001 – Do Something

September 9, 2011 in Action, Friday Free Form, Video Blog with 17 Comments

Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! PEOPLE OF ALL AGES!

Today you’re about to experience the first video blog for both A Better Way of Business and myself!

And I’m EXCITED!

Enjoy!

YouTube Preview Image

There it is! What did you think??? I’d LOVE TO KNOW!

Special thanks go out to all the people who have encouraged me to try this out! You guys rock!

~Ivan

  • http:/anmouse.wordpress.com Michelle

    Love it, Ivan. L-O-V-E it!
    Keep it up!

    • http://abetterwayofbusiness.wordpress.com Ivan Bickett

      Thanks, Michelle. I appreciate it. Expect to see more of this. It was fun!

      ~Ivan

  • Alana Mokma

    Hi Ivan!
    Thank you for letting me know you were going to post a video blog. It was fun to see you “in person!” :)

    I wanted to share with you my feedback: 1). Your energy is fantastic! You are very animated in front of the camera and speak clearly. It was entertaining (in a good way) to watch. 2). Along the same lines, your facial expressions are great and I liked how you used your hands to gesture as you talked. 3). The message was clear – DO SOMETHING. 4). On the flip side of the animated gestures, I was distracted by how you bounced in your seat and moved from being reclined in the chair and then closer to the camera. Perhaps your “further back” view could be more of a middle ground. I DID appreciate the movement, but I think because it was so drastic at times it distracted me. 5). Sometimes when you moved your hands quickly it created a “blur” affect and I found myself watching that instead of listening to you. 6). I would have liked to see more of your torso or more of a zoomed in shot – there was a lot of head room in the shot.

    SO, I took your tip from the blog you shared about providing specific feedback last night and thought I’d share this info with you instead of just saying “Great vid!”

    Overall, I really enjoyed it and was entertained and motivated at the same time.
    ——-
    Okay, I have to tell you. The first time I watched the video I was on my way out the door to work and could not finish it. I only got to the part where you said “DO SOMETHING.” and then you talked about how you have been wanting to start a business since ’97.

    I just watched the video – IN FULL this time – and it cracked me up! I sit in an open office so I had to be careful not to laugh out loud but the parts where you talked about doing push ups and smiling were AWESOME.

    I am really looking forward to future video blogs!

    Alana

    • http://abetterwayofbusiness.wordpress.com Ivan Bickett

      Alana, YOU ROCK FOR LEAVING SUCH AN AWESOME COMMENT!

      Thanks so much for the GREAT feedback. It’s points like the ones you left above that are going to help me get better. And for that I’m grateful!

      I’m telling you, this is going to be a regular occurrence at A Better Way of Business. I got REALLY pumped from doing this video! I was up until past 11PM afterwards b/c I was so excited I just HAD to do more work on the business. Staying up so late is pretty rough since I get up at 5AM everyday, but when you’re working towards your dreams you’ll make short term sacrifices for long term success.

      Again, thanks so much for throwing all these thoughts and recommendations out there. YOU (and others like you) are why I’m pushing so hard to make this successful.

      ~Ivan

      Oh yeah. Here’s a link to the blog about adding value through comments: http://www.johnflurry.com/theblog/2011/09/07/wasting-on-folly/

      It’s a MUST read by my friend @JohnFlurry for anyone wanting to build relationships through commenting on blogs (be sure to check out the comment section!)!

  • Kristy

    Okay the relationship stuff made me laugh, and SMILE. :) This blog edition was totally Ivan, I remember in college when you would yell at me to not complain about someting unless I was planning to do something about… both frustrating and totally true. I still try to tell others that all the time, well the ones who can hear and no go nuclear because I suggested they take some action, any action toward remedying a problem. I like the video blogs better, it’s definitely more, YOU, I guess. Plus I know you can’t spell to save your life. Alana above hit on what I was going to say, too much room above your head, and you bounced a little too much. However, for you, that was WAY less fidgeting than I expected. Good job, can’t wait for the next one.

    • http://abetterwayofbusiness.wordpress.com Ivan Bickett

      Thanks, Kristy!

      That advice DOES suck when it’s said TO you. I know, Skye used it on me. Hence, A Better Way of Business. Skye got REALLY upset with me one night complaining about my job. And said either start your business and leave your day job or shut up and suffer in silence.

      So A Better Way of Business’s blog was started THAT NIGHT!

      Keep your eyes open. More’s coming.

      ~Ivan

  • http://FundaMusic.com curtishollembeak

    Ivan,

    Way to go! You’re a natural in front of the camera. Your excitement about what your doing is obvious. I feel like Jonathan Poole looking for the energy in your voice. And that energy is certainly there.

    I think there may be too much background, and it seems a bit stark.

    The in and out thing was a bit startling!

    You might want to try to avoid letting your voice get too high.

    I have been encouraged by your postings at FAA to go ahead and do something. Your energy has already motivated me. FundaMusic.com went live this week, and I too am excited about the possibilities.

    Keep up the good work!

    • http://abetterwayofbusiness.wordpress.com Ivan Bickett

      YES!!! That is what I’m aiming for. Encouraging people to GET OUT THERE AND DO SOMETHING! Especially as it relates to starting a business! WAY TO GO Curtis!

      And I REALLY appreciate the feedback. I’m definitely going to be working on some improvements in the upcoming shows. Keep your eyes out, they’ll be a lot more regular here.

      I just checked out your site. WAY TO DO SOMETHING! I like the notes all over and the banner. Are you building the site yourself or did you get outside help? I’ve got a meeting next week with Marta Goertzen over at:http://thebluejeansva.com/ in order to get some help to get my official site up and running. You can also check out another site she runs talking about the tech side of WordPress sites at: http://www.doityourselfwordpress.com/.

      Curtis, I’m so glad you’re out there DOING SOMETHING! lET ME KNOW HOW i CAN HELP!

      ~Ivan

      • http://fundamusic.com curtishollembeak

        Thanks for ALL THE CAPS and !!!s in your reply. Your response reminds of the little book called “Balcony People,” which encourages us to be in the balcony for other people, pulling them up instead of pulling them down. I’ll let you do that for me!

        I put up the web site myself. I started building web sites in the late ’90s, and even programmed an entire e-commerce web site, shopping cart and all, from scratch in WordPad (asaphmusic.com). However, it has never been a real money-maker for me, and I realized that I know absolutely nothing about the business end of business! FundaMusic.com is the result of making it all the way to the Brand class at FAA. It’s the first time I’ve tried the WordPress thing and am just trying to figure out how to make it functional. I’ll be sure to check out the links you provided.

  • Rose

    Zora and I really enjoyed your video blog, Ivan. We found this to be very inspiring, and I feel motivated to go ahead and carry through with our plans for selling Pop’s woodturning items on the internet. Thanks for the heads up about etsy. This looks as if it could be a valuable tool in our enterprise. Zora asked me to tell you that we will keep your endeavours in our prayers. Keep up the good work. love and prayers, Mom and Zora ps Dad is going to see your video in a few minutes.

    • http://abetterwayofbusiness.wordpress.com Ivan Bickett

      Glad to help, Mom! Tell Zora I said thanks for watching and DOUBLY thanks for the prayers. It’s only with God’s help that this is going to work! Let me know if I can do anything to help with selling Pop’s stuff. His work will be displayed in an upcoming post it inspired here. KEEP YOUR EYES OUT (I’ll be sure to email you!)!

      ~Ivan

  • Rose

    ivan, i watched your viedo. i thought it was great. you did good son. you remember how to eat an elephant don’t you…one bite at a time. i’m going to put all the capitols and periods at the end so you can sort’em out…ok?
    IIII….???
    Love ya, Dad

    • http://abetterwayofbusiness.wordpress.com Ivan Bickett

      HA! You know I was sitting here going, “I KNOW he knows how to hit the shift key to make things capitalized. And why isn’t he using punctuation? He taught ME better than that!?!” Then I got to the end and BUSTED out laughing.

      And honestly, Pops, I know I’ve MADE IT NOW! I honestly NEVER expected you to check this out. I know this isn’t your thing. So to not only have you check this out, BUT TO HAVE YOU COMMENT TOO! I HAVE MADE IT!

      It’s all down hill from here.

      Thanks, Pops. I appreciate it. I’ll always do my best to make you and Mom proud. You did a good job raising me and I want others to know that.

      I love you both and am looking forward to seeing you in the morning.

      ~Ivan

  • http://twitter.com/MyWiredStyle Deb Ingino (@MyWiredStyle)

    Way to go Ivan!

    • http://abetterwayofbusiness.wordpress.com Ivan Bickett

      THANKS, Deb! I appreciate you checking this out!

      ~Ivan

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=742165590 David Brad Moore

    Mr. Bickett….thanks. I have thought of this a few times over past days. I actually sent out a newsletter/ blog or whatever you call it from my personal Yahoo this morning to my financial coaching clients or hope-they-will-one-day-be my clients. It was much easier to keep waiting ’til I had better technology and understood all the technology (that day may never come!). I am always tempted to be a little passive anyway.

    But I sent it…I am really glad about it…and thought about your video a few times! Have a good one.

    • http://abetterwayofbusiness.wordpress.com Ivan Bickett

      David, THIS is why I started A Better Way of Business! I want to encourage and help people steadily march towards starting their business. And if they have a business already I want to help make it better.

      John G. Miller, author of QBQ, said, “We tend to bring to the world what we most need.” That is exactly what I’ve done with this post. What I most need is to DO SOMETHING! For YEARS all I’ve done was sit around and think, plan, research, and dream. The important word missing from that list is ACT! NO MORE! I WILL act. I have no doubt I will occasionally stumble, I’ll go so far to say I’ll crash AMAZINGLY at some point. But I’m going to keep getting up and taking single step after single step toward the future God made me for.

      Let me know if I can help you in anyway, David.

      ~Ivan