Archive for the Business category
September 7th, 2012
Today is my last day at Sun Life. I was recently offered a new job at a local pharmaceutical company, and I took it.
The whole thing was unexpected and happened so fast. I heard about the position, sent in my resume and had an interview just a couple days later. The interview went very well, despite the fact I went in totally unprepared. I didn’t dress up, didn’t even shave that day, and basically just winged it. Surprisingly, it seemed like everything I said was the right thing to say. I left the interview with a feeling they would offer me the job, but also thinking they wouldn’t offer me the compensation I was looking for. I was surprised when they made a very competitive offer.
I had just one day to consider everything before giving them an answer. It was a really tough decision, but in the end I realized making the move would be in my best interest, so I accepted the offer and gave Sun Life my two weeks notice.
It’s a bit of a sad day, saying goodbye to all my friends and coworkers. But it’s the start of something new, and I’m looking forward to that.
April 26th, 2012
So Brad Gosse’s book Chronic Marketer launched last Friday, and it’s doing really well.
He met his goal of being #1 on Amazon in several relevant categories (Business & Investing, Web Marketing, etc), and I saw his rank go as high as #48 overall in all books.
I think he achieved this success because he spent a lot of time marketing and connecting with people during his pre-launch. He also has a decent fanbase, and many people were in his corner helping him out to ensure launch day was a big success.
I’m not sure exactly how many copies were sold (or if Brad will release those details…), but I’m sure everyone would consider this a very successful launch, especially for his first “real” book. Also, he did it all himself. The book is self-published through CreateSpace, so he didn’t have the backing of a big publisher to help with advertising and promotions. This just goes to show how creative and effective Brad is at self-marketing and branding.
Congratulations, Brad on a successful book launch! If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, you definitely should.
April 20th, 2012
As mentioned previously, Brad Gosse was nice enough to give my brother and I an advance copy of his new book Chronic Marketer
, which comes out today.
I had a chance to read this book last week, and I have to say I enjoyed it. Brad’s writing style is very conversational… he doesn’t try to impress you with fancy words or complicated concepts, it’s more like he’s just talking to you, telling stories and offering insights. His no-nonsense approach is refreshing to read. It’s very informal and open, and he lays out his ideas in a straightforward manner, cutting through the bullshit. There’s ample discussion of his marijuana use, he talks about his work in the porn industry, the fact that he’s a proud yet productive stoner, and he isn’t afraid to toss out swear words to get his point across.
That’s really what the book is about – his story. How he got started, his approach to business, life and the world in general. It’s part biography, part how-to, and there are many things you can learn from a guy like Brad Gosse. He talks about how he got started (dropping out of school, working for his dad, etc), his beginnings in the porn industry, and how he got to where he is today.
Some of my favourite lessons from the book include:
- Asserting your value – making people pay you for your time and efforts
- Commanding respect – making people realize your worth
- Getting what you want out of life – how to change the rules to work to your advantage
- Intangible products – what they are, and how they can generate passive income
- Developing the right mindset – overcome fears, ignore negativity, and focus on success
Overall, the book is an interesting read, and well worth the $10. The book is as entertaining as it is both educational and inspiring. Chronic Marketer launches today, so pick up your copy and enjoy!
April 16th, 2012
After talking about LinkedIn and how badly it sucks, a coworker told me they love it and think it’s really useful.
I decided to give it another go, and this time around it seemed to work a lot better. The slowness and errors were almost non-existent, and my overall website experience was considerably better. I guess I was a bit harsh on my other post…
However, it doesn’t really change my attitude on LinkedIn. I still think it’s mostly a waste of time, and I don’t see any reason why anyone would ever pay to use it. I’m not going to delete my profile quite yet. I’m going to stick around and see if there’s anything of value for me before I do something so drastic.
April 12th, 2012
A long, long time ago someone told me about LinkedIn, and how it’s awesome for networking, finding jobs and connecting with like-minded professionals. I registered, put in my basic info, and then never really thought about it again until recently.
In the past month or so, I’ve been getting emails from LinkedIn, telling me I have “invitations” from people I might know. So I logged back in to LinkedIn, attempted to update my profile, attempted to accept a few requests, and then gave up on the whole thing.
LinkedIn is complete shit as far as websites go. Page loads are incredibly slow, everything is unresponsive, and I got about 20 of these in my first five minutes:
There was an error processing my request? Well shit. Clicking a link isn’t a complicated request, so I don’t understand what the problem is. I tried two different computers on two different ISPs… IE, Firefox, Chrome… nothing mattered – it sucked every which way.
Overall, I’m very unimpressed with LinkedIn, and I can’t imagine anyone would actually PAY to use a site this bad. Maybe on a good day, things work well and you can connect with colleagues and find jobs and all that amazing stuff. But based on my experience, I’m LinkedOUT.
