Remember the 80’s classic, The Karate Kid. We watched Mr. Miyagi transform Daniel-san from a wimpy kid being picked on by the Cobra-Kai to a strong fighter who defeated Johnny Lawrence at the karate tournament. As Mr. Mayagi told Daniel-san “Wax On, Wax Off!” and “Paint da fence!”, Daniel was getting stronger and learning valuable skills. 

So you might be wondering what all this has to do with networking. Networking can literally change your life (or at least your career or business). The relationships you can build can bring opportunities you never thought possible. However, many of you might feel like white belts when it comes to networking. Your skills might be weak and your business or career are suffering for it! Well, I’m going to be your Mr. Mayagi and help you earn your proverbial black belt in networking.

     1. Get your white belt by:

• Actually showing up at events around town
• Introducing yourself to others and asking them about themselves.

     2. Get your yellow belt by:

• Paying attention to people and not scanning the room
• Remembering to bring business cards to all events

     3. Get your green belt by:

• Asking about people themselves and minimizing how much you talk about yourself
• Getting business cards/contact info and following up.

     4. Get your purple belt by:

• Making it a regular habit of meeting people for coffee, lunch, or drinks to find out more about them.
• Keeping connections alive by connecting with people through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc and regularly commenting on things they say that you find interesting.

     5. Get your brown belt by:

• Taking time to figure out how you can introduce people to others they will find interesting or useful.
• Learning to be more intentional about meeting people in industries or positions you find interesting. 
• Regularly touching base with people through out the year.

     6. Get your black belt by:

• Helping people find jobs, referrals, resources and more. Basically becoming the go to person for being able to find whatever people need.
• Keeping notes on people you know so that you can always remember who does what, the last time you met them, when their birthday is, and other relevant details.

It takes patience, focus and discipline, but with a lot of hard work, you can move to the next level and earn your proverbial black belt. Before you begin your training, I must ask one thing of you (No, not bow to your sensei), but tell me what you think of these tips above. Share your ideas with the rest of us. 

One of the things that I realized quickly in my business was that I just couldn’t do everything by myself. There’s just too much work to do and many of the things you need to do, you have no real expertise at doing (marketing, business tracking systems, web development, accounting, etc). So I began surrounding myself with other talented professionals that I also liked spending time around. I also quickly realized that while I needed their help, I couldn’t really afford to pay many of them what they would normally charge. I’m not the type of person to ask for anything for free because deep down I want to be fair to people. However, many of these people had quickly become friends and they saw my struggles and offered to help. To date, we’ve had inexpensive or free help with PR, marketing, branding, accounting, advertising, business systems, content creation and more. I’ve been blown away by those who have stepped up to help Appsolute Genius and myself!

I had to ask myself why my friends have helped so much, and I’ve come up with one thing I know for sure. Really saying thank you! Now I don’t mean a casual thanks like when someone opens the door for you. I stop everyone who goes out of their way for me or my business and I make sure they know how much I appreciate their effort. They will generally say “it’s no big deal.” to which I tell them they are wrong, it’s a very big deal and I truly appreciate it. I also make sure that I don’t forget their help and I help them if I ever can. I believe this simple gesture means a lot to most people. One of the best feelings in the world is feeling appreciated. This is very powerful and I challenge you to go back to those you didn’t thank properly along the way and do it right and to make this a habit. We all need help from time to time and most people just want to feel they’ve help and that you appreciate it.

I don’t generally write extremely personal posts on my blog. I mostly reserve it for posts about business, networking, and mobile development, but I’m going to make an exception. Almost two and half years ago, my wife and I began a very long and trying journey. My wife became pregnant! I quickly went from nervous to ecstatic. A switch was flipped and I knew without a doubt that I wanted to be a father and that I was ready! I was truly excited.

Fast forward to current. Amy and I have been through two miscarriages and a fairly large amount of fertility treatments. I can’t begin to describe how devastating and frustrating it has been. It is truly the hardest thing we’ve ever experienced in our lives and nothing else is even close.

So why am I telling you this? 

Well, we have decided to adopt a baby. It is a decision that we are very comfortable with and excited about. However, we need your help! We intend to do a private adoption. What does that mean? It means that we aren’t using an agency to find a child for us. Our best chance to find a baby is to let as many people know as possible. Babies are given up for a variety of reasons: financial, drug-related, teen pregnancy, etc and you never know when someone knows someone looking to give their child up for adoption. So we need your help to be on the lookout!

So what are we looking for?

We are looking for a newborn or infant. The race doesn’t matter at all. For health reasons, we are going to be careful with drug and alcohol addiction with the mother.

I cannot really express my appreciation for any help you can give us.

Brian

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about what is driving people to use Foursquare. Now, I must admit that I’m a little bit of a convert, and I do use Foursquare pretty regularly. So the basis of our discussion turned to what emotional needs Foursquare was serving, When I think of human needs, I often refer to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. For those that don’t know, Maslow created a pyramid structure that shows our basic needs by broken down by the categories: Psychological, Safety, Love/Belonging, Esteem, and Self-Actualization. The basic principle is that people look to satisfy their needs from the bottom of the pyramid first. So food, water, and sex, which are psychological needs, are generally our first priority. After this level of needs is satisfied, we look to satisfy our needs for safety of our health, property and so on.  I think you get the point.

Gen Y - “Because children born during this time period have had constant access to technology (computers, cell phones) in their youth, they have required many employers to update their hiring strategy in order to incorporate updated forms of technology.”

While looking at Maslow, the conversation took an interesting turn toward Gen Y, and how they differ from Gen X and the Baby Boomers. We came to the quick conclusion that Gen Y seems much more interested in achieving Self-Actualization needs such as creativity, spontaneity, and lack of prejudice. This says that on some level, Gen Y isn’t as concerned with the first four levels of the pyramid. However, I couldn’t help but think about my Gen Y friends (because I’m technically Gen X) and their patterns of behavior. Many of my Gen Y friends believe strongly that the path to happiness is through Self-Actualization. The funny thing is that many of those same friends seem to be missing several important pieces of the pyramid. For instance, they don’t take care of their Psychological needs to eat and sleep, their Safety needs for health and employment, their Love needs for sexual intimacy, and their Esteem needs for self-esteem and confidence. They strive so hard to reach the top of the pyramid that they seem to be missing the foundation of their needs. So I put the question out to you, Is Gen Y upside down?

As many people know, I was recently in a feature article in the Birmingham Magazine. I was honored to be asked to do the article and proud of how I was portrayed. But this article made me realize that there are things that many people don’t know about me.

First off, I am half Hispanic on my mother’s side of the family. It isn’t something I bring up because I do my best to be judged on my merits, not my heritage. However, it is something that I would never hide and something that I am proud of. I just mainly want people to get to know me and judge me on my actions. If they decide after knowing me that I am a jerk or arrogant or whatever, then that is ok. Hopefully, they will think positively of me, but at least I had a chance to make an honest impression.

Next, I have an engineering background and I own a company that writes iPhone apps. Many of you know that. What you don’t know is that I don’t think that writing iPhone apps is revolutionary. I think that it is an area of software that is growing rapidly and I truly enjoy doing it, but I know I’m not curing cancer. There are many people doing more important work than me.  However, I don’t simply complain about the city or my life. I am working hard by creating organizations such as Birmingham Entrepreneur to change this city. I’m out there everyday doing my best to help move us forward.

Finally, my biggest annoyance and the fastest way that I will be turned off by a person is finding out that they only care about themselves or that they will hurt other people to get what they want. I’m far from perfect, but I care about others, and I will do whatever I can to help good people.  I will not stand by and watch people hurt others or take advantage of people. It is just not acceptable.

So there you have it. That is just a bit of me in a nutshell. I have huge dreams for me and for this city. I won’t settle until I reach them. If you are a good, decent person, get to know me and tell me how I can help you.  And thank you for caring enough to read this.

Have you seen the movie Avatar? So you’re the one who hasn’t seen it. As of this weekend, it passed 1 billion dollars worldwide in gross box office.  That represents more than a tripling of the studios original investment. I don’t know of a single business that wouldn’t take those type of returns.

Now what makes Avatar so compelling. At $13 a pop, that is a lot to ask, but people aren’t just seeing it they are seeing it multiple times. They are telling friends and family to go see it. They are writing blog posts about it. Why? You can sum it up very easily. THE EXPERIENCE. Avatar offers an experience that you don’t normally get, even at the movies. It is quite honestly amazing.

I have come up with a few things that define this experience to be. First, it is visually stunning. It stands out from almost every movie I’ve ever seen visually. The CG is amazing and they took the time to blend it with non-CG scenes very well. Next, it pays attention to detail. If you look closely, you will notice that the Avatars have human looking hands with 5 fingers while the natives have more primitive hands with 4 fingers. Finally, it tells a strong, emotional story. The love between the main characters feels real and deep. By the end of the movie, you are truly pulling for the Na’vi. This all leads to an experience that is powerful and makes this movie so successful. If you take a close look at other really successful businesses such as Apple, Coke, or many others, you will notice how many of them offer a superior experience.

So I walked out of Avatar realizing that no matter what you do, if you want to be amazingly successful with your business or your product, offer a better experience to your customer. If you do this and pair it with marketing that lets people know about this experience, you will be much more successful. It really doesn’t matter if you are a real estate agent or an iPhone developer, you need to up your game and offer a better experience. How will you offer a better experience in 2010?

Admittedly, LinkedIn and Twitter are very different. Twitter is a great place to keep up with what is going on, to learn from others, to meet new people, and to keep in touch with others. I have met so many new people and learned so much and I have Twitter to thank for this.

However, no matter how hot or cool Twitter is right now, there are still things where LinkedIn is better. So here are 5 things that LinkedIn is better at.

1. Organizing a group - LinkedIn has a very robust group functionality. It gives you the ability to have discussions, post jobs, share relevant news, send announcements to members, and create subgroups. Twitter only has lists which really only allow a very basic group.

2. Understanding professional backgrounds - Since LinkedIn has what is very much like a resume, you have the ability to view the “resume” of almost any professional you meet. It helps to understand more about where somebody comes from and what they have done.

3. Searching companies - LinkedIn gives you the ability to search for companies including who you know that works there or (better yet) used to work there. I often look up a company that I’m starting to do business with and then call a friend that used to work there. Often I didn’t know they worked there until LinkedIn told me.

4. Find who knows who - LinkedIn makes it very easy to look at person and see who you both know. It says John Smith and you both share Mary Jones as a connection. How convient.

5. Recommendations - LinkedIn allows people to give you a recommendation for your work or vice versa. It is like a referrence for the world to see.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a few things but don’t write LinkedIn off. It can and is very powerful. What are your favorite tricks or tips for LinkedIn?

I have a secret. I know how to build a reputation and get known for what I do. I know how to make sure people call me when they need iPhone development or want to know more about Social Media or have entrepreneurship questions. I’d be lying if I said there is just one thing you need to do. You have to build relationship and there are several things you can do to build better relationships with people.

However, one of them is so simple. And almost no one does it! Follow up with people when you meet them.

My company hosted a conference on iPhone and mobile development this weekend. We had a great group of people show up, and I was able to meet many new people and reconnect with many others. If you’ve never run a big event, it is exhausting, but later that night, I set aside an hour to follow up. I emailed almost everyone that I talked with at the camp, and It was almost 30 people. The email was personal to each person and mentioned something we talked about. I also sent a LinkedIn invite and Twitter follow to almost all of those people. By following up, I guarantee you will make a better impression, and by connecting on your Social Media sites of choice, you keep the relationship alive for the future.

So that is my secret. It works! It does take some time and it can be easy to not do it. However, it may just be the best hour you’ve spent when it comes to ROI. So get off you butt and do it today and let me know how it works for you.

Earlier this year, I quit my job. I wish I could say I had a fool proof plan, but I did not. I had started a business with a partner but we weren’t to the point where it would support us yet.

The truth is that I knew I was in the wrong job with a bad company, and I was very passionate and very excited about my new startup creating iPhone applications. I also found several new passions. I love meeting new people, dreaming up new ideas, and being involved with social media. All of these passions have really helped me with my business.

Another truth is that it is extremely hard starting a business. It can be long hours where you have almost no free time. It is scary and sometimes overwhelming. It is full of amazing highs, but it can be hugely frustrating. It is exhausting. Somewhere along the way you can forgot why you are doing all of this.

I really believe you have to rediscover your passions. Here are several ways to do just that.

1. Get your mind off your work. It may only be for an hour or two, but do something you love that makes you forget about the stress and worries. For me, playing basketball has always been this kind of release.

2. Find someone to confide in. Find someone else starting a business and vent to each other.

3. Spend time doing what you love. You did this for a reason and you love some of what you do. Hopefully a lot of what you do. Spend some time doing those things that are your favorite.

4. Make a little money. Sorry to break it to you but making money and building a safety net takes some of the frustration away.

5. Have a purpose. Notice that I didn’t say goal. Having a larger purpose to what you do really helps.

So get back out there and find your passions again. Oh yeah, let me know how you did it so I can learn some new tricks.

I have two reasons for beginning to blog again. First, I like having a place to share my thoughts, frustrations, passions, rants, and anything else that strikes me as worth sharing. Second, I think it is important to create content. I spend a good deal using social media and I realized that the one thing I wasn’t doing was creating content.

I hope to put some thought provoking and dare I say, interesting content on this blog. At least those are my goals. Wish me luck!