5in5 Episode 4 with Todd Simon, Senior VP of Omaha Steaks
Five questions. Five minutes or less.
5in5 is a video interview series to ask smart people five questions in less than five minutes. It gives me the opportunity to learn about them and get answers to tough questions in a short amount of time.
Why the name 5in5?
Simple. Five questions. Five minutes or less.
What did you ask Todd?
1. Being a family owned company for five generations, how do you keep your culture and values consistent?
2. As Senior Vice President, what do you do to make sure you’re in tune with your market?
3. What is the best piece of business advice you’ve ever been given?
4. How has social media changed your business?
5. What did you want to be when you grew up?
As I discussed in my Blogworld 2010 recap, I had the pleasure of meeting some of the folks making Omaha Steaks run smoothly in Vegas. Todd Simon is Senior VP and a key member of the Simon family that is on their fifth generation of running a highly successful business. We caught up to answer five questions in five minutes. Follow @omahasteaks on Twitter.
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Freezerburns Live + Phonebooth = Crazy amounts of Movember love
We’re raising money to change the face of men’s cancer. Join us at http://live.freezerburns.com and let Greg know what you think @freezerburns.
Should be a rocking time for a great cause. Thanks to Phonebooth for setting up the live calls.
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What I learned at the NC State MBA Blogging Panel
As mentioned previously, I was fortunate enough to moderate a panel with the following folks:
- Ginny Skalski – @ginnyskal
- Damond Nollan – @damondnollan
- Dan London – @danlondon
- Patrick O’Keefe – @ifroggy
As always, I learned a ton. First off, thanks to everyone who was there… especially the panelists and Claudia Kimbrough. It was an awesome topic and a fun and informative night.
Tell stories.
Anyone can repost a popular article and add a bit of commentary… and this isn’t a bad thing. However, to take your blog and readership to the next level, you need to tell stories. Stories help us relate to others and are a better means of communication than regurgitating content.
Be yourself and be consistent.
I have several soapbox posts about being passionate about what you write, but too often we find ourselves straying from who we really are. Don’t do that. If you want a smarter person telling you that, read what Amber Naslund wrote about it and how her presentations were impacted. Consistency is also extremely important, both in your delivery and in your process.
More is better, but less is too.
This seems counter-intuitive, but stay with me. More posts will yield more traffic, so keep grinding and get content out there. However, niche is better. If you’re passionate about something specific… be the expert at that. A good example is my main man Greg Ng. Freezerburns.com is the leading frozen food review site, but if Greg had chosen to do food reviews… it might be a different story and would definitely take more time to become the leading expert in a more generic and competitive space. This is similar to SEO and long-tail keywords.
Brain crack kills.
If you’ve worked with me, you’ve heard me say “analysis by paralysis” and I probably advocated to go ahead and get something out there. Patrick led me to a wonderful video by Ze Frank about how sometimes it is best to put ideas into play rather than trying to make them absolutely perfect.
Check out the slides I put together to guide our discussion below.
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A sweet blogging panel at NC State for the MBA program
I’m excited to be a part of an awesome panel assembling tonight at 6pm to discuss all things blogging. I’ll be moderating some insanely smart people (note: insanely smart != insane).
- Ginny Skalski – @ginnyskal
- Damond Nollan – @damondnollan
- Dan London – @danlondon
- Patrick O’Keefe – @ifroggy
Rumor has it that the event will be live-streamed or recorded (maybe both). I’ll be sure to add those details as I get them and will post a recap and some slides later this week. Watch the live stream at 6pm EST.
Props to NC State for understanding the importance of social media and incorporating that into their MBA program.
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5in5 Episode 3 with Steve Johnson (@sjohnson717)
Five questions. Five minutes or less.
5in5 is a new video interview series to ask smart people five questions in less than five minutes. It gives me the opportunity to learn about them and get answers to tough questions in a short amount of time.
Why the name 5in5?
Simple. Five questions. Five minutes or less.
What did you ask Steve?
1. What can marketers learn from product management?
2. What one word defines product management?
3. How has social media changed the way you do business?
4. What is the most important thing you do to prepare for leading a presentation or training?
5. What did you want to be when you grew up?
Pragmatic Marketing rocks if you don’t know about them. Steve led my training a few years ago and it has been extremely helpful in my career. They know their stuff.
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