April 29, 2013 43 Comments

Can You Work at Being Fearless?

Fear is at the heart of most of our worst choices. 2013-04-27 10.11.11

I read this facebook post by James Altucher and it really punched me in the stomach. But that’s just one punch in a series, because every time I question how I ended up somewhere, the real answer (underneath all the bull answers) is fear. It’s why most stupid things happen, why all bad things happen (when humans are involved), and is even worse than you think.

I’m afraid of a weird collection of things. I’m afraid of sharks (ever since seeing Jaws at a very young age – because I pestered my parents tirelessly til they succumbed). I’m afraid of being invisible (not like the superpower, but not being worthy of anyone’s attention).…

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April 24, 2013 15 Comments

Sponsored Post – Mobile Productivity and the Future

Can you be productive while on the road? I say yes. In fact, I’m writing this from a hotel room before heading off to a meeting with a client. Toronto at Night

The following is sponsored by Cloud Powered Work, which is a project with IDG, LinkedIn, and Microsoft’s Office365. Everything in this post is mine, and my opinions are my own.

I just produced an episode of my radio show from my hotel room, because I realized that an episode was due and I hadn’t done the work before I took off for the day. Last night, while I waited for my slightly delayed airplane, I cracked open SkyDrive pulled down three writing projects I had due.…

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April 22, 2013 53 Comments

How Do You Keep People Engaged?

I’ve just come to discover something and wanted to share it. Harold Brogan, Creator of Crario

My son, Harold, has never cared about a toy in his life. For maybe the first few minutes, it’s interesting, and then, it floats away to the discard pile. The same is true of most of the video games he plays. Though he loves the lore of Mario, he could care less after acquiring the game whether he plays it all that often. And then there’s Minecraft.

Harold plays the adventure game Minecraft (so do I, so does his sister). And recently, he used a tool called Skin Creator for Minecraft to rebuild a model of a character he made in the game, and then send away to have that character printed onto a plastic toy via (loosely) 3D printing.…

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April 18, 2013 48 Comments

Do You Invest in Yourself?

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It took a long time to realize that I should invest in myself, that I should put my own mask on first, etc. Too long. To that end, I wanted to share some thoughts with you.

When I was in my 20s, I flirted with college over and over again. My parents paid the first time around. Then, different employers would foot the bill and I’d march off to some other university or another. (There are over 20 in Boston). For any number of reasons, college didn’t do much for me. I found the learning to be too boring, too outdated, and rarely applicable to what I thought would happen next. So I didn’t bother.

I have only the smallest of regrets.…

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April 16, 2013 4 Comments

Free Live Event for Real Estate Professionals

YES THIS WILL BE RECORDED: SIGN UP TO RECEIVE A COPY

You’ve heard that using social networks like Twitter and Facebook will improve your sales, but that’s not working quite the way you expected. Someone else told you to blog. Another mentioned YouTube. And what about good old fashioned email? Chicago

If you’re a practicing real estate professional, you are invited to a FREE webinar entitled MASTERING THE DIGITAL CHANNEL FOR REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS. Hosted by marketing and publishing veteran Chris Brogan, you will learn the following:

* Best practices for setting up your online profile.…

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April 15, 2013 36 Comments

Get Started With Google+

Google+ For Business You’ve been putting off actually doing much with Google+. Maybe it’s because you’re already feeling behind in keeping up with all the other social networks. Maybe you think there’s no one there ( 500 million users). Maybe you just don’t know where to start.

I can help.

Getting Started with Google+

Personal Vs Professional Vs Business Page

First question first: should you have a personal page, a professional page, and/or also a business page?

My experience thus far has been that a personal page seems to do more for most people than separating out a professional page.…

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April 11, 2013 6 Comments

Sponsor Thanks – GoToMeeting

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At our New York ImpactNEXT event, we were lucky enough to have our friends at GoToMeeting sponsor “GoToLUNCH!” I’ve worked with Citrix Online (now, I guess, just Citrix) for a really long time, now. Why? Because:

1.) I like what they sell (the work anywhere lifestyle).
2.) I love the humans there (Lisa Horner and Justin Levy especially, but Beth and Scott and tons more people).
3.) They support the kinds of communities that matter to me.
4.) They support me. (Selfish, I guess.)

I’m saying thank you with this post, but I’m also saying that the reason they sponsored my event, from my side, is that I like what they do and endorse their stuff.…

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April 10, 2013 4 Comments

ImpactNEXT Goes to Washington

State Capitol

Not Frankie, not Mr Smith. Us. The ImpactNEXT event will take place in Washington, DC on Tuesday, May 21st in Washington, DC. Nation’s capital: we are coming.

Tuesday, May 21st, Washington, DC, The McKinley Theater

I haven’t signed up to do many live events for the general public in 2013. Why? Because I think there are plenty of people out there covering the basics and the speculation well enough. I also think there are plenty of people giving you the high-level vision and they’re doing a fine job.

Me? I want to give you the 201 and 301. I want to take you from Keynote down to Keyboard, so we can get something done.…

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April 8, 2013 54 Comments

On the Occasion of My 43rd Birthday

SuperheroBasement250 I have been fortunate enough to live on this planet and learn every day for 43 years. I do feel old. My body is stiff and sore. My eyes get tired fast. My hairline is slowly receding back. There is more white in my beard than any other color. And I love it.

But, because of this passage of time, I found myself thinking of my childhood, my very nerdy and weird and quirky childhood. And I thought of some of the stories that would never likely see the light of day, made from normal moments, and sometimes imagined moments. And I started writing. And writing and writing. And I put together an entire book of (not really) poems.…

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April 6, 2013 19 Comments

How Do I Grow My Business

Girish Last night, I played bass in Girish‘s band, the band my girlfriend, Jacqueline plays in quite often as a singer. There were really two tricky parts of doing this, though.

1) I don’t play bass.
2) I’m not a great musician.

I played passably well most of the event. No one booed. No one kicked me offstage. In fact, they danced and swayed to our music. Afterwards, I got a few polite hellos and Jacq got her typical flood of women hugging her with tears in their eyes, and Girish (who’s the one everyone comes to see) has a line a mile long to hug him and talk and buy his CDs.

To me? Mission accomplished.…

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