If I had to sum up the last year of my life, those two words would be it.
In hindsight, I’m appreciative of the adversity that I’ve gone through. It’s what has helped me evolve – personally and professionally – turning that adversity into opportunity. It’s made me realize that we’re all on a roller coaster – a ride that you either hang on for as long as you can until it decides to make a pit stop, or one you get thrown off of. As I write this post for all of you who have endured part of that ride with me, I wanted to let you know that I hung on.
For those of you who’ve been with me through this ride, you know that I endured a layoff late last year and went through the monster that is – the job market. It was a brute for a good while, but I took that adversity and utilized it to build up my independent skills and consult with some great companies this past year.
But during this time, I was patient. I continued to hustle. And I continued to push on and reach for those goals that I set for myself. I had faith and I believed – not only in the work I was putting in, but the people – you all – that offered a nudge along the way. (more…)
Note: This post is a bit more personal and off-topic than what you’d expect here, but I hope you stick around nevertheless as it covers an important part of my life and a specific project.
The start of the new year is usually a time of joy; reflecting on the past year, looking forward to what’s to come in the next and setting goals & resolutions for ourselves. For my family, the start of 2009 became a time of prayer and hope. We learned my 17-year-old cousin, who’s always been an active spirit around family and friends, was diagnosed with medulloblastoma – a highly malignant brain cancer that’s most commonly found amongst children. We were devastated. It was a huge shock to us all and we didn’t really know how to cope. (more…)
This post is part of the Guest Blog Grand Tour over at Life Without Pants – an epic two-month journey of over 50 guest posts. Want to learn more about Matt Cheuvront and see how far the rabbit hole goes? Subscribe to the Life Without Pants RSS feed and keep in touch!
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Discounts! Coupons! X% off! We all love a sweet deal. I mean, who doesn’t want an incentive to purchase a product or service? It’s what persuades our behaviors as consumers to pick one brand over another – and unless we have a sacred affinity to a specific brand & their products {Apple Macs/iPods or Nike shoes} we’re typically swayed by these offerings.
What got me thinking is the social web and how we, as consumers, respond to brands that are utilizing these platforms to build a community but to also attract new customers. Razorfish recently conducted a study on this, stating that special offers drive engagement in social media. Some interesting takeaways: (more…)
OK, I’m not thinking Men in Black where Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones come in with hip black sunglasses and flash a silver probe that erases any memory you have of them or mutating aliens.
It relates more to our writings
on our blogs. Getting down on paper/text our thoughts and ideas about social media or technology or whatever focus our blog is designed for. Sometimes ideas come in a snap (like this one), while others take some time to develop. Regardless of our methods, there comes a moment where you’ve written an entire post but then ask yourself this: (more…)
This year’s Digital Marketing Mixer was once again filled with great panels and smart people who I learned from and got to know during this 2-day event. I wrote a recap a year ago from my first MarketingProfs event, with an emphasis on people and passion, but this year for me focused around two trends – affirmation and testing.
Affirmation
I say this from more of a development standpoint. From hearing numerous panels to having 1-on-1 sit-downs with industry leaders. I’ve seen the growth from both ends of the spectrum, as talks are far past the tools and the newness of social media and deeper into what we’re actually doing right now to help businesses achieve their goals with the help of the social web.
What has this affirmed for me exactly? That the work that I and the rest of the community have put in this past year, since my last smart-people meeting, is helping move needles and shift our thinking forward with ideas and case studies on what’s working for companies today.
Testing
This second takeaway directly relates to that next level of thinking and how organizations are approaching social media today. They’re continually testing & optimizing their strategies and aren’t afraid of failing during this process.
Jay Baer summed up this thought well with this quote: (more…)
If you didn’t hear, I was busy learning and meeting some awesome people at the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Mixer in Chicago this past week. I had the opportunity to talk with tons of smart folks, while attending several great sessions on digital marketing, social media and communities.
As a strong advocate for communities, as well as being a co-founder of #CmtyChat, I was definitely intrigued by Thursday’s interactive session on building and nurturing your online community. The panel was led by Beth Harte and included Rachel Happe, Gretchen Harding and Mildred Center.
The super smart panel had a lot of great thoughts & ideas, but here are some of the main points taken from the session: (more…)
One of the more interesting posts I read today was from David Spinks and the debate of why 9-5 should be eliminated. It took on the idea that the 9-5 should be set aside for the sake of personal lives/lifestyles, work preferences, and getting-things-done how the employee feels comfortable. (more…)
That we don’t know about you. Yes, that’s it.
Maybe it’s in our name; I know it is for me. Not many people know this but Sonny isn’t my real name. I know, the horror! Well, my birth name is Sandeep (sun-deep), an Indian name from the Punjabi dialect. You’re probably wondering why I don’t use it much? Well, I actually did in grade school and into high school. Even though it was much harder to pronounce than Sonny, which was the nickname given to me at a young age, I stuck with it. But it wasn’t until college that I decided to solely go by Sonny, unless it was on legal papers. Though I haven’t forgotten my roots with my real name, Sonny slowly became a part of my character, defining me and my personality.
What got me thinking about this idea is the social space that we live in and the communities we’re building. We divulge much of our personal and professional lives online – for the sake of authenticity and to build relationships with people we come across on Twitter, Facebook, our blogs, etc. (more…)
Facebook was pretty busy last week as they released their new Facebook Lite version of their platform and also announced a new feature that includes @mentions within your status updates. Though big releases, the main conversations I’ve seen revolved around Facebook’s mimicking of Twitter. (more…)
