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Last summer, my colleague and friend “JB” from the blog site of 2TheNextLevel.com decide he wanted to “interview” me and see how my business was built for 3rdPO.com.

I told him that I would go 1 better than just tell him, I said I would show him. All he had to do was come by and work with us for a few days and I would give him access to the business from end to end. I told him that just a few days with me would show him how to build a successful Internet business.

Now, this was good for me, cause I never had a “shadow intern” before. Jeff not only got more than he bargained for, but he gave much to our business and we miss him around here.

Give a listen to what JB has to say about his experience working directly with me here at 3rd Power Outlet. JB is well on his way now to soloprenuer success and doing this was eye opening for all involved and I am sure it will entertain and educate other business owners as well.

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We all know it is rather important to be aware of the detailed seller ratings (DSR’s) on eBay. Lately every thing from permission to sell on the site to discounts on fees is tie to the mysterious DSR.

So much has been riding on DSR’s that they are now the “boogie monster” because your carrier rises and falls at the behest of DSR’s. Well, here is a screen shot of my DSRs and Feedback, I am pretty proud of them I guess. Worked hard to keep em up.      — John

Here are some of the tools I have used to make sure our DSR’s stay tight…

* The DSR Watch – www.dsrwatch.com

* DSR Calculator – auctiontrax.com/sellerratings/dsrcalc.html

* Feedback Calculators – home.alltel.net/micrep/feedback.html

Today MTV released a portal at MTV Music web that has videos.  Imagine that, MTV used to play videos?!? So I had my high school moment relived and watched dozens of vids today. But I had to stop and thing about this one…

Come on, this one launched MTV and what was a pretty neat song ended up becoming rather prophetic.  Sure radio is still a medium for music but NOTHING like it was in the years prior to MTV and videos. Now even MTV is becoming obsolete since all the vids are on the web, LOL.

This video got me thinking about blogs and videos. So I came up with the catchy title and well….made a video telling you guys how I make videos. Enjoy…

Zappos.com Offers Free Audio Download Of Landmark Business Book ‘Tribal Leadership’

Leading E-Tailer and Authors Partner to Promote “Make or Break” Reality Behind High Performance Company Culture Henderson, Nevada (PRWEB) October 28, 2008 — Leading online retailer Zappos.com, widely heralded for a near-fanatical customer service approach rooted in a dynamic company culture, and the authors of the groundbreaking, Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization, have teamed up to make a free audio version of the popular 2008 business title available at Zappos.com: free audio download.

After a rigorous 10-year study of approximately 24,000 people in more than two dozen companies, the authors of Tribal Leadership have concluded that the success of a company depends on its tribes – groups of 20 to 150 people that come together on their own rather than through management, and that these key leverage points are more powerful than teams, companies or even CEOs.

The free audio book includes a special foreword featuring Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh, whose company was recently named “Best Place to Work” in the large company category by the Southern Nevada Human Resources Association and was profiled on CBS’s 60 Minutes, ABC News Nightline, CNN, CNBC, and The Oprah Winfrey Show, and co-author Dave Logan, who also teaches his leadership philosophy as part of the Executive MBA Program at the University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business.

“At Zappos, our number one focus is on company culture. We believe if we get that right, most of the other stuff, like great customer service and an enduring brand, will happen naturally on its own,” says Hsieh. “We’d be thrilled if free access to the audio version of Tribal Leadership on our site encourages others within organizations to focus on attaining great cultures as well. Ultimately, everyone benefits from a happier, more energized, more satisfied and more productive workforce.”

To receive the free audio book version of Tribal Leadership, visit Zappos.com at http://www.zappos.com/tribal.zhtml

About Tribal Leadership
In Tribal Leadership, Dave Logan, John King and Halee Fischer-Wright refine and define a common theme: the success of a company depends on its tribes, the strength of its tribes is determined by the tribal culture, and a thriving corporate culture can be established by an effective tribal leader. The authors show leaders how to assess their organization’s tribal culture on a scale from one to five and then implement specific tools to elevate the stage to the next. The result is unprecedented success.

Tribal Leadership shows leaders how to employ their companies’ tribes to maximize productivity and profit: the authors’ research, backed up with interviews ranging from Brian France (CEO of NASCAR) to “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams, shows that more than three quarters of the organizations they’ve studied have tribal cultures that are merely adequate, no better than the third of five tribal stages. The often counterintuitive findings of Tribal Leadership will help leaders at today’s major corporations, small businesses, and nonprofits learn how to take the people in their organization from adequate to outstanding, to discover the secrets that have led the highest-level tribes to remarkable heights, and to find new ways to succeed where others have failed.

About Zappos.com
Established in 1999, handbag sales by striving to provide shoppers with the best possible service and selection. Zappos.com currently stocks more than 4 million shoes, handbags, apparel items and accessories from over 1,000 brands. Zappos.com has appeared in Inc. Magazine’s annual list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S for four years in a row (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007), with gross merchandise sales of over $800 million in 2007. The company was named “Best of the Web” for 2006 by Internet Retailer, and was included in Time Magazine’s “25 Sites You Can’t Live Without.” The Zappos.com Customer Loyalty Team is available 24/7, 365 days a year. Zappos.com is “Powered by Service.

There is always some discussion in the world of e-commerce and especially when sellers are doing business on sales platforms like eBay, Amazon, Overstock, etc. about owning the customer. It brings to mind that Michael Jackson video where he “owns” the dancers and they all fall in line in the end to the now famous dance moves of the zombies.

So during this story I had to go out in the web space and I found this Thriller 25 anniversary cover (above) with “some other guy on it” that I did not recognize! But thanks to the power of photo manipulation with Photoshop, I found one with the “REAL” Michael Jackson on it. He has grown soooo….well different in 25 years, I just did not recognize the other photo, LMAO

But back to customers and owning them. How do we come up with such a self centered term in 2008 as the notion that you can “own” someone else? It really makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. So here is how I feel about the entire topic and why I think business are missing the mark with the desire to “own the customer”

The basic tenet I approach it from is “the natural reaction to any “owned” (enslaved) individual is emancipation!” The desire for a business to own a customer is actually counter intuitive to the the intended result. Check it out!

When it came to getting this nice weblog together for me, I called on my home boy Jeff. Jeff is a Wordpress wiz but he is also the author of 2theNextLevel.com a business website for “soloprenuers”

I call him Jeff, but all his “friends call him JB” (he says that all the time)  so I ain’t his friend I guess, LOL. I rib him about it, cause I have know him for years now and he is Jeff to me.

But anywho….Jeff and I have met years ago at a business conference and although you have my most recent recordings, Jeff and I have done dozens of recording that I have not released yet. The “ColderICE -JB Files” are really full of how 3rd Power (my business) was started.

Wow, I had actually forgot about some of those and I am going to have to look through them. We did those at the earlier part of this year. But just the other week, Jeff got me on a call and asked me for 5 Powerseller Secrets to share. I laughed at him and then pulled out a napkin and wrote down 5 things off the top of my head, LMAO.

I then told him to start the call and guess what? It came out pretty good, so he posted it on his site! Thanks ummm JB…yeah, thanks big time!

Click to go to the interview ->->  eBay Platinum PowerSeller Shares His Secrets With Solopreneurs

The Best Web Directory

Is this for real? Killer app dudes? Or not? What do you think?

Updated: So after I posted this on Twitter, they tell me that yeah this is for real. So OK, new twist is in and it is “on like popcorn”. There is more and more stuff to deal with daily, I feel like a bad Ice Cube movie? “Are we there yet? Part VII” 

New eBay AdCommerce?

I do not know how long that link will work? I do not know if this is just a joke or is it real? WTF?

I had a viewer that sent me an email (btw you can always get me john@ColderICE.com) He asked me if that was Scotch that I was drinking in some videos.

You know I record these after the workday is done and the house is quiet. So here is the answer video. Are there any scotch drinkers out there? Don’t you hate when you go to these sponsored open bars with the cheap middle shelf liquor at some events. Then you get up to the bar for some scotch and all they have is Jack, then they offer you Jack like that is the same feeling?

OMG, if you have an open bar event and I am suppose to be there…Could you PLEASE has them have one Scotch too?!? That would make our day, scotch drinkers are people too

Not because he is skilled, intelligent, qualified, transforming, or any of that. Nah, I am voting for him just because he is Black, LMAO

I hate that crap, like just cause I am Black I have no brain at all, LOL. Anyway, I do not like to mix business and politics, because there really is not a happy medium and one does not really reflect the processes and thinking of another.

My business has folks on both sides of the tickets and we all respect and love each other without all the nonsense that seems to be going on with negative this and negative that. I guess sanity in working relationship starts with the “boss” and I will not allow the bullsh*t on my watch.

This vid was sent to me and it was just TOO GOOD not to share it, they really took some time and thought and the final result is stunning!

The one thing that eBay has always opened sellers up to is a bunch of crappy junk mail. I get so much fake eBay scammer phishing schemes on a daily basis it would make your head spin.

I have not done a session with you guys yet on the power of Google Apps featuring Gmail, but I will one day soon. However, one of the biggest pluses with Gmail is its spam filtering. I basically don’t have phishing and scammer eBay/Paypal emails any more thanks to it!

But my Mom calls me everyday asking me, should I open this? Or should I reply to this? Or Is this a real email? Guess what I am sending to her today? This new video…

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