All I Can Jet (a.k.a. Social Networking anytime before circa 1994)

Aug 31 2010

All You Can Jet

The folks at JetBlue woke up one day last year and said, stop the presses!! We’ve got an idea. Let’s sell a pass where in a typically slow time of travel, for a fixed fee, customers can fly ALL THAT THEY WANT for 30 days.

They called it the All You Can Jet (AYCJ) pass. They sold out several days early. This year, they brought it back. They’ve got quite the social engagement of people on their Facebook page for All You Can Jet.

I had some travel I needed to do for Doba in Sept; specifically, attend the Shop.org Annual Summit in Dallas and meet with some business partners in the Bay Area, etc.

Feature Creeper got a hold of me, and I booked the AYCJ pass with JetBlue. And then I booked 10 flights or so. Why’d I do that?

Well, long before LinkedIn and Facebook and Twitter and all the latest Social Networking services du jour, if you wanted to build or grow a social network, well, you went places. And met people. Face-to-face. Crazy I know.

Back in January ’09, I posted 2008: My Year of Travel. And 7 Reasons Why Smart Entrepreneurs Will Make 2009 Theirs Here are a couple of the reasons I gave then that are still solidly behind my All I Can Jet decision:

  1. GTD. For those unfamiliar with those 3 letters, it stands for: Getting Things Done. There’s an almost cult-like following that follows David Allen’s methodology/book. IMHO, sitting down with someone face-to-face is significantly more efficient in getting things done that anything else. I know, it’s 2010. There’s Skype and IM and the telephone still works too. But I’ve said before that sometimes you have to get on a plane or hop in a car. If you want to build relationships and turn those relationships into something getting done that benefits your business, travel is a home run.

  2. Conferences/Trade Shows. Actually, quite genius. It’s like they’re providing a ‘people platform’ to bring people together to get business done. In a couple of days (sometimes only 1) you can accomplish more business than in weeks and weeks. Do your homework in advance and set up all the meetings you want. They’re going to be there, you’re going to be there, it’s like this uber confluence and vortex of GTD. Especially if you’re a new entrepreneur looking to develop or bring products to market, you HAVE to attend the relevant conferences/trade shows/events. It’s like the key to unlocking markets; you’ll learn more and meet more people in a concentrated time than any other way.

  3. ROI. Track your travel expenses to the penny. Then look into your business for deals that got done and business activity that progressed, and I guarantee you’ll see a positive ROI on that expense. And then compare that to the deals that are hung up and not moving forward and the relationships that are going stale and not doing you or them any good, and you’ll see that you haven’t had face-to-face communication either ever or at least recently.

  4. People are Social Creatures. We just are. Relationships are stronger when you have that face-to-face time. You want to know who your real friends/followers/contacts are? Log onto Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or your “social network” of choice. Think about it then. Skim through all that data. Guaran-damn-teed people you’ve shaken hands with somewhere sometime are infinitely more connected to you and your life and ultimately your business dealings and entrepreneurial success.

Here’s my schedule of cities. If you want to “connect” with me, the good old-fashioned way, or know someone I should meet with, let me know!

Boston: Sept 11-13
San Francisco: Sept 14-15
L.A.: Sept 19-20 
Seattle: Sept 23-25
Austin: Sept 27
Dallas: Sept 28-30

I’ll update with how many miles I traveled and how many hours I spent working like a fiend on my iPad or MacBook Pro in giant aluminum flying tubes of death at the end of Sept.

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2 Comments; Filed under Networking, Travel
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  • http://www.scottergories.com Scott Cowley

    Sounds like a wickedly awesome month for you, Jeremy. The AYCJ deal almost persuades me to be an entrepreneur, just for the freedom to do what you're about to do. Are there any drawbacks to AYCJ? Are you guaranteed a seat on the flights you book?

  • http://www.jeremyhanks.com jeremyhanks

    Biggest drawbacks are related to flight routes. Jet Blue only flies to Long Beach and NYC from SLC, so you have to get creative in getting to places, which means longer travel times, etc. But for a fixed flying fee, can't be beat. Yep, you are guaranteed a seat. They will let AYCJ passengers book to the last avail seat on any given flight. But flights can sell out. If you wanted to do it for personal and not business, then it'd be really fun as Jet Blue has tons of flights to the Caribbean from the east coast.

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