A Brand Called You got this all started.  The internet blew it up.  There are thousands upon thousands of people today who are seeking to build a brand through a website and monetize it based on their thinking or selling something of their own.  I personally feel it’s an amazing aspiration and hope genuinely for [...]

Likely my best class of the year (with Pricing closely afterward) Business Formation has really offered a lot of great advice for starting a business or just analyzing the potential of a business.  We’ve seen multiple CEO’s running hundred million dollar businesses and heard their stories.  Personally, I’m not as interested in how big their [...]

I’m amidst a constant whirlwind of having too much to do and a breath in between now.  This is the life of business school, constantly fretting and realigning work to be done.
But during Pricing class (very good, btw) I started thinking about omnipotence and personal branding.  If you watch the tech space, which seems to [...]

Just got done reading a piece by Robert Cialdini on persuasion.  It’s basically a listing of six major persuasive ideas.  Here they are:
1.  Reciprocity: The idea that when someone receives something, wanted or not, they feel a compulsion to respond in kind.  Marketers use this.  That’s why people on sales calls bring free coffee or [...]

Continuing the small business details, time to point out a small, peculiar art crafts store on Lyndale.  Note that “peculiar” is congruent with “gangster.”
Robot Love is a design store, or at least that’s what it calls itself.  It has a lot of limited edition art paraphernalia.  Really a lot of toys actually.  Toys are good, [...]

I’m going to start detailing small businesses as I find them.  Well the good ones anyway.  I like small businesses, I like the fact that the owners are often in the building selling me their wares.  I like the accountability, hard work and respect that are often found inside.  I want to build a business [...]

Literally about as far from my house as possible on my new bike loop (which, consequently, consists of Calhoun, Harriet, Nokomis and Lake of the Isles) I got a wicked flat tire.  I rode the flat (or the rim) back to my place about five miles and on my way up to a bike shop [...]

A person with a trade or business skill set often faces a decision when entering a new industry or opportunity.  When to rely on skill and when to rely on experience of others.  It’s not an easy decision.
Most professionals have accrued their own experience and ability over the years.  They understand and trust those things [...]

People online often refer to corporate marketers in a bad light.  They say, “those corporate marketing departments,” though they will seldom actually point out people within an organization.  It’s easy when you’re the small guy, you have very little to lose.  A lot of this is attention seeking, a lot a genuine disenchantment with what [...]

I’d been meaning to write about interviewing and such for some time.  The problem is that I didn’t want to write about it publicly while still in the process.  There are some major problems with interviewing and the processes around it.  Every company wants you to be absolutely in love with them.  That’s an issue, [...]