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Question: Out of curiousity, what CMS are you using on mozilla.org, the Firefox site, support.mozilla.org, et al.? You guys have an awful lot of pages to manage.

Answer

Most of our websites nowadays are based on Django, and the content is not usually user-editable. We have a Django-based framework called playdoh that we use for almost all our websites, with a few notable exceptions.

One of those exceptions is We actually don’t use a pre-made CMS on mozilla.org. Instead, it is currently a slim PHP framework with lots of pages. Here’s a technical description of how this is glued together. However, since that’s a legacy thing and somewhat hard to maintain, we are in the process of switching all that over to a Django-based site as well.

Question: What’s your deployment strategy ? What do you test in your codebase and how ?

Answer

Testing - To add to what Fred said, we also use jstestnet (kumar303 wrote it) to include our QUnit(JavaScript/front-end unit tests) in our CI results. Our WebQA and Automation teams are big contributors to and consumers of the Selenium test automation project. We’re working to get those tests included with the nose/QUnit results, because a failure is a failure is a failure, no matter where it failed.

We also have developed a culture of testing–this is something I’ve been meaning to write a blog post about. That means a few things:

1. Time to write tests is included in how long it takes to write the code under test. A feature isn’t complete without tests.
2. If you break the tests, there’s some good-natured teasing, and you lose points in the CI game. Light social pressure is incredibly helpful.
3. If you break the tests, your first priority is fixing them.

Next I want to develop a culture of performance.

Deployment - This is my favorite topic! I’ve been giving talks on it for around a year now. I actually started putting a joke about that into my talks about it.

My goal with all the projects I touch is to deploy continuously. Not only does continuous deployment mean fixes get to users as fast as possible, but it has a bunch of requirements that are great in-and-of themselves, like…

1. You must have a robust, automated, and fast deployment pipeline. One-button and wait.
2. You must have a high confidence level from automated tests so you don’t break things.
3. You must have active, real-time monitoring of the site.
4. You must keep master/trunk/whatever branch in a clean, working state, all the time.
5. Developers must develop a sense of ownership over their code that lasts all the way out the door.

It also has a number of side benefits, like not doing code pushes at night when people are tired, or about to leave for the day.

Some projects are closer than others. We learned a lot from Etsy (link to blog post and video, watch Kellan and Erik’s sections). But their Deployinator tool is Ruby, and it took them a while to open source it, so we built Chiefto do the same thing (run some shell scripts, print a bunch of output).

We’ve got push-button production deploys with Chief or other, ad-hoc tools, for a few sites now. We’ve got it set up in the -stage environment Fred mentioned for a few more. We use another tool called Freddo to deploy -dev environments on Github post-push hooks. My goal is to have all new environments set up with Freddo and Chief by default in the future.

More Answers:

Our deployment strategies vary a little bit between projects, but as a general idea, we have three (sets of) servers: -dev, -stage, and production. When you commit something to the codebase, it automatically updates -dev. -dev always represents trunk and it thus a moving target, and not too stable for manual testing. Once a release is code complete, it is pushed to -stage, which will then remain like this until the release. QA tests on stage, and once we are confident that we can release, we update the production servers. For comparability, the stage setup is supposed to be a smaller version of the production servers, but with the same hardware and software setup (so, for example, if production has 4 databases and 10 webservers, then stage would have 2 databases and 2 webservers).

Testing is a big deal at Mozilla: We (try to) unit test everything, and have a continuous integration server that gets angry at us when tests break. Our test framework is the one that’s built into Django, along with nose and a few of our own extensions. When doing code reviews, we reject patches that are untested. Once that tested code has landed, we also have a very capable QA team (and contributors!) that focuses on integration testing as well as test automation for “user flows”. For example, “can a user upload an add-on on AMO?”. QA has their own CI server that also complains when something breaks. The tool we use for this is Selenium.

Question: As I heard you use a lot mysql. Since mysql is oracle stuff now, you have any intention to moving to another DB like postgres? And what about NoSQL the webdev team had the intention of using a db like mongodb?

Answer

We’re using MySQL for a lot (not: all) of our webapps, that’s true. As long as MySQL remains an active open source project, there’s no reason for us to abandon it based on who owns the company maintaining it. We also have two DB admins on staff who are really experienced with MySQL (but not only).

That said, we are using Postgres for some projects already and will continue using it whenever it’s good for a project. Same goes for “NoSQL” databases: We’re using Redis for on AMO, for example, and a number of us have used MongoDB on smaller projects before, though not on big Mozilla projects.

In general, we strongly believe in using the “right tool for the job” and are thus open to new technologies whenever they make sense.

Question: Don’t you feel that the Chrome dev team is leading the web forward (with the exception of some evil moves by Google like Dart) like you were before ? If so what, in your opinion, are you missing ? Developers ? Money ? Also, is Lion compatibility a priority, and how many contributors/developers are on it ?

Answer

I as a web developer do think that Chrome is moving the web forward in certain ways. And that’s a good thing! However, make no mistake that Mozilla and Firefox is working any less hard on advancing the web. Just one example, here is a meta bug on all the “new web APIs” we are working on.

Good question, sadly I don’t know how the team size compares. However, I am fairly certain that Google’s teams, in every aspect of what we do, by far outnumber Mozilla’s team sizes. So resources are definitely an issue.

As for the motives, I agree that the individual developers on Chrome probably share our views of advancing the Open Web.

Do I feel like Chrome is a leader in innovation? Most certainly. Do I feel like Firefox is another leader? Absolutely. Chrome’s number 1 distinction point is speed, while Firefox’s is user experience and privacy, for example. Luckily, there is not only one way to advance the Web.

Question: What are your views on Node.js? Would Mozilla considering switching to Node.js? ( Bringing ALL of the products, Firefox, Thunderbird, and website frontend to be made with js ) Would you stop using node.js because the Engine is made by a competitor ( V8 from Chrome )

Answer

Node.js is great! There are a few things that we’re already doing in Node. The most well-known one is probably the backend to BrowserID (not a webdev project, mind you). That its JS engine is V8 is not an issue.

That said, switching over all projects to node does not seem to make a lot of sense. I don’t think Node is (currently) a good all-purpose platform, and we don’t need its specific strengths for all our projects.

For example, I have an iGoogle-like project on the drawing board, but it’s likely that I’ll have to use either Django+Node.js or Tornado or Bottle+gevent because the few RSS/Atom-parsing libraries I’ve found for Node.js are immature (Everyone’s focused on JSON-based Activity Streams) while Django and the WSGI API weren’t designed with server-push and long-lived connections in mind.

Question: How many of you work remote – and do you think that it makes the job easier/harder?

Answer

Mozilla is a very, very remote-friendly company in general, and our team is (I think) remote as a majority. Personally, I’m hooked on it and would have a hard time going back to an office, now.

IMO, the “easier” part is being able to work without outside interruptions, but the “harder” part is being self-motivated enough to work without interrupting yourself. My home office is mere steps away from a fully-stocked entertainment center with an Xbox. Of course, the office in Mountain View has that, too, but at least there my co-workers can see me slacking off

There’s also the issue of communications – but we attack that problem with documentation, IRC, IM, VoIP, video chat, and whatever else we can come up with.

That’s actually a good thing to attack, too, because we make Open Source software. Barely any contributors from the community have the advantage of being present in a Mozilla office, so being remote helps to keep Mozilla employees on the same level with non-employee contributors because most of the communication tech we use is not exclusive to the company.

(For instance, did you know that our weekly all-company meeting is a public conference call? Every week.)

I think more than half of us are remote, probably around 2/3rds. Most of us remoties work from home. (Some people are in a Mozilla office, but are the only webdev there, which is kind of like being remote.)

I think it has challenges. We get together in meatspace pretty regularly, because it’s valuable and some things are easier solved with no communication lag time. We also do a lot of phone and video conferences for that reason.

But once you have a critical mass of remote people, it starts to get easier. There isn’t a stigma to being on the other side of the webcam or phone, if 2/3rds of the people are. Even folks in conference rooms at the office are usually talking to a camera. And we have to put things in asynchronous tools like email, wiki pages, github comments, which also makes it easier for us to include community members.

EDIT: On a personal note, working from home is about a wash with being in the office, having done both. I go a little stir crazy, but I have a more flexible schedule. I don’t see people during the day, but that makes me have a more active social life at night and on weekends, etc.

Question: What should a upcoming Mozilla webdev intern know before coming in?

Answer

This question implies that you have already been accepted as an intern (correct me if I’m wrong), so that would assume you have shown that you can work in a team, are interested in the things we are doing, and that have written some relevant code.

If you want to get a head start on the code side, familiarize yourself with Python and Django, as well as HTML / CSS and JavaScript. You will, however, get plenty of code reviews and advice, so don’t panic

You are also welcome to pick any Mozilla website you find interesting and take a look at its code, ask questions, maybe even file a bug or submit a patch. Also, go ahead and find us on IRC (http://irc.mozilla.org for instructions, channel #webdev) and say hi!

Looking forward to meeting you soon

These are just a few questions that I liked, Want to read the rest? Click Here

How many times have you visited a site, found the blog, got really excited by the post, and then were extremely disappointed to see it was posted in 2009 and has had no updates since? It is hard to trust a source that is inconsistent and seemingly out of touch. Just like nobody likes a flaky person, nobody likes a flaky blog. If you want consistent followers, you need to give them consistent information.You want people to remember your blog and visit it often. For this to be worth their while it is so important to update consistently, at least a few times a week.

2. Audience:

Keep it personal. Even though there may be thousands of people following your blog (woohoo!), individuals are reading it, and people like to feel important. Give them a reason to feel like you are communicating just to them. Keep your tone conversational, ask questions, provide insights, and most importantly…continue the conversations through comments. There is no greater feeling than knowing someone has taken the time to respond to your thoughts. Engage your followers and you will create fans.

3. Theme:

There should be an overarching theme to your blog that lets the reader know right away who you are, what the blog is about, and why that person should spend their precious time reading it. Having a theme also helps with consistency. When you have a focused goal, it is much easier to find topics to write about.

4. Resource:

Most people follow a blog because it gives them some sort of value. It might make them feel connected, provide them with valuable information, or just be an enjoyable experience. You have to find out what kind of a resource you are and be sure to always give that to your followers. And it doesn’t always have to be heavy, for example I follow The Daybook because she makes me laugh…like when she posts cute pictures of her newborn baby (too cute!). Makes me laugh, makes me happy, keeps me following. Be sure to also include links and information to other resources and blogs where applicable. This will show your readers that you truly are a source of information and value and will keep them coming back.

5. Visual:

People. Love. Pictures. It is a fact of life that we are physical, visual creatures. Anything you can add to your posts (whether it be charts, videos, or photos of cute babies in mustaches) will keep people engaged and interested. Plus, having a visual will also make your blog easier and more enjoyable for others to share via Facebook, Pinterest, Email and any other social media sources.

6. Sales:

Keep in mind: People hate to be sold to directly. As much as your blog can be helpful or even vital to your sales, it is important to not make this obvious. The focus of your blog should still be to provide value to your customers or followers. There are many ways (that we will discuss in future posts) to make your blog profitable without shoving it in your followers faces. One simple tactic for now is to keep your products visible throughout the blog post (usually on the sides) so that your brand and product or service is top of mind.

{Happy blogging!}

Fascinating

Adventurous

Timely

We all have these qualities to one degree or another, but in writing you need to put these qualities into overdrive. Think of the articles you like to read and share, what do you enjoy about them? Many times the author takes an adventurous approach to a topic and sheds new light on it, activating your emotional juices.

Or, perhaps they live a fascinating way of life and you enjoy reading their perspective on topics. Timely is pretty obvious, not to many of us would be interested in reading an article today about how funny sounding the name of the ‘iPad’ is, it’s old news. Also it refers to writing posts on a consistent basis.

How do you exemplify these qualities in your writing?

First off you need to understand that all of us have these three qualities built into us, we just need to let them shine! To be more fascinating simply provide fascinating antidotes from your life to help prove a point or give a perspective. For instance, I grew up working on a pheasant farm, I have many a fascinating story that I could draw from using that perspective.

To be more adventurous in your writing don’t be afraid to make people mad, or to be honest about how you really think. Write about things your competition wouldn’t, don’t be afraid to ruffle some feathers.

Being timely consists of doing the following two things. Mainly we want to be consistently adding new content in a timely manner, creating a blogging calendar and sticking with it. Also it can refer to writing on timely subjects that relate to your field, give your perspective on something big in the news. This requires you to act quickly, and be informed.

What other qualities do you think a great blogger should have?

Link to generate code: Click Here

Note if you have issues with the height of the subscribe button add this value next to the widge value in the code: height=”50px”

You’ve probably run into this situation before. You’re trying to get your point across to someone or a group of people and it seems like no one really want’s to listen to what you have to say, they’re waiting for you to take a deep enough breath to cut you off and tell their point of view. Chances are, you were telling them something but you weren’t captivating them. This applies in a one on one discussion, a speech to an audience, or something you’re writing.

To take the lead in any kind of discussion you need vision, energy, authority and a natural strategic ability. However, just those traits alone wont inspire people to listen to you or take action on what you have to say. There are a few other qualities you need to demonstrate if you really want to grab hold of their attention and keep them enthralled in what you’re telling them.

Qualities You Need to Captivate & Inspire

1. Be Human. No one wants to hear you carry on and on about how amazing of a person you are, chances are if you’re trying to convince people of your extra ordinary prowess you’re probably exaggerating anyways. Bring the conversation down to earth, build a connection by revealing your weaknesses to your audience; and perhaps even share how you overcame them. This will build a connection, and also bring you down to earth.
2. Intuition. Read your audience, if you’re talking one on one with someone take visual ques from their body language and adjust accordingly. This seems obvious, but so many people miss this and just keep jabbering on and on when clearly no ones listening.
3. Tough Love. If you don’t like conflict this one can be difficult, but its an important one. If you care about your audience (which you should, why else would you be talking to them?) its important that you set your expectations high. You’ve probably experienced a teacher or mentor who pushed you beyond your limits and told you when you weren’t living up to their expectations. This moved you to try even harder and excel even more at the task at hand. Do this with your audience, tell them how much you expect from them and you will gain their respect.
4. Uniqueness. Demonstrate through deed or example your unique qualities. This should not be confused with bragging about your achievements, its simply a way to help qualify yourself as someone who can lead the conversation.

These traits are often found in leaders around us, but we sometimes ignore the importance of them. Next time you’re writing or talking to an audience- do what you can to demonstrate these four qualities.

Week #1

Who I am, what I do, and why I do it.

Week #2

Three Tips

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Ever assign someone in your company a task and find that they just don’t get it? You tell them exactly how to do it, what it should look & feel like, as many details as you possibly can and yet the results are just not what you expect or need. You can blame them all you want, but you are missing an important part of the puzzle. You need to explain why the project or task is important to the organization as a whole.

You might be tempted to react like Don Draper from Mad Men when someone ask’s you why they should do something.

Think Of It This Way…

Imagine you’re teaching someone a simple game. You tell them they need to throw a ball in a hoop, but you fail to explain to them that they get points from doing this. You just tell them day after day that they need to keep throwing the ball in the hoop. Chances are after a few rounds they won’t find any excitement in throwing said ball into said hoop, they’ll loose motivation. If you add in the details as to why its important to get the ball in the hoop; they’ll win the game, get to go to the conference, get a big shiny metal, you’ll find that they will certainly see the importance of getting that ball in the hoop!

Next time you find your team not finishing tasks the way you want them to follow these three steps and see results:

• Don’t assume anything. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that just because you know the strategy behind a project that everyone else does. Explain ‘the big picture’, share the end goal.
• Make sure they understand. Make a quick note on a piece of paper of where your company is now, and where it will be after the project is complete. Post this on the wall, keep it as a guide.
• Compare to other projects. If the project seems random or out of the blue to your team, try and explain how it ties in with other company projects. Make lists of all the major projects and connect them together with lines & arrows. Make sure they can explain to you why its important.

Follow these steps and you’ll be sure that your team keeps motivated!  Have any other tips on giving direction to your team? Post them in the comments below.

List + Relationships = An Amazing Business

Here’s The Transcription

[music]

ANNOUNCER: Behind the Brand features the people who are making things happen. Get the insight to grow your biz from experts who’ve done it. Get Behind the Brand. Sponsored by Raven Internet Marketing Tools.

[music]

BRIAN: Hi, I’m Brian Elliot. Welcome to another episode of Behind the Brand. Today I’m here with author, speaker, entrepreneur, and businessman Lewis Howes. Lewis, welcome to the show.

LEWIS: Thanks for having me Brian.

BRIAN: You betcha. One of the first questions I always ask my guest is how did you get this job? Tell us about your journey; where you’ve been and where you are now.

LEWIS: I started off playing national football a few years back, back in 2007. I went into the NFL traff and did some NFL combines. I wasn’t good enough to play in the NFL so I played in the arena football league first. My goal was to work my way up through the rankings,

BRIAN: Sure.

LEWIS: To play in the NFL.

BRIAN: Still, a very exciting sport.

LEWIS: Very exciting and very physical.

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: Very fast. All indoor football. In the second game of my rookie season, I was playing wide receiver. I was a starter. I was running out to catch a pass, and again, it’s a very narrow and short field. I went out for an out pass, an out route, and I dove into the wall, snapping my wrists. Right into the wall, and then landing into it at the way down.

BRIAN: Mhm.

LEWIS: At the moment, I realized that something was wrong, but I didn’t want to act like it was, because I was a tough guy.

BRIAN: Right.

LEWIS: I thought I could deal with the pain.

BRIAN: Play through pain.

LEWIS: Exactly. I’d broken six ribs before in college, I’ve torn both ac joints, and broken my ankles, so I could deal with the pain. I ended up finishing the game with a lot of pain and agony. I had an x-ray right after the game was over at the hospital, and the doctor said, here’s the wrist. It’s broken. I think there are five or six bones in your wrist.

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: One of them was split in half. He said, you can play the rest of the season if you want, if you can deal with the pain, but I really recommend that you have surgery right now.

BRIAN: Right.

LEWIS: I said, you know what? I’m super human. I can deal with the pain. I put pads and a helmet on. I’m a tough guy.

BRIAN: Did your coach know all this, by the way?

LEWIS: I hid it from my coach for the first part of the season.

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: I just taped it up, and then eventually, they found out midway through. I told the doctor not to tell them. I didn’t want him to know because I knew, if he thought I had a broken bone, he wouldn’t play me.

BRIAN: Right.

LEWIS: But I still knew I could play above everyone else, with one good hand. So I had this injury, I had this cast on for six months, and I didn’t have a job. This was late 2007, early 2008. The economy was really bad then. People were laying off employees that had MBAs, Masters and everything else.

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: I left early, without a college degree, to go play in the NFL.

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: So I had this challenge from that point.

BRIAN: It must have been devastating.

LEWIS: It was heartbreaking. I mean, imagine, again, if you had a dream. You were on your path to achieve that dream and you had no backup plan, no backup dream, no skills, and no assets. No nothing.

BRIAN: That you had discovered yet.

LEWIS: Exactly. That I hadn’t discovered yet. But you had this focus and you were so determined to achieve this one thing.

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: All the eggs in one basket.

BRIAN: All the eggs were in one basket.

LEWIS: And then, it’s gone, from one injury. It was all gone in a second. I remember being extremely depressed for the first couple of months, thinking, what am I going to do next? This is what I want to do. I don’t want to coach because it’s just not what I’m passionate about. I’m passionate about begin an athlete, being competitive, and winning.

BRIAN: Yeah.

[music]

BRIAN: How do you deal with that, when you seemingly lose everything?

LEWIS: You know, I feel like I was raised with a good mindset. My parents raised me well. My dad instilled in me a couple of good things. He always said that I could achieve anything I want. I think a lot of dads tell their kids that. He said you can achieve anything you want, no matter how big or small. He instilled this powerful mindset in me at an early age, so that, when I was down, I’d get injured in college or high school, I knew that I’d be able to bounce back, and something good would come from the opportunity,

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: Or experience. After a couple of months I realized that I needed to figure out what I would do next. I couldn’t let this bring me done. I said, I’ve got to figure out how to get off my sister’s couch and just afford my own living space. I wanted to feel like a human being again.

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: Have my own food and basically have my own roof.

BRIAN: Yeah. I think you mentioned some important things, maybe subtle to some of the people watching, and that is, when times are tough, who do you rely on? You’ve got this big support system,

LEWIS: Right.

BRIAN: In your family, and you’re humble enough, [laugh] to go back to your sister,

LEWIS: It was tough.

BRIAN: And lean on them a little bit.

LEWIS: Right. There was one moment where I started applying to jobs because my sister, after six months, she was like, Lewis, you’ve got to start paying rent. You’ve got to do something. You’re getting these opportunities. You’ve got to start making moves. You can’t just sit here,

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: And live off me for years. It was like, I don’t want to. But I didn’t want to work for someone. I remember the moment when – cause I was searching on craigslist. I was getting stuff nationally but I didn’t want to leave right then. I went on craigslist looking for different sports marketing opportunities, and I applied for one job in Columbus that I thought, this could be a good fit. I applied for a job for a sports marketing company. I remember, they said, we love your profile, we love your resume, and we love this. We love your background and athletic mindset. Would you come in for an interview? I had an interview set up for a certain point. It was ten am on one day, and I remember getting ready for the interview, and I just said, I can’t do it. I can’t go through the interview.

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: I thought I was going to get it. I was like, I don’t want to turn them down, and so I just didn’t go.

BRIAN: You bailed out.

LEWIS: I bailed out, and I realized, from them on out, I had to just go full force with what I knew I was passionate about, which is my lifestyle design. I wanted to create the right lifestyle for myself, and build a business around that.

BRIAN: It all sounds really great. But when you have no money in your bank account [laugh] –

LEWIS: It wasn’t easy.

BRIAN: It’s a whole different thing.

LEWIS: I had to convince my sister to let me stay, right?

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: So here’s what I did. People started reaching out and said, I will pay you to help me on my LinkedIn strategy.

BRIAN: Yeah. So you’re pimping out profiles.

LEWIS: Yeah. I was helping people with profiles. Alright, I’ll do it for fifty bucks. Right? I was rich with fifty dollars. So I started doing it for fifty dollars. They would come back to me within a week or two and say, I just had these people reach out to me. I got this contact. I got this client. I got this deal,

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: I got this job, and they started promoting me to their friends. You’ve got to talk to Lewis about LinkedIn, he’ll hook you up.

BRIAN: You were getting traction.

LEWIS: Exactly. So I started getting a lot of people coming to me and saying, will you do a profile overview and strategy session with me? So I said, sure. I started bumping it up to a hundred dollars, a hundred and fifty, two hundred, and two hundred and fifty dollars. I remember I charged three hundred and fifty dollars for the last person I worked on and I was just, like, this isn’t worth it anymore. Doing one-on-one work for a couple of hours, helping someone build their empire is not worth it, right?

BRIAN: It wasn’t scaling.

LEWIS: It wasn’t scaling. I just started to realize this. I wish I had learned this stuff in college or in business school, but I didn’t do that. I didn’t have the opportunity. I learned through mistakes and trial and error what I wanted. And I leaned fast. I learned pretty fast. What I started to do after that is, I said, you know what? People need to connect with others to build their business. They need great relationships. They need to learn about other people and what’s available in the local market.

BRIAN: Right.

LEWIS: So I started creating these niche professional networking groups in different cities on LinkedIn.

BRIAN: Kay?

LEWIS: I started to throw LinkedIn networking events. I said, let’s bring people together, and I know you do this as well. I tried my first one in St. Louis, Missouri. I had a group of about five thousand people there. So I sent them an email, to the group, because you can message the entire group, and I’m their base. I said, I’m going to host a live business networking event. It’s going to be a three hour thing at this restaurant slash bar.

BRIAN: Yup.

LEWIS: I found the place, the venue, and set the date. Started promoting it about a month before. I was like, I have no clue how to run an event. I’ve only been to a couple.

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: But I think I can make some money, maybe. So I offered five sponsorship tables for two hundred and fifty bucks. Sold those out really quickly. So I made a thousand dollars before the event even happened. Then, I go to the event, and I’m like, hopefully people show up, because I have no clue. But a bunch of people had RSVP’d through LinkedIn events section.

BRIAN: Okay?

LEWIS: So I get to the event, and people just start rushing through the doors.

BRIAN: Wow.

LEWIS: We get three hundred and fifty people the first event. It was a free event, so I was like, you know what? I made a thousand bucks, built up these relationships, and I met each person. I shook everyone’s hand.

BRIAN: Right.

LEWIS: They were getting deals and referrals from each other, really building a relationship.

BRIAN: Yup.

LEWIS: I was like, great. This is value.

BRIAN: You’re becoming visible.

LEWIS: Yes. They’re starting to know who I was. I wasn’t just a group owner. I said, I wonder if I could do this in multiple cities, and I wonder if I could charge money. Because I was like, a thousand dollars is great, I’m rich.

BRIAN: [laugh]

LEWIS: But I had to travel to St. Louis. It took time and energy.

BRIAN: Right.

LEWIS: I started hosting more. I started charging five dollars.

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: Three hundred and fifty people still showed up. I charged ten dollars, then twenty dollars. People still show up. I have five hundred people show up for a twenty dollar event one time.

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: I started charging five hundred dollars for sponsors. I said, I wonder, this restaurant is making a lot of money off of five hundred people who are buying drinks, food, and appetizers.

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: I talked to the manager. I said, any chance you’d give me a ten percent split on all food, bar, and beer sales?

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: He said, perfect. You keep bringing in people and I’ll give you a cut. I was leveraging from sponsorships, door feeds, food and bar cut. I said, you know what? Everyone’s asking me about LinkedIn. Everyone keeps coming back and saying, how are you doing this?

BRIAN: Yeah.

LEWIS: I said, through LinkedIn. They said, can you help me advance my profile and give me some tips and strategy? I said, I’m not going to do consulting anymore. But a friend approached me and said, let’s do a book together. I bet you could sell a lot of these at these events. You’ve got a five hundred people event; you could probably sell a lot of these. They’re all people from LinkedIn.

BRIAN: Yup.

LEWIS: We wrote the book. That was my first product.

BRIAN: What book was that?

LEWIS: It’s called Linked Working.

BRIAN: Okay.

LEWIS: It’s basically how to build your business on LinkedIn.

BRIAN: Okay.

LEWIS: Build your relationships. I wrote that book when I was twenty-five. I almost flunked out of English in high school and college, so for me to write a book was a huge achievement for me. Luckily, I had a co-author who really helped guide me along the way. I did a seven-city book tour, and had like three thousand people show up in these seven cities.