Tips

Career resuscitation advice from The Branding Diva, seconded by yours truly

I am very fortunate to have a lot of friends. These days, with the impact of the economy continuing to wreak havoc on many industries and a lot of lives, I’m regularly hearing from many of them who suddenly find themselves unemployed. While this is definitely a scary situation, I stand ready with encouragement and a handful of smart ideas that are proven best bets when it comes to finding great career opportunities. Clearly, Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva(R) has the same mindset. An international authority on branding matters and the author of the best-selling books Brain Tattoos and Brand Turnaround, Karen’s blog post entitled “Puking Pink Slips? Jumpstart your personal brand today” takes my personal rah-rah speech to new heights. Do jump on over to read it, and below, also consider my paraphrased and slightly adjusted listing of her spot-on career-rejuvenating suggestions.

Read moreCareer resuscitation advice from The Branding Diva, seconded by yours truly

Brand thyself


For years now, career counselors, management consultants, self-help gurus and many others have encouraged us to apply the concepts of brand management to ourselves. For anyone who is beginning this daunting process, just getting going can be a big challenge considering how much advice there is to be found. Bearing that in mind, I wanted to provide some guidance. First, I invite you to check-out the video playlist I’ve embedded above, which will help you get a handle on the main ideas at work here so you can begin applying them to yourself. The playlist also includes several more in-depth presentations, including a complete course in Personal Branding Education.

Below you’ll find several excellent articles that will allow you to get fully up-to-speed. Finally, for a couple of examples of how everything can add up once you’ve successfully applied these lessons, I invite you to check-out the web presence for author Bret Easton Ellis at http://BretEastonEllis.com. On a more personal note, you might also be interested to see http://RKDarnell.com.

Read moreBrand thyself

Sharing secrets: Smart planning and production for marketing content

Ever since hearing that failing to plan is a sure plan for failure, I have been a firm believer in taking the time necessary to diligently and intelligently lay out plans for anything I’m seriously aiming to accomplish. When I attended the ReCourses New Business Summit (NBS) back in 2012 thanks to David C. Baker and Blair Enns, I witnessed a new approach for how creative businesses and professionals can change the way they handle sales. My understanding on the secret is this: The key is to think and operate like a publisher. Along those lines, naturally, the business model requires successful handling of content. The NBS lessons were very timely for me, as you have seen here; I have deep admiration for innovative publishers of all sizes, and as time moves forward, I hope to follow the best of them and achieve my own version of greatness.


Over the past two years, this idea of content marketing has really caught fire, so for anyone beginning the planning process of fathoming these types of practices and putting them to work in new ways, you are in luck. It’s my pleasure to share five different highly qualified paths toward brilliant content marketing – each of which is focused on helping to facilitate solid thinking and planning.

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Sharing Secrets: Prioritize, Maximize, and Rise, Through Science

Hard pressed for time? Me, too. Maybe that’s the reason why it seems to be getting harder and harder to be productive. Working in the Creative Industry as I do, too often, each nudge forward is met with two new delays. Making progress is definitely possible, but the battle to be successful is constant, even for those of us who are adept at being agile and persevering at scale.

By and large, my clients create premium content… which is mostly audiovisual data of the highest caliber. Luckily for us, the market for this premier subject matter is on the rise in countless ways. For me in my role as a press agent – which spans strategic marketing, writing, artistic development of premium audiovisual content, cross-channel marketing leadership, media relations and customer service expertise – even despite abundant complications, the means of marketing are becoming more refined.

To help us all focus and succeed in the time we have to work with, here are five innovative Creative Industry ideas aimed at optimizing our energy and efficiency.

Read moreSharing Secrets: Prioritize, Maximize, and Rise, Through Science

America’s national parks, part 5: Go!

Last Updated June 20, 2016. Back on Sept. 27, 2009, Ken Burns and his colleagues began revealing the history and splendor of, and public passion for, America’s national parks. As you can see if you watch the videos in the embedded playlist, this six-part series by Burns and Dayton Duncan tells the story of a … Read moreAmerica’s national parks, part 5: Go!

Sam Jones, Off Camera

[Written on February 23, 2016] This has been a spectacular day for me. I began preparing for it a couple of years ago, when I was able to reconnect with one of the most phenomenal people I’ve met in my career – the acclaimed photographer and director Sam Jones, who is the force behind Off Camera. Sam launched his original on-camera interview series back in 2013 as a website, magazine, TV show and podcast, and when I wrote about it, he sent me a warm response. Knowing that the show is now beginning its fourth season, today I made a plan to look-in on it again. After spending the whole day binge-watching clips from the show’s YouTube channel, here is my takeaway: Sam Jones is profoundly influential to me, and I am certain that everyone else watching his show must feel the same way. Here’s why.

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Our common fascination with uncommon videos

I firmly believe that life is as different as all of the organisms that experience it, and even if we’re just talking about humans, that is an infinite amount of diversity. What’s important or interesting to me may be the last thing in the world you want to think about. Still, when you find a piece of video content that has made it onto one of YouTube’s “Most Viral” charts, there’s a pretty good chance that most people will want to watch it.

As you probably know, YouTube released its latest news about these charts about a month ago. The news and accompanying videos were subsequently splashed in feature stories in these media outlets, to name but a few.

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Sharing secrets: How to write stories for The Associated Press


Back in 2000 when I was working for The Terpin Group in Los Angeles leading PR campaigns for dot-com companies with extremely high aspirations, my colleagues and I knew that there was absolutely one way of hitting a home run, and that was placing a story with The Associated Press. AP stories generate massive exposure, as they are syndicated in major media outlets across the country and around the world. And of course, if you have a story that’s good enough for the AP, it’s good enough for everyone. With this in mind, imagine how powerful it would be if you had the chance, today, to meet with Paul Caluori, the AP’s Global Director of Digital Services, and Philana Patterson, the AP’s Small Business and Breaking News Editor, to learn what they look for in story submissions. Thanks to Business Wire, it’s on.

Back in February of this year, Business Wire hosted a webinar featuring Paul and Philana, where they shared exactly these types of insights. Here are a few of the bullet points from the secrets they shared.

Read moreSharing secrets: How to write stories for The Associated Press

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