In today's Brain Storm! Business Podcast, we will look at lessons learned from the autobiography of Steve Martin.

I have a love for biographies, either business or celebrity. I don't go after current pop-icons, but older entertainers who have been around the block. Their lives offer lessons anyone can learn from, and I realized last night, that they offer great business lessons as well.

Entertainers are Entrepreneurs too.

If you think about it, they are in the business of promoting themselves. That is what an entrepreneur does as well. We promote our product, service and ourself (if we're smart). Well, Steve Martin's autobiography has some great lessons in patience, persistence and innovation - the same things that make a great business person.

These are 5 lessons you can learn, and in the podcast, I go into details of Martin's life and how we can apply these lessons to our own businesses:

1. There are NO overnight successes.
2. Timing is everything.
3. We start by borrowing, but become successful by innovating.
4. Sometimes the best ideas arise out of problems.
5. Sometimes the best ideas need to be dropped.

I'd love to hear feedback from you. I've added the podcast to FriendFeed because it allows commenting, and have posted a place for you to comment on episodes at http://www.BrainStormBusinessPodcast.com. Let's see how it works!

Penny Haynes, Commercial Creation Center

P.S. Please remember to change your subscription to http://feeds.feedburner.com/brainstormbusinesspodcast!

P.S. Remember that we will be changing our feed soon, so please subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/brainstormbusinesspodcast or http://allbusinessmagazine.com/data/users/Online-Community-Magazines/Brain-Storm-Business-Podcast.xml

In today's Brain Storm! Business Podcast, we will review the new Sprint Commercial and what they are doing DIFFERENT from all of the other mobile phone companies, and how we can apply it to our businesses.

Have you seen the black and white, simple commercial from Sprint, telling existing and potential customers that they can come in and have their phone explained to them? Brilliant - they are actually acknowledging that the majority of their cell phone service users have NO CLUE what their phone does, and therefore wouldn't pay to use those services! Nobody wants to buy what he doesn't know exists - so tell them what they are missing in hopes that they will buy it!

The big things I focus on today are the different ways they are marketing. Their choice of going black and white, their simplistic setting and message all reveal their recognition of their most neglected target market - the non-techies. These people are probably like my mom, who only turns on her cell phone when she's out and it's an emergency. That's it. But what if she found out there were cool things to do on her phone? She already spends hours using games on her computer - cause that's the ONLY thing that she can do easily.

What are you doing differently to promote yourself, color and content wise. Are you tailoring your message to your target market, or just trying to look like everyone else? Are you offering the human touch, as Sprint is doing, to make the difference in the sale and in customer satisfaction? Are you reaching out to a new segment of the market who may be a little slower to respond, but whose sheer mass could make the investment of your time very worthwhile?

Just some things to brainstorm about today. If you'd like to brainstorm with me about your own podcasts, the Commercial Creation Center is now offering weekly sessions about what to put in your podcast and how exactly to do it in audio and video. We are also offering monthly how to sessions - all for members only, however. But if you need that accountability and creative brainstorming, as well as simple software to create your audio and video, that's what we're here for!

Penny Haynes, Commercial Creation Center

P.S. remember that the new feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/brainstormbusinesspodcast, if you want to keep following. This RSS feed's days are numbered! :)

Penny Haynes

P.S. Remember, the new Brain Storm Business Podcast feed is
http://feeds.feedburner.com/BrainStormBusinessPodcast

Hello Brain Storm Business Podcast followers - if you are still out there. No, Penny Haynes is not dead - she has just had to switch hats from entrepreneur to geeky programmer for the last several months. Today she has been liberated as the Commercial Creation Center multimedia production software went public. So now I'm back to doing the thing I love to do - like podcasting and learning about business ideas and successes!

Brief review of what has happened over the past 4 months: my programmers abandoned me mid-project, leaving me with promises I had made to others regarding availability. My immediate reaction was to have a panic attack and breathe into a paper bag. My other strategy was not getting out of bed out of sheer terror of what other bad news the day would bring.

But eventually, I had to push myself beyond my fears and pick up the project, re-learn VB6, learn php and mySQL, learn about Active X programs, and learn more about xml. It has been horribly challenging, but in the end, I have to say it was worth it. Now, I have more valuable skills and basically the ability to program whatever the heck I dream of - without hiring someone else. Of course, I do have a "Technical Advisor" whom I refer to as Yoda, without whom I never could have learned as fast, nor could have dealt with the technical support issues. YODA rules!

So today's business podcast is just a quick re-introduction of myself to you, sharing a few lessons learned, and the public intention to return to podcasting now that I have the time to do so. Also, I want you to know that we'll be permanently moving the Brain Storm podcast RSS feed. It will all go through FeedBurner at http://feeds.feedburner.com/brainstormbusinesspodcast. I've had that feed for a while and put the quikonnex feed through it. Now, my new feed is coming off of one of my Online Community Magazines (http://www.AllBusinessMagazine.com) - so I'll assign it to Feedburner.

Well, that's all for today. I'm looking forward to reviewing my stack of business magazines and sharing with you the cool stuff that we can all learn from.

Penny Haynes, Commercial Creation Center & Online Community Magazines

P.S. Combination video made with the CCC: http://tinyurl.com/ccc-creativemom

In today's Brain Storm! Business Podcast, we will discuss an online book by 37Signals called Getting Real and how to apply some of their concepts to our own businesses.

My Argentinian programmer who is working on the Commercial Creation Center suggested that I read this book. I think he was trying to tell me something. I am always tempted to add more things to my software. This book tells me less is more - as long as it meets the customers' needs.

Simplify and Focus is the first order of business.

Don't plan on doing everything - plan on doing one thing very well. "Underdo your competition" is a unique statement, but they make a very good case for it, as we will discuss.

What exactly IS your problem?

Once upon a time, most of us started our business because there was a need - either we had a need, or someone else around us had a need. I don't mean just a need for money. We found something that met a need, became passionate about it, and built a business around it. It might be programming, nutritional supplements, multimedia, online marketing, but whatever it was, it convinced you that it was a viable the answer to some problem.

Are you still focused on solving that problem?

There is a saying among Christians: If you feel far away from God, you're the one that moved. If you feel displaced or far away from where you started in your business, maybe you have moved. Maybe you need to revisit the original problem and restructure your business products and services so they are back in alignment with the problem.

I love this one: Have An Enemy.

37 Signals designed a project management software. The software everyone else connected with PM was MS Project. So they decided that Basecamp, their software, would be the ANTI-Project. It would not be anything like it in its complexity or it methodology. Building upon that nemesis, they created a Writeboard that had 100,000 installations in 3 months. I don't mind those numbers.

So, where can you simplify your products and services so that they can once again solve that initial problem? And what competitor in your industry can you find as an example of what you are NOT trying to do?

My Commercial Creation Center's screen recorder is an ANTI-Camtasia (a tool I dearly love, but is way too complicated for every day people). The same with our audio recorder and mixer. It is an ANTI-SoundForge or Audacity, or even my beloved WavePad. Less options (and things to confuse the user), simpler and easier interface, and an end product that can be used just as well for most of their purposes.

Let me know what you think about today's brainstorming session, and if you realized some areas where you could improve. Until next week...

Penny Haynes, Online Community Magazines with the Commercial Creation Center

In today's Brain Storm! Business Podcast, we will discuss different strategies to determine and implement pricing for your products and services.

I first explain the problems I have been (and am continuing to) endure with my USB microphone. Ear pieces move, and despite packing tape, still cause clicking and clacking. Just shoot me now.

We discuss the different options in pricing and how pricing is a part of your marketing strategy.

Determining your target market and competition (or lack thereof) figure in, as well as segmenting your target markets regarding what they need from you and what they are willing to pay. Thanks to Joel Spolsky and a December 2004 article, we learn a lot about economics and why businesses price the same product different ways. Link to Joel's article is here: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html

We also discuss real life business examples, including lessons learned on my trip to Six Flags (I learned so much, I should have considered that a business trip).

From coupons and rebates to discounts and membership sites, we touch on it all, and if you want to learn more, you'll have to listen to the business podcast! :)

Penny Haynes, Online Community Magazines & 1st Podcast Publishing

Click here to listen to the podcast.

In today's Brain Storm! Business Podcast, we will discuss SalesConX with its CEO, Evan Sohn, and how you can, in a very straight-forward manner, buy and sell introductions to the people you need to contact.

I was introduced to SalesConX by the owner of a business opportunity directory. She had signed up for the affiliate program and we were all offered a $25 credit. I figured "Why not try it." So far, I'm glad I did.

Ever want to find your perfect target market, but have no clue how to do that?

With SalesConX, you write out a detailed description of who you want an introduction to, put a price on that introduction, and also possibly a bonus price if the introduction leads to a closed sale. Or, if you know of someone who needs particular services or products, you can post their need and offer to sell someone an introduction to that person. Of course, you are not to blindside people you know by sending strangers to them - you discuss the connection with your contact and see if they are interested.

You get to be the "Go To" guy for all of your clients.

As we've talked about before, being the person your clients turn to for any of their needs can be a huge differentiating factor between you and your competitors. SalesConX lets you find other people who can help your clients in non-competitive ways.

Hitting Singles, Aim-Fire, and Shouting Out the Window

Evan Sohn discusses the challenges he is facing with SalesConX, and also what he has learned during his 5 start-up career. We talk about endurance, commitment, risk taking, changing your goals and paying the right person for the right warm introduction. I think you'll learn a lot, be encouraged and challenged, and possibly find a great place to find leads for your business as well.

Penny Haynes, Online Community Magazines

In today's Brain Storm! Business Podcast, we will discuss some of the latest happenings for YouTube, Flash and Mogulus, and how you can make the most of this news.

Microsoft is planning to license both pdf and flash for use on mobile platforms. What does this mean for you and me? The ability to see flash based video on our cell phones. What will you do to apply that knowledge to your own business? How about putting flash based audio and video on your website.

YouTube is making it easier to add video to your website. You can now have a YouTube page on your website if you can have programmers use their API to create it. YouTube doesn't need to have people coming to their site - they know they're already #1. Plus, you know that all of those links back don't hurt either.

Mogulus is a new webcam resource for producing multi-camera live shows, and allows you to combine YouTube and your own uploaded videos to the mix. The possibilities are almost endless if you are creative enough. How about cross marketing and creating an entertaining and informative news show about information in your niche or industry?

So check out this short video business podcast today, and give me your feedback on how you will apply this knowledge to your own business plan.

Penny Haynes, Online Community Magazines

Click here to listen to the podcast.

In today's Brain Storm! Business Podcast, we will begin a discussion based on the book Wikinomics, as well as the practical uses of outsourcing as partnering.

***as a side note, sorry about the sound quality of the recording. There is intermittent clicking caused by my breaking in of a new USB microphone. It won't happen again, I promise!

I'm enjoying Wikinomics. It's not like studying brain surgery, but more like delving into a topic in which you have a passing understanding. A thought about cooperative projects passes through my mind and then its gone - I don't try to disect it or apply it. This audio book is letting me go deeper so I can then apply it to my business.

Wikinomics is not necessarily outsourcing, although that can be a part of it.

Wikinomics seems to include opening up your information to others, especially outside of your circle, to bring their outside experiences and knowledge to bear on your project. However, as I discuss today, that can happen when you outsource a project. Your vendor can become your partner if he or she is really smart and has a lot to offer you in your blind spots.

We also discuss outsourcing the time-wasting parts of your work.

Pfizer is allowing their employees to send more menial projects to India, so their employees can spend more time doing the things they specialize in (and for which they are paid good money). They had to do a little hand-holding and training on both sides of the ocean, but it seems to be paying off.

Need a new point of view and real time research? Hire a teenager.

That's what a non-profit organization is doing, and the teens are designing clothes, shoes and jewelry, as well as coming up with marketing models as well. If their product does well, they keep royalties. In the meanwhile, participating companies get insight from some of their target demographics.

I discuss the idea of the Internet Marketers Contest I plan on co-hosting with a Women Internet Marketers site.

I was spurred to do it after listening to Wikinomics. I hope that a marketing contest will not only be lucrative for the marketers who want to prove their skills, but also to the product owner (me), the owner of WomenInternetMarketers.tv (Diane Corriette), and the end users who get to run an Online Community Magazine.

Tell me about your wikinomic experiences, or outsourcing stories.

You can call me at 678-459-2437 to share your information. Until then, have a prosperous week, and keep brainstorming to make your business continually better!

Penny Haynes, 1st Podcast Publishing

In today's Brain Storm Business Podcast (long overdue, I know), I videocast with a webcam and discuss digging deep to invest time and money to better equip and promote your business.

Ever have an idea that seemed great, but didn't succeed as you had imagined? What did you do about it? Abandon it or analyze it? I advocate analyzing it before you abandon it, and see if you can find out what is missing and shore up the gaps.

With the Online Community Magazines, there was a gap between wanting to create audio and video, and the technophobia that kept people from trying to create audio and video.

There are 2 different worlds - the design world and the real world. As a software designer, the software I designed made sense, not only to me, but to potential purchasers. However, as a local magazine owner, I could see up front the challenges end users had when it came to creating audio and video.

How do you make technophobes create audio and video?

I really thought about this. One way to handle that was to find someone to produce short custom videos for them at a ridiculously low price (a teenage 3rd year video student). But not all magazine owners will have access to such talented young men, as I have had the fortune to find.

Automating and universalizing a solution.

How about programming an audio/video production tool that was so simple, even technophobes could do it? What if it could even make them excited to try it? Then, it would be equally available in every community, as opposed to the availability of a talented teen in every community.

Next, what if your target market isn't who you think it is?

I have assumed that a certain demographic, people with disabilities, would be a perfect match for this business, due to no requirement for personal finances. However, I won't know this is correct until I actually advertise it right in front of this market. That will cost money up front, but in the long run, it will save me money I could be wasting on the wrong demographic group.

Keeping a business growing means investing money in your business.

Whether this means spending money on technology, market research or advertising, an entrepreneur has to put their money where their mouth is at some point in time. Entrepreneurs take risks, and sometimes that means with their credit card. It takes money to make money - that's a true statement, but few entrepreneurs are ready to do everything necessary to make their business go all the way.

Listen to find out about the lessons learned in this episode of Brain Storm! Business Podcast.

Penny Haynes, Online Community Magazines

Click here to listen to the podcast.

In today's Brain Storm Business Podcast, I interview PlayCafe CEO Mark Goldenson.
Mark Goldenson, Chief Executive Officer

• Mark Goldenson, CEO, has eight years of experience in launching internet services. Mark was a product manager at PayPal where he managed registration and in-house CRM for 1,300 service agents.
• previously co-founded Woosh, and raised $21 million in funding.
• co-founded the Stanford Bazaar, a local online marketplace acquired by Stanford
• researched brain imaging of lucid dreams for four years
• completed coursework for a B.A. in Human Biology and a minor in Symbolic Systems

Dev Nag, Chief Technical Officer

• Dev Nag, CTO, has ten years of experience in developing internet applications.
• Senior Engineer at Google where he helped develop the back-end for all financial processing of Google ad revenue
• He previously served as the Manager of Business Operations Strategy at PayPal.
• He also launched eBay's private-label credit line in association with GE Financial.
• published six academic papers in medical informatics and mathematical biology
• dual-degree B.S. in Mathematics and B.A. in Psychology from Stanford.

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Issues we will discuss:

• What is PlayCafe?
• How did you come up with the idea?
• Did your background in Human Biology and Dev's major in Psychology effect your idea and programming development? Are you basing PlayCafe on marketing principles, or does your knowledge of how people think and how the brain reacts play a part in how you design your game show?
• What were the steps you had to put into place to make the idea a reality?
• How long has it been on?
• Is this something you will keep on the internet, or with the coming of interactive tv, would you move to mainstream tv for larger participation? Or do you want to remain solely internet based?
• As the fan-base and participants grow, that will mean less "big fish in a small pond" status for present users (which is part of its charm at this point). How will PlayCafe continue to give its participants the ability to still play and compete without being totally lost in the masses? (This reminds me of trying to call in to a radio for a competition, and not ever being able to get through. Will that eventually happen with Play Cafe?)
• Teams and Predicting Polls. Were these after-thoughts added due to participant ideas and requests, or ideas that were originally on the table, but postponed for future deployment?
• Prizes aren't really large at this point. $25, $15 & $10 gift certificates, $1 song downloads, etc. Is the draw of PlayCafe the prizes, or is it the thrill of getting to compete in a live program? And why would anyone just watch the show and not play? (I normally don't like shows like this because I don't feel like I know enough about everything to be good at it, but there were some questions I COULD answer that others struggled with, and that made me feel VERY good about myself. They were questions young people wouldn't have really known, like Bible questions and Spinoff TV shows.)

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I really encourage you guys to join me over at PlayCafe.com. Maybe we could have a Brain Storm! Team!!!! hehehehehe

Penny Haynes, 1st Podcast Publishing and Online Community Magazines

Click here to listen to the podcast.

In today's Brain Storm! Business Podcast, we will discuss the important of providing an experience and not just a product, using Pinkberry and Mint as examples.

PLUM CARD! That's the credit card that was advertising that they provide Pinkberry with the credit they need to keep expanding their pseudo-frozen-yogurt franchise. In the podcast, I couldn't remember the name (I only remembered it was some type of reddish color). Great example of cross-marketing (and piggy-backing on the recent branding success of a new company).

Is Pinkberry the new Starbucks (who supplies some of the VC monies)?

People argue that people don't HAVE to imbibe $5 frozen yogurts, as opposed to their addictions to $5 cups of coffee. Therefore, they worry that Pinkberry will be a temporary success. So what brings people into those LA and New York stores?

Experience the difference - meaning $500 chairs and other expensive fixtures.

Supposedly, people are paying for the experience to sit in $500 chairs and such. They feel that waiting in line for 15 minutes to get one of their 2 flavors of yogurt means they are trendy, like Paris Hilton I gather. They also get that secretive fan club feeling when they can order something that is not on the menu and is known only to the faithful.

Mint is making the dreaded less dreadful.

Another new "shop" is Mint, which promises one click reconciliation of all of your bank and credit card statements. They are trying to lure the twenty-something crowd, laden with debt and bad spending habits, to kneel at the altar of the balanced checkbook. 40,000 people signed up in the first 2 weeks, but will it keep up the success? Twenty-somethings don't have a clue about finances, and they really don't want to GET a clue about it, making this a very hard-to-sell-to crowd.

So come with me for a brainstorming session about how to give your clients an experience, instead of just a product, and how to make things simpler for them as well. And thanks again to Jeff Blankenship and Fam5 Blog for including a link to Online Community Magazines in his Freaky Friday Link Love.

Penny Haynes, Online Community Magazines & Around Cherokee County

Click here to listen to the podcast.

In today's Brain Storm! Business Podcast, we will looks at free tools to create videos and also to create live internet tv shows.

There are times when everything converges in the same place at the same time, and I find myself talking and teaching about these audio and video tools over and over again. So I am taking my own advice and recording the information once so I can then direct people to this recording and they can benefit from it - without me saying it over and over again. :)

Whether you want to create a fancy music video, a simple slide show video, or whether you want to do live internet tv and be able to replay the videos, this podcast is for you.

We discuss several tools, including Animoto, Ustream.tv, VideoCaster and WavePad/Mixpad. For Ustream.tv, all you need is a webcam and a good internet connection. For Animoto and VideoCaster, you need digital images on your computer and music if you want to add your own. (You can also get some free loops from http://www.PartnersInRhyme.com.)

So let's brainstorm about how you can use this information for yourself, your business and your clients (remember, being the go-to person is a good thing).

Penny Haynes, 1st Podcast Publishing & Online Community Magazines