Keeping in view

So here begins the blog journey to find a great position for 2008. The actual journey began in June when I figured I'd better get my face out there in the world so that *eventually* the right company could find me. From my days as a salesman (these days called a 'salesperson') I knew the best way to get people's attention is to sit face to face with them and tell them "the story."

I want to move from Sri Lanka to Southeast Asia and I figured that the top-3 working cities are Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Bangkok. I set up 20 minute "information interviews" with interesting businesses and employment agencies to begin a network of contacts and learn about the realities of work and life in these cities.

The internet provided a wealth of companies but it was a big task to identify good candidate companies that fit with my “value proposition” – for example, I didn’t see any reason in meeting with packaged goods companies. But finding out exactly what a company is about wasn’t always obvious and I didn’t want to filter out too many possibilities. I also figured there would be value in meeting with employment agencies because of their global perspective on opportunities for expatriates, their ability to give me feedback on my resume, and their knowledge of working visas.

The trip began in KL on 20 August. I met several interesting people who gave me sobering information on the challenges (like nationalism) but also cheered me with the many possibilities thanks to an expanding economy.

Perhaps my most interesting meeting was with Khai Lee at MindValley (http://www.mindvalley.com/). Khai Lee is the Creative Director but also a major marketing thinker (as you can see from his blog http://khailee.info/). After the niceties of introductions, he swung into action asking me a flurry of questions seeking my opinion and thoughts on problems with marketing Web 2.0 services. He also told me about MindValley’s success and plans to expand – all done with an eclectic group of talented people. They have Generation Y’s energy, audacity and lust for life balance (almost no divide between play and work and play). Khai Lee (and apparently owners Vishen and Michael) are juiced up on the revolutionary possibilities tech can offer society. Money needs to be there but it results from helping people derive value from community and collaboration.

It was Khai Lee who, in the middle of our excited marketing discussion, suggested I get a blog up to share my thoughts and insights on marketing. Thanks for the inspiration Khai Lee. KKIV will do that as it relates to market a product I know pretty well. Perhaps I can convince MindValley that I’ve got the energy, know-how and passion to help them grow in ’08.