We will be announcing some great news at Lotame soon, as we have chosen our partners, who are investing in Lotame as part of our continued growth.
I'm also thrilled that our primary message of "monetization of Social Media inventory for publishers, and enhanced targeting for advertisers...." -- is reasonating, and our clients are using Crowd Control (our tool) to:
* win more business by using a new application to show agencies and brands how to target inside of UGC
* improved results and lift on campaigns, that are being targeted more in line with the "usage patterns" of the community - which proves our concept, our mission and our focus
Some of the aspects of running a business that, "dissapoint" me, and drives me nuts are:
Expecting too much of people. This is MY FAULT.
People that "fool me twice". This is MY FAULT.
Sharing too much information about what we are working on, because I'm so excited at what we are building. This is MY FAULT.
One key learning?
More often than not, dissapointment ends up being OUR (MY) FAULT, and not someone else's, or something else's........it sits with me.
It is a tough concept, and I'm not communicating it very well in this post, but I can tell you that it has been a central theme for me --- maintain high expectations -- but deal with being let down...BETTER.
Here is a picture of LIFE. I took this picture, and it is my wallpaper on my desktop.
It motivates me, because the man is ME.
The water is LIFE.
Go for a swim. I am.
Hey Andy, So I was reading your blog again, and your recent post was perhaps the most interesting of them all. It is probably the first one where you talk about disappointment within your business, and moreover relates directly to an experience/s I had with my company here at school.It was quite simple really. I too was excited about our growth and recognition, so I talked. People that I thought were trying to learn, and then help, actually did the opposite. Within weeks, there were three other people trying to compete with my marketplace and clients by using the very same methods that I had employed.So what happened? My competitors, ended up doing more events than myself, again, trying to use the same marketing and campaigning methods that I had told them about.At first, I was really disappointed in myself for letting this happen, but then something happened that I didn’t expect.There events ended up being garbage. The value and recognition of my company increased even further. Why? As people tried duplicating my business model, people realized it was a poor substitute to what I was doing. Now, the same people that tried “helping me”, continually call/beg me for advice and help because I still employ new and better methods. Even now, I receive more attention from people that I have partnerships with, because they realize I am simply the best around.I hope this offers some insight to your recent post. I don’t know much about startups, but only what I have learned so far from my own experiences. Make everything work to your advantage. Everything.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 03, 2007 at 02:14 PM