Josh Anstey’s Blog

Yes that is right. There are lessons to be learned from stand up comedians.

Before we learn the lessons, let me explain to you the pre-text of this post.

Last week I went to see a stand up comedy show by the great Australian comic Wil Anderson.

Wil has a new show called beWILdered and it is absolutely hilarious. I recommend you check it out. Anyway, at the show it got me thinking about how there are a few things to learn from stand up comedians that entrepreneurs can put into practice.

Stand up comedians are entrepreneurs themselves. They are a perfect example of someone going at it alone, giving it their best shot, getting up in front of a crowd and saying ‘here is what I have to offer; what do you think about it?’

Sometimes this is successful; they are received well and have an audience filled with laughter for the whole show. Sometimes it is not successful, and there is an awkward silence of unfunny jokes, and an unresponsive quiet audience. Regardless of the results, you can bet your dollar the stand up comedians are standing back up on stage the next night giving it another one of their best shots.

Lesson #1 from stand up comedians: Always give it a go. Don’t be afraid to stand up there, be counted and put your ideas out into the open. And more importantly, if at first you don’t succeed, don’t be disheartened, be persistent, confident and get out there and do it again.

Comedians want you to laugh, have a good time, enjoy the show and then go home and tell all your friends and family to come see the show. Stand up comedians spend a lot of time getting to know their audiences, relating to their audiences, and bringing their audiences on the ‘comedic journey’ with them. They want it to be your experience. Why? Well aside from the fact that it makes you enjoy the show a whole lot more, it also means there is a higher chance of you going home and spreading the word about the show. What is this called? This is the great important marketing skill of Word of Mouth.

Lesson #2 from stand up comedians: Relate to your audience so that they are enjoying your product or service. Word of Mouth is the most powerful marketing tool that you can use. There is a much higher chance of someone using your product or service if a friend or family member has recommended it. Never forget the importance of getting your customers, clients or users to promote your product. Make sure they enjoy their experience with your company. For starting entrepreneurs, this is the most cost effective way to kick-start your business.

I hope you are able to put these lessons learned from stand up comedians into practice.

By the way, I really do recommend seeing Wil Andersons show beWILdered – you are guaranteed to have a great night.

Keep up to date with my blog. Subscribe to the blog.joshanstey.com RSS feed.

I have been in San Francisco, USA now for 3 days, and as an entrepreneur, this city has got my mind working in overtime. Touring San Francisco up and down 24/7 has been incredible, and at the same time, I feel like I am in an entrepeneurs paradise.

In my opinion, this entrepreneurs paradise also known as San Francisco should be tagged: “San Francisco - creating your future”

Why?

• There are must millions of people and this points to one topic - consumerism. I would be interested to know the amount of money spent in one day in a city like this. From the number of people who live here, to the number of tourists, there is just opportunity, opportunity and opportunity.
• As I walk through the city, I am amazed at the massive billboards that are covered in advertisements from massive mulitnational corporation companies that have become household names. The exposure to your target market is incredible.
• The land of opportunity - it has been said that America is the land of opportunity, and I think that saying is correct. Walking around San Francisco gives entrepeneurs so much inspiration and motivation. So if you have an idea, give it a go.

Tomorrow I will hopefully head out to Palo Alto, Mountain View and Silicon Valley. These areas have become famous and epitomise opportunity and success for many internet entrepeneurs and Web 2.0 start-ups. I am very excited to check out these areas.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I will be blogging throughout my travels, and relating experiences to my specialised entrepeneur, marketing, Web 2.0 and networking topics. Travelling should bring some new inspiration, insight and ideas into my blog.

Click here to subscribe to my blog.

Have a great entrepeneurial day and I hope you are as excited about these upcoming blog posts as I am.

Remember the main lesson from this blog post about San Francisco and all the opportunity - “Just give it a go!”

It is no good to talk about ideas that you are never ever going to do. You can have a brilliant business idea, you can have a million marketing ideas, initiatives and goals, but essentially you have nothing if you do not take action.

On ‘The SmallFuel Marketing Blog’ I read a post called, ‘The First Priority of Small Business Marketing.’

It is spot on and straight to the point. There is no point talking about something and not acting on it. Look at all the successful businesses around you, all your mentors and hero’s in anything and everything. Entrepreneurs, movie stars and sportsman.

How did they get to where they are?

They took action. They had an idea, a thought, a dream and a goal, and they took action to achieve it.

As a small business, it is often hard to get the ball rolling. Often challenging to actually kick something off and take the initiate to make it happen. But when you do, you will see the difference and reap the benefit.

For Small Business, the marketing priority needs to be to take action and get it done, give it go.

Give it a try. Think of one thing you have on your ‘wish list’ that you have wanted to do but never get around to it. Take action!

Click here to subscribe to this blog.

Hello fellow entrepreneurs!

Something that all entrepreneurs have to do at some stage or another is make a great entrepreneurial speech. This speech could be to a board of directors, fellow partners, employees, venture capitalists, shareholders and investors, conferences or events, fellow business people, and the list goes on. In simple, you going to need to make a speech sooner or later, and you might as well be prepared for it and make it one to remember. Here are a few pointers.

Prepare – make sure you have prepared for the speech. No one likes to listen to a speech that is disorganised, off the topic and just simply unprepared. Set time aside a few weeks before the day of your speech to plan it and prepare the speech.

Practice – once you have written your speech, practice it. Practice, practice and … practice! While you can’t always know other variable on the day, you can at least practice the part that you are going to deliver. Practicing in front of the mirror is one of the oldest tricks in the book, and still works, so give it a go.

Research – do some background reading on your topic as well as relevant and recent news articles on the topic, to make sure you can answer any question thrown at you. You need to be knowledgeable in your area. It also helps to do some research and reading about your audience or the conference or event that you are speaking at.

Be enthusiastic – when presenting, be lively and enthusiastic. Show your audience your passion for the subject. This will give them a better impression, and they are more inclined to listen and remember you.

Make a dramatic opening – start with a bang. Grab the audience’s attention and let them know that you are in the building! This will also intrigue the audience and make them want to know more about what you are talking about.

Humour – try and add in a bit of humour. It doesn’t have to be a joke, but a light hearted humorous line creates a connection with the audiences and helps them relax and warm to you.

Make use of pauses – pick your pauses carefully and strategically. A one or two second pause can have a great effect, but you don’t want to overuse them. Think about where they will have greater impact in your speech.

Eye connection – make eye connection with your audience. Don’t talk at them, talk with them. Your preparation should mean that you don’t have to follow every single word with your eyes. A tip for doing this is to just write a few ‘reminder’ words on palm cards rather than sentences. That way, you can have a quick look down, see a word that reminds you of where you are going next, and continue that great connection with you audience.

Timing – don’t speak for too long. Have a watch and a clock and keep to your allocated time. No one likes a speech that goes on for too long.

K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid) – don’t try to impress anyone with using extremely long words that no one will understand and will just make them think that you spent too much time reading the thesaurus. Know your audience, and use language that is appropriate to them and that they will understand.

Watch your body language – be conscious of your body language throughout the speech. Are you sitting or are you standing? Are you learning forward no the edge of your seat or reclining back into your seat? Are you pacing up and down or not moving from the one spot? There is no right or wrong with body language, but it helps to be conscious of what your body language is saying, and take a bit from each technique. There are however a few don’ts, including don’t drop your head when reading the speech, don’t play or flick a pen, and don’t turn your back to the audience. Other than that, everyone is different and has a different comfort level in terms of their body language.

Smile – after all, you are human. Smiling makes the audience feel welcome, warm and relaxed. Be their friend.

You are an entrepreneur. Part of making a good entrepreneur speech is taking that bit of a risk. I hope these tips assist you and get you on your way. If you have any others to add, it would be great to hear what you think.

Have a great day, and good luck in making your speech.

Have you subscribed to my blog? Don’t miss out! Click here to subscribe.

Yes you heard me. Business is booming in the Web 2.0 world. What does this mean? Don’t miss the train, get on board. There is so much opportunity out there waiting to be utilised. Go out and get it!

Have you got an idea? Do you want to invent something? Is there anything that you think could be reinvented? Would you like to offer the world a new product or service?

Now is the time. Don’t sit back and relax. Take action!

The web offers you an infinite amount of ways to succeed, achieve something, and take your entrepreneurial sprit to the next level. Remember, you can only learn from the experience. So rather than not knowing, give it a go and take that chance because you never know where it will lead you.

If you would like to read an article about it, click here to read the iTnews article, ‘Business is booming thanks to Web 2.0’

It is sure to inspire you and give you that motivation.

If you would like to discuss business ideas with me, are looking for a business partner, need someone to bounce your thoughts and plans off, or would like some consulting and entrepreneurial advice, contact me! It would be great to help you.

Related articles:

What is Web 2.0
Web 2.0 Galore
Diary of a start-up #1
Diary of a start-up #2 – take advantage of your age
The art of the elevator pitch
Internet breaks barriers making US less relevant
Are entrepreneurs scared of failure?

The iPhone has been named the invention of the year by Time magazine.

It has sold 1.4 million units since its release on June 29, and is looking to continue its strong growth and success.

There has been a huge amount of hype about the iPhone both before and after its release. It really shows how incredible and quickly technology is developing and gives us a taste of the future. And what a great future it looks to be. The Time Magazine article about the iPhone really presents a strong positive case about this amazing product that has won invention of the year.

It seems that Apple just can’t go wrong. I wonder what they are going to bring out next.

If you want to read more, see Time Magazine’s ‘Inventions of the Year’ article.

Got an iPhone? Tell us what you think about it.

Related articles of interest:
Mobile Phone Opportunity
There are two kinds of companies: brave and dead
Tools for Marketers 2.0
Web 2.0 Galore
Advertising Collection
Online advertising made simple

Keep informed and up to date. Subscribe to Josh Anstey’s blog.

Marc Andreessen, the entrepreneur and founder of Opsware and Netscape has said that businesses are not early adopters anymore and their IT departments are ‘stuck in the mud’. It seems that these days, whilst there is such an entrepreneurial boom, especially with Web 2.0, businesses are not welcoming these ideas and start-ups and entrepreneurs are experiencing barriers and closed doors.

I was reading this in an article ‘Evaluating tech startups: The risks and rewards’ from iTnews and it had some interesting information.

InformationWeek did research of 150 senior business technology executives and got some interesting results. 74% described their IT cultures as moderate and conservative only 26% called themselves aggressive. These stats are interesting but also worry to entrepreneurs and start-ups out there.

To those companies that fall into the 74% - step outside your comfort zone. You don’t necessarily have to be aggressive, but rather entrepreneurial, take a chance, give it a go, and help nurture and motivate the young entrepreneurial talent that is a click away.

As entrepreneurs, what can we do?
Look at this as a challenge! Don’t be afraid of it, but rather welcome these statistics and use them as motivation. Be prepared, and know that with determination and persistence you can succeed!

Some related articles:
There are two kinds of companies: brave and dead
Mobile Phone Opportunity
Business Cards for Beginners
Springwise – your daily entrepreneurial ideas

Remember to subscribe to my blog

I am pleased to announce that I was mentioned in a blog carnival on the ‘Business Opportunities and Ideas Blog’. Whilst John, the writer of the blog disagreed with my post mentioned, it did provide some good discussion and through generation.

In any case, you can check out my appearance on the ‘Carnival of Small Business Issues #26’.

There are some interesting posts in this carnival.

Thanks John for adding me to the carnival!

What a great exciting month October has been for blog.joshanstey.com!!! We kicked off the month with ‘Networking with Business Cards’ which is really useful in getting a better idea of how to use your business card to your benefit.

‘UPOD – Pronounced “You Pod” – Under Promise, Over Deliver’ gave entrepreneurs some business insight and ideas for future projects and developments. This is quite an interesting theory.

We are in the middle of what has been coined ‘Web 2.0’ and what better way to explore this than to post ‘Web 2.0 Galore’. A few great Web 2.0 sites and web 2.0 logos are on show here.

The benefits of mobile phones were seen in the article ‘Mobile Phone Opportunity’. This is definitely some food for thought for all you entrepreneurs out there.

‘Advertising Collection’ was a list of advertising websites that are a great resource for advertisers. You can never have too many resources, so this list is guaranteed to give you some very useful information.

Who would have thought there were rugby entrepreneurs? The 2007 Rugby World Cup provided some interesting ideas and insights into the mind of the entrepreneur. I explain this with my post, ‘The Rugby Entrepreneur’.

A quick view of how those that inspire us are living in ‘How to live like a billionaire’. There are some images of where the wealth these guys have created has taken them.

I found an interesting site that made online advertising really simple. Check out my article ‘Online advertising made simple’ to find out more.

My ‘Diary of a Start-up’ series started. This was very exciting, and gave a few tips and tricks from some of my experiences. Keep your eye out for more of these by subscribing to my blog.

‘Second Life Virtual Career Fair’was really interesting and amazing to see where the web has taken us.

No entrepreneur can go without it. It is so important to the success of a business. ‘The art of an elevator pitch’ explains all you need to know and how to master it!

If it’s Web 2.0 why can’t we have Marketing 2.0? ‘Tools for Marketers 2.0’ gives some tips and sites for being a 2.0 marketer.

My post ‘Internet breaks barriers, making US less relevant’ is topical, in the news, and gives every entrepreneur opportunity!

I was lucky enough to attend an ‘ACS Young IT Talk’ and this provided some interesting ideas and posts including ‘A straight line career path doesn’t exist’ and ‘Short term pay, long term gain’. These are really interesting and there is a lot to learn from them.

‘Are entrepreneurs scared of failure?’ was an interesting post that was thought provoking and is a must read.

Finally, we rounded the month up with ‘Marketing and Networking YOU!’ As an entrepreneur, you have to read this article so that you can make the most out of marketing and networking yourself to benefit your business.

What an exciting and developing month October has been. November is shaping up to be even better, with lots more information, tips and tricks for all you entrepreneurs out there. If there is an area or topic of interest that you would like me to blog about, send me a message here.

Remember to subscribe to my blog RSS feed to keep up to date with all the latest updates on blog.joshanstey.com

Welcome to part two of my thoughts from the ACS talk I attended earlier this week by Stephen Kowal.

As the title says, ‘Short term pay, long term gain’. What does this mean? Sometimes in order to achieve your goal and reach a point that you are focused on you need to make some sacrifices (more like ‘changes’) now. Sacrifices is a bad word to describe this as I would rather look at it as making ‘strategic changes’ now, in the short term. This may be a decrease in salary, a demotion, or working in an area that you may not have a real interest in, but these ‘strategic changes’ will help lead you in the right direction. These strategic changes may help you get that promotion, start a business you have been meaning to get up and running, or take yourself to a level you only dreamed of.

As entrepreneurs, we should understand this notion of ‘short term pay, long term gain’ better than anyone else. We are the ones that are able to take the risk, make that strategic change (or sacrifice for those that prefer the word), and know that in the long run, down the track, what we are doing now is for the greater good.

Passion
Take the risk, give it a goal, and be passionate about your goal. Don’t let ego or anything else get in the way. Remember to plan for the short term and the long term so that your goals and dreams are realities.

Another important thing Stephen mentioned was that over specialisation can be a killer depending on your goal. I found this interesting and I think that as entrepreneurs, whilst we want to be involved in every aspect of the business, there comes a time when we need to give ourselves a reality check and make sure we are not ‘over specialising’ in any area.

‘Your goal can and probably will change many times’
This is something to embrace, welcome and make the most of as entrepreneurs. Don’t fight it off but rather make the most of the exciting entrepreneurial journey.

Balance
In business, balance is important. So remember to have professional goals, personal goals and social goals. This will ensure that you are a better you, that you have balance, and that you continue to enjoy what you do. Working towards these goals will benefit you in all areas of your life. As entrepreneurs, often we tend to focus too much on our business, our idea and what we are trying to create and we forget there is life outside of the business. Always remember that you have 3 areas of goals; professional, personal and social.

It was mentioned that there are three important factors to success. These are:

• Personality
• Passion
• Drive

Remember that, and use it to your advantage.

Finally, here is a quote from the talk, and is something that will motivate every entrepreneur. Keep this in mind and your goals are only a short distance away.

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal”

Remember to subscribe to my blog so that you don’t miss future posts.

Click here to read my previous blog posts about the talk, ‘A straight line career path doesn’t exist’ and ‘ACS Young IT Talk’.

Motivated? Check out my post on, ‘There are two kinds of companies: brave and dead’. It is a must read!!!