This is just in from Jeremy Hanks CEO of Doba (congratulations to Doba on making the Inc. 500 list along with 8 other Utah companies!). They are sponsoring an event along with Connect Magazine and the Utah Technology Council to bring Guy Kawasaki to Utah.

Just like when we brought Seth Godin to speak, this is an event you don’t want to miss. I heard Guy speak at Affiliate Summit a few years ago. He’s an amazing speaker who made me think, laugh, and even cry all in one hour. He has a great mind plus he has soul (something MySpace needs more of after hearing them at CJU today).

Register and put this on your calendar now. Think of what you could ask Guy Kawasaki about innovating, something he is constantly doing. It’s a broad topic, so basically ask him whatever you feel like asking about business or even life.

It’s going to be held November 1, 2007 from 3 — 5 p.m. at the Health Science Center — Salt Lake Community College Jordan Campus 3491 W. 9000 S., West Jordan Utah. Cost: $10.

I am a Utah Woman blogger. I’m on the phone with another Utah woman blogger (Kelly Anderson at StartUp Princess which has startup advice for women entrepreneurs). What other Utah woman bloggers are there?

Dooce is the most famous Utah woman who blogs (even if she’d rather live in LA). There is Laura Moncur who is great. She Twitters and threatened to stop recently. She can’t stop because her twitters are a staple of my life now. I’ll just twitter this (Dooce does Twitter, not often, but she does). There are the buzzbooster women.

I really brand myself as an internet marketing or affiliate marketing blogger, but it’s always easier to rank on local terms. I just noticed that no one ranks on the term “Utah Woman Blogger” so I thought I would, starting hopefully tonight or tomorrow. Let’s see how long it takes.

If you’d like a one hour presentation on how blogging can help power your web site, get in touch with me. Use the contact form above. Also, I’d like to hear Dooce speak in Utah about her life as a blogger.

Update: My experiment worked, it took me less than one hour to rank #1 for Utah Woman Blogger in Google. You have to love blogs.

Backcountry.com is being bought out by Colorado-based Liberty Media Corp. They says not much will change but the company will help Backcountry.com grow even faster. They expect 500% growth next year. Backcountry.com is based in Utah.

Backcountry.com is an official sponsor of Seth Godin’s trip to Utah. They are sending many of their employees. Backcountry does not often sponsor events so that’s a big deal. If you live near Utah, sign up to hear Seth speak on Thursday, May 24, 2007 in Salt Lake City.

I migrated my blog from being Wordpress hosted to my own web host (Bluehost, which I need to transfer to Host Monster. Same company. See links on left hand side of this blog).

I recently got a comment on my post about MyFamily.com on the other blog that is worth noting. Check it out in the comment section.

Life is busy. I’m more creative when I’m not so busy. I’m learning and taking in more than I’m creating and giving out lately. I have a lot of things going on.

When I worked out at Curves the women there noted that I’m always on the go. In fact, I was wearing my “Quit your Day Job” t-shirt that I got from Jeremy Palmer. The logo is a man on the run with a briefcase. They said it was just like me! I had to laugh. It’s true. I run from my door to my car. I need to slow down.

What I’m saying is: I’m behind on blogging. Hope there will be some decent debate about MyFamily.com. I haven’t heard much about their IPO, is it close?

I like to listen to entrepreneur speeches given for a BYU entrepreneur class while I do more of the mindless tasks of my day. Today it’s
John E. Richards, Managing Director, Rollins Center for eBusiness. Check out the entrepreneur newsletter for more speeches.

BYU is located in Utah county, the #1 county for entrepreneurship in the nation (I knew there had to be good reason that I’m still here!). He also talks about how it’s also the place with the least amount of money to start a business. Enthusiasm doesn’t equal good business sense or a marketable idea. He says out of a million ideas, only 10K are good business opportunities. Out of 1,000 that make it to VCs only 10 are funded.

Anyway, I had to laugh at quirky Utah county. I met Scott from out of town at Starbucks to hear about an affiliate network (I’ll blog more about it later). He said he didn’t see a single one as he was driving around. He’s used to seeing one on every corner. That’s Utah county. The funny thing is the rental car company ran out of trucks so he arrived in a mini van! So he fit right in, except no kids in the back.

Other things Utah County might be #1 or at least the top 5 on:

• Family size (hence all the mini vans)
• MLM companies (check out this movie about MLMs coming in April, (how do you spoof something that is already so over the top??)
• Chain restaurants per capita. Just try to get a seat at Outback steakhouse for dinner!

Like the rest of the country, I followed the shootings at Trolley Square the day before Valentine’s Day with a heavy heart. My friend’s husband was there right before it all started. It hits pretty close in this community. I felt also for the shop owners and read about their courage. There were a lot of courageous people. I even felt for the gunman who probably witnessed so much killing that he is completely numb to the meaning of human life.

So it’s good news to read Black Chandelier’s announcement that they will open a location at Trolley Square. Trolley Square announced a revamp, including a Wild Oats store underground parking, and more. Trolley Square has a lot of character but it needs some love. We needed something to help get through the tragedy. It’s great to see the owners step up and be committed to revitalize Trolley Square.

“She is the expert on Internet marketing, and generous with her knowledge. With what she told me on our first date, I was able to increase the hits on my web site by 20%, which more than covered the cost of her meal!”

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, I noticed this comment on my profile and got a real kick out of it.

I met someone in an entrepreneurs class over a year ago. I learned my tip made a book with a list of ways to bootstrap your business: date and learn from smart men who will give you free advice. I thought people would get the wrong idea, but with this quote I thought it safe to say (it’s not one-sided).

I recently read in a business mag how farmers in a small town put their profiles on milk cartons to try to get a date! Now that’s creative.

I applied to Date Lance but I didn’t make the cut (or maybe he’s stopped dating)!! I even tried to interview him on the experience (a great tv show or video or podcast) but he never replied. What he didn’t know is I would’ve had him blogging about it in about 3 months flat. It kills me when people leave money on the table.

I’m curious if my blog readership has changed over time. I’ve talked more about women entrepreneurs recently. Quantcast tells you the ratio of males/females who view your site. I just put the code on my blog and it is still picking up information. When there’s more data, I’ll post it.

Free 30-day trial to Corporate Alliance, a Provo-based networking facilitator for businesses. A great way to forge new business relationships. They have nice offices and weekly networking lunches. Call 801.434.TEAM

www.paintrecycling.org helps nonprofits get free paint from local businesses who have overstock. Wish I’d known about it when I organized two neighborhood painting projects for South Provo neighborhoods.

www.Gutenberg.org - free ebooks, think of organizing free content in unique ways and selling it on Ebay through Yepic!

Free fishing days by state www.takemefishing.org.

Inside The Box Home Loans - Significantly (like thousands less) less expensive mortgage loans if you have a credit score of 700+, 10%+ equity or downpayment, for an owner occupied home. This is a great idea to focus on streamlining something by working with the ideal customer. Bear River Mutual Insurance only insures drivers with very good driving records who don’t drink or do drugs. I liked them until someone rear-ended me and they were stinkers to work with (so I switched back to Allstate)!

Air Gyro Aviation teaches you how to fly so you can get there faster. They should consider matching up commuters (airplane carpools) so people that don’t want to learn still have the option of traveling by private jet (less than 2 hours to Vegas!).

75 blog posts to read before talking to a venture capitalist.

My favorite is this one on hiring tactics for a startup. Here’s a quote that sums it up nicely:

…you can’t be completely in your right mind to join a startup. It takes a little bit of irrational risk tolerance to really get into this game (especially if you’re walking in with your eyes open).

In a recent Salt Lake Tribune article it talks about how Utah’s low employment rate (2.6%) is hurting us. It’s good news for people who need a job but not so good for companies looking for people to hire. The perception is that Utah has reached a saturation point when it used to be known as a place to find a young, educated, and motivated workforce.