April 16, 2012

CEO of Duck9
Stanford University EIR (Entrepreneur in Residence)

Duck9 = Deep Underground Credit Knowledge 9
125 University Avenue/ 100
Palo Alto CA 94301
http://www.duck9.com/ass
650-566-9600
650-566-9696 (direct)
650-283-8008 (cell)

****************
Editor of the BusinessWeek Channel "What They Don't Teach at Business School"
http://whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com/blog
CNN Video Channel: http://ireport.cnn.com/people/larrychiang

Read my last 10 tweets at http://www.Twitter.com/LarryChiang

Author, NY Times Bestseller
http://whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com/blog/?s=Ny+times+best...

"What They Will NEVER Teach You at Stanford Business School" comes out 11-11-12

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Duck9 is part of UCMS Inc.
http://www.ucms.com
630-705-5555

March 20, 2012

5 College Student Mentee Mistakes When Getting Mentored

By Larry Chiang

In college I accidentally did mentorship super well. What I mean is that I got mentored in a method and manner that catapulted me forward even though I didn't know what I was doing.

I was an unconscious competent.

Now that I've moved into conscious competent, I can help college students reverse engineer my success. I am going to approach it from the angle of mistakes to avoid as a college student getting mentored:

-1- A common mistake is thinking that mentorship has any structure

Mentorship is not like college class.

This is an example of the wild west of education in the real world. For example, google "get a VC you don't know to mentor you". And you'll see that mentorship happens after your potential mentor gives you a crappy lead. Or a crappy introduction.

It's a test you need to pass which leads to my next point

-2- Early stages of mentorship isnt an IQ test, it's an EQ test

The mistake college students make is thinking that this LEGEND of a MENTOR might actually be an idiot or a jerk or really a hard case.

Your potential mentor is acting dumb just to DDSS 'dumb it down sandbag for success'. Pass the EQ (emotional quotient) test and handle the hardship test.

-3- Don't get killed with kindness

The opposite end of the mentorship spectrum is the "kill you with kindness and humility" signature maneuver.

This is what I mean. Let's say a mentor (err potential mentor) is overly kind. It is in a college students nature to over extrapolate, extrapolate and take for granted something seemingly easy. In mentorship in the real world, there's zero correlation between price and value of advice.

Let me repeat that.

In the real world, there is no correlation between price you "pay" for mentorship and quality of mentorship.

This, I say to you the undergrad currently paying $50k/yr for something a library card, Internet access and ability to walk to the campus bookstore to look up required textbooks for Stanford Engineering 145. And then buying used textbooks online for the edition that was before the current edition (plot spoiler, we professors changed very little from 5th edition to 9th edition :-)

-4- College students forget to MMPPI

MMPPI is mentor mentions per press interview.

Selling a current or existing mentor gets the attention of future mentors. Nothing improves your quality of mentors than you, the college student, promoting an existing mentor.

For example, in college I read the book, "Ultimate Credit Handbook". I called Gerri Detweiler, the author, a mentor. I credited her and her book when people wanted to call me college entrepreneur of the year. The more I promoted Gerri Detweiler, the faster other potential mentors would call me back.

QUESTION: hey, Larry Chiang, I can't just go around calling someone my mentor, can I?!

Answer: This the most common college student mentorship mistake.

-5- They are your mentor if you say they are your mentor.

College students think there is some emperor anointment ceremony between mentees and mentors. Nothing can be further from how it happens in the real world.

They are your mentor if you say they are your mentor.

-6- Get mentored by them before they mentor you.

Join their parade of mentorship ideas before you officially or unofficially get mentored by them.

Do this by reading what they have written. Do this get-mentored-before-you-get-mentored by getting mentored by one of their mentee's.

This leads to my last and largest mistake that college students make...

-7- Never, ever, never ask to slap a mentor label on your mentorship.

Wanna scream that you're stuck in academia and have zero street smarts?! Male the cliche mistake of pre-maturely DTR-ing. DTR is "define the relationship".

No pre-mature DTRs.

For example, you heard a speaker speak at MIT Entrepreneur Week. The speaker DDSS and slapped up their cell, email and Facebook account URL on the whiteboard. You make the mistake of emailing a week later and say in the first line, "wanna be my mentor"

This is how you the college student can close for a mentor using email follow-up.

THIS IS THE THIRD EMAIL YOU SEND. THE FIRST TWO WERE READ AND FORGOTTEN.

Subject: follow-up from MIT eWeek / Larry Chiang / 650-283-8008

BODY:
hi Mr Bob,
I heard you give the keynote at vc65 there in Kresge. I was there covering Venture Capital 65 for my MIT student blog. Yes, I'm a CS/ EE major like you.

I know you told us not to call you Professor Bob Metcalfe. So I'll call you Mr Bob. I mean you're a living legend. You went to MIT too.

Mr Bob, I have a question about an article you were quoted in...

I read ______
specifically, I was confused about_____

Do you advocate option A or option B!?!?

Sometime in the next 30 days, I'd highly value a 3-10 minutes on the phone. Here are a few windows of time that work for me (btw, I hunted the Internet for office hours and didn't see any. Btw, I'm using this email technique because Mr Larr

March 20, 2012

MIT, I have good news and I have bad news for all y'all (from SXSW)

Bad news MIT.

Paul Graham threw up his arms and left you.

Maybe he did not think MIT was good, maybe he believed the stereotype that MIT students build cool stuff for the PrePubescent boyish vanity of building cool stuffs. Yes, the plural of stuff is stuffs. Mr Paul and his organization, Y combinator have left you for Palo Alto.

Relax and do not fret MIT.

You're one keynote and 22 pieces of French toast away from making the transition from engineer to entrepreneur. It's the journey that took my father, Remmington Oxley IV aka R4Ox4, 20+ years.

Remember that for as great of a tech institution that MIT allegedly and purportedly is, all y'all see

- MIT is incredibly limp in entrepreneur energy. At MIT's tEqualsZero conference, half the speakers canceled because no one coordinated and wrangled them after the emailed invite
- Me, I showed up to speak anyway because that is my MO (modus operandi. It's Latin for mode of operation)
- MIT is incredibly administrator heavy
- MIT's frown on low brow activities like sales, selling and doing a E145 lemonade stand business
- MIT's are ok with the cliche of working for Harvard alum or worse A Street Smart Harvard athletics econ majors. Or female MBAs from HBS (heck I'd be ok with leaving my role at Stanford, 12 board positions, ceo at Duck9 or my cash GP position as a VC. Err I mean cush position.

This is the point in the formulaic Larry Chiang blog post where I execute and solve a problem. Your problem.

But I won't.

I too am like Paul Graham.

But like Star Wars episode iv, all y'all do have a new hope. Google Jacob Cole

(download)

July 26, 2010

My karma... not towing the Jeep, "6FZP809" on Sunday

*** http://www.Duck9.com/blog ***

http://www.whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com/blog
--Lorenzo

July 23, 2010

Get Your Business To Work. I like the systems approach and "engineering" sales, operations and marketing systems #nsa10

Nice job George Hedley

July 20, 2010

What They Will NEVER Teach at NSA #nsa10

By Larry Chiang
http://www.whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com/blog

I got booked to speak at NSA without anyone ever having seen me speak.

Let me repeat that.

Before speaking at NSA, I do not believe any NSA member has seen me on stage. I say this not to impress you, but rather to show that my techniques work. The techniques I'm talking about center around granular strategies to get an NSA speaker paid speaking gigs.

I share these with you at my peril. In no way do I financially benefit from revealing, "What They Will NEVER Teach at NSA". Enjoy and profit from these tips and text me/ email me your thoughts.

-1- Book Yourself at a Conference You're Not Speaking At

There's a saying that I'm making up: People that love you, tend to book you.

An event planner loves luvs loves meeting a speaker before they book them. In person sales calls are awkward. Getting them to travel to see you speak is a stretch.

My answer is to ask for an invite to attend a conference they're producing so they get to see you live. I'd also offer to be a back-up speakr

-2- Be More Entrepreneurial Getting Leads to Speak

I pay 50% commission.
I pay $5k cash on the spot.

We don't need to sign a speaker bureau contract to pay 50% comm as a one time cash reward.

We don't need just one speaker bureau, we can have many.

We don't just lead generate via the one speaker bureau, we can have the entire speaker community be our speaker bureau.

Without one speaker bureau exclusive contract..., I pay 50% commission.
I pay $5k cash on the spot.

-3- Crash Conferences, Network Event Planners

There is nothing more complimentary for an event planner than for a potential speaker to want to come to your event.

Use discretion and prep your target meeting planner.

-4- Be a BackUp Speaker

To continue on the "90% of life is showing up" mantra, I offer to attend as a back-up speaker.

Some of my "reach gigs" have been because I'm a back-up speaker. A reach gig is a booking that you do not quite deserve. A reach gig also takes you to the next level.

-5- Produce an AfterParty

I love keynote speakers that don't just fly in, speak and fly out.

The quantity of time I spend is just as important as the quality of time. A method to get credit for staying far after you speak, is to produce the afterparty.

Remember that as a speaker, you don't have to be the speaker in order to speak at your afterparty. An example is when you host an afterparty, you can produce a fireside chat. Produce a video like this one and people think you were a speaker too.

-6- Producing Workshops and Make Money Giving Away Tickets

Here is my secret workshop formula.

It solves the problem of
- selling tix to a gig you're speaking at
- selling tickets to an event that no one wants to come to
- selling tickets in a time when some are going to want to come free

Here is my secret trademark maneuver workshop formula.

I find a venue, time and location that jives, meshes and integrates into the environment from which I give birth to an event. Now to the point... you can make money giving away tickets.

I "sell" two batches of tickets. For example, an event with capacity of 120. I have the 1st batch of tickets at $65, but offer a 100% rebate. If you show up, you get your $65 back. If you blog the event, you get your $65 back.

Then after 60, $65 tickets are sold (on EventBrite) then I sell $75 tickets. These tickets don't have a refund.

-7- Do the Rebate Model vs a Free Book

I apply the same rebate model to my book.

Here are the devilish details...
- Juice the Amazon presales by rebating. I offer a full rebate if you email me back ONE thing you did based on my book.
- I also put my email and cell phone on every other page. I place it at the bottom as a call to action... err as a call to call or call to email.

--Lorenzo

July 19, 2010

#nsa10 What They STILL Don't Teach at NSA

What They STILL Don't Teach at NSA

By Larry Chiang

News flash. The public speaking inustry is in flux.

While I have some ideas that were recently accepted as the new truth... I actually have more scandalous ideas that are WAY more effective.

Here are some highlights from my keynote at the NSA Convention in the order that I'm writing them :-)

-1- Social Media in Under 20 Minutes Per Week

Just don't do it.

How old school am I? I am SO old school I'm not on LinkedIn.

The first 20 minutes I'd spend writing blog posts.

Like this one.

In concusion... Blogging = good. Update statues = bad

-2- What Patricia Fripp Does Not Teach.

I'm working on a new technique that battles 'partial attention disorder'... Its called "Pull Yourself Out of a Self Created Tail Spin On Stage".

You see our audiences cheat on us all the time with their cell phones and laptops. It augments attention wander-fication...

I don't like that.

I solve it in a bunch of ways.

One way is to put myself in "danger" by speaking out of control on stage. One technique is creating a tailspin where my speech is temporarily out of control.

For example, in the article, "8 Tips CS Majors Use to Be Like Pro Speakers", I recommend freezing up on stage. And then unfreezing.

You see mammals love to observe other mammals in distress. Admit it. You watch the hunting scenes on Animal Planet and you gape at the fender bender on the Highway 101.

Cause a pretend difficulty on stage and then recover to captivate 110% of the attention from stage during this 'partial attention economy'

-3- Perform "Two Way Keynotes"

Let Your Audience PDA. PDA is personal digital Assistant.

I let people control me the keynote speaker with their smart phone.

How?!

They can text message me a question.

Many things is two way now. Blogs are two-way.
Newspapers are one-way. And like dinosaurs that don't change, one-way will die.

Me I like living so I'm adapting my old school ways.

-4- Give Your Audience a Physical Reaction

I like making an audience taste both the sweet and the sour

The sour gets a physical reaction

-5- Charge a Deposit When You Speak For Free

Ever get burned when a free gig goes south or gets cancelled?

This is how I solve the free speech problem.

I charge the organization a "deposit".

So lets say I'm speaking at Boy Scouts of America or Alpha Kappa Psi's National Convention... I normally charge 20X, but those kids want me and negotiated me down to x. I say, look, let me 'sponsor' the event and I'll speak for free.

But pay me the X and if you don't mother scrachin' change my deal... I'll give you your X back

Done.

You speak with a quasi contract and Boy Scouts of America / Alpha Kappa Psi / Southern Baptist Ministers of America won't change/cancel/alter/fire your gig.

-BONUS- Star in Social Media By Doing Cool Real World Stuff

Get into other people's social media stream

For example, when I spoke at NSA... I didn't Twitter or Facebook (even though I'm friends with Evan and Mark, CEOs of twttr, fBook)

Let me repeat that. I didn't Facebook update or Tweet the grand fact that I was speaking. I just let others do it for me.

For example: Here's a Twit Pic

My 20 Minutes are up. Text me if u need me
650-283-8008

If you see a typo, email it to me larry @larrychiang dot com

My Next article(s) on "What They Don't Teach at NSA"

-Leave Your Book Sold-Out And Never Walk Around With It

-Be More Entrepreneurial Getting Leads to Speak

-Crash Conferences and Speak at Ones That You're Not Invited To

+1-407-301-
- Re: I know... Wanted you to tell Diane Lapp in the audience

+1-407-967-
Do BOTH Re: email newsletter + a blog. Call me anytime next week

+1-407-301-
Maurice, Old School = blogging

+1-813-789-
Did I do ok making it less geek?

+1-414-852-
Wisconsin!, Call me anytime next week about TWO WAY KEYNOTE-If u can text me two min before you call me that'd be great. LarryChiang

+1-720-334-
Call me anytime next week about doing a feed while speaking-If u can text me two min before you call me that'd be great. LarryChiang

+1-416-278-
Ans: Mike O'Neil & Lori Ruff. And DavidNoir
Q: What were names of Linked In experts?

610-716-
Is this REALLY David N. :). Btw, thx for the tweet + support

+1-240-893-
Nope, I like email marketing. Thx for coming! Call me if u need me

+1-615-482-
Call me anytime next week about afterparty. If u can text me two min before you call me that'd be great. LarryChiang

+1-443-983-
Call me anytime next week about 2 way tech interaction-If u can text me two min before you call me that'd be great. LarryChiang

+1-416-918-
Thx for coming and thx for Fripp recommendation

Mike O'Neil & Lori Ruff

+1-303-885-
Thx! Re: LinkedIn experts: Mike O'Neil & Lori Ruff

+1-407-301-
I do when the producing conf has a budget :-)
- Re: used a monitor to view questions/streams privately

+1-813-789-
I love email. I'm not great at email. Wanna do a guestpost on it?
- Re: This audience uses email alot- not txt

+1-617-257-
I guess more two-way and more interaction
- Re: What does this audience need to understand going forward with younger audiences and the best way to adapt

+1-352-514-
You're not old! Thx. Call me next week if u wanna chat about the steak

+1-407-301-
Very powerful! Its a great practice. Re: ripping and link attributing between speakers

+1-321-446-
I do. But my blog gets the guestpost 1st. Re: Do u post other blogs on ur blog

+1-617-257-
Call me anytime next week about high traffic blogs that will accept my blog posts. If u can text me two min before you call me that'd be great. LarryChiang

+1-404-931-
#hiLarryOus Re: Average age of the room is dropping by the minute.

+1-801-791-
Call me anytime next week about "concrete, specific examples & bits"- Txt me two min before you call me that'd be great. LarryChiang

+1-321-446-
I'm conf friends w/ Arriana Re: R u linked to Huffington Post

+1-813-789-
Call me anytime next week about "emerging technology". If u can text me two min before you call me that'd be great

+1-813-789-
- Re: A couple of min emerging technology please

+1-321-446-
- Re: R u linked to Huffington Post

+1-801-791-
- Re: Give us more concrete, specific examples of the bits you are teaching. Thx.

+1-404-931-
- Re: Average age of the room is dropping by the minute.

+1-617-257-
- Re: Do you have a list of high traffic blogs that will accept my blog posts?

+1-321-446-
- Re: Do u post other blogs on ur blog

+1-352-514-
- Re: Interesting ideas. There's a difference between 'clever' and dishonest. It may be a generational thing (I'm an old guy), but several ideas of yours sugg
- Re: est sizzle w/out steak

+1-617-257-
- Re: What does this audience need to understand going forward with younger audiences and the best way to adapt

+1-813-789-
- Re: This audience uses email alot- not txt

+1-407-301-
- Re: Have you ever used a monitor to view questions/streams privately
Maurice A. Ramirez

+1-303-885-
- Re: LinkedIn experts: Mike O'Neil & Lori Ruff

+1-416-918-
- Re: Great content, but here's a shout out for Patricia Fripp: spend some time with her.

+1-443-983-
- Re: I'm doing a keynote to a very large, tech savvy audience in Asia next month. I haven't been planning on any 2 way tech interaction. What do you suggest?

+1-615-482
- Re: Is an after party an actual event? Please explain.

+1-240-893-
- Re: Is email marketing over?

+1-610-716-
- Re: Don't let THIS audience control you. We're here to learn from YOU, not random willy-nillies

+1-416-278-
- Re: What were names of Linked In experts?

+1-720-334-
- Re: How do you do a feed while you're speaking?

+1-414-852-
- Re: Focus on TWO WAY KEYNOTE

+1-813-789-
- Re: Lot's of folks here don't speak geek.

+1-407-301-
- Re: What is Old School Stuff?
Maurice A. Ramirez

+1-407-967-
- Re: I have an email newsletter but not a blog. Is this a mistake?

+1-407-301-
- Re: Repeat all questions & items
Maurice A. Ramirez

+1-404-931-
- Re: Sorry if you already said, who are you on Twitter? Im @VCEMonk in the back with a tie. Fred

http://www.whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com/blog