Marketing Yourself

Jack Derby, a professor at Tufts, lecturer at MIT, and co-founder of Derby Management (who I've worked with in the past to deliver their Sales Effectiveness Bootcamp programs to participants in the TEN program) recently published on his FB page an interview with him on the use of social media to market yourself. He says, "It's about you" and talks about how important it is to keep your LinkedIn up to date, use Facebook, and then integrate in other social media networks if you have the time. He talks about the death of the resume - how stupid it is to spend lots of time developing one, only to list (like everyone else) how you know Word, Excel, and Powerpoint! He also places a lot of value in regular blogging.

It's interesting, because I haven't blogged regularly in such a long time (nor, it appears, have any of my friends who used to blog regularly). I wonder if part of that is due to how so many of us ingest information these days - little snippets, provided as status updates and pictures of activities. Why bother blogging, when people don't think they have time to read, or, we're all so ADHD now that no one can physically bring themselves to read?

Heck, if it weren't for the fact that it's a slow Sunday morning, I have a good cup of coffee in my hand, and have fed the troops here already, I probably wouldn't be blogging right now either. I'd be listening to NPR (which IS on in the background right now), possibly reading a magazine, thinking about the yard work I still want to do today, figuring out how to help Julie with her flow-chart development, and generally trying to entertain the kids. (Like right now... Audrey is watching Spongebob, and there's a commercial for this thing called "Pop Chef" that she absolutely NEEDS to have, because who doesn't want to make a heart shaped pizza? Oh, and while we're at it, please can I use your computer to go on Bookflix?)

But I do like the idea of using blogging to promote yourself. It is one of the few opportunities that you can publicly discuss your more complex ideas on a range of topics. And frankly, if you're looking to promote yourself - say, for that next big job opportunity - it also doesn't really matter if people are reading your blog. Potential employers, business partners, investors, customers... THEY may read it just to find out more information about you, and in the process it may improve your chances of success. Now, I will say, there are a number of old posts on this blog that I'd probably be better off deleting... and I may go back and delete a few things anyway, as professionally it's probably the best choice. However, this blog was created just as a way to communicate things to family and friends, and the occasional outsider. And I will likely post some things that are more social in context - like from last night's "Winers Wine Group" meeting. But like I said in my last post, it's time to start posting again, and at this stage in my life, I really love the idea of posting thoughtful content to get across those bigger ideas that you can't get through in a FB status update.

Going on 5 years

So apparently the last time I wrote anything on this weblog was back in 2008 - talk about a long time without having anything to say. I think, however, that I just let life get in the way of doing something like writing my thoughts down, not to mention that I didn't necessarily have anything that I really wanted to share via this venue.

Lots has happened over the past four-and-a-half years. We had our second child, Sammy, in 2008. We bought a new house, still in Greece, a few years ago. Julie and I have had our ups and downs, though right now I feel like we're transition back to the "ups". Our beloved Sundance was discovered on her bed about a year ago by our daughter who exclaimed several times (before I really realized what she was saying) that, "Sundance is frozen!"

There's actually a lot of really nifty stuff that I wouldn't mind writing about, and I think I may take a stab at it. The things I was once interested in are still fairly interesting, but I think there's more to talk about now. Work is a completely different animal than it was back in 2008. Family life is definitely different with a first grader and a UPK'er in the house! Julie and I are aggressively working on improving communication, which only strengthens our relationship. And I've become fascinated by a few new topics that I wasn't aware of back in 08' - particularly in my never-ending interest and love of wine and the wine industry. Once of the best things I did a couple years ago was read the book, "Vineyards in the Sky" which details the life of Martin Ray. This, of course, led me to search high and low for old vintages that were actually made by the man - my oldest being a 1954 Pinot Noir, bottled in his traditional manner of sealing the wine in champaign-style bottles!

Anyway, like I said, it's been a long time since I wrote anything, and I don't want to just randomly spew forth words that don't necessarily have any rhyme or reason to them. However, I will make a point of sitting down in the evenings, after the kids have gone up to bed, and preferably with a good glass of wine in hand, and write.