Justin G. Roy

Chris Broganhas written a free ebook on personal branding titled, Personal Branding for the Business Professional.  A must-read for anybody in the professional world.

Also, hope you are sitting down, he does not require you to sign up for a mailing list, provide an email address, ect.  Probably one of the few truly “free” books around.  However, as a frequent visitor to his site, and receiving his posts in my Google Reader, I suggest that everybody do the same.

Click here to access the post and ebook!

On Thursday, September 11, Networking For A Cause (NFAC) is holding their September event with New York Times Best Selling Author, Tim Sanders. 

Tim’s new book, “Saving The World At Work” focuses on the idea that everyone, regardless of title or position, can inspire your company to change the way it does business, helping it to become a  positive force for helping & enriching yourself, your
network and your community.

The book goes for sale on September 16, but Networking For A Cause has arranged for all of the attendees to receive a signed copy on the 11th.  Further, the event will allow small groups to sit down with Tim to ask any questions they may have and get them answered personally by the expert.

This is a rare opportunity for you to learn from Tim’s years of been-there-done-that experience (from consulting with Fortune 500 companies to serving as Chief Solutions Officer (CSO) of Yahoo! to his current work as an internationally renowned speaker and best selling business author). 

Please click here to view the event and register.

I just finished reading a post on Levite Chronicles and am sitting here shocked.  Click here to read the post.  What Jon described is a similar feeling that I have when separated from my phone or blackberry and one that I know many people have as well.  Is the word “crack-berry” true?  I think so. 

I have hear some outrageous stories from people on their blackberry addiction.  I know one person who has to go into his bathroom to check the phone because his house-rules are no email after dinner.

Personally, I cannot remember the last time I shut mine off.  I am addicted, I know.  It got so bad that when an email came in at 2am (and the phone would beep) I would jump out of bed to see what was going on.  BUT, when my alarm clock goes off at 5am, I cannot seem to get out of bed.  Needless to say, the blackberry is now shut off when I am sleeping and I am not too happy about it.

Here are the symptoms Jon describes:

• I was afraid that I would miss a call from my family. There is no crisis, but we stay in touch and there is a little stress at work for Nancy right now.
• I was afraid that I would miss arrangements about lunch, that someone would need to change something.
• I was afraid that I would miss email or comments or some contact from friends.

So what is the answer?  Not sure.  I know I could not go cold turkey.  Maybe I will try shutting it off for an hour this weekend and two hours next weekend. 

I wonder if they have a blackberry patch for my arm, or maybe even some email flavored gum I can chew on?

There was a pretty interesting post from Chris Brogan last week about a class focused around social media projects (click here to read his post).  As the story goes on, you assume this must be a college-level course; the assignments are all given through RSS feeds, everybody has to blog, ect.  Well, I will not ruin the story by giving up the ending – you will just have to read it.

After reading the post, it got me to thinking about my experience with computers in school.  Granted, I did grow up during the computer age (depending on whose chart you read, I can be a Gen X or Gen Y) but I do not think my small town did.  I remember writing in DOS to get the triangle cursor to move (anybody else?), I remember talking about DOS Trees to open a program, and finally I remember the green fonts and screens.  Wait, one more: the printers that would jam if you did not hold the paper and put a little bit of pressure on.

HA.  I laugh as I write this.  Why?  I remember using my mothers old typewriter for my first book report.  OK, enough reminiscing here.

Here is where I start to worry.  I support social media 100% and am into it a bit myself.  However, if they are teaching these tools in schools…..are they teaching face-to-face communication and interaction as well?  My youngest brother is in high-school and he recently texted me back after I tried to call him.  So I tried to call him again, and received a text back.  When we connected, he told me that he just liked to text or IM more than talk on the telephone. 

So I asked him.  (he is going to school for Physical Therapy)  Will you text the exercise instructions to your patients?

I would be interested in hearing from anybody in the architecture or consulting engineering industry about their thoughts on this. 

Everyone knows networking is important in any industry, and especially in the wide world of consulting engineering. As a recruiter, I see many consulting engineering firms, from civil to structural to MEP, seek out individuals who are natural networkers, because these are the people with the potential to really make some rain.

Here’s an article I recently found to help you separate networking facts from fiction.

The power of networking online is huge! There are many sites available, and it seems there is a new one coming out almost every week. So how to you chose which one to use? Not sure. Keep in mind what type of networker you are and how much time you really want to spend building your network.

I’ve found many different types of people on LinkedIn, and I am going to break them into two groups.

Those who openly network.

Those who do not openly network but want to join your network.

I think the first is self-explanatory, but I do want to rant a bit (of course I do) about the second.  Why not give to get?  I had a conversation with one of my connections earlier this year who just did not seem to “get it” when it came to networking.  He was insistent that he did not want to share his connections for fear that somebody would steal them.  Seriously (I asked)?

On a site with over 20 million people, who are connected up to 3 degrees away, the probability that your connections are not at least, somehow, connected with somebody else is a preposterous idea.  After a few “zings” back and forth, I had to end the conversation. 

Fast forward 4 months.  I check my LinkedIn (my friend is still not an open networker) and see a request for an introduction from said friend.  Interesting.  So, I wrote back and let him know I could not forward the introduction for various reasons; the main reason was my belief that I could not promote somebody who will not share their connections but expect somebody else to share theirs. 

Needless to say, I removed him from my contacts.  Yes, that might have been brash, hasty, and a little stubborn.   

So, I ask you.  Are you an open networker, closed, or selfish (like above)?  I would really like to hear from people on both sides of the fence. 

If you are somebody who allows others to see their contacts, feel free to send me an invite.  To answer you beforehand, no I never have nor will go through somebody’s contacts to invite them. However, the power of connecting now may mean a resource at your fingertips later.

My profile on LinkedIn.

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So I was sitting here today wondering about Labor Day and what it means.  Luckily, we have wikipedia to tell us.  Here is the definition:

….a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September. The holiday originated in 1882 as the Central Labor Union (of New York City) sought to create “a day off for the working citizens”…..Congress made Labor Day a federal holiday in 1894.[1] All fifty states have made Labor Day a state holiday.

Ok, am I the only one here who thinks this is a bit odd?  At the risk of sounding like a hard-ass, why do we need another day off?  I do understand that over 100 years ago, work schedules were different, and many jobs were 7 days a week and possibly more than 37.5 hours.  However, we are not all blacksmiths and farmers now.

A good friend of mine brought up the fact that Labor Day was the official end of summer and we needed to celebrate.  I asked, celebrate what?  The fact that the days where the windchill is -15 and by the time I walk the 1.25 miles to work I look like a snowman?  Granted I will celebrate the end of humidity.  Wow, I sound like a real weather-cynic. 

Back to the subject on hand.  Why can’t Labor Day be during the week.  More of an unexpected day off, rather than a long weekend?  I take that back, if it was on a Wednesday, you would probably lose more in production than just keeping it on Monday.

So where does this bring us?  Good question.  I guess it brings us to realize I am in the office right now typing about Labor Day – AND getting work done – while most are going to read this post tomorrow.