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business

Ted Murphy
In inspiration

You Only Live Once

Right now I am sitting in my hotel room at the Hard Rock Las Vegas. I can hear people screaming, bass pounding, and people enjoying Rehab at the pool below. If this was any other day I would be down there myself, but today I am sitting in my room quietly preparing for the craziest run of my life. I have had my pre-run pizza (a ritual), slogged down as much water as I can and tested all my equipment.

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At 8:45pm I will board one of eleven buses headed to the middle of nowhere, about 2 1/2 hours outside of Vegas. I will wrap myself in reflective tape, turn on my flashlight and wait for the gun to fire at midnight. I will be running 51 kilometers in the ET Marathon tonight, that is  just over 31 miles (a marathon is 26.2 miles). A marathon is hard enough… but this in the desert… at night… and the aid stations are at least 3 miles apart. It is going to push the limits of my mind and body like never before.

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People often ask me “why do you do crazy stuff like this!?!?” The answer is because I can.

I know I won’t always be able to do the things I can right now. Whether my body grows older, the desert night grows brighter or my life takes me in another direction there is no time like the present. I don’t ever want to look back on my life from a hospital bed and say “I wish I would little-aleinnhave”. Our bodies are changing, our lives are changing and the world is changing around us. Some opportunities truly are once in a lifetime.

So tonight I head off on a new adventure. When I get back home I will mark it off and set my sights on the next one. No matter how big or small your adventures are I hope you are doing the same.

Ted Murphy
In events

My SXSW Panel Picks

pp_voting_openIt’s that time of the year again. SXSW has released their panel picker and the selection is bigger than ever. Over 2000 people have sessions up for voting and it can be a bit overwhelming. Here is my short list. Most of these people are friends and I have seen them speak before. If I missed you be sure to let me know.

@jeremeyhilton @markkrupinkski  Metrics for Social Media: The Net Promoter Score
@lizstrauss @starbucker @caroljsroth Build, Buy, Partner: Time is Money

@ScottMonty @Schwen @ShannonPaul Socially Regulated: Social Media in Regulated Industries
@LucretiaPruitt Killing Clark Kent; When You Outgrow Your AlterEgo
@technosailor Shattering Secrets with Social Media
@db Game On: Can Game Theory transform your app?
@prsarahevans PR Best Practices for Social Media

Want to see me speak at SXSW? You can vote for my session here. I have not yet determined if I will be wearing pants for the session.

Voting ends at 11:59 CDT on Friday, August 27.

Ted Murphy
In sales & marketing

The $98 Social Media Campaign

One of the biggest challenges that companies face in social media is getting participation from fans and creation of quality user generated content. I believe that WeReward provides a scalable, low cost solution to this problem. To prove my theory I put together a little experiment for Nike, one of my favorite brands. This experiment was done on my own dime and is not an official Nike promotion.

The idea was simple. I wanted to create a complete social media awareness and user generated content program for less than $100. As a marketer the results blew me away. I have worked on many campaigns designed to generate photo submissions and fan participation. Most of those cost the client tens of thousands of dollars or more. Ideation alone can cost a few grand and take weeks. This campaign took less than 30 minutes to setup and manage the entire approval process.

So… if I was a brand what would I do with all this data and content?

  • I would post the best photos to my Facebook fan page or website to keep my content fresh.
  • I would reach out to the people that participated to thank them through Twitter or FB.
  • I would create new promotions to keep these people constantly engaged with my brand.
Ted Murphy
In business

Get Your Ass on The Dance Floor

When I started MindComet ten years ago one of my dreams was to have a big fancy office. I worked for many years toward that goal, treating myself to a bigger and bigger office as the company grew. Four years later the company became big enough to build its own building. I designed the space and hooked myself up with a mac daddy office, complete with interactive white board, wet bar and personal fridge.

It took several years to complete construction of the MindComet building. By the time it was done something crazy had happened… I no longer worked there. In the middle of all the construction madness IZEA was born. Turns out that I never worked a day in that fancy office I built.

Ground Breaking For MindComet

MindComet Building

Ditch Your Personal Office

I was now at a new company, in a new location, working with a bunch of people that I just hired. I made the decision that I wouldn’t put myself in an office at first. I thought it would be better to be “out on the dance floor” with my new team members so I could get to know them. Four years later I can honestly say that it was one of the best things I have ever done as a CEO.

ted_murphy_izeafest_howlMy experience has made me a huge believer in open work environments. At IZEA nobody has an office. It took some time for the management team to buy in to but once we all adjusted the benefits became clear. Personal offices constrict communication, draw a physical line between management and other team members and generally serve no purpose outside of feeding management ego. Our open structure makes our management team available to all team members. It allows us to monitor the pulse of the company and more openly collaborate with others.

I’m not watching the dance floor from my cushy seat at the bar, I am out there dancing my ass off with the team. (As you can see from the picture I try to apply the same principle to our customers).

I know what you are going to say. “I need privacy… I work on sensitive materials”. Yes, most management does. I am not suggesting you make your desk visible to every passer by. You can be on the floor and place your desk strategically, you can also invest in some locking file cabinets.  Take your old offices and transform them into shared privacy rooms for important phone calls or projects. I know it sound a little scary, but you can do it. I promise you will thank me later.

Ted Murphy
In gear

The ICON A5

Oh man. I am not sure if I am going through some sort of mid life crisis or what but everywhere I look I see new toys that I want to buy. The latest is the ICON A5. I saw it for the first time at JetBlue terminal 5 and instantly fell in love. A 2 passenger plane designed for water that is small enough to be pulled behind my truck? Hell yeah!

ICON a5

Icon in water
Icon at Boat Ramp

New FAA sport flying requirements mean you only need 20 hours of in flight training to fly an A5. At $139,000 it’s expensive but not absolutely ridiculous. For just $5,000 you can reserve one for delivery in 2013. Of course by then you might be able to buy all of Greece for just a few dollars more.

Ted Murphy
In gear

The Quadski

quadskiQ: What do you get when you combine an ATV with a Jet Ski? A: The most bad ass thing I have ever seen. Check out the Quad Ski by Gibbs Technologies. This puppy is capable of traveling at 50mph on land and water and makes the transition at the flick of a switch. They aren’t available for purchase yet but I have added this to my wish list (along with a jet pack).

quadski

quadski_2

Ted Murphy
In business

Startups : Beer Can Show You The Way

I am throwing a party at my house at the end of the month (woot woot). May is going to bring some bring news for IZEA and it is time to celebrate! I started putting together my pre-party check list and came to the topic of beer. At my last few parties the beer has gotten kind of warm, the keg lines were long and there was too much foam. I went online and did a search for “keg coolers” to keep the beer cold for my guests. I clicked on the first link and landed on a site called Keg Works.

jockey_box
WHAHAHAH?!?! This is an entire site dedicated to serving beer at home and parties. It’s not your ordinary e-commerce site, it is filled with tutorial videos, tips, detailed product descriptions and comparisons. These guys know how to serve beer. I spent a good 30 minutes engrossed in the site before I made the leap and bought a jockey box kit. I had no intention of making that big of a purchase when I started searching, but the content on the site compelled me to do so.

Problem : Warm beer, long lines and too much head.
Solution : Jockey Box
My guests : Happy

Own Your Niche

How did they sell me? Every product listed on the site is beer related, which is one of the reasons that they ranked #1 when I did a search. When I landed on the site they had what I thought I needed (a keg cooler), but other (more expensive) items that offered a better solution. I was able to do research, find easy instructions and feel comfortable purchasing a product that I hadn’t planned on buying.

Massive e-commerce stores like Amazon are great if you know what you want to buy, but they tend to fall short when you are looking for a more specialized product. If you are a web entrepreneur that represents a huge opportunity. Chances are you won’t be able to compete with Amazon on selection, but you can compete with them by focusing on a niche and serving that niche better than they can.

Ted Murphy
In gear

Time is Money

Anyone who has worked with me knows that I am not a huge fan of meetings. I like my meetings short, sweet, small and productive. I think my distaste for meetings came out of my experience running agencies. In the agency business time is literally money. Every minute you spend is either billable (costs the client) or non-billable (costs the agency) and both scenarios can be very expensive. When you have ten people in an meeting for one hour billing an average of $175 per hour your meeting just cost $1,750. You better make damn sure you all needed to be there and actually accomplished something.

Time is Money

Enter Bring TIM!

I stumbled on this product this weekend and immediately placed an order. Bring TIM is a meeting cost calculator. You bring it to a meeting (I am going to leave it in the conference room), dial in the average hourly rate and number of people and hit start. You can see the cost of the meeting in real time so everyone is aware of just how expensive the time is. In my opinion this is a must have for any business, especially those that bill clients based on time (I want to get my lawyer one).

I have no doubt that this will freak out some of my team members but I can’t wait to put it into action. You can order your own here for $24.99.

Ted Murphy
In inspiration

I’m Happy You Are Nervous

The other day I was sitting in a meeting with my lead developers at IZEA. I asked each of them a question I often ask, “how are you feeling?” I went around the table and most of them said “good” – with one exception. That individual responded with “I’m nervous” to which I responded, “good, you should be”. That is no doubt a strange response from the leader of a company, but it is not the first time I have given it.

The truth is I want my team members to be a little nervous. Not nervous for the sake of being nervous, but nervous because they care about what they are working on. This particular developer is leading a team that is rolling out IZEA’s next big service. We are less than a month away from the launch date and there are plenty of little issues (and some big ones) that have to be addressed. There is a ton of excitement… but there are also a lot of unknowns. All of us want this to be a huge success and we have invested time and money into making it work. Should this person be nervous? HELL YEAH! I am.

muhammad_ali_versus_sonny_liston1

I’m nervous like a heavy weight boxer stepping in to the ring.

I look at every new initiative as a new fight for the belt. I have won some and I have lost some, but every time I step in to the ring I am full of an unexplainable energy that keeps me from being complacent or over confident in my abilities. I can’t sleep. I can’t stop thinking over the win/loss scenarios. I think about every detail. My legs bounce… my eyes twitch. I am consumed by the task at hand. My heart and mind are committed to success.

So…. when a fellow leader in my organization tells me they are nervous about a launch I am happy. I want them to be nervous. I want them to be attached. I want them to be thinking about where things can wrong. I want them to feel like they are in my corner of the ring. I want them to be ready to come out strong and go the distance.

You are nervous because you care. You are nervous because you want to win. I love that. Let’s kick some ass.

Ted Murphy
In gear

TuneUp Organizes iTunes

If you are like me you have a huge collection of iTunes music that is mislabeled and/or doesn’t have cover art. Enter TuneUp for iTunes. TuneUp is a simple app that acts as an extension to iTunes. It allows you to scrub through your music library and “automagically” clean everything up. One second your track reads “track 4”, the next second it has full song, artist, album, year, cover art and other meta data.

I bought the $29.95 gold package and have been using it for a couple of months. I find it incredibly accurate and useful. The only thing I don’t like about it is you can only clean 500 songs at a time. I give it 4/5 Tongues.