Scoble & I live interviewed Tim Ferriss author of "The 4-Hour Workweek," last Thursday. FastCompany.TV has now posted the recording of it. Personally, I think it's our best so far, although some person named anonymous left a comment saying I'm embarrassing myself. Others think we banter too long before getting to our guest.
Let us know what you think. It's a new show and we are still adjusting course.
[Tim Ferriss and Robert Scoble on WorkFast set. Photo by Shel]
Tim Ferriss, author of "The 4-Hour Workweek" was our guest on Workfast this week and I was fortunate to spend four hours with him. We met at Revision 3 studios at 9 am and had some time to chat before Scoble arrived about 20 minutes late as usual. After the show, we enjoyed a long lunch at a nearby sushi place which has become or regular aftershow hangout. Based on online comments and our chatroom attendance, he was by far our most popular--and controversial-guest so far.
At one point, we look down at comments on the screen and someone named "anonymous," declared, "This guy is a hoax." It's amazing how many unfavorable comments come from this Anonymous person. But, I can also understand where some objective people might look upon Tim with some skepticism.
He's only 31 and already he has founded and runs a successful company. He's written a book that has been translated into nine languages and has sold more than 500,000 copies. He has won an international championship in kick boxing, holds the world record in tango twirls, has skied in the Andes, speaks six languages, is adept in cooking, wines, medicine and fitness to name a few.
To achieve all this, most people would have to work more than a 4-hour week. They'd have to live four or more lifetimes. I had expected to meet a very self-assured and self-centered self promoter, But my take on Tim is that he is none of these and he is most certainly no hoax. Tim is warm, curious, outwardly focused and extremely well-informed. When he discovered in a sushi restaurant that I eat no rice, he quickly figured out that I was diabetic, then told me with great accuracy what medications I was taking. He then went into a sidebar on insulin and muscle mass. The guy knows his stuff and he is very outwardly focused in conversations. There is nothing pretentious about him.
I think one of the reasons for skepticism, is the title of his book, which he admits is not a completely accurate depiction of the book's message. It is clear that Tim works a good deal more than four hours a week and will continue to do so. His point is that by focusing on results and using the modern tools of productivity you can spend less time doing nonproductive tasks and spend more time pursuing things that evoke your passion. It is a similar message to David Allen, author of "Getting Things Done," who will be on WorkFast in two weeks. But while Allen takes somewhat of a bottom up view, Tim takes a top down view, one that is quite liberating.
We've only had five WorkFast shows so far, but I see a recurring theme. It may change over time, but in a varied way, each of our five guests have told us:
Breaking New Social Media Ground Behind the Firewall
[Best Buy exec Michele Azar chats with Robert Scoble at WorkFast. Photo by Shel]
Robert and I hosted our 4th episode of WorkFast Friday as we live hosted Best Buy's Michele Azar, VP Emerging Customer Channels & Gary Koelling, founder of BlueShirt Nation (BSN). Steve Bendt, the other BSN founder looked on and would have joined except for the silly reason that our table was too small. I had dinner the night before with the three of them and by the time for our live broadcast it felt like we were old friends. After the live broadcast and live chat, Robert joined us for a two-hour sushi lunch.
I am very impressed with what Best Buy has done in the space of little more than a year in a category that has generally ignored using social media in either credible or constructive ways. Most of Best Buy's efforts have been behind the firewall. BlueShirt Nation is a social network for floor help, the people who breathe the same air as customers. In slightly over a year, this project, started somewhat ad hoc by Gary and Steve has 22,000 members of the 150,000-person organization. Michele, who is pretty high up in the corporate structure says the strategy is to empower employees and fight bureaucracy across the 1300 store network.
BSN nations has chalked up quite a few victories. It lets rank-and-file employees help each other and it lets senior management understand the perceptions of the people who actually talk to customers all day long. It has been used to educate employees about 401K benefits to double enrollment and increase employee retention. It has been used to organize political action to block some proposed boneheaded legislation. It has been used to help employees during disruption of natural disaster.
[BlueShirt Nation co-founders Steve Bendt (l) and Gary Koelling. Photo by Shel]
There are other social media programs behind-the-firewall including a Geek Squad social network that started with an online-based game. We'll cover that somewhere down the line.
Michele says the the company is using employee empowerment as a business strategy, on that can improve the bottom line of a company that sold $40 b last year, bring nearly a quarter of it to the bottom line. She says that longterm, the company is likely to use social media for direct engagement with customers.
Personally, I think Best Buy has one of the great untold stories in social media and think that Michel and Gary are two outstanding company representatives who will probably be seen in the coming year on the social media conference circuit. I recommend them both as speakers and/or panelist.
If you missed the live show, it will be posted tomorrow morning at FastCompany.TV. Because of the July 4 holiday, we will be broadcasting live at 10 am, Thursday, July 3. Our guest will be Tim Ferriss, author of the best-selling "The 4-Hour Workweek." He'll be with us for an hour, presumably leaving him only three to do other business next week, I would guess.
While WorkFast, the show I co-host with Robert Scoble is focused on workplace productivity, it is nice to have overlap with my hot topic of social media. Tomorrow at 10 am Pacific time, Best's Buy's Michele Azar and Gary Koelling will be our guests. Michele is VP, Emerging Customer Channels & will discuss how the world leading retailer in consumer electronics is using behind-the-firewall social networks to get employees more engaged. Gary, co-founded the astounding BlueShirt Nation, a social network of 22,000 employees.
After the show, we will have a live chat with both of them. For both events, or t see our prior shows just go to WorkFast.TV.
WorkFast #2, an interview with Ismael Ghalimi, "Mr. Office 2.0" has been posted over at FastCompany.TV. In this second live show, we learn that Scoble hates to read teleprompter scroll and that I need to remember collar stays. Still, our guest does a fabulous job talking about the 30 months he has lived, started an incubator, a new startup of his own, produces a major conference and advises nine companies--without using any desktop application other than a browser. In his spare time (heh) Ismael is a professional SCUBA diver, has a pilot's license and rides V6 motorcycles. Ismael is an amazingly productive guy and did a great job for WorkFast.
Last Thursday, Scoble and I went live with our first episode of WorkFast, the new show we are co-hosting about the future of work. PARC's center director Mark Bernstein did a great job, I thought, of helping us launch our new show about the future of work.
The recorded version is now up at FastCompany.tv, where those of you who missed our debut live can see the recorded version.
Please join us at 10 am Pacific Friday at FastCompany.TV, when we interview Ismael Ghalimi, founder of the Office 2.0 conference and an expert on how to use Internet-based technologies to be more productive.
As you probably know by now, WorkFast goes live at 10 am Pacific, Thursday morning. You can watch it at FastCompany.TV. Eventually, we hope to be able to take live comments and calls while we are on the air, but for a while we need to start simply and build.
There are three ways you can join our WorkFast Conversation with Mark Bernstein, president and center director of Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).
Please come and join the conversation. It's better with you around.
Well, Scoble and I are in launch mode, scrambling to get it right on our first try. There is only one try because WorkFast is a live show. You can watch it by going to FastCompany.TV and clicking on the WorkFast button at 10 a.m. Thursday [Pacific].
Our first guest is Mark Bernstein, president and center director of Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) where desktop productivity's earliest efforts took root. It was at PARC that a young Steve Jobs got permission to take some experimental stuff called a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to use as he saw git. It was at PARC that thelaser printer was invented, not to mention Ethernet, Object-oriented programming, distributed computing and so much more.
Mark joined PARC (formerly Xerox PARC) back in 1979. As far as office productivity, he's been there and done that. He's been present as 30 successful startups began then grew up to endure and prevail in the commercial world.
We think he's the ideal guest to launch a program about the future of work. We expect he will have great insights into how we got to where we are and to get some sense of where we it is all going.
Our sponsor is SAP, the world's third largest software company and my sponsor as well for the SAP Global Survey on Social Media, Culture and Business. I'm sure many of you are aware of how happy I am to announce it.
There are several ways you'll be able to join the WorkFast conversation. I'll tell you about them tomorrow.
Boy, there's a lot of work involved in getting a new live video show going. Robert and I are fortunate to be working with Revision 3, a team that's proving to be real pros up and down. Their overwhelming lesson to us is to keep simple and focused. So many new features that we are itching to start, will be started over the next few months.
Meanwhile, between assembling bar chars for our set, Robert and I have very much focused on content. We are trying to bring you guest who can give you actionable insights into office productivity. We are looking for experts who can give you some sense about the future of work and what it means for you.
We've nailed down our first seven programs and we're pretty excited about the schedule. The following shows will be aired live from Revision 3 studios in San Francisco and you'll be able to watch at FastCompany.TV where it will also be archived.
Here's are first seven: