HBits | Art, stress and the reputation rehab room
On my mind this week: art If you’ve never heard of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, you’re in for a treat. They gave an outstanding performance at McCarter Theater in Princeton NJ on Nov. 9 and were on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC) on Nov. 14. Here is the video – enjoy. (Long ad precedes, hang in there, it’s worth it.) http://bit.ly/rHkTrs It was just such a relief for me to hear extremely accomplished musicians play complex and thrilling compositions many of which were written in a time signature other than 4/4. I also love Futureman’s Drumitar. I also noticed Bela Fleck...
Read MoreHBits | content monsters, blogging and automatons
On my mind this week: the content monster For the first time in six weeks, I’ve blown a blog post deadline. The cat ate it. Not really. I actually have a post started, but the ideas — trust and transfer of wealth, networking, making money — aren’t nearly developed enough to publish. Sometimes it takes a while to figure out what things really mean. Sometimes you have a feeling about something but you don’t know what it is until you try to articulate it. William Zinsser talks about this in his book Writing to Learn. So rather than churn out a half-baked post on...
Read MoreHBits | Klout, tattoos and that truth thing
On my mind this week: klout I was skeptical about this influence measurement tool from the outset but I was curious to see how it worked so I jumped on the Klout bandwagon fairly early on. My score at one point was as high as 56. I will admit that it was affirming, in a Stuart Smalley kind of way. I even got a Klout Perk once, a 2 oz. tube of Axe hair gel. I gave the stuff to my boyfriend’s oldest son, 15, who actually liked it more than the $15 jar of hair goop I bought for him at the salon. Go figure. Today, however, my score is a paltry 36. It’s been in steady decline since I...
Read MoreHBits | New biz, straight talk and lemonade detroit
On my mind this week: new business Penelope Trunk debunks the romance of self-employment in this post about the reality of being self-employed. Stressing over money can force you to make a lot of decisions that are bad for your business. By maintaining a good reserve and not overextending, you retain your ability to say no to work or clients that are not a fit with your positioning. So if you are in a bad financial position, you need to fix that first. Once that’s fixed, then you need to start to look for reasons to say no. ReCourses’ David Baker points out, “when there is a...
Read MoreHBits | Journalism, economics and storytelling
On my mind this week: journalism If you want to better understand what is happening to the news business, have a look at this: A digital journalism revolution with strings attached by Edward Wasserman. (Via @SBMediaBiz via Miami Herald) This is exactly why it’s imperative that you publish articles and blog posts regularly on your own and select outside turf while building your own targeted distribution channels (read: email list) in addition to cultivating alliances who will allow you to publish on their channels. If there ever was a magic press pill, it’s gone now, swallowed...
Read MoreHBits | Creative giants, agendas and jobs
On my mind this week: agendas Along with the rest of you, I watched with interest via a variety of online outlets, the different responses to the passing last Wednesday of a creative giant. In so many cases, I couldn’t help thinking, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” (I’m not alone.) Please, before you use breaking news as a springboard for self-promotion, first look in the mirror and answer this question: What’s your agenda? “What’s your agenda?” That is possibly the most important question anyone ever has ever asked me. The person who...
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