I was a guest on the Beancast. Please let me know how I did!

I was very fortunate to be invited as a guest on this weeks Beancast
Marketing podcast and while I am not sure I came off that well but I am happy to let you decide!

Joining me on the podcast was Esteban Contreras (SocialNerdia and Samsung), Hal Goodtree (Goodtree & Company) and John Wall (Marketing Over Coffee) and of course Bob Knorpp

Give it a listen here and feel free to comment!

Foursquare is fun but I can't be bothered to use it too much in my hometown.

I figured it was time to write the definitive guide to how I use Foursquare (or any location based app) because I have been bombarded with Foursquare requests lately and I sleep better at night knowing that people are using products and services exactly the way I do...and honestly I have been too busy to think up some interesting blogs to write. So without further adieu I present you The Not So Definitive "How Saul Colt Uses Foursquare Guide".

For those of you not sure what I am talking about, Foursquare is a location based game where people check into locations from their mobile phone and get points and badges for completing certain tasks. It is a fun way to share what you are up to and recently they have been getting a lot of media attention for a partnership they forged with Metro Newspapers

Maybe I am a realist or just grumpy as I write this but I need to say I could not care less about the points and badges but I do like Foursquare so because of this I have taken the following approach to Foursquare. I very rarely check in while I am in my home town because I rarely do interesting things except work and catch up on TV and people shouldn't care when I am home on my couch...and people don't really care when I am at work but like any content you are pushing out, people are intrigued by "interesting things" and for that reason I only check in when I am somewhere cool.

I travel a lot and when I do I am always on the go and bouncing around from meetings to events and in my opinion (I could be wrong here) but it is much more interesting to live voyeuristically through adventures then day to day activities.

This may be more of a comment on my life than yours so please feel free to post every single place you go because that brings me to the other way I use Foursquare.

Access to you.

Yep, as creepy as this sounds I watch where people are. Like I stated above, I don't care when you are sitting on your couch or in your bed and will never drop in uninvited but when I am at a conference and there are multiple events at the same time I will look to see where people are going and look for opportunities to speak to people I need to catch up with. At Airports I look for people to waste time with or split cabs. Surprisingly I don't use Foursquare for creepy purposes but there are opportunities for that as well...I just don't have the time or energy.

Don't get me wrong, I love Foursquare and think people should play around with it and figure out how it best works for you...and if you don't travel etc look for ways to use Foursquare for more ways then just collecting badges because badges are for boy scouts.

What says you?

When did it become cool to romanticize Failure?

I am not sure if this is just a tech thing or perhaps a version of modern day political correctness but it seems like it is ok all of a sudden to aspire to fail.

Failure has become not only acceptable but also fashionable.

Not only is the concept of failure appearing on Magzine covers but was recently the topic of a panel featuring Ben Huh (I Can Has Cheezburger), Micah Baldwin (Graphic.ly), Lane Becker (Get Satisfaction), Charlie O'Donnell, and Rashmi Sinha (Slideshare) at the Web 2.0 Expo Conference.

Failure used to be shameful and something you tried to put behind you. Failure was bad. The shame of failure used to be motivation.

There is no denying that you always learn more from the bad times then the good and adversity makes the strong stronger and the weak weaker but as a community I think we need to stop romanticizing failure so it doesn't become a self full filling prophecy.

I have been around a while and seen a lot of things and if there is one thing I do know is that failure finds everyone eventually (sometimes big and sometimes small) but success doesn't....so from now on why don't we try to make success (even small ones) sexier then failures.

What says you?

[Please Note. I don't consider any of the above noted folks failures and consider a few of these friends...I am using their good names and stellar reputations for SEO purposes.]

In 2010 I hope you all become a F.O.S!

I had an interesting chat with Krista Neher the other day about some ideas I am playing around with around SXSWi and ways to build the brand and make a huge splash for Thoora.com (for those not paying attention, Thoora is what I am up to now and it is awesome so please check it out) and Krista asked me an great question.

"Are you looking for the attention to go to Thoora.com or to yourself?"

Krista is crazy smart, knows me well and is no nonsense so coming from her this is a perfectly reasonable question. My answer (obviously) was I want the attention to go to Thoora and I want it to live up to it's potential but at the same time I want people to know I helped get to where it is because I have an ego, I want to be the guy known for building brands and communities and also know from experience that girls are attracted to success.

So in an effort to build my own brand a little and get one step closer to fulfilling the dream I spelled out for Jewish Santa I have decided that all year (2010) I will be offering a cool item to people who self identify themselves as a "F.O.S." (Friend of Saul).

For the first part of the year any time I travel (starting with this week to San Francisco) I will have with me two "F.O.S." iPhone cases and to get one all you need to do is be one of the first two people who ask!

Pretty sweet deal huh?

I chose iPhone cases because they were not only cool but it was the one item I could think of that I could put my face on that P.Diddy has ever graced (we are now competing)

These are top notch cases and will protect your phones with the same style and class that I live my life but in the future I see these cases getting you the best tables at restaurants and invites to fly in private jets...but that will still take a little time.

So if you see me at a conference etc make sure you say hi and let me know if you are a Friend of Saul!