About Buzzoodle

“It is not my job…”

In 2004 I sat at a staff meeting and asked the staff of my company Outstanda to start creating more buzz.  They argued that they did not know anyone.  They argued that they were not sales people.  One programmer even told me he only hung out with losers that would have no interest in what we do or have money to buy our products with.  I countered that I was just asking them to talk about us more, not to actually close sales.

Finally, one of our very good employees said what they really had all on their mind.  “It is not my job.”

Ouch!  The success of the place that pays him is not his job?

After we dumped the body, it was not the way I’d torn him limb for limb that bothered me at night.  It was the culture and attitude of “my job.”  I really did loose several entire nights of sleep puzzling through how we’d gotten to that comment and what was wrong with the picture.

Then, at around 11:00 PM on a work night a few weeks after the incident happened, I got an idea.  It started with the idea to write a book on the importance of creating buzz.  Then I decided in my infinite wisdom to spend a ton of money building a buzz software package that would challenge people to get out of their comfort zone and create buzz.  I did not sleep that night, and it might go down in my personal history as the most valuable 8 hours of work I ever did.

By 8 A.M. the next morning, the name of the company was picked out.  (Buzzoodle came from Oodles of Buzz), the business plan was done, the logo was designed and the philosophy and direction was crystal clear to me.

I repositioned staff and in 3 months we released Buzzoodle. 

The software turned out to be too hard to use and people did not want the one size fits all challenge lists.  (Which I’d justified because I thought we needed to get people out of their comfort zone.)

So the company was not the huge success I thought.  Money did not pore in.  I did not retire.  But something did start to happen…..

Big companies started calling us.  Small, desperate business owners started to call us.  Start ups releasing new software started to call us.  People started traveling from Europe to come and meet us, even when we told them not to.

We’d hit a nerve but we did not have something easy to sell them.

Applying the new Buzzoodle Philosophy to Outstanda also caused incredible growth in that business, so we went from steady to high growth in about 6 months.  The end result is in 2006 we held back on sales as we improve our scalability and focused the company more narrowly.  

In 2007, I have shifted our focus to speaking and training people to be better evangelists where for themselves and where they work. I published the book, Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing and the Buzz Marketing Strategy Guide eBook for managers. 

The focus is to keep moving forward and innovating in the area of Buzz Marketing with Existing Advocates.  (Employees, customers and other advocates you already have but do not know about.)

Going forward, we will publish more high quality information that people can use to be more successful.  Much of it will be free, via blogs, eMagazines and websites.  Some of it for purchase, such as the books, training courses and having me visit your organization for speeches or training sessions.

Me Personally?

Just a regular guy that grew up in Ohio, lived all over the US and worked as a University Professor in Mexico until I finally got married, finished my degree and started a business or three.

I am passionate about Education, Web 2.0 and Publishing.  Buzzoodle is more about education than marketing.

My daughter is getting an early education in Entrepreneurship with her business Kids Roar, which I help out with.  – Please buy something; every sale gets her closer to her dream of having a stinky horse.

Find out more at these websites:

You can contact me at ron@buzzoodle.com

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