My three words for 2012

Every year Chris Brogan posts his three words. He doesn't do a New Year's resolution, instead he works his goals around these three words or themes. He's not alone, others have taken the three words idea and expanded on it.

So what are my three words for 2012?

Grow

I want to grow. Grow my knowledge base, my education, my skills as a public speaker. How? I can grow my knowledge base in the maritime sector by taking advantage of the various certificate programs available at Lloyd's Maritime Academy or one of the many brick and mortar universities such as SUNY Maritime.

I can learn more about social media and the social media landscape by taking advantage of free (or nearly free) programs like Podcamp or Social Media Week.

Finally, I can increase my public speaking skills by rereading books like Presentation Zen, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, and taking another course with my favorite public speaking coaches, the team from Speaking for Results- Rande and Robert Gedaliah in New York City (they get it).

Shrink

So, what does shrink mean? I want to do more than lose weight. I want to get fit, reduce my "size" and decrease my running times. If Peter Shankman can challenge himself and shrink (all on a crazier than normal schedule) than I can do it too. Oh, and I still want to run at least once with him (Peter, you can reach me here or here).

Expand

Now this may sound like an oxymoron. Didn't I just want to shrink? Well, I want to expand- expand my networks. I want to meet more people. I want to thank more people. I want to try and help more people. I do that through a variety of tools, both online and "off the grid". I use LinkedIn, mainly for professional and network building. But I go old school and write letters as well, so should you.

So what does 2012 hold for you? I hope it brings happiness, prosperity, and success. You deserve it.

Photo credit: Newtown graffiti via Flickr

Meet Joe; Amtrak Red Cap

This is Joe. Joe is an Amtrak Red Cap at Boston's South Station. You should get to know Joe and his colleagues if you're taking the train.

Red Cap

Red Cap service can get you on your train about 30 minutes before the mad throngs of passengers start pushing and shoving their way on the train. If you've ever boarded an Amtrak train in Washington, DC, New York, or Boston you know what I mean. A huge line of angry anxious passengers all fighting to board first, snag a table in the cafe car or a seat in the quiet car. It's mayhem.

Elite

You'd have to be an elite level flyer or pay extra to get this kind of service on an airline. But Amtrak offers the service for free. What is it worth to me? I give guys like Joe $5 for the privilege of boarding first. It's the best $5 I spend when traveling the rails of the East Coast. So do me a favor when you're in Boston. Look for Joe and let him make your Amtrak travel smooth and easy. You'll thank me.

Business cards, now what?

You know that big stack of business cards you collected after that last conference? Yea, that stack over there, collecting dust, on the corner of your desk.  You know there were several good prospects, right? There was also a woman who said she might know somebody that could use your services. But you never followed up with them. You haven't connected with them on any social space either. Before moving forward, however, follow this advice on how to sort those cards.

Have no fear

How are you going to tackle that stack and start building relationships? If you have an iPhone you can start using CardMunch. What the heck is CardMunch? It's a nifty app from LinkedIn that takes a photo of the business cards you collected, sends them in for transcription (from the folks at Mechanical Turk) and adds it to your contacts. Perfect!

What's the catch? There isn't one! Not unless you count actually following up and making connections a catch. Occasionally you may need to go in and tweak the entry. For the most part, however, the entries are 100% correct.

Make it personal

The best part about CardMunch is its ability to give you an immediate opportunity to connect with these people. You can send a quick follow up email, add people to your iPhone contacts, and even send LinkedIn request. Why are these touch points important?  Because you want to be able to help these people. That's why you collected their business card in the first place right?

But before you start slinging friend request and follow up emails make sure you get into the CardMunch "guts" and start tweaking the outgoing messages. You don't want to to just read "I'd like to connect with you on LinkedIn." but instead something like "It was a pleasure meeting you and I'd like to connect with you here." You don't want to dump a totally canned message on these folks. Better yet, customize the request to the event you just attended. "It was a pleasure meeting you at #IMS11 this year and I hope we can connect here." is personal and shows you care to customize the message a bit.

Practice what you preach

If you're requesting people connect with you on LinkedIn make sure your LinkedIn profile is decent. How do you do that? Follow Chris Brogan's advice on making your LinkedIn profile really work. In the meantime I have some business card to scan!

People who get it: Hilton

Last week I was traveling to London for business. I booked a room at the Hilton London Kensington and prepared for my red eye on American Airlines. I knew I would be arriving early and called the front desk to ensure a room would be ready for me when I arrived the following morning around 8 o'clock. The front desk person I talked to on the phone said nothing would be available. I was pretty frustrated, explained I had morning meetings and would be arriving from a 7 hour flight from New York. Nothing would convince the desk manager to have something ready for me. Then I Tweeted Hilton.

Within a few minutes I received a reply from Hilton and an email from their night manager Ashigh Juneja. Ashigh took care of everything and made sure a room was waiting for me when I arrived. He even greeted me when I checked in to make sure everything was acceptable. Who says customer service is dead!

How was the hotel? Wonderful. The staff was friendly, even the housekeeping and maintenance staff greeted you in the hallway. The room was small but included all the necessary amenities necessary to make the stay comfortable. The property is a short taxi ride from Paddington Station (about a 10 pound fare) and withing easy walking distance of a Tesco and the Holland Park tube stop.

Well done Ashigh and well done Hilton. I'll certainly be staying with you when I return to London!

Furlough beards

It's not really a secret I'm a Federal employee. I'm also facing a furlough come midnight tonight.

So what am I doing about it? I've posted over on Govloop that I'm growing a furlough beard. It worked for Conan right?

Will you join me? Grow what you can! If you're a lady, maybe furlough legs?

Instead of drill baby drill I say grow baby grow!

And Congress? Beard or no beard... I vote.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Working

Do you attend trade shows? I often exhibit at several trade shows a year. While its easy to get caught up in the receptions, parties, and freebie giveaways its also important to ensure you have some sort of return on investment. How do I prepare for trade shows?

Before

Before a show I try to get a list of the attendees. If I can get the list I prepare an email to send to each participant. This is just the "come see us at booth XXX" email. I use Mail Chimp to distribute the email. I like Mail Chimp because it's free for lists less than 2,000 people. The folks at Small Biz Survival have a great pre-tradeshow checklist you should read as well.

I also send personal emails to the people I want to personally meet. I quickly explain why I'm want to meet and propose a time. Chris Brogan's post on meetings is a great reference on how to conduct business during a meeting. I view trade show meetings as something short, a quick overview of what you want to do, and the pitch- will your prospect support, buy, agree to, etc.

I also Google the people I want to meet. I learn as much about them as possible. Are they quoted in an article? Did they just earn an award? Are they newly promoted? All important stuff that can help break the ice or show you have done your homework.  Use online tools such as LinkedIn to also learn and connect with people.

During

Drink plenty of water, have fun, meet people. I tend to write short notes on the back of business cards right after I meet someone. It helps me remember something about them and jogs my memory when I get home and need to decide if it is a relations worth developing.

Got an iPad? Use it to demo your product, collect leads, show photos, video, or other trade show specific content. If the event is a conference, try and get all the conference materials electronically and store them on your iPad. It'll easily take the place of the huge binder you wish you didn't have to lug back on the plane. Here's some more great advice on using an iPad at trade shows.

After

Now what do you do with all those business cards you collected? Again, Chris Brogan has some super advice on what to do after SXSW but his advice can be applied to any trade show. The highlights include separating your business cards into three piles-

• business
• colleagues
• trash

You can quickly whittle the wad of cards you have down to a reasonable pile just by those three piles.

Make sure you follow up with the people. Do you have a deliverable? Send a quick note, a "hi, great meeting you at the trade show. I'll have something for you soon." You don't want to become irrelevant after all the time and effort you put into getting those meetings.

Have I missed anything?

What else can you think of? How do you do it?


Photo credit: Laughing Squid

What would you do?

Today on Facebook Chris Brogan asked what you would do if you knew you were going to be homeless, what steps you might take.  It was a serious question and had many comments.  I chimed in with a few things I would do if I knew I was going to be homeless.

• Make sure I had library card for essential services like fax, internet access, newspapers, free classes, resume help, etc. 
• I'd buy a prepaid cell phone and max out the minutes.
• I'd make sure I was right with God and find a church/temple and see if they would barter (food, housing for cleaning or handyman work).
• I would alert family. Not necessarily ask for help, but tell them the truth. 
• I'd call/notify creditors (hospital bills, credit card companies, etc). Better to have it "in the notes"
• I'd figure out how to rent a post office box. Pay for 6 months for the smallest box I could find. Everyone needs an address even if it is a PO Box.

What would you add to the list? Have you been faced with homelessness? How would you cope? You can learn more about homelessness by checking out the Invisible People project. 

Photo credit: fotografar