The Five Question Interview – Jeff Keni Pulver

The five question interview with Jeff Keni Pulver:

1. BA: You have mastered online tools to build your business and at the same time your conferences and breakfasts are all about real life human contact. Does your online presence turbocharge the offline people connections or your real life connections turbocharge you online and business persona?

JP: The two work well together and provide a balance. Online / Real-Life represent the ying and the yang of social media. Those who understand how to balance both will benefit a lot more than those who have mastered only one of the elements.

2. BA: You have an amazing intuition for the next big thing. What part of it is luck and what part of it is a persistent vision?

JP: For most of my life I have been fortunate to be able to see things before they happen. Id like to believe this is a result from a combination of being lucky and having a vision. The frustrating part for me is that I usually enter marketplace way to early and while I can see a trend before it happens, I’m not always able to capitalize on it.

3. BA: You are an “east coast boy” yet you travel all over the world. Have you ever though of moving (where and why)?

JP: The way I spend my days, there are times when it feels as if I’m living in Social Media with a dual residency in both Facebook and on Twitter. As a result I look at the world as being flat where one physical location doesn’t matter as long one has broadband connectivity.

The only move I made recently was in 2007 when I virtually moved to Israel on Facebook when I joined the Israel network.

4. BA: Voice over IP was a disruption, yet the old Telcos took control of the exploding mobile market. Do you think Shelly Palmer is right and the old media has the muscle to swallow the new media?

JP: One has nothing to do with the other Voice over IP continues to be disruptive and the advent of VoIP has ushered in an era where Voice is just an application. If anything what happened with the Telcos and the mobile marketplace was brought forth more due to public policy issues than technology ones.

What Shelly was referring to was that when you are inside the gates of old media you have a much different perspective than when you are on the outside without the chance to get in. The reality is that the old school media companies are the ones with the deep pockets (today) and as such, they are in a better position to effect change than many others.

5. BA: Gary Vaynerchuk says that he is curious about people and loves to connect to people. You are a genius connector, how do you explain your people skills?

JP: It may be in my DNA. But it took a long time for this gene to present itself.

As a kid I grew up being pretty shy and my shyness presents itself from time to time depending upon the social situation.

I learned my people skill from attending events and hosting parties. This coupled with producing events since 1996 has offered me an opportunity to learn how to be a better host.

P.S. The Jeff Pulver Blog: Pieces of Me: My Author’s Note.