I am the “Music Mastermind”

There is no question that I wear a lot of different hats (both literally and figuratively). Along my entrepreneurial journey, I have launched many ventures and created several monikers. One of my favorite operations has been the adoption of the name “The Music Mastermind.”

Knowing me, I quickly purchased the domain musicmastermind.com and started compiling all of my articles, interviews, and other random knowledge onto the blog. Last December, I even produced a Top 25 countdown of the best albums of the year.

Although I didn’t keep up with the blog throughout this year, I recently realized how much I loved it and decided to bring back my annual countdown. Today, marked the first of the 25 day extravaganza.

You can check out all of the posts, which will come everyday, at musicmastermind.com.

Jamblr On the Road

It’s Thanksgiving week, and things are really starting to heat up at the Jamblr camp. As each of our founders travel to our designated homes for the upcoming holiday, we are all having to juggle what happens to be the greatest development in Jamblr’s existence thus far.

Unfortunately, I can’t reveal too much on what we are up to. And that is why I will keep this post rather short. Just be on the lookout for something significant in the coming weeks. We are super excited!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Rock for Hunger Fest 3 Review

Rock for Hunger Fest was incredible! Of all of the years, this was by far my favorite. Featuring 28 excellent artists, the entertainment never stopped and the fun was overflowing the entire day. Check out all of the posts and information below to read more about the event.

http://blog.rockforhunger.org/2008/11/all-kinds-of-rock-for-hunger-fest.html

http://blog.rockforhunger.org/2008/11/rock-for-hunger-fest-3-thank-you-for.html

My favorite band of the event was: MIRRORPAL

Thanks to all of those that came out to support. I truly hope you had as great of a time as I had.

Jamblr at Rock for Hunger Fest 3 - November 15th, 2008

In less than two weeks, the Central Florida community will be rocked. For the third year in a row, the local non-profit, Rock for Hunger, will serve up over twenty bands on three stages at the Plaza Theatre on Bumby Ave. Amazing artists such as Kardinal Offishall, Passafire, Jah Roots, and many local heroes will grace the stages and provide entertainment for the 10 hour event.

Jamblr will be there supporting the cause by volunteering our time to fill certain positions required to make the event happen. In addition, tons of sponsors, vendors and artists will be stationed throughout the venue. Mix in some innovative technological advancements, informative videos and extremely interesting individuals, and you have yourself quite a good time.

Be sure to check out www.rockforhungerfest.org for more information on the event. If you are in the Orlando area, feel free to email me at loganlenz@gmail.com to purchase tickets from me directly. Otherwise, you can pick up your tickets at the Plaza Theatre box office, Park Ave CDs locations, or Ticketmaster.

Please come out and make a difference in our community.

My Interview Answers For an Upcoming Book

A certain individual is currently writing a book on the powers of social networking. Since I answered his interview questions via email, I thought I would utilize the power of blogging to publicly transmit my responses. I hope this doesn’t give too much away.

1. Have you or do you know of anyone who has lost their job or have been looking for employment and have found employment utilizing social networking sites i.e. twitter, ning, facebook, etc.

No, but I have heard a ton of stories about Twitter.

2. Have you or do you know of anyone who has decided to start their own internet business utilizing primarily social networking sites i.e. twitter, ning, facebook, etc.

Yes, me. I have recently co-founded a social media marketing company that centers itself around building communities and networks within online tools. It’s the cheapest and easiest way to market and earn a much higher ROI along the way.

3. Do you have or know of anyone who has a traditional brick-n-mortar business whose sales have declined due to the economic crisis and have begun to use new media/social networking as a vehicle to increase sales or company exposure.

A lot of our new clients are seeing the power of social networking, blogging, and other mediums for promotions. If what you are currently doing to market your shop isn’t working, it’s time to reconsider your options, especially if your demographic is a younger generation.

4. Looking for examples of stay at home moms or dads who have recently started a blog and utilizing social networking sites to increase traffic and generate revenue.

I go to a lot of new media and blogging conferences. Believe it or not, over 20% of the attendees are stay-at-home moms. For obvious reasons, homemaker blogs are extremely popular to other stay-at-home moms who have time to browse the internet during the day.

5. Looking for examples of people using social networking in out-of-the-box ways.

My companies use Twitter to recruit new staff members. We just send out a tweet about the open position and wait for responses. Most of the time, the responses are overwhelming. We also use Twitter and other microblogging sites to giveaway items (such as concert tickets). This is a great way to increase promotions for something. We usually ask trivia questions that require participants to research the item(s) that are being promoted for the campaign.

Finding Freelancers

As an owner of a web-based business, I notice all of the trends that arise in the industry. As always, the demand for web design and development is at its peak, specifically in newer “Web 2.0” styles. There seems to be so many freelance developers and designers nowadays, that it makes it extremely difficult to make a decision on who to hire.

My company, Endagon Innovations, is in the eye of the storm. As an idea generating and social media marketing company, we don’t really strive to have developers and designers in-house. As much as we would love it, the overhead far outweighs the need. Therefore, what we decided to do is outsource all of our design and programming needs to trustworthy and experienced candidates that offered us the cheapest rates. Sometimes it is a single worker and other times it is a design company. Either way, this partnership should be strategically formed to benefit each party.

Usually we recruit such talents from websites. As simple as it sounds, Craigslist is a great resource for finding ambitious workers. Aside from the obvious, sites like Getafreelancer.com, Guru.com, iFreelance.com, Elance.com, and Project4hire.com are all amazing ways to land competent creative minded individuals.

As for the aspiring professional freelancers, the trick is to get your work out as much as possible. Having a website that is hosted at “yourname.com” is a great way to promote your portfolio and experience. I, for one, rarely hire individuals if they do not have their own website. It just looks much more professional to the employer.

The next goal is to network, network, and network some more. The more people you meet in the field, the more gigs you will land. There are always local meet-ups and user groups that meet weekly or monthly to talk about the creative industries. Find these groups and start attending. You’ll be surprised what you find out about your community.

When getting hired, sometimes the most difficult part is quoting prices to the client. How you charge and how much you charge are both critical issues in solidifying gigs. The best thing to do is offer more than one way to accept payment and bundle some of your unique services into packages that might appeal more to the client. Hourly rates are always good, but can leave a false impression of value in your work. Plus, you’ll always have to battle the trust issue.

Right now, the best thing an aspiring freelancer can do is get out there. If you are not on social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, join them right now. You will notice that just by promoting your work to as many people as possible as often as possible, you will receive more than enough projects to work on. If you make your work more important than it is, people will respond positively. It is hard work, but it doesn’t have to be if you love what you’re doing.

Wearing a Lawsuit

As an entrepreneur, there is no question that you need to know a great deal about jurisprudence and the American legal system. I had the benefit of learning law in college, studying under some of the best instructors in Florida. Needless to say, I took those courses very seriously and it has benefited me immensely in my career thus far.

Contracts:

One of the scariest aspects of going into business is having to deal with all of the contracts. Today, there are contracts for everything, and it is highly suggested that you utilize them every time you make any sort of strategic move. The only problem is actually conjuring something impressive that the other party will feel protected by. That is where a fusion of law knowledge and writing skills come into play.

Verbiage

The terminologies used in law can be very difficult to grasp. For those of you that see a lot of contracts, you can probably recognize words like “Hereinabove,” “Whereas,” and “Aforementioned.” Although most people don’t use these words in everyday conversation, it is of extreme importance to understand how to read this terminology and translate them into realistic meanings - especially when a third party is the one presenting you with the contract.

Lawyers:

Whenever you can, it is obvious that an entity should seek out their own lawyer. There is always an overabundance of greedy attorneys waiting to represent you - that isn’t the problem. The biggest hurdle is dealing with the fees and the overwhelming expenses entailed with their services. If you can get one on your side, however, you are golden. If you have a friend or relative in law, start there. From there, you can always strike deals with attorneys at a lesser value. Some cut their costs for equity, and others work the nightshift for you simply out of wanting to help out “the little guys” in town, which is rare but a possibility.

The Future:

If you’ve made it at least a year without your own lawyer, keep at it. You’re obviously doing something right. Just realize that, at some point, you will want help in the area. As your business continues to expand and your operations build a larger breadth, there will be no way that you could take on the all of judicial duties anymore.

So start scouting around town and begin anticipating your next move. Until then, use your resources and continue to expand your knowledge of law.

Striking Deals

Even though I don’t have time to post on this blog today, I thought I would at least post something. But what I really want to talk about is confidential at this time. What a shame!

I guess you’ll just have to wait to hear more about what we have in the works. All you need to know right now is that we are striking some deals at the moment.

Get excited!

Ideas, Ideas, and More Ideas

In the world of the web, ideas come a dime a dozen. The hassle that I face everybody is weighing the possible with the impossible. We all know that some ideas will take millions of dollars and years to capitalize on and are just not feasible for smaller companies. At Jamblr, we face this problem everyday.

With five young and bright founders, new ideas are inevitable. The constant struggle is the argument that ensues to see which path to take to implement new ideas.

Needless to say, we have new ideas in the works. This entails new ways of monetization and promotion. Exciting things are coming to Jamblr. Cross your fingers and old your breath.

Close Your Gmail Tab Right Now!

In addition to Jamblr, I am also Founder and CEO of a multi-dimensional entertainment company called Endagon Entertainment Group. Needless to say, I see a large influx of emails everyday, ranging anywhere from job applications to messages from family members. I use to let email control my life, thinking I had to be that guy that replied right away to make sure things were constantly progressing. Now I have my iPhone for that.

I have to admit that I am still on my iPhone too much. Whenever an important message comes in to me outside of office hours, I find it hard to resist replying right away, especially if it is an important business matter. Because of my addiction to iPhone emailing, I have found myself being more productive at the office simply by closing my Gmail tab throughout the day. As usual, I still start the morning rummaging through emails but then quickly move on to more important tasks.

I highly recommend that everyone avoid being “that guy” that is always anticipating the next email to come in. This addiction ruins lives and I am very proud to say that I overcame it. Now, my Remember the Milk list is demolished every day and I have more time to focus on those tasks that are much more important to me and my company, including Jamblr.

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