Intellectual Property and Trademark

At work I helped to create and drive the branding process of our apartment marketing site (www.cypressbayapartments.com). My company decided they wanted to take marketing in house, to the owner level.  As part of taking property marketing to the owner level, we needed to come up with a new  name, separate from Hamilton Zanze.   This was a four month process in which we brainstormed elements of branding the property on the physical site. In the end, we decided the best place to start the brand was on the internet.   I worked with a team that specializes in multi-family apartment marketing sites called MyNewSite to create our website. I directed the design of the landing page and created the logo. Once the Cypress Bay website was live we needed to trademark the name (we should have done this before launching the site in case the mark was taken.. but we did things the way we did).   I worked with our lawyers at Foley to conduct searches for similar companies, names, alternate names in federal, state, common law, and internet on the name and trademark.

Cypress Bay Apartments Landing Page

The mark is currently being filed and should be officially protected in six months.   Cypress Bay Apartments is set up with google analytics.

Quotes from a Whole New Mind

This book has made me understand how someone of my personality can be happy and successful in the business world. I feel more comfortable with my abilities as a designer and artist and feel like I don’t have to sacrifice these strength to move onwards with my career. The book is split into six senses: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning.  Below are some quotes I enjoyed:

“The next 10 years will require people to think different from their areas of expertise. They will not only have to cross those boundaries, but they will also have to identify opportunities and make connections between them.”

“The ability to make big leaps of thought is a common denominator among the originators of breakthrough ideas. Usually this ability resides in people with very wide backgrounds, multidisciplinary minds, and a broad spectrum of experiences.”

“All great entrepreneurs are Systems Thinkers”

Link to Wikipedia

San Francisco Entrepreneurial Yelp Event

Through my SF Entrepreneurial group on meetup.com I learned of the Yelp Business Success Panel  hosted at the Westin. About 100 people showed up to discuss how social networking, specifically yelp, had helped their small business. Many business owners are using social networking sites like Facebook to market themselves, or even as part of their business plan.  For example I met a lady who was selling Vi Pak, a food supplement for weight loss product through Visalus. This company will hire anyone to promote their product by spreading awareness through their personal network of friends on Facebook. People are rewarded with a leased BMW, sounds a bit like a modern day Mary Kay business to me.  I met a lady who started her own company that focuses on social networking identity. She manages people’s social networking sites by creating consistency. There is a market for this, really?

Two small business owners gave a presentation on how Yelp had helped promote their companies — International Orange Spa and Tax Ninja. Both of these companies spend no or very little to place their business on yelp. They receive so much coverage from this one source that it is their only marketing source.

Safan Ranch in Fiddletown

I visited Safan Art Ranch in Fiddletown, what a trip this place is! Safan means heaven in the Asmat language. I had no idea of its existence and have probably passed by it a dozen times. Safan ranch is home  to Steve, who decided to leave his corporate CFO job when he was 33 and start a different life.  Steve converted the existing barn into a great living space and has Asmat (an ethnic group of New Guinea) inspired art decorating his walls. The property has about 10 trailers that have been spray painted mostly by artists local to Sacramento, another barn that holds art materials, a bunch of goats, chickens, other birds, as well as an organic farm.  Steve opened up his ranch to the WWOOF group (World Wide Opportunities for Organic Farming) and he hosts wwofers for the better months of the year.  

I’ve been updated… much of the creative process and creation of this ranch is thanks to Angela the artist! 

This article in the Sacramento Bee discusses more details of the ranch, enjoy!:

http://www.organicearthangel.com/lifeatsafan.htm

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Castle Rock

Shady Rock is similar to Castle Rock

I spent a day top roping at Castle Rock state park, in the Santa Cruz mountains, Los Gatos. We started early and were able to have first pick on routes on the actual Castle Rock. The rock is all sandstone, which can leave some sand in the holds : ( The rocks have large caves with honey comb like surfaces that make for some fun bouldering. We started on a difficult route that neither of us could figure out the moves to complete. Outdoor ratings are so much different than the gym! Eventually, we made our way around the entire rock and climbed a bunch of routes before moving to the waterfall climbs. The observation deck looks over the waterfall and groups had set up top manage systems to lower climbers down to the base of the rock. Yikes, sending myself off the edge of this cliff was scary. The falls climb was my favorite because it is slab climb with crimpy holds that requires a lot of smearing. The bottom of the climb has a difficult (5.11) move, while the rest is rated at 5.7.

Gavin Newsom Rally in San Mateo

I saw Gavin Newsom speak at the Hiller Aviation museum in San Carlos on Tuesday. I’ve never seen a political figure speak live. I noticed a ‘combined aura’ that all present collectively radiated, which I would expect is  common in these types of events. People were excited and they believed this figure could help solve their problems.   Gavin answered a general question, something along the lines of ‘what is your global platform for running as Governor,’ with the story of how he has become the successful person that he is.   Wow, talk about a risk taker! Someone that can pull themselves by their own bootstraps.  It is inspiring to be in the presence of someone who is so entrepreneurial and lives a lifestyle of forward action.  Will he run for Governor or not?!

Conversation with an Entrepreneur

CardNetworking: Actually most people know enough to start a business, most are just hesitant on starting something on their own

After all my experience there are 3 things that if you wanted to join a company or start 1…

Make sure you have a extremely valuable product/service

4:49 PM Have mentors/coaches that have done what you have done to help you through your steps and guide you

Help as many people as you can

I mean a few things you can do is start surveying companies and doing focus groups granted that you have these networks established on what needs improvement

visit online chat rooms and discussion groups to see if there is a common problem

5:02 PM go to elance or a script bidding place, create software

test it with a few small companies for free, get their testimonials and referrals and expand that way

could create a name for yourself like Gina Communication Consulting..

Have you heard of elance.com

CardNetworking: that sounds like a good plan!

10:12 AM good now that the wheels are spinning my suggestion would be to write it all down

as people start thinking out of the box they come up with many ideas on what they can do.. write it down.. then maybe after a few weeks of brainstorming pick 1

me: I feel like the conversation we had the other day made me realize that starting something is easier than I think.

CardNetworking: yeah planning is important but if people think to much about it, they scare themselves out of it

10:13 AM me: I see

if you’re going to jump off the cliff don’t hang out there for five minutes before hand

CardNetworking: haha exactly.. also dont hang out with crabs

if you put 2 crabs in a bucket

10:14 AM me: ooh, hairy cranky people. No thanks!

CardNetworking: 1 will never get out b/c the other one will keep pulling it down

if you put 1 crab in a bucket

it will get out of the bucket

10:15 AM meaning people with the mediocre mindset will keep pulling other peoples dreams down b/c they could never see them selves doing it

10:16 AM the funny thing is that when you do do something, they will say you were lucky

CardNetworking: I do have a book suggestion that has really changed my perspective on daily things

the slight edge by jeff olson

me: i’ll check it out

CardNetworking: & the go giver

Brainstorming 08 Technology

Hurdle Rate equation is used to calculate amount of leads needed to stabilize and provide an idea for the monthly advertising spend.

Do social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter really work?
How is the manager able to manager the page to ensure positive comments? Will residents really network with one another to create a sense of community?

As part of the web campaign design two sites for each property. Create one for pay/click that is well designed and create another that is optimized for SEO. One could also design a basic html site intended for PDAs, but this doesn’t seem like a good resource because not many people search for apartments via their PDA.

How do you track the referrals you’re getting from other sites to your site? What are consumer behaviors that lead people to your property website? This is a gray area that google analytics does not track. –Solution — Use a script that will change the  e-mail and phone number (tracking information) per source site as a user is directed to you site.  Example: a prospect is routed to the property website from apartments.com and the phone number/e-mail listed on the property site is changed to the apartmetns.com tracking number. You will find out your prospects behavior and discover what back end network (secondary network) sites are driving traffic to your property site. Keep the secondary networking sites that work, dump those that don’t drive traffic.

Mountain Biking in Skeggs

I had the day off so I woke up early and drove to Skeggs point on Skyline boulevard. We started off on the El Corte Madera Creek fire trail and hopped back and forth on Tafoni and Fir Trails single tracks. Sweet views, it is great to be an hour from the city and be in the wilderness.