Remembering 9.11.01

I haven’t forgotten.

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Brandgroovin’

Photo by Matt A.

If brands start with people, great brands start with great people. Not great in the sense that they are wealthy or successful or influential (yet), but great in the sense that ego, self-righteousness and self-serving agendas aren’t part of the equation.
Instead, these people are devoted to a cause. Infected with an [...]

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Back in Greenville.

I just flew in. Downloading video from my shenanigans in Boston. Posts on the way.
Good grief… I just wrote a blog post like a Tweet. I’ve hit a new low.

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Impossible? Think again.

“The person who says it can’t be done is always interrupted by the one who just did it.”
- From the movie “Daylight,” with Sly “Rocky/Rambo” Stallone
To every Social Media pundit or measurement “guru” out there who claims that calculating the ROI of Social Media is either impossible, too imprecise or even [...]

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Fearless

People are driven by emotions. By needs. By fear and courage. By love and hatred. By hope and despair. By a need to change things, or belong to something greater than themselves. At their core, drive and motivation come from the same inner place, whether you’re a G.I. storming a beach under a hail of [...]

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Peeling back the layers of your day – Infographics Heaven

This is what your day really looks like.
Brilliant, cool, and so well done. If the video doesn’t work, watch it here.

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Getting back to real ROI – Part 1

So you want to start or grow a customer engagement, community-building or social media practice at work (or for a client) and you’re having a tough time getting the key decision-maker onboard?
Guess what: You’re probably doing more selling than listening. Shut up and ask them what they need. Chances are, they’ll tell you they need [...]

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The Channel 7 interview

Doug Cone (@nullvariable) and I chatting with Amy Wood (@tvamy) about the importance of blogs and our WordPress workshop this Thursday.
Suddenly rethinking the glasses and blazer look. I am not the Professor, for crying outloud.

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Abandon Yesterday

Great little Change Leadership conversation starter by Peter Drucker over at Branding Strategy Insider:

We do not hear much anymore about overcoming resistance to change, which 10 or 15 years ago was one of the most popular topics of management books and management seminars. Everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable. But that still [...]

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Why runners usually make great employees.

My good friend and super personal trainer Holly DiGiovine sent out an email over the weekend that struck a chord with me. Here’s some of what she had to share:

When you have a goal that is as huge as the marathon-it will “keep you honest.” It’s not like a smaller goal that you can announce [...]

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Five in the Morning

I am very flattered that Steve Woodruff asked me to participate in his Five in the Morning series, so I will ty to be worthy of what is turning out to become a great Friday morning tradition. Without further fanfare, here are five of my favorite “must read” posts from the last few days:
First, let’s [...]

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America, rebranded.

The CEO changed.
So did the website. Immediately. It now talks about things like transparency, which is pretty refreshing.
And now the corporate office is on Twitter too.
The logo and trade dress stayed the same, which is great because they mean so much.
And today, the new leadership introduced a whole new mission statement that paves the way [...]

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Lean on me.

Mr. President, none of what you do after today would have been half as relevant had you not started with everything being so broken… so take solace in the knowledge that your talents and hard wok will not have been wasted on an easy presidency.
That you are the right man for the right job at [...]

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Time to refocus, grasshopper.

As many company execs become more and more distracted by how external factors like the economy, Wall Street, bailouts and… essentially a whole lot of uncertainty might affect their business in the coming weeks and months, I thought today might be as good a time as any to discuss internal factors that they (you) can [...]

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Magic brand ingredient #5: Personality

Interesting interview of Ogilvy’s Rohit Bhargava on Sun.com back in June in which he explains the role that personality plays in growing powerful brands. The questions are a bit sophomoric, but Rohit’s answers are solid. Here are some highlights:
Question: What is the first step in creating a brand personality?
Answer: One thing that many people are [...]

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Talent vs. Experience

“Just because you’ve been walking for 55 years doesn’t mean you’re getting better at it.”
- K. Anders Ericsson – professor of psychology @ FSU
Agreed.
Time on the job doesn’t necessarily mean as much as you might think. Here’s why: There is a point where you just aren’t going to get better at performing the same surgery, [...]

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And back to a normal workweek.

On the agenda for today: About 8 hours of strategery, meetings and real work, fueled by coffee, the occasional chocolat chaud, and maybe even a few croissants.
Some suggested reading while I get some work done today:
Dean Donaldson’s piece on building strong brands in an economic downturn
Chris Brogan’s thoughts on cafe-shaped conversations
Hajj Flemings’ bit on passion [...]

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Happy shopping, everyone.

Out shopping.

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Happy Thanksgiving, and thank you!

800 posts into this little journey, you are still my ‘ingredient X’.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for giving this blog purpose.
Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone.

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Take the Sodexo Foodstamp Challenge!

Okay, maybe not next week since it’s Thanksgiving, but the week after, find out if you can go a week on only $24 for food. That’s the challenge the folks at Sodexo Careers have just come up with.
From the site:

The “Food Stamp Challenge” is a program that aims to educate us on what it is [...]

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