Success tips
Don’t Settle and Follow Your Heart- Steve Jobs
Oct 5th
Though I’m more of a “PC guy” than a “Mac User”, I have the utmost respect for Steve Jobs. What he accomplished during his lifetime is truly incredible. His creativity and leadership not only revolutionized the personal computer, but mobile devices and tablets as well. He built Apple into the world’s leading technology company and completely changed the world we live in.
In addition to being an amazing innovator and entrepreneur Steve Jobs was also a great writer and speaker. One of my favorite Steve Jobs quotes is from his 2005 Stanford Commencement speech.
“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.
As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”
This is a very powerful quote and one that we should all live by.
I’ve added the full video for Steve Job’s commencement speech below.
Thanks for being such a great inspiration Steve.
You’ll truly be missed.
Junior Achievement Presentation
Jun 20th
Today I spoke at the Junior Achievement CEO academy to a great group of promising high school juniors and seniors. The Junior Achievement CEO academy boot camp is a very cool program. Students must apply to be enrolled and a certain amount are selected. Students then attend the camp at Florida Gulf Coast University where guest speakers come talk to them about various business related topics. In addition to listening to presentations the camp goes a step further and breaks the students into groups that develop and present a business plan at the end of the week. Business leaders from the community then come and judge the competition.
I was asked to speak about entrepreneurship with the goal of motivating the students to begin pursuing their entrepreneurial journey and have a great week at the camp.
Many people at this age, and many others, want to launch a successful business, but don’t necessarily have a start-up or business concept yet.
Rather than talk about how to market a business I focused my presentation on the following topics:
- Developing a personal brand- How it provides a solid foundation for entrepreneurial & professional success.
- Gaining experience and specialized knowledge-Becoming a student of the “game” you choose to play.
- Standing on the shoulders of Giants-Connecting with and leveraging mentors, advisers and thought leaders.
- Growing & managing your brand online-Beginning to reveal your expertise online & reputation management
- The Entrepreneurial mindset- What to be prepared for, being a problem solver, putting yourself in a position to succeed, etc.
My logic was that whatever business these students decided to go into these principles would help them.
Junior Achievement CEO Academy Presentation by David Brim of GroupTable and Brand Advance
The presentation above doesn’t include the personal anecdotes or additional depth I added regarding the topics referenced, but I still thought it would be worth while to share the presentation slides here.
After the presentation the students asked a number of questions, some of them were specifically related to start-ups they wanted to launch. It was very exciting to see their passion at such a young age. When many high school students are out hanging with friends, or playing sports, these students committed themselves to learning more to become successful in business. It was a fantastic experience and I look forward to helping out with Junior Achievement more in the future.
Warning: Build your personal brand now, or you’ll regret it later
Mar 6th
February 17th I spoke at the University of Central Florida for their “Entrepreneurial Speaker Series” in front of an audience of 50-60 ambitious business students. The topic was on marketing strategies for entrepreneurs….I decided to take a slightly different direction to help students from falling into a very common trap that can severely injure or even kill a professional career or start up’s chance of success.
The information I shared with the students I spoke with is relevant for many of my readers and others out there. With that being said I thought I’d share it here as well.
First off a small back story to put everything in context…
Over the last six months or so I’ve given probably five different speeches/presentations, primarily to start-ups and second stage companies. This actually included a talk at the Florida Technology Partnership event in Ft. Myers two days prior to my talk at UCF. As I was in my hotel room in Ft Myers, after my speech to a group of CEOs and marketing executives, I had a thought….I’ve given essentially the same presentation the last five times or so that I’ve talked focused on marketing strategy, SEO, Social Media and branding. Though this presentation was good I realized this information and delivery is perfect for those who already have companies and are trying to grow them, but will it add the same value to motivated college students. Many of these college students aspire to be an entrepreneur, but don’t have a venture in mind let alone a product or service to market now.
What should I do…Should I give the same presentation or craft a new one. My talk was scheduled for 1 hour and I altruistically always want to make sure my audience gets the most from my experiences and insight.
Unsure of how to approach it, especially with a day and a half to go and lots of work to do at Brand Advance the next day…I decided to sleep on it and plan my attack on my drive back to Orlando from Ft. Myers (about 3-4 hours).
I started to go through a simple marketing exercise that I take my clients through at Brand Advance and thought about who I was trying to reach and influence….what are their problems, motivations, experiences, etc. What can I offer to impact them the most and add the highest value.
In the case of students, learning new marketing tactics to grow brand awareness of a business isn’t as important and essential as learning how to market themselves…after all you are the only product you will have for the rest of your life. If you can perfect marketing and building your personal brand through the process you will learn and understand how to market other brands as well. Building brand you will continue to pay dividends and attract great opportunities into your life.
Personal branding is more important today than ever before. Unemployment is extremely high, more people are graduating and more people are getting laid off from their jobs.
What does this mean?
It means that you have more competition for both obtaining a job, and growing your entrepreneurial ventures. What causes you to stand out and land that good job, find investment funding, gain experienced mentors, or align yourself with those who will be energized to work on your start up?
It’s your personal brand- made up of your credibility, past achievements, experiences, the way you carry yourself, who you associate with, and the knowledge you have in your respective field.
Here’s how I foresee many falling into the trap…
- A student graduates excited to get a job in their field
- Realize that unemployment is extremely high and get a job in an un-related field to pay the bills until they can find a better job, or launch their start-up.
- They end up working in that unrelated job for years, not building experiences and credibility in their respective field and not keeping educated on new trends and industry knowledge.
- When the market turns around in a few years an employer is going to hire either a fresh college grad that they can mold, or hire someone who was laid off in the field with industry specific experience.
- The college student working in an unrelated field to pay the bills will be stuck in a weird spot…they won’t have enough industry specific knowledge to get a relevant job or launch a viable start-up that solves a market need.
- They then are at a time to move on in their life and get married and have a kid at some point making it even harder to close the gap as others who get on the inside track in an industry so to speak.
So the question becomes….How do you solve this and avoid the trap?
Here’s my thoughts…
- Get Educated…I’m not talking about a school education, though in some fields like medical and education this is essential. I’m talking about keeping up with industry trends and learning how others in your field are staying on top of their game. School is great at teaching you how to learn or the basic fundamentals in a given area. Truth be told many of the trends that can really help you can’t be taught in school because the teachers are too busy teaching older text book lessons to keep up with them. Even if they did teach you something innovative or forward thinking they are also teaching everyone else. You need to learn more than other students in your classes….remember you are competing with students graduating at schools all across the country as well as those experienced industry professionals who have lost their jobs.
- Stand on the Shoulders of Giants / Get Connected…It’s essential to begin developing relationships with influencers in your respective field. These influencers can connect you to other influencers and if you’ve built your personal brand, have credibility and deliver good results this can be a continual never ending process. You can meet potential business partners, employers, investors and much more. Also- those who are more experienced in an industry also will be able to see trends that you may not that can assist you in developing new ventures. Building your network of mentors is also another very wise thing to do. They will have a personal interest in seeing you succeed and will be able to connect you to others in their network to assist with your endeavors.
- Flex your expertise / Build your brand awareness: Once you’ve found innovative trends and can begin constructing your own thoughts on various industry topics begin flexing your expertise by starting a blog utilizing wordpress.org or blogger.com. I also recommend identifying top bloggers in your field and build a relationship with them by commenting on their blog or talking with them on twitter…If possible see if you can become a guest writer for their blog, which in many cases will have thousands of readers. I also would suggest finding online groups and physical networking groups (ex: Linkedin, Google/Yahoo Groups & Meetup) to join as well as answering industry related questions in Q&A sites like yahoo answers. Revealing your expertise through blogging and online networking will work wonders…I have gotten clients from my blog, job offers, new venture opportunities, media coverage and much more.
- Leverage your successes: Often times people will achieve something that can differentiate them from their competitors, but will not put it out there. It’s not bragging, it’s establishing credibility and showing your value. Create an achievements page, it’s essentially an interactive resume. It’s much more powerful than a regular resume because it can go more in depth, show pictures and even link off to other pages where you elaborate.
- Control your brand online or someone else will: You ideally should want to own the page when someone types your name into Google with content that you want them to see. Employers will search for you, potential business partners, customers, investors and many more. This is a huge part of building your brand online. You want it to be easy for others to find you and when they do you want their findings to represent how you want your brand to be perceived.Purchase your own domain name if you can get it, or some sort of variation. This can be done at godaddy.com. Get a wordpress blog up, which should take about 10 mins or so and start blogging! Also be sure to watch what you post on Facebook as well as what others post. Know your brand and what you are trying to convey and don’t do anything contradictory to that because it may end up online. Everyone has smart phones with cameras and video recorders these days…Your slip could be the next viral sensation and really damage your brand.
- Launch a start up: Once you’ve taken time to build your personal brand you should have connections and an understanding of trends occurring in the market place. In my mind at this point it’s not a bad thing to start planning and getting your start up concept in motion. Even if you fall flat on your face you’ll learn. Don’t get discouraged entrepreneurship can have a lot of ups and downs, but more potential risk…more potential reward. Note: I would never recommend running up your credit cards and sinking all your money into a startup. This kind of financial strain is never really a good idea unless you have some strong proof of concept. Best case scenario….Your start up will be a success and you’ll create a job for yourself or better yet an asset that will make you millions. At a minimum you can equip yourself with something to differentiate yourself from others in a job interview. Working on a pet project and showing potential and traction is in my eyes much more impressive than a coffee grabbing internship, unrelated job, or high gpa. It shows that you are a self starter, are resourceful, disciplined and can add the same value to another organization as well.By the way colleges are a great place to launch a business for a large variety of reasons.
Anyway I just looked at the clock and it’s 3:48 am…time flies when your in the zone. Another thought on that note…be prepared to work long hours at times. Launching a start up and building a personal brand, especially when working another job takes a lot of hours. Don’t let your health suffer, but be prepared to put the time in. It will eventually pay off.
Remember: If it was easy everyone would be doing it!
I hope this post helped. If you please share it with others in your network via Facebook, Twitter, Digg, delicious or Stumble Upon.
Good luck on your journey to success and watch out for the trap!
Let me know what you thought about the post in the comments below.
John Wooden Lessons for Life, Sports and Business
Jun 5th
John Wooden is regarded as the most successful coach in sports history. Wooden has had 12 NCAA final four appearances resulting in 10 championship wins. Wooden also has an amazing 80% overall winning percentage. John Wooden’s principles of success drove his life and those lessons transferred over into everything he did including his coaching career.
John Wooden had this to say about success…
Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.
- Coach John Wooden
This is a valuable lesson to learn…by applying successful principles to your life as a whole…you will excel in everything that you choose to do. So what lessons did John Wooden live by?
Wooden crafted the “Wooden Pyramid of Success”, which I have added into this post.
Some of the most important lessons I’ve gathered from studying Coach Wooden over the years are:
- Control Your Personal Image
- Be true to yourself and follow your dreams
- Stand up and be accountable for your actions
- Build the best teams
- Failure to prepare is preparing to fail
- Don’t mistake activity with achievement
- Happiness begins when selfishness ends
- Make Your Yes Mean Yes
- It’s a weakness to get caught up in praise
- Be quick, but don’t hurry
Your image is how many people will perceive and judge you. Coach Wooden wanted all of his players to look respectable. Legendary UCLA center Bill Walton got thrown out of practice and told not to come back until he shaved and got a hair cut. Controlling your image and perception is extremely important online. People tend to Google your name when looking to hire you or go into business with you…What will they find? How will they perceive your personal brand?
This point may sound cliche, but it is so very true. Know who you are and who you are not and strive to achieve your dreams whether it’s being a successful father, business professional or athlete. Stay true to your values and strive for excellence in anything you decide to do.
It’s easy to pass the blame on to someone else or sweep something under the rug. Only when you realize your faults and short comings are you able to change them and grow. Listening to your customers and those in your life can give you insights that you may fail to realize otherwise. You don’t have to implement every change someone recommends to you, but have an open mind and be ready to digest the nutritional bites of insights that can be beneficial to you, or your company. Social media is a very powerful tool to listen to, monitor and respond to the chatter and feedback about your brand.
In any endeavor you are involved in it’s important to surround yourself with value creators, opinionated people and those skilled in their area of expertise. You want to make sure you don’t make the common mistake of building a team full of “Yes Men”, people with the same skill sets as you, or those who bring the team down with their negativity.
This lesson speaks for itself…Before going into any situation it’s good to gather as much information about that situation as possible. The big thing that Coach Wooden preached regarding this point was that his team should focus on themselves and do whatever they do best. Wooden didn’t even scout out competing basketball teams…he simply coached his teams to play their best basketball everytime they stepped onto the court. I don’t completely agree with this point. I favor Sun Tzu principle that if you know yourself and know your enemy you need not fear the result of 100 battles.
So many times people get caught working on what’s immediate as opposed to what is truly important. It’s a trap that’s very easy to fall into. I’ve experienced this trap many times…It’s easy to get an email or phone call and be obligated to answer it immediately thus getting distracted from important goals or tasks for the day. To avoid this trap I try to never lose sight of what is most important. I find that mapping out the steps to obtain a goal by starting from the end and working backwards is the best way to figure out the optimal path for achievement. Once I’ve determined the steps, I strive to find time to self reflect through reading and meditation to make sure I’m not getting too far away from the steps needed to accomplish my goal.
I Thought that this was a very nice quote. I feel most athletes or virtually any striving person or professional has to be a bit selfish with their time, attention and resources to be successful. It’s very important to remember why you are striving to be successful in the first place. For me it’s so I can help others be successful through my insights and experience, provide a great life for my family, and not be forced to trade my time for money allowing me to travel the world and see and do the amazing things god has created, or inspired, with those who are close to me. Keeping these end goals in mind will transform your journey to success from selfish to selfless. I love what I do and look forward to working everyday. Investing my time in the short-term to accomplish these “end goals” has made me very happy thus far and I’m confident that seeing these goals actualized will be even greater.
The whole essence of this lesson is to be a man of your word. Wooden was quoted as saying “Make your yes mean yes and no mean no”. This is a very simple concept, but a very important one to live by.
Praise and achievements can be motivational, but what you have accomplished is only proof that you have ability to achieve some level of success. You should not allow yourself to be caught up or become complacent due to your past accomplishments. In business and sports there is always someone else striving to take your spot, customers or future successes. The focus should not be on what has been already accomplished, but what you’re striving to accomplish next.
“Be quick, but don’t hurry” is my favorite John Wooden quote. It’s better to take your time and do one thing right then to rush and do 1,000 things wrong. In an ESPN interview Wooden was cited as saying “The key to sustainability is being patient and doing things right.”
A while back I wrote a post about the the business lessons I learned from sports. It may be worth reading if you’re interested in the subject. Years back I also had the fantastic opportunity to read the book Be Quick But Don’t Hurry
by Andrew Hill. It was a fantastic book and I give it my highest recommendation.
John Wooden will surely be missed, but his lessons will live on forever.
Many have called Coach Wooden the “Gold Standard” of coaches. I believe he was the gold standard of people and carried himself with uncommon grace, dignity and humility. Coach Wooden’s name is synonymous with excellence and deservedly so. He was one of the great leaders- in any profession-of his generation.
- Mike Krzyzewski
Duke Head Basketball Coach
Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.
Know your Worth
Jun 1st
Guest post by Robert Urban
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Show me a “how to” instruction video and I can do just about anything… or can I? Recently, a situation occurred in my house that consisted of a significant plumbing issue. I Googled it, read articles, and knew all the jargon to make myself seem knowledgeable to the Home Depot expert when requesting the parts, but soon realized I was way over my head. I had neither the necessary tools nor know-how to tackle the problem. We called a plumber and within 15 minutes he fixed the problem and made it seem like the easiest thing in the world. Couple hundred dollars later and it was as good as new. It reminded me that the cost of any service oriented person is in the education, experience, and tools they bring to the table.
I have been in the design and development community for a long time and have heard numerous times:
“Hey I know this is written in open source code and free, why does this website cost x amount?”
Experience and Education
While there are still the handful of designers and developers that are self taught and incredible, a vast majority of those that choose to pursue this profession get a degree to compliment their experience. With school cost skyrocketing this person is paying several thousand dollars to enhance their skills and knowledge base. This doesn’t take into account the countless hours that they spend learning new programs, playing around with various designs and elements, and trying to keep abreast of new technologies and changes in the industry. With minimum wage being around $6 an hour, here is another few thousand dollars worth of time invested in learning their trade – all in becoming better suited to work long hours and be berated by people that don’t know anything about design, code, and development repeatedly ask why something takes longer than they think it should.
Tools
I once had a professor tell me that in today’s age it no longer is as high a priority of what you know, but rather how fast you can find and process information. A great designer/developer has a library full of scripts, plug-ins, programs, source code that they know how to manipulate to save time and effort; there is no use in reinventing the wheel. Take into fact that they also typically have spent a boatload of cash on the newest software programs (seen the price sticker on Adobe CS suite? It’s pricey.) as well as cutting edge laptops and giant monitors, and once again the cost adds up.
These people love what they do – they have paid their dues, spent an exorbitant amount of money, and more importantly, their time, in learning their trade; just so you can question why this open source development that you want isn’t free. Next time the designer quotes a price, think of these factors and how much you invested in learning your skill and how you would feel if someone said they want your experience and time for free, or even better: next to nothing. The return of investment on having an incredible site designed and developed is worth opening your wallet and paying their worth.
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I know that Robert’s post focuses on web development and design, but this is applicable in virtually any arena with people who have a specific skill or talent.
Feel free to share your thoughts
Tips for Investor Pitches
Apr 19th
This past Friday I had the opportunity for the second year in a row to Judge the UCF Joust Business plan competition. This competition, one that I previously won two different times, is organized by UCF’s college of business and numerous successful business leaders and investors are invited to judge various team’s business plans, venture viability, and pitch.
I learned a large amount by participating in the competitions as a contestant when I was in school, however being on the other side of the table teaches you a great deal and is a fantastic learning experience as well. For the record…I like being on the investor side much better 
Here’s 5 quick tips on helping you successfully pitch your business to investors, or judges in a business plan competition.
- Strong Attention Grabbing Opener- Try opening your presentation in a way that relates to your audience. Asking a question or utilizing a “Picture this” or “Think back when” statement is one that I often used in the past….Have you ever (been in this bad situation or felt like this)…well millions of others do every day. But we have come up with a solution…I’ll get to that momentarily. My name is (X) and I’m with (X company).
- Follow a Logical Sequence- The sequence I usually use is a modified version of “Monroe’s Motivated Sequence”. Attention Grabber–>Market–>problem–>solution (your product/service)–>Team–>Marketing plan–>Sales–>Financials–>Ask
This keeps your presentation on track and flowing smoothly. - Don’t Read Directly from the slides! The first two teams who presented on Friday read directly from the slides. This is not only very boring, but it also shows that you’re not very knowledgeable about your business. Reading from the slides also prohibits your passion for your venture from showing. Showing your passion is a very important part of selling your audience on a concept. The first two teams that presented this past Friday read from their slides and I wanted to slap some sense into them!
Please don’t make this same mistake. - Utilize Visuals- This tip goes with my last point and makes your presentation more engaging. Don’t simply put massive amounts of text on your slides. If your presenting about an actual product, bring your product or a beta in to share it with your audience. The other option is simply adding graphics to your presentation:
- Add pictures of your market
- Add images that represent the pain they are facing
- Add graphics of your product or service offering
- Add images showing your marketing initiatives
- Show a graph of your financials (revenue, expenses and break even - Make sure your financials are solid! One team that presented in the competition didn’t even have financials! One of the other teams had financials that were very incomplete. The team spoke a large amount about their marketing and how they would capture 5% of a large market and didn’t even allocate a marketing budget! Don’t make this mistake! I would recommend having an income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement and financial assumptions. If you are very early stage everyone is going to know these are not 100% accurate, however you need to be able to defend these financial statements….hence the reason for your financial assumptions.
Now there are a lot more tips that can be said, but these were the five that really stuck out in my mind after judging the competition Friday.
I wish all of you the best of luck in your various entrepreneurial endeavors. If I can be of any assistance let me know!
If there are any other tips my readers would like to share feel free to drop a comment.
Cheers,
David
A Lesson in Communication from Sun Tzu
Jul 24th
I’ve always enjoyed reading inspirational or thought provoking books when I have the time. I’m kind of a geek at heart and love learning about history, ancient philosophers and other wise men throughout the centuries whose names have lived on and words have remained relevant long after their time. One such person is Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher and military strategist.
Sun Tzu is most popular for his book The Art of War. Though this book is filled with military strategies and tactics there are core lessons that can be extremely beneficial in many different situations such as sports, business or even personal relationships.
I was reading the art of war and came across a good quote that I thought was a very good lesson to reflect on.
“If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame. But if his orders ARE clear, and the soldiers nevertheless disobey, then it is the fault of their officers.”
Having employees and interacting with vendors, partners and clients everyday I can completely appreciate the value of clear, concise and candid communication. It is very easy to think that someone understands what you are trying to get across just because you understand it. If you’re not clear it leaves someone to play the guessing game and try to perceive what they thought you’ve meant. This is how mistakes happen….breaks in communication. It’s always better to over explain giving several examples and very specific verbs and adjectives that articulate the exact message you’re trying to get across. This leaves no room for error in the communication process, only disagreement or insubordination as Sun Tzu said referred to. I strive to improve my communication skills daily in all of my interactions.
Have you had any experiences recently where you’ve noticed a break in communication that you or someone else could have prevented by being more clear?
If so please share
Stumble or digg this post if you see the value in the quote and post.
thanks
Four Reasons Why Social Media Can Improve your Career & Personal Brand
Jun 14th
Recently I’ve been viewing a lot of resumes and talking with a lot of recent college grads looking for jobs. Lots of the resumes I see are dull and unimpressive. Even many designer resumes I’ve reviewed have been bland with no personality. It really made me think about how helpful engaging in social media can be to improve their situation. Creating a blog, interacting with people on forums, and connecting with those in your niche on LinkedIn and other social networks can do wonders for your career or business ventures. As a recent graduate or current student it can put you leaps and bounds ahead of your peers in terms of building a professional reputation and presence.
I’m going to submit an article to various college professors and career service employees I know in the hopes that more college students will utilize social media to catapult their career or business when they graduate. Let me know what you think:
Here’s just a few benefits why a college student, recent grad or professional in general should be utilizing social media:
- Control Your Online Reputation
- Gain Credibility & Expand Your Circle of Influence
- Build Your Professional Network
- Improve Your New Media Marketing IQ
When a potential employer or business partner meets you, or comes across your resume you better believe they will often do some due diligence before hiring or going into business with you. When your name is searched on Google or another major search engine wouldn’t you want favorable results to appear? Millions of students around the country let their online presence stop with facebook. Therefore if someone is searching for their name the top results may include them doing keg stand or photos of a drunk make out session at a local bar, night club or frat party. By publishing favorable content and keeping an eye on your online reputation you can control the image and perception people have of you. This is one of the fundamental aspects of marketing any brand and you are the most important brand you’ll ever have to market.
By actively participating in daily conversations happening in your industry (or future industry) on blogs, forums and professional social networking sites like LinkedIn you have the ability to “Flex-your-expertise” and let your knowledge and experience shine through. This will increase your credibility and everything that comes with it such as:
- Additional job offers
- Business opportunities
- Media exposure
Once you’ve established credibility for yourself, social media and the internet as a whole can increase your circle of influence very quickly. By continuously producing high quality content and contributing insightfully to meaningful conversations in your space you have the ability to reach and influence thousands of people all across the world.
It is often said that to be successful or land that great job it’s not what you know it’s who you know. One great thing about social media- especially twitter, blogs and forums is that you have the ability to really get to know, interact, and build relationships with a wide range of professionals, potential employers and thought leaders. This is very powerful because people generally want to do business with people they know and respect. There are many times that I’ve met someone that I’ve interacted with on twitter or in the blogosphere and when we met it was like we had been friends for years. I would encourage all marketing professionals especially students to invest their time in using social media to build their professional network, it will pay off immensely.
The landscape of marketing has changed tremendously with the growth of the internet and personal computer. In the last five years there has been a large switch from traditional marketing which markets “At a Potential Customer” to new media marketing (or Social Media Marketing) where you build relationships with potential customers as well as deliver valuable content which to them at the precise moment they are seeking it. These new media marketing methods don’t interrupt the consumer like a loud broadcast or radio ad, but help potential consumers solve their problems and position you as a trusted resource making them more likely to do business with you. By building your online brand you will become familiar with new age marketing tactics like Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Optimization, viral marketing and more. This will not only make you more marketable yourself, but give you valuable experience that you can take with you for years to come that will enable you to grow awareness of any product, service, or brand you decide to promote.
Did I miss anything? How beneficial do you think utilizing social media is in growing your career, personal brand or business venture?
New Beginnings
May 15th
We’re in the midst of the worst economy since the great depression. People are getting laid off or fired everyday and thousands of college graduates (and millions of others) across the country are struggling to find a job. With that said why in the world would I choose to quit my job now?
Allow me to explain…
First off let me say that I not only quit my job, but a job at a really great work environment with awesome people and fun/unique company culture….Where else do you ring in new hires with tequila shots, have cubicle decorating contests and plow your face into cake on your birthday & anniversary of employment? Of course I’m talking about IZEA, a top social media marketing company that operates SocialSpark, PayPerPost and more.
So the question I know many people are thinking…Why the H*ll did you quit? or What is he thinking?
Well I have always been a person that doesn’t shy away from challenges. I have also always trusted my gut, which was one of the main reasons why I moved to Orlando in the first place. I knew no-one in Florida, but something told me this was the right choice. That decision turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made and over the last 2 years I’ve accomplished a great deal.
Besides trusting my gut I also moved to Orlando to be in a fertile environment to grow my own ventures. My goal has always been to create jobs for others, not be bound by an hourly job and to grow extremely wealthy in the process. Then be able to give back and help other young entrepreneurs achieve their dreams.
With these goals constantly in mind I came to the conclusion that IZEA has done all it can to assist me in reaching them at this stage in my life.
I’ve really enjoyed my time at IZEA, feel that I have learned a great deal and built relationships with a lot of great people, however now is the time for me to go hard after my goals. As time passes many people sink into a mode of comfortably and they stop striving and are content with their current situation. Though this is completely alright for some people at this point in my life this is not okay for me. At this time I have no children to pay for and no major expenses. There’s no better time for me than right now. If you desire to reach your goals no matter what they may be you have to go for it. When there’s more risk, there is a greater chance for more of a reward. In addition to that my dad taught me a long time ago that you improve and grow the most during periods of uncertainty and turmoil. If you’re not working through problems or challenges your performing not growing. I recently saw a great quote on Drew Mclellans blog: “Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”
That quote really sums up how I feel and why I did what I did. I have so much of a desire to achieve my goals that fear seems very trivial in comparison. Some may call me foolish, some may call me outright stupid, but the way I see it it needed to be done. I have full confidence in my abilities and in god and know I will make it work.
Stay tuned…
More to come
IZEA’s Site Get’s An Upgrade
Apr 3rd
I had to make a post to give props to our design & marketing team at IZEA for releasing a new version of IZEA.com. The new interface allows for so much more informative content and looks great!
By visiting IZEA’s site you can view an awesome case study on IZEA’s social media campaign for Kmart and download Forrester Research’s recent report on sponsored conversations. Another great thing that we’ve added to the new site is that you can see a list of IZEA’s clients including brands like USA Networks, 1-800 Flowers, ColdStone, Dockers, and many more. You can also view a sample of some of the premium bloggers, all of whom I’ve interacted with over the last few months and our IZEA insiders.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, what are you waiting for?
