Mixergy Backstage – with Cedar Rihani
on Jan 7, 2010 - 4:39 PM PSTToday’s guest didn’t make it to the live interview, so I asked someone from the audience to step in and have a conversation with me. I didn’t expect to post it (which is why you might hear me sipping on my yerba mate more than usual), but the feedback from the live viewers was so good that I decided to edit and post it.
I’m very grateful to Cedar Rihani for jumping on Skype and having this conversation with me. It takes guts to get in front of a live audience like this without any preparation. If you appreciate what he did, could you tell him on Twitter.
The FULL program
About Cedar Rihani
Cedar Rihani will be launching boltathletics.com coming Jan 19th. You can talk to him on Twitter, where he’s @CedarR
*Raw* transcript Interview minutes
I’m having some transcript problems today, so I’m going to just post these notes instead.
5:00: The effect of the Mixergy transcripts on traffic from search engines.
(See Matt’s comment below.)
6:20: Why younger/smaller companies can’t count on search optimization for traffic.
8:10: My best source of traffic for Mixergy.com
10:10: The best way to build a community
10:20: Why startups that build online communities fail
16:20: What happened to my business plan at Bradford & Reed
17:00: The best news site for entrepreneurs
19:10: Why feedback is so helpful
20:20: How I responded to the most painful criticism I got online
21:30: What happened when I lost control of an interview
24:20: Why I don’t care about about traffic numbers. And what I care about so much it hurts.
27:20: The pain of launching a company and not having customers. And what you can do to avoid it.
30:30: Who you should be stealth with and who you can’t afford to hide from.
33:30: How I responded to Mixergy’s top “competitor.”
35:30: The one thing I do to get the top entrepreneurs to accept my interview invitations
38:50: My advice to you, if you’re nervous about doing interviews on your site
40:30: Why I don’t edit out my stupid mistakes
42:20: How you can ask people to do an interview with you
43:10: What happens when people don’t respond to an email request for an interview
45:50: The goofy mistake I made when girls didn’t return my phone calls
48:00: My plan for 2010
48:40: Why teaching well is like showing someone how to kiss
52:10: About Cedar Rihani
Suggested comments
What do you think of my use of the minutes instead of a transcript? It’s much easier for me to do.
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January 7th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Good interview by CedarR! This segment was very helpful: Who you should be stealth with and who you can't afford to hide from. Would be great to hear more on this issue in future interviews. The question I have is how to get feedback on a potentially great idea, without giving away the idea to competitors.
January 7th, 2010 at 11:29 pm
Cedar was great and I loved the questions he asked! I enjoyed the idea of you sharing a bit about “who you are as well” Andrew.
I wonder if your not getting text pulling in traffic, due to the fact that the transcribed text is within a frame? If it was outside the frame in just a normal post, I would assume it would be picked up more easily by search engine…I'm purely speculating here :)
Incidentally shoemoney has a recent blog post about SEO and how even now google is saying to quit focussing on SEO http://bit.ly/5Vkbth
I love that idea of creating an audience rather than a community.
Yep the people that give you constructive feedback want you to kick ass because we think you're great and want you to be bigger and better
I think a lot of these startup companies that make it, have a lot of friends and workmates in the “real word” who can help spread the word.
Another great interview but this time from Cedar. But I liked the interviewees responses too.
January 8th, 2010 at 1:25 am
Hi Andrew
I think I know why this website is struggling with seo. The interview transcripts are not getting indexed by the search robots at all. I think it is something to do with the form that you use to insert the transcripts. I suggest that you talk to your SEO friend and look for a solution.
Keep up the great work with your interviews, I really appreciate it.
Cheers,
Matt
January 8th, 2010 at 3:07 am
Definitely appreciate it a lot, thanks Andrew for your work!
By the way, I listened to your interview with Jason Fried more than 3 times, and I am starting to like the way 37signals does things. I think for a company to be successful, it is not the eyeballs or page views, it is the profit and positive cash flow. In this regard, I don't admire Facebook or twitter anymore these days. These sites will come and go.
So basically, I like “small and profitable”…
January 8th, 2010 at 3:26 am
Andrew,
Offering classes on subjects such as angel investing would be great addition.
Even if it was only video bites from different guests on a particular subject or re-purposed interview clips.
In fact, often I had wished Lynda.com offered content specifically for entrepreneurs.
True, they do offer their 'Creative Inspirations' series; but those are more or less just case studies, and not practical info or expert workshops.
If your classes were of the same caliber as your interviews, I would definitely pay for such premium content.
January 8th, 2010 at 4:55 am
The interview was Awesome! Thanks Cedar and Andrew. I think I'm part of the Mixergy audience since the begining and I love the content and the way Andrew does the interviews. I've just started my second startup (the first one failed) and this one is working much better (it is profitable from the start) because of the audience that I had in my blog and the work I'm doing creating an email list.
Andrew, I think you should put more effort in lead generation and list building. Also, from the content you already have, you can create some products to sell, helping you to increase Mixergy's revenues.
Once again, I love Mixergy. Keep the awesome work!
January 8th, 2010 at 7:20 am
Thanks Matt, I'll check it out with him. And I'll link to your comment from the post.
January 8th, 2010 at 9:16 am
I was checking this as well, but the transcripts are being indexed and crawled just fine.
The issue with SEO for this particular site is that there's no underlying SEO plan and maybe that's not a big deal. Could the site be SEO optimized much better? Certainly, much better in fact, you could quite easily attack some traffic-getting phrases. But I wouldn't worry about it simply because Andrews target audience will find their way to the site naturally. I found it through a Yaro Starak interview and have been hooked since. The more interviews & content there is the bigger the momentum. What's more interesting SEO wise would be using mixergy.com as a way of boosting another site's seo efforts.
This was a great interview btw!
January 8th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Andrew, I had a blast with this interview and a big thank you to the audience for the positive feedback. I hope to engage in more dialogue with all of you in the near future…
January 8th, 2010 at 11:30 am
Ref: 19:10 “why feedback is so helpful” – you discussed feedback in the interview and how hard it is to get good feedback from people – it reminds me one one of the most important moments of my professional that I would like to share with any “junior feedback receivers” out there…
(true story) It was 1998 and I was called into my new boss' office at Lucent Technologies for my first performance appraisal with him. I wasn't nervous at all because my last boss just used to hand me a written report of my wonderful achievements during the previous year and review it together with me and have me sign – no feedback, none whatsoever.
This new boss, however, turned out to be a different breed and became my mentor for over 10 years in two different companies (I followed him from Lucent to Global Crossing in 2000). He sat me down and said – “I'll send you your written report later to review and sign but what I want to do with you now Mateo is to give you some good feedback.” Well I was overjoyed and thought to myself – Great! More good feedback! My boss said “if you've never received good feedback before, this may make you a little uncomfortable but please try to keep an open mind.”
For the next 30 minutes my new boss basically ripped me a new asshole. Everything from criticizing the physical control of my body in customer meetings (like fiddling with a pencil or moving my leg), to the way I “reply to all” on controversial e-mails instead of picking up the phone to resolve the issue one-on-one, right down to the way I closed the door of my office all the time like I was hiding something (I was Director of Sales at the time).
No mention of my exceeding the sales target or of all the recognition we were getting inside the company for the good work we were doing.
When he was done and I was good and angry he didn't say anything for what seemed like a full minute of silence. Then he said “Say thank you….” and I didn't say anything (I was in shock). Again he said, “Say thank you…feedback is a gift and I just gave you a big one.” “From now on, I will give you immediate feedback every time I have something to say – I will not wait for performance appraisals or formal meetings – believe me you will thank me for this later.”
Well of course I thank him now for that valuable lesson and for the following 10 years of blunt, in your face, immediate, say-it-like-it-is feedback that he gave me which is the biggest gift anyone can give.
I have found that he most successful people out there are those that know how to request this gift proactively and then receive it with an open mind, without taking offense – then act on it APPROPRIATELY. How to unlock the mystery of how to act appropriately? That is not a solvable problem my friends…..
January 8th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
I think this was a watershed interview for #Mixergy. Well done Andrew and Cedar. http://mixergy.com/backstage-cedar-rihani/
January 8th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
I wish Cedar all the success he deserves
If i may give a piece of answer about audience and community :
audience is about having the most people reading you
community is about sharing a passion with people
goals and ways to succeed can be very differens as the expectations will be different
you can't fool a community if you don't share the passion
You showed a lot of generosity Andrew.
Thank's for spreading good human values.
January 8th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Andrew, it seems obvious from this that folks are interested in how to video blog, perhaps it might lead to you creating a how-to information product. Yaro Starik did this for blogging: http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/ // http://www.blogmastermind.com/coaching/
January 8th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
I found Andrew through Yaro's interview too. I didn't like the first interview I saw, but came back to watch one more interview…and then I was hooked.
January 8th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
Cool little story.
January 9th, 2010 at 12:22 am
Andrew – Thanks for posting this! Even though the video was casual and unscripted – the natural exchange of comments, thoughts, questions, and answers was fantastic. I'll be staying up the next few nights catching up on all the video interviews you have here on the right hand nav of your site… looking forward to them!
Cedar – Let's catch up here in the next few days, I'm excited to see the launch of the Bolt Athletics site. Can I get an early sneak peak?
January 9th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Hi Andrew, this is the first interview I watched and I loved it. I look forward to watching more and checking out your site. I have one question so far. In your response to Cedar regarding new business ideas, whether to keep quiet, or talk about it, you mention the two groups of people, the techies, and the customers. My question to you is, how do you REACH the customers? I look forward to your response,
Estee Silverstone
January 9th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
I really enjoyed the ~interview, I am liking these behind the scenes look into mixergy and other interests, it really makes mixergy into a great conversation between all the fans and Andrew.
January 9th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
This was GREAT!! What works Andrew is the openness and reveling of ones inner feelings like Leo and Jason do, it makes a world of difference and viewers love it. The secrete sauce I believe is…. just be yourself dam-it and let the chips fall where they may. Don't over analyze the shit just produce it.
January 10th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
So natural and yet such great questions! One would have to be both blind and deaf not to see you have a talent in taking interviews and connecting with people. Also I can see that you are an entrepreneur from the way you asked most of your questions – very business oriented.
I enjoyed this one very much!
I wish all the best, Cedar!
And thanks for making this available to all of us, Andrew!
Constantin Gabor
January 10th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
Thank you Constantin!
January 11th, 2010 at 2:26 am
Hi Andrew
It was great to get some insight into the effort and process that goes into your show.
I'm curious about two things:
How many hours does it take on average, from start to finish, to put an interview together?
Apart from your sponsors, do you generate other revenue from your work @ Mixergy?
Best
January 11th, 2010 at 2:33 am
Andrew, Hi
Enjoyed the insights into the effort and process needed to get your show to air.
I've got two questions please:
How many hours, from start to finish, does it take to create an interview?
Does the Mixergy platform generate any revenue apart from sponsorship fees?
Thanks in advance.
January 13th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
Andrew, you may want to consider doing a posts on how you do your interviews. That way, when people send you emails about it, you could just vector them off to posts on your blog. Just an idea.
January 15th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
wow! I didn't know it is already up to 250 interviews!!! CONGRATS
January 15th, 2010 at 11:10 pm
Regarding your idea about hosting a Class, (love the idea) I think rather than funding, I am so over people seeking funding before even seeing if there's a market for their product or service. Why not a class with top people about how to find a market. How to recognize problems and create solutions. Like checking forums, blog comments, online user engagement. In your interview with the 99designs.com founder his final piece of advice was for entrepreneurs to always test their assumptions that people will spend money on the “solution” before building. Tim Ferriss and many other success business owners have stated the same. I think their should be a lot more focus on how to test assumptions than how to raise money.
January 16th, 2010 at 5:06 am
wow! I didn't know it is already up to 250 interviews!!! CONGRATS – @CedarR does have a dynamic raw talent for interviewing. Thanks for putting this on the site. Checking out http://mixergy.com/the-email-i-use-to-land-top-… now.
January 16th, 2010 at 6:10 am
Regarding your idea about hosting a Class, (love the idea) I think rather than funding, I am so over people seeking funding before even seeing if there's a market for their product or service. Why not a class with top people about how to find a market. How to recognize problems and create solutions. Like checking forums, blog comments, online user engagement. In your interview with the 99designs.com founder his final piece of advice was for entrepreneurs to always test their assumptions that people will spend money on the “solution” before building. Tim Ferriss and many other success business owners have stated the same. I think their should be a lot more focus on how to test assumptions than how to raise money.
January 27th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
[...] you on could lead to one of the most popular programs on Mixergy. Check the reaction to Luke and Cedar, the last two guys who did [...]
March 10th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
[...] Mixergy Backstage – with Cedar Rihani (mixergy.com) [...]