First was an iPhone app.  Now I know nothing about iPhone development so I had to start from scratch about 2 weeks ago.  The idea came when I was sitting with a friend who has an online business.  He was talking how he’d like to monetize (fyi I hate that word because it sounds contrived and corporate (ptewiee) even though I use all the time) his business into products.  I went well how about this, he said how about that, and in 15 minutes we had a simple iPhone app designed and drawn in my Moleskine. (fyi  I also hated Moleskines due to the “I am a writer and artist and am super cool” factor.  Turns out I’m a moron, they are great.)  So he knows I do web programming and have done PC programming…or I attempt it at least…so it was off and running.  We are going to split the revenue from the applications (there are three, same design, different target markets).  I will do the coding.  He will supply the content and the distribution through his current networks.  No clue on what the price will be yet.

So where to start? (Here is a post of the steps involved) Apple brilliantly requires you to have a MAC to write an iPhone app.  I have none.  Luckily the guy I’m writing these for lent me his spare.  Yes I know…a spare MAC notebook!…money is great ain’t it.  So here I am, downloaded the 1+ gig iPhone SDK (“Developers Kit”…I have no clue what the “S” stands for) and went to the University of Michigan’s “fishbowl” do use the school’s O’Reilly’s Safari Books online to find the perfect manual on how to use this convoluted software language.  There are over 3,000 online books to choose from mostly related to technology.  Turns out the best book was like reading the history of scatology from Neanderthal Cave Droppings to post-modern Medical scat testing for influenza…actually that would be a hell of a lot more interesting.

The solution to this head nodding self torture came from none other than a short email from Rio.  “Lynda.com now offers iPhone Development Application courses”.  She has a subscription for her photo shop skills, been telling me how amazing “seeing” the work is versus reading about it.  I went “yea yea…I’m a book guy”.  BUT NO MORE!  What I did not realize is that iPhone development, actually all design, is visual.   Also most books edit out the mistakes they make on the way to writing the books.  These mistakes however are invaluable to know about for when you program you will make those mistakes yourself.  So I’m about half way through the total 6 hours instructions.  Each hour instruction is cut up into short 2-11 min vids (I like how Alex from Clockwork Orange always said “vids”).

So Lynda shows you how to make a simple app in a day or two.  It still is very confusing since its based on this NS language from 20 years ago, basically the “C” language…that is soooo not my bag, but they explain it well and I’m getting it pretty quick, so it’s doable.  If your interested in doing this, I tell everyone who wants to get into programming:  If you can read that 10 page manual that comes with your pc without falling asleep, its one of the first things you do when you get your computer, and when your  done you say “cool!”…you can program.

And why 45 days? Rio said “AGHHHH!!!! I can’t take this anymore.  We need a definable goal.  Let’s make December 15th a short term deadline for something!  I want to get the hell out of here, move to New York, anything, let’s get something happening by then!”.   She’s talking about getting out of Ann Arbor, she’s been here 4 years doing undergrad and did not expect to still be here.  If you talk to anyone from Ann Arbor, we all say the same thing…it’s like some psycho trap from the Twilight Zone, right when you get ready to go, you end up staying.  So I say fuck it, why not.  Just have to cull out the extraneous shit.  So in 45 days I plan on ripping through this iPhone stuff, I have tossed out all the other bullshit projects we have been working on independently and together (though she has a cool website that is generating a tiny bit of Advertising revenue.  I helped create the site.)  So iPhone it is for me, never thought I’d do it but here I am.

Also on iPhone development: there is a good classroom series from Stanford iPhone Develpment that total 28 hours from iTunes videos.  Very informative and actually very in-depth, but too slow for me right now.

And one more side note: Rio has her own iPhone app coming out in a few weeks for her other business. Figure this might get her to blog about it since when one of us blogs, the other wants to.  We’ve been lax for 2 weeks now and haven’t discussed our products at all.  Her app is pretty cool app and should contribute to the Million…at least $4 bucks from the one I’m sure her mom will buy.  I hope my mom buys my app, though an iPhone to her is a phone with an eyeball on it.

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So when Jesse said “Mike what do you do again with computers”, and I give him the spiel, and he has to reply “WE NEED A WEB DESIGNER!“, that I pull my head out of my ass and go “OH!!…so whatcha lookin for?”.  Turns out their old designer “passed away” and understanding that any programmer is emotionally on the edge anyway so I’m only slightly surprised when I learned it was due to “Suicide”.  Makes sense.  I carry two virtual guns with me all the time and occasionally, just occasionally, I pull them out, put them to my head and go “Pkeewwwww! Pkewwwww!”.   But I digress.

So how does one handle this opportunity?  I said without batting an eye: “I’ll do it for free”.  So why Free vs. something?  It’s called penny economics.  There is a great article by Chris Anderson at Wired Magazine “Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business” that discusses the second you charge 1 cent for an item, you are in a completely different business model.

Free affords one flexibility and freedom, especially when you are unsure of the payoff, which in this case will be exposure for me.  “PR” is worth more than any cash that I could charge for the web development.  So for the MacPodz, I sent Jese off to go get a consensus on the design of their website, and if he returns, I can look at what he has and tell him if I can do it or not.  If not, no skin off my nose and I’ll point them in the right direction.  If I can, I’ll pick a time limit to finish it and that includes a “frustration” factor…for if that puppy is high…I’m out.

But this post is about spotting opportunities.  I believe the answer is in what is called Socratic Questioning. I learned it when I took a course in sales training at the Sandler Sales Institute.  Basically, instead of popping your mouth open and spewing forth what you think they need and how you can help them, you step back and ask “What do you need?”, “What is wrong with your website now?”, and let them tell you.  Common sense I know, but like that rule of “no crossing railroad tracks when the lights are flashing”, people do it all the time.

When you see the eyes of the listener staring blankly at you and their lips aren’t moving, just stop with whatever your saying and say: “Sorry I’m prattling on…did you have something in mind?”  That one question will open a dialog were a great opportunity may be hiding.

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