Guy Kawasaki is the blogger behind How To Change The World. According to Technorati, his blog is ranked #55 most popular of all blogs online and he gives practical advice on how to succeed as an entrepreneur.
I was first introduced to Guy a few years ago by a mutual acquaintance, Neal. Neal had brought Guy to Toronto for an event and knew that I was starting a website for entrepreneurs. He set up an email intro with Guy and within an hour I had a response.
I wanted to use some of Guy’s work and promote it on my site. I was looking for some brand name recognition as I was just getting started and Guy had one of the most popular books on the market for entrepreneurs at the time, “The Art of the Start.” Despite not knowing me he gave me his blessing to use his work and said that he “trusted me.”
I was able to use the fact that Guy Kawasaki said yes to recruit other celebrity experts who didn’t want to be the first on board. They wanted proof that what I had was something more than an idea – they wanted to see others agreeing first. It was a tremendous help to my site and I appreciate Guy’s help to this day.
What surprised me was how quickly Guy responded and how genuinely nice he was. I’m sure Guy gets bombarded with emails on a daily basis with all the ventures he has on the go as well as being a Top 100 Blogger. Everyone these days has “getting popular bloggers on board” on their list of marketing ideas so it’s all the more impressive that Guy would even bother writing back. I’ve written to a number of other top experts only to get handed off to their juniors, put off for months, or ignored completely! Luckily my site has now grown to the point where it’s easier to get a yes because I can bring some tangible value.
I’ve connected with Guy a few times over the past couple of years to suggest a few partnership ideas that I had. Each time he has said he was too busy because of other things he is working on, but I got a reply the same day, he never put down the idea that I came to him with, and he always tried to help out by recommending someone I should speak with or giving me a site with information that might help.
One of his recent replies was:
Evan,
Honestly, I’m just too jammed to do this right now. Alltop is all consuming! How about partnering with my friends at MyVenturepad.com?
Thanks!
Guy
From all the blogger’s I’ve dealt with over the years, Guy is definitely the world’s most gentlemanly. Along with the fact that he’s got great content on his blog, it’s no wonder that Guy has quickly become one of my favorite bloggers and I check in daily to see what new content he has created. If you’re wondering what Alltop is, it’s a new service that Guy has come out with. You can check out the section on Small Business for more details.
Thank you Guy for being a wonderful resource and keep up the great work!
Matthew Toren is an Award Winning Author, Serial Entrepreneur, and Investor. He Co-Founded YoungEntrepreneur.com along with his brother Adam. Matthew is co-author of the newly released book:Small Business, Big Vision: “Lessons on How to Dominate Your Market from Self-Made Entrepreneurs Who Did it Right” and also co-author of Kidpreneurs.
You should follow him on Twitter. Good nuggets there too.
I was at a social 2.0 event last night in Los Angeles, and we were discussing exactly what you speak of here. In fact, Guy Kawasaki’s name came up several times, in examples of people that get it.
He is a great example of what community on the Web is all about, rather than the old world top down, one-way communication, method of yesteryear.
Based on my recent experiences with Guy and Alltop your description of him are excellent ! He is a true subscriber to effective communication !
Evan, haven’t met you or seen your blog til now (thanks to Guy on Twitter for pointing me this way). I’m sure in agreement with you on this post. It never ceases to amaze me when I see an @guykawasaki response, knowing how busy he is, that he makes the time to be courteous. For all of us, (whether ladies or gentlemen) he is a model of putting people first. Not to sound all sugary here, but I think this is the only way to approach blogging …and life.
It’s always very nice to see a more “personal” and sincere description about somebody. But this is even more interesting if you just started to get contact with this person. In the last few days I:
1) Added him on Twitter after seen his comments at somebody’s list
2) Heard about Alltop and found it pretty cool, just to later discover he was behind that
3) Read his comment at this Wired’s article (http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-04/bz_apple) and discovered that he once was “Apple’s chief evangelist”
So, now I can see that not only his comments matter (which I figured out quickly), but he is also a very nice guy, which is even better!
Nice post!
What a great posting and tribute to a man who is a remarkable contribution to the world of social media. I don’t know how he does it but he IS everywhere.
Harvey Mackay said, “Find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” Guy is the embodiment of that, done with grace and ease.
I am a big fan of Guys. I have watched a number of interviews with him and he always comes accross so well and personable.
I totally agree Evan. I was amazed at how responsive he was to me when I first emailed him 2 years ago. He continues to be that way and I really appreciate it. I have 5,000% less traffic and emails than he does and 50% fewer kids, and he still creams me on responsiveness time.
Truly a gentleman indeed. Very refreshing.
Everything I read about Guy or read from Guy is straight genius and generous. I can tell Guy’s a great guy. Alltop and Truemors are mutually phenomenal. Great award!
[...] PS. We are excited to announce that the YoungEntrepreneur blog has been featured on Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop feed for startups. Thanks Guy! Evan Carmichael YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog ManagerDid you enjoy this article? If so, then subscribe to our RSS Feed. [...]
[...] website was founded by Guy Kawasaki who I called the World’s Most Gentlemanly Blogger and has experienced tremendous growth over the past year and has an Alexa Ranking under [...]
[...] website was founded by Guy Kawasaki who I called the World’s Most Gentlemanly Blogger and has experienced tremendous growth over the past year and has an Alexa Ranking under [...]
Heya i’m for the first time here. I found this board and I find It really useful and it helped me out much. I hope to give something back and help others like you helped me.