(Recap) Episode 2: Blogging and Branding
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007RECAP by ALISANDE
Introduction
The second episode of Joel
Comm’s Competitive Internet Reality show
was uploaded August 27, 2007. The first episode was about 51 minutes
long, the second episode was just over 38 minutes long.
Format of the show:
1) The Hacker Safe Challenge
2) Snippets of the contestant’s training session with the
Guest
Teacher of the day
3) The Execution Challenge
4) The Execution Challenge Presentation
5) The Judgement Room
6) Contestant interviews interspersed throughout the show to capture
their thoughts on the events and fellow contestants…
The 2nd Hacker Safe Challenge (250 word Blog in
60 minutes)
After aquick recap of Episode 1 (Simpleology), Episode 2 (Branding)
immediately starts with an introduction by Joshua Sloan, Director of
Online Marketing, of 1&1 Internet, Inc., the world’s
#1 webhosting company.
The contestants are asked in the
second Hacker Safe Challenge to create a blog with a minimum of 250
words on a topic each contestant randomly picks out of a bowl. The
twist was that the topics were chosen from information written in their
individual biographies.
The topics picked were as chosen:
Alisande Chan - Basketball,
Jason Henderson - Financial Advice
Jaime Luchuck - Computer Repair
Christine Schaap - Midlife Crisis
Jason Marshall - Costa Rica
Nico Pisani - Visual Basic
Charles Trippy - Illusions
Laura Martin - Wakeboarding
Thor Schrock - Fashion
Steve Schuitt - Psychology
Nico Pisani makes a comment about
“getting the bum end of the deal” by
drawing the topic Visual Basic, a very technical subject which he knew
nothing about.
CharlesTrippy wins this Hacker Safe challenge. His blog utilized a
combination of text, pictures, and a pretend video
clip to talk about his topic of “Illusions”.
It is interesting to note that of all the contestants who participated in this challenge, he is the one who dislikes“blogging,” but was able to deliver the best blog of all the contestants.
Armand Morin (on Branding)
The contestants then sit down for
a very intense session with Armand
Morin on branding and creating a logo for a company.
Many major internet companies typically have their logo in the top
left corner of their webpage.
It is hard to get people to buy once, let alone have a repeat
customer. If they don’t recognize the second product you have
developed, then you’ve lost the trust you received from them
when they bought your first product.
Design a brand around your company, product, or service.
Obvious Marketing - everything about you and your company should be
obvious, your logo and look should be placed in the correct position
so people don’t have to look for it.
The cheapest way to make $ on internet is to improve your look and
feel so that you look like that $5m, $10m, or $100m company.
By creating a brand, you can tap into the trust your previous buyers
have developed in your original product, for the possibility of future
purchases from those same buyers who previously bought from you.
You are able to much easier differentiate yourself from similar products
or services of your competitors. Your aim is to make your company a
trustworthy recognizable brand.
Contestants’ thoughts on Armand Morin’s session
Thor said he learned more in an hour and a half with Armand about
branding than what he had self learned on the internet in three
months. Nico was excited about the take aways he got from the session
because he had already been working on creating a brand for his
CostaRicaTravelChannel.com website. Alisande learned that it was
important to brand or you would always be a small fish in a big pond.
The 2nd Execution Challenge (Creating a Logo in 90 minutes)
Since Team Bullseye only had four team members and Team Keep It Simple
Stupid (KISS) had six, the losing team had a 15 second decision to
pick one of the KISS members to join them and even out the two teams
for the Execution Challenge.
In the previous episode, Jason Marshall, who had shown himself to be a
strong presenter and team leader, was immediately chosen by Team
Bullseye. According to Thor’s interview, Team Bullseye’s strategy was
to cripple the KISS team by taking their best presenter.
Each team leader was to present the logo in a 10 minute presentation.
Jaime Luchuck was chosen as KISS’s Team Leader for this challenge.
Team Bullseye picked Nico Pisani to be their Team Leader.
Both teams knew what the challenge was - to create a new logo for The
Next Internet Millionaire….but teams had no idea though how the
challenge was to be carried out.
They soon found out that no electronic technology was to be used for
this task. The teams had to use any combination of paintbrushes,
fabrics, mosaic tiles, glue, or construction paper to create the new
logo. They also noticed that there was no writing utensils, scissors,
or rulers.
Joel Comm offered each group additional supplies for four e-commerce
chips. Both groups accepted and paid him the chips.
KISS was the first to make a decision about buying the supplies he was
offering. They first paid one e-commerce chip to see what supplies he
was offering for purchase. When they saw the basket held felts,
rulers, erasers, and scissors, they gave Joel Comm another four chips
to use the supplies.
Team Bullseye obviously could tell that if Team KISS was willing to
pay for the supplies, then they didn’t need to pay an e-commerce chip
to look as well…and so they purchased sight unseen.
A divider wall separated the teams but each team could view a large
projection screen of a top view of the other team’s table. The two
sandboxed contestants, Debbie Ducic and Carly Taylor, sat quietly and
observed our two teams working.
In interviews, Steve Schuitt compliments Jaime on her organizational
skills in a time pressure situation. Jason Henderson relays “internet
gazillionaires’ ” advice not to concentrate on perfection but to get
the product done and improve upon it later.
Thor Schrock is concerned about how much he can contribute in this
seemingly creative artsy project. Both Thor Schrock and Christine
Schaap are impressed with Jason Marshall’s silhouette cutout and feel
that was what made their team win.
The Presentation (Logo presented by Team Leader in 10 minutes)
Jaime Luchuck presented for Team KISS first. Although Jaime presented
well, the logo looked messy and unprofessional. In an interview with
Christine Schaap, she thought KISS’s logo seemed childlike in its
presentation. Alisande liked her Team’s logo concept and admitted she
was a main contributor to the concept.
Joel Comm commented that he liked the creativity the team used for the
mosaic keyboard but felt it may be a little too edgy. Armand Morin
liked the use of a computer as part of the logo image because of its
association with the internet. Joshua Sloan finished up the critique
with a comment that he felt the target market was too broad.
Team Bullseye was next with Nico Pisani presenting their logo concept.
He seemed nervous during parts of his presentation and at one point
chokes up and becomes speechless for what next to say.
Thor negatively critiques Nico in an interview. After the
presentation, Joel Comm compliments the group on their silhouette, as
does Armand Morin, who also is impressed that the silhouette was cut
out of paper and not drawn. Joshua Sloan comments that the group
optimized their workspace very well and made a very formal looking
logo.
In the end, Joel Comm, Armand Morin, and Joshua Sloan decide to award
Team Bullseye as the winning team of the second Execution Challenge of
the competition.
Although Team KISS lost this task, Jaime stood solidly by the team’s
logo concept, she just seemed frustrated at the team’s inability to
make the logo look professional. Team KISS was now heading for the
Judgement Room.
The Judgement Room
The three judges: Joel Comm, Armand Morin, and Joshua Sloan sit with
the losing team, Team KISS. The meeting between the losing team and
the judges starts off with Joel Comm acknowledging the team “really
did give it what you had.”
Jaime speaks for the team and admits they were not as artistic with
physical supplies as they would have hoped and that they did not
utilize all the tools on the table. She also solidly states the Team
came up with a design they felt represented the target market.
Armand Morin is not impressed with Team KISS’s sloppy lettering,
especially since they had rulers they could have used. He also advises
Team KISS that Joel Comm would not want to joint venture with someone
who made a product that they thought was “good enough.” In defense of
the group, Jaime responds to Armand’s comments and says that was not
the group’s intention and that the group did realize the lettering was
not straight.
Joel compliments Jaime on her leadership style. He felt the group
followed her leadership. He also commented on Alisande taking a co-
leader like role in the group. He also appreciated that she seemed
sensitive to her team mates when he observed her warning them to let
her know if she was stepping on anyone’s toes.
The Judgement Room critiques then focus on Steve’s performance. Joel
Comm noticed that Steve Schuitt seemed to contribute little to the
group efforts. Steve agrees that he was “floating around” and explains
that he is not use to a team environment.
Joel wonders how Steve could JV with him if he is use to working
alone. Steve suggests his young age (21) may have an influence on
others not taking him seriously.
Armand Morin tells Steve not to discount himself because of his age.
Joshua Sloan also suggests that Steve may not be taken seriously
because of his relaxed “comic relief” appearance.
Joel Comm turns the attention to Jason Henderson and states Jason was
“semi-invisible.” Jason explains he was trying to support Laura who
had the idea of using a silhouette as part of the logo. Joel points
out that there was no silhouette used.
Armand is a little more critical in his comments of Team KISS’s logo
than the critique after the presentation. He comments about the
busyness of the logo with all the elements that had been added to the
computer monitor and keyboard.
The next critique is Laura Martin and her unprofessional lettering.
She admits she did the lettering poorly. Alisande comments that she
could have done the lettering as well but wanted to be a team player
and did not volunteer her skill because Laura had volunteered hers.
Joshua Sloan advises that recognizing one’s weaknesses is important
even though “it is not an easy thing to do nor a fun thing to do.”
However, he also commends Laura for coming forward and volunteering to
do the lettering.
Tagging Teammates for Elimination
Joel asks Jaime to start first and tag two people on her team to be
eliminated. She points at herself first, then at Steve for his weak
participation in the group. Steve is next, he also labels himself for
elimination and almost names Laura “for her lettering” but in the end
tags Alisande. Alisande bases her picks on the present task and points
at Steve and Jason as the two who contributed the least.
Laura Martin immediately starts shaking her head and has a very hard
time pointing fingers at anyone. She fears her teammates will hate
her. At Joel’s insistence, she grudgingly labels Alisande and Steve.
Jason’s picks are Jaime for spending too much time brainstorming and
Alisande for staying with her mosaic keyboard idea but not using
Laura’s silhouette idea. Alisande defends herself, after being tagged
by 3 members of her team. She insists the team agreed to use most of
her ideas and that she did not oppose adding the silhouette idea.
The conversation gets a little more heated as Jason Henderson
continues to insist that the silhouette idea should have been used but
that Alisande dropped the ball on that concept.
Alisande addresses Jason in confusion and states she had the
impression he liked her idea and had never opposed anything at all.
All the judges also state they were not present to hear Jason insist
on using a silhouette.
Joel Comm closes the critiques and summarizes his observations. He
once again reiterates his appreciation for Jaime Luchuck’s leadership
style, acknowledges Alisande Chan’s focused strength and sensitivity,
comments on Steve Schuitt’s lack of desire to win, says to Jason
Henderson he is not seeing what he expected to see out of him, and
gently tells Laura she may yet not be the JV partner he was looking
for.
Joel Comm then announces that Laura has been targeted for elimination.
He turns to Jason Henderson and Steve Schuitt and says he would like
to see them step it up.
Steve Schuitt’s original comments about being on the show to learn
first and the desire to win second may have been the last nail to seal
his coffin. Joel also targets Steve for elimination.
As in the first episode with two contestants being sandboxed, Joel
tells Laura and Steve that they will be able to redeem themselves at a
later date and that they will now be sandboxed like Debbie and Carly.
Confessions out of the Judgement room
Jaime Luchuck tagged herself for elimination but later in her
confessional says she really wanted to name Jason Henderson. She
comments unimpressed about his “claims” of stepping up and demanding
the team follow his ideas. Steve Schuitt admits he didn’t
intentionally want to give Joel the vibe that he was not committed to
winning. Meanwhile, Jason points at Jaime for failing to lead Team
KISS to winning the challenge and maintains his confidence as the best
performer during the second Execution Challenge.
———————————————-
You can visit Alisande’s site at: http://www.thisalicat.com
–——————————————-
During the ride to breakfast, Nico reads a welcoming letter sent by Joel Comm to the contestants about their upcoming adventure. This was also the first time the contestants were introduced to “E-Commerce Chips,” which would somehow be used for leverage during the competition.
We then see the second introduction of the show, Jason Henderson. Jason comments on his size, a size which makes Charles Trippy apprehensive…in the meantime, Jason Henderson is not nervous about anything at all.
Charles Trippy’s introduction comes next. He confirms that his name is not a stage name but very real. He also talks about his unique name as well as a few words he dislikes being used in the internet world.
Joel Comm is excited and happy to meet the contestants for the first time. He introduces the “Hacker Safe” challenge as the individual performance challenge the contestants will be faced with at the beginning of each day. The “Hacker Safe” Challenge, named in honour of one of the sponsoring companies of The Next Internet Millionaire, provides a “safe” immune day for the contestant who wins the Challenge; that contestant cannot be eliminated from the competition that day.
Safe; especially in an age of security risk.
were not, some spoke of passion, and others spoke of accomplishments. All the elements the judges Joel Comm and Cresta Pillsbury were looking for were found in Jason Marshall’s speech and so he was awarded the first Hacker Safe T-Shirt of the show.
Christine Schaap speaks of her husband and 5 children, their excitement for their mom, and her passion to help others. She also explains how she use to be intimidated by public speaking to the point of physical illness.
One way to do this can be done using free Simpleology software and organizing our day with a Daily Target Praxis; more information can be found at www.The DailySystem.com. Having a “DTP,” will help us filter out “time-wasters” or not-so-urgent tasks, from really important tasks; thereby helping us focus on the tasks that will help us get closer to our major targets.
Jason Marshall speaks about Jason Henderson. He could see that Jason Henderson was not afraid to speak or jump up to take over. But he appreciated Jason Henderson’s respect of him as the leader as they were both humble in the way they approached each other.
She speaks of her tendency in that situation to step back and “take more of a back seat.”
teams decline the offer.
Thor carries on the Bulls-Eye presentation outlining the importance of choosing a target market for a successful product launch. Christine Schaap then speaks of the target market the Bulls-Eye group chose to focus on, the over 40 female demographic.
Charles and Nico talk about the video portion of the Bulls-Eye sales page. They explain and show a visual drawing of the video concept, a scene of a busy woman at home with chaos rewinding back to a scene with no chaos after she starts using Simpleology.
Jason Marshall, Team Leader, starts with a magic rope trick to emphasize that everyone is not the same and are in fact different. Jason asks Mark Joyner what problem people have with Internet Marketers. Mark Joyner answers, “People don’t have as much trust.”
Steve Schuitt says Alisande is difficult to read because of her “poker face.”
Joel Comm finds it difficult to make a decision. He begins by saying Team KISS did well in utilizing all of its members but “had a hard time communicating exactly what the substance of the page was about.”
among the members of the team in communicating and clearly presenting what the Simpleology page would be all about.”
Joel asks the Team what is the shortest distance between two points. They all answer “a straight line.” He then goes on to say that the team had difficulty at times in concentrating and keeping focus on their task.
Joel Comm says, “Debbie, Do you see, I see?” He continues to describe Debbie’s website, her auditions, her attitude, her accomplishments as all “Gutzy” but questions why her leadership fell apart.
Cresta likes the fact that Nico was focused through the challenge and went to Mark Joyner to utilize his expertise. She observed Nico asked Mark the questions that he needed answered while the rest of the group continued to debated on what they would be discussing. Joel also compliments Nico on the leadership qualities Nico exhibited and tells Nico to continue “ratcheting it up.”
Joel turns his attention to Charles. He notes that Charles came alive after hearing Mark Joyner. He comments that he overheard Charles say “Wow, I’ve got to implement this stuff on my site when I get back. This is good stuff.” He feels Charles is beginning to see more what the Internet Marketing world is about. Mark advises Charles that his success can be his worst enemy. Cresta wants to know what Charles was thinking when his team was deliberating.
Carly targets herself for the way she presented herself and for “messing up the team.”
Christine bases her decision on the task and names Carly for her unassertiveness and Debbie for not showing good leadership.
He then tells Christine he knows she has to be strong and has a fire in her. He also sees the same fire in Carly. Joel especially sees a “ball of fire” in Debbie. But because her leadership did not bring the group together, there was continued uncertainty in her group even during their presentation, and a lack of enthusiasm on her team for their topic, she is targeted for elimination.
But this is not the end of the road. Joel explains that in the internet world, when a new website is created, it does not get immediately indexed but is placed in a holding period. He continues to tell Debbie Ducic and Carly Taylor that they will be put into a Sandbox, a holding area.
