CommonCraft rocks. 

Here's CommonCraft's channel on Blip.tv.

There are any number of ways of explaining complex systems. Duarte Design is another company based out in Silicon Valley who has built a business on information design. They produced Al Gore's presentation 'An Inconvenient Truth' and if you've seen that, you know that it's probably the most interesting two-hour Powerpoint presentation you've ever seen. (Although they did it in Apple's Keynote.)

CommonCraft wows you with clarity rather than production values. They're not the first to use this paper cut-out technique or draw diagrams on a whiteboard, but they're great at distilling out the information that's relevant and putting that into a two or three minute spot that doesn't bore you to tears while you're watching it.

Josh over at MWI is making some changes.

 
He's opting to go to a virtual office. He's moving from a fee for service to flat fees and automated business models. And he's offering a viral marketing hook. Sounds like good moves all around.

Josh is offering you the opportunity to make an easy $500 by linking to My Web Design Company:

Want to make $500 for almost no work? Of course you do, it's the American dream. Here's how it works. Simply place the following link on your website: "My Web Design Company". On September 10th, 2007 I'll check Google and randomly select one of the backward links. I'll then find out who owns the website linking to MyWebDesignCompany.com, and I'll send them a check for $500. It's that easy.

This is my hat in the ring.

Of course I'd do it anyway.  

Businesspundit has a post on networking for introverts.

So you're really not much good at networking. You keep a drink in one hand and the other in a pocket. You stand against walls. You avoid direct eye contact. You pretty much suck at it and since you suck at it you hate doing it. You're constantly standing around trying to look pretty and hoping that someone you're interested in meeting will come and talk to you. 

Me too.

It's interesting to watch the dynamics at a networking event. I've attended many but there's often a sense of being disassociated from the main conversations. The worst are the hard sellers.

The Hard Sellers: These guys are there to pitch. For the most part they're talking to themselves. Whenever I'm near a hard seller I'm tuning them right out and trying to scrape them off my shoe asap. The Hard Sellers listen little and talk much. They've done this and that and would appreciate it if you validate their existence by doffing your cap. 

I hate that and respond poorly to it as most people probably do.

Poor networking is usually cause by embarrassment and fear of rejection... hey , it's just like dating. (Here's my eminently readable post on Horizontal Networking)

I have a good friend Chia in NY who's a photographer. She's about 4'8" and 73lbs (I'm 6'3" and 260) Chia used to be an actress before she became a photographer and now she's the most sought after actor photographer in Manhattan.

Chia lives down in the Flat Iron district (The triangle shaped building in Spiderman). A boxing gym opened up next to her building and  Chia thought it would be great exercise to take up boxing. (Here's her boxing photography)

Interestingly, the gym owners thought this was kind of cool so Chia hired a trainer and started hitting a heavy bag. It was a scene straight out of Million Dollar Baby except that Chia was much shorter.

Of course Chia never actually wanted to fight. In fact, the gym ordered her a pair of pink boxing gloves which, I have to say, were really cute.

Anyway, Chia hit like a girl. She'd prance around and make 'hitting' noises while she punched at the air.

Chia wanted to be more serious. She wanted to move and hit like a boxer, not like a girl. When she talked to her trainer he looked at her like she was as stupid as a bag of hammers. "Chia", he said, " Just act like a boxer." That was it... Chia knew how to act and she was a boxer after that.

The point being: It's always something you can act through. If you're not a great networker... act as though you were.

Works for me. 

Viral video marketing performed to perfection. While this was for a comedy show, watch this YouTube video and you'll find a great marketing tool that could work inside a local market.

Since my RSS feeds were full of VIPBloggers posts yesterday I trotted on over to see what all the fuss was about. It seems that Justin Bergener (another of those short haired Junto boys) thought that the million dollar homepage idea was just the ticket to pry a few dollars out of the blogger crowd and buy himself more hair gel. Justin's no dummy. You're only in for a 6 month run.

This little 9 box square is mine and links to a number of blogs I run or businesses I own including:  Fight Club, MedicalSpasOnline.com, Surface Medical Spas, Nimbleit.com, and this blog. I didn't want to have 5 little boxes so I made one icon and split it up 9 ways. Seemed like a good idea at the time. It made me the largest buyer to date but did little to affect my looks as far as I can tell.

I would expect to see a number of these sites pop up much like the 'I'll tatoo your logo on my forehead' auctions on Ebay. Still, I hope it works. Justin wants the money.

Blogging's not easy. It often feels like you're actually haveing to write something for an audience.

I've been reading a lot of business blogs lately and am struck with the number of posts that suck. (Not like this one.) While I  enjoy blogging I've come to realize that the actual writing is less than exciting. It reminds me of my artist days. As an artist you must be very comfortable being alone. All my paintings (almost all) we're created entirely by myself, in my studio, while I was working late at night and alone. Everyone thinks that the act of creation is exciting and fulfilling, and it is. But the joy of creation comes at the beginning and the end.

click to enlargeA painting is exciting at conception and fullfilling at completion. The actual act is not usually enjoyable at all. In fact it's rather tedious. The Jackson Pollock style of throwing paint on a canvas is not my experience. As a realist, I've spent countless hours painting and repainting. This is a painting I worked off and on for a year. (Total full time of maybe 3-4 weeks.) It's big. 5 by 6 feet.

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