For Day 2, I left a little early because I had to get back to Kansas City for another engagement. I am still planning on watching the speakers I missed and taking notes, but until then, here are my notes and important points from the morning speakers of Day Two of Big Omaha 2013.
Here’s my Big Omaha 2013 Day 1 Recap.
Hover over the business name to go to their website in a new window.
Antonio Neves: MC of event and ThinqAction
- Be worthy of the gift
- Take advantages of the opportunities that you have
Mark Ecko: Ecko Unlimited
I didn’t know what to expect with Mark Ecko; I had only known about him from his clothing lines. But, I can’t even put Mark Ecko’s talk into words. It was amazing. He used rapper The Notorious B.I.G.’s song, The Ten Crack Commandments and how each one applied to business. Unfortunately this talk isn’t on the Silicon Prairie News Live recordings page. It was totally unique and probably one of the best speakers I’ve ever heard.
- Entrepreneur versus artist- he’d rather been known as an artist, but it has a misrepresented connotation
- Unlabel: Book coming out in sept 2013 about not selling out. Preorder at unlabel.me
- Quit counting and keeping track. Stop seeking validation. There are no straight numbers in nature
- Predictableness in business is not a good thing. You are not data. It’s not ok to talk and talk, create value for others. Use discretion
- Don’t look for comfort in business. You can find comfort at night, on your pillow
- Hubris: don’t get high on yourself. Don’t be diluted with grandeur. Fame = success in culture, not true.
- Don’t eat where you shit. Don’t do business in your precious places (@ home, with family)
- “Credit, dead it”. Be careful who you lend to. You are not obligated. No one should ride for free.
- Keep your family and business completely separated. You are not rational, you are emotional. We have to ACT rational. We have to work at being rational. No separation could result in nepotism
- Do not micromanage. Don’t be a fake ass Steve Jobs. Micromanage does not get things done. Just let people do their thing.
- Fuck the politics. The soap opera shit is not cool. There’s no place for it in business, yet it exists. Avoid alterior motives. When you refuse to be labeled, you then play by your rules, not theirs. Instead of complying e standards, create your own.
- “If you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100m, that’s the banks problem.” -Getty. Be careful who you take money from. Inventory kills. When it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Partners are greater than lenders. Distribute the risk. Don’t be an equity hoarder. Distribute the risk so you can get the most reward.
- We over-intellectualize the hustle. <—love this
- Learn by doing. You don’t go to school, school comes to you.
- Don’t learn by avoiding that hole/pitfall. Know that you might have to force the hole tomorrow and you might just have to fall into it.
Diana Kander: Kauffman Foundation
- Difference between an idea and a startup.
- There’s a high chance that your idea will never turn into a startup.
- How others reaction to you. Once you’ve made the commitment, no one is going to tell you that you have a terrible idea.
- Once you make a commitment to something, people won’t always be honest with you about your idea.
- Idea Process: Organized, Calm, Proactive, Objective to learn
- Startup Process: Exhausted, Just doing what it takes, Survival mode, Spending money, No room for errors
- We haven’t been able to use technology to decrease the gestation cycle over history. Same should go for startups.
- Assumptions: figure out what concept you are solving in the marketplace or what you are doing differently. Test these assumptions. Take off your sales jacket. Stop trying to convince the world that they need what you have. What assumptions have you already validated?
Dave McClure: 500 Startups
Dave’s talk was riddled with f*ck. Probably 100 times at least. I normally don’t mind profanity, but this was over-the-top. Especially when he called a girl in the audience a bitch because she refuted his claim that her iPhone battery sucks. Not impressed.
- Everything sucks and nobody notices. Nobody wants to tackle the problems that everyone has.
- It’s easy to make shit better.
- Let geniuses make up lives amazing, don’t try to be them, make their shit better.
- Improve the innovative shit by 1% every month.
- Most people and things suck. So the bar is set extremely low.
- Don’t copy their behavior, copy their work.
- Be a smart midget, standing on their shoulders.
- Most businesses suck at innovation. Don’t know marketing, social, video, tech, code, mobile, design.
- Most things are not amazing, but you can fix it.
- Tech+web= reduced overhead costs
- Search and social= better marketing
- 3 types of brands: Virgin Airlines (sexy), Southwest Airlines (convenience and value), niche (just for you and me)
Cindy Gallop: IfWeRanTheWorld and MakeLoveNotPorn
Cindy was awesome. She had a clipped British accent and was so open about her platform and her ideas.
- Today’s marketing: co-creation
- Tomorrows marketing: co-action
- Business model of the future: shared values and action = shared profit, financial and social
- Talk about sex open and honestly privately and publicly
- Wants to socialize sex: Makelovenotporn.tv. Pro sex. Pro porn. Knowing the difference.
- Ha! “The etsy of sexy”
- Blog- talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv
- Your business model can be anything you’d like it to be.
- Redesign the way that you do business.
- You cannot do new world order biz from an old world order place.
- Don’t do things just because they’ve always been done that way.
- Do collaborative competition
- The future is competitive collaboration
- Women are the major purchasers or influencers in any product sector today.
- Women challenge the status quo because we are never it.
- There’s a huge amount of money to be made in taking women seriously.
- Changing the world through see.
- In order to predict the future, you have to invent it. -Alan Kay
- From the moment we are born, society teaches women to be insecure about everything about themselves.you have to meet women more than halfway.
- If you don’t promote yourself, who will? <— Loved this!
- Women who play it natural are looked at as weak. But women who play as men are seen as aggressive and domineering. Be the bitch. Don’t fade into the wallpaper as too feminine.
- Put yourself out there in a way that is out of your comfort zone.
Kelsey Jones
Kelsey Jones enjoys having dogs for co-workers, making Target runs, and building her Pinterest empire. When she’s not traveling or making questionable dinners, she loves helping clients with content, social media, and SEO.
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