DavidKamatoy.Guru

Google Voice vs Skype Who you got?

Google voice is going after Skype. Just like the recent Palm Pre vs. iphone. I think this is a good thing for consumers. I just started using Skype a few months ago due to my own disagreement with Sprint. There are some really cool things about Skype and some weird issues thatI hope they improve on.

1. The texting option. you can text other people you get charged for it and they can't text you back on Skype. This is whacked because on AOL you can text back and forth for free with the caveat that it's not your phone number.

2. Call quality is suspect at times it reminds me of those old cell phone days...

Some of the features of google voice just seem way frickin cool.

• Live Screening of the call.
• True SMS rather than the challenge as listed above.
• voicemail transcripts

I am considering using skype for it's multiple number ability and also considering using google voice in beta if they let me and play with this as well.

I will keep you updated. I don't know if there is a wrong answer as much as it's competition and competition means that skype will have to improve.

Competition gives us a choice in which tools to be most effective with.

Forced Entrepreneurship 2: 10 Great Places for Entrepreneurs to Retire A jump in start-ups is going to be led by the baby boomers

Another article supporting the trend towards Baby Boomer Entrepreneurship in the recession.

10 Great Places for Entrepreneurs to Retire A jump in start-ups is going to be led by the baby boomers

Why...

1. People are living longer.

2. Forced retirement or firing. What else are you going to do?

3. Because you have a great idea and you have to do it.

Napoleon Hill waxed upon this concept that most entrepreneurs find their stride in their 40's+

"Seldom does in individual enter upon highly creative effort in any field of endeavor before the age of forty. The average man reaches the period of his greatest capacity to create between forty and sixty. These statements are based upon analysis of thousands of men and women who have been carefully observed. They should be encouraging to those who fail to arrive before the age of forty, and to those who become frightened at the approach of "old age", around the forty-year mark. The years between forty and fifty, are as a rule, the most fruitful. Man should approach this age, not with fear and trembling, but with hope and eager anticipation."

-Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

I like to say that after 40 years you've been to the circus and seen the show. You know what habits are bad for you and you know what's good for you.(Regardless if you do the right thing or not.) You begin to see the fruits of your labor or the fruits of labor of those very close to you.

It's also the reason why entertainers are so difficult to work with for the simple reason that young musicians or entrepreneurs need to pretend to be older while they are young. I surrounded myself with mature mentors, clients and team members and in doing so I know accomplished more than I should have.

So no matter what age you decide to start a business I suggest that age not matter. However I do believe that you should surround yourself with people from multiple-generations especially those that you intend to be your customers or clients.

Social Media is the Long Tail of PR:PR builds a brand and so does social media Part 1

Social Media is the buzz right now. Many professionals in the media world are being inundated with requests about social media. In fact many businesses are contacting professionals saying, "I only want to talk about Social Media"

Social Media is really the long tail of PR, PR builds a brand and so does social media. Here are some key points that I intend to elaborate on in the show and in our work.

Concept #1: Advertising and Marketing is the first thought of Entrepreneurs and Business owners when they try to develop leads and business, but there are some inherent problems...

a. Ratio 1:1 3:1- Your goal in an advertising budget is to create a 3:1+ ratio. In other words for every dollar you spend you get 3 back. If you create a 1:1 ratio it might be working and needs some tweaking but most likely you are doing something right. 2:1-3:1 is getting much better. Your going to profit from this if your margins are correct.

The problem with advertising is the INITIAL INVESTMENT....

You have to spend money to find the right formula in advertising. Each and every medium and category has it's own price point as well. In other words $5,000 dollars may seem like a lot of money to you but that's one ad in a publication for a week, a day, a month. $b. 5,000 can be spent in Pay Per Click in a an hour if you wanted in the right category.

The good news is that your response is usually immediate good or bad.

You have to be willing to invest the money into the test phase in order to find that ratio.

That investment should be based ultimately on how much money you want to make a month a quarter, etc. In other words If you  want to create $10,000 in sales a month  then you should consider a $3333.33 a month budget. Adjust the ratio accordingly to testing, market and category.

b. Because advertising is our initial response to more sales. We try to equate that same model to PR and Social Media. That is not going to work because Social Media is about long ball and interacting with your database to find out what they actually like.

THROW THE SPAGHETTI ON THE WALL AND SEE IF IT STICKS.

Social Media allows you to build a database and experiment with that database as you grow. Time and Money spent in social media can move you into a smart advertising campaign.

Social Media like Search Engine Optimization can have long lasting effects that pay exponentially over time.

The great thing about social media is that it is scalable. You can do it yourself for relatively low cost meaning that your going to put more time than money into it. However if your time is better served in running your business than getting a firm like ours to manage social media is a smart move. www.KamatoyMediaGroup.com can be reached at 619-573-9456

(This is a working concept and it shall be continued...)

Facebook Personalized URL's: 10 Tips Put this on your "TO DO" list.

Great article on PC world...

Personalized Facebook URLs: 10 Important Points

If you have not heard the news you can now get a personalized url vs just a number on facebook. Very very cool.

I suggest getting yours as quickly as possible especially if you have a common name you can grab it now. In addition consider grabbing your company name or a name you are trying to brand.

5 Myths About Being An Entrepreneurs: #1 Introvert vs. Extrovert

In this article By Barbara Bartlein she talks about 5 solid myths about entrepreneurs...

 5 Myths About Being An Entrepreneurs

1. Are anti-social geeks who isolate themselves from others and the community.

Here is my take on the first one. I know that one of the reasons that a lot of Entrepreneurs are successful is because they can effectively  communicate their ideas, concepts, and sometimes dreams with the utmost CONFIDENCE.

Entrepreneurs often have to embrace being both introverted and extroverted. Those that are more introverted often have to embrace being an extrovert in order to get their idea communicated to the world. Often they hire people around them to be a spokesperson, VP, CEO, etc.

I worked most of my performing career learning to be an extrovert and that energy helped me and continues to attract business to me. However it is now embracing my introvert that allows me to often complete projects.

In the entertainment world...

Entertainers have a tendency to be Extroverts while Producers have a tendency to be Introverts.

Check out the article and please comment and twitter...

 5 Myths About Being An Entrepreneurs

Forced Entrepreneurship:This recession isn't being kind to fledgling entrepreneurs

USA Today's Paul Davidson, wrote this rather true but scary article on the reality that entrepreneurs are struggling.

This recession isn't being kind to fledgling entrepreneurs

While yes this is absolutely true and it has affected some of our projects as well, several projects crashed and burned from the lack of cash flow. There are also huge opportunities for market share. Starting a business is always odd just because the RISK takers are often people without good credit. While the people with credit are often those who are people that pay their bills on time and own property and are not RISK takers.

What we are seeing right now is FORCED ENTREPRENEURSHIP.

People that would not normally aggressively decide to start a business are realizing that this is their best option on several levels.

Best Use of Skill Set: The Highest use of their skill set. Most likely getting a job that uses all of your skill sets when the market is poor is a difficult task. Truth be told a lot of jobs that individuals take are often sometimes not what they really should be doing but they are paid to do.

I am a high creative that has a talent for starting businesses, the job that I created for myself at a company that went from 3 to 200 people in less than 3 years was one that eventually was a job that eventually was taken over by a paralegal. Not what I should be doing.

Entrepreneurship gives you the opportunity to do exactly what you are best at doing.

No Ceiling Income: The mind has a floor and ceiling when it comes to income. Most people don't lose a job and then get rehired at triple their salary. Most jobbers end up taking a job that pays them less than the last job especially in this economy.

While yes it is going to be a struggle to start and learn any business. There is a reason that a lot of self-made millionaires are entrepreneurs.

As middle class goes they are often connected to that specific lifestyle. Often a jarring moment like the recession is the impetus for taking control over ones financial increase.

THE REALITY CHECK:You might have to do something that you don't know how to do or don't want to do.

Pay attention because this important. When credit was aplenty I saw a lot of Baby Boomers go into dream mode. In other words they tapped into the credit to explore entrepreneurship. I saw a lot of people feel their way through there saving when they should have been on the phones. They took the classes, got a logo, etc, but a lot of them ignored the basics of CASHFLOW.

• Is someone paying you right now for a service or a product?
• How can you multiply those results?
• If you are developing a product.
• Who will buy this product?
• Have you done the market research to learn if anyone will buy the product?

While I naturally have the ability to peform and create I had to learn the ability to create tasks for myself. I had to learn to complete things. I had to learn to ask for help and get people around me that can help me finish projects.

Entrepreneurs:Part of your job is to create business.

The other huge dangerous trait that I saw other job based new to entrepreneurs do was this. They spent the bulk of their day doing tasks that did not create business. The danger of being a job based person is that we were paid money to do a task for a number of hours and then we got a check. TIME FOR MONEY.

If you have 8 hours in a normal business day and you spend those 8 hours filing and cleaning when your business is not filing or cleaning for another business or party you are doing the wrong task.

You have to dedicate the right percentage of time during your most productive hours to creating business, creating money.

EXCERCISE: Identify your most financially productive task. Can you double the amount of time you do that task? In doing so can you move those filing and cleaning tasks to after hours or on the weekend.

Your an entrepreneur now so be prepared to master your time.

We created several projects that are being completed and I have to split and balance my time between completing those projects mostly in the evenings and then creating business during the day. I outsource and manage my team as well so as I create a task I will outsource it to free up my time to create another project or client.

If you like these ramblings please comment. I am currently working on my first book based on my dozen years as an entrepreneur and my 2 dozen as an entertainer and the lessons that I learn from both. So if you have a story or a testimonial to contribute please do.

David Kamatoy is a Juggler on several levels. Currently Professional Juggler Comedian, Blogger, Music Producer , Video Director/Producer, etc. The Kamatoy Media Group is helping companies bridge the gap between social media and traditional advertising with Email Marketing using Jugglemail.com (Get a FREE TRIAL account) and more. If your interested please contact us immediately. Current Clients and Projects include NoMoreGeysers.com, and TheAirGorillaBlog.com.

This is just sad but true, Twitter and blogs: Post once and bail out

Orphaned Twitter accounts and blogs are becoming an interesting topic of discussion in this article on Cnet by Dave Rosenberg.

Twitter and blogs: Post once and bail out

As I have been cruising twitter of late, I find this phenomena often. It is not unusual for people not to get twitter or blogging. I find that the concept is just hard for people to take. The learning curve is just so weird.

Think about it even if I wanted to say write a book, a screenplay a haiku poem there is a form and that form takes a while to master.

Twitter is coming into it's own and it's evolving as I am even typing this. While Twitter is he long tail of blogging the reality is that it's still confusing.

Let's face it as much as I enjoy blogging. It's first draft and I grew up on newspapers and books not blogs. To publish a first draft kind of goes against everything we were taught in school when you really think about it.

Here is my take on it.

1. Social Media is not going away.

2. It's the same content in a different form.

Theatre begat Film begat Television begat VHS begat DVD begat begat Internet video begat youtube begat hulu begat mp4 etc. etc. etc.

3.You have to meet people where they are at.

If your client, fans, database are you using twittter. You should be on twitter. If your clients fans database is on myspace, hey you should be on myspace.

4. Write content that your people and you care about.

5. Promote that content. Don't just write but learn to promote it.

I am seemingly spending more time promoting what I write than writing it. Eventually that will change once the database has built momentum it's then a matter of being...

6. Consistent:Be consistent with your output. Dedicate yourself to some sort of schedule because social media is about attrition, small ball, throwing stuff against a wall and seeing what works.

Final thoughts: You can't escape social media if you want to grow your business online. Therefore you need to get help and education on not abandoning your twitter or blogs. Go back and claim your web real estate and get some help.

We can help just email us. Yes this is a shameless plug to end this post. lol

Entrepreneur Tip: In the face of fear Action is your next step...An Act of Will

This quote recently got traffic on twitter so I thought I would expound.

Action is the foundational key to all success.
Pablo Picasso

One of the definitions of action is, "AN ACT OF WILL" i f you break that down to a single step its an act of will, a single task.

AN ACT OF WILL BREAKS DOWN TO A SINGLE TASK.

One of the constant challenges that I have is the conceptual nature of how my brain works. I am a highly creative person by nature that has had to learn to break down projects into steps in order to finish them.

The challenge is that emotionally while I excited at the prospect of starting a project. In midstream where a task is needed to be done to finish the project. Finishing is not an emotional motivation nor is the next middle task. It's as if the mind does not see the middle step as actual. It only sees the beginning and the end but not the middle.

More importantly my mind did not know how to celebrate or acknowledge the middle task. The key to getting to the end of a project if you are not motivated by it is to keep starting.

I make lists constantly but what I've learned is that I need to be exceptionally specific about the list. Listing what's directly next in a project and then crossing off that next step is one of the keys to my success.

If I just have the would-be completed project on the list it will never get done or more importantly it will never FEEL like I can get it done. 

AN ACT OF WILL BREAKS DOWN TO A SINGLE TASK BUT IT SOUNDS COOLER IF YOU CALL IT AN ACT OF WILL.

TIP: Handwriting a short to do list can be extremely beneficial. Handwriting is connected to your sub-concious mind. The act of creating that list and crossing items off that list will help you feel as though you are moving a project forward. Celebrating or acknowledging the ACT OF WILL a single task is what your after here.

David Kamatoy is a Juggler on several levels. Currently Professional Juggler Comedian, Blogger, Music Producer , Video Director/Producer, etc. The Kamatoy Media Group is helping companies bridge the gap between social media and traditional advertising with Email Marketing using Jugglemail.com (Get a FREE TRIAL account) and more. If your interested please contact us immediately. Current Clients and Projects include NoMoreGeysers.com, and TheAirGorillaBlog.com.

"Hey that's me wait that's not me." Twitter to verify accounts to eliminate celebrity impostors

As the popularity of twitter grows so does the reality of the celebrity impostors. I find this only amusing because I saw this happening with website. I am amazed at how many celebrities don't own there own name as a url. It's like the whole publicity, agent circle was completely asleep when they built the internet.

 Twitter to verify accounts to eliminate celebrity impostors- by Verne Kopytoff

GRAB YOUR BRAND ON TWITTER WHILE YOU STILL CAN.

I mean come on $10 bucks to secure your name as a URL. Hello! $5,000 a month for my publicist back in the day so that they could ignore the web.

Case in point: I remember asking my agent if she wanted me to build her a website and she basically said, "No" because she didnt see a benefit. Comically a few years later she actually said to me, "Hey have you seen the website, I'm so excited." Really you can't make this stuff up.

Finally I am reminded of my buddy Dat Phan because part of his impetus to start building his myspace profile was that someone was pretending to be him on myspace. This guy was thanking people for congratulating him on winning last comic standing.

FINAL TIPS: Get the url with your name even if it's the .name. especially if you are branding yourself. Get the twitter.com/yourname if you can as well again branding yourself before someone else grabs it. If you have common name then try adding the activity or category that people will most likely search for you under. Also you always add the word BLOG behind your name and start a simple blog site.

David Kamatoy is a Juggler on several levels. Currently Professional Juggler Comedian, Blogger, Music Producer , Video Director/Producer, etc. The Kamatoy Media Group is helping companies bridge the gap between social media and traditional advertising with Email Marketing using Jugglemail.com (Get a FREE TRIAL account) and more. If your interested please contact us immediately. Current Clients and Projects include NoMoreGeysers.com, and TheAirGorillaBlog.com.

Review:Land of the Lost- Imagine falling into one of your favorite television shows as a kid but now your an adult.

I enjoyed this film I think because after watching the previews I knew what I was getting into. Once I was there it was clear.

Imagine falling into one of your favorite television shows as a kid but now your an adult.

This answers the question that seemed to be on the mind of every reviewer.

WHO IS LAND OF THE LOST FOR?

Answer: Those of us who grew up on Kroft Family Shows.

Rated pg-13 I think the answer is still not so clear. If you grew up on t Kroft Family Shows you start to realize that these brothers produced so much of the kid and family entertainment of the 70's and 80's hr pufnstuff, Kroft Puppets, Family Affair, Donnie and Marie Show, Dean Martin Show to name a few.

Deciding to take a break from my late night insanity to see if I can drop into an early showing of Land of the Lost. Early meaning 12:01a.m. The theatre was filled with a spattering of people that genuinely seemed entertained by the movie.

Anna Friel: Very enjoyable to watch even though I have read about her work in "Pushing Daisies" not being familiar with her actually help ground the comedy and help sell the reality of the surreal plot.

Will Ferrell: Odd and brilliant as always Will is definitely the go to guy on these odd exceptional everyman type roles. The thing that he does well in this piece is play adverse relationships in a comical way. He creates a comic tension that makes us expect a gag, a laugh and that's what makes it work.

Danny McBride: Was lucky enough to be brought in on Tropic Thunder which was truly one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. He apparently riffed a lot in this film and while many of the riffs did not make it in. The attitude did.

Director Brad Siberling: Nice work reigning in this rag tag group of actors. There were several comic bits one specifically that I was amazed that you guys made that work...

Let's just say that I didn't expect to be walking out of Land of the Lost singing, "A Chorus Line" again a great era reference to the same group of us that watched Land of the Lost. lol. 

Avy Kaufman: Just wanted to give you a nod. I like the way you cast things notably Lions for Lambs which went a bit unnoticed sadly it was a powerful piece. While Land of the Lost is not Lions for Lambs casting was still the same brilliant.

Effects were a nice upgrade while still keeping some of that old camp in the deal. Congrats to the effects and prod design crew. It's fun to see the tech work in the context of a comedy. You forget that it exists which is your job, but I sat through the credits past the Dino egg gag and wow, it was a long list.

Some Favorite Comic Moments for me...

Bug Gag: Yeah we saw it in the preview but there is some subtly to this black comedy moment. Notably the blood draining from Wills body. Nice!

Chorus Line: It becomes almost an uncomfortable running gag. Especially with the musical theatre gay reference until the pay off.

Matt Lauer: Payoff Gag.

Hey enjoy the movie. See it with other people that will get the references that's probably your best bet. Not the one to take the younger girl your dating because of your mid-life crisis. =P

David Kamatoy is a Juggler on several levels. Currently Professional Juggler Comedian, Blogger, Music Producer , Video Director/Producer, etc. The Kamatoy Media Group is helping companies bridge the gap between social media and traditional advertising with Email Marketing using Jugglemail.com (Get a FREE TRIAL account) and more. If your interested please contact us immediately. Current Clients and Projects include NoMoreGeysers.com, and TheAirGorillaBlog.com.