May 16th, 2009
I’m simplifying my life. In order to focus on what matters I am getting rid of what does not. It was really timely when I came across Clear Your Clutter, Find Your Life. The article makes a major point under the sub-head ‘Chip away at what isn’t you’:
Go through each shelf and drawer and remove absolutely everything that detracts from your brand or drags you back to some old idea of yourself.
An article focused SOLELY on cleaning out the clutter in your personal life and space refers to YOUR BRAND.
This should NOT be forgotten. You are what you surround yourself with. Does everything in your life reflect who you truly are? If not get rid of it. Less IS more.
This brings me to another resource I came across while I was doing a little digital cleaning: John Maeda‘s Laws of Simplicity. To live holistically, apply the Laws of Simplicity to optimize your brand.
Here’s a video someone made that showcases the Laws:
The Laws of Simplicity listed below can be read in fuller depth here
John Maeda talking about the Laws of Simplicity at a TED talk
If you’d like to buy the Laws of Simplicity in a physical copy:
What you focus on is what you will get more of. You have to decide for yourself what truly matters.
Clear the clutter in your life by applying the laws of simplicity. Your brand will be better for it.
GET IT?
ADDENDUM:
[this was posted on Twitter right after I finished this article]
@donforan: RT @db: “If you don’t know what you want,” the doorman said, “you end up with a lot you don’t.” ~Fight Club
Tags: brand, branding, clear the clutter, john maeda, life, lists, optimization, optimize, personal life, personalities, personality, reading, reflection, showcases, simplicity, ted, video
Posted in branding, business, featured, life | No Comments »
April 20th, 2009
THANK YOU AND I’M SORRY
© wasabicube
First off, I’d like to thank ALL OF YOU for visiting, subscribing AND reading this website so far. Without your support I would have no desire to continue to grow this venture to greater heights. That being said, I’d like to apologize.
In my excitement for reorganization with adding/moving user pages, some of you may have received a post that was inadvertedly sent through the RSS feed entitled “Damien Basile”. I have an ego, but not THAT big of an ego to name a WHOLE POST after myself.
Tags: about, av flox, badges, blog, bottom left, brand, branding, communicating, communication, communications, community aspects, convenience, damien basile, desire, ego, excitement, Facebook, Google, habit, jargon, knowledge, lisa hickey, media, mybloglog, network, networked, networking, new features, niche, niche communities, reading, reorganization, retaggr, retweet, reviews, sidebar, social, staci j shelton, subscribers, twitter, widgets
Posted in technology | 1 Comment »
April 12th, 2009
© Will Lion
“We don’t think of social as a destination. We think of social as a dimension.” ~Ari Balogh, Yahoo! Chief Technology Officer commenting on how Yahoo! will make services associated with social networking part of the fabric of their existing sites and not just another service. (Source: NYT, Bits)
Social Media is hype. People don’t understand it. Companies are scared of it. For what? They’re only a bunch of silly programs that are touted as the next big thing, just like email and the internet and computers and the telephone and the television and radio and countless others.
So why is Social Media causing such a stir among people AND companies? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: advantage, benefit, best communications, business, communicating, communication, communications, communications platform, consumer, consumer decisions, consumers, email, Facebook, fingertips, focus groups, functionality, god, grouping, holy grail, hype, influencer, internet cam, knowledge, life, lifetime, linkedin, listening, marketing, media, mediums, mentions, network, networking, nielsen ratings, place where people, platforms, productivity, reading, science, silly programs, social, social medium, technology, Television, traditional avenues, traditional paradigm, uphill battle, wealth of knowledge, word of mouth, words, Yahoo
Posted in featured, social media | 8 Comments »
April 8th, 2009
© Will Lion
Consumers seek meaning and a brand they can trust. They are busy at work on Web 2.0 platforms creating ways to cut through the noise in search of products and services that resonate with integrity and transparency; in a word, authenticity. That quest for authenticity is a call to action for any company intending to be relevant in the 21st century.” | Sohrab Vossoughi, Business Week
Branding is an art not a science. What may work for one company may not for another. The most important thing is to engage and listen to your customer. The following is a brand checklist that every brand (personal and professional) should go over before doing business. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 21st century, advantage, aggregation, attribute, authenticity, benefit, brand, branding, business, business vision, communicating, communication, communications, company values, competitor, consumer, consumers, design, designers, differential, doing business, functionality, goals, integrity, interaction, interactions, knowledge, life, listening, marketing, media, platforms, productivity, reading, science, screwdriver, screws, social, technology, transparency, Value, viewpoint, words
Posted in branding, featured | 2 Comments »
January 20th, 2009
Customer value, not control, is the answer in the digital economy. ~Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams in Wikinomics (p.143) Value Shmalue. I have noticed many people speaking of value lately but no one speaking of what exactly is value. I decided that before the word “value” goes to the 2.0 
hype graveyard like many others have (see: the cloud, Whatever X.0) I would get to the bottom of it all. I asked my followingers what value meant to them in order to get to some basic tenets of why they valued something. Needless to say this all took place early in the morning whereupon i did forgo sleep to see where this line of questioning led me. I ended up valuing a lack of something in gain of something else, which speaks to the myriad of answers that people gave. The following are my conversations broken down with people based on person and categorized into points each person contributed to the discussion on value. While it is not the end all be all definitive go-to guide to delineate value, it is a start:
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: amp, brand, branding, business, categorization, chat, clue, collectibles, communicating, communication, communications, conversation, Conversation Ecosystem, conversations, customer value, design, designers, digital economy, discussion, don tapscott, downloading, experiences, experiment, follower, fool, generalities, graveyard, hype, interaction, interactions, iTunes, knowledge, left hand side, life, limited, listening, live journal, marketing, media, mediums, myriad, network, networked, networking, Peers, perception, permanence, personalities, personality, plans, Principles, reading, reply, responsibility, signs, sleep, social, social media, streams, Tenets, thoughtfulness, tweets, twitter, uniqueness, Value, visuals, weirdness, wikinomics, word value, words
Posted in business, featured, life | 3 Comments »
January 14th, 2009
The following is a candid conversation I had with a good friend of mine, Carl Gucciardi. The topics range from pornography to music/media downloading and piracy to companies purchase of your mindspace to freemium models of business. If you can not handle an open honest and frank discussion about these topics I suggest you stop reading and stop interacting in the world today. But I’m sure since you’re here you have an open-mind and are intrigued to learn what we have touched upon and how it will spur your own growth to rise to new heights. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: about, brand, branding, business, buying in, candid conversation, carl gucciardi, cd, chat, collectibles, consciousness, consumer, consumers, conversation, Counting Crows, creators, discussion, downloading, dvd, eve lawrence, event, experiment, Facebook, freemium, friends, gay, Ghosts, good friend, growth, guilt, half.com, i have dreams, In Rainbows, interaction, interactions, iPod, katie morgan, knowledge, life, limewire, marketing, media, mentions, mindspace, mp3, music, music media, musical, network, networking, networking applications, NIN, pearl jam, piracy, porn, porn video, pornography, present, productivity, Radiohead, reading, record companies, selling, social, social networking, subscribers, The Blood Brothers, Value, video, viewpoint, vivid video, wallet, world today, youporn
Posted in featured | 5 Comments »
Google Stumbleupon For Blog Reading
© Mark Knol
I am your average high-end internet social media user- creating content, giving feedback, networking with people, connecting with friends and consuming multimedia. The one thing that falls by the wayside for me personally is reading blogs via my Google Reader. Here’s how I overcame this stumbling block to keep up to date on all the blogs I read.
Read the rest of this entry »
Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Tags: automation, blog, blog reader, browser toolbar, commenters, consumer, consumers, experiences, experiment, filofax, follower, friends, functionality, giving feedback, glance, goodies, Google, google reader, knol, media, network, networked, networking, one thing, personalities, personality, reading, reading experience, social, stumbleupon, stumbling block, tech, technology, update, wayside
Posted in featured, technology | 5 Comments »