Have you even found an old box, and as you go through the box you remember the things that were happening when you were accumulating those items?

Finally, I did an inventory last week and unearthed at least 5 years worth of unreleased content. Notes, ebooks, videos, mindmaps, old courses etc.

This stuff has been sitting on eight hard drives for the last several years.

Let me tell you what this stuff is…

It is the thinking that has allowed me to move out of corporate America, into my own business and now back into a corporate setting as a Chief Marketing Officer.

This is fundamental stuff. Not the fads or the hype for the newest thing that you can use to make your next zillion dollars.

Anyway…

I got to thinking about what it takes to create a real income in the current marketplace and looked at one of my best projects which was the B20 case study. No matter how you feel about the current state of affairs of our government, the 2008 election was a pivotal year for communications technology.

Let me tell you why…

Social Media had just gotten on the radar of major media. There were only a few celebrities even paying attention and the major media had not caught up yet. And corporate had not clued into the fact that the market was shifting under their feet. And mobile was not yet the 8^th channel that it is now.

This work was put together when new media was “new”. But we noticed a very interesting thing. The fundatmentals remain the same. The technology changes but people don’t.

This is an important part.

When the whole world is not paying attention is when you can find your crease in the defense to slip through.

The question is do you have the wherewithall to “see” what what coming before the rest of the word gets the memo?

This is stuff is real. You can check it out

In 2009–2010 we:

• Got over 70 mentions in major media
• Delivered 42 speaking engagements
• Published a book
• Consulted for Congressmen and Gubernatorial Candidates
• Met with some of the top campaign managers in the world
• Become CMO of a company

and so on.

All this from observing the market and then deciding to move to action quickly and enter the market and then adjust with every step.

As I looked on those hard drives at all of this content, I realized that it is not the accumulation of knowledge that makes you successful. It is what you do with that knowledge and how you leverage it to take care of your concerns.

So that being said….  Earlier this year, I did a 6 week webinar series where I outlined what we learned during the 2008 Presidential Campaign and how we applied it to our businesses. This is some of my best work as it outlines what we saw the in the market doing 2008 election. But more importantly, what actions did we take as business owners during 2009–2010 to propel us to the levels where we are today? This has been a 3 year ongoing case study. Not a shortsided look at what works today and may not be working tomorrow. 

The Ideation to Transaction Blueprint is complete and I am using it now to build another company. So if you are at all interested in the step-by-step sequence that was used to move a man to the highest office in the land on the big stage and the same blueprint that was used to move me to new levels of business you will want to check out the updated B20 Project Package.

Til next time,

David Bullock

How strong is your social network?  How many people can you pick up the phone right now and call right now?  How many would answer?

If you are networking online, are you translating to your activity offline?

Transactions are made out here, in the real world, with real people.

• Meetings
• Conference Calls
• Presentations

I tell my students all the time:

• Get offline.
• Talk to people.
• Develop a relationship.
• Add value to the marketplace.
• Be helpful.
• Befriend people with skills that you don’t have.

Use social media to create the openings for real conversations offline.

Real transactions occur out here.

So my advice for those who are using social media…

Get away from your computer every now and then. And, talk to people outside of the chat box.

By David Bullock

Howie Jacobson is a good friend of mine. Howie is the author of the “AdWords for Dummies” book.

I was looking on my hard drives and I found a folder full of interviews and conversations that I have had over the years. These are pure gold nuggets of information that I am so glad that I captured.

Howie is featured in the interview below.  There is so much in this 7–minute clip:

• PPC
• Salesmanship
• System Setup
• SEO
• Social Media
• Passion For Work
• Media Repurposing

Markets are changing rapidly. Hope that you enjoy it. More to come.

By David Bullock

Social Media continues to disrupt the business of politics. While I continue working in the business sector, over the past year I have become increasingly engaged in the political vertical.

Neal Harrington of www.HarringtonFT.com and I had a conversation several months ago (July 2009) that proved to be very interesting. We are discussing the gap in technical expertise within the political arena in terms of social media deployment. These new communication technologies are completely disrupting the political marketplace.

If this is the case, this news that came out earlier this week is especially intriguing:  Plouffe to Play Expanded Advisory Role for Obama.  Who is going to step in to assist the opposition?

If both parties are using social media communication technologies effectively, what will be the deciding factor or secret weapon in the upcoming campaigns?

Obama 2.0 Observed By David Bullock

Obama 2.0 is in all the headlines today. A friend of mine just send this to me via Twitter (thanks @JillKoenig).  What does this mean?

The question that comes to my mind is how can a business, the backbone of the economy, learn from these political campaigns?

There are true nuggets of marketing, positioning and execution gold that can be found here.

But I fear that just like during the 2008 Presidential Campaign – where a senator seemed to have come out of nowhere to rise to the highest office in the land – the world is paying attention to the politics and not the mechanics that they could use to gain market share, increase profits and reduce costs.

Here are some of the headlines that I believe take our eye off the ball.

Obama 2.0 Begins by Listening to Paul Volcker

Obama 2.0: Candidate Starts His Hard Move to the Center

Let’s focus on the lessons that can be learned for a business of any size to succeed against enormous odds.  That message is as true today as it was a year ago.

By David Bullock

Watching the market as I have over the last year has been very interesting. Reporting on the market and what the “social media” market is doing has become a big business over the last several years. Heck, just trying to keep up with the new tools is hard enough. So, as we look at a dynamic market, what is the first thing that we have to do?

Find an anchor point.

That’s right. As this market continues to change and flow, it is not required that you learn everything that is new in the marketplace. It is required that you find your place in the marketplace and then find the proper tools to support your position and place.

For the last several months, I have gotten very busy working on executing many ideas that are supposedly “new” in the marketplace. What I find in these ideas is that the very fundamentals of thinking, decision-making and execution are lacking.

It is “throwing mud against the wall” at a very high level. What is called strategy is hand waving to an audience the does not know what they are observing. Even when you show them something, there is no criteria in place to measure progress, success or failure.

To be fair, I have a different perspective. I view this space from the position of having been a:

• Manufacturing operative
• Engineer
• Project manager
• Marketer
• Salesperson
• Blogger
• Self-published author
• Public speaker
• Promoter
• SEO
• PPC practitioner
• Content creator
• Video editor
• Audio editor
• Consultant
• Tracking and testing specialist
• Affiliate marketer
• Webmaster
• Inventor

In other words, in the worlds I inhabit, we look at a new idea and see it all the way through from inception, to creating value in the market, to successful transaction.

I have had my sights set beyond simply watching the markets. In the last year, we have successfully launched a book and completely repositioned my business in the marketplace. This process of repositioning has created a complete shift in my thinking and how I will be moving in the future. I look forward to sharing with you how we are moving within the marketplace and adjusting thought and action accordingly.

Social media is part of the getting ideas into the marketplace.

Ideas are cheap. Ideas are everywhere. You just had another idea.  In fact