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Blackberry Upgrade Woes & Smartphone Tips March 26, 2009

Posted by Yogizilla in Crackberry, Geeky Stuff, Good Advice, Information Technology, Rantings, Tech News.
4 comments

First and foremost, I would like to emphatically state that I am not, NOT an iPhone fanboy.  In fact, I pretty much detest all touch-screen phones.  That being said, I may get a free G1 as part of a the perks of a new gig I am doing so please don’t consider me a hypocrite.  I love Blackberry because, as many RIM (Research In Motion) enthusiasts will tell you, when you get a smartphone you either buy a toy or you buy a tool.  The iPhone falls into the foremost and the Blackberry is definitely more in the latter category.

Of course, like with any powerful computing tool, there are technical issues, hidden costs, and routine maintenance to be considered.  Blackberry’s have become a lot more clunky as they have become more mainstream and loaded with bells-n-whistles.  The more capabilities you get, the more points of failure you can possibly encounter.  That’s just how the metaphorical cookie crumbles, it would seem.

All I can say is that I am a very happy Crackberry user.  My love affair with RIM started back in the PALM III days, when Blackberry’s were very simple and strictly business.  A client of mine, an investment/venture capital bank going by the acronym TWCO, gave me a RIM mainly because they wanted a leash on me and couldn’t afford to pay me for all the work I did for them (go figure).  I knew it was a trick but, hell, what self-respecting tech geek will turn down a free gadget??  Certainly not I!

Sleek, streamlined, and seksy.. Blackberry is business power with style!

Sleek, streamlined, and seksy.. Blackberry is business power with style!

Well, I am here to provide fair warning to anyone considering getting any sort of Blackberry or smartphone.  If you are not particularly tech savvy and you do not have spare money laying around, stick to a pseudo-smartphone (something that your carrier does not require to get an expensive “data package” with perhaps).  My Blackberry, as resilient as it has been (it survived an extended dip in the pool back when I lived in San Diego), finally crapped out and through no fault of my own…

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The Last Job Seeker Guide You’ll Ever Need (Sorta) February 23, 2009

Posted by Yogizilla in Business Opportunity, Career Coaching, Corporate America, Good Advice, Information Technology, Job Hunting, Rantings, Recruiters & Headhunters, Sales & Selling, Self Marketing, Selling Yourself.
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2 comments

Recession. It’s the dirty word that everyone is throwing out these days.  Companies are using it as a cop-out for questionable business ethics and employee treatment.   Anything goes wrong, let’s blame the recession.  The truth is that the recession was years in the making.  I’d say that the signs were obvious as early as 1999, when it seemed like everyone was going back to school or at least changing their profession.  Most folks foolishly felt they could jump on the real estate, IT, and other trends to take advantage of what seemed like “guaranteed money”.  The only difference now is that people stopped fooling themselves and realized one thing: this job market SUCKS.

If Dubbya says were not in a recession, then it must be true!

If Dubbya says we're not in a recession, then it must be true!

As one of my colleagues put it, the gravy days of sales and business in general are behind us.  It used to be that all you needed was a good idea or a product that was in a market had high demand.  Customers would come to you and the only issue was making sure you got through to them before all the other sneezers (thank you Seth Godin, Mr. Purple Cow) in your market contaminated them with their preferred solutions and brands.  Retail stores had to staff up heavily and, even so, they barely could handle traffic.  There were only a few providers in every sector so everyone got a big piece of the pie.  Not so anymore.

Nowadays, the competitive landscape is congested and companies are cutting corners.  Training is not as extensive, quality of service has gone down the poop chute, staffing is minimal at best, and customers are far less interested in what you have to say.  Everyone has heard the ‘ol marketing song-and-dance and they’ve learned to tune it out.  This is a boon for the customers because companies will negotiate more but it is a bane for job seekers, especially those that have dreams to find the perfect job and career track.

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Microsoft Reminds Us Why They Suck: XBox LIVE Outages and Poor Customer Service January 6, 2008

Posted by Yogizilla in Call of Duty 4, Customer Service, Halo 3, Hype & Buzz, Knowledge Management, Managing Expectations, Relationship Management, Standardization, XBox 360, XBox Elite.
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17 comments

Well, I couldn’t fight the urge anymore. With as much work as I have on the table, I owe it to you, my loyal readers, to bring back the passion and frequency of my blog and what better way than to take potshots at one of the biggest and crappiest pseudo-monopolies out there? That’s right, it’s time to attack Microsoft once again!

XBox LIVE Dies - ZOMG!!!

No, XBox LIVE is not dead but, the way it has been running the past couple of weeks, it might as well be. If you have lived under a rock or are not really a gamer, you may have missed all the scandals regarding XBox LIVE customer horror stories and continued outages. I’m going to give you all a little grocery list of some of these horror stories:

  • XBox LIVE customer support analysts actually laugh and hang up on customers.
  • The ultimate solution for most problems plaguing XBox 360 seems to come down to buying a new system, creating a new account, or hearing “we can’t help you”.
  • XBox 360 units are still experiencing random crashes (surprise), red rings, and other hardware failure.
  • The magical XBox 360 warranty (which comes at an additional cost) does not include much at all; in fact, shipping and even boxes come at additional premiums in many cases!
  • Prepaid XBox LIVE subscription cards are more trouble than they’re worth – some don’t even code with a code behind the silver coating, due to misprints (good luck getting anyone to give you credit or a full refund for that)!
  • The most over-used line of any XBox LIVE customer support representative is “sorry, but that’s our policy”.
  • No one on the XBox LIVE support team seem to speak English natively, nor do they understand the root cause of your issues and what the customer TRULY needs.
  • It is not unlikely for random people to harass you, just for fun, and file false complaints against you which, ultimately, get you terminated. Since the XBox LIVE team doesn’t really understand English, they just go by “what’s in their system” and follow their scripted courses of action. A few strikes and you’re out. Good luck appealing.

If you’re like me, you may be looking at this list with great disgust. Anyone that knows me knows that poor customer service, unwarranted rudeness, and poor product “follow-through”/overall quality are things that I absolutely abhore. As a gamer and someone that happens to be an XBox 360 owner, I feel that Microsoft’s business tactics are completely unethical, to say the least. We shouldn’t be surprised since the XBox franchise is a microcosm of Microsoft’s track record in all other facets of their huge corporate monster.

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Microsoft’s Majestic Marketing – Halo 3 Zero Hour September 24, 2007

Posted by Yogizilla in Belief & Passion, Bungie, Console Gaming, HDMI, Halo 3, Hype & Buzz, Marketing, Microsoft, Multiplayer Gaming, New York City, NoF, Online Gaming, PR, Power of Presence, Price Drops, Product Longevity, Smash My 360, Viral & Word of Mouth, XBox 360, XBox Elite, XBox Live.
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6 comments

Today is the day that many geeks and overly-competitive gosu gamers have been waiting for: the Halo 3 launch. For me, it is business as usual. I played the beta and wasn’t particularly impressed and I am not a huge fan of Halo to begin with (you’ll have to forgive me for that) but, whatever way you chop it up, this is a historic day. This is the story of a somewhat obscure developer that hit it big by allying with one of the biggest brands out there – Microsoft! It is also the story of how online multiplayer games really got put on the map. Halo brought a gleam of hope to those that wanted something different…

Halo 3 - a ray of light for a different type of gamer!

For many years, the online gaming community has thrived in great numbers on the PC front but it was mostly underground, cult-like, not very organic or viral. Some home consoles tried to capture the magic of PC gaming but failed, mainly because they treated multiplayer modes as an after-thought. Along comes Halo to change everything. Halo is, without a doubt, the killer app of the XBox, comparable to Final Fantasy and Super Mario, easily. It is all a matter of brilliant marketing. The XBox cultivated a huge gaming space that was, for the most part, a vacuum waiting to be filled by a big idea. Bungie was a quiet developer that gave Mac users what they rarely got: fun games that weren’t family-oriented or overly-nerdy. Marathon arguably started it all yet few people even heard of the game. In this case, it is clear that the Bungie brand made little difference as crossing over to the “dark side” (Mac users tend to dislike anything Microsoft) would have lost the long-time followers. Surely, the amplifier of the Halo franchise was something outside of the developers and branding, surely the market was ready and waiting for something to come along. Halo certainly filled void by meeting the needs of those that wanted hardcore competition in a not-so-nerdy package. Finally, an FPS that was fast-paced, revolved around multiplayer (both coop and versus), and didn’t have a complex control scheme!

Had Halo been released on the PC like Microsoft originally intended to, it would not have been as popular; instead, they attacked the console market and used college dorms as marketing hives, the gaming bees buzzing about about their latest gaming addiction. Why do I say this? Well, the game is a rehash of what has been done before but, since it was new to those that only knew console gaming, it was easy to spread.

The brilliance of Halo was never it’s unique storyline or break-through architecture. The technical aspects are all commonplace in a marketplace where ideas are just repackaged and regurgitated. The marketing is where the real money was made and where the Halo franchise became rock-solid. The console market was in dire need of a fast-paced online multiplayer game. Something that was easy to find (accessible), easy to talk to others about (smooth), and simple to play (inviting). The major gripe for people that dabbled in other First Person Shooter (FPS) games is that keyboard-and-mouse control schemes were too complex. Halo opened up the genre to the masses and targeted the most aggressive, competitive gamers as well as everyday, casual gamers that needed something simple to enjoy with friends. These two segments spawned many fans spreading the message: here’s something UNREAL!

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Marketing No-No’s: How to Scare Away Customers in Five Minutes or Less August 26, 2007

Posted by Yogizilla in Belief & Passion, Business Management, Common Sense, MLM & Direct Sales, Managing Expectations, Marketing, Sales & Selling.
2 comments

With Summer coming to an end soon, I’ve decided to take some R&R and bring some long over-due projects to an end. This year has been quite interesting but one thing never changes: every month or so, I run into at least one over-zealous sales person. Few things turn off customers more than empty words, cliche statements, and typical sales talk yet even the best companies are plagued by individuals that I feel have a sort of diarrhea of the mouth, to put it bluntly.

Oh no - it's the scary sales guy!!

The bad thing about these sales people is that they bring a lot of heat to the rest of us, the few that know better than to use tired scripts and strong-arm tactics. It is something that has hurt the IT field, retail, and many other industries. Today, I want to hone in on the MLM/Direct Sales/Network Marketing industry because these types of business now account for more than half of the businesses in the United States (believe it or not). With these companies growing rapidly, everyone will be exposed, which can spell out good things or bad things, depending on what side you’re on and what sort of training the involved parties may have.

I’ll be clear about this for anyone that may have not read my other articles on the Network Marketing business: these types of franchises work but, like in any occupation, there’s good, bad, and plenty of ugly! If you ask me, many of the MLM folks I have encountered also seem to train with the same few people. Their scripts and systems vary a bit but you can always spot these folks from a mile away. They dress the same, use the same corny jokes, draw the same diagrams, and try to hard to exude positive energy, result-driven performance, and things that they think will attract customers and team members alike. These folks couldn’t be more wrong. Anyone that listens to these folks and has been exposed to a similar business would believe these MLM folks all read the handbook on how to scare away customers as quickly as possible by the way they overwhelm you with robotic sales speech!

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Net Neutrality – Modern Communication’s Last Stand! July 12, 2007

Posted by Yogizilla in Common Sense, Geeky Stuff, Good Advice, Information Technology, Net Neutrality, Politics, Rantings, Rediculous, Unity.
11 comments

First and foremost, I apologize for keeping some of you waiting out there. I know I had promised a good article about Net Neutrality and I really want to put a slightly different perspective on things but, alas, it is easy to get derailed when you have lots of projects on the table. That being said, I do have tons of stuff lined up and hope to get some quality content in the next three weeks or so, but first things first… Let’s talk about Internet Neutrality and how the Internet may die soon (if we do not preserve neutrality)!

The mouse is dead. The Net is next?

With just three days left on the supposed final countdown, I am surprised that many people do not have net neutrality on their radar yet they ALL will be affected by the legislation that is in the works. I have talked to many friends about this topic in the past three weeks (basically, during my little blogging sabbatical) and everyone had all the wrong ideas about Net Neutrality. Before I get into the complicated explanations, let’s get one thing straight: net neutrality is a good thing for the common folks, the so-called “little people”, and getting rid of it only benefits the large corporations and wealthy. There’s simply no nicer way of explaining it but I will try to stick to the facts and put emotion aside (at least a bit).

We all know what the Internet is but many of us do not realize the vast scope of things. The Net is a lot more than just the Web. It’s news groups, file transfers, terminal services, online gaming, backoffices, and so much more to many different people. Our government has plans to allow private interest to supercede fairness and justice by giving business control over how we experience the Internet, thus changing the Internet as we know it forever. These companies are selling it by saying it will allow expansion of the Internet to continue at a faster rate, thus bringing broadband into areas where it is currently not available. They also tell you that those that pay a “little more” can experience faster speeds and better content. As expected with the typical corporate sales talk, they’re not telling you the full story.

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Finding the Perfect Toothbrush: A Lesson in Marketing May 10, 2007

Posted by Yogizilla in Belief & Passion, Brand Identity, Contests & Promotions, Hype & Buzz, Marketing, Microsoft, Oreo, PR, Power of Presence, Viral & Word of Mouth.
4 comments

A few articles back, I talked about Oreo and how their message is simply this: we are America’s favorite cookie. These are the sorts of messages that can backfire but, executed properly, you really boost the perceived value tenfold. The brilliance in Oreo’s current strategy lies in their use of contests and celebrity lick races, promotions that people talk about with others. These are ideas that spread in a viral manner or, as Seth Godin puts it, ideaviruses. The key to this strategy is creating simple, consistent messages that anyone can spread onward; of course, you have to get people excited.

In this article, I’d like to discuss a marketing strategy that is a little less buzz and hype-driven yet still viral in nature. Let’s look at a simple thing that everyone uses (well, mostly everyone): a toothbrush. Traditional marketing and old money business people will tell you that the better toothbrush will sell more but what does “better” actually mean? It depends what your target customers are. For kids, both big and small (some of us are still kids at heart), cartoon-stickered and music-generating toothbrushes are the epitome of oral hygiene devices.

Does this cow do anything for you?

For the rest of the world, style still matters but effectiveness, practical use, becomes a greater distinction. Think about the last time you purchased a toothbrush and how often you make this decision. What affected your decision? Did you go for the toothbrushes in the front or did you look further back on the shelve? Was it an impulse buy, perhaps triggered by a clever end-cap display or cashier counter arrangement? Did you even notice how hard or soft the bristles are? Was the type of grip and general structure of the toothbrush a big focus for you? What was the final tie breaker (assuming you were initially indecisive)? The chances are that, if you were put in a group of 50 people, your decision-making process would be quite distinct. Once we recognize that not all consumers think the same way is a humbling experience for all business people…

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Little-Known Ways To Become An Expert Recruiter April 3, 2007

Posted by Yogizilla in Career Coaching, Common Sense, Corporate America, Customer Service, Job Hunting, Managing Expectations, People Networking, Positive Reinforcement, Principle-Based Leadership, Recruiters & Headhunters, Rediculous, Relationship Management, Self Marketing, Selling Yourself.
4 comments

Well, I did not expect so many responses on my recent LinkedIn question but I certainly welcome it! The discussion is brewing right now as we speak and I figured I would take the time out to write a slightly-shorter article touching upon some of the core issues and hopefully sharing some tips for both recruiters, since the job seeker side can produce a whole string of advice columns on it’s own. First and foremost, I want all my recruiting friends to understand that I do not think the value of outsourced recruiting is not there but I do feel that there is a lack of professionalism and effectiveness in the field as a whole. I base this powerful statement on my personal experiences as both a job seeker and business owner, and on the experiences of my many clients and colleagues.

Now, for the sake of brevity, I can’t explore every possible angle here. Let me touch upon the assumptions and understandings that we should all have before moving on…

  • There is clearly a lack of honesty both on the behalf of job seekers and recruiters alike.
  • The typical workload for a recruiter these days is easily three to five times more than what it was a decade ago.
  • Recruiters do not have time for small talk so, if you are loquacious, you may find yourself being cut off often.
  • Job seekers that are driven solely by money will often not hesitate to break prioir obligations and jump ship.
  • At least 80% of job seekers embellish or lie on their resume in some manner.
  • Some job seekers are driven by money, others are not.
  • Because of the above items, job seekers and recruiters alike are very jaded and pessimistic, to say the least.
  • Recruiters come in many flavors, though many have dealt with the typical contingency recruiter for the most part.
  • No one is fundamentally evil, recruiters included.
  • Every field has good people and bad people; thus, good recruiters must exist!

For job seekers, the reality is that working with recruiters may not be a worthwhile investment of time if you do not keep your scope very specific, be honest about your abilities, and do as much leg work as possible to make the recruiter’s job easier. Companies love using recruiters because most of the cost can be absorbed by the candidates (they take a percentage of your salary without you even knowing). How payment is handled depends on the arrangement that has been set up but that is definitely the typical deal I’ve seen. As I mentioned in my article about lazy recruiting practice and how it puts job seekers at risk (or at least a major inconvenience), recruiters are, at heart, sales people so it’s all about the numbers to them, the bottomline matters more (typically) than helping people.

If you happen to be one of those recruiters that wants to be helpful and really drive value to both your prospects and clients alike, this article is for you. After all, what job seekers has to do is a lot more simple: represent yourself more accurately, learn how to interview effectively, tailor your resume to the specific opportunities, and be authentic, energetic, and deliberate in all your efforts (in a nutshell). What can you, as a third-party/outsourced recruiter do to really be seen in a good light? I’m glad you asked. Read on…

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Bad Recruiters, Identity Theft, and What To Do About It April 1, 2007

Posted by Yogizilla in Business Management, Career Coaching, Common Sense, Corporate America, Customer Service, Digg Bumps, Dress to Impress, Hype & Buzz, Job Hunting, MLM & Direct Sales, Managing Expectations, Marketing, Rediculous, Relationship Management, Sales & Selling, Self Marketing, Selling Yourself, Storytelling.
8 comments

Job hunters throughout the United States have cited that their biggest sore point in the job hunt is dealing with inept recruiters. Who can blame them? Recruiters typically repost the job ads that the hiring companies post on their corporate sites then only do the bare minimum to screen and prepare candidates. It has been my personal experience in recent

years that, if a recruiter does more than give you a vague description of the job and ask you to tailor your resume to include certain buzzwords, you have yourself a keeper. The general approach seems to be this: collect as many close fits as possible, herd them together, sell the hype, and hope that the candidates can do the rest of the work for you.

The reality is that recruiters are suffering along with job seekers. Job market saturation is arguably the byproduct of overseas outsourcing, widespread “right-sizing”, 1990’s dot-com collapses, and, of course, 9/11. Our economy has taken a hard hit and, as more and more fresh college graduates enter the workforce, it is not getting any easier, even for the most seasoned veterans in their fields. Recruiters are dealing with easily three or four times the workload that was expected in the “golden age” of the mid-90’s. There is also far more competition from other staffing and recruiting firms. The Recruiting Animal blog cites that the typical recruiter handles anywhere from 26-30 projects at a time on average, which is definitely more than recruiters experienced even 5 years ago. It’s no wonder recruiters are spending less time preparing and qualifying their candidates!

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