Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester suggested that his team's historic late-season collapse had nothing to do with the fact that he and his teammates were drinking on the job. His rationale: they were doing the same thing in April and May--and the team was winning....
I'm seeing a disturbing trend of late: people using LinkedIn to blatantly self-promote and hawk their wares. It started with a trickle: An occasional e-mail suggesting I might be interested in a Webinar, a conference, or a book. Then it progressed to group owners...
Hubspot founder Brian Halligan kicked off What’s Next DC* with a terrific presentation on inbound marketing (aka, how to get found by your clients, customers, and prospects). In it, he identified six steps to viral growth and looked at the skill sets needed to market...
Over at Small Business Labs, Steve King set out his top 10 business trends for 2011. At number 9: "Freelancers Realize They're Small Business Owners." King identifies two categories of contingent workers: those embracing freelancing and those stuck with it because of...
What is the future of marketing? That was the topic at a recent Thoughtlead online mini-conference. The premise: Select 60 smart people, ask them one big question, and give them each 60 seconds to make their case. The responses were sometimes predictable. More often,...
His name was Matt, and I loved him. Matt was a trainer at Gold's Gym when I first met him. He said hi to everyone, and he'd go out of his way to correct your form or (in my case) nag me to switch up cardio machines more often. When I decided to get a trainer, I worked...
We need to stop beating ourselves up. There seem to be two big trends among social media proponents these days: Beating up on people and companies alike for using social media "wrong." Beating up on ourselves. This post deals with a little of both. First, though, some...
I received a two-paragraph e-mail the other day from someone looking to connect with me at an upcoming event. She spelled my name right, told me it's her second time going to an event put on by this particular group, and said she hoped we'd get to meet. So far so...
Is your network deep or wide? Tiger Woods' network is very wide--but it turns out it's not very deep. Few top players turned up to play his tournament over the Fourth of July weekend. When Tiger, Inc., was at its height, the tournament was a who's who of stars. I...
I was skimming through my LinkedIn Groups the other day, and one discussion thread jumped out at me: Are networking events worth the time? The originator was frustrated that his forays weren't putting him in a room with the people he wanted to meet. Like many people,...