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Branson details out the challenges and ideas he and his team had behind launching Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Records, and Virgin Mobile in his latest book, Business Stripped Bare.  He lays it all out - from the amazing victories to their gut-wrenching defeats.  I believe many of the methodologies he has included should must be applied to small businesses and start-ups.  Plus, I don’t know about you, but I am always interested in learning from a really cool dude who has an awesome mindset and has built a multi-billion dollar brand.

And who knows, maybe one of these days Sir Richard will invite the Happy Joe team to Necker Island for a celebration party!

To ensure a great experience for you … we’re launching today in private beta by invitation only. This will helps us cross off the little details that could become hiccups. And we — James, Chris, Nathan and I  — want to give you THE premium, hassle-free blog hosting environment that we set out to do …

By the way, priority signups will be given to those who follow us on Twitter and are on our email newsletter list. So be sure to signup!

Several weeks ago we had a retreat where Cory was talking about income potential and profit (two HUGE tag cloud words for him) and I was able to sketch out a fun drawing while I was pretending to listen to his sales pitch.  Since I am now commissioned to do weekly sketches and drawings I thought I’d kick it off with this one.

- James

I have spent the last 10 years really digging into the whole philosophy and ideology behind branding as well as preaching that it is important to “brand” the right image into the minds of the people we want to reach.  This applies to businesses, churches, entrepreneurs, bloggers, and social media consultants to name a few because we live in a world that is on sensory overload.  Having that “brand connection” to your audience makes the difference between success and failure.

When Cory, Chris, and I started to brainstorm the concept of this business I knew without a shadow of a doubt what kind of brand experience I wanted people to have with us - fun, exciting, friendly, extremely fulfilling or the feeling that comes after attending a killer rock concert or football game.  I envisioned people happy and when asked about our business they would, without second thought, give us a thumbs up!  [Now that I have stated that we will have to do everything to live it.]

The hard part was yet to come…the name. 

We tried a bunch of ideas with nothing really seeming to fit until “Happy Joe Media” hit me like a two-ton boulder.  The name Happy Joe had a - well - happy sound to it.  We could envision a character and persona that grabbed every bit of the brand experience we wanted to share and there was so many ideas about t-shirts to slogans to identities that we knew we had stumbled upon the one.  After some fast and furious domain searching (and cajoling) we had found our huckleberry.

Happy Joe is synonymous with a groovy time.  Happy Joe is living life in full color.  Happy Joe is about people sharing something they love and actually enjoying the journey.

The character you now see evolved from all of these thoughts and philosophies.  And it was only fitting that “Joe” have a huge smile and be giving two thumbs up.  It’s a simple reminder of our passions and that we just gotta laugh more.  We hope the HJ caricature will connect with you on a personal level and the grin will break through the cloudy days and crowded messages.

Soon we will have some funky swag and fun stuff to hook our friends up with and we’ll be adding more cartoons and a family of “Joes” to the site.  I really hope you’ll hang out and join us for our launch.  Peace out!

Our team has heard from years of experience the frustration of the “Average Joe” not being able to actually use their blog or websites.

We know that you not being able to control or update your site is a real bummer.  We understand that you don’t want to pay exorbitant fees to make a simple color or text change.  We realize that people like you actually want results from your investment and not excuses why it doesn’t work.  This has how the web used to work - but not any more!

Happy Joe does equal happiness.

Our whole mission is making blogs easier to use … that any person who desires to learn the simple basics can build and maintain a truly effective website.

This means we eliminate the following: the need to learn code, the time and headaches to set up on hosting, the lengthy process of finding and getting support, the learning curve to do simple steps like uploading photos or videos to changing headers or text.  Basically our team wants you to actually have fun and enjoy working on your blog!

Happy Joe brings results.

Our belief is that a blog ought to do something and not just sit there.  Whatever your goals are it should be doable and not be a time-suck.

Once you have the opportunity to start your journey, you should be able to have the resources and tools to actually achieve success.  We don’t want to send you out to fail - that does nothing for you or for us.  Happy Joe has “the goods” to bring positive results for your blogging adventure and we are here for you for the duration if you need a guide.

Happy Joe says “Go Blog Yourself!”

Sign up for our Twitter Feed or E-mail Newsletter and when we launch, we will give you the chance to see we really do walk the walk, and to find the blogging goodness that will put a huge smile on your face!

Have a Nice Day!

Based on our experience as bloggers, we at Happy Joe have four credos for blogging that are foundational to who we are and what we think blogging should be.

These Joeisms aren’t magical beans that will grow your blog overnight but they are our deep philosophical ideas we have about blogging that we’ve developed post by post. They are the simple secrets that we believe will keep you on track whether you are a blogging newbie or veteran.

The Four Joeisms:

1. Blogging Shall Be Fun!

Blogging should be an adventure and a journey!  It should be exciting to do and share with others.  If it’s a chore it will become a burden and that stinks - but if it’s a blast you’ll definitely hit cloud nine with it.

2. Blogging Shall Be Easy!

Blogging should be simple to do.  This means being hassle-free — no installations, no software maintenance, no code work that requires a rocket scientist.  You should be able to focus on doing what you want to do with your blog right now including design.

3. Blogging Shall Be Expressive!

Blogging should allow you to be yourself.  Tell the world what you think, provide your expertise, show off your photos, share your favorite videos, or socialize with friends.  You simply should express yourself and your passions.

4. Blogging Shall Be Rewarding!

Blogging should be beneficial to you or others.  Whatever the goal is you want a return on investment whether that is a new career, job contacts, helping others, building friendships, growing your business, or personal therapy…get something out of it!

Of course there are more blogging tips than you can shake a stick at but Happy Joe believes if you live the Joesim Credos you’ll find that the rest will fall in place.

- Happy Joe

*Please Always Remember to Blog Responsibly!