Sunday Brunch Reads with Social Media ReInvention: 01/05/15 to 01/10/15

Sunday Brunch Newspaper

Photo Credit: Anton Diaz

 

Brrrr! It’s cold in The Midwest (East/West Coaster Translation: The Flyover States). Please keep warm and enjoy these share-worthy links during your Sunday brunch.  (more…)

A Public Fan Letter to Marissa Mayer: Keep Fighting. Don’t Give Up.

Marissa Mayer Yahoo CEO

Photo Credit: TechCrunch

Dear Marissa,

Navy Seals say, “the only easy day was yesterday.”

I can’t imagine what you feel as negative press swirls around you during your CEO tenure at Yahoo!. From an outsider’s perspective, it seems like you’ve been under personal siege since the summer of 2012 when you accepted Yahoo!’s top job. Tomorrow, a well-publicized book will be released about you. I’ve pre-ordered it to review and draw my own conclusions.

But, I don’t have to read the book to conclude how “tearing down Marissa Mayer” exploded into a schadenfreude, spectator sport.

I’m not a Yahoo! stockholder, but I cheer and root for you. Everyday. (more…)

Sunday Brunch Reads with Social Media ReInvention: 12/28/14 to 01/02/15

 

Sunday Brunch Newspaper

Photo Credit: Anton Diaz

 

Happy 2015! Hard to believe a new year's already here?

I found many interesting and thought-provoking articles to share this week. Thank you for supporting the Social Media ReInvention Community. Enjoy your brunch!

 

1. Fast Company: 14 Tips to Make 2015 Your Most Productive Year Yet. How are you doing with your New Year’s Resolutions? I’ve already slipped up. Maybe, there’s a better way: Focus on Themes Not Goals. Let's focus our efforts on one thing at a time so these changes become productive, lifelong habits.

That’s a goal worth shooting for (yes, rah-rah puns intended)! 

2. Seth’s Blog: The Meritocracy Trap. Seth Godin calls out the David Sacks quote discussed in Joe Nocera’s New York Times Op-Ed piece on personal success and meritocracy — "Silicon Valley’s Mirror Effect.” Seth’s post describes the perils in achieving ultra-phenomenal success: it can lead to self-serving cultures, attitudes, and mindsets.

Seth’s and Joe’s articles make me think what I can do as a proud dad and father to two young daughters. I want the best for them. I want them to have the same opportunities (and more) my parents created for me and my sister.

That’s how this next article comes into play …

3. WSJ Online – Digits Blog: The Year Silicon Valley Spilled Its Diversity Data. This interactive, diversity data website simply and visually explains the hiring data story behind Silicon Valley’s gender and diversity gap in The Valley’s most prestigious and successful companies:

  • Apple
  • eBay
  • Amazon
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Yahoo!
  • Google
  • Twitter 
  • Hewlett Packard
  • Microsoft
  • Intel
The current order displayed in the aforementioned bullet points portrays the percentages of women in Silicon Valley leadership positions (from highest to lowest). Guesstimating the overall average percentage: ~25%. The numbers become more discouraging when analyzing the percentages of women by individual company — less than 20%.
 
 
Concern engulfs me as I evaluate these numbers. I want my daughters to have positive female role models before they reach university age. Technology drives and touches every important aspect of our lives and livelihoods. This trend has got to stop.
 
Other regions of the United States should capitalize on this opportunity to aggressively positioning and transforming their cities into hubs where female company founders flock to create their own companies. 
 
My advice to my young daughters and millions of talented, young women: Build and Own YOUR Table. Be like Jessica Herrin (CEO and Founder of Stella & Dot). 
 
To Hell With The Boys Table.

 

Your Turn

Please let me know if you agree or disagree with my thoughts in the comments. If you disagree, I would love to hear from you. I’m also here to read, listen, and learn from YOUR PERSPECTIVE.   Comments are open. So let’er rip!


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Sunday Brunch Reads with Social Media ReInvention: 12/21/14 to 12/27/14

Sunday Brunch Newspaper

Photo Credit: Anton Diaz

 

I hope you enjoyed a blessed and joyful Christmas Holiday with your family, friends, and loved ones! Here are your share-worthy links to enjoy during Sunday Brunch. Have a great Sunday!

1. Careerealism.com: Don’t Let Your Job Title Define You. The title says it all (pun intended). Pouncing on personal branding and reinvention opportunities matters more than ever. We're all individual startups. Resumes are becoming less relevant in a digital age so make a New Year’s Resolution to build your online presence.

 

2. Unreasonable.is: The 7 Emails You Need to Know How to Write. Email isn’t dead. It remains one of the first ways we build and establish relationships. If you want your emails noticed, read, and acted upon by important/busy people, read this great, how-to article. This one went straight into Evernote for frequent and easy reference. 

3. NYTimes.com: A Brand New World In Which Men Ruled — Instead of narrowing gender gaps, the technology industry created vast new ones for Stanford University’s pioneering class of 1994. If you Google "gender equity” or “gender gap,” you'll find the work of The New York Times' Jodi Kantor. Her thought-provoking and must-read article provides smart perspectives and analyses on the root cause(s) of the current Silicon Valley gender gaps.

Kantor's root cause analyses reveals:

  • Well-paying professions previously limited in opportunity for women opened up (e.g., corporate finance)
  • Other prestigious yet "conventional" professions provided relatively lower risks and higher success outcomes (e.g., medicine, law)
  • The decision to have children and the responsibilities of child rearing (versus their male counterparts who remained unencumbered with these commitments)

The most successful Stanford Class of 1994 female entrepreneur, Jessica DiLullo Herrin, executed a flanking strategy to build and grow Stella & Dot. She created a digital services company but shunned The Valley’s traditional route creating a product or using venture capital funding. In her words (direct quote from the article):

“I’ve never tried to sit at the boys’ table.”

DiLullo Herrin's flanking strategy may prove to be the best way for women to beat The Male Silicon Valley Establishment at their own game.

  
 

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Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He thinks and writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy in his personal blog, Social Media ReInventionFollow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.