Things get busy and that’s when you find out how good you really are
21 January 2010Today has been a whirlwind. It's moments like this that I begin to completely believe in Parkinson's Law. (For those of you who don't know what this is it basically states that the more time you have the greater a task will seem. If you have to complete it you'll focus on just the essentials and get it done in amazingly short periods of time.) I've edited now 4 videos, done graphics on 3 of them, responded to a ton of email, assisted in a couple meetings and had two awesome conversations between 8 and 10P. That's entirely the reason why this post is going up so close to the bell. Anyway announcements on a lot of different things will come out over the next 10 days, so stay tuned. Wish I could post something more, but I got more hustlin to do. #crushit
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- blog,Business Skills,General
Making business deals happen
20 January 2010Some of you know that before I was the social media community manager at Vemma that I was many different things at GoDaddy. One of those many positions I filled was as a sounding board to the Business Development team. In that time I gained a mentor (seriously, Rocco, I wouldn't be the young man I am today without your guidance and incredible patience) and a boat load of experience through the team that did the deals. I played the role of outsider as best I could learning the maneuvering skills and how business and ego need to be balanced to get a deal done on all sides. Today I completed my first big end-to-end deal where I feel like I really internalized and used the skills that the BizDev team at GoDaddy taught me. Sure the amount of cash wasn't as big as the deals I've played support roles on but overall this was my deal that got through political hurdles, suppliers, and shipping schedules. While incredibly stressful it was an amazing experience that bordelines on addictive. That stated, here's what I want you as my readers to know: Research on all the players in the field is absolutely required and ...
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- blog,Business Skills,General
Tungle continues to amaze…as does personal branding
19 January 2010So this entire deal with me and getting random amounts of publicity is kinda freaking me out. Earlier today I received a tweet (thanks @tgruber) that tipped me off that I had a quote in the Tungle Blog's stream. They took an off the cuff and honest comment that I honestly thought was a funny joke me and two people would get a giggle from and posted it on their blog: I'm not writing about this to simply toot my own horn but rather to show those of you out there who are students and just starting out building your brand online that it can take literally 1 article to launch you along an awesome growth path. The article in question (5 internet tools you should be using (but probably aren't)) is now responsible for almost 35% of my total unique visitors this month and has doubled my number of page views. Those are massive numbers from an article that took me less than 15 minutes to write. The words of Gary V come back to me time and time again "content is king but marketing is ...
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- blog,General,Introspective
Half way there…
18 January 2010This is day 17 of 30 (well maybe 31 if I'm feeling ambitious) on this blogging project and I thought it would be appropriate to take a quick moment and tell you all a little bit about what I've learned in this process. First off, you'd be shocked who's actually listening. In the time since I've started this I've become friends with the Ren Men, been featured on a book's website and had a well known color expert leave a comment on my blog. I've been retweeted by over a dozen people and have had some of my own beliefs regarding my writing challenged. If you're starting or restarting a blog don't be shocked if someone you never expected leaves a comment or gets pointed to your website. Remember they're only a single person away. ;) While I still find my writing to be pretty poor, it's become that much easier for me to simply write about anything which is a side effect I wasn't anticipating. I used to struggle for hours to figure out something to talk about or compile my thoughts on a book. Now because I'm constantly creating content I feel much more able to sit down with a ...
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- blog,General,Introspective
Eliminate, edit and perfect…Becoming Steve Jobs on stage
16 January 2010On a fairly regular basis I get the opportunity to present to large rooms of people. Whether it's an Ignite Phoenix, a guest lecture or a large convention like the one Vemma has me preparing a presentation for there's one man who is the basis for my slide design and half of the way I present information. That man is Steve Jobs. (For those wondering the other person I obtain inspiration from is my friend, Gary Vaynerchuk. His energy and pure passion is much closer to my natural state of being.) I'm not the first geek to be enamored by the presentation skills of Steve Jobs, nor do I expect to be the last. With that in mind, here's my quick review of Carmine Gallo's The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. Gallo has an amazing eye toward the storytelling and performance aspects of a Steve Jobs keynote and while this book is broken into three distinct sections (story, experience and rehearse) that reflect the way Jobs presents. This can be useful if you've never presented before and have few bad habits you have to work through but the sections could be more helpful for those of us who have ...
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- blog,Book Reviews
The beginnings of my outsourced life
16 January 2010I'm currently experimenting with my life in ways that I wish I would have a few years ago. Tearing a page from Tim Ferriss' playbook I'm testing assumptions left and right. I've already chronicled the elimination of physical media. In February it's likely I'll sell my beloved big screen TV, home theater system, all my gaming systems and my AppleTV as well. I know that I couldn't have done this before now but it's interesting to think how things might be different if I had. This however is not the intention of this blog post but rather the new in-flow of products in my life. I'm beginning to believe that I can have anything physical delivered to my house. And since the start of the year it's proven remarkably easy with a little planning. Books and content are now all digital and get delivered immediately. Physical books get delivered in 2 days from Amazon but those have only been gifts for folks and not things I'm keeping. I've even shipped packages from my house without even seeing the delivery service guy. The two things that I regularly left the house for in my car were work and groceries and well the ...
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- blog,General,Introspective
Top artistic resources for those who simply aren’t
15 January 2010I am not an artist. I do not understand how to move either pen or pixel in an original way that makes sense visually. I am insanely jealous of those who can. With that confession in mind let me describe how I remain able to create documents like this: Yes, that will be one side of my new business card which will be here in a week and yes I really like it. Typography First off, even though I can't draw anything while in middle school I took a calligraphy class. No I didn't think it was cool and the only time I ever used the skill was to write up an invitation to a girl to come to me to my senior prom (which for those asking, she said "no"). That stated, in design, fonts can be the non designer's saving grace. They can create a feel and mood in document that simply is hard to ignore. 1001freefonts.com and comicbookfonts.com (paid for fonts) are real friends here and each should be thoroughly explored to find that perfect font that conveys the information you want in a great way. Stock Photos iStockPhoto is the first ...
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- blog,Business Skills,How To
Sleep Cycle – the $1 that may quite possibly be reason enough to have bought my iPhone
14 January 2010This last week I spoke about my passion for my FitBit and how much I love this little piece of technology. I stated that I was considering about playing with a Zeo to help me monitor and improve my sleep but that the price was the sticking point for me. The day I made that post Lifehacker made note of Sleep Cycle (http://bit.ly/52lHtE). This little app uses the same accelerometer inside the FitBit to make observations about your sleep. For those who have known me for a long time, they know I'm not a morning person. For the longest time I used to tell folks that if it's before 10AM it simply didn't mean anything to me. After only a few days using this application I completely believe in the idea of alarm clocks that take advantage of your body's own rhythms. Basically, you tell the alarm to wake you up at a certain time and the iPhone and this app begin searching for a time up to 30 minutes in advance of that time for the most opportune moment to wake you up. When it finds it the alarm goes off.It's pretty amazing between the ...
5 internet tools you should be using (but probably aren’t)
13 January 2010There are several tools that I absolutely love on the net which are still a little obscure but make my life so much easier. If you aren't already using these tools seriously check them out! 1. TokBox (http://tokbox.com, free) Tokbox is one of those services that I use at every chance I get. Tokbox is in a very competitive field of video conferencing software that requires no installation in order to run. All it needs is a browser and flash to have been installed (and not to mention a camera, microphone, and an account to the service). The reason I like it is it's incredible ease of use and the simple process to sign someone new up. The opportunity to see someone's facial reactions and non-verbals when talking or listening makes conveying information that much easier. Top it all off with being free and having a really strong integration with other services like YouTube and Slideshare and that's why it's my default web conferencing software. 2. Tungle (http://tungle.com, free; http://tungle.me, free) Tungle is an amazing application that makes not only tracking whats on my schedule easier but also allows for people ...
Content – Your ultimate resume and legacy
12 January 2010After a few self indulgent posts I've decided that this one will entirely be about helping you. I know from the stats and the folks who have spoken to me privately that a lot of folks reading this blog are new to social media. I also know that I primarily promote this blog on Twitter where I'm followed by a lot of sharp minds in the space. With that frame I'm going to try and speak to both sub-audiences simultaneously. The topic: content. A lot of social media folks who actually do this work professionally often feel hypocritical because they push their clients to produce content on a regular basis yet fail to do so themselves. While they can point at the fact that this is the fight they put up all day and all they want to do is watch TV or Hulu when they get home they're doing themselves a disservice. (I fell into this group in such a massive way and that's entirely why I'm taking part in the post-a-day challenge.) I would posit that content is the only thing that really lasts on the internet any longer. Ads in the form of PPC or display banners aren't ...
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