The time is here again in Louisville to gather 500 of the best software developers from around the country for a few days in March.

We are a proud sponsor of CodepaLOUsa again this year and are looking forward to hosting 58 guest speakers covering almost 70 breakout sessions. Tickets are going fast, so head on over and get yours while you can. If you are interested in sponsoring, let me know.

Also, a big shout to Jay Garmon at Louisville Digital Association for helping us get the word out to his audience.

You can tell he has studied how Steve Jobs gave presentations.
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Today is the chili contest at igNew with one our our best clients Kwantek. We’re all competitive…even with chili. It should be awesome.

Don’t be that guy at a social event who’s only mission is to disperse the 200 newly inked biz cards that were just printed for your newco. I understand the urgency to spread your idea but you won’t make allies by approaching each new person in the room like you are a dealer at a hold-em table. It’s uncomfortable and you immediately become “that guy” of the night that makes people scatter when you stalk your next person.

The right way is to listen and have an unloaded conversation to gain some trust. EVERYONE in the room already knows there are a million ideas represented…that’s why they all came. Take your time in conversation…if the person is receptive in unloaded conversation, the ASK will eventually come…they will say “what do you do”? Let them lead, it’s the only way they will listen. People’s BS meters are getting more refined with each meeting they take and the instance you make the conversation about YOU, the BS meter will go off and you’ve lost them. Creating opportunities takes time…very rarely does it fall in your lap. Business is built on relationships and those don’t form overnight.

*I originally posted this on my personal site and realized that the igNew readers might benefit as well. I modified it slightly to speak to a larger audience.

In today’s society, we’re constantly trained that hustle is to be respected. The word conjures up images of players diving for loose balls, managers running from office to office to see as much of what’s going on as possible, workers doing three tasks at once to get more done that day. Yet, with hustle comes a price: Rushing. When we rush, we’re pushing ourselves beyond our capabilities for that extra 1% or 2%… and that’s when the errors creep in. Correcting those errors often offsets anything gained by hustling, but we never notice. All we know is that we’re hustling, and that’s good.

Fortunately, there’s another way to get faster without extra mistakes, and that’s efficiency. More →