Melissa: 10 minutes.

I went to a party last year, which was a total dud. The only good thing to come out of it? My introduction to and friendship with Melissa. (Which made the event totally worth it.)

Melissa is a fierce, bold, action-oriented, passionate entrepreneur/idea girl/supermom/friend. She decided she wanted to make a film, so she did. She decided she wanted to start a company, so she did. She decided she wanted to interview Seth Godin, so she did. Why not.

I admire everything about her.

She joined me and a couple of girlfriends for lunch the other day. I think we were talking about website domains that she bought for fun. And she said, “If an idea is good enough to stick around for 10 minutes, then it’s definitely worth the $5 it costs to buy the domain for it.”

So basically, don’t waste time. Act.

I should do more of that, and less of what I’m good at: procrastinating.

Thanks, lovely – as always.

Genevieve: Sales > Marketing.

I spoke at an event called Entrepreneurs Unplugg’d a few weeks ago alongside power entrepreneurs like the founder of GrubHub, Crowdspring, and ConstantKarma. (I don’t know why I was invited to speak, but thanks Tim and Stella for thinking I could play with the big dogs.) Genevieve Thiers, founder of Sittercity.com, also presented her start-up story.

Her presentation, in addition to being so super informative, high energy and fun (and operatic and theatrical), had one major key takeaway for me:

When starting a business . . . when you’re doing the stuff to get rolling . . . sales are key. Sales are more important than marketing. Because without sales, you can’t continue marketing.

Super easy concept. Super difficult for someone like me to keep in mind, since I think the marketing stuff is so fun (and the sales part is not as fun).

I’m so glad to have Genevieve as an example of someone to look up to. Thanks, lady, for inspiring me!

Jessie: There are 3 Types of Mean People

I reached out to Jessie, owner of Posies Cafe in Portland, OR, after I read her blog post about her experience with Groupon. Naturally, since we were going through some of the same things, I said, “Hey! Let’s be friends!” So now we are.

We were talking about how challenging it is to run a small business, and how so many consumers don’t get that it’s a personal extension of who you are, and how it’s so, so very tough to not take criticism personally. Especially when it’s on the internet and people are too wussy to show their faces with their mean-spirited comments (like so many were on Jessie’s blog post.)

And she said, “You know what? These mean people fall into one of three categories:
1 – They’re bitter and angry because you’re doing something they wanted to do, but never had the nerve to do.
2 – They’re bitter and angry because of an isolated incident, in which case, you apologize and hope they forgive you.
3 – They’re bitter and angry, period. And they hate life. And they’re complainers.”

I think she’s pretty much right. As a business owner, if you’ve done all you can to resolve an issue, come to common ground, and rationalize with someone who is just downright negative – and a customer still isn’t happy? Well, there’s only so much you can do. And putting any more effort into convincing a mean person to be nice is simply wasted.

Well said, Jessie.

Gary: The Right Partnerships are Critical.

Gary Cohen is the SVP of Marketing for Redbox. He was a guest lecturer in one of my marketing classes at U of C, and after his presentation, I invited him to lunch. He graciously accepted.

During our lunch conversation, Gary talked about Redbox’s STAGGERING growth over the past three years, including their projected $1bn in revenue for 2010 ($150m in 2007) with ZERO marketing spend. The reason for their drastic growth?

“It’s totally been about partnering with the right distribution channels. Strategic partners and cluster locations have been critical to this business model.”

Makes sense. I’m trying to find ways to apply this model to our business. Who can we partner with for optimal growth opportunities? How can we use the network effect to our advantage? What changes can we make to our business to make the scalability that much more feasible?

Art: Meet and Exceed Expectations.

Professor Art Middlebrooks teaches Marketing of Services at University of Chicago Booth School of Business. I love his teaching style. I love the way he relates traditional marketing principles to current pop culture. And I loved our discussion on the whole concept of “underpromise and overdeliver.”

He said that it’s actually been psychologically proven that underpromising and overdelivering makes a consumer actually think they’re not getting as high quality of a service. Their expectations are low, so they’ll possibly perceive you as shoddier than a competitor. Instead, he suggests to promise what you can actually follow through on, and then consistently deliver, over and over again.

I’ve always run with the “underpromise, overdeliver” mindset, but now I’m wondering if I need to adapt it a bit: “promise, and deliver over and over.”

What’s your customer service mantra? And how does it work for you?

Tammy: Eliminate Awkwardness.

Someone told me once there are two questions you should never ask:
1 – Are you pregnant?
2 – Are you the grandmother?

Tammy (a close girlfriend who works at Children’s Memorial Hospital and deals with a bajillion kid patients and their caretakers daily) has figured out a roundabout way of determining the answer to the second.

—–
Scenario:

Tammy walks into exam room all decked out in official doctor-type gear. She sees a baby, a woman who looks like she’s 25, and another woman who looks like she’s 45.

She asks the baby, “So, who did you bring with you today?”

The younger woman volunteers, “Oh, I’m her mom, and this is my sister.”

Tammy thinks to herself, “Thank-freakin’-goodness I didn’t ask if she was the grandmother.”
—–

Other awkward scenarios eliminated by this question:

“We’re his dads.”
“I’m her grandmother, and this is my neighbor.”
“I’m his uncle, and this is my girlfriend.”

But the workaround the “are-you-pregnant” question? You keep your mouth shut. And you never, ever, EVER ask.

EVER.

John: European Travel.

I met John (@localcelebrity) via Sydney at dinner one night. He mentioned that he spent some time traveling through Europe, and since I’m actually a European at heart, we started talking about the places and things we’ve experienced.

John speaks German. He doesn’t really speak French. But when he went to France, he used this trick to get by with English:

John (to the person selling train tickets): “Sprechen-sie Deutsch?”
Train ticket person: “Non, non. English?”
John: “Oh, yes, I speak English. I’d like two train tickets to Amsterdam.”
Train ticket person: “What time would you like to depart?”

And just like that, he convinced a French person to voluntarily speak English. (Which rarely happens.)

He said this: “They’re obstinate about speaking English, until you present them with another language they’re even more uncomfortable speaking. Like German. And then they beg you to speak English.“

I’m totally trying this the next time I go to Europe.

Debbie: Power Hour

If you’re like me, you get distracted by phone calls, emails, Facebook notifications, Tweetdeck chirping in the background, a 4 year old who wants yogurt or string cheese or candy or cupcakes, a buzzing dryer, online Sudoku, blogs, Google calendar, the need to shower, etc.

My former business coach Debbie taught me that each distraction actually takes 4 times as long to tend to, which is why she told me to start my Power Hour: focused, non-distracted work time to get through things that are critical for maintaining business. I go to my office and shut the door with a little post-it that says “Working” on it so everyone knows not to interrupt.

I break down my daily Power Hour into four 15-minute segments. (I do 15 because I’m so ADD to begin with; anything longer would require way too much brainpower. )

1. Reply to e-mails. DO NOT OPEN TWEETDECK, FACEBOOK, OTHER BROWSERS. (SO super challenging.)
2. Make outreach business building, focused phone calls. I hate making phone calls, so often I’ll bribe myself with shoes. (For every 100 phone calls I make, I get to buy a new pair of shoes. )
3. Strategize. I’ll focus on different areas daily, such as operations, marketing or networking. A 15 minute timeframe makes me think critically and acutely.
4. Learn. I’ll read an article, a chapter out of a business book, blog post, etc.

What are the four areas in your life you need to maintain daily? And what would happen if you could do them without being interrupted?

Debbie, I love you for making me create my own power hour. My life is infinitely more productive, serene, and less cluttered by distractions. LOVE YOU FOR IT.

Fabrizio: Bastardo team!

En route to Barcelona from Nice in 1999, I shared an overnight train cabin with Fabrizio and his Italian buddy, two South African girls, and a French guy. Kind of like speed dating, we rotated through the cabin to talk and pass the time. Fabrizio and I immediately started talking about the World Cup, which the French had won the previous summer.

“You know why the Italians didn’t win? They should have won. Italians are the BEST (hands in the air) at football, but they still didn’t win. Bastardo team; they didn’t take it one game at a time.“

I started laughing, but he was really upset (as any good European soccer fan would be).

What he wanted me to understand: take it one game at a time. Don’t get overconfident. Don’t let one loss mess up your psyche. Regroup after every game. Assess weak spots and work on them until they’re strengths. Don’t set your sights to be World Cup champions until you’ve done all the prep work.

I bet Fabrizio is happy they’re the current FIFA champions.

Bastardos. Hilarious.

Ryan: Get linked.

Ryan Evans (@ryanevans) is the owner of Rand Media Group, an online marketing firm. Ryan ordered three dozen cupcakes; I delivered them so we could have a nice chat on his doorstep.

Fast forward 36 hours and we both ended up at the same coffee shop in Lincoln Park. And because both of us had work we wanted to procrastinate work for ourselves, we started talking business. Well, I let him do most of the talking, because I had all of the learning to do.

He ran through some of the basics of SEO and search engine ad placement. And although what he was sharing with me was really basic to anyone who has ever owned a web-based business, it was brand new to me. The stickiest?

“Get as many links to your site as possible.”

Links to your website boost its credibility among the algorithms Google uses to determine which sites are good and which sites are crap.  Good sites with high rankings get higher placement and more visits. Which, duh, lead to more sales.

I can’t wait to figure out how we’ll implement this strategy in 2010. It’ll be interesting to track and measure our efforts.

Thanks, Ryan, for sharing all two hours worth of conversation and information with me. I really do owe you more than just cupcakes.