Kevin Carroll is the author of ‘The Red Rubber Ball at Work’ and ‘Rules of the Red Rubber Ball’ powerful books on integrating play and work.

Does your corporation have a creative culture?  Do you have a workforce that creatively produce higher quality work, despite lower headcount, and less financial incentives? Listen to the Tech MBA Minute (produced by Tech MBA Online) interview with Kevin has he takes us on a journey of integrating work and play in business.

For More Information on Kevin Carroll

Twitter: @kckatalyst

Blog: www.KevinCarrollkatalyst.com

How do you fund your vision?  Whether you run a start-up, work for someone or have entrepreneurial aspirations life revolves around problem solving.  History celebrates the great minds that use creative capital to get to their end results.

Brand Camp is a great event (with great speaker:  Olivier Blanchard, PR Sarah Evans, Wayne Sutton, Peter Shankman, Lynne D. Johnson, and CD Vann) so I thought it would be cool to provide strategies to help people attend Brand Camp ’10 for free.  I have listed a few options from micro financing to having a garage sale.

Conference Website Link: www.BrandCampU.com

1. Go Fund Me

Go Fund me (http://www.gofundme.com) is a way to raise money for your ideas and dreams via Micro-financing. People are willing to support events or causes that they believe in.  Start by putting together a list of educational, career and networking benefits.  A recent example of this is Heather MacDonald who raised $419 to attend the #Epic #Tweet-up in Detroit.  Surely you can raise $75.

2. Employer Sponsorship

Employee Driven

Most companies are looking for ways to grow their social presence be proactive pitch your employer.  Become the brand ambassador for your company and but together a business case of how a day at Brand Camp will benefit the company.

Employer Driven

Employers looking to integrate social media into their marketing mix should understand this is not just the job of one person.   You can equip your employees/staff with the tools  needed to become more knowledgeable using social networks for business.  Employers can sponsor three or more employees for a small investment of $75 a ticket.

3. Corporate Sponsorship

Put together a proposal for a company that you will represent at Brand Camp by blogging and tweeting for them.  Be creative maybe you can wear a company shirt and become a human billboard and create some social capital they can use Flickr, Twitter ,etc.

4. Garage Sale (Estate Sale)

For high society folks that don’t attend garage sales you can call it an ‘Estate Sale’.  What is the difference?  Typically it is zip code driven cities like Grosse Pointe take these events very seriously.  Find some cool things at your house/apartment/condo that needs to be cleaned out or that closet which is full of items you have been meaning to get rite of.  Before it gets to cool create a sign, tweet about it and post it to your Facebook status.  Let your friends know what your goals are and you will be on your way to Brand Camp.

5. Collecting Bottles (in Michigan $.10/per bottle)

Now the most labor intensive option of them all is collecting returnable bottles in the state of Michigan.  So lets break this down so $75 dollars means 750 bottles so if you develop a bottle collecting strategy for three-weeks which breaks down to 250 bottles.  If you work 3-days a week for 8-hours a day for a month (You will need two other friends to purchase tickets at the same time to get the $75 rate.)

Let us know the creative way you are funding your way to Brand Camp!

We reached out to our community and asked some of the local entrepreneurs and professionals their take.

Up first, Mr. Hubert Sawyers III. A local entrepreneur, Hubert shares how one’s personal brand stems from one’s authenticity. If those two elements are in sync, then it is very hard to deny one’s successful brand.

Hubert will be attending BrandCampU 2010, and can be found sharing his passion for music and business on Twitter. He is the founder of SorSaw Enterprises, co-founder of iDetroit, and blogs at Frying in Vein.

What is Brand Camp?  If I were to define Brand Camp I wouldn’t call it a conference I would call it a gathering of the minds.  It is one of the most unique personal branding experiences in the Midwest region and it is happening on Friday, October 8^th. (From more information:  www.BrandCampU.com)

We have assembled a unique group of voices and practioneers in the business, branding and social media space many of which are new to Detroit.  One of the key elements that separates Brand Camp from other interactive conferences is that we bring in CEOs and business owners that run million dollar corporations to bring you their business perspective from the C-Suite.  If you run a $35M dollar business where you have to make payroll every week you provide a different perspective than someone who just directs the Marketing department in a small company.

Why Detroit?

Why was Detroit selected as the launching pad for Brand Camp besides it being my hometown?  Detroit is the perfect location for Brand Camp.  Detroit is a hard-working city and is known for it creativity from the days of Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Motown.

Currently the unemployment rate in Michigan is 13.1%, which is higher than the national average (9.5%).  The workplace has changed dramatically over the past five years but have you evolved with these changes?  Are you prepared to work in a multi-generational workplace where location doesn’t matter and communication is rewired by the social web?  These are some of the issues we will be tackling at Brand Camp.  We will take a look at how a local economy (like Detroit) is impacted by government, media, technology, and entrepreneurial thinking.

New to Brand Camp this Year

• Case Study: PR Sarah Evans will be doing a personal branding case study of herself and how she has developed her personal brand.

• Panel: Re-Branding of Detroit: This panel would be made up of mostly baby boomers/gen Y with one millennial. The focus of this panel would center around the roles that entrepreneurship, technology, media and government play in growing the local economy of Detroit.

• Moved Brand Camp to a week day to target a larger business community.

• CEO  Ari Weinzweig – CEO/Co-Founder of Zingerman’s a $35M local non-franchised business in Ann Arbor, MI.

Globalocal

What is ‘Globalocal’?  It is a Global + local experience where you bring the two worlds together at Brand Camp you will get a taste of what this means.

Speakers

• Hajj Flemings – Founder/Principal of Brand Camp University
• PR Sarah Evans -  President of Sevans Strategy/Founder of #journchat
• Ari Weinzweig – Founder of Zingerman’s Deli
• Lynne D. Johnson -  SVP of the Advertising Research Federation
• Peter Shankman – Founder of Help A Reporter Out (HARO)/The Geek Factory
• Wayne Sutton – Marketing Strategist at TriOut
• Cd Vann – Founder of unGeeked e’Lites Retreats
• Olivier Blanchard – Principal at Brand Builder Marketing

There is no place in the country you will get the experience we are going to provide for the price.  Early bird registration of $50 ends August 26^th and the rate will then escalate to $100 for general registration.

I will see you in Detroit on Friday, October 8^th.  Get your tickets while they last!!!!

We are forging partnerships with a variety of social media companies in order to build and expand Syracuse University’s presence in this space. It is our intention to make SU the leader in social media among our peers.

I lead a team of graduate and undergraduate students on a variety of social media projects designed to enhance the social media experience of prospective and current students, alumni, potential donors, employers, researchers, educators and the community.

At the iSchool I am a member of the iComm Team which is responsible for internal & external print, social and web communications content and design.

Most recently, I worked in Career Services at SU managing the Mentor @ SU program, making connections between students & alumni for networking, using social media, one on one meetings and workshops to deliver career advice, and planning and hosting networking events across the country.

For more information follow Kelly at: @KellyLux

Lawrence Riddick – Principal at Clarity Consulting & Design

Lawrence is a dynamic marketing professional with over 8 years of experience in helping brands and ideas emerge and evolve. He has working experience in marketing, design, project management, publishing, and writing.
Most recently while at Experience Marketing as an Experience Director, Lawrence helped his team execute and activate hundreds of sponsored events on behalf of General Motors. Prior to Experience Marketing he worked as a project manager in the branded content publishing division of Campbell-Ewald Advertising on publications such Corvette Quarterly and OnStar Magazine.
Lawrence started his career with an entrepreneurial effort as owner of an agency, The Riddick Group, that serviced small to mid-size businesses with marketing communication solutions. In addition to creating marketing plans and ad campaigns for clients, he expressed his design and writing abilities, as publisher of a branded publication for the apparel company DAVERSE in Detroit, MI.

He is currently consulting individuals and small organizations at Clarity Consulting and Design on marketing, branding, and content creation in the web 2.0 space.

For more information follow Lawrence at: @Riddick3point0

What would happen if a newborn baby were left to fend for himself or herself on day one?  The answer is clear the newborn would not exist.  But this happens everyday in business we start out with visions of grandeur to develop a multi-million dollar startup business or establishing an online personal brand by setting up profiles in various social networks to establish and we think this alone will cause us to be wildly successful.  Without the visionary creating an environment where the business can grow, without being active and present to manage and develop the business or the online profiles and implement strategies you can do more damage than good.

The build it and they will come mentality will no longer world in today’s economy.

Are you nurturing your vision?

Transcrip_mbachat_LeBronJames_BizLessons_081310 -

The Michigan Tech University – Tech MBA Online program conducts a twitter chat called #mbachat which is about business and education and is open to anyone (an MBA is not required to participate).

The topic from Thursday, August 12, 2010  was ‘LeBron James The Personal Brand – Business Lessons’.

To follow the chats follow hashtag #mbachat ( and Twitter account: @TechMBAOnline) on Thursday’s from 8-9pm EST.

8-Questions from the #mbachat

1. How important is it to know your business objectives (Lessons from LeBron James)

2. How important is it to position yourself to have options? (Lessons from LeBron James)

3. Don’t burn bridges (Lessons from LeBron James)

4. Is there any such thing as loyalty in business (Lessons from LeBron James)

5. How can I maximize business opportunities? (Lessons from LeBron James)

6. Should I think long-term? (Lessons from LeBron James)

7. Should I surround myself with the best team? (Lessons from LeBron James)

8. How do I negotiate from a place of authority (Lessons from LeBron James)

A newborn baby is driven by hunger and their job, vision, and focus is for growth.  How valuable would we be as business professionals to our teams, companies, and organization if we had that the same singular focus as a newborn.  When a newborn nurses he or she  latches on to get nutriment.  As successful professionals we have to latch on to our vision and be relentless until we get what we need.  Does your attitude and desire change the environment around you and demonstrate your passionate pursue of your goals?

How hungry are you for your vision?



Definition

Portable Personal Brand: It is the ability to take your online personal brand assets with you when you move from company-to-company, change careers, change positions, or transition to being an entrepreneur.  Essentially the digital characteristics and assets of your personal brand move wherever you go.

Why is this important?  The number of times a person changes careers is about 5-7 from the research that I have done.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) doesn’t provide data on career changes but on the number of jobs a person holds in his/her lifetime (which is 10.8 jobs from ages 18 to 42.) So it is not a matter of if but when you are going to change careers and/or change companies. It is critical that you keep your personal brand portable.

Tips for Portability of your Personal Brand

• Personal Branded Social URLs: Always maintain separate personal branded accounts.  Your personal social network account URLs should not be tied to the company accounts as the only accounts you have or manage.  When you leave a company your accounts should come with you no questions asked, but this can only happen if you own the accounts.  In an ideal world you want to bring your pre-existing accounts with you to your place of employment if they are relevant.

• Own Your Network: If the contacts in your network are housed only in the social network there is an inherent risk if your account gets comprised or the terms of service changes.  Your network will become more of an asset in the workplace, not necessarily because of numbers but become of influence.  Create your own personal database from your social network contacts, you need to own your contact list.  Download and import your contacts into a personal list that you own and manage (Note:  If you are tweeting from company accounts legally you don’t own the contact list. Everyone knows there is a difference between contact names and relationships.)

• Set-up Linkedin Profiles Properly: Set up your Linkedin accounts with your own personal email address (i.e. Gmail account).  There have been situations where people have been locked out of their accounts because the account was set-up with a corporate email address.

• Own Your Hub (Don’t just rent): Every professional should own the online hub of their personal brand (the online destination/dotcom.)  Make sure your dot com isn’t linked to your current job (i.e. www.HajjFlemingsNike.com.)

Case Study:  Frank Eliason v. Comcast Cares

The new poster child of portable personal branding is Frank Elisaon who most of us have known online as @Comcastcares.  Frank recently changed companies and is no longer the Comcast Cares guy, like LeBron he has decided to take his talents elsewhere (Note:  There was no TV special and Frank left on good terms with Comcast from what I can tell).

Franks former Twitter handle @ComcastCares is obviously not portable and will be maintained by Comcast. Let’s be clear both Comcast and Frank have mutually benefited from the work that was done.  Has Frank lost the total value of his personal brand or the work he has done?  Absolutely not!  There are something’s he will have to start from scratch on and build awareness of his new portable personal brand. If you look at the web location on his Twitter account it is linked to: www.frankeliason.com. Also you can follow Frank on Twitter at @FrankEliason to date he has about 1,700 followers.

@ComcastCares

@FrankEliason

Benefits

One of the major benefits of having a portable personal brand that it can create a unique opportunity for a portable career.  What do I mean by a portable career?  Portable careers are job situations that don’t depend on location with flexible work environments that allow you to do your job remotely for the most part.  With the development of technology:  Skype, WI-FI, and other technologies that allow you to work remotely these types of opportunities are starting to increase.  Portable careers will grow in popularity in the future as work changes.  The forerunner to this is alternative work arrangements which companies have become more comfortable with as a way to provide a benefit to the company and cut cost when they can’t pay an employee more money.

When is this critical?  Portability of your personal brand will come into play the most when you are executing a career change or moving to a new employer.

How Portable is your Personal Brand?

One of the lessons that I received over the weekend, had to do with keeping your faith young. In most cases when we reach maturity in things we do, we are at our best. However being young in something doesn’t always have to be a direct correlation with immaturity.

I recently came a across a slide show that I put together for a really good friend’s wedding. On the soundtrack is a great song, called Forever Young, by Rod Stewart. Although the lyrics seem to be targeted towards a relationship with a son or daughter, I felt the song generally inspires us to stay young.

I strongly feel this is how we should approach our personal brand. Staying young in heart and mind allows you to stay invigorated, passionate, and most important – teachable. As we mature in life, some of the ways to maintain youth is to continue to learn different things that allow you to sharpen your skills and your knowledge base. Here are a few more things to consider:

Pay Attention to Accidental Inspiration
Although I think it is necessary to be purposeful in everything we do,inspiration and creativity many times is accidental. For instance a combination of experiences allowed for me to be inspired to write this post as explained above.  I think it is always good to keep the juices flowing by mixing up the monotony and allowing yourself to be inspired by your experiences. Allowing yourself to be open to different genres and creating new relationships are good ways to mix things up. Just like a fruit smoothie, if you don’t mix it up you will find that all the good stuff is at the bottom.

Be Prepared for a Pivot
Good entrepreneurs are always ready for a potential pivot. Sometimes you start a business or initiative going in a specific direction. However things in the market could change or your customer evolves and you find that you have to take your idea in a different direction. To be prepared for a pivot you have your hand on the pulse of the market and be prepared to make a pivot in another profitable direction. Changing directions sometimes requires energy; it helps to stay young in the mind and be able to learn new things. This can apply to career’s and passion projects as well.

Maintain Momentum
Sometimes it is natural for us to get comfortable and on auto-pilot with our day-to-day responsibilities. Keeping our batteries charged through rest and recuperation, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and constantly staying in practice allows us to keep up with the pace of our purpose in life.

These are things that can edify your day-to-day duties on-the-job or business, relationships with your spouse and kids, and in our friendships. Stay Invigorated and Forever Young.