1. Can't Wait to Wake Up at 5 AM to Write. It's your moment of zen. It's your time to express what you love, hate, makes you laugh, admire, respect, wish you could be, and continue striving to become. It's SACRED TIME.
2. Know You're Steering the Ship. Sitting behind a keyboard means complete control. The published words on your personal blog are yours (not somebody else's spin). No watered-down mess requiring corporate approval or a committee's sign-off.
3. Pick Yourself. You didn't seek the approval of Random House or another member of the New York City publishing dynasty. You write. You publish. You promote. The daily, weekly, and monthly results are there to measure and interpret. And, the immediate audience feedback (or lack thereof) is a constant lesson in humility.
4. Press "Publish" Even When You Fear Your Content Sucks.Blogging teaches you how to address and deal with personal fear. Notice, I didn't say overcome it. The "F" in Freedom Is Blogging In Your Underwear stands for "Fear."
Rejection looms close by when you're a blogger. But, so does opportunity.
You learn over time that subscribers and readers who believe in your art stick with you. These audience members who vote with their precious time know you won't hit a home run with every-at-bat.
But, they expect you to consistently publish. Your subscribers expect you to show up. That's part of the deal. That's part of the mutual bond.
It's why I can't wait to repeat Reason #1 for as long as I humanly can.
5. Want To Hug Your Blog Subscribers (But, Not Necessarily in My Underwear, Or Theirs). The Social Media ReInvention Blog Community and subscriber base continues growing. I want to hug you and thank you for teaching and reinforcing how trust is earned one-person-at-a-time.
You've sent me emails with praise (especially at times when I really needed it), tweeted my posts on Twitter, "liked" them on Facebook, shared them on LinkedIn, and linked my posts to your respective blogs. It means so much to me -- Thank You From the Bottom of My Heart!
6. Can Continuously Iterate and Experiment. 21st century self-publishing means everything is "a working draft." You can keep shaping, condensing, adding, or deleting. It's taken me three years to realize perfection is not the goal.
7. Trust Yourself to Write With Your Heart (Versus Type With Your Brain). Writing doesn't come naturally to me. I work at it every day (which I was I love it). I'm still learning when/how to write and structure my position in traditional, MBA-analysis mode (and when to just let'er rip and flow).
This is what the blogging community refers to as "finding your voice." I'm still searching. And, this self-discovery journey is empowering.
8. Realize There Are No Rules -- There Are Only Guidelines. Great blog posts can be less than 140 characters or as long as 4,000+ words. You can use text, audio, video, and images (or a combination of all four). What makes a blog post great is in the eye of the beholder. It's art. Coloring outside-the-lines is encouraged.
9. Love Something So Much You Do It for Free (Sort of). I receive zero financial compensation for blogging. But, I consider blogging a valuable and significant time investment
It's not about getting paid. It's the joy and challenge of telling a story. It's about sharing. It's about saying thank you. It's about reminding yourself why you love it so much even on the days when you're struggling personally and/or professionally. It's about Reasons #1 through Reasons #10.
10. See and Embrace The Like-Minded. Google the phrase "blogging is dead" (without the quotation marks). You'll receive close to 57 million search results.
When I see that number and the different search headlines, here's what I see:
* I see opportunity.
* I see people who give didn't give up on their blogging / writing in the first six or seven months of launch.
* I see people who voraciously read books, periodicals, blog posts, newsletters, and all content in-between to learn ideas and insights they can deliver to and share with their subscribers.
* I see people who acknowledge this is a difficult and long-term endeavor.
* I see people proudly displaying, reading, and investing in this book:
"a guide to the mindset you need to adopt if you want to make successful use of LinkedIn."
That's a Fair Statement.The Start-Up of You bridges the gap for customizing and optimizing your LinkedIn usage beyond copying/pasting your resume into the profile template.
A 100% complete LinkedIn Profile is the bare bones minimum for competing in today's job market.
12 Examples of Non-Technology, Non-Silicon Valley Success Stories From The Start-Up of You
Each of these examples provides several pages or a few sentences to explain a key principle. Either way, they demonstrate how the book's principles extend beyond Silicon Valley and the technology industry.
James R. Gaines (Chapter 3: When to Pivot - To Pursue Upside or Avoid Downside)
Mary Sue Milliken (Chapter 4: Professional Allies)
Susan Feniger (Chapter 4: Professional Allies)
Benjamin Franklin (Chapter 5: Connect to Human Networks - Groups and Associations of People)
Paul Harris (Chapter 5: Connect to Human Networks - Groups and Associations of People)
"Iris Wong" (Chapter 7: How to Pull Intelligence From Your Network)
Eric Barker (Chapter 5: Do The Hustle - Be Resilient: When the Naysayers are Loud Turn Up the Music)
Joi Ito (Chapter 2: Your Assets)
Howard Schultz (Chapter 2: The Market Realities)
Tony Blair (Chapter 3: Adaptive Careers, Adaptive Start-Ups)
Ron Howard and Brian Grazer (Chapter 4: Professional Allies)
George Clooney (Chapter 5: Introductory Section of Pursue Breakout Opportunities)
There's No Such Thing As Too Much Sheryl Sandberg
I'm The Father of Two Daughters. And, I think Sheryl Sandberg's a tremendous role model for young women. She's an influential Silicon Valley power player and important business leader. I love her personal mission to convince more women to pursue technology careers, target the C-Suite, and adopt the attitude to:
Sit at The Table (e.g., the Executive Table)
Make Your Partner a Real Partner
Don't Leave Before You Leave (e.g., starting a family doesn't equal ending your professional career)
What Father Wouldn't Want His Daughter(s) To Professionally Succeed? I admire how Sandberg "picked herself" to bring more attention to advancing women in business leadership. That takes guts because she's received criticism for taking on this role (see articles below).
But, she sticks with it. And, I crave to see more. Here's more inspiration about the brains, resourcefulness, and chutzpah of Sheryl Sandberg:
Sony will release the DVD for Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, on January 10, 2012. The 2011 film recounts how Billy Beane, the Oakland A's general manager in 2002, employed sabermetrics statistical analysis and research in his player evaluation and acquisition strategy.
Moneyball's Unsung Hero: Bill James. Mr. James is the creator of sabermetrics who now works as a Senior Adviser of Baseball Operations with the Boston Red Sox. His self-published Baseball Abstracts from 1977 to 1988 influenced Billy Beane's decision to operate on a different competitive dimension: identifying undervalued and overlooked talent from non-traditional baseball metrics (i.e., on-base percentage) and data analysis versus traditionally accepted baseball scouting methods and metrics (i.e., batting average).
Bill James's Background (e.g., he wasn't always affiliated with the Red Sox)
Why / How He Questioned Conventional Baseball Talent Evaluation
His Motivations as a Writer
Inspiring Lessons in Leading, Self-Publishing, and Questioning Conventional Wisdom. James inspires me as an aspiring blogger because of how he started and cultivated the influential and powerful sabermetrics tribe before the benefits of the modern-day Internet. And, he continues leading via his work at Bill James Online and several published books.
Questioning and disrupting the status-quo establishment
Self-publishing to spread ideas (i.e., social media: blogs, social networks)
Writing about and sharing what moves you
Leading a tribe that flourishes into an industry-wide movement
Ignoring the limits of a "current" full-time job description
1. Write About What You Love
You Can't Fake Passion.The Bill James Baseball Abstracts are famous for their quality and quantity of statistical analysis and data. But, more importantly, James made this new form of baseball knowledge interesting and accessible to all passionate, hardcore baseball fans.
And, his love of writing and baseball is why he explains both the science and art of sabermetrics better than anyone. That's why Bill James is the sabermetrics authority. Here are direct quotes from Moneyball (the book) describing his passion for both writing and baseball:
"I think about baseball virtually every hour of my life."
"I'd probably be a writer if there was no such thing as baseball, but because there is such a thing as baseball I can't imagine writing about anything else."
"I learned to write because I am one of those people who somehow cannot manage the common communications of smiles and gestures, but must use words to get across things that other people would never need to say."
"If it doesn’t move you emotionally, don’t write it (realize emotion is relative – it doesn’t have to move every member of your audience, but if it moves you then you’ve done it right: it’s going to impact someone else that way too)."
2. Write Because You Love It (Not to Get Paid for It)
"The first Abstract, in 1977, sold 75 copies, at $4 a copy. In 1978 sales edged up to all of 325 copies. Undaunted, James slogged ahead, checking the boilers, working on his numbers and producing editions of the Abstract. Sales passed 600 copies in 1979 and 750 last year, but the readership, while small, is enthusiastic, and James has become something of a cult figure. Esquire magazine assigned him to do season previews, and he even received an order of for the Abstract from Norman Mailer, which left James, a literary hero-worshipper, feeling both honored and abashed. He sent Mailer a copy but returned the writer's check. Mailer sent it right back with a note saying, 'If ever an author earned his five dollars, you have.' The price has climbed since then (to $13 for the 1981 edition), but James has yet to break the $10,000 barrier. 'It's been discouraging." he says, 'but not as discouraging as having to get out of bed in the morning and go off to work.'"
How Are You Going to Monetize Your Blog? One of my closest and most trusted friends posed this question when I started blogging two years ago. My response: "I don't know, yet."
But, after publishing 100+ posts, I know now. I Plan Making Zero Money (Ever)
Ask these questions about whether or not you really love blogging or writing:
* Are you willing to invest the significant time required to research and write individual posts either before or after putting in a full-day's work at your "real-world" job (and usually at a time when the rest of your family is asleep)?
* How much do you enjoy commenting on other blogs to build relationships and add to the conversation?
* Are willing to confront and push through The Dip after the initial excitement of starting your blog ends (i.e., around the first six (6) months?
* Is getting paid how you'll ultimately measure or determine whether or not you're a successful writer or blogger?
Discipline, Conviction, Belief, and Courage. If you answered "No," "I don't or not a lot," "I'm not," and "Yes" to any of the aforementioned questions, invest your scarce, valuable, free time in something else. Why? Because, blogging or writing is a long haul endeavor. Individual discipline, conviction, belief, and the courage "to consistently put yourself out there" drive the long-term outcome.
3. Lead a Tribe by Expressing YOUR Point-of-View
Because That's The Unmet Opportunity. James's research and scientific sabermetrics analysis challenged major league baseball's conventional wisdom in player and talent evaluation. But, it's his writing and unique point-of-view (e.g., his art) that distinguishes him as THE trusted sabermetrics authority (aka The Sabermetrics Tribal Leader).
"But once again, the details of James's equation didn't matter all that much. He was creating opportunities for scientists as much as doing science himself. Other, more technically adroit people would soon generate closer approximations of reality. What mattered was (a) it was a rational, testable hypothesis; and (b) James made it so clear and interesting that it provoked a lot of intelligent people to join the conversation."
A Tribal Leader Lurks Inside Us All. Study this Ted Talks Video from Seth Godin. In February 2009, Godin introduced his ideas on Tribes. His points describe how James built and led his tribe. And, how the same leadership opportunity is available to all of us:
6:50 to 12:09 - The Concept of Tribes and Leading One that Becomes a Movement
12:10 to 14:17 - Heretics Look at The Status Quo & Say I Don't Like It
16:00 to 17:27 - The Common Traits of Tribal Leaders
They Challenge Everything
They Build a Culture
They Connect People to One Another
They Commit to The Cause
4. Define Yourself Through Your Art (Not Your Full-Time Job)
A Former Night-Watchman Became Major League Baseball's Foremost Authority in Scientific Sabermetrics Analysis and a Senior Adviser of Baseball Operations With the Boston Red Sox. When Bill James started self-publishing the Baseball Abstracts, he worked full-time as a night-watchman in a Stokely Van Kamp pork and beans factory in Lawrence, Kansas:
(From Moneyball (the book)"It was while guarding Stokely Van Kamp's pork and beans that James stumbled seriously into putting his thoughts down on paper, in response to having things he absolutely needed to say that he was unable to convey any other way."
(From Daniel Okrent's Sports Illustrated article) "Later, he worked for a time as a boiler attendant--a watchman of sorts--in a food-packing plant in Lawrence, which turned out to be an ideal job for James. 'I'd spend five minutes an hour making sure the furnaces didn't blow up,' he says, 'and 55 working on my numbers.'"
And, The Boston Red Sox ended an 86-year championship drought by capturing World Series Championships in 2004 and 2007.
Technology and The Internet Don't Care About Your Current Job Title. Anyone reading this blog post has the same opportunity to lead, influence, and access a global audience. In the following interview, Seth Godin states the case for why technology levels the playing field:
* Your Laptop Is The 21st Century Factory (0:40 - 1:56). Now, you own the means of production. But, the driving question is what are you going to do with your laptop to make something that changes the world? That "something" could be:
A Web Page or Website
A Blog
An E-Commerce / Online Retail Site
* You Can Globally and Directly Connect (2:17 - 3:54). The Internet enables your global connections to promote your work and do business (and vice versa). Marketing is no longer a game of who shouts loudest. It's a game of competing for and earning "the whisper-time" of your target audience in their social networks.
* You Can Spread Ideas Via Social Media Connections (3:55 - 4:58). Developing these connections (or knowing people who have them) is vital. Why? Because, social media influencers determine:
The ideas that get a head start
The ideas that spread
It's Our Turn To Lead. We’ve all got something inspiring inside of us. Share it in your blog, your column, a self-published eBook, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, or Google+.
Is It the Design and Marketing Icon Who I’ll Miss?
No. Several excellent articles talked about Mr. Jobs many accomplishments. I’ve respected and admired the innovative products Apple created under his leadership. Plus, he successfully lead and revived Apple twice (after being forced out the first time).
And, his ability to successfully lead Apple while dealing with personal illness is unbelievable. His professional and personal resiliency are remarkable.
Here are my favorite articles highlighting Mr. Jobs’ professional career:
“Later, I asked him why he had seemed happier with the boy than with the boy than with the two famous artists. His answer seemed unrehearsed to me: Older people sit down and ask, What is it? but the boy asks, What can I do with it?”
Show Me. These videos for “If You Don’t Have an IPhone” or “Learn” are classic examples “what can it do”:
“It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields the results that make our hearts sing. He illustrated it with the image of a street sign at an imagined intersection between Technology and the Liberal Arts. He meant it as a description of the kind of thinking – multidisplinary, sensitive to human needs and potential – that created the products. But it also describes the broader social impact of his company. Before Apple, that intersection was largely deserted. Today it is a virtual Times Square.”
“It isn’t just that he made computers cool or put them in pretty boxes. It’s that he put those computers in new conceptual boxes. A machine originally designed for processing equations and building bombs turned out to have a wonderful hidden potential: for song, laughter, poetry, community, family.”
I'm a Frustrated Artist. All my life, I always envied my friends / classmates with natural artistic ability. The painters, architects, writers, photographers, cartoonists, etc. who created something from nothing. They created beautiful art.
And, I always wished I could do that.
Blogging Became My Personal Art. Blogging fuels my creativity unlike any other hobby or passion. And, if it weren’t for Steve Jobs’ and Apple’s influence on other companies to make technology easy to use and learn, I probably would have never pursued it.
Conclusion
I Wrote This Post With a PC. The computer I’m using to write this post is my personal PC (a laptop from the HP Pavilion line). I’ve used it for the past six (6) years. It runs Windows 7, but it still seems slow (especially when resuming from sleeping). It’s an improvement over Vista, but all the things my wife loves about her MacBook (i.e., instant on, easily connecting to a Wi-Fi network, using a touchpad instead of a mouse) aren’t matched by PCs.
For example, I spent an hour Friday evening finally getting my 10 year-old goddaughter’s new Dell Inspirion laptop to connect to our wireless network. My wife kept telling me to let it go, but I didn’t want to disappoint my goddaughter. She wanted to show me how good she was in navigating the Web (so I kept at it till I finally succeeded).
Maybe It’s Time to Go MacBook Pro. I love and lust for Apple’s products. I swear by my iPod and iPhone. And, my wife swears by her MacBook. My seven-year-old daughter creates her own videos with my wife’s MacBook.
It’s probably because they learned what Macs can do. And, I haven’t. Yet.
I checked my laptop's Twitter stream around 10 PM Sunday evening for real-time news feeds. And, that's when Twitter informed me of Osama bin Laden's death in real-time.
Our Consumption and Participating in Real-Time News Drives a Traditional Industry's Transformation. I've reflected on the media activities of the past 48 hours. The picture above symbolizes more than the aftermath of September 11, 2011.
It galvanizes how we are both consumers and participants in the transformation and reinvention of a traditional industry (especially how we interact with news content):
#1: Social Networks are Our Real-Time News Channels
More People Found Out About bin Laden's Death Via Twitter and Facebook.Mashable conducted a poll with 20,000+ respondents. Twitter and Facebook easily outdistanced television. Even broadcast television lacks the real-time impact of online media platforms.
Facebook's News Function Goal-- Become "The People's Newspaper." I mentioned earlier how I consult Twitter for real-time news updates. It's no coincidence that Facebook also recognizes real-time news as a competitive differentiator.
Journalists on Facebook Page.The Journalists on Facebook Page is part of the company's strategy to build relationships with journalists. Notice how several status updates pertain to the bin Laden story:
#2: Mobile Devices are the Accepted Real-Time Publishing Platform (Especially the Smartphone)
Urbahn Broadcasted the Tweet From His Smartphone. I'm not surprised Urbahn broadcasted the news on Twitter. But, notice the news broadcasting platform -- his smartphone. Maybe, I'm old-fashioned in thinking the publication of a major news event requires a computer keyboard and wireless Internet connection.
Looks Like Page 29 of David Meerman Scott's Real-Time & Marketing PR Book. Here's the graph from the TechCruch article. Notice how the spike in Google search queries correlates with the real-time announcement on Twitter and eventually trails off:
#4 The Real-Time Marketing & PR Law of Normal Distribution
Notice how this graph shares several real-time attributes David Meerman Scott describes in his book (my notes are in red text):
Breaking News
Triggers
Excitement
Peak
Old News
Done
#5: The Blurring of Trusted, Traditional News Sources
Non-Traditional "Hard News" Sources Provide Diverse Points-of-View. Each of these organizations or individuals is a trusted news source pertaining to technology and online media. Their points-of-view blended their niches with this traditional "hard news" story:
An Important Historical Artifact. The TechCrunch article further states this image is probably the fastest viewed photo on Flickr. The image achieved its viewer volume in less than 38 hours.
Conclusion
How Did You Learn About the Osama Bin Laden Announcement? Were you on Twitter, Facebook, or another social network? Did you head right to Google News or did you go straight to a traditional news source (i.e., New York Times, BBC, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Bloomberg, etc.)?
I would love to understand your views on how the news unfolded.
A Historic Moment. This event marks an important time in United States history. Its unfolding in real-time portrays how we choose to publish, search for, and share historical events.
And, our use of social technology during this event reinforces the forever-changing, transformation of all media.
I've used Delicious.com exclusively as my social bookmarking service for the past three (3) years. I know there are many other social bookmarking networks choices available, but I've stuck with Delicious.com for the following reasons:
* It's so easy and convenient to use. It's the epitome of user-friendliness.
* I learn so much from the members I follow within this community regarding topics I'm extremely passionate about such as social media, inbound marketing, and digital marketing.
* I've personally invested significant time in curating selected content on your site so I can easily refer to it in the future. As an example, I have saved 1,590 bookmarks on Delicious.com, and all of these bookmarks are referenced for future blog post ideas or represent content I've saved as part of my own continuous education in social media and digital marketing.
I personally understand the corporate rationale why Yahoo may no longer believe Delicious.com is a viable investment.
However, I hope you will fully take into account the personal impact your decision will have on tens of thousands (I'm sure even higher) of loyal users who have not only benefitted from this community but have also promoted it personally to many others.
If you decide to shut down Delicious.com, please give your loyal members ample time to export our content to another social bookmarking community. Please publicly release a statement confirming and defining when Delicious.com will be closed down.
And most importantly if you ultimately decide to shut down Delicious.com, please suggest the necessary steps your loyal community should undertake to preserve the self-selected content we've invested significant time to curate on your site.
My sincere thanks,
Tony Faustino Author, Social Media ReInvention Blog
Thank You to MarketingProfs.com for The Digital Marketing World Fall 2009 Virtual Conference
For the past 6+ months, I've been a Premium Member of MarketingProfs.com. I am incredibly grateful for the outstanding content and services that Ann Handley, Allen Weiss, Beth Harte, and the entire MarketingProfs team GENEROUSLY deliver and share with the professional marketing community. MarketingProfs does an outstanding job in ensuring that all marketing professionals continue learning and improving their professional performance.
One of the many services they graciously provide for free is The Annual Digital Marketing World Virtual Conference. The Fall 2009 Conference was stellar and a phenomenal example of the collective excellence The MarketingProfs Team consistently delivers. The MarketingProfs Digital Marketing World Conference is available as an onDemand archive until December 16, 2009. I highly encourage you to check it out and let Ann, Allen, and Beth know what you think.
The Tina Brown Keynote Address
Tina Brown, the renowned magazine editor, best selling author, and founder of TheDailyBeast.com shared her insights and experience on successfully competing for the attention and engagement of online audiences. I found Brown's observations highly instructive, and Ann Handley deftly facilitated the thought-provoking and entertaining Q&A session.
I've written a series of five (5) posts detailing my interpretation of the many applicable business lessons from Brown's keynote address. They're hyperlinked from this home page so you can easily access the different topics of greatest interest to you. In addition, I've added some of my own commentary from studying the content on The Daily Beast website. If you're strictly looking for the highlights here you go, and I hope you'll jump in the conversation and add any additional lessons you picked up.
Executive Summary of the Key Lessons Learned from Tina Brown and The Daily Beast
"If you don't have a budget, get yourself a point-of-view."
Tina Brown shared this credo as a major learning from her early, publishing career. This was my "eureka moment" while listening to her keynote address.
Her insight applies to any highly, competitive arena whether it's online publishing, running a small business, or writing an amateur blog (like this one). Simply stated, your individual POV defines and differentiates your competitive advantage.
The Daily Beast Defines Its Point-of-View Around "Where News and Culture Collide"
According to Brown the online news available before The Daily Beast comprised two segments (1) "eat-your-peas" news aggregation or (2) the extremes of tabloid-related entertainment news.
The Daily Beast Team does aggregate news but further defined an organizational goal to create original, editorial content with "clarity, sophistication, and seduction." Brown wanted to create an online forum that:
* Showed "this is the place to be" and "we aren't a tacky organization" * Produced differentiating content that was "clear, time-saving, but still provided glamor and seduction" * Displayed the raw and visceral power of the World Wide Web
To Brown, the web is not just a sophisticated medium. It's a visceral medium that provides all members the opportunity to participate in being entertained, provoked, and seduced. These unique properties of online communication are what The Daily Beast looks to opportunistically exploit.
Emotion Further Differentiates a Point-of-View
Brown repeatedly emphasized the importance of finding and touching the human side of a story. You want to personally and emotionally reach people.
One of the best examples she cited was The Daily Beast Cheat Sheet article titled Hillary's Rough Patch. The article touched upon how Hillary Clinton still battles the long shadow cast by her former, president husband. Brown noted that the "I am not channeling my husband" statement from Mrs. Clinton represented how many influential, professional women want to distinguish themselves individually.
It was a major news moment where the conversations of culture and news converged. More importantly, it provided The Daily Beast a timely opportunity to provoke their audience in an engaging conversation. This Daily Cheat sheet article generated 24 reader comments. After reading them, I think that The Daily Beast successfully accomplished its mission in provocation and engagement.
Generating the News Drives Audience Engagement. Aggregating It -- Not So Much.
Brown made a strategic choice to employ a hybrid news strategy: News Aggregation Coupled with Original Editorial Content. In her opinion, authentic audience engagement cannot occur if "you're just picking up other people's news stories." That's why she genuinely believes in "generating the news."
It's hard to argue with this observation. After all, personal blogs and their reader-associated comments are the ultimate example of individual, POV and online conversation (or in my case, just hearing the sound of my own voice - I'm kidding). When you write a blog post, you participate in the overall conversation and express your view. Millions of us read blogs for the personal enjoyment of agreeing or disagreeing with another person's POV.
Isn't that the point of any enjoyable conversation whether or not that dialog takes place in-person or online ...
Disclaimer
The opinions blogged herein represent only those of Tony Faustino and do not reflect those of his employer, persons or companies mentioned herein, or anyone else. The posts on this blog are provided "as is" with no warranties and confer no rights.
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