Just passionate about Education, Gaming, and Family
Posts tagged Business
Finding Your Voice and Keeping It!
02 years ago
Yeah, I know its been a while since I have blogged. I have been very busy with several projects – mainly this one. On this blog post I wanted to discuss the subject of keeping true to yourself. You may have read some of this in Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It but I want to put it in my own words. When you conduct business you should always be true to yourself. Keep your personality in everything you do. The main reason is this:
Collectively our customer’s BS meters are getting more accurate. If you dare to venture into the world of social media your followers need to see the same person they contact on the phone to buy something as they do in youtube videos and twitter status updates!
As you can tell from the content I produce, I have a casual approach to business. Don’t let this fool you. I am after the money just as any other sales person is, I have to pay the bills. However, my approach with customers is to build a true relationship. Which is the same thing I strive for on the different social media mediums. It’s all about the relationships! Find what works for your DNA though. My solution is my own. If you are the type of guy or gal who is all business – all the time, then be the best person out there at that. On the hand if you are a joker who loves to make people laugh, let that show in your personality. Just make sure that when you get into twitter, facebook, youtube, flickr and the rest that your push that same image.
Anyways that’s my post. In the comments below, let me know what your style is and why it works for you. Thanks for reading!
IGDA Microtalks Video
02 years ago
Hey guys I just wanted to drop a quick note(I forgot to do this earlier) I am releasing one section of the IGDA Austin Microtalks video on my Youtube channel each week. I just posted one tonight so please take a look. And yes if you can please subscribe it does help me continue to bring more content to you! Thanks again!
Part 1
Part 2
Being a Connector
62 years ago
So today I connected some people in my network to help them work together. So why is this something to blog about? Why is it so important? Why should you be doing it as well? I will tell you why!
So you have a few people following you on twitter and facebook. And you now have a sizable collection of people that you are “linkedin” to. There is more to them than just using them find you your next gig. I have found that one of the best things I have done is to connect my connections. When people ask for help in certain areas you should connect them with someone else in your network. Here are the reasons why this is so very beneficial:
1. It makes you more effective – Your peers in your network will start to see you as a person who can get things done, even if its not something you are proficient in. This is obviously good when it comes to business development and getting new jobs.
2. Solidifies relationships within your network – It’s the ultimate ‘Thank You!’ Giving a web developer or software engineer work by dropping his name equals food on his table and the ability to take of the family. It’s always good to have people connect your name with money.
3. That feel good feeling – I try not to mix feelings with business very often, but there is a lot to be said about helping out a friend. Keep in mind my earlier post about treating each connection as a true friend and you should understand why helping out someone is a good thing.
Now here is something that I should also mention. I have a short list of people who are my go to guys and gals for certain disciplines. I suggest you build a list as well so that when you are talking to someone in person you can quickly name drop the right person. This shows confidence in the person you just suggested and it shows you have a good relationship as well.
My List
Dan McCollum – Game Designer
Glenn Banton – Social Media / Localization
David Hanas – Web Development
Mindaugas Jokubaitis – Art Team(digital art)
Deborah Fike – Project/Team Management
David Higgins – Game Developer/Software Engineer
Greg Holden – Game Developer/Software Engineer
Keep up the relationship building!
I Want to Say Thank You
52 years ago
As many of you know my current job at InstantAction has come to an end. I lived a great dream to be able to work at the company I have loved for so long. It’s sad to see it go and to see so many friends with out a job. But I don’t want create a blog that focuses on the negative, there is too much positive to focus on right now. And mainly I want to say Thank You!
I want to say thank you to Eric Preisz mainly for hiring and giving me the opportunity to work along a great team. He gave me the chance of life time and it was a great value to me and something I will never forget. As it turns out, he is a very awesome boss and I mean that with the utmost sincerity. I also want to say thanks to Michael Perry, Derek Bronson, Michael Blenden, Matt Fairfax, and Deborah Fike. There has only been one other job in my life where the people were as passionate as these guys and gals here. These people, whom I consider close friends, will stay with me for ever. I can only hope they thought I was just as passionate about InstantAction as they were. I hope that I get the chance to work with them again some day… and some day soon!
Why am I taking the time to thank these people? Because I consider them friends and not just networking connections. Yup, I am going to turn this post into a business post…. 
Some people consider my network connections pretty large, I am no Gary Vaynerchuk, but I am getting there. However, when I make connections with people I try and build REAL friendships with them. The kind where the people I am connected to actually care about me and I care about them. Competitor or not. As the result of these friendships, I have built over the years, I am seeing an abundance of real concern and connections with many job opportunities. As soon as I announced I was unemployed 5 opportunities were sent my way. These were not the “Hey I saw this on the job board you should look at it” but it was more “Hey sorry to hear you are a bum now, but I have an opening and would love for you to interview”. I even got a phone call asking, “Why the H#LL didn’t you tell me?!” followed by an “ok well let’s get you going again”. I am not sharing this to brag, I don’t think I am some kind of BizDev wizkid, or that my skills are so awesome that people throw themselves at me. I am writing to tell you that if you are in a job and you are making connections, treat them like humans and remember to say THANK YOU to each of them! Be remembered for making each person count and they will remember you as a result of that.
Okay that’s it for now and you know what? Thank you for reading this!
The Phone Arms Race has Begun!
02 years ago
A few days ago a report surfaced that Sony has a new Playstation phone. This maybe bigger news for the mobile gaming space instead of the mobile phone space. Nintendo has been the king of mobile gaming for a long time. Even though Steve Jobs said that the iPod/iPhone was the number one selling gaming platform. Nintendo is doing its part to innovate by bringing us 3D game play with out the glasses. Sony is bringing us a phone with a REAL controller. And Microsoft is connecting us to our home experience with it’s device as well as a tactile way to interact with the game. These brand new innovations are coming out on the hills of an iPhone iteration which of course gives Apple the chance to sit back and watch what takes off and what fails, but also puts them at a disadvantage. Apple should not create a new iPhone so that users who just upgraded feel alienated and leave to another platform. Maybe Apple could finally approve of a hardware addon to the iPhone? How is Apple going to compete in this new market where the consumer has so many options. Not to be forgotten, how are the developers going to fair with so many platforms to build for? The next 2 years will be a very difficult time for developers and consumers as we will have the many viable options for mobile entertainment. Let the war began!
GDC Online 2010 Wrap Up
02 years ago
Had a blast at GDC Online this year. As far as work is concerned things went VERY well. Got some good face time with customers and moved some deals forward. It’s always nice to have your Director sitting next to you in a room with a customer if needed Obviously most everything that was discuss I can’t share here but keep an eye out on the www.torquepowered.com page for anything new.
As for personal development it was a great conference as well. It was my first time as a speaker at GDC Online. I had a lot of help during and before the round table from Sheri Ray and I want to say thank you to her. You can find out more about Sheri here. The talk was titled “How to create a diverse team, and keep it!” The first thing we notice about the room was that there was not a lot of diversity. In fact the room was mostly 25-35 white males. The good thing was that they came because they are interested and see it needs to be addressed. There was a lot of great ideas presented in the talk, so much so that I think I will be post another blog post later in the week to keep the discussion going.
And of course the after parties were awesome. I think on one night I made it through 5 different parties. One thing I have to say. If its a conference after party just try and be the sober one. I can’t tell you how much extra info I get simply because I am more sober than those around me. Although there was this one party that it was getting close. Thanks to my great friend Adam for making me eat something As for documenting the parties I took a few images but my camera broke… or well my wife’s camera that I got her as a gift broke. And yes I am in trouble for that so enjoy these pics
Constantly Maturing in Your Career
22 years ago
There are times that in your career you will come across a point where you think you have it all figured it out. At that point in time just remember there probably is someone who has done this before and probably has good advice to offer you. Recently, I had the chance to learn something new. Even though it was a small lesson, there was a much larger lesson to learn about it.
With out going into much detail let’s just say I had to take a document that I was presenting to a customer, and take it from “shorts and t-shirt” look to a “Nice Blazer and jeans” look. I looked at the document and thought to myself all the needed information was clearly presented, why would I need to change it? It was explained to me that it’s just like a resume you always have to put your best foot forward. And it was just some simple formating that need to be done to that document to spruce it up.
The message I want to push here is that you have to listen. You should listen to everyone especially to those who have done this job before. HUMBLE yourself and listen to your elders