I had a really interesting interview with Matthew Magee of Out-Law magazine a few days ago. They produce a magazine and podcast.
Matthew wrote a short article summarizing Magnatune:
http://www.out-law.com/page-8469
but more interesting in this podcast:
http://www.out-law.com/page-8468
After spending this spring doing a lot of public speaking in Europe, and especially in Northern Europe, I've decided to stop the "salesman" approach to speaking about Magnatune.
Instead, I talk about what it is in neutral terms, but also about our success and failures, what kinds of problems we're encountering, and what we think we're going to try to do about it. My thinking is a) no-one likes a salesman, b) people are much more likely to empathize with a real person who speaks from the heart and c) in some cultures, the "pushy American" is considered extremely distasteful, and I think "the humble schmuck" approach is appealing in most (western) cultures.
I've given two presentations in the past 2 months in this style, at Xerox Parc and in Munich, and I'm hoping one of them comes up on Youtube, so I can give you an example of what I'm trying to do, and whether you think it works.
-john
I certainly thought your style worked at the Xerox Parc presentation.
Posted by: Nate | October 19, 2007 at 11:58 PM