Credit: Rusty Sheriff

So I’ve decided to hit the New Year running… or with a bang… or whatever…

What I mean is that I’m really psyched to be speaking at a few events (big & small) over the next month. I’m also booked for a few other appearances in the upcoming months, but let’s take it one month at a time.

In any case, if you’re going to be in Vegas or Montreal at all in the month of January, consider coming out to chat about SEO and Social Media — or even to just grab a beer or a coffee.

Enterprise SEO for Social Publishers
Date: Jan 9, 2011
Location: Affiliate Summit – Register Here

Publishers SEO & Social Media Tools
Date: Jan 19, 2011
Location: Social Media Breakfast Montreal – Buy Tickets

Corporate Social Media Strategy (Workshop)
Date: Jan 26, 2011
Location: Agence Ometz (Map) – Buy Tickets

Credit: Eva Blue

C’mon, you’ve heard about them before. The social media rock stars. Who are they? What do they do? How rock n’ roll are they? What does it mean to be rock n’ roll?

Let’s go back to the early days of rock n’ roll. Back then, it was a new sound that came out of mixing together a bunch of other sounds.

But then it hit critical mass. An industry grew around it — tours buses and groupies and album sales.

Rock n’ roll became a way of life. It came with a certain attitude, a certain “I don’t give a f**k.”

Finally, rock n’ roll went mainstream — it became business, as usual. The rock n’ roll way of life was only as good as how much money it made — how many albums it sold and how many shows it could sell out. If you wanted to trash a hotel room or cancel a show, you had better had a good excuse — you had better been big and made a lot of money.

Nowadays, you don’t hear so much about rock n’ roll. It’s been succeeded by rock and grunge and alternative and punk and indie rock — and even most of those are past their prime.

But it still means something to be rock n’ roll — just as it means something to be punk rock or indie rock.

So what does it mean to you? What kind of social media rock star are you trying to be? An early innovator? A legend in your heyday? Or a mainstream powerhouse?

This is an interview I shot with Mitch back in September while I was at Podcamp Montreal. We discussed his recent book, Six Pixels of Separation, and how in it, he explores how social media has really changed the way business is done.

Incidentally, Mitch is also giving away a few freebies to anyone who buys the book by Friday, November 20th. One is an exclusive ebook that Mitch is putting together, and the other is a personal branding audio workbook that has only ever been available at at events like The Power Within.

iPhone Version

When speaking with a journalist, choose your words carefully.
– Walker Lamond

Credit: 999"

When you’re building a brand, you have to get your story straight. You have to lay it all out in advance, and stick to it. Because every time you run an ad or PR campaign, you’re  going to be telling that story, so it needs be consistent.

This means choosing your words very, very carefully. It means choosing words that can’t be taken to mean something other than what you want your story to convey. It means being aware of what you’re saying.

But what happens when you’re too consistent? When that story becomes that same old story?What happens when we choose our words so carefully that they just don’t ring true anymore?

When your story is too rigid, it will only fit so many contexts.  You risk crossing the line from being self-aware to being self-conscious, and then you just seem awkward. And that doesn’t fly in an age where we interact with so many of the brands we consume.

You see, the whole point of a brand story is that it helps you connect with consumers. It makes you seem more like something or someone that people can relate to. And people relate to other people — people with personalities, and personalities with depth.

So maybe the trick to branding in an age where consumers have almost as much of a voice as brands isn’t so much to be transparent, but to be responsive. ‘Cuz while neither you nor consumers will gain anything from you sharing what it was you had for breakfast, there is something to be gained from your brand approaching situations outside the sale funnel, accepting them for what they are, and engaging consumers on those terms — on their terms.

Mourning is just extended self-pity.
– Donald Draper

Credit: Stu Sherman

I let a domain expire yesterday. It was one of the first domains I ever registered — possibly the second or third. It was also the domain for the second blog I ever really invested any serious time or energy into.

It wasn’t a very focused blog. It didn’t really have a niche or a topic. It was founded on the belief that my reckless charm would catapult me to internet stardom.

Well, it never really got me there. In fact, the only place it ever did seem to get me was in trouble — both professionally and in my personal life. But it did teach me a few things a few things along the way.

First, it taught me that it’s not enough to try and get by on your charm and your wit. You have to have a purpose. Charm and wit can go a long way in fulfilling that purpose, but they can’t be your purpose in and of themselves.

Second, it taught me that what happens on the internet, stays on the internet… and there’s really no such thing as anonymity. Sooner or later, we all get outed, and when that happens, the best you can hope for is that, all along, you were lacking in purpose enough that no one really notices or cares when you get outed.

Third, it taught me about personal branding. About how your personal brand needs a purpose, and should be grown around that. About how you can’t put a round peg in a square hole, and no matter how good you are at some things, if your personality doesn’t fit the mould, you’re to have a hard time getting people to take you seriously.

I would like to say that “most importantly, it taught me to let go,” but it didn’t. The truth is that I kept renewing that domain long after I stopped blogging there. I even put up a custom parking page for a while. And then I took it down, put back up the blog, and tried to revive it all over again.

The thing became a time suck. A distraction from thinking about something more useful, something more meaningful, something with a purpose. It haunted me…

So when I got a renewal notice, I asked myself “do I really still want this thing in my life?” I understand that I should hold on to it for intellectual property reasons (or whatever) but don’t we bury our dead so that we can move on?

So I decided to let it go… Because its time in my life was up, I had finally learned from it what it could teach me, and that it was time to move on…

This past weekend was Podcamp Montreal 2009 where I delivered a session called Sex, Trust, & Transparency: What Would Donald Draper Blog?

I set out to explore social media, personal branding, and what bloggers and podcasters could learn from Mad Men protagonist, Donald Draper. The audience was great, contributed so much input, and together, we covered so many different aspects of trust & transparency.

"I sell products, not advertising."

Blogging and podcasting are about self expression, about being able to share your ideas without any barriers. They’re  about community: building community and joining community. So the question was: How would Donald Draper use Social Media to build his personal brand today?

For starters, Donald Draper wouldn’t whore himself. He’d define his brand and target an appropriate audience give them what they wanted.

"Everybody else's tobacco is poisonous. Lucky Strikes’ is toasted."

Then he’d start off with his brand’s story. A story about what gives him a personality that his targeted audience can connect with. He’d define what makes him unique. What makes him special. What makes him relevant to that targeted audience.

And then he’d fill a demand for what his targeted audience wanted. Not his friends. Not his “connections.” But that defined, targeted audience.

Because as a blogger, his audience would be the client, and Donald Draper has a very intuitive grasp what his clients need. And Donald Draper is very good at respecting those needs and paying attention to them. He wouldn’t neglect those needs just to be a social media rockstar.

"I don’t know you at all and this is personal and it’s not up for discussion."

He wouldn’t talk about his personal life or what he likes doing on the weekend. And he definitely wouldn’t gossip. Neither of these would do anything to help him fill the demand of his audience.

And this is why Donald Draper wouldn’t be transparent. Sure, he’d share his thoughts about what his audience is interested in. But those thoughts would be calculated and pre-meditated.

Because when it come to building a community around a brand — personal or otherwise — what you call transparency was invented by guys like me to invoice clients for tweets. ;)

Since Donald Draper’s day, brands have transcended the ad industry and extended into our very identities. The idea of a brand has become so entrenched in society that we don’t even have personalities anymore. We have personal brands.

And just as Dick Whitman recreated himself as Don Draper, personal branding let’s us recreated ourselves. So while Donald Draper might not blog, Dick Whitman most certainly would.

"You are the product. You feeling something. That’s what sells. Not them. Not sex."

So I guess a better question would be: What would Dick Whitman blog? Because let’s face it, as incompatible as Donald Draper’s personality is with the open, transparent culture of social media, he’s just a product.

Donald Draper is the personal brand of Dick Whitman, someone from humble beginnings that wanted to make it big in the big city. And that someone would use any relevant tool available to them, including social media, to create a brand that was relevant to the audience that they wanted to target.

Act as if. You understand what that means? Act as if you are the fucking President of this firm. Act as if you got a 9″ cock. Okay? Act as if.
–Jim Young (Ben Afleck), Boiler Room

Credit: Foot Hill Theatre

Have you ever noticed how the way you dress affects your confidence level? The way you think? The way you work?

Did you know that POWs who maintain their grooming habits have a better chance of survival? And it’s not just the hygiene factors. Going through the motions of making yourself fresh, clean, and presentable impact your morale, and it’s that positive attitude that also helps POWs survive.

In fact, one of the founding fathers of psychology, William James, suffered from depression and he noticed that when he forced himself to act happy, his depression would often fade.

You are what you do, and part of what you do is present yourself to everyone you cross paths with everyday. And that goes for when you’re pitching a client, starting a new job, or just trying to build trust.

So how do you want to present yourself? How do you want to be seen? How do you want to feel?

And what about taking on a role that isn’t you? What about trying to come off as someone you can never be? What about being an impostor? How is that going to affect the way you think, work, and feel about yourself?

To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.
–George MacDonald

Credit: ynahteb

Have you ever wondered how far your the trust of your personal brand goes? Or how many degrees of separation it can transcend?

Imagine that you’re pretty good at what you do and that you’ve even made a bit of a name for yourself in some circles. Then imagine that one day, one of your connections reaches out to you with a job offer — a good offer to do interesting work.

Now what do you think will happen when you start work and many of your colleagues don’t know who you are? Will they trust their colleague’s judgement in hiring you and give you the benefit fo the doubt? Or will your presence make them feel uneasy and threatened?

They’ll probably Google you to find out what you’re all about? What will they find? How do you think they’ll react to it? How do you think it’ll affect the way you do your job?

Do you think it’ll make them want to reach out to and engage you? Or do you think it’ll make them want to challenge you and find the chink in your armor?

After all, there’s so much more to your personal brand than just your credentials. There’s also your personality and all the pieces of it you leave online can end up coming together to make up the lion’s share of your first impression.

Your personal brand can do a lot to build trust, but how transferable is that trust? Will it follow you through the doors that it opens for you, or wil it get bogged down in office politics?

And how would you react to a new guy with a strong personal bran? Would you be cynical about all the smoke and mirrors they used to build it? Or would you be curious about who they really are and try to engage them?

For those of you who don’t know him, Jim Kukral is kinda a big deal in certain internet marketing circles. Well, I was lucky enough to catch up with Jim at Affiliate Summit West 2009, and he was nice enough to lend me his talking head.

In this clip, he talks about his latest project, The Biz Web Coach. I also did another video with him where he discusses social mmedia, the economy, and affiliate marketing, and you can watch that interview here.

iPhone Version

I follow myself,

on Twitter, and Facebook and,

LinkedIn, and my blog.