in arriving at that destination.

I bring this up this morning because we have been working on a top secret project since July 15th and the first draft came in over the weekend.

I will be honest: I had tears in my eyes when I got my peek at the first draft.

I came up with a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) and reached out to the people that I thought could make it a reality. They immediately jumped on the bus and what they have been able to deliver has simply been amazing. I had tears in my eyes because it surpassed even my high expectations and I just get goosebumps thinking about where this can really go.

I trusted in their capabilities and they over-delivered big time. We got the right people on the bus and they had the right seats. Now the rest of the team is working on their part to really make this BHAG not look so big or audacious after all.

I am excited and itching to get this out the door so stay tuned for announcement in a few weeks.

Tough Week So Far

2008-08-07T11:02:00.003-05:00

This week has been tougher than usual so far, mainly because I have been unable to find the time to do some key tasks - like porting over Realvibez videos to our new video player since Brightcove decided to screw us over.

I have had to work on a strategic partnership proposal for a website we are talking with, try to get more press coverage for the YouTube deal, work on financial projections for Realvibez for a person that has a potential investor with lots of money and modify our executive summary for another potential investor.

All I need to do is rip the videos, upload them to our new backend and then change the layout of each video page while embedding the new video code. Not so simple, especially when we are talking over 350 pages.

Times like these are when I wished we had the capital to hire staff, even part-time, but alas that day has yet to come and we must continue to do everything ourselves for the most part.

That's what makes me a toilet paper entrepreneur, but sometimes I wish I could just be a regular entrepreneur.

This weekend is going to be a long one and I guarantee I will get my work done. Hold me to it please. Monday morning, I must post about completing the video work and if not, please comment on this post asking me why I didn't finish.

I always say that one must make time for what is important and I am clearing the space to get this done - highest priority.

Anyway, I took time off to write this blog post because staring at a computer screen for 4 hours can't be a good thing (don't ask me how writing a blog on a COMPUTER solves that problem).

A welcome break from videos and excel spreadsheets, now to go watch tv or do something not computer related.

Generating Publicity Through Volunteering

2008-08-02T09:19:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, August 1st, I was interviewed on South Florida's NPR station about Jamaica's Independence (Jamaica celebrates 46 years of Independence from Great Britain on August 6th).

This interview was the result of some interesting coincidenes, as well as my volunteer work with the Jamaica Diaspora Organization. I was asked to be the Youth Spokesperson for the Jamaica Diaspora Southeast US region - 13 US States, from Arizona to North Carolina down to Florida, and recently attended the bi-ennial Diaspora Conference in Jamaica, put on bythe Jamaican Government.

The Advisory Board member for our region, Marlon Hill (who also happens to be our lawyer), called me on Monday saying that he needed my "spokesperson voice" for an interview because he would not be able to make it due toa wedding.

I was supposed to only fill in for Marlon and Sheryl Wynter was to represent the Jamaica Consulate office in Miami. Unfortunately for her, she hurt her back and so I was left to carry the entire interview by myself.

The fact that these people could entrust such a vital interview to me, at just 27 years old, is definitely an honour, but it also goes to show how important it is to cultivate a positive reputation, volunteer with organizations and make your strengths known.

They knew that I have had lots of experience doing interviews and speaking in public so it was easy to call me to find out if I would do it.

That kind of personal reputation goes far and this interview will expose me to many more people in high places since we taped it and put it up on YouTube (on the Diaspora channel I created for the organization).

I have leveraged my knowledge to help the organization make better use of technology and they reciprocate by helping to promote me and my venture.

I hope that you volunteer with at least one organization this year.

Entrepreneurs Love Encouragement

2008-07-30T14:40:00.002-05:00

Everyone loves to have support from others but entrepreneurs probably love it more than anyone else because we take so many risks that most people don't. Every supportive word, comment and email boosts confidence and so I had to share pieces of this recent email and note because it really helps to keep us humble and stay focused on the goal of being positive role models for people al over the World.

I recently did an in-depth interview with the blog YawdFromAbroad and this was what the interviewer/owner, Tremaya, had to say:

You guys are definitely genuine and easy to talk to and get along with, and more importantly you really care about what you do and others, and that's rare online and in the "real world".

You guys are definitely exciting and inspiring, it's one thing to hear about black success but it's another to see it. Honestly, it's like you guys are a God-send for me. I know I'm destined for greatness in my own life, and having a tangible source of inspiration, success, and mentorship is really awesome, that's a million times better than anything else you could do for me.

Just keep doing what you do, only better. As one of my favorite scriptures says, "Your gifts will make room for you".

Thanks for the kinds words Tremaya, that really put a big smile on my face.

One of my best friends, someone who has known me since 2002, Allison Cole, also wrote a note on Facebook today and here are some excerpts:

David is without a doubt, an entrepreneur and when I speak of the things that Jamaica needs to make a positive change and assert ourselves as "Brand Jamaica", David is one of the first people that come to mind.

There is no box
While in the middle of Half-Way Tree, going to the VP Records office, I asked David if he would buy a copy of my autobiography when I finally wrote it. He said: "Yes, and I would buy the rights to make the movie too."

This is the type of statement, I am used to hearing from David and his brother Robert. With these two, there is no box, neither is there any limit to what can be accomplished with a good business plan, a strong support system and a lot of hard work.

I see this new venture with youtube as the keystone for future RV branding and projects. I expect bigger and better things from both David and Robert.

I am proud of you both, as well as the extended RV family.

I have worked hard to represent Jamaica well on the World stage and dedicated time and effort through the Jamaica Diaspora Southeast Region and Upliftment Jamaica. I was asked to be a Youth Spokesperson for the Southeast US Region and I am supposedly going on NPR South Florida this Friday to talk about what the diaspora is doing to celebrate Jamaica's Independence.

Jamaica is a part of me and sometimes I feel that I don't get enough support from my fellow Jamaicans, especially my own generation.

Allison is one of those few who truly understand what I am about and gladly shares that with others. I couldn't ask for a better PR person, and she is just a friend!

These two people have treated our accomplishments for what they are - great things for Jamaica, not me personally. Humility is something that I focus hard on keeping and I guarantee that Allison has so many stories about me that she can quickly put me in my place if I ever cross over to the dark side.

Sometimes I feel misunderstood - many people mistake speaking up or showing that you understand your subject matter as arrogance. Tremaya and Allison don't make that mistake, they understand that I genuinely want to help others and play my role in bettering Jamaica.

The more people that I can get to see the real me, the more I will be able to help.

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, said it best:

"Obviously everyone wants to be successful, but I want to be looked back on as being very innovative, very trusted and ethical and ultimately making a big difference in the world"

Entrepreneurs Just 'Think Different'

2008-07-29T18:23:00.002-05:00

In light of our YouTube deal announcement, I felt that it was timely to share one of the things I live by. Many people have told us over the years that we were nuts to even dream of some of the things we are accomplishing but I was taught that if you don't dream big, nothing big will ever happen.

Here are the words from Apple's 'Think Different' ad and the actual ad itself.

Here’s to the crazy ones.

The misfits.

The rebels.

The troublemakers.

The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They’re not fond of rules.

And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.

They push the human race forward.And while some see them as the crazy ones,
we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think
that they can change the world… are the ones who do.

Entrepreneur Advice: "Emancipate Yourselves From Mental Slavery"

2008-07-25T08:32:00.002-05:00

I received an interesting message on Facebook that inspired this post today. It ties in well with CNN's Black In America series because it had to do with a young black man knowing that some black people around him looked down on black people who mingled with other races or aspired to great things like looking past skin colour.

What does this have to do with entrepreneurship and business?

Everything.

You will make it much harder to succeed at anything if you live your life for other people, worrying about what other people think and say about you. It only gets worse when those people are small-minded lost souls whose opinions will hold you back.

You should only care what a few people think about you and not let your self-worth be measured by the opinions of others.

To know one's self is to know one's worth.

Identify those few people whose opinions matter to you and choose them carefully. Find people who have qualities you aspire to and have them guide you. I have a board of advisors, my immediate family and a couple key friends whose opinions I value. I don't pay attention to anything else.

Bob Marley famously sang about "mental slavery" and that is what you suffer from when you allow too many people to determine your actions and your self-worth.

I leave you with some lyrics from his song and the actual song.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.

Redemption Song - Bob Marley

Leverage Assets That Other Companies Own

2008-07-23T09:59:00.002-05:00

The Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business was quite timely in light of our recent content distribution deal.

Traditional growth strategies require up-front investment in new assets in the hope of future profits. Result? Narrow margins-for a time, or forever. Here's a better way to spur growth: Leverage assets that other companies own.

For example, aggregate related firms' resources to create value-added service portfolios. Investment giant Charles Schwab does this by putting together specialized third-party resources (for example, Dow Jones news stories, Standard & Poor's company reports, and First Call earnings forecasts) to help customers make investment decisions. Through Schwab, customers can also access other companies' investment products or participating independent investment counselors. Schwab attracts more customers-at lower costs than if it owned the underlying assets.

It is the same concept behind what MySpace, YouTube, Hulu and Joost have been doing - working with content owners instead of trying to create content themselves.

Realvibez is slightly different because we do create our own content while also licensing content - which is why we are more similar to MTV.

However, we always recognized that we could not create as much professional content as a television station but we would be able to create a distribution platform that television stations could benefit from. This required us to show that we were not a competitor but a strategic partner that could bring new revenue opportunities to the table.

Realvibez had to create it's own content partly because it was the only way to build the platform and prove that it could generate revenues in a manner that could scale. Would you talk to a person who claims to be able to distribute your content online and generate revenues if they have never done it before?

If Realvibez wanted the kind of content that a television station produces, we would have to invest heavily in production equipment and staff, and that still wouldn't give us a library filled with content.

The other obvious option would be to raise the capital and acquire an existing station - the build vs. buy question, which always leaves out the option to partner.

If a television station wanted to leverage the web in the way Realvibez has, they would have to invest similarly.

Working together is much smarter and cheaper. Our television partners are leveraging the unique assets of Realvibez and vice-versa and so both companies win without having to invest tons of money upfront.

Strategic partnerships can play a significant role in accelerating the growth of a startup/small business - a deal can lead to many things, including:

(1) Increased publicity = reduced customer acquisition costs
(2) Small cash outlay for project = more cash for other areas of the business
(3) More valuable venture = more interest from potential investors and/or acquirers

Read my post on Rules for securing a partnership deal.

Better To Be Respected And Not Liked Than Be Liked And Not Respected

2008-07-22T16:53:00.002-05:00

Before I go to bed every night I do my best to read a little from the Tao Te Ching.

One line that has always stuck with me is the following:

When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

When combined with the headline of this post, it makes for a powerful philosophy, especially in business. Most times we read or hear about fear vs. respect but it is human nature to be concerned about whether people like you, not fear you.

In order to be successful, you have to get used to not being liked by everyone and I do it by simply not caring too much whether people like me or not because it ultimately has no bearing on my self-worth or the success of my business ventures.

I do have to care a little because my ultimate goal has always been to be a positive role model and respect alone doesn't cut it for that job, you actually have to be likable, just ask Richard Branson or Warren Buffett, my two business idols.

If someone respects me and my business skills, they will do business with me whether they like me or not because they know it is in their financial interest.

As an entrepreneur, gaining respect is integral and far more important than getting people to like you. Besides, people tend to like successful people.

Focus on cultivating respect for your craft and respect for your reputation if you want to make the road to success as easy as possible. It will still be hard but there is no reason why an intelligent person should make the journey even harder.

In my case I have sought to give advice freely, comment on magazine articles, write this blog and blogs elsewhere, garner spotlights and features in newspapers and expose my business acumen, story and thoughts to as wide a group of people as possible.

That has resulted in major strategic partnerships, a book testimonial that puts me in the company of Donny Deutsch from CNBC, two book interviews, a forthcoming letter with startup advice in a major US business magazine, invitations to speak at schools, quotes in articles and discussions about blogging elsewhere.

That has come from my drive to be respected, not my drive to be liked.

What could you achieve if you decided to focus on being respected for what you are doing?

Avoiding "Vision Overload"

2008-07-21T14:13:00.002-05:00

Found|Read on GigaOM published a great post on Sunday titled How to Avoid the Curse of Vision Overload. The core of the post is that your venture suffers "when you put your vision ahead of your users".

I agree with the writer, Andrew Mason, that simplicity is almost always the best philosophy to follow but many of us entrepreneurs get too caught up in our vision and forget about our users and what they actually want.

We have gone through a few iterations of Realvibez's front page and the most complex one was in the first 2 years of launch - we eventually tossed it and focused on what had proven to be popular for our users.

I always talk about wanting to keep my life simple (it even determined my marriage plans) and Robert and I evaluate all strategic partnerships and internal projects based on how simple it will be to execute properly and profitably.

We take the Nike approach - Focus on the needs of the athlete and build the right shoe for the sport.

Andrew provides 4 simple rules for deciding what to keep and what to toss at launch:

If you don’t mention it in your 2-minute product demo, you don’t need it.
Don’t build a race car for foot runners.
Let users problem-solve with the basics first. Then offer the glitz.
Proselytize your vision in your blog, not your product set.

Read Andrew's explanation of each of the rules here.

Leadership Means Helping Others

2008-07-18T11:57:00.000-05:00

I was raised to be down-to-earth and always be willing to lend a helping hand without regard for what I was going to get out of it - the 'Good Samaritan' type of person.

I have never liked successful people who were standoffish or snooty so I made sure to look up to people like Warren Buffett.

Today I received an email from a young lady who I had a long conversation with last night about starting a business.

She had filled out the contact form on one of my company websites asking to speak with me about consulting on a project. I replied with my email and a time to talk that same night.

I ended up sharing the booklist that has been handed down to me by my advisors as well as talking about the kind of business person she should ideally be. It was especially interesting because on Monday I had a meeting with my parents and explained to my Mom that my goal is to become one of the most accessible millionaires and entrepreneurs in the World (I am not even close to being a millionaire yet btw).

I assumed she had found me through Facebook and some mutual friends or contacts.

I was way off.

I decided to share the email and her post on my Facebook wall:

Email -

I will personally share with my peers and immediate family about how I found you and advise to always strive for what they want. I was never the type to wait for an opportunity to fall in my lap, I always went towards my goals the best way I knew how and somehow achieved them.

I am honored to have conversed with someone so brilliant and kind. The fact that you are so down to earth was an extremely pleasant surprise. Please continue to stay positive and uplifting while being an excellent role model and educator for our youth. Like I said per our conversation, you are as admirable as Oprah in my eyes and I wish you continuous success and many blessings.

Facebook Wall Post

Thanks for adding me! Who would of thought that all I had to do was google a phrase about small business start-ups and one of your links would appear? I was impressed with your wealth of knowledge about small business mistakes to avoid and on suggestions for obtaining funds for start-up cost. Your words of wisdom helped to enlighten me and challenge me to do and be a better decision maker in any business endeavor I decide to pursue. Keep up the good work!

She found me through such a mainstream Google search?

I still can't figure exactly what her search term was and she can't remember.

That is one of the best emails I have ever received and it really motivates me to continue working hard at being a positive role model for young people everywhere, something I set out to do since I graduated from high school at 15.

I don't know about being "brilliant" or being "as admirable as Oprah" but I won't complain about those kinds of statements :-)

I hope that I have inspired others to help solely for the reward of knowing you helped.

The Art of Successful Networking: Setting A Goal to Overcome Fear

2008-07-17T09:10:00.002-05:00

How many times have you been to a networking event and been afraid to talk to 99% of the people?

Even outgoing people sometimes feel out of place or get the wrong vibe from the crowd. I have solved the problem with a simple process:

Setting a goal.

I always decide how many business cards I want to leave the event with, based on the number of people attending. If I only have 9 cards and I set a goal of 10, my fears disappear and I find it so much easier to approach a person and strike up a conversation.

I recently attended a Gold Coast Venture Capital Association (GCVCA) event in Boca Raton, FL and felt a little hesistant at first. I had no wingman, I was clearly the youngest in the room and the elephant in the room was obvious - 97% of the people were white males. Most minorities can feel awkward at times like this because you instictively feel that you should interact with the people you most quickly identify with.

You scope out the room, look at the way people dress, their mannerisms, their ethnicity, listen for accents (I am Jamaican) and start narrowing down.

Luckily I grew up in Jamaica so race has never been what I see first, even though being in America has had some negative effect in that regard.

My parents taught me that someone's attitude and intellectual pursuits are more likely to reflect whether or not I would get along with them than their skin colour, age or social background. I headed for the sharpest dressed people first (I was dressed in a dark blue suit, white-collar blue shirt with gold cufflinks and a yellow tie).

That night I met 3 GCVCA board members, 1 potential investor and a Jamaican who runs a strategic advisory firm. The Jamaican loved my elevator pitch and introduced me to 5 more people. I had no idea he was Jamaican when I approached him, he just looked sharp, which for me means that you mean business because I was taught to "dress for success".

1 week later he called me.

He had spoken to a client who was looking for ventures to invest in and wanted to get our executive summary and business plan because the client was interested in investing up to $500k if the numbers and business made sense to them. (I have also learnt that not people understand what we are trying build so not everyone is actually a good fit from an investor standpoint).

That contact has been helping us finetune the plan and financial projections at no cost because he loves our drive and was really grabbed by our pitch.

If I had not set that goal of 15 cards for that night, I could very well never have approached him and benefitted from all of this.

Goal-setting in life is always good so use it to improve your networking skills, especially if you are a shy person.

p.s. No entrepreneur should remain shy forever.

Surviving Our Darkest Days Thanks to Cezar

2008-07-14T17:54:00.004-05:00

I have previously mentioned how Robert and I became depressed when Realvibez had to be shut down (read Bouncing Back, the very first post on this blog).

Our debt multiplied over a few months due to the change in our relationship with our host that saw our hosting going from $149 per month to upwards of $3000 and climbing every month as the site got more popular.

In August 2006, we decided to pull the plug because we had racked up so much debt - upwards of US$140,000 - some of it in our own names. We felt utterly crushed, weren't sure how we would pay off the debt and so went into severe depression.

When I say severe, I mean sit down at home, keep the windows closed, don't talk to anybody severe.

Mom once called me and asked how things were and when I jokingly said she shouldn't worry because I can always jump off a bridge and let them collect the 3 life insurance policies we had taken out (I am sure they have suicide clauses), she immediately drove to the house to take us out and talk.

The main thing that allowed me to deal with the depression and climb out of it a much better person and better businessman was Cezar's song "Keep On."

I have told him many times that his song is the theme song of my life and I have worked hard to make sure that he benefits from anything that benefits Realvibez. He is one of my best friends and I want to share some personal stories.

Screensaver and iTunes

While I was in Jamaica a few weeks ago for the Diaspora Conference, I went to Cezar's house at almost midnight the night before I left. When I opened my laptop, he was surprised.

He asked me if that really was my desktop background - the picture is from Coca-Cola and is the same one on the Realvibez twitter page (see below).

He called over his girlfriend because he had not even seen the image.

I then told him that was nothing, watch what happens when I open iTunes.

I opened iTunes and asked him which playlist was active and which songs were on the playlist.

He nearly fell out of his chair laughing - the "Cezar" playlist was active and there were only 3 versions of "Keep On" in it, the original and 2 remixes!

I explained that those are the only songs I actually listen to on my computer when I work.

Our Recent Call

This past weekend I spoke with Cezar and when I called, he answered by saying "Youre greatest, you know that. I need to name my first son David. In fact, I need to name my first child David, even if it's a daughter."

I laughed and asked him why he would say that.

He said that his PR person, Shannon Hart, had called him and asked if he had seen my testimonial video for The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.

I had managed to not only get Cezar to be asked to provide a testimonial for the book that would go on the site, I got his video for "Keep On" posted on the site and basically made the song the unofficial song of the book.

Shannon told Cezar that our entire video testimonial for Realvibez was basically about him. He watched it as soon as possible and that was why he answered the phone like that.

He simply could not believe that I went that far to promote him.

Why is Cezar my favourite artist in the whole world and the reason I managed to get through the worst case of depression in my entire life?

Take at look at the lyrics of this song and then take a listen.

Keep On Lyrics

Well in the game of life let me tell you what the case is
some people got bad hands, some people got aces
some people got diamonds, some people got spades still
the world keeps moving on
you got the kings and queens and jacks of all trades
and the rest make up the numbers trying to get paid
they could be working as a pair or as a group cooperating
and some just doing wrong
you have the joker an' have the club but him just pretending
drinking and living it up
nah no time fi thinking
if the money ever done they'll be be quickly sinking
but they just keep grooving on
no matter who you are

you, you've got to, just got to keep on trying
and keep...
doing your best with the hand that you get
and don't give up that fight
no no no you,
can't stop, you can't, we can't keep on crying
just keep...doing your best
you know life is a test
it's gonna be alright

some people living in a full house with one bag a yutes
making it end to mouth end
you know that's the truth
but the love inna dem heart is a food substitute
and dem mek it all through
how about you
if you born without a gold spoon
there's no time to waste
'cause the road is rocky
and winding make haste
while you bending them corners
my yutes you stay straight
and just hold the faith
you'll make it through the gate
don't get lost inna the crush
if you stumble don't drop
don't you flush all your dreams if your journey get stuff
at the ending of the day is jah face we going touch
and he knows the flop
so you don't give up

no you...
you've got to, just got to keep on trying
and keep...
doing your best with the hand that you get
and don't give up that fight
no no no you,
can't stop, you can't, we can't keep on crying
just keep...doing your best
you know life is a test
it's gonna be alright

I know how you feel (feeling)
most never get a fair deal (deal)
yuh haffi fight or beg borrow steal (steal)
and it's so hard just to get a good meal (yeah)
yeah eh
know all you want
is a fair chance to get to the top (top)
you have to keep on climbing non-stop
full-stop, full-stop
oh ah

oh oh you,
you've got to, just got to keep on trying
and keep...
doing your best with the hand that you get
and don't give up that fight
no no no you,
can't stop, you can't, we can't keep on crying
just keep...doing your best
you know life is a test
it's gonna be alright

you, you've got to, just got to keep on trying
and keep...
doing your best with the hand that you get
and don't give up that fight
no no no you,
can't stop, you can't, we can't keep on crying
just keep...doing your best
you know life is a test
it's gonna be alright

These words made me want to keep on trying instead of giving up and being crushed under the weight of our failure.

I owe Cezar my entire new outlook on life. That is how powerful this song is for me and for that I will promote him and his music like it was my own.

It could save a life. It saved mine.

Facebook Group or Facebook Fan Page?

2008-07-11T15:46:00.002-05:00

The other day I got into a little back and forth with a person on Facebook because I had set up a fan page for the Jamaican Diaspora before the recent conference I was invited to attend.

I am the youth spokesperson for the Southeast region of USA and was asked to create one so we would have a unified way for all Jamaicans on Facebook to communicate and stay on top of the work and efforts because a number of us felt that the biggest problem has been the duplication of efforts due to the lack of interaction and communication.

Someone else decided to create a Jamaica Diaspora Group. She is not involved in the organization and her argument was that Facebook Groups are better than Fan Pages. I had to point out to her that groups had more limitations, especially because you couldn't message all members once the group passed 1,000 members (that limit has now been raised to 5,000 members).

I am guessing she never ran a group that surpassed 1,000 members and experienced the frustration of not being able to message your members.

Now comes this great article speculating about the future of Facebook: Has Facebook Found the Key to Making Money via Search?

The following proves me right:

"If you're a large enterprise and already have a "group page" on Facebook, you should migrate to a "fan page" as quickly as possible. Apple and Southwest Airlines are already doing this.

A fan page gives you much more flexibility (e.g., you can embed applications) and is better supported. Facebook also recently made this transition easier by automatically transferring members of the group over to the fan page."

Time to start my migrations. Thank goodness I have only been building fan pages recently.

Check out some of my fan pages: Jamaican Diaspora, Jamaica, StartupToons, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur Book, realvibez

Professional Online Video vs. User-Generated Online Video

2008-07-11T10:33:00.003-05:00

NewTeeVee recently carried a post titled Report: User-Gen to Only Ever Account for 4% of Video Revenue that relied on a recent study from the Diffusion Group. This upcoming study claims that user-generated video accounts for around 42% of all video streams online but only 4% of the revenues, while professional video accounts for 58% of the streams and a whopping 96%t of revenue.

This should come as no surprise to people following the trends in online video. The Wall Street Journal printed an article on July 9 that declared Google Push to Sell Ads On YouTube Hits Snags, which was also followed by an AP article titled YouTube's Ad Revenue Short of Expectations. While YouTube is held up as a great example of web venture success, it was originally built around content that advertisers don't want to advertise against.

I quote from the WSJ article:

"One complaint from mainstream advertisers is that YouTube -- where clips uploaded by users range from raunchy to heartwarming -- lacks enough content alongside which they want to run their ads."

Online video entrepreneurs take note, without advertisers, you are limited to a subscription model - pay for play. If you want to drink from the holy advertising grail, you have to give the advertisers what they want, plain and simple.

A number of potential investors have asked why we don't consider allowing users to upload their own videos and follow the YouTube model to build an audience. These people clearly have very little understanding of the online video advertising world. Now I can point them to the WSJ article instead of trying to educate them since they failed to do their own research before suggesting a business strategy (Do we actually want investors like that is a whole other story).

I don't doubt that Google will eventually figure out how to monetize the content effectively, but even they are finally going to test pre-roll and post-roll video advertising, something they were against. Never forget that Google did not invent pay-per-click advertising for search, they adopted it from GoTo.com (which became Overture and then was acquired by Yahoo! - oh the irony). Google adapted ppc to their specifications - focusing on relevance, not just the highest bidder.

Google issued a statement in a 1998 paper they published about Google technology saying that ad-funded search engines are "inherently biased to the advertisers...the better the search engine is, the fewer advertisements will be needed for the consumer to find what they want."

Look where they are today thanks to an ad-funded search engine. They could very well find a mousetrap for ugc video advertising and create a better one. Until then, it is much smarter for entrepreneurs with limited funds to focus on the money.

Personal Brands Ultimately Fuel Corporate Brands

2008-07-09T13:53:00.003-05:00

When I sent my recent email to tell a good friend about the book testimonial, part of his reply included the following:

"It clearly shows that you are cultivating a personal brand around entrepreneurship. I have seen from my real estate career that personal brands are what ultimately fuel corporate brands. It's about the leaders and how they are perceived. You're doing a good job reinforcing your personal brand of innovation and entrepreneurship. That should bode well for RealVibez and anything else you commit to doing."

He would certainly know because he is a senior executive at the Peebles Corporation, the largest African-American real estate development firm in the USA, run by R. Donahue Peebles (read Inc. magazine's How I Did It: R. Donahue Peebles for more info).

From day one I decided to focus on both my personal brand and the corporate brand, working hard to build both. Long before starting a company I had realized that personal brands could be a competitive advantage for entrepreneurs and business people.

I always looked up to people like Warren Buffet, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Michael Dell and those business leaders that had managed to create strong personal brands that directly benefitted their companies and any new ventures.

I knew that whatever field I got into, I would have to work hard to build that personal brand as well.

After launching realvibez, there were many people, especially Jamaicans, who did not understand what I was doing. They just thought I loved the spotlight or liked being the centre of attention. In Jamaican parlance they would say I am "too nuff".

I was in the papers, on tv, doing interviews and showing up on websites - great publicity and brand awareness overall.

I ignored the naysayers, and still do.

My dad seemed to understand from early on because he has published numerous papers and been invited to present at medical conferences thanks to his reputation. He knew first-hand the importance of building credibility and a personal reputation around specific areas of expertise.

Why me and not Robert?

I have generally been the crazier one, willing to do insane things to get attention, and as I have said before, Robert preferred that I be the face of the company.

It has been harder than I would have preferred because I routinely have to weigh building my personal brand against building the brand of the Mullings Brothers.

Even though I write all the posts on this blog, it is still called Mullings Brothers. I purposely did that because I want Robert's personal brand to benefit as well. I had more chances to build my personal brand because I was living in Jamaica for quite some time after launching realvibez so appearances, meetings and interviews tended to only involve me.

Each time realvibez puts out a press release I try to include a quote from Robert and even though I was asked to give the recent book testimonial, I made sure to involve Robert in the video.

We joke that we eventually want to be called the Super Mullings Brothers :-)

We dream of reaching a point where people talk about the next venture that the Super Mullings Brothers are launching, investing in or buying, and generating significant positive press just for that.

We continue to dream.

The bottom line is that entrepreneurs should think of themselves as brands and then make sure to market themselves, focusing on the brand attributes you want to be associated with.

Lots of people will say you are in it for the personal glory but those are the people who don't understand the power of personal brands and bad-mouth people like Richard Branson or Steve Jobs.

Ignore them, at least they are talking about you.

Never forget what Eleanor Roosevelt said:

"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people"

I chose to focus on a brand that revolves around entrepreneurship, innovation, gen-y business, helping Jamaica and leadership.

Besides How To Win Friends and Influence People, I routinely read two articles from Harvard Business Review's July 2008 issue:

Even though the first article was focused on brands in the sense of companies, it is easy to apply the concepts to people.

You can ask my wife, the HBR issue lives on my bedside table, along with How To Win Friends, and I read them every month and before every major meeting and public engagement.

The book testimonial is the start of breaking into mainstream US business circles and I might have some more surprises between now and the end of September :-)

What have you been doing to build up your own personal brand?

Stats For The First 7 Days of StartupToons.com

2008-07-09T10:23:00.002-05:00

Exactly 7 days have passed since my wife and I launched StartupToons.com, or comics website that pokes fun at entrepreneurship, the web, angel investing and venture capital.

We have spent a total of $50 of our money to launch the venture and then I have used various different marketing techniques to get word out about the site (I will dive into them after the stats). Check out the stats to see how it has faired so far:

Total Views: 1,202

Referrer Number of Visits
Inc.com ------------------- 124
Facebook ------------------ 106
Wordpress ------------------ 15
Digg ---------------------- 14
FastCompany.com ------------ 9
MariahCarey.com ------------- 7
ToiletpaperEntrepreneur.com --- 5
Google Reader --------------- 5
Email ---------------------- 4

The rest of the users have typed it in directly or found it in some other way that Wordpress can't track. The site is also #1 in Google for startup toons and the first 8 results on page 1 for startuptoons is all related to it or me.

Inc.com's staff blog post about the site on launch day and our campaign on Facebook have obviously paid the most dividends. I am also very surprised by the Fast Company visits and you will see why below when I explain the marketing plan.

How Did We Market The Site?

I am sure a number of people are eager to know the details of our marketing plan around the launch that allowed us to get a total of 1,202 visits within 7 days after launch without spending any money out of our pocket.

We both changed our status on Facebook to "please check out StartupToons.com"
Launched a Facebook Fan Page - We created the page so that as each person became a fan, it would show up in their news feed and help with viral promotion/word of mouth.
Facebook Ads - I signed up for the Visa Business Network to get the free $100 of advertising on Facebook and then created two (2) campaigns: One keywords like entrepreneur and venture capital and a second one targeting people at media outlets like Inc Magazine, Wired, Washington Post and GigaOm (You can target ads to people based on where they work). This seems to have lead to the post on Inc's Staff Blog: What A Coincidence!
Changed my name on Blackberry Messenger to StartupToons.com - I don't this has done much since I only have 7 friends, but it's free.
Wrote A Facebook Note about the launch - I wrote a note about how I finally turned my wife into an entrepreneur and tagged the maximum number of people possible so they would know about the note.
Wrote about the launch on my blog
Post about the site in relevant Facebook groups - I am a member of groups like Web 2.0 Entrepreneurs so I posted on the discussion forum asking for feedback.
Digg.com - We signed up on Digg and submitted the first toon, then we used the fan page to ask fans to digg it
MariahCarey.com - Kathryn is a very active member of the official fan club and posted about her new venture. The fans really support each other.
Blog about the Inc.com feature on Fast Company - Last month I decided to sign up on Fast Company and start a member blog there, Diary of a Gen-Y Entrepreneur, not expecting anyone to ever find it much less read it. Clearly a few people have read it and then clicked through to the site.
Link on book testimonial website - The website for The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur launched on the same day and I made sure that my testimonial, just below Donny Deutsch's, included that I was Co-founder of StartupToons.com and was a clickable link.
Promote via Twitter - I made sure to talk about the site on twitter

The total cost to us - $0

Guerilla marketing on the web is just like offline - creativity is all that is needed. I expect the site to slowly build traffic and land some more prominent press soon that will cause another spike.

I still have some more plans that we haven't unleashed as yet ;-)

An Interesting Take On The Long Tail

2008-07-08T14:54:00.004-05:00

For those of you who don't know what the "long tail" is, I will use Chris Anderson's recent example involving video and music:

“Head” is the selection available in the largest bricks-and-mortar retailer in the market (that would be Wal-Mart in this case). “Tail” is everything else, most of which is only available online, where there is unlimited shelf space.

It is simply al the stuff that isn't widely or easily available (or in the case of search engine marketing - the keywords that get fewer searches because they are so specific).

Last week I shared a great article from Harvard Business Review with my friends on Facebook: Should You Invest in the Long Tail?

That article provided actual data to finally question the long tail theory that has so taken the Wired devotees.

Without weighing in on whether the long tail actually exists or not, Erik Sherman has managed to write an insightful piece on BNET that is a must-read: Wagging The Long Tail: What Distribution Strategy Will Make Sense?

The example he presents based on the real world leads to the correct conclusion that "Out on the tail, you could double or quadruple your sales and still make diddly squat."

Read the post to understand why I agree with him.

Setbacks Are Learning Curves, Not Bad Experiences

2008-07-07T10:01:00.002-05:00

"a setback is never a bad experience, just a learning curve." - Richard Branson

Richard Branson is one of my business idols and this was a quote I came across in his book Losing My Virginity. This is exactly the opposite of what we are taught in school - teachers tell us that failure is a bad thing.

Whenever I speak to people about entrepreneurship or even life itself, I spend far more time talking about the setbacks and how we learned from them. I have also practiced not getting upset over setbacks - learning not to dwell on the experience but instead learning to take it in stride.

You accomplish nothing useful by dwelling on past mistakes so why waste precious time?

Pick yourself up and keeping pushing forward, even if you take tiny steps. Some setbacks serve to open your eyes and you realize you were heading in the wrong direction - in those cases, you are grateful for the setback because it saved you time and energy that would have been lost further down the path.

Everything happens for a reason so get used to it and accept that learning curves are a part of life.

Also, always seek to minimize your learning curve by studying the mistakes of others and your own past mistakes.

We are currently facing some setbacks in regards to our merchandise unit and raising outside capital, but each of these have given us time to implement some other things that will actually strengthen the company in the long-term so we are actually quite happy about them.

Playing Around With Wordle.com

2008-07-06T21:27:00.002-05:00

A "friend" posted this cool tool on Facebook the other day and I decided to have a little fun with it. Below is the result of having Wordle read the url for this blog:

It is a great way to get a quick snapshot of the major themes on the blog, or any website.

My wife and I also started to make sentences or phrases out of some of the words just to be idle. We came up with:

- follow Jamaica advertisers advice
- endorse projects presented easily
- get video sites going
- avoid proud ceo
- launch realvibez opportunities widget

I know, I know, we are idle - but it was fun!

Check out Wordle.com and play around for yourself.

David Mullings Endorses 'The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur', a book on entrepreneurship

2008-07-04T06:48:00.004-05:00

Last month I was approached by Mike Michalowicz to read the final draft of his new book in order to provide an endorsement and testimonial that could appear on the website and the back of the book and shoot a video about why I was a toilet paper entrepreneur.

When you read Mike's bio below, you will see why I couldn't pass up the opportunity:

A graduate of Inc. & MIT’s “Birthing of Giants” Entrepreneurial Program, Mike received Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards multiple times. He is a recurring guest on CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, has been featured on National Public Radio (NPR), and in the New York Times, Smart CEO Magazine, and other publications.

Mike is a guest lecturer for entrepreneurial groups at Babson, Boston College, Columbia, Harvard, Penn State, and other colleges throughout the country. He bleeds Orange and Maroon (meaning he’s a die hard Virginia Tech Hokie fan).

Mike presented at Boston College the week after Robert and I did and the president of the club, Scott Bradley, introduced us. Since then Mike has been giving us advice and helping us to grow wisely. (I met Scott on Facebook last July, see Boston College invitation and what Facebook had to do with it and Networking Case Study…David Mullings CEO of RealVibez for the full story - a friendship that continues to pay dividends for both of us).

It is an honour to be asked to endorse his book and make it onto the back cover with someone like Donny Deutsch, the host of CNBC's The Big Idea. (My testimonial on the website is just below Donny Deutsch's testimonial).

I did not want this to be only about me. Even though the written endorsement and testimonial would only include my name, I wanted to make sure that Robert got his share of the spotlight and even brought Cezar into the picture as our case study of how Realvibez has actually helped an artist.

I will write a separate blog post next week to explain how I managed to get Cezar the opportunity to endorse the book and tie his song Keep On directly into it.

You can check out the video we submitted that is now live on the site for The Toilet Entrepreneur coming out in September and register to get a free chapter excerpt.

p.s. We snuck a little promotion for Air Jamaica into the video, look closely at the mugs and the poster behind us :-)

I don't know how many Jamaican-born entrepreneurs have ever been asked to endorse a mainstream business book, especially in the USA, nor how many under 30, but I think it is safe to say that I have very little company in that camp, if any at all.

I always aim to make my country proud in everything I do and I hope this is an inspiration to those who dare to dream big.

Startup Advice: KickStartr.com

2008-07-03T11:11:00.003-05:00

Inc. magazine's July issue is focusing on startups and I read a nice article today: The Get Ahead Guide: Perry Chen Thinks His Website Could Be as Big as YouTube.

There was an option for reader feedback so I left my comment and will share it here after some basic information about the venture:

"KickStartr.com, is an online community designed to help artists, musicians, athletes, inventors, and filmmakers raise small sums of money from a large number of patrons to help them fund their projects. A band might upload audio and video of itself, submit a description of expenses for recording an album, and watch the money roll in."

"Challenges and opportunities: Should KickStartr become a destination website, like eBay, or a company that makes a widget that can be easily placed on other sites, like Slide? It's an important question. Large sites require promotion and server capacity, which are costly. Widgets are easier to distribute virally, but you give up control of the user and limit your ability to make money selling ads. For now, Chen is hedging his bets. Users will soon be able to add KickStartr widgets to MySpace and Facebook pages, but a central site will still host users' content."

Check out the advice provided by Ted Leonsis, vice chairman emeritus of AOL, chairman of Revolution Money and Clearspring Technologies, and co-owner of the NHL, NBA, and WNBA franchises in Washington, D.C., at the end of the article.

Here is my advice:

(1) I agree with the YouTube destination/widget model. I easily see myself setting up a "fund me" profile and then adding the widget to my actual website to get my own users to contribute - just like how PayPal allows me to embed a "Donate Now" button on my site.

(2) KickStartr doesn`t need to be a big as YouTube to succeed but Ted is right that he needs to get to more than 1 million uniques per month to really matter to advertisers.

But advertisers should not be the focus in my opinion. The web 2.0 culture has focused too much on ad-supported ventures when it is far smarter to follow eBay and charge the user.

My advice is to learn from Craigslist when it comes to building an audience: I would launch and offer no listing fees for 6 months in order to get lots of listings. The listings will then draw people interested in funding projects because they have lots of choices.

Generate revenue by taking a tiny piece of the money raised, just like how PayPal or credit card processors take a fee. This fee could be capped at a dollar figure.

There are already sites doing this same thing for entrepreneurs but they have smaller target markets. I would add "startups", "small businesses" and "entrepreneurs" to the list of targets. I know that I would use the widget to try and raise money from the visitors to my site and I don`t think I am alone.

Virgin Money does not allow you to solicit money, it just helps you manage the contract and the payments. If they want to compete with Prosper and true peer-2-peer lenders, they could either launch their own initiative or acquire KickStartr when it has the critical mass.

StartupToons.com Has Launched - How I Turned My Wife Into An Entrepreneur

2008-07-02T10:20:00.002-05:00

The latest venture that I am involved with has launched this morning - StartupToons.

I co-founded it with my wife and we are going to run it from our home office. It took me quite a long time to finally get her to take me seriously but the timing couldn't be better.

The original seed was planted after reading about Sophie's Philosophie's in this BusinessWeek article. I brought up the idea to Kathryn back then (2005) and even presented the idea to her parents.

Since then I have dusted off the idea once in a while and it finally grabbed hold this year. It seems that the rising cost of living and the need to increase our income played some role...lol.

She finally figured that there wasn't anything to lose and the startup costs were almost nothing (we already have the software, the graphics tablet and the ability to produce items in limited quantities). I had also built up some good connections and would be able to get the site promoted easily.

Being married to an entrepreneur is tough for any person, but Kathryn has been exposed to so many of my stories and the articles/books that I read (she actually beat me to reading The Google Story). She finally agreed that this venture would be a great way for her to leverage my constant chatting about entrepreneurship :-)

I also pushed her to launch for July because I have been asked to endorse a book on entrepreneurship (more to come on that later this month) and the book's website goes live this month. The website will include that I am "Co-founder of Realvibez.tv and Co-founder of StartupToons.com" so we needed it to actually launch before that went live.

We have worked hard to give the site personality and really poke fun at startups. Make sure to read the about us, faq's and press sections.

We will also be launching a Flickr photo gallery by the weekend with pictures of our "corporate headquarters" and allow people to follow the story of the venture as we grow, travel and do interviews (lol...very confident right?). The online shop will launch at the end of the month and ads start showing up on the site tomorrow.

I am very confident about the venture and actually expect it to get more publicity than Realvibez - mainly because no one is doing anything like it and it targets a more mainstream market. Of course, the wife/husband angle, the gen-y angle and the immigrant/minority angle will play a huge role as well - all part of the plan.

Kathryn never asked about when it would achieve profitability but I always told her that it would be profitable within 30 days of launching. I am proud to say that she has already been contacted by one person through the site who wants her to design a toon logo for their company!

We have spent less than $40 to launch the site so that money will more than cover the startup costs, meaning that it is profitable from day one (wish I could say the same for Realvibez). We also got $100 of free advertising on Facebook from Visa so those ads start running today - thanks Visa and Facebook.

All in all, this is going to be ridiculous amounts of fun and I hope to share every experience with you.

Don't Allow History To Repeat Itself

2008-07-01T13:02:00.002-05:00

"Organizations don’t spend enough time looking at past failures. The best and easiest way to improve your future performance is to track your past failures, group them by causation and treat the root cause rather than the symptoms." (10 of the Biggest Platform Development Mistakes)

The post that I quoted that from may not have anything directly to do with entrepreneurship but it is nonetheless extremely important.

Learning from your past mistakes is just as important as learning from the past mistakes of others. The quickest road to success is to avoid all those mistakes and make new ones instead.

Our first effort with Realvibez has given us plenty of mistakes to avoid and with the second attempt, I have noticed that we have been faced with some of the very same decisions.

I often talk about learning to say to "No" to most of the opportunities that come your way during the startup phase. Once-in-a-lifetime opportunities are more common than most people realize.

Taking advantage of all the opportunities that are presented usually leads to a lack of focus on executing each of those projects to the best of your team's ability.

"Jack of all trades, Master of none."

This time around we have said "No thank you" 99% of the time and instead focused our money, time and energy into our venture and executing the projects we have deemed most critical to our success. Our situation is not the ideal one we want because we have to balance Random Media and providing services to those clients because that is what pays the bills - but that has made it even easier to say no to things regarding Realvibez - we just don't have the time.

I have managed to make time for personal things related to youth development or contributing positively to Jamaica - I can't say no to any of those things because it is such an important part of who I am and what I want to achieve in life.

At the end of the day, all entrepreneurs need to learn from their history of mistakes and avoid repeating them. Trust me, I speak from experience.

Lessons From YouTube's Chad Hurley

2008-06-30T10:04:00.002-05:00

You can read the "cliff notes version" over at GigaOm's NewTeeVee - Chad Hurley: How We Did It.

Watch the video below:

This is definitely some great advice for entrepreneurs.

Blackberry, This Is Your 2 Weeks' Notice...

2008-06-27T09:22:00.003-05:00

...the Apple iPhone comes out in exactly 2 weeks.

When I first got my Blackberry Pearl last year I wrote about how it had made me more productive (see Increased Productivity part 1).

Not long after I wrote about The Day I wished I had an iPhone instead of a BlackBerry.

12 months later and this is my third Blackberry Pearl. #1 kept crashing so it was changed 30 days later. The trackball on #2 stopped working last month and they said there was a product advisory out and they would change.

#3 has been fine so far, it only crashes once in a while.

Why the iPhone?

(1) My Blackberry doesn't sync well with Address Book on my Macbook Pro and I shouldn't have to buy extra software for it to work properly.

(2) I just renewed my .Mac subscription, which is now MobileMe, and will allow me to share my info across all my mac devices. I might as well take advantage of the services new features, I already paid for it.

(3) I don't have an iPod and I want one. This is the best option.

(4) I have been with AT&T since 1996 so I won't be switching.

(5) I can show some of Realvibez's original video content to people right on the phone.

(6) The Realvibez Facebook App works on the iPhone so I will be able to show people when I talk about it.

(7) I like the app store and I am sure I will find some cool stuff for productivity in due time.

(8) I like the idea of Visual Voicemail.

What will I miss on my Blackberry Pearl?

Nothing - I am keeping it as my Jamaican phone, I just need to unlock it. You will still be able to link me on Blackberry Messenger, just not as often.

I have never used my Blackberry to retrieve my email - Gmail does that for me. I also never used the navigation on it - GoogleMaps does that better. Lastly, I have never bought a second battery for a cellphone and then changed it in all my years of having a cellphone - I walk with the charger or in the case of the Blackberry, plug the USB cable into the laptop and charge it on the road if no outlet is nearby.

Since Kathryn (my wife) converted all of us to Mac, we have never missed Windows. This price point is insane and I can't wait to fire my Blackberry Pearl as my primary mobile communication device.

Video: Great Advice From Seth Godin On Standing Out

2008-06-26T09:11:00.002-05:00

Check out the great video below:

How to Be a Social Media Change Agent - Harvard Business Video

2008-06-25T10:33:00.004-05:00

Check out the interview, some great stuff:

Subscribe to Harvard Business Video IdeaCast now on iTunes

A Brilliant Strategy May Put You On The Competitive Map. But Only Solid Execution Keeps You There.

2008-06-25T09:50:00.005-05:00

A great article published earlier this month in the Harvard Business Review is titled - The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution.

The title for this blog post came directly from it.

I highly suggest that you go out and buy the issue, or at least go to the nearest bookstore and read it. You can preview the article here or buy it here.

The gist of it is that "execution exemplars focus their efforts on two levers far more powerful than structural change:

Clarifying decision rights—for instance, specifying who “owns” each decision and who must provide input
Ensuring information flows where it’s needed—such as promoting managers laterally so they build networks needed for the cross-unit collaboration critical to a new strategy

I keep talking about "strategy vs. execution" and the examples and advice in this article are helping us to be "execute-tives" in the proper sense.

Realvibez is on some competitive maps, but poor execution will quickly erase us and make it harder to get back on that map. The new Facebook App and the new front page with regularly updating content can only be successful if they are executed properly over the long haul.

I Hate Business Plans!

2008-06-23T11:49:00.002-05:00

I agree wholeheartedly with Mike over at Obsidian Launch that Business Plans Are a Huge, Fat, Stinkin’ Waste of Time.

I have spent the better part of 1 week working on our latest iteration to go out to potential investors in the next few weeks and while the plan itself is not the issue - it is a great way to think through your ideas - the financial modeling seems to be more ridiculous than it needs to be.

I now need to work on the following:

"5 year plan should present 12-18 months operating forecast, income statement, cash flow statement and balance sheet."

I already had a break-even (B/E) analysis and that will have to be modified (that number is obviously very important for any business).

It's not that I don't like numbers and financial modeling - but this cuts into my time of ACTUALLY working on the venture and trying to grow revenues.

On top of that, attempting to forecast cash flow statements, income statements and balance sheets are akin to forecasting weather for next year - highly unlikely to be even close to the truth (unless you are in the sahara or the south pole).

It honestly feels like a waste of time to spend any brain power on hypothetical numbers that everyone agrees won't be real anyway. I do realize that investors want to know where your head is and how you envision the venture working - but that's what is articulated in the financial outlook.

I don't need an Excel spreadsheet to do that do I?

Good thing we brought on a strategic advisory firm to do the business plan - I can just hand this work over to them and just answer some questions.

Now back to something far more productive - working on a strategic partnership proposal that does not require tons of financial modeling but could yield an investment from a firm, finishing the new front page and launching the online shop.

Realvibez Launches The First Caribbean Video Facebook Application

2008-06-21T10:06:00.003-05:00

I am pleased to announce that yesterday evening was the roll out of our new Real Vibez facebook application.

It is the first Caribbean video fb app that we know of but I am sure that it won't be the last.

Once again, instead of trying to figure out how to do something that is not our core competency - build a facebook app, figure out hosting - we outsourced it to a partner that provides the service and backend.

The trade-off naturally is that others can easily launch similar apps but facebook apps have fast become a commodity anyway and the competitive advantage is not an app itself, it is the content in the app, the number of installs, active users and ultimately - the monetization.

Some see fb apps as great marketing tools for their organization, which is correct - but only part of the story. They then assign the costs associated with managing the app - hosting mainly - to their marketing budget.

Only large companies or those startups with lots of capital can afford to treat their spending that way.

We cannot, and even if we had the money, we would not have launched an fb app until we knew how to monetize it. We saw what happened to iLike (see this story).

These apps are new revenue streams, not just a marketing tool.

Being the first to build a Caribbean video app was not our goal at all. "First mover advantage" is grossly overrated and as Guy Kawasaki says:

"Being a fast second might be better - let someone else pioneer the concept, learn from their mistakes, and leapfrog them."

We instead focused on our core competency - content - and then got to work on the business model. The facebook application is a micro-business and should be treated as such.

Other people have launched facebook apps for the sake of being first - but if they cannot generate meaningful revenue from it, either directly or because it sends traffic to a site, then it will eventually die, or they will keep throwing away money keeping it alive.

We intend to do neither.

If you are on Facebook, please check out our application.

Paranoid Entrepreneurship

2008-06-20T07:35:00.002-05:00

Guy Kawasaki said in his book The Art of the Start that:

"The only thing worse than a paranoid entrepreneur is a paranoid entrepreneur who talks to his dog. There is much more to gain - feedback, connections, opened doors - by freely discussing your idea than there is to lose. If simply discussing your idea makes it indefensible, you don't have much of an idea in the first place."

I can confidently speak about my years as a "paranoid entrepreneur" - an entrepreneur who is afraid to talk about his ideas publicly or reveal his problems. I had no problems talking about the actual venture and what we were already doing though.

My reasoning was two-fold:

(1) I was afraid to give out my ideas because I didn't want someone to steal it, having seen that happen first-hand to others.

(2) I truly believed in "fake it 'til you make it" and so figured that you should never talk about the fact that your venture is not profitable and needs money to grow unless we were talking to potential investors. I wanted to create the impression that we were doing extremely well and there was no reason for you to try and compete with us because we were the 800 lb gorilla.

While a number of people did believe that there was no point in competing with Realvibez on the video side, a few decided it would be great to go after the big guy, so we became a nice target. I didn't mind because if we were having trouble generating meaningful revenue and the landscape was limited to 1 major record label who did not want to spend online, those ventures would not be able to overtake us.

That has proven correct in the long-run, but it taught us a valuable lesson - Do not try to be Microsoft before you really are Microsoft.

If someone thinks that your venture is not making any money, they most likely won't want to start a competing venture. The second that it seems like there is real money out there, the others will try to get in the game.

As for the stealing of ideas, we have been cautious about discussing our entire strategy - that would be foolish - but we do talk about our vision and goals because unlike most businesses, we did not create Realvibez just to make ourselves rich, it was created so that Caribbean people would finally control the marketing, promotion and distribution of their content, allowing more money to flow back into the islands and contribute positively to economic development.

Reggae generates some US$90 million per year - but most of that never makes it to Jamaica's shores. That must change and if I didn't talk about our vision, I would simply be a very selfish person. Some will say that businesses exist to make a profit but I have to disagree.

Businesses exist to make people's lives better by solving a problem and by doing so, reap the reward of profits.

It is impossible for Realvibez to accomplish this goal on its own and the market is more than big enough. Discussing our ideas and dreams will get others to get involved and together, we will have a major impact.

It took Robert and I a while to figure that out - the whole "sharing is caring" and why we need not be so paranoid. I remember one advisor asking us what we considered our main competitive advantage and we smiled when we said "Our MBAs."

He asked how that was an advantage at a startup (it is usually a disadvantage) and I simply said that "We have been taught to learn from the mistakes of others, focus on the execution of strategy and the implementation of ideas, not merely coming up with ideas and trying a 'ting."

He liked the answer.

I am no longer paranoid, and will hopefully have a startup diary featured on another blog later this year. That will help to spread my business values and hopefully influence and entire generation of coming entrepreneurs.

That is the power of sharing ideas and not being a paranoid entrepreneur.

Users vs. Advertisers: Interruptive Advertising Is Dead

2008-06-19T13:16:00.004-05:00

Ever since starting Realvibez years ago we have had to wrestle with some fundamental issues that all advertising-supported media must deal with.

How do we generate advertising revenue without pissing off the users?

I came across this quote today from this blog post by the programmer who created an ad-blocking software for Firefox:

"There is only one reliable way to make sure your ads aren't blocked -- make sure the users don't want to block them. Don't forget about the users. Use ads in a way that doesn't degrade their experience."

Serving two masters is always hard, but advertising-supported media has to because it needs eyeballs to sell to advertisers. Without either, the venture dies (which is why we have focused on additional revenue streams from day one).

Banner Advertising

Late last year we signed up with a new banner ad network to serve ads on Realvibez and we were elated. We had ads from companies like Circuit City and American Express.

And then the complaints started coming in - the ads automatically expanded every time the window loaded and when moused over, causing a very annoying experience.

Our traffic dropped and at first we re-designed the site by merely adding a large header for the ad to expand over instead of expanding over the videos.

That didn't do anything except use up valuable retail space (the first third is the most important). We finally cancelled the deal with the ad network after they said they would not alter their ads to be better for users, Tremor Media's loss, not ours.

Video Advertising

The first iteration of Realvibez had no video ads and the site grew exponentially. This version has annoying pre-roll ads and is turning out much harder to grow.

The first time around failed because we were not generating enough revenue to cover costs, but people were watching the videos. This time around, monetization was obviously a high priority, but we expected that it would greatly impact the length of time it would take to grow the traffic to the site, thanks to the interruptive video ads.

We went ahead anyway because we were sitting on too much debt already and couldn't afford to absorb the bandwidth costs.

Subscription Model

I have little confidence in directly charging users to stream content, even if we had some amazing exclusive videos. We are now looking at some ideas for how we can serve advertising without pissing off the users.

Interruptive advertising is dead, period.

Some media people are going to say that the users watch the shows for free and pay for them by watching the ads - which is true, but you cannot, and should not, force the user to watch ads they don't want to.

This is why CPA, cost per action, is catching on. It already is the standard for search advertising - a click is an action that you pay for.

So to come full circle: Are we really serving two masters or is it that the user is the master and the advertiser is merely trying to please the master?

A Public Thank You

2008-06-15T12:51:00.003-05:00

I am writing this post from Jamaica.

I am here attending the Jamaica Diaspora Conference which takes place every two years and is overseen by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

I was invited to be a youth spokesperson for the Diaspora US Southeast Region and I felt that it was important to thank the people directly involved in making this trip possible.

Anyone who reads this blog knows that money is tight for us and so a trip like this would have taken away capital from our venture. Four people and two companies in particular stepped up to make sure that I was here and I feel that a simple thank you is not enough, they need to be publicly thanked.

Marlon Hill, the current head of the Diaspora Southeast USA region was the one who asked me to be a delegate and worked up until just before his flight to secure some sponsorship. He ultimately offered to cover the cost of my flight if things did not work out.

Thank you Marlon.

Earl Jarrett, General Manager of Jamaica National Building Society, my former boss, agreed to sponsor 50% of my costs when I first spoke with him last week. Once it was clear the rest of the sponsorship money wasn't coming through, he called me on Thursday to offer to double their sponsorship.

Thank you JN and Earl Jarrett.

Kaye Chong at Air Jamaica is someone we have worked with for years, even before there was any money in it for us. Since graduating college, I have often helped Air Jamaica with on-campus promotion and they also love my support on Facebook.

She especially wanted me to be a delegate and the Air Jamaica management made a decision on Thursday evening to become a sponsor and provide me with a complimentary ticket as their thank you for years of service.

Thank you Kaye and thank you Air Jamaica.

Last but not least, Wayne Marshall.

Wayne Marshall is a Jamaican Dancehall artist that was the first to ever have a dancehall song in EA Sports' FIFA series (before Damian Marley or Mad Cobra). I have known him for years and when I told Wayne last Wednesday that I was having trouble raising the money from sponsors, he asked me how much I needed.

I told him how much would help and he immediately said it was not a problem. Many people are surprised when I mention that Wayne Marshall, a Jamaican dancehall artist, is a sponsor of my trip but he has always been a supporter of my desire to be a positive role model.

Wayne, nuff respect and a big thank you.

These four people and two Jamaican companies have combined to make sure that I attend this conference, be able to share my ideas and learn from others in order to effectively contribute to the betterment of Jamaica.

These are the kinds of people that we need to support and the least I can do is publicly thank each and every one of them.

p.s. I love my Air Jamaica :-)

Is Yahoo! Trying To Get Microsoft To Increase The Bid?

2008-06-13T17:27:00.004-05:00

I couldn't let this one pass without making some comment. While I respect Jerry Yang for what he has managed to build, what is he thinking?

Let me break it down into simple terms:

(1) You are no. 2 in the market and no. 3 wants to buy you so you make the case that you can survive as a standalone company and release some revenue projections most people consider pie in the sky.

(2) You say that you want to build your search business while building your display business.

(3) No. 1 in the search market recently bought one of the largest online display advertising companies.

(3) No. 1 already has a greater than 60% share of searches in the USA and possibly more than 75% of the revenue from search advertising. In other words, no. 1 is kicking ass and taking names.

If you are the no. 2 company in a market and no. 3 tries to acquire you, will you run off and join forces with no. 1?

In the case of Yahoo!, that would be "Yes, and may I have another please!"

Every dollar Google makes from serving ads on Yahoo! will be put to work making sure they continue to have a better search product and making sure that they dominate display advertising as well!

You are helping your arch-enemy generate even more money to slaughter you just so you can avoid Microsoft?

This seems to be a classic case of "instant gratification" with no regard for long-term strategy.

Jerry Yang was quoted in the New York Times as saying "We think of it as backfilling with Google monetization, rather than outsourcing," - A rose is a rose by any other name.

This guy hit the nail on the head - “Obviously, there is a near-term revenue and profit windfall accruing to Yahoo,” said Derek Brown, a Cantor Fitzgerald analyst. “But at what cost? What does it say about Yahoo’s long-term vision to become a must-buy for advertisers? Does it make Google, not Yahoo, a must-buy for online advertisers?”

The ONLY way that this makes sense to me is if Jerry Yang thinks this will force Microsoft to increase their bid just to keep Google away from Yahoo!, which could work, and would be brilliant if it does.

But I am skeptical.

Jerry Yang may be worth lots of money and success to date, but that doesn't mean you can't make dumb decisions, he's still human.

Would you go into debt to buy back your company?

2008-06-12T08:23:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I read the article on Inc.com titled Panos Bethanis Went $4.5 million in the Hole to Buy Back His Company.

I easily related to him when he said "I didn't want to link my name to a company that failed" - all entrepreneurs feel that way at some time. He also said "You know how people say it's not personal; it's business? I'm the opposite of that. To me, it's always personal", something entrepreneurs also tend to feel - it's their baby.

But...

I have grown to believe in order to maximize your chances of success, you must reduce the emotional connection with the venture, otherwise it makes it extremely hard to quit when it isn't working.

The best entrepreneurs are also not afraid of failure and so having your name attached to a failed venture is a badge of honour. Many VCs actually like to invest in ventures run by entrepreneurs who have had failures - it makes them more realistic in their outlook for the latest venture, they won't (read: shouldn't) make the same mistakes and the odds of this new venture succeeding are increased.

You are considered seasoned if you have failures in your past.

I don't doubt that his bet could pay off, but his story is the exception to the rule. I agree with the 2 "experts" that said things like:

"Bethanis and his team should have used that $1.5 million to reconnect with their publishers instead of taking on $4.5 million in debt"

"There are a lot of red flags here. I would not have gone out of pocket one penny for this business. The team should have started a new company and gotten right in the face of DirectoryM."

When Realvibes.net failed 2 years ago, we spent months evaluating if we should try again, start a new venture or go and build a career somewhere. We didn't decide to try again because of our emotional connection to it or not wanting to have failure attached to our name.

We decided to try again because the online landscape had changed and we identified ways to dramatically lower the cost issues that lead to our failure.

Going into $4.5 million debt, or any debt for that matter, to buy an unprofitable company is a serious bet, especially when you already had a venture that was on the rise and could use the capital. I would have waited until they were ready to file bankruptcy and then buy it for the customers and contracts.

Bottom line advice: Don't be afraid of failure and don't let emotions decide your business decisions.

p.s. I also don't understand how he was on the Board of Directors, owned 3% of the company and was running a competing company. Conflict of interest, non-compete agreement, general ethics - all lacking?

More Honesty...Economic Growth and Jamaica

2008-06-11T11:26:00.002-05:00

Since honesty has done so well for me recently, I have decided to share something I normally may not because this blog imports into Facebook, but I am tired of being paranoid.

Next week is a Jamaica Diaspora Conference in Kingston, Jamaica that happens every 2 years. One of the presenters for the Economic Growth and Investment Development: Strengthening and Broadening the Base for Entrepreneurship and Wealth Creation, who also happens to be the President of the Jamaica USA Chamber of Commerce, emailed a few people asking for "input in shaping my presentation on behalf of the U.S" so that she could "effectively represent your views on this subject" - exactly what a delegate/representative should be doing.

I responded with a very candid and honest email, copied unedited and in it's entirety below. It was risky to speak so forthrightly to this specific person but I would rather speak the truth and risk the wrath of people than hold back my thoughts and experience that could truly make a difference for others like me.

Maybe that is foolish, maybe it is noble. All I know is that I would want someone out there batting for me if they had the chance to swing.

Now my email:

---

Here are my two cents:

It is time for action instead of talk. I have met far too many Jamaicans both in Jamaica and the diaspora who publicly talk about wanting to help entrepreneurs, especially young people and then do no such thing. Some of the people I have met have sat in front of audiences and said how we are important to Jamaica in what we are doing or talk about contacting them after the event, only to get one of 4 responses when it is one on one:

- They talk about how much we have to pay them to get their help
- They don't respond to emails and phone calls even though they asked you to contact them
- They publicly talk about providing financial help but when you actually ask, they don't have the resources
- They just want to pick your brain and carry the idea to someone else

The majority of my support has come from Americans and the American media, not Jamaicans and especially not from Jamaican media or Jamaican companies.

People need to start putting their money where their mouth is and really offer support. We need the following:

(1) Angel investor groups in Jamaica and the diaspora that allow entrepreneurs to apply to pitch their ideas and businesses
(2) Startup incubators funded by donations from the diaspora and Jamaican companies who want to help
(3) Non-profit grant programs that do not require collateral for entrepreneurs to get funding
(4) Real microlending institutions like Grameen Bank that are not designed to charge ridiculous interest rates but instead provide badly needed capital at low cost in order to help Jamaica grow
(5) Our Kiva.org for peer-2-peer lending to fellow Jamaicans
(6) A central website where Jamaican entrepreneurs can connect with investors in the diaspora - Learn from Gobignetwork.com and FundingUniverse.com
(7) Facilitating entrepreneur clubs at high schools all across Jamaica (Whatever happened to Junior Achievement?)

Those who have made money don't seem to want to share it unless they are guaranteed amazing returns. They would rather put the money in Cash Plus and risk it than invest it with startups that show promise.

There are good ideas out there that need funding in order to be truly viable and they will create jobs in Jamaica as well benefit brand Jamaica on the world stage but it is extremely hard for these ventures to connect with potential investors.

I believe that the current mindset is wrong because it does not really focus on helping others for the sake of bettering the country and that needs to change if we are going to measurably impact entrepreneurship and wealth creation.

These are my suggestions as a 27 year-old entrepreneur who was born and raised in Jamaica, went to university in the USA, has setup a venture in Jamaica and has two ventures in the USA and only moved back from Jamaica 2 years ago. I was in charge of youth marketing at JNBS and through our sponsorship of high school football, I had the privilege of visiting many schools and speaking with many students, both secondary and tertiary. The feedback is the same - "action, not a bag of mouth."

Good luck with your presentation.

Regards

----

I doubt that she would mind me sharing her reply email:

Bless you David, for your targeted and frank comments. Very helpful. I will try to do justice.

My kind of person indeed. Now why can't I meet more people like her who believe that honesty is the best policy and understand the difference between criticism and constructive criticism?

Lastly, I must single out the one Jamaican company that has consistently shown me support in everything I have done since I was 19 - Jamaica National Building Society, the General Manager, Mr. Earl Jarrett and my former boss, Emile Spence, now general manager of the subsidiary, JN Global (Money Transfer and BillPay).

The only company to ever sign a significant sponsorship deal with Realvibez, to seek out my advice on online strategy, to recommend us to other businesses and to actually send an email or call to check up on how things are going and how they can help.

Impress Potential Investors in 12 Steps (BusinessWeek)

2008-06-10T13:02:00.002-05:00

Now that we are getting more aggressive about raising outside capital and have brought on a strategic advisory board to assist (more on that in a later post), I have been going over some of my bookmarked articles regarding pitching to investors as well as going through my copy of Guy Kasawsaki's The Art of the Start again.

I decided to share this one today because I enjoyed reading it for the umpteenth time. The 12 steps are listed below but for the full detail on each one, you need to read the full article over at BusinessWeek.

(1) What is the opportunity?
(2) What gives you special advantages in solving the problem?
(3) What makes your team especially qualified to develop this business?
(4) What is the model?
(5) What makes it scalable?
(6) How do you know you'll have customers?
(7) How do you connect to customers?
(8) Do you have a rainmaker?
(9) What have you learned from the competition?
(10) What are the risk factors?
(11) What are the margins?
(12) How realistic is the exit strategy?

Just because we created a business plan and executive summary 6 months ago does not mean that the answers are the same today. I view such documents as living documents that are constantly updated based on changes in the marketplace and new strategic partnerships.

Have you answered all these questions for your venture?

My Guest Post On NetworkingEffectively.com Is Live

2008-06-09T15:22:00.005-05:00

Scott Bradley, someone I have spoken about quite a bit on this blog, recently asked me to write a guest post for his blog and it went live this morning.

Check out the post Honest Blogging Leads To Potential Investor By David Mullings

My relationship with Scott started on Facebook last July, lead to a presentation at Boston College that fall and continues to pay dividends for both of us.

Networking at it's finest in my opinion.

What Is The Biggest Mistake You Can Make?

2008-06-06T09:00:00.002-05:00

The single biggest mistake anyone can make, whether as an entrepreneur, investor or member of management is -

Unrealistic Expectations

It is critical that you do not underestimate the time, money and resources that are needed to properly, i.e. profitably, execute a project.

I cannot stress this enough. My personal experiences as part of management in someone else's company and as an entrepreneur, as well as everything I have ever read on achieving success and the causes of failure point to this single and deadly mistake.

So many entrepreneurs talk about capturing "only 5% of the market" but that is often unrealistic. Right now China is hot and there are people saying that they just want to sell to 0.5% of the Chinese population, but they fail to realize that the average per capita income in China is tiny - less than US$2000 per year!

The worst kind of unrealistic expectation has to do with how much runway you need for your venture to break-even and become self-funding. Most entrepreneurs grossly under-estimate how much runway they really need (including us). This then throws off your cash-flow estimates money management because you are planning that you will spend money on a product today and within 6 months it will all be sold and you can re-invest that money into the company. Odds are that everything doesn't sell in the 6 months.

Being Realistic vs. Optimistic

I am the ultimate optimist when I come up with ideas and plans. Robert is the realist who brings it down to earth and shows exactly what we will need to execute. It is always harder than I originally envision, but I am a dreamer right?

We recently spoke with a strategic consulting firm we were trying to bring on board. We answered their question about how much money we need and what we hope to achieve with it and they followed up by saying that we had a pretty good plan but we would need a little bit more money based on their experience. They mapped out exactly why and helped us to understand where our assumptions were off.

The projects that we have failed to execute properly usually fail because of that underestimation of resources. We agreed to execute something, thinking that it was simpler than it really turned out to be.

Know your limits and do your best not to make the mistake of being too optimistic and having unrealistic expectations.

Guy Kawasaki's Excellent Advice On How Not To Pick Up A VC

2008-06-05T11:05:00.003-05:00

Guy Kawasaki recently wrote a great post at Sun Microsystems titled How to Pickup a VC.

Here are a few choice ones, read the post to get all 10.

You say: "I'm bright and ambitious." Investor thinks: "That's a relief because I usually invest in stupid and lazy people."
You say: "I have lots of great ideas, but I have trouble figuring out which one to try. Let me tell you about a couple." Investor thinks: "I want to know which idea you're going to kill yourself trying to make successful, not which ideas have crossed your idle mind."
You say: "If you sign an NDA, I'll tell you my idea." Investor thinks: "You are clueless. How can you not know that venture capitalists don't sign NDAs?"

Brilliant as always.

Convey Brilliant Ideas Effectively

2008-06-05T10:07:00.001-05:00

"You can have brilliant ideas, but if you cannot get them across, your ideas will not get you anywhere."
—Lee Iacoca

This is a statement that has been lodged in my head since the first day I read it. One of our key advisors has said similar things since day one. The ability to clearly answer a person who asks a question like "How will you make money?" or "What is so special about your venture?" is vital for entrepreneurs.

Robert and I were groomed early on to be able to convey ideas effectively because our father had us practice public speaking from before the age of 11. Dad started by volunteering us to read Bible verses at church. I still remember preparing for the first one - Dad had me read my verse while he recorded it. He then played it back and provided feedback on how well I did, where I should pause and so forth. It proved invaluable and Robert and I became regular fixtures at church, especially whenever they needed a reader at the last minute (I still end up reading sometimes when I visit Jamaica).

We both received many compliments throughout the years, but that was relatively easy because we were reading a prepared text. However, it was instrumental in preparing us to present in front of large groups. The next step would be public speaking from our own prepared notes.

While in high school, our youth group at church had the opportunity to run the entire service one youth sunday (the 4th sunday of each month at my church). I was quickly volunteered as the person to lead the service, essentially taking the place of the Pastor (who is my grand-uncle by the way).

I accepted. This meant that I had to write and deliver a sermon that people twice and three times my age had to find relevant. Imagine a 15-year-old preaching to his parents, their friends and people as old as his grand-parents?

I obviously had to have my sermon vetted by the pastor first but after the service, a number of people approached my dad or me and asked if I was planning to enter the Seminary! I quickly said "No, not unless God gives me some sign that I should." I even had some older people say it was one of the best sermons they have ever heard, which made me feel good.

Speaking in front of crowds was second nature now. I was also comfortable writing and reading my own material and so the next step was being able to talk off the cuff without "ahhmm" and "you know".

That skill was developed in my public speaking class during my second year of college. That public speaking class was easy for me because I was already comfortable drafting and presenting speeches. I would often have my notecards but I knew my topics so well that I would never look at them.

I was also a tutor while in college and that is what really allowed me to perfect speaking in "layman's terms" and dumbing down a concept to make it easily understood. I realized early on during tutoring that I could not use "expert" terms to explain a concept, I would have to learn to adjust based on who I was talking to.

I highly recommend that entrepreneurs practice explaining intermediate and complex concepts to someone who is a total beginner or has no knowledge of that area. If that person can genuinely understand the basics of the concept after your explanation, you have done a good job.

I did not have to speak about business topics until after graduating from university but it was easy to pick up the language by reading publications like Fortune and watching CNBC. I watched interviews of CEOs and took mental note of how they answered questions, how they worded their responses and how they reacted when tested.

My first major job after university was as a marketing consultant with a microcredit company in Jamaica. I was hired to interview all their top clients and figure out what they needed to do over the next 5 years to keep their leadership in the market and grow the company. USAID was a partner in the venture and I would have to present my findings and recommendations to their reps as well as people like the Chairman and General Manager of the Jamaica Gleaner, the oldest newspaper in Jamaica, and the General Manager of the parent company of the microcredit firm, Jamaica National.

Dealing with C-level executives and business owners greatly improved my ability to communicate effectively with people at that level. That presentation went well and then I headed into the MBA program. The MBA program has had the most impact on my presentation style and enhancing my ability to communicate concepts clearly and easily.

Presenting was an integral part of most of the classes and it was easy to see who had little experience in public speaking. The question and answer sessions were the best because they forced you to think quickly and made sure that you knew your stuff.

While most entrepreneurs will probably never get an MBA, it is easy to apply the same tools. Ask friends or family to question you about a specific topic (that is actually how I used to study - I would provide a sheet with questions and answers and have my parents quiz me verbally).

It would be best for the quiz to be related to your business but you can pick any topic because the real benefit is improving your ability to think quickly, answer simply and answer accurately.

After the MBA, I worked with Jamaica National Building Society as Youth Marketing Manager and they were happy to send me on radio and television for interviews. Live television is always fun for me and those opportunities gave me a chance to put everything into practice. Preparation is always key when you are being interviewed. You do not want to be caught off-guard and look like you don't know what you are talking about.

The most important rule is to "know you stuff before you open your mouth."

JNBS had a training department that provided public speaking training and I enjoyed the classes because the instructor was so impressed that I didn't even need my notes when presenting about a new product we were launching - I knew everything by heart and the exact order I wanted talk about the features. Not everyone can or will do that but my secret is a combination of practice and creating a mental flowchart with each of the themes.

I have what some call "photographic memory" so things are more visual for me. I tend to picture the flow of my speech and mentally check off themes as I proceed. You must figure out how your brain works and then leverage it.

The trainer also made the audience count the number of "ahhmms" during each person's presentation and then read them back at the end for the presenter (I had zero). There is no better wake up call than watching an audience count your "ahhmms" or having them tell you that at the end of 5 minutes, you said "ahhmm" 33 times! Most people don't realize that they say "ahhmm" or say it so often so recording yourself and playing it back,totyt or having someone else do it, is a good way to kill that bad habit.

The last few years have brought many opportunities to present at conferences, participate on panels, be interviewed for radio, tv and print, and meet with many C-level executives. If I could not convey my ideas effectively, I would not get very far or be invited to other events and panels.

Robert is just as good as me in my opinion but he ALWAYS defers to me because when we decided to start Realvibez, he decided that I would be the "face" of the company because he didn't want to be in the spotlight. Anytime we are at an event together and someone asks him "What is Realvibez?", he calls me over. He loves to say that it's because I "love to talk", which is true too, I like sharing information (just look at who writes the blog...lol).

My wife can testify to the fact that I constantly talk about what we are doing, future plans and new opportunities to her. It's not that I want her to know every detail, I just want to practice and perfect my delivery. If she can understand it easily, I have accomplished my goal and will be able to explain it to anyone.

I cannot stress how important practice is. Even though I have done tons of presentations and interviews, I try to record each one and then critique it so that I can improve. I believe in Kaizen - "continuous improvement" and I look hard to find room for improvement ("Kaizen" was talked about in a brilliant Harvard Business Review article about what makes Toyota successful - Learning to Lead).

You should too, if you want to be an effective communicator.

I have seen so many people on panels who take too long to get to the point, don't answer the question at all or talk above the heads of the audience. Those people always get the same reactions from the audience in the end - it leaves a bad impression and they don't look forward to the next time you will be speaking.

Entrepreneur Advice

The most important presentation an entrepreneur will ever give is their "elevator pitch" to get someone interested in investing and making their venture a reality. Practice it religiously and be able to recite it like a verse but also be able to deliver it naturally and in a conversational tone. If you can't get interest, your venture probably won't go far, and interest starts with the elevator pitch.

Check out part 1 of our presentation at Boston College's Entrepreneurship Society last year and good luck conveying your brilliant ideas effectively.

Advice From An Angel Investor - Susan Preston

2008-06-03T13:25:00.005-05:00

I recently attended a networking/speaking event put on by the Florida Venture Forum and left with some great information, some of it old, some of it new, all of it relevant. The speaker was Susan Preston, a General Partner in the CalCEF Angel Fund and author of Angel Financing for Entrepreneurs, Early-stage Funding for Long-Term Success.

Her credentials are exceptional and I intend to purchase a copy of the book next week, stay tuned for a review. I have decided to share all my notes from the event, hopefully helping fellow entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs.

Angel investors need to be accredited investors so that the company can remain exempt from Federal and State securities laws.
Non-accredited investors hurt a company because they tend to be "anal" - harass the CEO and extremely hands-on, which angels and VCs hate.
Angels tend to invest "patient money" - no exit expected for a minimum of 2 years usually.
Angels look for companies with the ability to scale, clear path to profitability, management, management, management, clear well-articulated exit strategy.
First things she looks at in an executive summary are: Market Size, Management, and Financials.
A merger or acquisition is the most likely exit strategy today (80-90% of exit strategies currently).
Business plan - maximum of 20 pages for her.
Executive Summary - 2 page max.
Powerpoint presentation - 10-12 pages max.
Realistic valuation is very important.
Most important traits: passion of entrepreneur and coachable enterpreneur.
The perfect entrepreneur is "tenacious but flexible"
Most angels now do preferred stock.
Some angels like convertible debentures because there is no need to set a valuation, they simply convert into the VC's valuation at a discount.
Raised capital should last up to 1 year, not 3-4 months.
Too many grants is not a good thing - it shows a "research-focused company".
It is much better to present to a group rather than to one angel at a time.
She does 70-100 hours of due diligence per company before investing.
The essence of due diligence is: So what? Who Cares? and Why Your?

I was very impressed with the event and already have one conference call because someone I met at the event spoke with a potential investor who is interested in talking further.

Well worth the $65.

They sent me an invitation for their June event and I intend to attend and eventually sign up for a membership. If you want to raise capital, you need to be aggressive and be prepared to dedicate some real time and effort.

'Cash' Is King And 'Trust' Is Queen - The Bear Stearns Lessons

2008-05-30T19:08:00.004-05:00

This week was an amazing week to learn about the two most powerful things in any business - cash and trust. The Wall Street Journal carried a series of articles that outlined the fall of Bear Stearns and it should be essential reading for every person involved in business or considering going into business.

Part 1 - Missed Opportunities

Part 2 - Run on the Bank

Part 3 - Deal or No Deal

These Wall Street guys are very smart, but even they made mistakes and we all should learn from those. The reasons for the collapse boil down to two things:

(1) Bear Stearns ran out of cash, even using up its reserves

(2) Clients and trading partners lost confidence in the firm - the trust had broken down

Cash is King

We constantly hear that "cash is king" but the Bear Stearns debacle is a poignant example of just quickly you can go from hero to zero. Leverage is a double-edged sword and only keeping up outward appearances is not good for a company. Eventually the facade will crumble if the inside of the house is a bit empty.

Bear Stearns had essentially become a Potemkin Village.

Numerous people told Bear Stearns that they needed to raise additional capital and entrepreneurs must take heed - having cash in the chest is always better than having a line of credit to tap - the line could get pulled one day, just like what happened to BS.

Trust is Critical

No firm wants the following to be said about them - "The growing gloom spurred some of Bear Stearns's trading partners to try to get out of transactions with the firm."

Doing business requires some degree of trust and confidence that the other party will be able to honour their contract and execute. Without that trust, business breaks down.

Startups and unproven ventures especially depend on trust to close deals in the early stages. If you can't get that decision-maker to trust that you can actually deliver on your promises, you won't get a deal. This is why it is so critical to focus on building trust and confidence during negotiations. We have been able to secure some major partnerships mainly because the other party trusted our promises (we made sure to over-deliver on each one).

It is much better to focus on a few deals and over-deliver than to land tons of deals and then do a mediocre job if you are building for the long-term.

Bear Stearns' story will make a good movie (you know they are going to do one) but it makes an even better case study for business owners and budding entrepreneurs. It also proves the point that no matter how smart you are (or you think are), how much you are worth, or how much you made last year, mistakes can still be made and you can pay dearly for them.

Past performance is no guarantee of future returns

Great Advice From Ryan Allis On Raising Money

2008-05-29T12:39:00.004-05:00

We have started to focus more on raising capital now that we are fairly comfortable with our traction. I still have to report on that Florida Venture Forum event I attended yesterday - went very well - but I came across this video today and wanted to share it because the stories and advice is top-notch.

Ryan Allis raised $5.3 million in VC money at 22 and wrote a book explaining how he did it, Zero to One Million.

Ryan Allis: How I Raised $5.3 Million in Venture Capital at Age 22 from Ryan on Vimeo.

Emphasize Value Rather Than Price

2008-05-28T10:41:00.001-05:00

We routinely deal with potential advertisers and have learned that it is more important to emphasize value over price.

It all comes down to the value proposition - why should they spend x dollars with us vs. elsewhere or not at all. We especially have a harder time because we are often dealing with companies that have not traditionally advertised online or run the kinds of campaigns that we are trying to convince them to run.

Value vs. Price is also important for sponsorship proposals. We rarely give any money as a sponsor, instead doing a barter - giving advertising with a specific monetary value. The organizers of the event being sponsored not only look at the dollar value of the advertising, but also the value that we have communicated in our proposal.

It is easy for people to question the price of your advertising (or product) but if you convey the value properly, it is much harder for them to dispute.

How do you communicate value? We use different ways depending on the client.

A case study using a previous client - Real success stories always help the pitch, especially if you can show how the return on investment (ROI) was greater than the amount spent
Make them know it is innovative - Showing a company that they will be doing something innovative and/or cutting edge that few of their competitors are doing is a good unique selling point (usp)
Point to your strategic partnerships - Value also comes from strategic partners and you should leverage those relationships to show why your value is greater than a competitor

So far these have worked for us. Feel free to add more in the comments section.

Heading To A Florida Venture Forum Event

2008-05-27T12:16:00.001-05:00

The Florida Venture Forum has an event in Boca Raton tomorrow evening that is focused on angel investing and raising money from angel investors (more info).

My friend Kevin Michael read my post on this blog about The Frustration Of Not Being Able To Raise Capital and introduced us to a friend of his who is also a University of Miami alumni.

That person emailed me the information on this forum about two days after the intro. Just goes to show that publicizing your troubles can help...sometimes.

The event should be good for networking and knowledge, especially because they charge $65 per attendee, which means that only serious people will show up.

I will let you know how it goes. Even though we have other things in the pipeline where capital is concerned, we have to take every reasonable opportunity to increase our chances of securing capital and raising the profile of the venture.

David Mullings' Work.com Guide "Uncommon Startup Advice" Gets A Front Page Feature

2008-05-20T18:49:00.004-05:00

In case you wonder why I would title a a blog post in the 3rd person even though I am writing it - it's because of the search engines. I want to make it easier for people to find these kinds of posts if they search for "David Mullings".

The last few weeks have been good to me, first the Imeem.com front page feature for Realvibez and Cezar, then the quotes in latest issue of Communication World, now a front page feature for my latest guide on Work.com, focusing on startup advice.

Work.com is owned by the same company that runs Business.com, the leading vertical search engine for business. I wrote my first guide on Successful Business Networking On Facebook and got great reviews. I then received their weekly newsletters and noted that the community manager was looking for guest posts for their blog, especially relating to startups, so I replied and offered to try my hand at a guide.

Two weeks later, front page feature for the guide. Read my guide titled Uncommon Startup Advice and please rate it.

The advice that I outlined is mainly based on our experience and some of the advice we wish we had gotten from day one. You don't have to run a million dollar company or even be profitable to be able to provide advice based on your mistakes. I hope that other entrepreneurs will benefit from the advice.

Hopefully this also raises the profile of our venture some more and not just me personally. I don't want to be the kind of founder whose reputation precedes his company...yet. Now if only I was a successful entrepreneur, I could have had a book deal in place and leverage this front page feature to promote it :-)

"People Who Grind It Out Get Lucky" - Guy Kawasaki

2008-05-19T12:55:00.002-05:00

This was part of an answer Guy Kawsaki gave in response to a question during a recent interview by the Online Marketing Blog.

His book, The Art of the Start, is highly recommended by many, including me (I have an autographed copy that he mailed to me), and the question he was asked was:

Your work with venture capital and startups is legendary and undoubtedly, you’ve formed opinions about the kinds of characteristics that make a successful entrepreneur. What’s more important: sheer talent, a great network, creativity, business smarts, passion and drive or something else?

The first part of his answer was: "My answer is that the most important factor is luck."

I read Guy's blog, How To Change The World, regularly and I routinely go back through parts of his book for advice.

The luck part is important but I focus more on the "grind it out" part because it is important for entrepreneurs to realize that "sticktoitiveness", the ability to keep trying, is also very important. Just because things don't work out the way you want at first, or in the first few years, doesn't mean that you should give up.

Realvibez has had it's ups and lots of downs, but we have always continued to persevere in the face of adversity and find a way to keep it alive and add value. We have had tremendous help along the way, especially from our parents who have pumped money into it to keep it alive until we raise capital or get in the black. Everyone who has helped us to date has always said that our perseverance is what impresses them and convinces them that we will eventually achieve our goals.

People look at your commitment, especially reporters who might consider writing about you. Everyone is impressed by the "fighting against the odds" story, especially when your story has additional differentiators like age, race, immigrant, disability, etc.

Some of the recent developments with Realvibez are exclusively because we decided to double-down and turn up the heat on ourselves and promote our story in every way possible.

I leave you with a quote from John D. Rockefeller:

"I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature."

David Mullings Quoted In Communications World Article On Social Media In The Caribbean

2008-05-14T18:27:00.006-05:00

I met Karel Mc Intosh, who blogs at Caribbean PR Blog, via Facebook and I joined her Caribbean bloggers group to interact with other bloggers with Caribbean backgrounds.

As usual, I made sure to be active in the group and when Karel sent a message to all the members requesting some answers to a question that could end up in print for an article she was working on, I took advantage of it.

The article is now published in IABC's (International Association of Business Communicators) flagship magazine, Communication World. I got a nice big quote on the first page and then a longer one on the second.

The two quotes are as follows:

"The main effect of blogs has been to make it easier to meet people from different Caribbean countries and learn a little more about their cultures"

"Social media in the Caribbean is similar to everywhere else, just much more limited because the percentage of online users is smaller. The main effect has been to make it easier to meet people from different Caribbean countries and learn a little more about their cultures. The Caribbean is quite divided, and social media helps to bring people closer and correct some of the [cultural] misunderstandings."

Once again, Facebook has been an invaluable tool in building my reputation. The url of this blog was even printed in the article. This is better than when I was quoted in Harvard Business School Working Knowledge last year because the quotes were longer and given more authority.

Being quoted as an expert or authority is important in building a leadership brand and this will definitely lead to more opportunities.

This is more proof that social networking sites are simply tools that can be used in a variety of ways to achieve a wide range of goals.

Turn Catastrophe Into Opportunity

2008-05-13T20:58:00.003-05:00

In business, you are bound to encounter "catastrophes" but you have to be prepared to deal with them and even look at them as opportunities instead.

Realvibez.com recently had one such incident: Our navigation menu mysteriously disappeared from the website, making it impossible to navigate the site. We found out because of the sharp decline in visits and pageviews one day.

Imagine the reaction when we saw the following:

We were at a loss but we had some idea of what might have happened. More importantly, we took advantage of it.

The problem related to how we embedded our navigation menu - using SSI (server side includes) so that we only had to update one file instead of changing code on every single page (the site has a couple hundred pages).

To fix it, we would have to change a little piece of code on every single page!

We had a plan in place to deal with just such an issue but on top of that, the timing was great because I had recently mapped out a plan to update the site with the following:

Integrate as much Flux code as possible (the social networking platform owned by Viacom that we are a partner with)
Edit the keywords, descriptions and titles of all pages for seo reasons (search engine optimization)
Integrate a new ad management program that was cheaper and better
Overhaul all the video pages to be more search-engine friendly (more seo)

Each of the above would have to be done on every single page as well so we were able to combine all the above work with fixing the menu problem.

Instead of having to go through the pages twice, this catastrophe actually allowed us to kill multiple birds with one stone and became an opportunity.

The upgrades brought more social functions to the site by integrating Flux much more, will improve the search engine rankings for our video pages, solved the menu problem and allowed us to implement a better ad management system that makes it easier to target specific ad slots on the site.

The timing was definitely our luck, the menu problem could have happened after we did all the other upgrades.

Don't let catastrophes get you down, turn them into opportunities like we did.

Sometimes a company can discover an even better business if it's willing to abandon an old one

2008-05-10T11:17:00.003-05:00

The headline of this post is a direct quote from Nicholas Carr's latest book, The Big Switch, which I recently completed. The read was fascinating but one of the biggest things that stuck with me was this quote, and another one:

"advertising-funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers"

Guess who said that, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google!

Google now generates billions of dollars from exactly what they were originally against (and has made them both among the richest people in the World).

We continue to learn from these real-world cases and apply the same process to our venture. We may have heated debates about the potential directions but we always remain open to better ideas for growing revenues and building a better business.

This is not a one-off example. Read Jim Collins two books, Good To Great and Built To Last, or check out the numerous Harvard case studies to see countless examples of companies that remain open to the idea of something being better.

3M and GE stood out when I read Jim Collins' books because they aimed to generate a specified amount of their profits from ideas that were no more than 5 years old, forcing the team to constantly look for new opportunities and not be afraid to kill sacred cows.

Business is all about evolution and being open to new ways of thinking but too many companies prefer to stick with what is currently working and in the long-term, they end up becoming obsolete or playing catch up. The music industry is the perfect example of what happens when you think this way.

Follow Google, not the music industry.

You can only avoid competition by avoiding good ideas

2008-05-07T09:39:00.002-05:00

It is a fact of business that if you create something worthwhile, you will have competition. So many articles that talk about raising money mention that if you say you don't have competitors, you either didn't do your research properly or you are thinking too small.

Apple's iPod has been revolutionary, hence the increased competition. Some entrepreneurs despise competition but I say welcome it because it only serves to prove that you are really doing something worthwhile.

Competition does not automatically make your venture a good idea

I would stress that "worthwhile" is not the same as "potentially profitable". People copy bad ideas all the time. Webvan was not the only dot com startup trying to sell groceries over the net in the late 90's.

I consider myself a Warren Buffett disciple and totally agree with his suggestion that your venture should have a "wide economic moat" by developing long-term competitive advantages. If you do that, competition won't be your biggest concern, execution and funding will be.

Good ideas are the underlying foundation of companies that have the real potential to succeed. Good ideas with poor execution and limited funding barely have more chance than a bad idea with great execution and solid funding. You never know, you could sell your well-executed bad idea to some big company - it has happened many times. It is much much harder to sell a poorly-executed, underfunded good idea in my opinion.

Competition helps to keep you on your toes as well and provides one benchmark to measure your venture against.