• Why I’m Going to Mixwest 2014

    Mixwest is an Indianapolis marketing, design, and technology convention with speakers and multi-track sessions spread out over two days: July 31-August 1, 2014. I’m going to meet new people and see old friends. I first went to Mixwest in 2011 when it was called “Blog Indiana“. Half of all of the people I follow on…

  • Nothing Man – How to Self-Identify Yourself

    What do you do? This question terrifies me. What do you do? How am I supposed to answer that? I’m assuming you’d like to know where I work or what I do at my job. How would you like me to answer that? I could tell you that I have a “day job” working IT…

  • The Value of Conferences and Trade Shows

    Mike McDerment, the founder of Freshbooks, recently wrote a post titled How I Earned A Lot More on Projects by Changing My Pricing Strategy in which he talks about how he used to be a web designer (only) and it was his frustration with invoicing that moved him to create Freshbooks, which is online accounting…

  • Business Cards vs Email Marketing

    I recently sent a “soapbox” email to a couple of friends about how I’ve felt recently about business cards in relation to networking and building up your business through local interactions. I’m currently in the process of building up my business consulting business again and I’ve been thinking a lot about networking I did in…

  • Stations: How Community Leads to Happiness

    As I sit here, alone, in my dark, home office, I want to share with you what I have learned about community and it’s role in work and happiness in my life. Third Place Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, made the term “The third place,” popular in his book, Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks…

  • Mesh Networking

    In one of my last posts about networking in Indianapolis, Jeremy Houchens of Pro Media Publishing said, “Thanks for including the links to the local events!”, which when juxtaposed against a recent comment from Ashley Hardy of ANH Media about how, “You know all the networking events in Indianapolis”, and it made me wonder if…

  • Indianapolis Networking with BNI and Rainmakers

    Yesterday, I wrote about attending an Indianapolis networking group called Linking Indiana, but recently I have joined both BNI (Business Networking International) and Rainmakers. I go to the BNI in Carmel, Indiana called “Network Masters”. It’s a referral group where only one person from each professional specialty is allowed. This means that there can’t be…

  • Linking Indiana

    I recently attended a Linking Indiana event where Blake of Blaze Communications gave a presentation on personal branding. Personal branding is to branding what you are to your organization. In other words, if branding is the reputation for your business, then personal branding is your reputation. It was raining in Indianapolis and yet the light from…

  • How I Made it as an Entrepreneur

    I got this email from an old friend today and wanted to post my reply to him: So how are things at Watershawl these days? You still able to make a living off of it all? I’m pretty anxious to hear all about what you’ve got going on these days. It seems like you’ve been…