Blog World Expo 2008 - I’m one step closer to the edge, and I’m about to blog!

(Can you guess what music I’m listening to as I write this recap?)

The second day’s keynote at Blog World Expo 2008 was pretty unique and I was pretty excited to get a great seat to see Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week, and Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park. I was first introduced to Tim Ferriss by another ReveNews blogger, I believe Adam Viener sometime last year. Adam posted about Tim’s book and I decided to pick it up while traveling to a conference later that week. Tim writes about lifestyle design in his book and outlines ways in which he has changed his life to “live” more and “work” less, eliminating tasks that you could have others do for you while you concentrate on the tasks that you do best and make you the most money. I thought the book was pretty good, although I have been able to enact absolutely 0% of what his recommendations and tactics. It’s hard to hire an assistant overseas when you work for a larger company… I really wanted to see what he was like compared to the image you get from reading the book. I’m happy to say Tim in person was much different than the perception of him in the book. The book is direct and to the point, and at times, you feel a bit preached to and maybe a bit “I’ve made millions so can you”. But still, it was a great book with great ideas I still plan to enact today and I highly recommend it. Tim was thoughtful, intelligent and deliberate and gave the crowd some very good advice that I’d like to share and you were drawn into what he was saying.

My notes are a bit hard to read, but either the first question or one of the first points Tim made was “how much is not being an a$$hole important to your success”. While this got a big laugh from the crowd, Tim used it to establish that there is a difference between being direct and telling people what you like and dislike and being a complete a#$. “You meet the same people coming down as you did going up” so treat them with respect. It will eventually come back around. Nice is often confused with being passive, “nice is not passive” he said. Tim often stresses that the definition of success is changing. His book, and him in person, stress that you need to define your success, what is it, what does it look like? What is important to you and how do you get there? Tim’s parting advice was to “practice, in a small way today, asking for what you want and telling people what you don’t like”. And remember, let’s not be a@#holes. Great advice and funny and now I am going to subscribe to his blog and re-read his book.

Mike Shinoda is one of my personal favorite artists as Linkin Park is one of my favorite bands, and yes I have been known to sing Mike’s part of their songs on a random Karaoke night in North Idaho (actually I have to do both as I can’t ever seem to get anyone to go up there with me, oh well). Anyway, enough about that. Mike was great to listen to. You could tell that he really enjoyed being there, and having a successful blog himself, he was more than happy to share what he found important, not only in the blogosphere but in music and life. You could tell that he was doing what he loved to do and was really enjoying his life, and that was refreshing. It’s always important to get energized a few times a year, and watching these two guys did just that for me. Mike runs his own site and blog at MikeShinoda.com. Mike shared the story first how Linkin Park got their name, and if you are thinking this has nothing to do with internet marketing, you’re wrong. The spelling of their band is such because it was the only good “.com” available for that name. His advice for bands - find a name that has a good .com. Mike is one of those people that creates constantly, whether it is his blog, his art or his music and he shared a bit of all of that for us. He stressed that we need to write, and focus, on what what you are passionate about, and not what you think people want to hear. It will show through in your writing.

I really wanted to get a picture and autograph with Mike, but I hate being “that guy” so I resigned myself to the fact that at least I was able to see and listen to someone I’ve admired for a while as a musician. Now if only I can learn some of their tunes on my acoustic…

There were some other gems that were shared during this free-flowing keynote:

• You need to identify the 20% of your work that takes up most of your time, the 20% of your work that creates the most income and the 20% of your l work that creates the most stress. You want to get rid of that last 20% and trim the first 20% down as much as you can so you can focus more on the percentage of time that makes you the most money. Find other people to do the other work so you can focus on what is most important for you.
• Write as if you were talking to friends after two drinks. Tim shared this and Mike agreed. There is an honesty and bit of informality after two beers.
• Don’t stop doing what you love, even after you have been turned down. Tim was “violently rejected” more times than he can remember when he was pitching his book.
• Your brand exists in the space between you and your fan. Mike made what may have been the most important point of the keynote. Your brand doesn’t exist with you, but in that space between you and the fan. Allow them to interact with it and feel part of it.
• You don’t want to be the best in your category, you want to create a new category that only includes you.
• There are more currencies than money. Think about that for a second.
• You need the right audience, not the largest.
• Just because you can measure it, doesn’t mean it matters.
• If you love making music and don’t need the celebrity, you can make it big as an independent.

This session was one of my favorites by two of my favorite people. They shared so much with us that I am afraid I have failed to adequately share with you all their information. They both were gracious, informative, intelligent, funny and great presenters. I encourage you to read Tim’s book, read Mike’s blog and follow these two, they have some great insight into life and how to run a business.

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