Should you get paid to speak?
I love speaking. I am grateful that I am frequently asked to give presentations on marketing, technology, and other topics. It’s very fulfilling to be able to share my knowledge and experience with others and continue to develop my own skills through speaking. I’ve noticed, however, that speaking is one of those activities that seems to sometimes come with an expectation of unpaid service. Many organizations invite speakers to present at their events but frequently do not pay for their time and expertise. I wonder why this is? To put things in perspective, here is what goes into a...
Read MorePersonal Branding with Social Media E-Book
Personal branding is becoming more important today as people are becoming more interested in relationships and personal communication. Sales professionals, job-seekers, and professionals in a variety of industries are finding that how they relate to people and how they are perceived in the marketplace on a personal level makes a huge difference in how successful they are. Social media is enabling us to strengthen our personal brands like never before. In order to address this, I’ve written an e-book to help others understand the dynamics of personal branding using social media and how...
Read MoreSmart, simple solutions
There is an abundance of complexity in the world. It occurs pretty much everywhere. Companies create products with way more features than we need, bosses over-complicate policies and procedures, and our government passes ridiculously complex legislation that no one even has time to read. We do it to ourselves, too. We think we need big, complicated systems to run our accounting and business systems. We create convoluted policies to try to anticipate every possible scenario. We look for that magic piece of software that will do all 500 things we think we need it to do. After the air clears and...
Read MoreFacebook friending etiquette
Ok, I can’t take it anymore. It seems like almost every day I get a Facebook friend request from someone I don’t know. And each time there is no message sent with the request. Just a friend request with no explanation. Now, I’m more than happy to make connections with people I don’t know as long as I know how the connection was made. However, if I don’t know someone and he/she gives me no reason to connect, why would I take the risk of opening up my network and personal life to that person? If you want to friend someone on Facebook and you don’t know that...
Read MoreSo you think you’re in a ROWE?
SpinWeb became a ROWE a few years ago. Since then, we have enjoyed a happier workplace, more balanced lives, and dramatically improved productivity. From my perspective, ROWE is to the traditional workplace as the Renaissance is to the Dark Ages. I look back on our pre-ROWE work environment and I actually feel embarrassment at how we ran things. I feel the need to apologize to my employees for the senseless way we ran the company. Unfortunately, it happens to be the way most companies today still do things. The good news is, we are a now in a ROWE and life is good. However, when I describe...
Read MoreHow does building websites change the world?
At SpinWeb, we create professional websites and online marketing initiatives. We’ve been doing it since 1996 and have gotten very good at it. We’ve gotten so good at it that it amazes me how fast and how well we deploy new websites on time, on budget, and with amazing design quality. Sometimes, however, I think we get so caught up in the mechanics of our systems and processes at the “runway” level that we can lose sight of why we are doing what we do. How does our work make a difference? How does it change the world? How does it change lives? I think it’s...
Read MoreBook Michael to Speak
Michael is a dynamic and sought-after speaker for conferences, meetings, and trainings. He delivers high-value engaging content for groups of all sizes. Book Michael Now.
