About Us

Hi, I'm Evelyn Rodriguez (my regular blog here). Here's the obligatory bio:

Evelyn Rodriguez has been blogging (mainly at her "Crossroads Dispatches" blog) and advising clients on participatory, customer-centric marketing and innovation strategies using networked "social media" (blogs, wikis, RSS) since 2003. She views "conversational media" like stepping into another country with its own culture, language, nuances and values apart from broadcast media and interactive media.

She's launching a new cultural immersion "situated coaching" service, BusinessBlogCoach.com, and a model business blog to showcase a new blog format later this year.

Evelyn has over nine years of experience in the Internet software industry, totally over 15 years in the technology field. Positions at companies such as General Electric, Evans & Sutherland, Open Market and venture-backed start-ups include stints as chief technology officer, product manager and strategic marketing roles.

MORE ABOUT SITUATED COACHING

Is this a consultancy? Not exactly. Watch this site unfold. I'd like to have other consultancies like my friends at Corante take these ideas and run with it. I'd also like to help other consultancies, PR agencies, ad agencies, buzz marketing agencies establish a business blogging practice that is steeped in the culture of the blogosphere.

I am offering a possibly one-time only (rest of this year) situated coaching program (as a fundraiser for an artisan journalism/citizen journalism microfund non-profit). This blog will also document the process of creating and launching a new blog fairly transparently and it should be instructive for others seeking to launch blogs; for now it's known as the 'model blog'.

SIGNATURE BRANDING VIA BUSINESS BLOGGING FULL-IMMERSION COURSE

Five weeks  (with bonus days throw in to account for Labor Day; ends Oct 11)

Begins September 1, 2005 (or as soon as minimum of 4 participants is met)

In this age of hyperlocal boutique microbrand long tail business, the strategy that makes sense is to have your company's fingerprint so embossed in your  offerings that no one else could possibly fill that market niche.

Focus: Whether you are a boutique firm, consultancy, agency or a free agent, signature brand your own offerings (and/or for a client project) with conversational media. This may be the only time this year (or ever, I'm busy launching blogs) I personally offer this five-week immersive online coaching.

Business owners, PR and advertising agencies, corporate communicators, marketing departments, media folks (editors, publishers, audience development folks, interactive divisions). Whether you are seeking to establish and expand your blog consulting practice, citizen journalism programs, customer evangelist programs and/or blog networks.

Limited to: 14

What Do You Mean By Situated Coaching?

It's coaching you through a real project to meet your specific objectives within the specific context of your company and its market. Perhaps it's a launch or re-launch of your blog, or a comprehensive marketing plan. We meet in a small group setting. Any and all material will be dynamically created in order to meet the group's collective stated objectives and needs. I'll make certain not to sign up competing projects/firms and confidentiality will be ensured within the group.

Bonus material: How ethos, melos, eros, mythos, and pathos apply to conversational media.

Individual coaching by request only.

What Do You Mean by Immersion?
Language immersion and cultural immersion courses learn by doing. While I look at the blogosphere as if it's a foreign marketplace (pretend you've just landed in the Athen's agora, its ancient market and intellectual playground. See also Corporate Blogging: Brush Up on the Culture), we'll actually be more immersed in your market's ecosystem online and offline. We'll hone a strategy and implement parts of it "behind-the-scenes" with feedback from myself and the group.

I suspect most of the participants will be familiar with blogging and are looking for a competitive edge in their marketing. But for newbies, I'll spend the time to teach you to practice with blog software, including reading blogs in an RSS aggregator, listening for keywords with watchlists, and writing posts (on a group private blog). For advanced bloggers, we'll dig deeper into your market research and branding aspects.

MORE ABOUT THE MODEL BLOG

Unknowingly I have been influenced greatly by the book and founders of the Republic of Tea. I say that because I've only read the book recently, but these ideas in their current incarnation have been brewing (or shall I say seeping) since this spring 2005. My favorite review of the book comes from Claude Whitmyer. Whitmyer says:

This book also presents the notion that, for better or worse, business has become the dominant metaphor of our time.

I explored the metaphor of business blogs that I'm noting and one that I'd like to take further: public marketplaces and 'fourth places.'  In particular, the model (or showcase) blog in particular will evoke a metaphorical place, harking back to the Republic of Tea:

This is a vision of business unmatched by any popular story of the last two decades. It is a story we have longed to hear, and a story with substantial credibility. It is a story of mindfulness and aesthetic sensitivity, of business that serves inner peace and enlightenment, not through social or political action but through simple acts of commerce.

Now you may wonder... This is the section "About Us."

So, where's the other folks?

As [co-founder and previous founder of Banana Republic] Mel Ziegler explains: "We were in a highly charged no man's land, outside space and time, where The Source of an Idea was revealing itself to us in its as yet unborn state." This is the premise upon which the new business is created. Not from the point of view that "I conquered the world and the spoils are mine" but rather from the Taoist-like vision that we are only creative vehicles who serve a cosmic Idea, an idea that waits patiently for the right people and circumstances to align, so that it can manifest itself in the world.

I haven't been living in Marin County too long (I live in its alter-ego Silicon Valley). Nor do I consult crystals to make my decisions. But I love that quote above. Having been involved with other start-ups, I think this speaks to the fact that the right people will gravitate toward an idea. The passion, motivation and commitment must align. I've invited a few folks to check out their interest level in being involved. No arm-twisting.

I want folks to jump in and get their hands dirty out of their own volition because they cannot not do this. And I like BlogHer's do-ocracy approach: if you care, then do it. Vote with where you put your energy into.

Why is business plan discovery process transparent?

"The Republic of Tea is an exemplary case study in one possible way to replace military metaphor. The book offers a clear vision of the emotional difficulties inherent in starting a business: the lack of confidence, the fear, the feelings of being almost overwhelmed by an idea that is much bigger than ourselves. But it also proves the point that we can fulfill the dream of taking a kitchen-table business to the limits of its potential."