Why You Can't Afford to Ignore Your Audience

Brazen is officially one-year-old this month. We actually launched the site on March 1, 2008, so I'm a couple of weeks late with this announcement, but better late than never.

If you were with us the first day we launched you'll remember the photo on the front page was of a woman in a tank-top shirt showing her stomach and flashing a handful of $100 bills for everyone to see.

It was obnoxious, a little risqué, and quite frankly, a poor representation of our brand. We really figured this out about a month after we launched. Ryan Paugh and I were driving down the road in Madison and we saw a billboard. As we crept closer, we couldn't believe our eyes, the woman from the homepage was on the billboard, staring us in the face, flashing $100 bills and telling us to go to Ho-Chunk casino!

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Brazen Careerist and Ho-Chunk casino should not be using the same stock photos. And in this case, Ho-Chunk got it right. We made a branding mistake. But that's cool; we've made a ton of mistakes in the past 18 months. Luckily, we've learned from every mistake we've made, and I'd like to think we're a better company, and better community because of it.

Now we're taking a step back and trying to figure out what to do next at Brazen. We have a million ideas. In fact, our tiny development team could probably spend the next two years building the ideas we've already thrown around. But we want to make sure that the next thing we do really benefits the community.

So we're asking for feedback from Brazen Careerist members, readers or potential members who are just waiting for us to do something really cool before they join. If there was one feature or addition that you would like to see on Brazen Careerist, what would it be? Feel free to leave a suggestion below, or join the conversation on the official Team Brazen blog where I lay out a couple of our ideas.

The biggest lesson we've learned at Brazen and a lesson that can be applied to every company is that the audience is ALWAYS right. The people you are trying to reach ultimately decide what is appropriate for your brand and what isn't.

For example, if you're a recruiter trying to fill an entry level position, it doesn't matter how cool you think your company is, or how lucky you think someone would be if they get the job that you are trying to fill, you really have no idea what recruits will think until you ask.

In this case, I would ask your newest employees. Find out what attracted them to the company and what things you should highlight when you're branding your company as a great place to work. Then try a few things out and determine which are the most successful. After a few interviews, you can even ask the recruits directly what attracted them to the company.

Even if you don't get the response you're looking for, when you ask your audience exactly what they want and you listen to them, you won't have to guess about what may work and what may not.

A surefire way to be successful is to have an army of people who find your company, product or service useful AND truly believe in what you are doing. But for people to care about what you're doing, you first have to care about what they want.

From here on out, we'll be asking for as much input as possible from our community before starting a new project. I would highly recommend your company do the same.

(And don't forget to leave us some feedback here or on the Brazen blog!)

I'll be Working on Vacation – What's Your Idea of Work/Life Balance?

My father turned 60 last month. The plan was always to bring him to Ireland for his 60th birthday. Unfortunately, the recession hit and I'm a little short on cash, so we're scrapping the plan until his 61st, and going on a short family vacation to West Palm Beach.

It's been a long time since I went on a real vacation. Since starting Brazen Careerist, I haven't really taken any time off. Work is always on my mind, and I've found some way to work every single day for the past 18 months. In a lot of ways it doesn't seem right to drop everything and take a real vacation. We just took in some funding, we're gaining new users and readers faster than ever, and I'm full of ideas for where the site should go in the next six to twelve months. The truth is, shutting off for four days doesn't even sound like fun.

So, Ive decided that I will be working on vacation. I won't be sitting in front of a computer all day, but I will be running new ideas past my brother and Rebecca. I'll be discussing our latest financing round and other issues with my parents. And I'll probably put together a PowerPoint presentation for our March board meeting on the plane and at the airports.

I have allowed work to completely, totally, consume my life, and I couldn't be happier. After years of discussing what work life balance really means I've realized that to me, at this point in time, working on vacation is my perfect work/life balance.

What's yours?

For more thoughts on working on vacation, check out the post I wrote from Napa Valley, California (my last real vacation)

When Working on Vacation Isn't Really Work