Business Lessons from sucessful entrepreneurs and business leaders: LunchLearning.com

Reading time: 3 - 4 minutes

Video Time: 24 minutes 55 seconds

Hello, my name is Alan Chang and if you’ve followed us before, you’ll know that we here at LunchLearning explore a different theme every week and if you haven’t—we do. This week, we’ll be looking at paradigm shifts that have transformed entire industries as well as newborn technologies and platforms that have the potential to bring about change yet haven’t quite matured and reached their full potential yet.

Nikesh Arora (@nikesharora on Twitter), one of the presidents of Google and responsible for strengthening their core business, discusses the gap in technology usage between generations. In addition to giving Google the focus they had lost when they grew, he was a critical piece of the puzzle for a number of other businesses, such as T-Mobile, whose industries had changed dramatically through the years.

Changes in the market are obvious in hindsight, but the secret to their importance, and success in their utilization, is to understand what is a revolutionary product and what isn’t. Mobile phones were once considered an elite product, with only the richest and most important people owning them. Similarly, until recently, as Brandon Shook explored last week, games were considered best for targeting children. Things have changed.

Social networks are rapidly increasing in prominence, visibility as well as importance. However, knowing that something is going to become the standard is not enough. Being able to determine exactly who the winner will be even a few years in advance can make a tremendous difference. Just as the landscape of the internet was different ten years ago, it will be something entirely different in ten more years. Taking steps to capitalize on these changes will strengthen your position.

Within this video, Nikesh Arora briefly considers a variety of areas ranging from viral marketing and interacting with customers to company reach and market research. All of these things, and more, have changed throughout the years and will continue to. Equally important, each of these can be directly attributed to the success of failure of a company. Somebody has to succeed, so why not you?

Think of the past, envision the future!

Reading time: 4 - 7 minutes

Total Video Time: 33 minutes 38 seconds

Today I want to talk about Rock Band Network (RBN) and how bands can use this amazing new tool to market themselves. However, before you can understand RBN you need to know about Rock Band the game. Whether you’ve heard about them or not music games like Rock Band have become a huge phenomena in the gaming industry. Rock Band allows you live out your childhood fantasy of becoming a rock star without those pesky addictions that have ruined the lives of so many of rock’s icons.

Here’s how the game works, you are given a set of peripherals in the shape of guitars, drums and microphones. Each peripheral, except for the mic, has colored buttons. You can grab up to three friends and pick a song from Rock Band’s music library and start playing. As you play the game you will notice colored bars scrolling down the screen at the same speed as the beat. Your job is to press the corresponding colored buttons on your peripheral at the same time the colored bars pop up on the screen and voilà, you have just learned the basics of Rock Band.

Rock Band comes complete with a large selection of songs already on the game, but you have the option of downloading more songs to expand your music library. You can choose to play songs from legendary bands like The Beatles, Metallica, and Iron Maiden or choose from more current bands like Fall Out Boy, Weezer, and Bon Savants…wait, who was that last one? This is where RBN steps in and lets indie bands like Bon Savants convert their music into tracks that can played on Rock Band. This is a huge, like I said in my previous post the video game audience is large and expanding. This is a great opportunity for indie bands to present their music to people who otherwise would not know they existed.

Bon Savants is one of the first bands to take the jump into this new form of music distribution, but I hardly doubt they will be the last. In their video blog they explain how RBN works as well as the difficulties they faced while converting their tracks into sound files for the game. Unfortunately, Bon Savants has not finished making their Rock Band tracks so their video blog is incomplete. To finish the lesson, I supplemented Caleb Epps’ presentation and tutorial about RBN. Most of Caleb’s first video reiterates what Bon Savants talked about except Caleb presents RBN from the developers perspective. If you’re impatient like I am you can skip to 3:37 of Caleb’s first video and pick up where Bon Savants left off. Caleb rounds out the tutorial by explaining how to polish the finished tracks and market the the music on RBN.

If you’re like me and are interested in learning more about Bon Savants check out their website here at http://bonsavants.com.

Hope you enjoy the learning and Game On!

Reading time: 4 - 6 minutes

Video Time: 45 minutes 27 seconds

NOTE: To watch the full program, you’ve got to unfortunately click on “View Full Program” to the right of the volume control in the video. It seems like they’ve got their codes mixed up a bit.

It’s my turn to take control of the entrepreneurship stories for a week and I’m going to talk about what’s near and dear to my heart and that is video games. Now you might be thinking, “Video games? Those things are for kids.” Yes, some video games are geared towards kids, but researchers at Pew Internet & American Life Project report in their study, Adults and Video Games that a whopping 53% of adults and 97% of teens play video games. Combine that data with the increasing popularity of video games in today’s pop culture and it’s easy to see that video games, if done correctly, can be an effective tool for entrepreneurs. In my series entitled, Gaming to Success, I will highlight how video games can inspire individuals to reach their life’s goal.

We kick things off with a look at video game journalists and the struggles they face when reporting the news. The journalists on this panel consist of N’Gai Croal (@ncroal on Twitter), General Editor of Newsweek; Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley on Twitter), executive producer of GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley; Seth Schiesel, reporter for the New York Times; Mike Snider (@MikeSnider on Twitter) reporter for USA Today; and Ted Price, President and CEO of Insomniac Games, as moderator. Now the reason I listed off their names with their positions was to make a point. These guys aren’t sweaty pimply nerds living in the basement of their parent’s homes wasting their lives away. No, these are prominent figures in their respective fields of gaming and journalism.

One of the main topics that bounced around during their session was the stereotyping of people who play video games. Seth made a great point when he said people who play video games are labeled as gamers, but people who watch TV are just regular people, they’re not called TV watchers. The idea that people who play games are somehow different or need to be set apart from mainstream culture is what perpetuates the negative connotation of gaming. Up until I watched this video, I called myself a gamer and now I feel kind of stupid knowing that every time I used that term I helped perpetuate aspects of the stereotype.

The panel agreed that an increasing number of people want more information about video games. Their readers want to know what to expect when they buy a game or want to know how the gaming industry affects today’s culture. I could talk on and on about the subject, but I’m going let the video talk for itself. Here are some key points that I found most interesting or relevant to entrepreneurs:

1. Defining the role of a video game journalist, do they just review games or can they do more?
2. The stigma surrounding gaming and redefining the term gaming.
3. The interaction between gaming culture with mainstream culture.
4. How the Internet is changing the face of journalism.
5. Job stability in a constantly changing job field.
6. Video games as its own separate media
7. The surprising popularity of video games.
8. Lessons in marketing, market penetration and word-of-mouth-marketing

Hope you enjoy this weeks series. Happy learning and Game On!

Reading time: 3 - 4 minutes

Video Time: 58 minutes 21 seconds

What I really enjoy about politics, when it works, is that it’s a lot like a small business in that it’s essentially about people seeking solutions for a variety of issues at hand every single day. At least that’s the case when our political leaders are actually “working” and not politicking, which, of course lends itself to a whole different group of challenging skill sets including public speaking and persuasion. . .again, skills critical skills for any business leader.

So, in the spirit of learning, and with politics aside, let’s take a quick look at former Prime Minister of Britain, Tony Blair. As with every feature on LunchLearning.com, Mr. Blair’s, we find offers up many opportunities for continued learning. His communication and presentation skills are, without question, top-notch, and his ability to move a mass of people (both in favor and in opposition) behind a goal is almost legendary. And yet even in light of these talents he has also suffered great setbacks, and what some would consider a lengthy fall from grace. Whether you agree or disagree with his policies, his effect on government or the current status of the general populace’s admiration for him, there is no doubt Tony Blair has achieved a level of success worth looking into.

In this discussion with representatives from Yale University, Mr. Blair addresses questions on his policies, his path to office, and the challenges of the world today. There are TONS of lessons for business in this talk. Listen and enjoy.

Things to look out for in this talk with Tony Blair:

1. How to position your argument in a way that makes sense even to someone who might disagree with you.
2. Notice his awareness of both his panelist colleagues as well as his seating audience.
3. Notice how he pauses before addressing serious questions. . .planned or not. . .this is a very powerful way to demonstrate reflection when answering a question. This is one of Blair’s strengths as as speaker and it’s possessed also by other great speakers like Reagan, Churchill, Obama and yes, Clinton.
4. Every business owner and leader has to make tough strategic decisions. Mr. Blair’s response to the difficulty posed in not being able to please everyone is worth watching beginning at: 22:10 through 28:37.
5. Keep in mind the tendency these days of political leaders to leverage their exposure for passions of which they can pursue free of *some* political encumbrances. Rather than sitting on our laurels when we’re done with business. . .ask “what’s next?” And keep going!
6. And, of course, his sheer diplomacy in addressing the last question of the conversation: Who’s better? The Rolling Stones or The Beatles. Brilliant.

Reading time: 2 - 2 minutes

Video Time: 22 minutes

I just stumbled upon this neat little show with Richard Kirshenbaum on PlumTV. . .it’s a neat idea (interviewing someone while actually eating lunch!). . .kinda’ like a foodie favorite of mine. . .Chicago’s very own: Check, Please!

In sticking with our shorter Friday version of LunchLearning.com, this one is under 25 minutes, and, heck you can learn a little bit about Donny Deutsch (@Donny_Deutsch on Twitter) and Richard Kirshenbaum (@rkirshenbaum on Twitter) while you eat your own lunch!

Donny shares insight into his own business ideals and goals, political advertising and what motivates him and inspires him in this candid lunch, this isn’t a note-taking talk, but one that I’m sure you’ll enjoy. Have a great weekend!

Reading time: 1 - 2 minutes

Video Time: 15 minutes 27 seconds

A quick one today as my own lunch has been shortened due to some downtown Chicago client visits for Roscommon. And so, I leave you in the incredibly capable hands of Gary Vaynerchuk giving what is without doubt a “Vayniak” favorite, but also one that can speak to any professional business person or entrepreneur. In Gary’s Web 2.0 talk he talks about the importance of Personal Branding, and we can all learn a lesson about that!

Let ‘er roll, Gary!

Reading time: 4 - 7 minutes

Video Time: varies

Keeping with Friday’s theme of a few different shorter videos as opposed to a single long video, I thought I would do the same today with a few vids from Tim Ferriss. Those of you who know me, also know that I’m fond of personal and business productivity. Some of the reason for this, I believe stems from certain work experiences I had in college (working at M&M Mars on various assembly lines, a series of kitchen jobs, and on a framing crew building condos in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty), for example.

As a result when I first read about Tim Ferriss in Transitions Abroad magazine back in 2007, and then listened to a webcast of him about a week or so later, I knew I needed to learn more about his work/play philosophies. Reason being, not only did he seem to focus on productivity, but he also covered how paying attention to productivity allowed him to not only perform well from a business standpoint, but also enjoy life at the same time. And that theme is exactly what I have built my own life and company around — even prior to reading about Tim.

Anyway, for those who don’t know about Tim and the Four Hour Work Week (4HWW) as of yet, these videos will serve as a nice introduction to his story and ideas. For those already in the know, with the exception of the first video, which sums up the philosophy behind the 4HWW, and the outtake from his interview with Loic Le Meur of Seesmic, each of the videos that follow are ones I haven’t seen myself as of yet, so there are some interesting gems in here.

Tim also continues to write on his blog, The Four Hour Blog if you’re further intrigued!

Reading time: 2 - 4 minutes

Video Time: 29 minutes 19 seconds

I love Sergio Zyman’s ideas on marketing. And for him, his “Selling more stuff to more people more often for more money more efficiently™” mantra defines marketing success. If Sergio is new to you, he’s the man behind many of Coca Cola’s successes during his tenure there — as well as being at the marketing helm during one of the firm’s largest perceived “failures”: New Coke.

He later founded (then sold a majority stake in) one of the most well-respected and innovative marketing strategy firms around: The Zyman Group. He is also the author of four best selling books: “The End of Marketing as We Know It”, “Renovate Before You Innovate: Why Doing The New Thing Might Not Be The Right Thing”, “The End Of Advertising As We Know It”, “Building Brandwith: Closing The Sale Online” and currently working on his fifth.

From Zyman’s Premier Speakers bio:

Sergio Zyman has been hailed as one of the most dynamic and charismatic speakers in the world. He energizes audiences with his entertaining and bold, unpredictable style. He speaks on non-traditional growth strategies, the role of marketing in corporations, the similarities between the political process and the marketing process, and all current and social events and the impact on consumer behavior.

Thanks for joining LunchLearning.com today! Enjoy your Lunch!
***there’s a bit of an abrupt ending on this vid, but it’s as he’s closing things up. . .***