the hotlou show

After a brief aside where hotlou and Mike realize the opportunity to ride Apple's coattails in marketing episode 10 as episode X, they discuss a marketing productivity hack for any group or organization that's struggling with creating ideas for social media or capturing the stories that happen to them.  Whether you're a dromedary camel, a non-profit, or a CEO of a small fruit company like Apple, Inc., this is truly the best hotlou ...

Many in the Minnesota startup community are familiar with the startup 8thBridge.  In particular, 2009 catapulted 8thBridge into the startup stratosphere locally and nationally.  In that year alone, they launched the very first storefront ever on Facebook, won the biggest entrepreneurship competition in Minnesota, and raised $5M in a venture capital Series A Round.  Except, 8thBridge didn't do any of those things. Host hotlou reveal...

This episode features some birds and the bees talk, minus the birds anyway, to focus on a social media boat.  Host hotlou shares how a single, simple post with a floating boat on a page with not even 500 followers managed to get 159,000 likes using a technique often called cross-pollination.   And then he and Mike break down how you might use this technique for your organization, business, or camel-enthusiast Facebook Page. Show no...

In this week’s episode, the Lounatics are treated to a healthy dose of what many artists might call lunacy: Pablo Picasso’s potentially apocryphal quote “Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal.”   Then, hotlou shares one story of using this principle to create a post that’s probably been shared millions of times and maybe been seen hundreds of millions of times.  A feat that would, of course, effectively demand that the cycle perpe...

It's time to come clean.  Half the reason the hotlou show exists was for the eventual opportunity to interview the unstoppable mother-daughter team Mandi and Dina Simon.  At just 7 years old, Mandi approached her mother Dina wanting to help other kids.  Soon after, the Minnesota-based non-profit Simon Says Give was founded.  And just a few years after that, Simon Says Give raised nearly $1 million in donations to help kids in need....

So you're stuck in a conversation and you can't escape?  We've all been there.  This week, hotlou could hardly contain his excitement as he shares perhaps the funniest social experiment in history.  And the lessons you learn from this episode might just help you escape that rambler at the office, at your front door, or wherever the non-stop talker in your life frequently traps you.  Even if you can't escape them, at lease you'll le...