Remarkable (adj.) worthy of being or likely to be noticed especially as being uncommon or extraordinary

This, to be sure was a remarkable year for me. Not always fun, not always awesome, but truly one that I will never forget. Shortly after being laid off, I had the opportunity to attend the first-ever Knight Digital Media Center's News Entreprenuers Boot Camp at the University of Southern California.

Months later, after I had been working for a very quick two months here at Genuine, I was asked to tell the organizers what I took away from the experience. Looking at it through the lens of my work as an account manager here at Genuine, I issued the following quotes/paraphrases from the many extraordinary instructors who spoke to the small group of us at the one-week boot camp:

Vin Crosbie, Managing Partner, Digital Deliverance LLC

:: If you prepare properly and have the proper protections in place then if you fail, you might be embarrassed, but you will be fine.


Staci Kramer, Co-editor, Executive Vice President, ContentNext Media (paidContent.org, mocoNews.net, ContentSutra, paidcontent:UK)

:: Part of our adjustment was learning how not to be the ones doing everything.

Ken Doctor, Media Consultant and Digital Pioneer

:: Don't quote a CPM, quote a range and an audience size. Promise some buzz.

:: Keep coming back to WHERE people spend money, related to what you're doing, and get in the middle of that.


Dan Gillmor, Director, Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship and the Kauffman Professor of Digital Media Entrepreneurship, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University

:: Anything you do you should tell people, and why.


Susan Mernit, CEO, Peoples Software Co.; Consultant and Former Yahoo! Executive

:: Do not do anything you can't measure.

:: Make sure all of the data is findable on your site.


Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Land, Calafia Consulting

:: Treat search engines like a browser when testing.


Mary Lou Fulton, former Vice President, Audience Development, The Bakersfield Californian

:: You gotta believe, but you need to listen.

:: Great products solve problems and meet emotional needs.

:: How much time effort money does it take to close sales, and then how much money would it take to earn that money back?


Jeffrey Cole, Director, USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future

:: The advertiser has to become a member. It has to explain why they're there and state their goals.


Tom Omalia, Orfalea Director's Chair in Entrepreneurship and Professor of Clinical Entrepreneurship, USC Marshall School of Business

:: Process vs. structure: If you establish a structure, you can empower others to create their own processes.