Ever since Veronica Belmont announced that she’s leaving Mahalo Daily, competition for her spot has been raging. There are a host of nominees, and it looks like Calacanis is taking his queues from the fans while out scouting new talent.
Who’d make the best new Mahalo Daily host? There is no question, Christina Warren (@film_girl), my co-host from The Squadcast. We don’t want to lose her, far from it, and we’d fight hard to keep her at Download Squad where she beongs if an offer were made. That being said, Mahalo Daily would be a huge opportunity for Christina, and if it’s meant to be, it’ll happen. So, in an effort to help rally her 1000 plus Twitter followers and fans of The Squadcast, I’ve created http://jasonstealmycohost.com/
The picture above is from SXSW, and I think it speaks volumes. Who needs to rank amongst the biggest and brightest in web video? film_girl, plain and simple. Really, it’s a no brainer.
I’m excited and a little sad to announce that I’ll no longer be leading Download Squad for Weblogs, Inc. I’ve been talking to Robert Scoble quite a bit since SXSW, after my business card put me on his radar and, I’m happy to announce I’ll be starting my new position at Fast Company as Shel Israel’s producer as of tomorrow. Shel is an amazing, intuitive and insightful guy who I admire very much, as is Robert. I’m honored to be invited into their team and I’m enthusiastic about the direction in which we’re headed.
It’s been a great ride at Weblogs, Inc. I’ve led Download Squad for a little over a year, doubled traffic, hired an incredible team of bloggers and taken the site in new and interesting directions. As hard as it is to swallow, I know in my heart that what I’ve helped create has outgrown me. Download Squad needs far more competent leadership than I can provide. I’m creative; a content guy, not a team manager. So, I’m really happy to say that in conjunction with my departure, Download Squad has scored a top piece of talent to take my place. Starting tomorrow, Download Squad’s new lead will be Aaron Brazell who formerly led operations at b5 Media. Aaron is an amazing guy, dynamic, sharp and super motivated. I know he’s going to take good care of the team I’ve worked so hard to build, and I wish him every success in his new position.
To my friends at Weblogs, Inc and my bloggers at Download Squad. You’ve all meant so much to me. So long and, thanks for all the fish.
Promoting yourself at conferences is hard. SXSW is an especially tough field to compete within, as it’s crowded and full of the best and brightest among the blogosphere.
I nearly blew it. I forgot to order slick cards in time for the show, and I went into panic mode. Sometimes, panic brings the best inspiration to the table. Laying in bed two days before I left, I realized I had a perfect opportunity to stand out. Everyone — and I do mean everyone — would have amazing cards with pretty graphics, slick logos and clean cut edges. So, why not go the other way?
This passage from William Gibson’s short story Johnny Mnemonic was the inspiration I needed:
I put the shotgun in an Adidas bag and padded it out with four pairs of tennis socks, not my style at all, but that was what I was aiming for: If they think you’re crude, go technical; if they think you’re technical, go crude. I’m a very technical boy. So I decided to get as crude as possible. These days, though, you have to be pretty technical before you can even aspire to crudeness. I’d had to turn both those twelve-gauge shells from brass stock, on the lathe, and then load then myself; I’d had to dig up an old microfiche with instructions for hand- loading cartidges; I’d had to build a lever-action press to seat the primers -all very tricky. But I knew they’d work.
So what did I load my shotgun with? Humor. I decided to tell the story of how I’d fucked up, forgotten to print cards, and beg for forgiveness; all in one paragraph. And hey, it couldn’t hurt to take a shot at Robert Scoble while I was at it, right?
This is my, “Oh, crap! I forgot to print cards for SXSW!” card. Laid out in romantic old-school fashion using tape and a Xerox machine, this card was forged on paper crafted from only the finest pelts of the most adorable baby seals and printed with ink containing the blood of Robert Scoble, god of first person pronouns. It may or may not possess magic powers. Please hold this card dear as a souvenir of my absentmindedness and an invitation to stay in touch with Download Squad”
It was pithy, reasonably short, and gave a bit of insight to my personality. I had no idea how it would be received, but I love to experiment.
The verdict? It worked. In a sea of slick business cards, my crudely crafted calling card stood out, stopped people in their tracks, and made them pay attention. I got more compliments on my card over the week than I ever could have hoped for.
Yesterday I found that Darren Rowse of Problogger had even given my card a shout out in his “How to Promote Yourself (and Your Blog) at a Conference” video, which was a huge honor. Weeks after the SXSW glory has faded, my cheap and easy business card still has legs.
The moral, “If they think you’re crude, go technical; if they think you’re technical, go crude.” I can’t wait till next year. I won’t do it exactly the same way, but I’ll certainly take a lesson from this victory pulled from the steely jaws of defeat.
I’ve finally concocted a grand unified theory of lousy PR. Hopefully this will streamline the process of submitting things to the Download Squad tip box. Please use this form from now on.
[ ]on the web
[ ]as a download
[x]via paid subscription
Our
[x]product
[ ]service
makes
[ ]Windows
[ ]Linux
[ ]The web
[ ]Facebook
[ ]Twitter
[x]Other
[ ]more useful
[x]less time consuming
[ ]easier to navigate
while also
[x]lowering total cost of ownership
[x]keeping your records in the cloud
Our clickwrap agreement is:
[x]complex
[ ]thick
[x]full of things you’d never agree to if you actually read it
only requiring your:
[ ] complete and total submission
[x] waiver of any rights to your own data
[x] first born child
We appreciate your time and consideration. Please contact:
[x] Our poorly paid and under-trained PR flack
[ ] Our expensive PR company
[x] Myself
[ ] No contact details provided
with any questions.
Sincerely,
[ ] CEO in title only
[ ] Eastern European programmer with lackluster English skills
[ ] The comic book guy
[x] Anonymous tipster who is actually a company representative
We interviewed Alex King for our latest episode — we’ve got a few more great guests up our sleeves for the next few shows — and he was cool enough to blog about the release of the show, which in turn means if you log into your Wordpress blog, you’ll see his link to our show! Given that the episode is on “Pimping your Wordpress”, it’s just about as circular and meta as it gets.
Thanks Alex for being on the show, and thanks to all of our other guests on soon to be released episodes.
Tonight I fixed the comment system on my blog, which has been broken for a shameful period of time. I also updated my aging (and antiquated) blogroll, and re-wrote my about page. Even my press one-sheet has been updated, thanks to my faithful personal assistant Michelle Wolverton.
Holy crap, I almost appear organized. How did that happen?
Update: Turned off that yuckie login to comment requirement. Ah, that feels better.
Just released another Squadcast episode. This one covers GTD email tips, tools and features an interview with productivity consultant Matthew Cornell.
Also in the mix, new graphics I made over the last week. We’re finally getting there. We shot three (three!) episodes worth of content this weekend, and we’re feverishly working on ideas for the next shoot. Before the end of the year we should have a backlog of produced, ready to release episodes. FTW!
Look for Amber Rhea in an upcoming episode called, “So you think you can Podcast”. We also taped interviews with Dalas Verdago from Vimeo, and Kristin Shoemaker (Download Squad’s own Linux Librarian.
If the threats mentioned in this interview don’t scare you, you’re not paying attention. Drive-by downloads? Scanning internal networks via Flash embeds? Jesus, I’m glad I’m not a network admin anymore.
Sweet, I’m headed to the 
