What If Starbucks Marketed Like Churches?

Funny little moments in this video that remind me of moments I have had at church with others. This is great.

Modesto Ripon Riverbank and back, 36 miles

I spent a lot of time on a bike today. This morning I got to the gym for a 5am spin class. I rode 12 miles there. Then I worked until 3pm, rode six miles to meet up with some friends and then rode 30 miles. For some reason RunKeeper did not record from my house to my buddy’s house on the same trip. Runkeeper was a little inconsistent this ride.

Start Time: 11/10/08 3:29 pm
End Time: 11/10/08 5:22 pm
Elapsed Time: 1:52:58
Distance: 36.20 mi
Avg Pace: 3:44 / mi
Avg Speed: 16.04 mph
Total Rise: 840 ft

37 Mile Ride today

Today I went for a ride by myself. I had an idea of how far I wanted to ride but did not think I would actually tackle the distance. This last week I completed a 33 mile ride on Tuesday morning and a 28 mile ride Wednesday afternoon. I am enjoying riding more each time I complete a ride. Keep in mind I am riding a single gear track bike.

The distance: 36.92 Miles
Average speed: 17.24 MPH
Average pace: 3.29 miles
Total Time: 2hr 8mins.

Ordered a new fixie

I did it, finally after months of fretting over what to get, where to get it from and how much to spend. Deciding to order a fixed gear bike also saved me a bunch of money. I’m sure in the future, probably near, I will purchase a road bike. The Central Valley is pretty flat and a fixed gear bike will do just fine. A friend of mine has a fixed gear bike and rides it everywhere, part of my inspiration for wanting a fixie is because I totally dig his bike.

So I ordered a 2009 Motobecane Messenger from BikesDirect.Com. Anybody have any experience ordering from them? I ordered the bike in Orange, because I didn’t like the red and am not really into black frames. I used to bike a lot when I was younger. Whenever I had a black frame, I would crash a lot.

Here are two images from their website:

Can’t wait for it to get here.

I’m in fixie love.

I have been debating what type of road bike to get. I have been intrigued by fixed gear bikes (aka. track bikes) for a while now and after watching some of these videos decided that a fixed gear bike would be much more fun. Less practical, but more fun.

Macaframa SF Track Bike Promo from MACAFRAMA on Vimeo.

Macaframa

No more iJerad.com

Well I decided to make the move from iJerad.com to JeradHill.com/blog after having a conversation with a friend of mine @SarahFields. I started my blog in 2005 under the domain J3rad.com and quickly switched to iJerad.Com toward the end of 2005. In late 2006 there were some other people who had used similar domain names. I should have thought about the fact that many Apple enthusiasts would come up with the same idea. It was not an original idea on my part. A couple of those people became quite popular namely iJustine and iJustin. Both of which have done an excellent job getting noticed. I just don’t think there is room in the world for an iJerad, plus I am not trying to brand myself as iJerad and the last thing I would want would be that. I am branding myself as a Photographer and Web Designer.

I decided to make the switch on the spot and I think it is a good switch. This is more in line with my branding. Lastly, after thinking about it, this is the best decision. If I had opened a coffee shop in my town and called it Starbucks, but did not bother protecting my brand, somebody else could come in and take my brand away from me. I feel that I am respecting others who have done a much better job at branding that name by changing my blog url. Hope I don’t confuse to many people by this change.

OWN it when people search your name!

I have just added a not yet complete list of social networks that I belong to. I say not yet because I know there are many that I have not listed yet and many yet to come that I will join and list. If you are trying to get noticed then you need to be rockin it on every social network you can. You will never find your best fit if you do not do this. I know it is hard to keep up with everything, your Facebook is probably to much to manage. There are tools out there like Ping.fm and Friendfeed.com to help you with that.

Ping.fm:
Ping.fm is a service that allows you to post status updates, mini blogs or links to all of your social networks. They support many of the most popular services that allow for status updates. Update your Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and more all at once with Ping.fm.

FriendFeed:
Friendfeed pulls in all of your info from many of the popular social networks and creates a feed of that info. My favorite function of Friendfeed is it’s ability to grab your latest posts from your blog and post them to your Twitter account. I also have Friendfeed pull my latest updates to Flickr so my Twitter followers know when I have uploaded new images.

You may be asking yourself why anybody would want to spread themselves so far across the interweb? Well I want to build brand equity in my name as a wedding photographer and business person. I am doing that on a local level and also on a national level. The nice thing about all of the social possibilities on the web is that 99% of them are free to use. Go ahead, Google my name, type in Jerad Hill and click search. Notice how I OWN it when you Google my name. If you are serious about getting noticed then you need to OWN it as well. If you have a common name then you really need to step it up. Here are some suggestions that will help you OWN it when it comes to searching your name on the internet.

1. Buy yourname.com
You need to go out right now and purchase the domain name for your name. If you do not own the domain name for your name you need to get on it now! Click here for some coupon codes to save you money on registration. It only costs you $6.95. Do it now! I don’t care if it just sits there for now, buy it, so when you can do something with it, you have it.

2. Start blogging yesterday
You may think you don’t have something to say to the world but I know you do. Start out by blogging about your hobby or something. I used to blog about Bible Studies I did. I used to have a daily podcast where I discussed topics on Christian Life. I loved doing it and I may even start doing it again. What it did was get my feet wet and teach me about the world of blogging and podcasting.

3. Read the blogs of others and comment
Find blogs that interest you and comment on blog posts. You should spend at least 30 minutes a day reading blogs and then commenting your thoughts on those blog posts. You will learn something and then you will also be communicating with the author. Your response will be archived and available for others to see, plus you can link to your website. This will direct people to your website if they find what you said interesting.

4. Be Interesting
You may think that nothing about your life is exciting but you are wrong. You have something exciting to for somebody out there to read about. Blog about your life, business and whatever else excites you. Talk about your business conquests and failures. Be Real!!! I can not stress that enough, BE REAL! We are now in an age where authenticity is king. Be real everywhere, on your Facebook, Myspace… Everywhere. People will find you out if you are fake. It is much easier to be real then to be fake.

Share your thoughts. How do you OWN it online?

Office 1.0

I am getting an office. After working from a home office for the last 4 years an opportunity has finally opened up for me that I am quite happy about. Below you will see an image of the empty office. I will be painting it and decorating the office with stuff from Ikea so I can be styling but keep it on the cheap. The office has 4 private offices. I plan to use one of them for myself and then lease out the other 3 to other small companies like me. The location is great. It is right across the street from Memorial Hospital in Modesto which is on the corner of one of the busiest intersections in Modesto.

My office is 1400 sp.ft. total including the private offices. I plan to purchase a few couches, tables, book cases, chairs and wall decor to set a good mood in the main portion of the office. We will see what happens. I also want to make a conference room if I can get a wall put up.

I am working on a deal right now for the paint and I hope to also work on some deals that will dress up the outside of the building a bit. I would like to put in a new sign in front which will add value to the building and the other tenants as well. There is a Chiropractor next door that will be moving soon to a new location and next to that office is a Medical Equipment office. I would like to see a small cafe go in across the way from my office. They would do well being across the street from Memorial Hospital.

More pictures will come soon as I begin working on my space.

Getting excited about PodcampAZ

First of all you are probably wondering what a Podcamp is. A Podcamp is a gathering of new media enthusiasts like bloggers, podcasters, youtubers and more.

One of the largest and most anticipated Podcamps of the year is held in Arizona. @llighter and I are going so far. Should be a fun trip. I keep reading about it on the PodcampAZ website. Are you going to be there? If so, let us know.