Amy Powell, SVP Interactive Marketing - Paramount: Secret Crushes, Iron Chef & Movie Marketing

This week meet Amy Powell, Paramount Studios’ worldwide digital marketing chief. Hear what it’s like to market movies online, her favorite projects and how she finds the best talent.

Find out why Amy has a crush on Kim El Jong, why she adores bobble heads and some of her pajama moments.

As always, this DishyMix episode delivers a fast-paced balance of insight and entertainment.

VoloMedia, our ad serving vendor, is featuring Personal Life Media on their home page, with MSNBC. They are an excellent company and having provided amazing support for our business.

They are always willing to co-create features and strive to problem solve with us as partners every step of the way. If you want to put ads in your podcast or vidcast, give Murgesh Navar and Brian Steel a call.

Wenda Millard talks about her new role at Martha Stewart Living, the heady days at Yahoo! as CRO and what it was like to launch the Internet Advertising Industry.

On MSLO: The mission is clear. The brand is vast. Customers are happy.

Wenda talks about the most difficult decisions she wrestles with. They come when there’s tension between advertising and editorial now that she’s responsible for “both sides” of the business. (Hence the funny quote above.)

Hear a terrific story about the state of the art in product integration, also known as branded entertainment with a Dove ProAge sampling program, magazine insert and product integration on Martha’s TV show discussing three generations of beauty. Marketers are pushing more and Wenda knows where to draw the line.

Then Wenda shares the great times at Yahoo! when she took the ad revenue from $730 million to $6.5 billion. Wow. One of the stories involves moving the stock price by eating her own dog food.

The there’s:

Career advice from Wenda:

• Know your craft.
• Change jobs a lot in your first 10 years on the job.
• If you don’t love it, don’t stay in it. Passion is a great driver of success.
• “Speed kills”…if you don’t have it.
• Hold your nose and jump.

Wenda also shares the most interesting story of the crazy Internet bubble. Get the DoubleClick famous sales meetings story with Wenda as “Camp Mom.” I’m kinda scared. But her minions were definitely NOT. Hear what they did. Funny, funny, funny.

Then Suz and Wenda play “Guess the 5 Food Trends for 2008.” See how you do.

Finally, Wenda shares the menu she’s planning for company, including flavors and colors. YUM.

• Veal and Artichoke Stew
• Arborio Rice with Saffron
• Roasted Carrots with EVOO and Salt
• Roasted Pears with Goat Cheese, Honey and Pepper

The recipe will be posted shortly. Stay tuned.

Oh, and tune in to Wenda’s fabulous interview! She’s fun, amazing, wonderful, warm, informative and in charge. (but not large)

Wenda Harris Millard, Martha Stewart Living on Intelligent Marketing, The Go-Go Days and Food Trends

The Clip Show did a 2007 best vidcast wrap up and podcast recommendation for 2008 and it featured Beach Walks with Rox.

Jim says ” The podcast guru we all turn to when we need questions answered about our life, job and about love…about everything, about the universe!

The Internet has touched yet another part of my life.

Recently we launched an ad campaign for AccuQuote in 5 of the podcasts on Personal Life Media. Being a good account person, I went through the lead form on AccuQuote’s site to see what my customers’ experience would be if they heard the ad on the podcast and went to the landing page “accuquote.com/save.”

What surprised me was that we were paying waaaay to much for our life insurance policies. We’d had them for years and assumed since we bought them when we were younger, that we would have lower rates.

Wrong!

Because of the competition and transparency of the Internet hubby can double the amount of coverage and halve his annual policy cost - and with brand name insurance companies. He’s had a $250,000 universal life policy and he’s been paying $75 a month. Now he can double his coverage to $500,000 and it will cost him $30 a month! That’s a savings of over $500 a year for twice the payout.

I can now double my coverage from $250,000 to $500,000 for $10 less a month. I started my policy when I was in my early twenties and have paid $35/month for over 25 years now. By converting to AccuQuote I can pay less and double my coverage.

$500 bucks is significant enough for the effort. Times two for a couple, that’s a killer weekend in Napa Valley.

AccuQuote’s form lets you “play” with the data. You can configure the terms, the rate class, the coverage amount and choose from among brand name insurance companies like Prudential, AIG, Transamerica and more.

If you have the time to check it out, let me know what you thought. I had no idea insurance rates had gone down. I thought everything had gone up. This is a nice surprise.

Oh, and if you could click through to our landing page I’d appreciate the consideration. Let me know how much you saved with AccuQuote. accuquote.com/save

And you can call them if you need help. 800 589-0479.

I interviewed Eric Maisel, author, speaker, podcaster and creativity coach for an upcoming episode of DishyMix today. The show will air the week of March 10th, following Patricia Martin, the author of RenGen.

Here’s why. Patricia talks about a psychographic segment of Americans who crave brand experiences, authenticity, creativity and meaning. Eric is an expert in “creative types” having written many books on creativity including “Fearless Creating,” “Creativity for Life,” and “Sleep Thinking.” In addition, he’s delved into the creative psyche with “Coaching the Artist Within” and his newest book “Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path Through Depression.”

Eric and Patricia overlap in their focus on creativity and meaning and how they are inextricably entwined. If you work at the intersection of digital media and Web 2.0 applications (aka “webware”) you work with “creatives.” Be they agency creative directors or programmers designing the latest web aps, you are involved with creative personality types. You may be one too. Eric says there are 75 traits that point to being a “creative.”

Eric sheds light on “creating and relating,” offering ideas about how to be an effective and productive creative person. He calls this “loving, knowing and doing.” Moreover he discusses the oft-combined creative streak with depression issues we find in creative people. He proffers in his book, Van Gogh Blues, the idea that depression in creative people most often comes not from biological, psychological or social issues, but rather, existential issues.

Dr. Maisel encourages all of us, creative or not, to “nominate ourselves as the hero on our own journey.” He emplores us to “get out of our cultural trance” and live our lives in a way that is personally meaningful and gratifying. That’s great advice for all of us. Especially when we’re on a fast-tracking treadmill in the Web 2.0 world. In his book and on the upcoming podcast, Eric shares some meaning statement examples. Ones he reads from his fans will make you shiver with their authenticity.

This post is a part of Eric’s book blog tour. On the show he describes the efficacy of a blog tour. Interesting info.

Joy of Living Creatively: Tapping Your Innovation and Imagination

Purpose-Centered Life: A Plan for Authentic Living

Eric is also the host of two shows on the Personal Life Media network. If this post has intrigued you, I encourage you to listen to one or both of these shows and send them to your creative friends. I’m sending Van Gogh Blues to my mother, the artist.

Sex, Love & Intimacy
Al Link & Pala Copeland: Hot, Emotionally Rich, Spiritually Evolving Relationships

Dr. Terri Orbuch: A Visit with the Love Doctor

Conscious Love with Gay Hendricks

On the Minds of Men
Sparking Up Your Love Life with Romance with Mary Zalmanek

Expanded Lovemaking

Sharing the Bliss of All-Chakra Lovemaking with Dr. Sasha Lessin and Janet Lessin

Fearless Lover: The Spiritual Foundations of Present, Boundless and Enduring Love
Fearless Love and Living an Inspired Life

David Deida, The Gift of the Masculine

Tantra & Kama Sutra
The Heart & Breath of Tantra with Lori Grace Star founder of The Celebrations of Love Institute

Living Dialogues
Coleman Barks: The Soul of Rumi

Just for Women: Dating & Relationships
“Falling In Love vs. Opening To Love - Staying Awake after the First Hot Date” with Francesca Gentille

“BE the Love you Want to Attract” with Renee Piane

“Tap your Way to Better Love” with Kate Winch

Taste of Sex: Guest Speaker Interviews
LaSara Firefox , “Embodied Divinity”

Taste of Sex: Reality Audio
Staying connected no matter what: Life with your partner after the break-up with Sam Gedal

I interviewed Patricia Martin, author of RenGen this week for an upcoming DishyMix episode and told her that her book gave me the idea/power/confidence to approach the Silicon Valley Art Museum about sponsoring them with assets from Personal Life Media.

Here’s the story:

Patricia,
It was wonderful to interview you this week for DishyMix. I want to introduce you to Gregory MacNicol, the Chair of the Silicon Valley Art Museum. After reading RenGen, you inspired me to call Gregory and offered Personal Life Media to be a patron of SVAM.org.

When I launched the company, I targeted the content of Personal Life Media to “cultural creatives.” That was before reading your book. Since then, I’ve come to understand that my customers are VIVIDs - focused on authentic content experiences, beautiful design and the belief in self-actualization. You’ve taken the psychographic profile of the cultural creative to a new level of persona marketing through your research for RenGen and your description of the VIVID cohort.

The 20+ weekly audio and video shows on Personal Life Media are purposefully “anti-mainstream,” created by unique “indie” hosts and the focus is on growth and self-actualization in myriad personal areas. My site is beautifully designed (by Holocosmos) and that is one of the most important aspects of my brand — creating trust and value prior to someone even listening to or watching one of the shows on our network.

Once I understood from RenGen how the power of supporting the arts from a corporate perspective is very in line with VIVID values and that the idea of aligning my business with the arts is of value not just to me, but to my customers at Personal Life Media, I immediately called Gregory. The Silicon Valley Art Museum is a virtual organization (no mortar, just clicks) devoted to showcasing artists who merge technology and art. It’s a perfect parallel in that I am enabling the amazing work of my show hosts to have a global, rather than local voice for their work through the empowering value of a microphone and a digital audio file to deliver their “art.”

I have been a patron of the arts my whole life, buying original works starting in grade school in the late 60’s with my first Jim Dine lithograph. I have a small but delightful collection including an 10′ high Gregory Hawthorne mild steel “Totem” sculpture, a Diego Gravinese diptych amusingly entitled “The Day Michelle Yeoh Saved My Life (and Pichu was Amazed),” multiple abstracts from both Margaret Ross Tolbert and Silvia Poloto, and a custom installation (including a 180′ mounded lawn sculpture — about half a football field…) by Gordon Huether of stainless steel and dichroic glass rods, not to mention a penchant for miniature Southwestern Pueblo pottery.

I love the arts. I love technology. And so does our Personal Life Media audience.

Your book, RenGen, stitched together the power of combining my passions and told me that there are many, many people just like me, seeking a VIVID life.

Gregory MacNicol is a kindred spirit. Providing a forum for artists to gain recognition at the intersection of technology and art. It is my hope to support his organization through the power of my network and the media I can bring to bear on his behalf.

Thank you for your request to hear my continuing story and the impact your book has had on me.

To Art! To Life!

Vividly Yours,
Susan

The Apple iTunes team chose to feature the two-part Steve Wozniak DishyMix interview on the home page of the Podcast Section.

Woz is such a gem and he was so patient and giving about his personal details on this series that I’m pleased to think that it will gain a wider audience with this incremental exposure.

His philanthropic endeavors, his creative genius and his gentle nature make him an outstanding human.

I hope you’ll give the show a listen too.

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2

This is the first part of a two part interview on Steve Wozniak, aka “The Woz,” who personally invented the Apple I and II and launched Apple Computer with Steve Jobs in 1976. Thirty years later he released his autobiography, iWoz: How I Invented the Personal Computer, co-Founded Apple and Had Fun Doing It. Hear Susan get beyond the book and deeper than Google deets to explore one of the most generous and down-to-earth icons of Silicon Valley. Hear how technology shaped his world view; why he believes inventors are like artists and what the greatest technical challenges are that face the current generation. Hear Steve’s opinion on the “Technology Divide” (i.e. the so-called ‘racial ravine’) and how he adopted the Los Gatos school district, providing students and teachers with hands-on equipment. Find out what one gadget he’d take if he were marooned on an island…you’ll be surprised!

Uncover Steve’s list of inventions. Hear what he’d say today to Paul Terrell, owner of The Byte Shop who gave Apple their start with a $50,000 order. Find out what he learned in his 30s’, 40’s and now where his passion for technology stands today in his 50’s. Discover the one thing that pushed him hardest in his life (so far) and which of his prestigious awards he most values. Find out about his wide-ranging philanthropic work - from founding the Silicon Valley Ballet, the Tech Museum, the Children’s Discovery Museum, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and launching Shoreline Amphitheater with Bill Graham. Woz even has a street in San Jose named after him - “Woz Way” - hear how that landed for him when he found out.

Understand his love of anagrams, repetitious phone numbers and vanity license plates and what they all share in common. Hear about Dial-A-Joke and Phone Phreaking with his Blue Box. Learn about his new love, Segway Polo and his team The Silicon Valley Aftershocks. Woz sets the record straight on what Us Magazine reported about him dating comedienne Kathy Griffin and if he did indeed buy her that flashy ring you see in the press photos. Track him on his Hard Rock memorabilia collection and his most guilty pleasure. Hear about his favorite concert he ever attended besides his own US Festivals in the 80’s - Roger Waters’ “The Wall” tour. See why it was magical. Then Suz and Woz discuss the “Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice.”

This two part series tracks Steve’s history, his current passions and gets deep into some of his beliefs about technology, philanthropy and what’s most important in life. Subscribe to listen to part two as well. Enjoy!

Related Links:

• Children’s Discovery Museum
• Steve Wozniak’s Site
• Get the “iWoz” Book FREE at Audible
• Segway Polo Site
• San Jose Ballet
• Electronic Frontier Foundation

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• Isobar US: Largest Digital Marketing Network in 38 Countries
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• Sponsor: ad:tech San Francisco April 15-17th 2008