Rational Expectations

2011 Year In Review- Progress Against My Goals

2011-12-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

Back on January 8 I outlined my goals for the year. Even thought the year is not through, we are nearing that time, and I feel like it's a good time to reflect on whether I have made sufficient progress towards my goals. Reviewing your action plan and your progress is the first step before you can lay out goals and an action plan for next year.

Goals:
1- Accelerate my new found love for my body
2- Live in another country
3- Help others more than they help me
4- Be more disciplined with my finances

Progress:
1- I did not reach my goal of doing a full set of push ups or pull ups, but I can confidently say that this has been the healthiest year of my life. I have continued to eat in a relatively healthy manner, choosing to cook over eating out when possible, and keeping up a regular (but not as intensive as I would like) workout routine.

2- For those of you who didn't hear through the grapevine, I had actually planned to move to the US within my company to take a new position. This is currently on hold for a variety of reasons, the largest being immigration has tightened up given all of the economic trouble down there. At first I was really bummed about this, but I've since come to realize that where one door closes, many more open up. I'm not disappointed that I didn't achieve this goal this year, as it's truly a long term plan on this one.

3- This one has been a really funny goal. Reason being is that I'm not sure if it's achievable. I feel like I was very successful in spending an inordinate amount of time helping others, but somehow I wasn't able to tip the balance to me helping others more than they help me. I suppose it really is true that the more you give, the more you get back. In case you were wondering what I'm talking about in terms of helping others, I've reviewed and given feedback on approximately 10 resume's of folks who are looking for work, I helped an acquaintance get a well paying job at one of the big Canadian Banks, I made extra effort to ensure that all of the interns we had in our department this summer felt right at home even though they didn't report to me, and I prioritized helping others in my work group over doing my own work (even when this meant I had to work more hours to catch up). I'm not looking for an award here- but I want to capture this so that one day I can look back on it and reflect on the times and how I can get better in this area of my life.

4- Hmmm... the finance question. This one has mixed results, but only because my standards are high. I think overall I would call this bucket successful, as I refinanced some of my higher interest debt recently, and I have been saving about 10% of my income for the future. That reminds me, I probably need to write a post on why you should be saving because pensions are likely going to be something we reminisce about by the time I get there. I have definitely gotten more disciplined in sticking to my monthly budget, but there is more work to do. Some of the line items (eating out, booze) really could be reduced, and if I could do that successfully, I'd actually be helping out with Goal #1.

Overall, this year has been amazing. I feel like I have continued growing as a human being across all aspect of my life; economically, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Over the next 2 months (and 2 weeks of vacation during Christmas) I'm going to take a hard look at the year and my goals and figure out what 2012 needs to be all about.

I'll leave you with this thought, which was shared with me by Rafael Alencar while he was working with me at P&G. I am going to try and apply this to my goals for 2012.
"People often try to do too many things in 1 year, and not nearly enough in 5 years. You should have one or two small goals for the year, and 3-5 big goals for 5 years."

Think about it.

What I Learned At The Art Of Sales Conference

2011-11-30T20:45:00.001-05:00

I attended the Art of Sales the other day courtesy of my good friends Robert Lavigne at The Digital Grapevine and Robert Kavanagh at the Art of Sales. I wouldn't have been able to afford to go on my own, and with the help of these fine gentleman, I was able to participate at a discounted rate and now I can spread some of the great knowledge I learned to the masses (LOL) who read this blog.

My Initial Takeaways From The Conference- Courtesy of Robert Lavigne:

Other Things I learned at the Art of Sales:

1- From Barbara Corcoran I learned that there are only two kinds of people in the world; expanders and containers. I also learned that when you combine expanders and containers (diversity) you can do great things.

2- I learned that when you ask someone to raise their hand as high as they can they never go full out the first time because they expect that you will always ask them for more from Seth Godin

3- I learned that I wasn't crazy for making a list of people who I needed to meet and interact with in order to further my career from Keith Ferrazzi

4- I learned that my challenge is to unlearn how to be boring vs. learning how to be fun from Sally Hogshead

5- I learned that business is the most power force in society from Jerry Greenfield. Church and Government used to play critical roles in our lives but as time goes on corporations are playing the roles that these institutions used to fill.

Seth Godin Getting Ready To Sign Some Autographs

Other Cool Things:

-I met two great gentlemen from Brantford, Robert Langley and Bill Jol
-I got a signed copy of Seth Godin's book, Poke The Box
-LinkedIn Canada was on site doing professional headshots. This was really cool, as my current pic is over 1.5 years old! New online visual incoming!

Overall, it was a great day and a worthwhile investment of time, money, and energy. The next Art of Event is in the Spring of 2012... stay tuned!

Real Leadership Is Shown AFTER The Crisis

2011-11-21T08:00:00.001-05:00

Recently I had a very good friend come to me with an issue at work. Although she is a top performer and excellent at what she does, she had a meeting with a senior leader who gave her negative feedback in a very nonconstructive manner. She left the meeting feeling deflated, unmotivated, and really unappreciated.

I'll spare the details to protect all those involved, but to make a long story short, she was trying to figure out whether she should say something to her manager about the situation, or whether she should just let it slide. I called her and gave her a pep talk about how leadership has nothing to do with the crisis itself. Point being that she had a personal crisis, and that if she let it slide, she wouldn't be a very good leader for herself.

Many examples of this came to mind, both good and bad.

Good Example: When 9/11 happened, no one blamed Mayor Giuliani for the attack itself. However as soon as it started going down he didn't blame anyone (like he could of), but instead swung into action to provide support, leadership, and direction to a city that was in chaos. To this day, Rudy Giuliani is commended for his efforts after that tragedy. He knew what needed to be done even though it wasn't easy, and made the tough decisions that the average person wasn't able to make.

Bad Example: The 2011 American Congress' "Super Committee". America is in the midst of a crisis as we speak, and the politicians "swung into action" during the debt ceiling crisis by forming a committee and kicking the can down the road. Sure enough, we are merely days away from the deadline set forth by congress itself with little to no progress on negotiations. Real leaders would step up, lay out the hard decisions that need to be made, and help the country move forward. Instead we get rhetoric and party politics. Ironically enough, the Government is likely going to bring the US down in the long term, which is exactly what the founding father's were trying to protect against in the constitution.

So What Do You Do If You Are In This Situation?

If you are the leader giving negative feedback, you need to remember the following:
-No matter what you do, you cannot avoid the crisis. You can mitigate the risk, but it's a matter of when, not if the crisis will hit.
-Your followers will not lose faith in you because the crisis happened, but they will lose faith in you if you don't take the challenge to fix the problem head on in a constructive manner.
-Your employees want to do the best they can for you. Remember that they are significantly more upset than you are because they feel like they let you down.
-Giving negative feedback is pointless unless you deliver it in a way that encourages change in the person's behavior. Making them feel like crap won't get you anywhere. Your job as a boss is to make people feel good.
-If personal issues/feelings/emotions are top of mind vs. the feedback you have to give, reschedule the meeting. DON'T give feedback while you are mad/angry/upset.

If you are the employee/colleague/friend in the pickle that my friend is, you need to remember the following:
-Everyone has a crappy day. You are having a crappy day, but your leader was probably having a crappy day before you sat down together. Try to put yourself in their shoes and understand why they might be upset.
-Remember that you are a valued employee. This one feedback session went poorly, but 99% of the time you are getting positive feedback, so don't let 1 bad day crowd out the overall good trend.
-Sleep on your thoughts and feelings. When you wake up the next day, reflect write down how the meeting made you feel.
-In a couple of days, meet with your leader to discuss the feedback session. Acknowledge the feedback you received and what you need to go work on, but also address how the previous interaction made you feel. Be sure to focus on how YOU feel- people can't argue with your feelings.

If you are a solid leader, or work for a solid leader, then it's likely the leader will already have reflected on this interaction and will be prepared to admit their mistake. Of course, if you work for someone that is always behaving this way and doesn't want your feedback, you may want to consider a change of employers.

Has anyone ever been in situation like this? How did YOU deal with it?

Jumping Out Of A Plane Will Make You Crave Adventure

2011-11-19T13:10:00.001-05:00

My "quarterly update" is on it's way, but I'll write and post that one later. For now, I really want to share my entire story on the skydiving adventure.

On July 16th Nick, Mallory and I went all the way up to Barrie to jump out of a plane. We got ourselves super pumped up, filled out the forms, watched the safety video (which was filmed circa 1984), and we were lining up to get our gear. And then it happened... "how much do you weigh?". I shared my (large) number and then I was informed that there wasn't anyone small enough to jump tandem with me! Needless to say we were super disappointed, but the good news was that there was a national skydiving champion who usually works at the place who could jump with me a few weeks later.

We left that day disappointed, but fixed the whole situation by making our own pub crawl route up and down Yonge/Eglington area. :)

In the mean time, my good friend Dustin from university asked me if he could come jump with us (apparently it's hard to find people to do these things!) and of course I said it was a great idea!

Finally- On August 6th, 2011, we did it! The best part is, as we were getting our stuff ready, Mallory decided that she couldn't live with herself if she didn't also jump. She was worried about peeing her pants, but with some encouragement we got her to gear up! Here's a shot of us before we went up in the air:

I'm not a very religious person, but I do believe in something larger than us. Floating through the air was an absolutely amazing experience and it was literally life changing. What would you be thinking to yourself if this was you?

For me- it was as simple as "Holy Crap! I'm actually falling through the sky! This is amazing!". Somehow it really did touch me deep down inside... almost like I realized there are so many things in this world I've never experienced, which makes that drive to experience them that much greater.

In the end I landed safely, made some amazing memories with some of my best friends, and wet my appetite for more adventure.

Would I do it again? Absolutely.

Will I do it again? Probably not- I want to seek out something I've never done before.

2 Guys and 1 Plane- No Agreement On A Soundtrack [VOTE]

2011-07-16T09:59:00.000-04:00

This is myself and my best friend from University, Nick. Him and I have been talking about skydiving for about as long as I've known him. We have procrastinated, put it off, and generally ignored it for a long time.

Well, I'm happy to say that TODAY is the day we are going to go and jump out of a plane.

Is it crazy? Probably
Will it be awesome? I'm sure of it.

The Problem
We are getting a video made of our jump and we have to pick a soundtrack for it.

Corey's Choice: Not only does it seem appropriate for a high risk sport to have some cranking metal music in the background, but listen to the lyrics around 0:52 seconds.

Nick's Choice: Yeah, I don't really have anything else to add about this...

The Solution
Put which song you prefer in the comments below- or suggest another one!

2011 Goal Status Check

2011-04-10T17:23:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it's the middle of April already! 2011 is flying by and I think it's time I give everyone an update on some of the goals I shared in January.

Before I do that, I'd like to share a cool website I just joined today, www.43things.com. It lets you write down your goals, both short and long term and then let's you connect with others who have the same goal. Everything I've read about goal setting is that writing down your goals is the first step, as once they are written down you can focus on how to get there!

Overall the site is really good. The site would be 5/5 but mainly due to it's poor use of Facebook Connect I would give it a 4/5.

Pros

Easy to sign up (using Facebook connect)
Simple interface. Type in a goal or search for goals others are trying to achieve
Easy to share your goals with anyone
It is empowering to see others who have completed the goal you are trying to complete. Success breeds success.

Cons

When you first sign up and you are entering a lot of goals, it spams your Facebook wall pretty hard
The setting that would prevent you from spamming your wall does not allow you to change the "auto post" functionality
There is no way to filter who see's your Facebook wall spam (as you can with status updates)

So with that, here's the brief update on how I'm doing against My 2011 Goals

1- Accelerate the new found love for my body. Unfortunately, this is probably where I'm having the most trouble. I have continued to eat healthy and it has had some really great benefits, including a very clean bill of health from some recent blood work. Cholesterol, Blood Pressure, and Blood sugar were all in perfect condition while my BMI is a bit off track (shocker, I know). The BMI piece is really being held back by me not going to the gym enough, which has been caused by a combination of factors. The reality is that there is no excuse, and I committed to going to the gym 3 times/week. I'm not going to go soft on myself for this one. All I can do is recognize the reasons why I'm not going to the gym enough and fix them.

Step 1- quit making up excuses. (too tired, busy, sore, blah, blah, blah)

2- Live in another country. As I said before, this goal is not something I can directly work on, but I can form many of my actions and contexts around this goal to help it along. At work I've already been onboarding to some of the great projects happening in the US that I have never worked on before. It's going to be a challenge to take on this new work, but I'm excited to learn more about the US marketplace and retailer environment even more deeply. On the personal side, I've been reading a lot about investing in foreign countries, as well as some US tax law. From what I can tell, US tax law is a heck of a lot more confusing than Canadian tax law, but if you can do the required research, you can really set yourself up for long term success.

Here's a fun example; did you know that each of the 50 US states has a different savings program for your child's education? Also, did you know that it doesn't matter what state you live in, you can register for any of the savings programs you want? Neither did I. :)

3-Help others more than they help me. I'm not going to be able to claim victory on this goal for many many years, but I think I can share some of the things I've done to help others. Funny part is, the more I give, the more I get.

I helped my gym, Crossfit Quantum, move from their old location down the strip mall to a larger, much more awesome location. This pic in this post I took while we were moving the barbell racks. A bunch of people helped with the move, and my trainers were very grateful. Now we have an awesome new space to workout in!
I helped my friend prepare for an internal interview at his work. He didn't end up getting the position, but he said that it was a great experience and he learned a lot about the role and what is needed. He also thanked me for the help. Although not directly related to this act of giving, what I'm getting back is the honour of standing in my friends wedding next fall. More to come on that another time!
I participated in a Brock University MBA Speed Networking night, which was really cool! The giving back part is when some of the students I met asked me if I could help them with their resume and their job hunt. So far I've helped 2 individuals refine their resume with the end goal of helping them secure employment once they are done their studies. One of these students (check her out) even gave me a recommendation on LinkedIn! Again, the more I give, the more I get.

4-Be more disciplined with my finances. I've been doing very well on this front. I've been mostly sticking to my budget and I've also been very picky in terms of when I go out and spend money. I had a couple "impulse" purchases which included a couple nights out for dinner with friends and a small stereo for my iPod

If you ever need inspiration on this front, I highly recommend you check out www.manvsdebt.com

So that's it for now. If you want to talk about anything I have written in this post, let me know via a comment or shoot me an email!

Are You All In?

2011-01-15T10:53:00.000-05:00

I don't have many rules in life, except for some very high level ones. One of the things that is unique about me is that you are either "all in or all out". What I mean by this is that I'm not going to commit to something and then do a shoddy job. Don't get me wrong, I've definitely made mistakes and learned from them, but if I commit to something, you know I'm giving you 110%. This likely means I commit to less in totality than some others you may know, but you know when I do commit, you are going to get a good result.

This applies to almost everything in my life, including "work life balance" (whatever the heck that means). Because I work a "9-5" job, I pretty much dedicate myself to work during the weekdays and then take the weekend for my own. Put another way, "I'm all in" during the workday and "I'm all in" on the weekend.

Luckily, rules are meant to be broken and that's what happened today. I just "finalized" a big research study yesterday at around 2pm, and then sat back and congratulated myself. As I should have known, it's never over until it's over, and I received some pertinent information last night/this morning that impacted the study. SO here I am, Saturday morning cranking through some emails and reviewing survey questions.

The funny part is, I don't even mind! I guess it's possible to enjoy your job so much that a couple hours on a Saturday really isn't a big deal. The other thing I'm starting to realize is that if I really want to get to where I need to be, some of these extra weekend hours to organize and do some deeper thinking are very valuable. Maybe it's time for an adjustment to the rules?

Nah, the rules are good. I think maybe I'll just follow Peter's lead here!

But this really begs the question... Are you all in or are you just doing enough to not get fired?

Sometimes NOT Blogging Is A Good Thing

2011-01-08T12:55:00.000-05:00

Here we are. The year of 2011. It's been a full 3 months since my last blog post, but luckily for me, I don't dwell on the past. The lack of blog posts actually speaks to some of the great things that have been going on in my life lately, both on the personal and professional side.

Here's the quick recap of the last 3 months!

Personal:
-I finished up my volunteer position with the Chris Tindal campaign. Unfortunately Chris didn't win but he had a strong showing against some season veterans in city politics.
-I wrote my GMAT and got a decent score. Of course I likely could have done better, but I'm satisfied with where I ended up
-On Nov. 1 I began a new lifestyle which involved working out regularly, eating as healthy as I can, and generally worshiping my body instead of treating it like something that is going to be young forever. I joined Crossfit Quantum in Toronto, and if you are looking for a fun, motivating environment to "get huge", I highly recommend them. The trainers are great and I'm after 3 months I'm in the best shape of my life.
-I spent a glorious two weeks with my little brother, who is making his family so proud. He is current in Halifax serving with the Canadian Navy Reserve and is on the adventure of a lifetime. As his older brother I am honoured to tell the people I know that my brother is serving is country and bettering himself at the same time.

Professional:
-As of October 1st I got a new manager and a new 1 up manager. Both of them have been great at both supporting me in my work and pushing me to always be better. For that I thank both of them.
-In the next few months they are going to be expanding my role to include more work on US research, which I'm very excited about. This is further going to drive my understanding of the North American market, which I think it a great skill set and experience to have.

So with that I look forward to the year ahead, and frankly, I think it's going to be a defining one in my life. When I talk to my mentors, they often look back on their lives and tell me stories about a defining moment or a defining decision that set them on a different path had they chose a different answer. With all of the things going on in my life, I truly feel like this year could be one of those, but I suppose only time can tell!

I'm not a big New Years resolution guy, but I am a goal setter and the new year is a great time to review your current goals, set new ones, and craft an action plan. I'll spare all of the process details since there are other blogs for that, and skip straight to the goals.

1-Accelerate the new found love for my body. I'm not perfect, I never will be. However the small changes in my life have made me feel infinitely better about myself, and others have noticed too. Not a week goes by where I don't get a compliment on how I am looking good, and there is still much work to do. Sometimes this attitude comes across as a "holier than thou" message, but I assure you this is not my intent. I just know where I was 3 months ago and know where I am now and I can't help but tell people how great of an experience it is! Along these lines, 2011 is when I can do a full set of real push-ups and a full set of real chin ups. Those are real challenges that I'm going to have to work hard for.

2-Live in another country. While this may not happen this year, it's one of the reasons I'm doing the work I do now. This is still a big goal of mine and everything I do in 2011 will be related to this somehow. More networking, more projects, and more results will hopefully get me there.

3-Help others more than they help me. I really enjoy helping others, but sometimes it's easy to fall into the trap of taking more than giving. My first couple of years out of school has put me in this position, mostly out of necessity. This year is going to be about giving back, both at work and my personal life.

4-Be more disciplined with my finances. Although I am a great planner and have the best of intentions, when it comes to shopping I have low will power. I am also a very social person so I almost can never say no to a social situation, regardless of cost. The discipline comes in two forms; One is sticking to the monthly budget I've set out, and the other is when I do decide to go to a social interaction, to be very thoughtful of what I really need to spend money on and what is just my innate desire to blow cash.

They are broad, they are big, but these are the goals I'm working towards. I can assure you that I have an action plan against each of these, and I'm hoping I'm be able to share progession with you as they start to come to fruition.

So 3 months of not blogging and I feel better than ever. I guess now I have something to blog about!

With that, I leave you with a quote and a video that exemplifies my feeling right at this moment.

"We've come a long long way together, through the hard times and the good..." -Fatboy Slim

PS: My favourite part is around 3:07. Only people who truly enjoy their work could pull that kind of awesome off!

Starting a Website? Learn From My 4 Mistakes

2010-10-02T12:17:00.000-04:00

This post was suggested from a coworker and friend of mine, Suba Naganathan. He has a very well designed website at www.suba.ca that he admittedly doesn't give enough love to.

Mr. Suba, this post is for you. I hope it's everything you've hoped and dreamed for, and more.

Before I shares my Dos and Don'ts, I want to be very clear that any web property is in a constant state of development. You will NEVER work on a website and then be "done". That being said, here are some good starting tips. I start with the don'ts because these ones are the ones that you really wish you hadn't done after the fact.

DON'T:
1- Register your name through Google Apps. I originally did this because I was trying to ensure I have everything that Google Apps had to offer on my site; email, team collaboration, etc. The problem is that all Google does here is act as a third party and buys the name from ENOM for you. Once this happens, if you want to create a customer HTML or Wordpress hosted website you are out of luck. This was a really big learning for me that there is a difference between buying a domain name and buying hosting services.

Solution- Go directly to ENOM.com or Godaddy.com to purchase your domain name.

2-Download a free trial of an FTP program. An FTP program is what you use to upload your HTML (or other) files to your hosting server. I made the mistake of downloading a trial version of one and then after 30 days I had to scrap it and start over.

Solution- I currently use FileZilla which is open source and most importantly free, and I'm very happy with its ease of use and functionality.

3- Ignore the copy on your website until the last minute. I didn't really think about the words that I actually wanted to put on my site until I had the site designed. Then, when I put in the copy, everything didn't look exactly as I want. Even to this day, I'm not really happy with the content on the site (outside of this awesome blog of course!!).

Solution- When thinking of the website design, write out your copy and work on revising it as the site comes together.

4- Forget about SEO. Search Engine Optimization almost doesn't mean anything to me anymore because it's such a popular buzzword. Essentially its creating your site in a way that makes it easy for search engines to find it. Although I knew about the concept I didn't know anything about it in practice, so I'm well behind the curve on this one. I only realized AFTER my site was up that Google has tons of tools that can help you get the basics built into your site.

Solution- Read up on the basics of SEO so when you are developing your site you can build some of the easier pieces into the design. There are tons of SEO services out there that will charge you an arm and a leg. My opinion is that you need to do the basics and unless you are a big company these services probably aren't worth your cash.

DO:
1- Research on your hosting options. I cannot stress this point enough. I was in a big rush to get y site up and running once it was designed, and I just went with the first company that was recommended by a friend (www.dotCanada.com). I do not have any complaints about this quality or service of this company, however, a few days later I was talking with Bill Pitcher who shared what he paid for his hosting, and the price was FAR superior.

Result- Saving Cash

2- Use Google Apps on your site. I know from experience that you should never actually purchase your domain through Google, I do believe you should set up Google Apps on your site once you have purchased the domain and hosting. This allows you to use all of the familiar tools from Google (gmail, calendar, etc) and also a host of other business focused applications.

What this means is when I go to mail.coreytyhurst.com, it actually brings me into my coreytyhurst.com gmail account. Likewise for calendar, etc. I must say that right now I do not use these features much, but if I were going to be using my site for a small business this is a great way to do that. You can also add as many emails you want for employees or friends if that is something that is required.

I must admit, accomplishing this does require a bit of reading and learning about DNS settings (they were confusing as hell to figure out, but once I got basics down it wasn't too bad to set this up). If you are trying to use Google Apps on your site and you need help, please let me know as a few screenshots of my settings should be able to help you on your way.

Result- Usability and Scalability

3- Hire someone with a sense of design to make your site beautiful. I do not recommend spending lots of money on this, but if you are not good at design like I am, it's well worth a small investment. My site was designed by Kait Souch (www.kaitsouch.com, @misskait) and I was very happy with her work.

Results- Your site is pretty!

4- Add Google Analytics to your site, on every page. Google Analytics is a free way to track the traffic on your site, and it is used by companies large and small around the world. I am not an expert by any means on this tool, but I have used it to verify that my home page is not compelling at all, and definitely does not encourage anyone to visit the blog tab of my site. Still working on this, but I highly recommend adding Analytics to your site, even if you aren't sure what you would use it for yet.

Results- You can measure and react to your visitors.

Overall Tip: DO SOME RESEARCH!

I have to admit, I thought making my own website was going to be a piece of cake. It's not that it's hard, but there are some technical steps along the way if you want the type of functionality I speak of above.

Good luck on your own site and please let me know if I can help in any way!

It's Official: Empire Avenue Knows I Was Adopted [SATIRE]

2010-09-29T23:02:00.001-04:00

No, seriously. I think I may have been born in the United States and adopted by a nice Canadian family. It amazing I turned out to look exactly like my "adopted" Father. Look at us! There's no way we aren't related right!?

Ok, Ok, The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.... but maybe the conspiracy is deeper? Maybe the stork society just totally dropped me off on the wrong side of the Detroit River? Heck, maybe the stork even mistook Windsor for Detroit... I need to write a letter to the Stork council or something.

Growing up in Essex Ontario, I always knew about a saying that says "Ontario stops at London". I never really knew what this meant until I moved away for university.

Example 1: Despite being a huge music buff my whole life, I was not privy to many of the great Canadian bands until I made the move to St. Catharines for school. Can you believe I only knew 2 Tragically Hip songs!? And to top it off, most of my friends from the Toronto area didn't know who Bob Seger was... BOB SEGER.... CMON PEOPLE!!!!

Example 2: Every single one of my university friends lived out their childhood experiences using Toronto as a home base, whereas my home base was Detroit. In 2nd year my friend and I were talking about how awesome the Zoo was as a kid. At the end of it all he commented on how amazing the Toronto Zoo was. I paused for a moment, and then realized I had never been to the Toronto Zoo and I was picturing the Detroit Zoo in my head! The same was true for Hockey Games, Monster Truck Rallies, and even Science Centres*.

*I did visit the Ontario Science Centre as a child, but my most vivid memories are of the one in Detroit.

Example 3: When I first took my internship at P&G (an American-owned company I might add), I consistently got asked if I was from the US. Somewhere between the "accent" that I had and my passion for NASCAR, I guess I was giving myself away! I believe both my accent and passion for NASCAR have waned, but the memories of this time still persist.

Example 4: During my internship I had the opportunity to visit Fayetteville, Arkansas to check out our sales office there. Anyone who knows anything about the consumer goods industry knows we have a little company down there we sell to, so I won't bother mentioning it. :)

Well, while I'm down there eating a $5 steak that is more delicious than any $50 I've ever had in Canada, I am telling someone about how I'm on the Canadian sales team. What's the response you might ask? "Oh, but you aren't originally from Canada are you?"

The way I see it, if the folks in Arkansas mistake me for American, I'm either doing a really bad job at being a Canadian, or I've been misplaced somehow!

My 5th and final example: I've denied it for a long time, but it's official. Without any effort of my own, social media has now classified me as an American. On a little site I've mentioned before (www.empireavenue.com), they just implemented some new leaderboards. The are organized by your default country. Sure enough, I look on there and I wasn't showing up in Canada, but I WAS showing up on the global list. Turns out, even though my location is listed in Toronto, the leader boards have me showing up in the US list!!

So Dad, your little secret about how you smuggled me across the border as a young child is safe with me. I suppose it was a lot easier to do such things back then. Somewhat ironic, because with an economic situation like we've seen lately, I hear it's a pain in the butt to go back the other way.

UPDATE: @dups has shared with me that the location for that feature is actually determined by your IP address so that people can't toy with their location to get a good spot on the leaderboards. I have a sneaking suspicion that my VPN to Cincinnati is likely what put me in the US list. Either way, it has been fun being an American for this short time!

Online Analytics: You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

2010-09-21T08:43:00.002-04:00

Facebook, Twitter, Posterous, LinkedIn.... These are all common social networking sites that millions of people visit everyday. While of course the key benefits to these networks is networking, engaging in conversation, and spreading your influence in the world, that's not where the real "power" of social media may lie.

In fact, those who operate their own websites and use Google Analytics have known the dirty little secret of the online world for some time... data = power.

I don't mean power in some draconian sense of the world, but data is what enables analysis and understanding of behaviour, which then in turn can help you influence that behaviour and monetize it.

There are many sites that an average consumer can use to access online behavioural data, including Google Analytics, HootSuite, and Facebook Insights. There is also a premium class of analytics tools, generally used by enterprise customers including SocialTalk, Radian6, and Spiral16 to name a few. Not sure what the deal is with the sixes in the names, but I assume it would make a good conspiracy theory.

These enterprise class software packages are very powerful, and are getting moreso by the day. Take a look at this video of how Spiral16 can map out the relationship between two political campaigns.

Of course, it's a cool feature to map out a network in 3D, but what real use does it have? This is where it begins to get exciting. This type of technology could previously only be discussed in theoretical networks or carefully controlled studies in universities, but now real data can be used in real time to analyze real networks. This has implications on how we divy up public resources like healthcare, how we target new products, and even how we share news on a natural disaster in the most efficient way.

Nicholas Christakis, a Harvard sociolist specializing in networks explains it all in the following video. It's a long one, so I'll give you the shorthand too.

The most efficient way to spread something through a network is to pick people at random and then ask them to select a friend. That friend will inherently be closer to the center of the network, and that's where you should focus your message/product for most impact.

Nicholas talks about many of these ideas in terms of the flu, but it can apply to anything that spreads through networks including ideas and product innovations.

Net: If you think social media and the web are important to business in the future, I highly suggest you dabble in the analytics space at least part time. As they say in business,

You Get What You Measure.

What Is Your Lighthouse Product?

2010-09-10T19:33:00.000-04:00

You never actually reach the lighthouse, but you use it as a guiding principle every step of the way in order to dock your boat in the harbour successfully.

I heard this very interesting idea in a meeting when the concept of a lighthouse product was shared with me. A lighthouse product is something that will likely cost too much money and time to ever create, but everything you do should be moving you in that direction.

To that note, my friend Bill (owner of www.empirebuilding.net) and I have begun a new Facebook community page called The Social Branding Network. It essentially replaces my experiment of the coreytyhurst.com fan page, and has a focus on discussing issues surrounding personal and professional branding in everything you do, particularly online.

The name is very deliberate:

Social- This is a place for conversation, debate, and asking questions. I've learned from my mistakes that there is no point in having a community page unless you are active in it!

Branding- It's all about branding; personal, professional, location, product. You name it, we want to talk about branding it.

Network- You cannot have a conversation without a network. As such, this is a place for those who may or may not know each other to meet others and explore what different perspectives have to offer.

You'll also note that the logo design is very similar to the Empire Building Network. This is deliberate as well. Bill and I are working together to help promote our social networks, and we wanted that to be clear to everyone involved.

If you are interested, you can visit the page or "Like" it via the big box on the right, or by clicking here. I expect it will often contain articles from your favourite sites like Mashable and Digg, but we also hope that it can have some unique content; be it user created or even pictures and videos that exemplify how important it is to take your brand by the horns and actively manage it.

There is still much work to do on www.coreytyhurst.com as well as on my personal blog to be sure. However a career in brand building can take many paths, and I feel like this step is moving me a little bit closer to my lighthouse product.

The Dilemmas of Political Campaigns

2010-08-17T22:37:00.000-04:00

Being a politician isn't all cocktail parties and fancy fundraisers. Sure, that's what the media is often focused on when they are covering the Prime Minister or the President, but like any other profession it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to make it to that top spot. This often requires many hard hours canvassing and speaking with countless constituents to understand the issues in the area the politician is attempting to represent.

I've been working with Chris Tindal (www.christinal.ca) on his campaign to become the next City Councillor for Ward 27 in Toronto. I've been canvassing the ward with Chris and trying to get the word out on what he's all about. It has been a great experience, and I'm going to continue to do it, but I have come across a couple of interesting dilemma's while doing this:

Dilemma 1)
Politicians are constantly criticized for being out of touch with the public, but a lot of people don't want to be bothered when a potential politician wants to hear about their issues.

I completely understand where the people are coming from on this one. After all, we see politicians make decisions that we don't agree with on a daily basis... they obviously aren't listening to us! At the same time, I really don't want every politician who represents me stopping by my doorstep or calling me on the phone at dinner time every night to ask me what I think about certain issues. I (somewhat) have a life afterall!

I was going to write a whole piece here about how social media can help enable this, but let's be honest, I'd bet it's a pretty skewed population that is looking to their politicians online. One only has to look to the Obama campaign vs. the McCain campaign to see where the demographics are on that one.

Although there is no real solution to this, my advice is if you get the chance, take a few minutes out of your busy day to talk to your potential candidates. Whether it's at your door or online, grill them on their issues and make sure they know their stuff! I guarantee you that the person is not walking around your whole neighbourhood talking to everyone for a selfish reason. Although you may not agree with their personal stance on things, they will be happy to listen and share their thoughts with you.

Dilemma 2)
The taxes are always too high, and the services are always too low... and the Government is wasting it all.

Again, I really can't disagree on this one. Who doesn't want lower taxes and more services!? I think the Government(s) of the past and present are the ones who are really driving this lack of faith in the system. I think the majority of people don't mind paying their taxes, but most people express a feeling that taxes are going up while service levels continue to decrease. This inevitably leads to the third variable in this equation, government waste.

I am fairly privileged in that I got to study economics in school. Also known as the study of scarce resources, the basic principles of economics states that there are always winners and losers in any political or economic decision. It's unfortunate that this is the case, but that means that anytime any government makes a decision to fund a certain project or initiative, there WILL be another project or initiative that doesn't get funded... keep that in mind next time you see a politician making a decision. What is s/he giving up in order to make this decision?

Again, there is no solution to this per se, but my advice to people would be to keep a watch on what their politicians are doing. Are their choices good for society as a whole, or are they choosing to focus on a certain group/area for political gain? As a society we've been living beyond our means for some time, and this likely means at some point in the near future our politicians at all levels are going to be making some tough choices in the future. Ask yourself if you'd want someone representing you who's willing to make the tough choices, or if you would prefer someone who happens to fund your individual project/initiative.

Well, now that I'm ending my little piece on the dilemmas of modern democracy, let me leave you with this...

After all, at the end of the day, regardless of a politicians party affiliation or policy decisions, they can always use a little help from their friends. Volunteering for a political campaign is a great way to learn some things about your local neighbourhood and really make a difference. Try it out!

PS: This blog reflects my own personal views only. I do work on the Chris Tindal campaign as a volunteer, but he is his own man and all of his personal views can be found at www.christindal.ca

GMAT- The Other White Meat

2010-08-13T08:33:00.000-04:00

Anyone who knows me well or has been following me on Twitter/Facebook knows I've been studying to take the GMAT test so I can get into business school.

What's surprising to me is the actual topics that I need to brush up on. Pre-GMAT studying, I was given the advice that some of the hardest questions are the dreaded "data sufficiency" questions. Funny enough, during my undergrad in economics we did these questions regularly!

What I really find myself working on is basic (I'm talking like Grade School here) math and grammar. Take this basic math problem for example:

If a and b are different prime numbers, which of the following must be odd?

A) ab

B) 4a + b

C) a + b + 3

D) ab - 3

E) 4a + 4b + 3

There's a few key rules you need to know in order to get the correct answer:

-The definition of an odd number
-The definition of a prime number
-The rules for arithmetic on even and odd numbers

I just find it interesting, as I spent 4 years of my life doing differential calculus and deciphering mathematical logic to get a degree in economics, and then in order to go get my MBA, I need to brush up on what a prime number is.

Isn't the world grand?

PS: The answer to the above Question is E. Here's the explanation.

Slowly But Surely

2010-07-29T14:55:00.000-04:00

I am feeling pretty good about myself and how far I've come in this online journey I've been calling coreytyhurst.com. Slowly, but surely the site is coming together nicely. No doubt I have much more work to do on content, and I have some really basic SEO that I need to work on, but at least everything is looking decent on the surface.

The latest addition to my blog is the Facebook "like" button. I added this because its been working wonders over at www.empirebuilding.net, so we'll see how it works here. I must admit, I haven't exactly figured out the right strategy for my Facebook page, as I'm not selling anything and don't really have a reason for people to go there aside from me piping in all of the articles which I deem interesting.

The experiment continues!

My First Case of Writers Block

2010-07-26T00:36:00.000-04:00

I never thought I'd be THAT guy.... the one who is up in the wee hours of the morning trying to work on his blog posts. To top it all off, with my never ending stream of opinions on everything, I'd never think I would be the guy with the writer's block. Sometimes no matter what you write it just doesn't flow the way you want!

Alas, here I am. I don't think I should be surprised however, given my history.

I've never considered myself much of a writer even though I think I've always showed some of the characteristics of a blogger. I enjoy staying up late, I work the best when I feel like working; not at some predetermined hour, and I thrive off of deadlines.

The only reason I'm even up at this hour on a Sunday is because I'm on vacation from my day job this week. I must admit though, I haven't been sleeping well lately. I am truly excited about the launch of www.empireavenue.com, and I'm so happy that I have been able to participate in the site since the early beta stages.

During my undergrad in Business Economics, I frequently wrote my papers and marketing plans in the wee hours of the morning, but yet somehow the thought of staying up late and writing articles seemed like something that was in my realm of interest. I must say, since I've started this blog in January, and from my last month or so blogging with www.empirebuilding.net, I think this is becoming a secret passion of mine.

Now that I've distracted myself for a bit on the advice of Cliff over at the Empire Building Network, I wonder if I can go back and finish the damn work that I wanted to get done tonight. Hell hath no fury for a guy trying not to wake up his gf in the other room while he figures out what the hell he wants to write about.

Primerica: If You Aren't A Scam, Please Don't Sound Like One

2010-07-16T21:44:00.001-04:00

Today I got a random phone call. I normally don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognize, but I was working from home today and it could have been business related.

A professional sounding gentlemen began asking me whether I was interested business opportunities, etc, etc. I have had calls from headhunters before, and they are usually straight up with you:

"I work for a client who is looking for x. This is the job, this is the company, would you be interested in talking?"

As I explained in a previous post, I enjoy hearing the selling techniques employed at other companies, as it helps keep me on my game, plus it gives me something to blog about! He gave me his full name when I asked for it, so I was willing to listen to the pitch. In addition to that he seemed to be able to answer the general questions I was throwing at him about the opportunity in question.

But then the specific questions started coming from me, and it wasn't so obvious that this was legit anymore.

The gentleman asked me if I'd be willing to come in for an information session. I said that I wasn't going to commit until I could get a chance to check out the website and give him a call back. I felt like this was a reasonable request, as I am very happy in my current job, and I wanted to know about the company he was touting, Primerica Canada. This guys job is obviously to close the sale, so he wasn't satisfied with that answer. I completely understand that.

The Call Turns Suspicious
Here's what happened next that started making me suspicious:
-When I mentioned visiting the internet to look up his company, he was gave me this line about how his company had spent millions on marketing, including a website, and if the website was the best way to disseminate information to people, he would spend most of his day emailing folks. My question then is: why spend the millions?
-He asked me if I wanted to bring a trusted friend, or a spouse to the information session with me. While I understand that changing careers is a big life choice, they can't be THAT selective if they are just bringing anyone they want to these information sessions. I have since learned that this is common in financial services, but I didn't know this, so a reputable thing to do would have been to mention that this is normal in the industry, and practiced by firms such as the Investors Group.
-When I asked him out of curiosity how he got my name and cell phone number, he started getting vague and would only refer to someone named "Arek". (I asked him to spell it for me).
-When I Googled the gentleman I was speaking to on the phone after the call, I had to really work to find him. If you were "regional VP of a financial services distribution company", wouldn't you have a LinkedIn profile?
-When I Googled Primerica the first thing I kept getting was "its a scam", "beware", etc.
-Even on the official Primerica Canada site, there was a whole page dedicated to "important disclosures", which says it IS a subsidiary of Citigoup.

Transparency Enables Clarity
After sharing what I had found on Twitter and how I felt this could affect ones personal brand, I got a few polite messages about how my information was incorrect. I'll admit that I didn't spend hours researching before I tweeted, but thats why I shared it, to get feedback to find out what the real story was. Also, the subsidiary piece is right on the website, so I just tweeted what the company itself told me.

From what I can gather from all sources, it seems like Primerica IS a legitimate company, but due to its agent based structure, there are inconsistencies in the level of ethics across branches. There is also evidence that the company used to be worse, but since going public it has cleaned up its act. I'm perfectly comfortable with this, but frankly, that should have been one of the first things mentioned when I began asking about going online to check out the company. I can deal with past mistakes, I REFUSE to deal with not being transparent.

If they truly are changed, they should acklowledge there were issues in the past and pledge that they have rectified the situation. I honestly would have expected something on the Primerica PR site (which btw, says it's NOT a subsidiary of Citigroup), but nothing to be found. Being listed on the stock market doesn't automatically indicate youhave good business practices. I think we all remember that little company named Enron.

This gentleman was polite, proactive, and well spoken. I don't know him. I'm sure he's an upstanding guy. I gotta say though, even after doing the research, I'm still not exactly sure how Primerica is or isn't related to Citigroup at this point due to conflicting sources.

My suggestion for Primerica
If you aren't a scam, try not to sound like one.

If there have been past issuesaddress them head on instead of trying to ignore them. If you don't make it clear where you stand, the internet will.
Be straight up with what is true or isn't true and you'll attract the kind of people you need to grow your business.

**UPDATE- July 21: SO the gentleman called me back today and gave me some line about how "There was so many people there last night (the original appointment day) that he didn't get a chance to talk to everyone". Either they had a group of 100 people in there for an information session (very scam sounding) or he was just lying through his teeth, as I did call and leave him a message confirming that I would not be attending.

He didn't press the issue of me coming in to talk to them anymore, so I'm assuming they found someone they were looking for. I wish them both the best, but again, doesn't sound like other legit companies I've worked with.**

I Love Jib Jab so much. It's. Just. Awesome.

2010-07-09T00:36:00.000-04:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

The video pretty much speaks for itself. For $12/year I can send as many ridiculous cards and put as many of my friends into hilarious videos as I want.

The Facebook integration is brilliant, they've clearly been doing their work on the business end (Star Wars 30th Anniversary, World Cup, and now promoting the new Season of Mad Men).

Here's the one I made of me in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Btw, if you are planning on scoring points with your gf on this one, be sure she is Princess Leah as opposed to someone else. Just trust me on this one.

And, if I'm not interested in shelling out the cash, I can still watch a hilarious video making fun of every single event that happened in a year.

In short, Jib Jab is a great site, and it's been one of my favourites for a long time.... ever since John Kerry thought he could give Bush a run for his money.

Social Media, Canada, Independence- 3 Great Days All In One Weekend!

2010-07-01T14:10:00.000-04:00

The mass exodus from the city to the cottage for the Canada Day long weekend is well underway in Toronto. This was evidenced my my super speedy trip to Best Buy to pick up a Pink Nintendo DS Lite for my girlfriends birthday (she chose the colour of course).

During this fine weekend our neighbours to the South also celebrate their own independence and I can't help but think about the long standing relationship our two countries have had in making North America a great place to live.

While we celebrate long standing traditions, this weekend also brings us closer to the future. Mashables Social Media day, celebrated in many countries all over the world yesterday is a testament to how the world s changing through technology.

We are quickly moving to a world where its less about that I live in Canada or have coworkers who live in the US. The Internet (with Social Media as a large component of this) has quickly began erasing the concept of borders, reminding us that we are all citizens of the Earth before we are part of some political organization known as a country, and that thinking globally will be the only way for our planet to succeed in the long run.

As I head out of town for my own Canada day celebrations, I urge you to take pride in your country, take pride in where you are from, but remember that we're all human, and thats what really matters.

Come To A Social Media Day Meetup On June 30th!

2010-06-29T08:14:00.004-04:00

Our friends over at Mashable have declared June 30th International Social Media Day, and frankly, I couldn't be happier!

There are meetups happening all over the world; 91 countries, 571 meetups working towards 10,000 people according to @mashSMday. I have to say, this is truly an amazing time in our existence where a company can declare an international day for something and it just starts happening around the world. It's not just the geeks either, the city of Victoria, British Columbia has dedicated the day to the cause officially as well. Check out the hastag #smday on Twitter if you want to join the conversation!

I hope by now you are asking "How can I participate"? Well, start off by heading here. That is the link for the Toronto meetup at The Madison Pub, sponsored by Netfirms. However, even if you aren't in Toronto there is a little box on the left side that will show meetups near you.

Personally, I'm going to have a few drinks, and meet some of the people I've been interacting with over the past few months since I've gotten heavy into the social media world. I know for a fact I want to find Will Pitcher over @empirebuilding and find out how he has been building his share price so consistently in my favourite new online stock game.

Whether you are into Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, FourSquare, Gowalla, Empire Avenue, or just want to learn more about marketing or social media, this is a great way to network and learn something!

PS: Don't forget to join coreytyhurst.com on our Facebook page. We're launching the new website/blog soon! I promise!

The coreytyhurst.com Journey Continues- With the Help of Empire Avenue

2010-06-17T09:20:00.000-04:00

So I'm still struggling with trying to drive traffic to my Facebook fan page. I think perhaps once I get a beta version of the website up it will be easier to solicit info from people than just a pdf mockup. Luckily for me, my readers are not swayed by a mere $25. This tells me I have classy readers! Whining aside, I've signed up with a new service that I have already began seeing results on; Empire Avenue.

Check out the YouTube video below explaining Empire Avenue in more detail... It's a little bland, but a hell of a lot better than I would do!

Essentially the game is a stock market program where you or your company is a stock that is measured on the value of your influence on the web. You link it to your Facebook, Twitter, RSS Feeds, and Flickr so that it can measure your influence and allow other influencer's to buy shares in you.

I've already met some very active, influential people through the service, including William Pitcher (RZR), who is a philanthropist turned Empire Avenue guru at http://empirebuilding.tumblr.com/. I highly recommend you check him out, as he's leading the thinking on Empire Avenue strategy, and definitely a stock to watch.

I think the site has obvious potential for the professional blogger/influencer, but the average joe can find value in it too. I'm probably not going to be pushing my stock price up over 20 because I just don't have enough time to spend posting and blogging (although I really wish I did!), but I've already found a ton of cool blogs to check out, and am quasi-networking with people who are clearly interested in the web and social media. I've even seen people send out advertisements of "Buy shares in me and I will help you with any problem you are having on the web". An Interesting premise!

Stay tuned for my next post I plan on talking about why platforms like Empire Avenue are not a fad, and are a new reality of the connected world.

Personal Marketing Plan Fail- I Probably Need Better Content!

2010-06-02T22:13:00.004-04:00

Well, my first attempt of getting people to give me and kaitsouch.com feedback on the design for coreytyhurst.com hasn't gone very far, but I am staying resilient! To be fair, I haven't really been around to promote my $25 reward for helping Kait and I design my new personal website, but I thought for sure someone in my network would have at least liked my fan page and made a snarky comment. I probably overestimate the amount of time my friends actually spend online compared to me.

Luckily for me, this lack of traffic has allow me to notice that when I post something to my personal Facebook as well as the coreytyhurst.com page it will send out dual news feed updates. This would be uber annoying for anyone who has actually liked the fb page and has me in their news feed. What I'm not sure about is what to do about this...
On one hand, I could only post somethings to my personal page so I know my friends will see them... but then my fan page doesn't get updated. The other option is to only post to my fb page, but then all of my two fans will see the updates... I guess for now I just have to be choiceful and find a more convincing way for people to join my fb page than offering cash and interesting commentary!

One of the good things is that this gave me an opportunity to play around with Facebook ads. I put in a bid of $0.50 per click and a maximum of $2/day during the promotion (till the end of June). So far I've gotten 2 clicks, no signups, and a bill for $0.92!! Hardly successful, but this is an experiment more than a true ad campaign, so I'm not that upset by it.

Another interesting thing that I learned is that until you have 25 1000 people as fans, you have to have an obscenely long URL (mine is http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/?id=107132832663434#!/pages/coreytyhurstcom/107132832663434). Once you hit the magic number of 25 1000, you can set up a custom username/URL so it's easy to find and search for your fan page.

June 10 Update: Apparently Facebook just changed the threshold to 1000 people for a custom URL. Gonna need a whole lot more likes!

I think it just speaks to one of the truisms of the net: CONTENT IS EVERYTHING!! I guess I have more work to do! :)

EAVB_DUVHXDGAHT

Make $25CAD... the easy way!!

2010-05-29T03:33:00.003-04:00

Want to win $25 in cold hard, Canadian cash? If so, check out coreytyhurst.com on Facebook and let me know what you think of my new website mockup! In collaboration with kaitsouch.com, I am launching the official coreytyhurst.com website in a few weeks, and I want my loyal fans (all 8 of you!) to give feedback and help make the site as good as it can be!

Kaitlyn Souch is a fledgling web designer and she has done a great job in preparing a site that really reflects my personal brand. I would recommend her work to anyone, so I thought I would share her expertise with the world by asking for input into the design of coreytyhurst.com.

Leave your comments... when the site launches Kait and I will pick the best fan feedback and I will send then $25CAD in cold, hard cash. It's easy, give constructive feedback, make sure it's better than everyone else', and you win $$$
(Note, this contest is for individuals only; no companies or 3rd party advertisers are permitted to win)

Here's the initial design (don't mind the spelling and language stuff... its just a draft!):

This puppy is going to be linked to my Blog, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the coreytyhurst.com Facebook page, and many of my other social networking sites. If you like it, become a fan of coreytyhurst.com on Facebook!

About coreytyhurst.com:
This is a personal website where I will be sharing my latest endeavors in technology, media, video games, politics, economics, and anything else that I find interesting about how people interact in the crazy world we live in. I'm not out to make money, simply share my experiences with the world.

About kaitsouch.com:
Kaitlyn Souch is a web design student at Sir Sanford Fleming College. She has produced many multimedia projects, including websites, print, and photographic works. Her passion for design and her bubbly personality ensure that your project is done on time and without hassle.

You Can Skip Everything Online, Except LinkedIn

2010-05-22T09:16:00.001-04:00

I am the youngest person at my job. This often defaults me to being the "expert" on computers, the internet, and all things geek. Personally, I love taking this role because it affords me the opportunity to show people who I respect in the workplace all of the great tools that are available to them to boost their competitive edge.

I believe that LinkedIn is one of these core tools. I've said it before, and I will say it again, as an individual, you can afford to skip Twitter, skip Facebook, and skip a bunch of the other social networks (I don't recommend it, but not everyone wants to live their life in front of a screen as much as I do). However, if professionals do nothing else online, they should be on LinkedIn. Period.

I've put together a presentation on Slide Share that explains some of the benefits in general, but this post is really to tackle those professionals who have had a successful career, do not plan on moving companies anytime soon, and just can't figure out why a "job searching" website would be of any value to them. It's a completely valid question, as most how-to guides for LinkedIn focus on how to use it to find a job. The reality is, that it's a networking tool... a superb one.

Common Barriers:

1- I am not looking for a job, I don't see how this site can help me

In today's competitive business world, you need every edge you can get. Even if you plan on staying in your job and company for many more years, having up to date, current information on companies, the job market, and potential candidates for your team helps you keep one step ahead in your professional game.

2- I am busy managing my work and my employees, I don't have time for this.

Even if you are not into the internet and building a personal brand online, it's very likely that your employees are. As a manager of other people, one of your core roles is to help build your employees skills and career through your guidance and expertise. If you participate in helping your employees build their brand, they are far more likely to be loyal to you, and your company. 15 minutes a week of reading about updates in your network and providing testimonials to your employees work publicly can do a world of help for employee motivation.

3- I have a strong network in the "real world", I really don't feel the need to put myself out in the world publicly

This is a fair barrier. Some people do not want to make their work and academic history available for all of the world to see. If that is the case, then LinkedIn probably isn't for you. However, if you have a Facebook profile, then this argument is bunk!

I'm sure I could talk in length about some of the other benefits such as LinkedIn answers and Recruiting, but I'll give you the meat!

How do I get Started?

1- Create a free profile at www.linkedin.com
2- Add http://ca.linkedin.com/in/coreytyhurst
3- Join your companies group. If it doesn't exist, make it!
4- Start networking (only add people to your network who you are willing to be associated with)

Keys To Success:

1- Spend 15 minutes each week browsing profiles and reading about companies in your industry. You'll be surprised at what you can learn
2- Keep your profile up to date
3- Join and participate in some select groups that are relevant to your career. The key here it to pick a couple relevant groups and participate in the conversation... or start one! You'll be surprised at how strangers will be willing to talk about common interest related to their area of expertise.

If you liked this post, please let me know. If you have other barriers or issues you'd like me to address, please let me know!!

**UPDATE- May 26**
Here's a really cool infographic on LinkedIn and some of its more fun stats from around the world.

Improving Your Local Community

2010-05-11T20:57:00.001-04:00

Think Globally, Act Locally- It's quite the cliche at this point... but I guess that cliche's exist because a lot of people are on board with the idea.

I truly believe that people are what make the difference , both online and off. This is one of the reasons I love social media so much; it's not about the information that you are discussing per se, its the people behind that information and the debate that their opinions spark that interests me.

This may seem a bit Utopian, but I truly believe that participating in Web 2.0 will make the world a better place. This isn't a new concept for me, more of an extension of my offline life. Before the "new web" even existed I was participating in Beavers, Wolf Cubs, and 4-H. All of these organizations have a goal of inspiring youth to make the world a better place in their own special way.

The reason I am writing about this today is that I am participating (for a 3rd time) in the Junior Achievement program "Economics For Success". It's a program that helps Gr. 8 students understand what living on their own is like, and how investing in their education can help them achieve their individual goals, whatever they may be.

I participate through my company along with other employees, but JA is open to anyone who is interested in offering their time to school age children. In JA, I've learned 3 things specifically:

-Gr. 8 kids are a hell of a lot smarter than you think. I don't know if I just forget what it was like at that time in my life, or if our kids are just leapfrogging us in intellect, but I am always hopeful for the future when I hear the thoughtful responses from the future leaders of society.

-Teachers don't get enough credit. I work long, hard days in a knowledge based industry dealing with some of the smartest folks in the world. However, after a day of intense interactive learning with a group of Gr. 8's, I am whooped. It's humbling to play the role of a teacher and think about the importance of their job to our future.

-Learning is supposed to be fun. I think as adults sometimes we look upon learning as "getting in the way" of the things we need to do. Kids have the uncanny ability to make even the most mundane task fun, to the disdain of their teachers of course!

Here's my shameless plug for JA... The video isn't the flashiest thing around, but remember, this is a not for profit run mostly by volunteers. :)

Anyone can work hard, get a sweet job, and make some good coin... but are YOU doing enough to give back to your local community?