@BigHeadAsian rocking the crowd at #OCSMS! Great information Justin!!

When an event is over, your work has just started!! Build your team!!

While I am in California for the Orange County Social Media Summit, I plan to take and publish tons of photos. We are a visual society :)

You can keep up and check out my photos here, on my Facebook profile as well as with my Instagram account. Enjoy seeing California through my eyes!

Everyone knows that I'm an Apple fan and geek; so it shouldn't surprise you that I was excited to have my phone select the Cupertino, CA time zone upon my arrival :))

Landing at the Orange County/Santa Ana John Wayne Airport (SNA) was great! Very cool statue and plaque of the Duke.

First palm tree sighting outside of the airport and the hillside behind my hotel.

More photos to come....enjoy!

This will be a busy and fun week for me as I travel to California for the #OCSMS.  Honestly, I can't wait!  Taking part in the Summit, learning from peers and meeting friends face-to-face for the first time is going to be a great experience!  This type of an event, combined with meeting these friends is what fuels me; I love meeting and networking with people that share similar passions that I do.

I finally have the opportunity to meet @RochelleVeturis, @HaleyVeturis and @ChelseyVeturis in person, along with several other Twitter and Facebook friends!  Saying I am excited is a huge understatement!

Over the next week, I plan to publish posts about my trip and this experience, along with an ongoing video series about my California adventure.  I hope you will join me and enjoy the #OCSMS as much a I will! We can all learn from the best in the social media and marketing industry!

Want to connect with me?  That is easy, I am always on!  You can Friend me on Facebook, Follow me on Twitter, add me to your Circles on Google+ watch my videos on YouTube and connect with me on LinkedIn. 

 

For several years now, I have followed and consumed most of the writings of Chris Brogan. Working in marketing and social media, Chris is a wealth of information.  However, to me,  the nuggets of wisdom on life, work and other topics are just as valuable.

Each January Chris publishes via his blog his three words for the year.  Chris does this to encourage himself and others to use these words to focus on defining goals for the year instead of making New Years Resolutions. If your curious about his post for this year, check out My 3 Words for 2012.

I also read a story from a more spiritual perspective by Debbie Macomber, Choosing Words to Live By.  She choses one word per year to focus on for the entire year.  Her story is powerful and her words are ones that have helped her over the years.

I have chosen to do this in years past and it helps me focus on goals for the year, so I encourage you to give it a try.  Let me know how it goes for you!

Here are my 3 Focused Words for 2012:

Listening

We have all heard the phrase "we were given two ears and one mouth for a reason." Sometimes that is lost during the moment, especially with me. So my first focused word of the year is Listening. My committment to those around me is to spend more time listening and less time talking. Anyone that knows me knows I can talk; but doing so instead of listening is not the best use of time for myself or the other person.  Listening is paramount for me this year.

Friendship

My second focused word for this year is Friendship. I am blessed with an abundance of connnections, followers and friends online as well as offline.  However I have not always been the best friend I can be to those people. That is changing. Focusing on Friendship is vital to maintaining the friendship as well as just overall relationships. Luckily I have shinning expamples of how friendships should function. Friendships come first for me this year.

Challenging

My third Focused word for 2012 is Challenging. I am challenging myself with being a better Listener, with developing and valuing all Friendships. I will challenge myself to be the best friend, husband, brother, son and business owner I can be.  I will challenge myself to improve my health this year. 2010 was a good year for getting in shape for me, but ended with a triple play that sidelined me; bulging disc, rotar cuff injury and the need for a cortizone injection just to walk. Yes, I overdid it, but then I let that be an excuse for 2011.  No more. Challenging myself is key this year.

Those are my words; what about yours?  Do you focus on specific words for the year?

You can connect with me through the platform of your choice:  Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn or Twitter.

 

When was the last time that you did something bold?  Something completely unexpected and out of your comfort zone?  If it's been a while, or if you cannot remember the last time you made a bold decision, now is the time to make it happen! I have recently made two bold steps myself, and I can tell you that I have no regrets surrounding either of these actions.  The first bold step I am referring to was my decision to be a full-time, self-employed consultant. I had previously handled marketing duties for a local restoration company in addition to my consulting business, but  now I am all in working for myself.  This has been the second best decision I have ever made.  I do set my own schedule; I am responsible for finding my own clients, booking my own speaking opportunities, and managing my own business.  I love what I do and I wake up every day excited to get started! Can you say that about your career?  If not, maybe it's time for a bold decision of your own. The second bold step is the decision to fire my hair!  You read it correctly, I have fired my hair!  It had been abandoning my head and retreating for years, so I as the owner of the head, I decided to fire it!  The hair gene came from the Lusher side of my family, and let's just say we are not known for old age and a head full of hair :)  This again, was a great decision for me.  I feel better about myself and my appearance and everyone has accepted the new, bold look.  I have even received compliments on the shape of my head!  That is a new one! I also removed the goatee, so the grey hair is gone from my head.  Bonus:  looking younger! What does firing my hair have to do with business or more specifically the industry in which I work?  Simple: as a small business owner, making the decision to incorporate a social media plan into your business is a bold step.   For many business owners, it requires a leap of faith into a medium they are not familiar with.  But, as with my career move and my hair, taking bold actions can and will be rewarding if you approach it with careful planning and implementation as well as partnering with the right consultant or team. So, how can you be bold today, this week, this month, or this year?  What bold steps can you take?  Let me know, and let me know what you think of my healthy scalp!

I was blessed today to have another morning on this earth, and to be able to enjoy a cup of coffee on my deck as the sun started it's journey across the sky.  I snapped this photo of the moon agains the backdrop of the blue sky and clouds and started pondering our significance in the universe.                   Watching the final Space Shuttle mission and the landing of Atlantis took me back to my childhood; like most boys, I wanted to be an astronaut!  I still want to fly into space and look down upon the earth.  That would be so cool! Alas, that is not an option at this point, so I will just keep looking towards the Heaven's and keep that dream alive! Looking to the stars and the vastness of the universe, or even our own lives, it is easy to feel insignificant, but that is not the case. We all touch countless lives as we live our life.  The people we see each day and interact with, our family, friends, co-workers, we impact them all.  Are you impacting those lives in a positive manner?  Am I?  That is the constant question. Working in and spending a considerable amount of time in social media, I communicate with thousands of people. I am always aware of this and strive to make a positive impact in those lives.  I hope I do.  If you spend time in social media or social networking, you have a similar opportunity.  You have the opportunity to  make a significant impact or difference in the lives of others. Before you send that next Tweet or post something to one of your profiles, think about that.  Think about how it will impact your friends and followers, as well as your own reputation.  Will it be positive and supportive or negative?  However you choose to impact others, just know you do, and treat those "virtual" relationships with care; these are real people on the other side of the screen. How do you make a significant difference in the lives of others?  

Facebook announced exciting changes during their live video conference today.  Do you believe these are improvements? Announced today:

1. Video Calling with Skype
2. New Chat Design, complete with Buddy Lists
3. Group Chatting

The partnership with Skype was something necessary and a natural next step for the two companies.  It solidifies Skype's place in the social environment and it helps Facebook to continue to grow in the wake of Google + 1. Do you see these changes as improvements?  For businesses that use Facebook to connect and stay in communication with their client and potential clients; this is HUGE!  Imagine interfacing with fans and clients directly off of your Facebook Business Page!  Holding a Group Chat Session with employees in other locations!  It's all about being connected, being responsive and humanizing business. How will these compete with Google + 1 ?  Too soon to tell; and in reality, it is two different situations; but it does raise the bar for both Facebook and Skype in our social environment.

On April 21st of this year, I attended the funeral of a friend and former co-worker Tommy Hall. A man that I had the enjoyment of knowing and learning from and the person I credit for my life long Apple Computer addiction. When Tommy and I worked together several years ago, he sold me his Mac PowerBook; that was the first stage of my addiction. Fast forward to today; I own a MacBook Pro, an iPhone and an iPad; with more purchases planned! Tommy left behind an incredible wife and two beautiful daughters. The funeral was hard, as all funerals are, but it also taught me about how we grieve more publicly now than ever before. Many of us that knew Tommy posted remembrances on his Facebook profile as well as on our own walls. I was touched and humbled by the number of my friends that offered love and condolences on this day; many of these people never knew Tommy, but they knew me, and I am very thankful for their friendships. I posted this photo that I sent to Tommy after a trip back home to West Virginia; we all smiled at the fact that he had a road "named" after him in WV.               Tommy, you will be missed my friend. It just so happened that on the same day as Tommy's funeral, our local Meetup 2.0 Group hatched a new Group of professionals to discuss and promote social media.  The Floyd Meetup Group's inaugural meeting was both exciting and bittersweet for me due to the events earlier in the day; however as a founding member of our Roanoke Meetup 2.0 Group, I was committed to attending.  Once again being the social person that I am, I posted on Facebook and Twitter  that I would be attending the meeting, and I was genuinely excited to be there and meet new people. When it came time to pay, the waitress asked my Meetup partner, Patsy Stewart who John Lusher was.  Patsy laughed and introduced me, thinking the waitress had heard of me.  The waitress proceeded to inform us that some jewelry lady had called and provided a credit card to pay for my dinner!  It took us a few minutes to figure out that it was my dear friend, Julianne Paulsen or @YrJewelryGal on Twitter.  Julianne owns a jewelry store in Minnesota and is Founder and CEO of Viaggio Bracelets.  Julianne had noticed my posts throughout the day, including the information about Tommy's funeral as well as the location of our Floyd Meetup meeting; she then found the number of the restaurant and left information to pay for my dinner.  Talk about a humbling experience. On the drive home, my friends tweeted about the woman that bought John's dinner and I called Julianne to thank her.  Julianne answered the phone laughing because she knew what had happened.  I thanked her profusely and related the story to her about the waitress; but also discovered she has done this to friends before just to surprise them.  She did this for me just to give me a smile and pick-me-up due to the events of the day.  I have not yet had the pleasure to meeting Julianne in person, but I will one day and I will buy her dinner and supply the cigars!  Although we have not met yet, I consider Julianne a dear friend and trusted professional. My reason for this post is to shine the light on how we live now:  socially.  More so than ever before, if we choose to. Whether we are grieving or celebrating; we do so publicly with our extended friends and followers. Thank you Tommy for all you taught me, and thank you Julianne for everything you are to me; I am most certainly blessed with the best friends in the world.  

At the outset, I apologize to the readers of my blog; my updates and posts have been very sporadic lately and I committed to blogging more frequently. While life sometimes throws us curve balls that we don't see coming,  most likely these pitches allow us the the opportunity to knock one out o the park! That's a good description of what has been happening in my life and in my business.  Changes that I will explain more completely soon, but opportunities for partnerships and strategic alliances have arisen that otherwise I wouldn't have been able to embrace; trust me, it's all good! So, while we may not always expect the changes; we should roll with them and embrace what is going to happen next!  We should Roll With the Changes. Saddle up friends, it is going to be a fun ride! Oh, and if you love classic rock, you know why I used the REO Speedwagon album cover; if not, click on the  link in the picture to listen to the song. As my Twitter brother @VincentHunt would say, et's GO!