SocialROISummit.com

Larry Chiang writes about entrepreneurship and pre-entrepreneurship. He edits the Bloomberg BusinessWeek channel “What They Don’t Teach You at Business School”. After Chiang’s Harvard Law keynote, Harvard Business wrote: “What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School“ (the same title as his NY Times bestseller). If you read his scandalously awesome “What a Supermodel Can Teach a Stanford MBA” and “How to Get Man-Charm”, you will like his latest post:

How to Not Come In Dead Last at a Bachelor Auction

By Larry Chiang

I am horrified to be doing a bachelor auction.

Don’t get me wrong, I am comfortable with women in their 20s and 30s buying me. What I am scared of tremendously is coming in dead last…

Its for charity and the Guardsman is putting this on in SF at Ruby Skye.

Here is my proposed date package #1. I am calling it:
“Gossip Girls: Bachelor Date Package with Larry Chiang”
The write up is below and I am super open to getting feedback via email larry @Duck9 .com
Its Sept 8-12, 2011 (Thurs to Sun)

Get VIP treatment and behind the scenes access to Mercedes Benz Fashion Week that would make Blair Waldorf and Serena Van Der Woodsen from Gossip Girls jealous.

You’ll slip backstage with Larry Chiang and get an incredible life experience at Lincoln Center in New York City.

*** BONUS ***

a party invite for you…

If you liked this… Larry’s mentor Mark McCormack wrote this in 1983. His own book came out 09-09-09. It is called ‘What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School‘

This post was drafted in an hour and needs your edits… email me if you see a spelling or grammatical error(s)… larry@larrychiang com

Larry Chiang started his first company UCMS in college. He mimicked his mentor, Mark McCormack, founder of IMG who wrote the book, “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School”. Chiang is a keynote speaker and bestselling author and spoke at Congress and World Bank.

Text or call him during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes at 650-283-8008. Due to the volume of calls, he may place you on hold like a Scottsdale Arizona customer service rep. If you email him, be sure to include your cell number in the subject line. If you want him to email you his new articles…, ask him in an email :-)

You can read more equally funny, but non-founder-focused-lessons on Larry’s Amazon blog .

Larry Chiang teaches at a school that he could not get into and wrote a sequel to a book he read and re-read one time too many. He edits the Bloomberg BusinessWeek channel “What They Don’t Teach You at Business School”. After speaking at a school in the Boston area, Harvard Business wrote: “What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School“ (the same title as his NY Times bestseller). He launched his book at a fashion show in NY called Mercedes Benz Fashion Week and wrote, “What a Supermodel Can Teach a Stanford MBA”. If you liked “9 VCs You’re Gonna Want to Avoid” and “How to Get Man-Charm”, you will like his latest post:

How to Get a Law Passed To Kill Your Competition Dead for Under $20k

By Larry Chiang

PALO ALTO — CALIFORNIA

Newsflash: I am an incredibly cut-throat business person to big-jerk business. This first appeared on my Duck9 blog.

I wanted to call this article, ‘How to Get a Law Passed for $217′ but I thought it was a little too obnoxious (even though its true)

As a man from China, my people get a lot done for very little money… How did I get the CARD Act passed for less than the cost of two oil changes?? Here is exactly how I engineered this:

1) Blog.

I do something that almost no credit industry executives does. I blog. By industry exec, I qualify it by saying “surpass the $100mm revenue mark”.

Every time I say this, people say “mint dot com”

Well, last time I checked, Mint has well south of $1mm revenue. Total

2) I blogged some more.

You can go on and write credit policy position papers and create white papers until you’re blue in the face but there is one source of information: Google. Google loves blogs.

I even wrote a book on credit: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Personal Intellectual Property. Zero effect. But blogging works

I also blog at GigaOm, TechCrunch, VentureBeat. And BusinessWeek.

3) I kissed a lot of ASS

4) I Sprinkled Mentorship Into the Lobbying Process

5) We did a lot of media.

Media loves a supermodel that talks good. Me talk pretty on the TEE VEE here here here and here.

6) Align and Find a Parade (Versus Starting One)

My mentor talked about the perils of fighting city hall. I listened.

As founder of the largest company that sold credit cards to college students, I could have easily allocated resources to preserve the old rules. We were already winning at the old rules and I wanted to make sure we kept winning. The ‘parade’ of anti-credit card sentiment was rising. Plus, I was having to choke down the lies that the banks were telling people Re: junk fee justification.

The parade was going and we decided to lead.

7) Mimic Jesus and Make the Devil Jealous

Jesus did the whole servant leader thing pretty well.

I offered to be the assistant to anyone who was willing to listen. Our government affairs push was aggressive. The data pointed towards simple conclusions that credit card debt was causing college students to have to work more and sometimes drop out.

-8- Take a Page Out of “Bartle’s and James”

Gallo wine saw wine cooler as a significant threat to wine sales. In reaction, it launched two retards named Bartle and James. They bought a bazillion ads. They marketed it as a separate company apart of the 3B gallo wine. They sold a ton of wine coolers.

We were UCMS and we started “duck9′

UCMS = United College Marketing Services

Duck9 is Digial Underground Credit Knowledge

We changed it to Deep when everyone mis-spoke it.

I was the lead retard

It has the double entendre of ducking 9. 9s are credit industry code for charge-offs. If you don’t know what a charge-off is, you’re not in the credit industry.

-9- Host AfterParties

You can host an afterparty for little or no money. Tactically, here is how. AfterParties build your rolodex while giving your platform a chance to shine. I chinkied up a party at NCAA, Sundance, SXSW, TED.

I am not linking to them but if you google larry chiang (fill in blank with one of the above) afterparty, you will see the stuff I assembled.

My next trick will be to introduce a bill that has my name in it, “Larry Chiang Electronic Credit Score Protection Act”. But I don’t want to be dead or in Congress. I want to get this done as a private citizen.

True Story: The paper is mightier than the email

Experian Credit Bureau
PO Box 9556
Allen TX 75013-9556

Equifax Credit Bureau
PO Box 740256
Atlanta GA 30374-0256

TransUnion Credit Bureau
P.O. Box 2000
Chester PA 19022-2000

I will even help you draft the letter.

Email me larry@ d u c k 9

wanna make me happy.

Tweet at me or send me a facebook massage

facebook.com/

*** BONUS ***

a party invite for you…

What a Supermodel Can Teach a Harvard MBA

If you liked this… Larry’s mentor Mark McCormack wrote this in 1983. His own book came out 09-09-09. It is called ‘What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School‘

This post was drafted in an hour and needs your edits… email me if you see a spelling or grammatical error(s)… larry@larrychiang com

Larry Chiang started his first company UCMS in college. He mimicked his mentor, Mark McCormack, founder of IMG who wrote the book, “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School”. Chiang is a keynote speaker and bestselling author and spoke at Congress and World Bank.

Text or call him during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes at 650-283-8008. Due to the volume of calls, he may place you on hold like a Scottsdale Arizona customer service rep. If you email him, be sure to include your cell number in the subject line. If you want him to email you his new articles…, ask him in an email

You can read more equally funny, but non-founder-focused-lessons on Larry’s Amazon blog

Larry Chiang closes deals in rooms that he was not even invited into. He edits the Bloomberg BusinessWeek channel “What They Don’t Teach You at Business School”. After Chiang’s Harvard Law keynote, Harvard Business wrote: “What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School“ (its the same title as his NY Times bestseller. If you read his scandalously awesome “What a Supermodel Can Teach a Stanford MBA” and “How to Get Man-Charm”, you will like his latest post: “Top 8 Places to Close a Deal at TechCrunch Disrupt”.

By Larry Chiang

Finovate showcases the innovative personal finance management sites here in New York City.

Last year was a year of getting dashboards up and going for consumers to see a snap shots in a dashboard metric of personal wealth, expenses, revenue and the associated ratios. Well this year, I’m delving way behind the scenes and uncovering the lies told during networking sessions.

-1- I know Richard Fairbank. I went to the same business school.

-2- I have never taken out a pay-day loan

-3- I’m staying at the Four Seasons at the Ty Warnet suite.

-4- I know about them because I read the NetBanker blog via an RSS subscription that feeds into my iPad.

-5- See that VC over there… I got a term sheet from them.

-6- Oh, this phone is new and I don’t know my number… email me.

-7- I’m friends with Jim Bruene

-8- I’m not dee-runk. I really do know the ex-CFO of paypal that works at Sequoia.

-9- Yes, I took notes at all the presentations. I came to my vote for “Best-in-Show” by using a speadsheet my assistant put together

Good luck networking out there and have fun calling out these ‘lies’

*** BONUS ***
a party invite for you:

http://economist.eventbrite.com/

What a Supermodel Can Teach a Harvard MBA
If you liked this…

Larry’s mentor Mark McCormack wrote this in 1983. His own book came out 09-09-09. It is called ‘What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School‘

This post was drafted in an hour and needs your edits… email me if you see a spelling or grammatical error(s)… larry@larrychiang com

Larry Chiang started his first company UCMS in college. He mimicked his mentor, Mark McCormack, founder of IMG who wrote the book, “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School”. Chiang is a keynote speaker and bestselling author and spoke at Congress and World Bank.

Text or call him during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes at 650-283-8008. Due to the volume of calls, he may place you on hold like a Scottsdale Arizona customer service rep. If you email him, be sure to include your cell number in the subject line. If you want him to email you his new articles…, ask him in an email
You can read more equally funny, but non-founder-focused-lessons on Larry’s Amazon blog .

Larry Chiang is an instructional humorist and is as friendly as a fluffy all-black shih-tzu. What he lacks in book smarts, he more than makes up for in hustle and friendliness. He is not a Jedi but has predictive instincts stronger than Obi-Wan Kenobi when it comes to how a party will play out. Read this and the force will be with you too. After an HBS event, they wrote: “What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School“. After a Stanford Women in Business Conference and BASES keynote, he accepted questions via text message while he was talking. He disproved the wisdom of Confucious in “What They STILL Don’t Teach at GSB About Getting Revenge” and revealed “What They STILL Don’t Teach You at Stanford GSB About Scamming”.

Now he uncovers, “What They STILL Don’t Teach at Business School: “Working” the Black and White Party“.

By Larry Chiang

Congrats on getting that Black and White Ball ticket

Here are 5 things to expect

-1- It’ll be chock full o women.

Men do not don the penguin outfit even if it means the ratio is 2:1 in their favor. At Teach for America, there was a feeding frenzy. I have video proof here. If you’re a man and want ROI, buy a ticket and your cost per lead will be under market price. A lead in this case is a dude (if you’re mancharming) or a female (if youre prospecting for dates)

Black & White Ball 2010

-2- Tony Bennett and KD Lang are Gonna have an AfterParty.

To the benefit of my twelve readers this week, you can use my cell number, 650-283-8008, or Facebook fan page and I will mentor you in how to get invited backstage. Who am I? A guy who goes from crasher to VIP back-stage at celebrity events. For money, I credit educated college students. I accidentally wrote the bestselling, tell-all book: What They Dont Teach You At Stanford Business School

-3- Host an AfterParty.

Remember, no one wants to go home at 1am so identify where your balls are and host something. If you want step-by-step procedure as to how to do it… Read TechCrunch here.

-4- Make Friends with Old People.

Older people in their 30s and 40s can be awesome. This event is chock full of great people. It is extremely great networking opportunity to get to know these people.

My mentor, Mark McCormack, who wrote the book, “What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School“.

-5- It is Very OK to Go Stag.

See tip #1.

-6- Stop Rock-Piling.

A rock pile is only hanging out with people you know

-7- Give Good Reviews.

I love people that are positive. Giving good reviews even if the food isn’t served at the perfect temperature.

Black & White Ball 2010

-8- Tip 8 Five Dollar Bills.

Remember, because it is open-bar, tip on the very front end of the evening. Two people don’t tip well: MBAs and celebs.

-9- Jealousy Works in the Opposite Way that It is Supposed To.

Sure I read this on the back of a LaLaLime bag but it sure doesn’t make it less true

Chip in your questions in the comments!

I founded Duck9, which educates college student on credit cards and how to establish a FICO score over 750. I have testified before Congress and World Bank on credit.

My earlier posts include: How to Work The Room and 8 Tips On How to Get Mentored.

-BONUS FICO CREDIT TIP- Pay It Forward.

Cut and paste this blog article to your Facebook in a note. Tell other people about what you learned here. This POST IS NOT copywritten so cut and paste to pass this advice forward
The credit industry wants you dumb, stupid and in the dark. For example, the industry quotes the average FICO score to be 678 or even as high as 700+. The real average credit score is 585.

Snail mail is mail sent with a 41c stamp. BFF is ‘best friend forever’.

I have made millions steering people towards a higher FICO score. The absolute biggest secret is that postage paid, old school stamps preserve your credit rights. Remember, FCBA stands for “Fair Credit Billing Act” — not the Fair Credit Biatching Act. Yes, 800 number systems were set-up to short-circuit your rights because voicing a complaint does not document your problem in the eyes of the law (FCBA and FCRA –”Fair Credit Reporting Act”).

Larry Chiang writes about hacking business and school. After a Harvard Business School keynote, they wrote: “What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School“. If you read his scandalously awesome “What They STILL Don’t Teach You at Stanford About Getting Revenge” and, “What They STILL Don’t Teach at GSB About Public Speaking” you will like his latest post that he didn’t even write… It’s written by a rising star named Lorene Moore. It’s called, “Making Magic: How To Use Google Maps To Find Any Executive’s Phone Number”

by Lorene Moore

By Larry Chiang

Austin, TX, May, 2010

My mentor, Larry Chiang is SCARY GOOD on the phone. He gets what he wants from people on the phone when he wants it and listening in leaves me feeling excited and in a rush to get started on the next action items.

Listening in while witnessing a master on the phone creates a thrilling combination of feelings that include fear, confusion, anxiety and excitement. Using Google Maps to find and call the direct lines of industry “hitters”, also known as Executives, is an adventure sport!

Mr. Larry’s teaching me how to be ‘legendary’ on the phone (not just ‘pretty good’) by teaching me how to use Google Maps to find Executives’ phone numbers and dialing them at the same time.

In my very first practice session on how to use Google Maps to find an executive phone number, Mr. Larry shared his secret strategy which I’ve outlined below in ten easy steps.

Larry Chiang is not exaggerating when he says,”Put me and my two phones with full charges in any city in the U.S. of A, and I will outflank a team of MBAs with a three month head-start. Business is about contacting people for money. Read and use this column so a phone in your hand will be more deadly than a Jedi with their lightsabre.”-Larry Chiang, author of “How to Give Good Phone”

In fact, I think an extremely valuable seminar to hold would be one where a roomful of MBA’s/Entrepreneurs/Founders practice live calling Executive Hitters while simultaneously using Google Maps, Gmail IM and iPhone 3-way conference calling under the tutelage of my amazing mentor, Larry Chiang.

Here’s Larry Chiang’s secret method of how to Use Google Maps to find an Executive’s phone number:

1. Start with general search terms in Google Maps

and keep adding terms and digits up to TWELVE TOTAL SEARCH TERMS in the GOOGLE MAPS search box.

2. Keep adding key words and parts of the phone number as you find them up to a total of TWELVE SEARCH TERMS in the Google maps search box.

A ‘term’ is a string of characters, i.e. 650= One search ‘term’= area code=3 digits of a number

3. Enter the first, most general key words then hit

i.e. “duck9.com” then hit

4. ADD the name of the Executive you want to the END of the search box then hit

i.e. “duck9.com larry chiang” then hit

5. Now ADD the area code that shows up in the results to the end of the search box then hit

i.e. “duck9.com larry chiang 650″ then hit

6. Next ADD the first three digits that came back as a result of step 5. above to the end of the string in the search box then hit

i.e. “duck9.com larry chiang 650 566″ then hit

7. By now you’ve found at least the main switchboard number for the Executive you are trying to reach and probably more than one complete phone number related to this executive. GREAT! You now have the FIRST SIX NUMBERS TO HIS/HER DIRECT LINE!
i.e. “650-566-9600…My direct line is 650-566-9696″

8. Continue building off the main number until you find the DIRECT LINE suffix(x9696) for the Executive’s desk/assistant or until you get into the internal switchboard.

“Bounce around in the voice mail system. Stay internal. You want an attendant to help you, a live person who can transfer you internally so that your call is routed as an INTERNAL call within the company! Everyone picks up internal calls.”

-Larry Chiang

SCARY GOOD, right?

9. Even if you access the internal directory by LAST NAME and you choose a random person to call, THEY can transfer you to the desk of the Executive you REALLY want!

It’s genius. It’s surreptitious. It’s stealthy. It WORKS!

10. To sum up…start in Google Maps with the GENERAL SEARCH TERMS and work your way towards the SPECIFIC NUMBER you are looking for.

Once you get the area code (the first 3 digits), then add the next 3 digits which is the main 3 digit prefix for the company and dial the main number/switchboard or ANY number that shows up in the results with those first six digits.

Also try +-1 digit off the main switchboard number to ring an internal person’s desk. Try +- 10 digits and see who you get. Try nice, even, alliterate-sounding number suffixes such as ’4545′ too.

Once SOMEONE answers, ask for the executive you want then act confused, ask for a transfer and VOILA´ you’re IN!

11. Now read Larry Chiang’s article: “The Art of Cold Calling” so you know what to say when you get the Executive on the phone!

Final thoughts:

‘Knowing how’ does not equal mastery…not even close.

‘Knowing how’ something is done basically just opens up the gates for successive failures which, upon accumulation and via the principle of compounding experience and perseverance, eventually leads to success and mastery of the task at hand.

I’m still failing upwards towards mastery but my mentor,Larry Chiang, inspires and encourages me every day through conference calls on our iPhones where we put the method to use on real life Executives and HPPs (High Profile Persons).

I now mute myself on the 3-way calls though because Mr. Larry said he could hear me breathing in the background which can’t be good for any call. I think my breathing was the result of the: thrill+fear+confusion+anxiety I always feel during these calls. It’s all good though now as I always hit the ‘mute’ button on my iPhone to listen in.

Usually I’m using Google maps to find an executive’s name and phone number WHILE Mr. Larry is ON THE LINE WITH AN EXECUTIVE/HITTER.

Mr. Larry is also usually IM’ing me at the SAME TIME typing things like, ‘i need a name NOW’ and ‘you better have effen got that email’…haha…and I love it because he’s challenging me, pushing me out of my comfort zone and demonstrating mastery over the very thing he’s trying to teach me ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

Someday I hope Mr. Larry will autograph one of his power ties for me so I can frame it along with with a photo of him on a business call with an Executive Hitter he’s closing.

“You can’t close if you don’t call.” – Larry Chiang

Thanks, Mr. Larry, for everything. Really.

---

My mentor on this topic is Larry Chiang, author of “What They Dont Teach You At Stanford Business School”. This book definitely teaches stuff they don’t teach in B-school.

Larry founded http:/www.duck9.com, which educates college students on how to establish and maintain a FICO score over 750. He testified before Congress http://www.creditcard.org/testimony.htm and World Bank in Beijing on credit http://www.ucms.com/Larry-Chiang-World-Bank-Beijing-Presentation.htm

Larry blogs at Business Week

Larry Chiang is a coat-tailing instructional humorist that rode the anti-MBA sentiment into psuedo celebrity fame. His 15 minutes is going into over-time with major media placements on CNN, ABC News and Wall Street Journal. He confessed to an IQ of 88 on TechCrunch and somehow manages to get Ivy League schools to pay him to speak. Chiang takes coat-tailing to legendary, record-breaking, heights. His most recent feat in the publishing world was promoting his mentor, Mark McCormack, back onto the NY Times best-seller list.

By Larry Chiang

There’s this theory I have that is making me popular enough where people are paying me for my thoughts (vs just reading them for free here at Business Week). My theory is simple-stupid-genius: It is easier for a CS major to learn to be CEO than for a CEO to learn what a CS major knows.

Hmmm!

Given that simple-stupid-genius foundation, I lecture, mentor and advise CS majors aspring to be tech CEOs. Look inside our conversations by searching my hashtag #CSMajorCEO. Here is some awesome stuff spoon fed: “Top 8 Business Mistakes of CS Majors Turned CEOs”

-1- Getting Mentored from a Non-Selling VC

Ok, there are VCs out there that have never sold or gotten sales. If you’re getting schooled, learn from someone who has done what you need to do or sold in a way, shape or manner that you need to sell.

Don’t get mentored in sales from an advisor who mentors you on programming.

Me, I talk to my nail technician about cuticle management and cuticle management ONLY. Because of her 3x divorce history, I try to elicit relationship chatter to people with a slightly better track record.

-2- Don’t Let Urban Myths Guide You

There’s this silicon valley urban myth that company Z sold for $170mm. Replicating from an urban myth playbook is tough. Mimicking sales practices in a granular “blocking and tackling” is your best plan.

-3- Events + Social Media + Direct Marketing

You have to spend 10/hrs per month doing these three things. Ideally, it’s before an industry conference. If you’re selling janitorial services tracking software, locate the case study on OrangeQC. Yeah, its CS majors selling at an industry conference for very little money.

-4- Dumb Down, Sandbag For Sales Success.

Remember, we don’t want to impress the CS Majors we met at college, Stanford eBootCamp, Bar Camp or Foo Camp. We want to dumb down so a silly person who graduated in the 70s or 80s called a C-T-O is impressed.

Note: the disparity in knowledge between a junior in CS and a 30 year-old CS professional has never been smaller.

-5- Biz Model.

Focus all your energy buying $20 bills for 3-7 bucks.

It’s my opinion that your first goal should be a lifestyle business. Having a goal to reach $10mm in sales where you keep about $500k in profit is a pretty lofty goal. A lifestyle business is frowned upon by VCs but last time I checked… every billion dollar business at one point was worth $30mm. True story.

What are you charging $20 for?
How much does it cost you to make that $20. If your answer is ‘less than $20′ then you have a business.

-6- Hiring a Business Guy

A good 1st biz dev person is tough. Steven Blank writes about the hazzards. Paul Graham and Dave McClure advocate extreme caution so much so that you can count the number of their portfolio companies to have reached $2mm in revenue (ever) on one hand.

-7- We’ll Just Do A Partnership

Zaw Thet did a deal with Gannett for 4INFO
Peter Pham did a deal with T-Mobile for BillShring.

Both of these deals were legendary. Doing a partnership like this takes doing about 400-480 maneuvers of a possible 650 micro executable things – It is not easy to properly execute a partnership with a big partnership. If you’d like to talk to Zaw or Peter, paypal me $5 and I’ll sell you access to their cell. Translation; I’ll fwd your texted question to them :-) Text me at 650-283-8008

-8- 80% of CEOs Sell

This stat is misleading because it is true.

Apply this to a miniscule amount of action by slightly selling and promoting. Self-promotion or selling your own company is tough because failure is so uber personal.

Here is how you the CS major needs to sell
A) sell yourself as an expert first
B) promote some other company or concept first
C) mentor while your market your product/service
D) host something
E) educate media/bloggers about what you’re an expert on to get testimonials
F) Set aside your own fear of failure because

Larry has a new company where he helps entrepreneurs get a dashboard look into their accounting reports. It’s called inDinero. ‘In’ like inside/outside. ‘Dinero’ like Mexican for money. He was working on Muck9 which does something similar. Muck9 is Money’s Underground Cashflow Knowledge. He is co-founder of Duck9 where he has testified before Congress on credit and been an expert witness at World Bank.

Larry Chiang edits the BusinessWeek channel “What They Don’t Teach at Business School”. After a Harvard Business School keynote, Harbus wrote: “What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School“. If you read his scandalously awesome “What They STILL Don’t Teach You at Stanford About Getting Revenge” and, “What They STILL Don’t Teach at GSB About Public Speaking” you will like his latest post about “Using Twitter to Save Money- The Broke Diaries”.

By Larry Chiang

Chirp is the conference about Twitter. Just like anything else tech and communication… there is a way to hack it up. When I say hacking, I mean a better way to do stuff.

-1- 650.

I have this theory that as a conference producer there are about 650 things that need to get done and planned. Awesome conferences do about 450 or 500. Most conferences do about 300 things. There is opportunity doing 10-30 of the 650 things to augment and improve the conference experience.

-2- Venue Location(s) is/are Important.

I pre-scoped the location and combed through the venue and scheduling. The location is like a roadmap of where and how conference attendees ebb and flow.

-3- People Want Pictures

So here they are.

Biz Stone welcomes you to Twitter Chirp

Twitter broke it wide open at SXSW

Biz Stone reveals registered Twitter user numbers- 107,779,710

Evan Williams Launched Twitter Conference

Evan Williams showing partners using Twitter as a platform

Twitter’s Positive Impact

-4- Host an After Party.

Hosting is the easiest and best way to get traction of your idea. Liquor is one option, but I like food because I’d rather eat.

At Chirp, I am making marianated BBQ hot dogs.
http://plancast.com/a/2a7i

-5- Shoot Simple Video

Bam! Here are three awesome videos

-6- Lead Gen!

If you get a business card, make sure you record and keep it. Your value of attending is knowledge second and contacts first.

-7- Dress for Impression

At the tech portion of the conference, I wanted to dress like a biz dev guy…

…at the biz dev portion, I wanted to dress like a tech dev dude. My goal is to bridge the hinterlands of burgeoning tech with a dash of sales and revenue. I want tech dudes to see me as sales-ie and sales / VC dudes to think I’m techie

-8- Promote Someone Else Before You Promote You

It is weak sauce to promote just yourself.

It is genius to promote something else because it shows you’re an expert in the field and confident enough in your own venture. Plus, people sit for the self-promotion when they pull it out of you versus you pushing it at them.

If you liked this, you may also check: Larry’s mentor Mark McCormack wrote this in 1983. He started IMG which represents athletes.

I wrote this in 30 minutes. If I missed something, email me… larry @larrychiang dot com and include your cell in the subject line.

DISCLOSURE: I kick a lot of butt. Text or call me during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes on my cell: 650-283-8008.

Larry Chiang is the founder of Duck9 , which educates college students on how to establish and maintain a FICO score over 750. He is a frequent contributor to BusinessWeek. His earlier posts on GigaOm include: How to Work The Room ; 8 Tips On How to Get Mentored ; and 9 VCs You’re Gonna Want To Avoid . You can read more equally funny, but non-founder-focused-lessons on Larry’s Amazon blog .

Larry Chiang is an instructional humorist and has an IQ of about 88. What he lacks in academic prowess, he more than makes up for in wisdom. He is not a Jedi but has instincts stronger than Obi-Wan Kenobi when it comes to picking out talent in a cocktail party. Read this and let the force be with you too. After an HBS event, they wrote: “What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School“. After a BASES keynote where he did Q&A via text message, he revealed “What They STILL Don’t Teach You at Stanford GSB About Public Speaking.” Now he has computer science undergrads writing for him…,

by Wesley Leung and Conrad Chan
Edited by Larry Chiang (sorta)
Originally here.

As two guys who love to code, we have noticed a not-too-exciting stereotype floating around our fields of study: CS majors are poor speakers who have traded their interpersonal relationship and communication skills for technical expertise. This label is unfortunate because on the whole, CS majors truly do indeed publicly speak worse than those in other fuzzier fields. To break out of this stereotype and reach our full potentials, we decided yesterday to participate in some Speaker Training 101 to improve our public speaking skills, because, to be blunt, CS Majors who speak well do better than CS majors who don’t speak well.

Here are some useful tips we took away from the training:

1. Silence is powerful.

It might sound ironic, but the most powerful speakers are those who can employ pauses in their words. During short bouts of mental hiccups, everyone will want to fill gaps in their speech with the two most spoken words in the English language. Yeah, that’s right: “Umm…” or “err…” Avoid these. Be conscious of your umms and errs. See if you can catch yourself in the act and replace them with some thoughtful, contemplative silence. You’ll be surprised.

2. Use your hands.

Using your hands to emphasize key points or to articulate what you need to say is extremely effective. Don’t let them hang limp at your sides, hiding uselessly in your pockets, or tucked away behind the podium. You have them for a reason. Be lively and energetic!

3. Don’t touch the podium!

People may not think about this at all, but their natural instinct is to grab whatever is in front of them while they are speaking. On-stage, people will psychologically want to seek some sort of security. Remember that stand-up comedian who kept fiddling with their microphone? Or maybe that nervous speaker who appeared to be humping the podium. Neither took tip #5 into account. Be confident, poised, and keep your hands off the podium!

4. Listen to your introducer.

Don’t just start speaking and talk over your introducer. As the main event, everyone will naturally have their attention on you. Show some courtesy and give your introducer your undivided attention. The audience will naturally follow you. When the introducer gives you the stage, don’t just start speaking and talk over him. Ease your way into your speech and set the pace for your audience. It can be as simple as “Thank you [name] for introducing me tonight…”

5. Interact with the audience.

Reality check: who are you speaking to? The audience. They are here to learn from you, so its best to know your audience and involve them in your speech. For example, this can be accomplished by doing simple tasks such as asking questions “raise your hand if…” Follow tip#6, and you’ll keep the audience refreshed and engaged.

6. Pull yourself out of a tailspin.

During the speaker training, I choked up during my improv and forgot the name of an organization I was supposed to describe. After around 5 seconds of misery, the name came back to me and I made my recovery by graciously and humorously accepting the fact I made my mistake. Surprisingly, the audience felt that this contributed to the power of the speech. Apparently some speakers even plan out things to fail during their speech so they could similarly pull themselves out of a tailspin. This tactic is supposed to connect the audience to the speaker and create this bond because the speaker becomes more human, down-to-earth, on the same plane as the audience.

7. Don’t hold back your energy.

For some unknown reason, some people equate speaking with less energy to increased technical expertise. That actually doesn’t make you look more sophisticated, that just makes you look like a poor speaker. Release that energy and don’t hold back! Capture your audience’s attention with all the power you have to make your speech more effective

8. Critique yourself and have others critique you.

This may seem self-explanatory, but when you are practicing your speech, take turns with others to point out positives and negatives in your speech. When addressing your own negatives, see if your audience agrees with you. Surprisingly, audiences may not notice a lot of your mistakes. What feels like hours of mistakes on your part are actually unnoticeable seconds for your audience. Keep running drills immediately afterward to incorporate the constructive criticism.

Photo Credit: Conrad Chang

Our public speaking is nowhere near perfect, but we recognize it as a valuable skill to have and hope to improve in it quickly. Try out these small tips, and you’ll be surprised at the difference it’ll make. Most of the world fears public speaking more than death. Master these tips and you will absolutely amaze. It’s the first step to being able to throw an event that will make a 2^nd year Stanford GSB student jealous. Ambitious? No problem.

Larry Chiang writes about hacking business and school. After a Harvard Business School keynote, they wrote: “What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School“. If you read his scandalously awesome “What They STILL Don’t Teach You at Stanford About Getting Revenge” and, “What They STILL Don’t Teach at GSB About Public Speaking” you will like his latest post about Getting VCs to Pitch Us Entrepreneurs.

If you spend 60 minutes reading his stuff, you’ll be street smart by St Patrick’s Day.

By Larry Chiang

B-School is a lot like the NSA… awesome stuff but sometimes not very immediately applicable.

My concurrent session will break a lot of rules including speech structure, content organization and absolutely no flow or use of transitions. But it will have deliciously scandalous tips like;

-1- Being Media to Get Media

It used to be that we would aspire to get on TV news or a talk show. Now, we can move our own sales needle by being media to get media. An example is guest posting on a popular blog like ProBlogger or BusinessWeek. The last time I checked, blogging at NSA Speaker.org has a pretty darn low bar (even I am allowed to post as much as I want). And the good news is that they don’t even edit your stuff so you can be as self-promotional as you want to :-)

Once you are media, you can write about what major media should be writing about. Heck you can even call out a writer such as Mike Arrington of TechCrunch, Brad Stone of the NY Times, Om Malik of GigaOm or Josh Tyrangiel of BusinessWeek

-2- Using Twitter to Get a Testimonial

Use it a little or use it a lot. If you use Twitter a little, do what my venture capitalist friend Ken Howery did. Tweet seven times and just stop.

If you want to use it a lot, you can squeeze a testimonial out of people when they tweet at you. It doesn’t even need to be in the right context which works great if you’re a pretty bad speaker like me. For example, Eric Ries, author of the blog, theLeanStartUp, said of during a dinner, “Larry Chiang is a genius.”

He was referring to the fact that I had four iPhone chargers in my pocket and was offering to charge people’s phone for $3.50 or a tweet. He wasn’t referring to my CEO-ing abilities or any other ability except to be boy scout prepared at a conference we were both speaking at.

-3- Doing a Two-Way Keynote

This is what the cool kids are doing.

The two way keynote is where information flows both ways. Audience feedback is live. Leveraging listener train of tweet is critical to your ability to do a two-way keynote. I discovered this skill purely by accident: My audience (sorority girls) is/was multi-tasking me. I thought, why not have them cheat on me… with me. Cheat your attention to my keynote with my material on-line.

There are some very advanced skills required to listen while talking so it works best if you learn…

-4- Moderating a Two-Way Panel

Moderating a two-way panel is one step easier than doing a two-way keynote. When your panelists talk, you can read the Twitter stream. For example, when I moderated a panel on Venture Capital, I used the hashtag “#vcSecrets”. When audience members had questions, they could tweet them to the live-stream. The live stream was projected onto a huge screen in the room.

An added channel of the two-way moderated panel is to take questions via text message. I do it to show off my ability to listen while speaking. It explodes the attention the audience pays to my stuff because they think they are controlling me and my content by texting and tweeting me.

-5- Getting 60 questions / interaction within one keynote

It is very possible to get 60+ interactions per 45 minute keynote. It is also very possible that over half of your tweet stream won’t even be in the room.

-6- Pre-Programming

I pre-load articles that I think will pop up during Q and A. Ideally, it’s an article I wrote or a paper I published that shows expertise. I live ambushing an ambusher. Lets say I am talking about FICO credit scores and I pontificate on how things might be, what to keep an eye on and what it all really means… I pre-load up my Congressional testimony at some bit.ly link ( a bit.ly link takes a long web address and makes it smaller so you can tweet it. Tweets are under 140 characters )

-7- Using an “air traffic controller” during your keynote to fire off tweets as you speak

An “air traffic controller” is someone sitting at home with a computer ready to go. The air traffic controller gets an audio feed of your speech and loads up tweets as if you were tweeting them yourself. You can amaze, shock and awe even the most jaded of college students if you tweet while you talk.

I also like to record video of people asking questions while I speak. Yes I use a flip cam. Being media gets you media.

-8- How to Self Syndicate Content

It used to be you had to have real writing talent to syndicate your written material. Now, all you need is a decent focus (mine is ‘What They Don’t Teach in Business School’) and the moxie to cold-call blog editors to post your stuff. Write once, publish 18x.

-9- Rebate on a a freebie speaking gig

My biggest problems come from when I say yes to the free speaking gig. Here is how I solve that problem: I charge them a deposit and make them agree to simple terms. I used to get fired from free gigs before I even spoke. How depressing is that?! I solve the problem of the last-minute-deal-change by using my deposit gambit.

I also use this when I host a workshop. My speaker friends always wanna come for free so I get them spots if they leave a deposit. Also, this works great if you use EventBrite because your tickets have price momentum.

Here’s an example that shows price momentum. Lets say you have a 100 person venue. The worst thing you can do is put it out there that you have 100 unsold tix… I tranche the tickets 25 / 25 /25 and mark it sold out at 75. I always sell way more after my event has been sold out :-D
The first 25 are a rebate meaning you get your 45c back if you show up. The next 25 tickets are 55c but there is no rebate. The next 25 tickets are 61c so people see, the longer you wait, the higher it goes.

After I mark it ‘sold out’, it is uber easy to sell tix. An example of this is here

Larry Chiang boils down difficult things into bitesize chunks to execute. His bestseller, “What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School” – He has spoken at Harvard and Stanford about how to be street smart. He has had a half-dozen mentors at NSA and he is passionate about entrepreneurship and has the goal to keep the social media time sink in under 20 minutes a week.

If you liked this, you may also check: Larry’s mentor Mark McCormack wrote this in 1983. He started IMG which represents athletes.

I wrote this in 30 minutes. If I missed something, email me… larry @larrychiang dot com and include your cell in the subject line.

DISCLOSURE: I kick a lot of butt. Text or call me during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes on my cell: 650-283-8008.

Larry Chiang is the founder of Duck9 , which educates college students on how to establish and maintain a FICO score over 750. He is a frequent contributor to BusinessWeek. His earlier posts on GigaOm include: How to Work The Room ; 8 Tips On How to Get Mentored ; and 9 VCs You’re Gonna Want To Avoid . You can read more equally funny, but non-founder-focused-lessons on Larry’s Amazon blog .

Conferences cost money and in this down economy many are cutting their travel budgets. I say good because the people that do go, need to get an ROI.

Every time, I go to a Las Vegas conference like BlogWorld, Affiliate Summit or the grand daddy of deal making: LeadsCon, I get lucky.

In the same way that Obi Wan mentored, young Jedi’s, here are twenty-one tips for you my padawan.

-1- Fly Right.

First realize that there is high likelihood there will be conference attendees on the same flight and the airport is a captive networking opportunity. Maximize meet-ups by waiting at the gate versus the club lounge. Holding a sign-up is cheesey-scary-genius, but an industry related book is ideal to signal.

http://www.whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com/images/business-card-holder.jpg

Also, forgo the free upgrade and fraternize in the cheap seats. The rationale is that five good peeps you see and meet in coach is way better than one fat cat up in 1st. Your United 1K elite flight status isn’t a complete waste, invite your prospect to  pre-board and close a deal before the conference even starts.

-2- Pre-Conference Networking!

This critical manuver gets you 6-10 solid contacts. Work the RSVP list like a Gamma Phi Delta sorority girl from University Arizona dialing for dollars. Meet them via LinkedIn, Spoke, Twitter, Facebook or their blog. Expect that 15% of the list won’t show but be aware of an extra 15% that will show.

-3b- Get Jiggy With the Jargon.

Leverage conference buzzwords to introduce yourself to panelists, attendees, speakers and conference organizers. For example, scrape Twitter, Google and Summize for the key conference terminology and nomenclature. For example, Tim OReilly’s Foo Camp 2009 would prompt ‘foo camp 2000′, ‘#foocamp09′, ‘alpha Tech Ventures’ and “@timOreilly” searches. Take those results and start palm-pressing (aka saying “hi”) via Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, wiki, conference guestbook and/or attendees’ blogs.

-3c- Ask for pre-conference introductions.

Get warm intros to speakers via email from a mutual work friend. You might need to lay out an email for the introducer. You will more likely ace the conference by lining up meetings with industry leaders and ‘hitters’.

-4- Work the Secret Society VIP list.

My best inside tip is to bribe the conference PR girl to reveal last minute A-list bloggers and reporters to you.

-4b- Work the Secret Society VIP & attendee list some more.

This time tip the Bell Captain in charge of early am newspaper distribution $2/attendee to attach some ‘brand-my-company’ leaflets. It works well to staple a “Welcome to TechCrunch 50″ to a Wall Street Journal or Economist magazine. Bonus bonus if your company is also on page 3. Minus minus if your CEO has a print ad running from his modeling agency days on p25.

-4c- Promote a secret society of your own.

Host a non conference approved happy hour. Picture a par-for-the-course conference at boring hotel #9. Within the mix of stale meeting rooms and stuffy ballrooms is your ‘secret’ hosted reception in a top-floor suite.

Critical components to a well produced ‘secret’ happy hour include blurbing word of the event to critical co-hosts. The co-hosts promote it to their crew of friends. Word-of-mouth is critical. In the same way that college student text message each other about good deals, people will buzz about your party.

-4d- Sharing, feeding and getting a theme.

An option is to let the secret out of the bag with signage through out the hotel and posting on the hotel meeting TV bulletin board. I prefer hosting with some food or at least having pizza delivered.

I love themed happy hours with guest interaction (e.g. a pirate on the high seas). You can tag stickers on their name badges and dole out party favors.

-4e- Off the deep end.

Get a conference post party going by having your CEO make in-suite chocolate chip pancakes. Don’t offer utensils and wait for the sticky fun to begin. Leave the HR and legal team at home or in the dark.

-5- Prep your elevator pitch of who you are and what you do.

This should coincide with your conference thesis and focus. For example, if I go to a technology conference, my sound byte is, “I head up a company that does FICO preparation for college students and I’m here to see how people
send text messages from a ten digit number.

-6- Kiss alpha, gamma and beta ass.

Don’t make the mistake of just being a star-chaser and only kissing alpha ass. Kissing gamma and beta ass means being nice to assistants & staffers (gammas)

http://www.whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com/images/diagram-VII-Registration-Booth.jpg

and of course fellow attendees (betas). An extreme example is to kiss check-in staffer ass by making your check-in process turn into a vacation FOR THEM. (See diagram XII Diagram of conf Totem Pole. Mother Hen, Chair, speakers, keynoter, panelist, lunch Keynoter, break out session speaker, attendee Important vs Involved)

Kudos if you smoke out the conference producer and PR point people. (See diagram XII checkin booth lay-out). If they’re a self-published blogger or frequent commenter on TechCrunch/SiliconBeat/GigaOm, wax on about how you took notes on their comment.

http://www.whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com/images/Booth-Management-II-expand-red-zone.jpg

http://www.whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com/images/Booth-Management-II-expand-red-zone-by-adding-prospects.jpg

-7- Multiple Targets, Multiple Bogies.

This means attending conferences with your team. ‘Targets’ are people to meet. Bogies are conference signal noise that come in the form of seller/beggar/moocher and cause interference. When you go to a conference with a team, you’ll (a) need a ‘control’ that acts as a “central command”, (b) tight leashes on 1st time conference attendees, (c) ass early am meetings and (d) clear team objectives.

-7b- Targets and Bogies at a Booth.

If y’all have a conference booth, you’ll want to get a clear booth schedules, hire traffic stoppers (aka booth babes), hand out premiums, collect and rate leads every half-day and book second meetings for execs.
See diagram BOOTH

-8- Coincide your local media appearance in and around the conference.

Nothing legitimizes you more than a local TV news show interview. Another gambit is having a photographer shoot you while you’re on a panel or walking the expo floor

Don’t over do it by loading up YouTube clips on your iPhone jacked into flat panel displays on perpetual repeat unless you’re 80% as cute as this Shih Tzu.

-9- Get in early and leave late.

The old way was to ‘big league’ by flying in late and flying out early. You as the newly minted grad, doused in the scent of presidential timber, need to outwork, outflank and outshine industry veterans and stalwarts.

-10- Investing in Conference Treasure.

Hey, you spent $250k going to b-school (or saved $250k by NOT going), so why not tip bribe and comp $200.00 (of your own money) to boost your conference visibility or springboard to your conference goals. I’m not recommending going into credit card debt, but manage your treasure to make more treasure (Chapter 2 of my book, “What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School”)

-11- Peak on the Last Day.

Conserve your energy and don’t make career stalling mistakes when you’re tired. Ideally, you and your effervescence still glow on Day 3 of a three day conference.

-12- Take Conference Notes.

Is the panel on ‘Monetization of Social Networking’ putting you to sleep?! Taking paper notes is a lost art but clear dividends include compiling post conference ‘To-Do’s, tracking who you sat with and when so you can follow up, clearing the conference haze of who will refer what and when, cutting and pasting a good panel idea for your own SXSW presentation and my favorite… ripping off an entire keynote to place into your book, “What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School” I also take pictures of my notes and tag them on Facebook.

-12b- I also do something very old school.

If there’s a person I’d like to do business with that ISN’T going to the conference, Ill offer to email notes to them. My new school gambit; if/when I hear of someone get cited at a conference (e.g. Ted Rhinegold of Dogster or Seth Sternberg at Meebo) I’ll text message them. I out note -take every GSBer I’ve ever met.

-13a- Don’t Forget to Pack School Supplies

Conferences are like school. I pack

- Sharpie or Chiesel Tip Colored Sharpie
- Business cards (and if you’re fancy a personal card if you’re job shopping)
- Fraiche Frozen Yogurt gift cards. Or Starbux to hand out to helpful people not in Palo Alto CA
- Business card holder. Its a three ring binder compatible holder that sits in a plastic sleeve. Biz cards will get lost in a shuffle. Diagram 9.
- Easel boards they’ll have there but post-it nores you’ll have to swipe
- FedEx return ship labels (bonus if its your agency shipper number). You can also hand these out to people who don’t want to carry their conference binder back with them
- EXTRA CREDIT bring a branded binder, lanyard or chain for your name badge, stickers for your name badge holder

If you HAVE to talk during class…
-13b– Side Bar Ettiquette

If you’re gonna talk to your neighbor its 10x for classy to jot a note or text them. If you’re the CEO chatting with post panel fans, take it outside the ballroom or risk getting chased by a gamma attendee trying to learn. A gamma is a lower tier business executive just starting career.

-14- Kiss Conference Chairperson Ass.

If you’re a pro, you’ll get migrated from attendee to VIP when this alpha mentions you from the podium. You will reach stratospheric status if they walk you around the room introducing you. Brown nosing is gross now that I live in SF, but tastefully kissing ass right near the crack is how you escalate to VIP status.

-15- Work in comforting 10 wall flowers.

Ten per conference is very good but ten per day is legendary. It is best to mingle as a single conference attendee whereas packs of two tend to rockpile (where the two stones cling to each other and not meet others). Build your karma and you might accidentally meet your next $20mm client.

-16- Promote something for someone without any benefit to yourself.

-17- Solidify and simplify your brand at the conference.

Me, I’m the FICO guy that can answer credit questions and I’ve helped dozens of people I’ve met at conference mixers raise their credit score. I wrote a GigaOm article helping and I can help you too. Ideally, your brand is easy enough to regurgitate after two martinis, four hours of sleep over continental breakfast while on a blackberry.

-18- Sleep Right @ Conference Hotel.

You must stay at hotel where the conference is, sleep at least three hours, avoid roomates, work out at least 10 minutes. If the hotel is full, waitlist (love the waitlist and read GigaOm tip #5 ) yourself. Try to never ever

*booty call an attendee
*stay with a friend that lives in the city,
*eat alone,
*meet up with friends from that city

-18b- Manage your conference libido.

Just because you tipped 3 nickels for the two class room upgrade as per my previous Amazon post, it doesn’t mean you need to show off by inviting people up.

-18c- Goals and Money.

Remember, ace three conferences a year and you can live like an oil baron and rent out an entire floor. But while you’re a new GSBer, leave your new dating interest a note under her door.

-19- Conference Man-charm .

In Wall Street, Bud Fox says to his mentor, “I’ve always dreamed of one thing and that to do business with a man like yourself”. Saying it with flowers is over-the-top, but sending a fruit basket to the room is ‘PRO!’. Read more on “man Charm” in my GigaOm post.

-20- Post Conference To-Do’s.

Two or three conference follow-ups can add to the fun part of the 80-20 rule. Translation, follow-ups are easy and very beneficial. Basics include logging contacts’ business cards, adding cell phone numbers, tagging some Facebook photos and pushing people along the deal process. Advanced tips include calendarization of which conference VIP I will follow-up with in Outlook. Because of notes I took, I will be 13 for 13 in conference follow-up.

-21- Goal Set.

People love people moving towards something. Me?, I’m rocketship towards 11-11-11 . It has the innuendo of all ones in a row implying an on-time payment. By November 11, I will have booked 2,000,000 students with a FICO of 750. I’ve another goal… migrating myself from conference attendee to next year’s Conference Chairperson.

** BONUS **

Fail Upwards And Waitlist Yourself For a Conference. If you’re not crashing and burning twice a year, maybe you’re not reaching high enough. Similarly, if you’re not getting towed twice a year, maybe you’re not parking aggressively enough.