This morning I went to a LikemindLA breakfast, another recommendation from Eric at Mahalo… so many great ideas from one meeting. There, I was told about the NYTimes article profiling the Likemind.com group, and how the members don’t want to be thought of as “networkers” simply authentic individuals coming together for breakfast once a month to enchange ideas. There were some great people there, generally in the ad/marketing world… which is great for me because that’s who I need to be talking to. I learned about a sustainable agency called Neighbor, they manage the Eatright and O-Organics brands for Safeway, will be launching the new renew phone from Motorola for T-mobile, and a few other Green products. When they’re ready to hire, I’m sooo in. I also met people from market research firms, or smaller companies, but really we talked more about interesting blogs we like, an some Iphone application ideas.
Last night I attended “10 Mistakes People Make Before Starting a New Business” and learned about the importance of sharing your ideas to get feedback, and that the execution of an idea (through persistence, believing in oneself, and selling your concept) is much more important than the quality of the product. I met a few people but because it was a much more networky crowd it was all about the business cards and sharing information. There are a number of leads, and individuals who said they would help forward around my resume, but I wouldn’t call anyone to just go out. Whereas the Likemind crew I might just do that.
At likemind I learned about the StepUp Women’s network, and that many marketing jobs are posted on hotjobs versus other sites. I also learned about Mint.com which helps track your personal finances and compare your expenditures to others in your area. Then we talked about investing in virtual real estate, which means registering domain names you think might be good for future businesses and “squatting” on them until someone wants to buy them and selling them at a premium. Much like real estate in general its a long term investment, but one never knows. I bought a few sites for a concept I was working on with an old coworker, but they can be potentially sold to other people too.
Now it’s time to follow-up with all the people I’ve met and see what happens.
