Recently, Guy Kawasaki came to my work and gave a talk on marketing and entrepreneurship.

It was awesome! He’s very funny, smart, self-deprecating, and very approachable. Apparently, the latter is against the opinion of his detractors.

I have to disagree with them. I found Guy to be very approachable – he let me attempt to get this photo THREE times. (and it’s still fuzzy WTF? I can’t even blame my crap photo skills on this one.)

He let me keep trying to get the picture even after I confessed to being the one who wrote the emails below…

(The following is my funny recounting of the events leading up to, and during, the Guy Kawasaki event. For his serious tips on marketing and entrepreneurship visit my post at Marketing Squirrel “Guy Kawasaki Talks About Marketing and Entrepreneurship“)

Letters to Guy Kawasaki, and Jenny, The Bloggess…

Kernut to Guy

Jun 17

Hi Guy,

Just doing a bit of digging around on your site since I’ll be attending your Entrepreneurship 2.0 event at (place I work) next month.

I’m not sure if you’re still interested in examples for the above, but I have one:

Jane Seymour paints beautifully – and possess a true passion for it. She designs household accessories and jewelry as well. She’s also very approachable as a person. I met her in Malibu years ago at an art and wine festival where she had a booth.

I’ll see if I can recall a wonderful story of enchantment for you.

By the way – I’m quite jealous you’ve met The Bloggess. 🙂

Best regards,

(Kernut)

He wrote back! Very cool.

Guy Kawasaki  to Kernut

Jun 18

 

(Kernut),

Thanks for sending me this example. I’ll consider it for the book. Really appreciate you doing this. If you want to meet The Bloggess, let me know!

Thanks,

Guy

OMG! Guy said he would introduce me to The Bloggess. He wouldn’t joke about that, right?

They’re tight. She has a pin with his face on it… that’s huge, people.

Kernut  to Guy

show details Jun 18

Guy,

I’m enjoying your blog and easy writing style. I appreciate your genuine sense of self in your writing, if that makes sense. (Ok, well it does in my head 🙂 I’m looking forward to your talk at (place I work). I happen to work there, so if there is anything I can do for you, please let me know.

Oh yes, if you’re serious about introducing me to The Bloggess, I’d love to take you up on that! Really. She commented on my blog once recently and it made my week. I had sent her some menus I thought she might find useful post fodder.

She is so funny and so much “herself” in her writing she’s an inspiration to me and my (slightly tacky) personal blog 🙂 I have a fairly new professional blog (where my parents can remember to be proud of me) as well, but her style and personality have inspired me to be more myself on my personal blog.

She seems like she’d be a kick to hang out with! I often wonder how she manages not to get thrown out of places. Tell me, did she really bring a bunch of sex toy gifts on the USS Nimitz??

Cheers,
(Kernut)

(Two weeks later he still hadn’t replied, but that’s probably because he is just busy setting up the meeting with Jenny, The Bloggess.)

But I’m now wondering if maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned the sex toys.

What do you guys think?

I thought I’d write to him again, and I copied Jenny this time.

Kernut to Jenny, and Guy

July 3

Hi Guy,

I’m sure you’ve been busy setting up the meeting with me and Jenny, right? I probably shouldn’t have mentioned the sex toy gifts she brought on board the Nimitz. It didn’t occur to me she might not have given you one and now you feel bad and I’ve caused a rift between you two. I know you guys are/were tight and all – I saw the button you gave her with your face on it.

Let me make it up to you. I have a sex toy store I blog for, too, so if there was something you wanted that she didn’t give you, just let me know and I’ll give it to you on her behalf.

No problem. You’re welcome.

I’m looking forward to your talk Wednesday night at (place I worked)! Do we get buttons with your face on it, too?

If there’s a break in the crowd I’ll come up and say ‘hi’. (I’d tell you what I look like, but then you might warn your security team ’cause you think I’m possibly scary. And then they’d carry me away and I’d get fired for scaring Guy Kawasaki at the biggest event (place I worked) has had since the riots and the violent stalker (true story) a few months ago and that would suck. I’d probably be in the (local newspaper) as “The crazy blogger and (place I worked) employee who scared Guy Kawasaki”. Not quite the headline I was hoping for. I really don’t want to be known as a (place I worked) employee.)

Best,
Kernut (maybe not my real name, but I’m not dangerous. really.)

.

I still haven’t heard back from Guy, but Jenny, The (Awesome) Bloggess wrote back saying Guy hadn’t accepted the sex toy gifts she offered because he’s very professional.

Oh.

I can’t imagine why he didn’t write back. Sheesh, I had sex toys for him, y’all.

Here are a couple of the funnier highlights from the marketing and entrepreneurship event. (For the serious – and very useful – marketing and entrepreneur tips, see MarketingSquirrel.)

The interviewer asked Guy, “What are your five tips to success?”

Guy replied, “Numbers one to five are Be lucky. All entrepreneurs I’ve seen had an element of luck to their success.”

(Some in the audience giggled, but mostly the 250 folks were silent.)

Guy: “I know. That’s not actionable, huh? Good thing they didn’t charge you for this event!”

(the room roared with laughter.)

When asked for top tips to be an entrepreneur, Guy gave a series of tips, and then ended with this one: “Ask a woman about your product or strategy.” Paraphrasing, he basically added that women are the kinder and gentler sex. (again the audience applauded – well, mostly the women.)

Wow! Well, ya know I was one of the women applauding. Then they asked for questions.

On the heels of that statement, and his obvious reverence for women, y’all know I had a question:

“Do you have a single brother?”

He mumbled something about the package isn’t what it seems. He seemed to be at a loss for words; I think I caught him off guard.

Guy, if you’re reading this I was totally serious. Hook a gal up.