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Writing my professional bio

I spent about an hour this morning on the first draft of my professional bio, viewable on the about me page of this blog. I thought I’d share this link with some useful tips so you can do the same. The page starts with this:

A professional biography or overview, showcasing your background, experience and expertise, is a necessity for every business owner. This often overlooked marketing tool is an excellent way to introduce you and your business to potential clients and possible strategic business partners. Potentially, it might open up opportunities for speaking engagements, radio or television interviews, or a feature print article. While any information about you and your business is helpful, information that is presented in a professional, well-polished manner can make all the difference in how others perceive you.

Link: Top Ten Tips for Writing a Professional Overview or Biography

The bio I posted is a first draft. If you have a moment, please leave a comment with your feedback and any suggestions for improvement.

Had a great time last Thursday at Silicon Prairie Social 2

Last Thursday’s Silicon Prairie Social 2 went very well, both as an event and as a personal experience. Here’s my personal wrap-up of the event:

Background: My boss (Arthur Zards) and I host a networking event for the west suburban Chicago tech industry called Silicon Prairie Social. Art put XNet’s muscle behind it when we saw there wasn’t something like this in the ‘burbs and people like us had difficulty getting downtown for city events. The first one was held last September, and we just held the second on January 24 at Mullen’s Bar & Grill, nestled where Naperville, Lisle, and Wheaton intersect. It’s been a full house both times, each drawing 200+ people.

The morning went by quickly, as a few things needed to be finished up before the event. By just after noon, we accomplished the list and I headed home to grab something I had forgotten and to Jamba Juice for some quick energy — the calm before the storm. Almost like a precursor to the evening’s festivities, one of the kids behind the counter saw my phone and got his out, we started swapping tips like creating webclips, and he told me of a YouTube video about copying/pasting on the iPhone. The video turned out to be fake– a proof of concept.

I arrived at Mullen’s just after 3:00 for setup. Robin arrived with our stuff not too long afterwards, and we began at once. Time flew, and around 5:00, Arthur and I traded a few laughs with sponsors Julian Pretto and Mike Mecklenburg of ChicagoMicro, who had just arrived. I also briefly geeked out over the iPhone once again with sponsor Mazyar Hedayat as he arrived with his wife (shameless plug: see the XNet iPhone webclip that I made here). At 5:30, I forced myself (actually Art forced me) to wolf down a salad that ended up being my only fuel and my last real breather for the rest of the evening. It was also the last time I checked email until towards the end of the event.

We ended up picking one of the coldest days of the year to host our second event. Thankfully, it didn’t snow like the previous 3-4 days, so guests had only to contend with traffic and not poor road conditions. Once we opened registration, my primary objective was to get people out of the bitter cold because of the line going out the door. Once we were able to open up a second check-in line, accomplishing that goal went much more quickly. When at last I looked out the front door and saw the number of guests arriving simultaneously had slowed to a trickle, I breathed easier and headed in to the event to mingle.

Have your own photos of the event? Upload to Flickr and tag them ’siliconprairiesocial2′.Despite the upsides of Mullen’s, location, ambiance, outdoor patio (for warmer months), one downside to the floorplan is it’s difficult to assemble everyone and do a full round of intros, thanks, and giveaways while making sure everyone can hear you. So, the megaphone made do this time again, and we successfully gave away an XBOX 360 from Microsoft, an iPod Touch from Optimus Solutions, an OKI printer from ChicagoMicro, and Piocon drew for their iPod Nano at their table.My personal takeaway was a great time seeing many people again whom I have met over the last year at other events, and meeting a good handful of new people who I hope to keep in touch with for some time to come (I’d give a bunch of shout-outs, but don’t want to disappoint by leaving somebody out). It’s always a mix of business and pleasure, and for me I’m glad Silicon Prairie Social provides a healthy dose of both. SPS provides the environment for living out the Jeffrey Gitomer premise that people like to do business with friends and with people they like and trust.

All in all, the event was a great success, thanks to the growing group of people who come out for an evening out with fellow suburban tech professionals. I’m glad to hear from attendees who are seeing Silicon Prairie Social become the premier opportunity for them to build quality contacts and relationships in the western suburbs. I, as well as Art and XNet, are glad we have the opportunity to host such a gathering and are looking forward to seeing the value of the event and the relationships that result grow.

IMSA high school students develop for One Laptop Per Child project

I saw this post over at Peter Christensen’s blog about Illinois Math and Science Academy (high school) students developing software for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. The notable thing about this is these are high school kids, where every other school group participating in this project is from Ivy League schools or very technical colleges.

I’ve been around the FIRST LEGO League and the FIRST organization, and through my involvement with the open source 3D LEGO community, I’ve had the privilege to meet some talented youngsters who are very confident in their technical skills. I’m inspired every time I hear news about young engineers–while I don’t know much firsthand about OLPC, it’s clear they’re developing software for a good cause and building their experience and confidence at the same time.

Tony Robbins motivates you in 20 minutes: TEDtalks

Arthur played this video of Anthony Robbins speaking at TED yesterday in our company meeting, and I think it’s worth sharing:

Tim’s Tips on Using Facebook for Business

So, I’m a Facebook addict. As I’ve taken steps in the last couple months to increase my focus, I’ve spent less and less time there.

With the proliferation of applications in the recent months, (the majority of them at least mildly annoying with a healthy portion ranging from completely juvenile to all-out inappropriate), it’s become easier for the businessperson to tune out Facebook. I don’t blame them either, Facebook still hasn’t added a way to filter these annoying apps and the durn invites just keep coming, cluttering up the user experience.

Still, I believe the use of the site itself has value for building business relationships and staying in touch with people–in both personal and professional spheres–that can bring value to your career or business.

Here are four ways you can use Facebook to identify and develop new relationships:

• Use Groups to find people with similar interests. Search for groups, or look at a friend’s profile and see what groups they are in. If they’re a professional contact, there’s likely at least one group on their list with members who you would have a professional interest in.
• Research contacts and potential contacts on Facebook. It’s a great way to get to know some basic biographical info about someone you’re looking to reach out to or do business with if they happen to have a profile.
• Polish up your profile. With the above, realize that people will be looking for info on you there as well. If you aren’t comfortable with random people peeking, lock your privacy settings down. If you are, make sure you present only the details about yourself you want public. And don’t forget the Limited Profile feature, where you can limit what information certain “friends” are able to see (you can find that at the bottom of the Privacy page). Just like the age-old adage about email–if you don’t want something to appear on the cover of the New York Times, don’t write it.
• Create a fan page for your company or product. Facebook’s new Fan feature has been met with mixed reviews. Setting this up is easy, though I haven’t published one yet. If you have, please comment on your success and/or lessons learned.

There’s no magic bullet or one technique for using Facebook for business. In fact, often times you might struggle to tie your FB activities directly to sales or growth — it’s in that soft area of relationship building that isn’t always measurable. Introductions made and relationships built there can grow in value with time, just as within any other networking context.

What are your strategies for using Facebook for business?

Entrepreneurs: Help make Zero to One Million #1 on Amazon.com for February 5th.

Young entrepreneur Ryan Allis, founder of iContact, is looking for the help from entrepreneurs and professionals to make the second edition of Zero to One Million #1 on Amazon.com for it’s release date: February 5th. All proceeds go to the Humanity Campaign, “an international campaign to end hunger, war, genocide, and poverty and provide access to technology, healthcare, and education at home and across the world.” He created this Facebook group to spread his message. For those not on Facebook, I’ll copy his text at the end of this post.

I own a copy of the original Zero to One Million (Ryan graciously traded me for a copy of my own book, Virtual LEGO) and it’s been a great reference to me (in fact, I’ve recently picked it up again and have been reading bits and pieces over the last week). It was based on his experience as an entrepreneur building his company (then called IntelliContact Pro) to $1M in annual sales. Now, he’s updated the book with practical lessons learned from bringing iContact to $10MM in annual sales.

I’ve followed Ryan since we met at the C.E.O. conference in Chicago late 2004. He’s a passionate entrepreneur and change agent with a strong conviction to empower people through entrepreneurship and eliminate poverty around the world. When you get to know what he’s about, you can’t help but be impressed.

Worthier causes exist, but they are few. Please take a minute to learn more about Ryan and join me in buying his book on February 5th. So you don’t forget, add the book to your calendar with an alert for the AM of Feb 5th.

Text from Ryan’s Facebook group:

Friends–I need your help fo rizzle this tizzle…

Here’s the story.

Five years ago I self-published a book called Zero to One Million. It was about how to build a company to $1 million in sales.

Eighteen months ago in July 2006, I wrote a letter to 110 business book agents sharing my desire to update the book and get it published by a REAL publisher so that I could get the book in bookstores and share my message with a wider audience.

Eleven agents replied. Ten said no and one said yes–so I went with him ;-). That awesome guy, Rick Broadhead from Toronto, got me a publishing contract with McGraw-Hill to update the book one year ago. Sweetness!

I wrote most weeknights and Saturdays at the Starbucks off of HW55 in Durham during April, May, and June of 2007 to fully update the book and tell the story of building iContact to $10 million in annual sales, 18,000 customers, and 80 team members. The book’s about 70% new versus the self-published version in case you bought it in 2003 and were wondering.

Now, the book is done–all the disagreements with the publisher about the book cover are over–and it’s ready to launch. The book launches technically on Jan 18, but we’ve set a sales push date of February 5th. Time to push!

The book is my effort to share my message of social change, help anyone (who believes they truly can be) become a multimillionaire entrepreneur, and make what I’ve learned the hard way about business, venture capital, product development, business planning, building a sales team, opportunity evaluation, management, hiring and retaining superstars, organizational behavior, web 2.0, and marketing accessible to anyone.

Based on the commitments from my blogging friends and ‘friends with big lists’, I believe we have a realistic shot of making it to #1 on Amazon.com and onto the New York Times Bestseller List on February 5–but I need YOUR help to do THREE things:

1) Would you INVITE all of your friends who care about entrepreneurship, business, marketing, web marketing, social entrepreneurship, or changing the world to join this group right now? (Just click ‘Invite People to Join’ on the right)
2) Would you yourself BUY the book on February 5th on Amazon.com? It’s $12.71. I’ll definitely owe you a drink next time I see you.
3) Would you EMAIL your list of personal or business connections on FEBRUARY 4TH to ask them buy a copy of the book on Amazon FEBRUARY 5TH.

Anyone that buys the book on February 5 and emails their receipt to bonus@zeromillion.com will receive two exclusive video bonuses, “How to Raise $5 Million in Venture Capital: If I Did It At Age 22 So Can You!” and “How We Can Change the World Together: A Plan for The Next 50 Years.” VERY N-I-C-E (in BORAT voice)!

So what’s the dizzle about where the money’s going? This book and promotional effort is not an effort to make any money whatsoever–it’s an effort to spread a message of opportunity and social change and share what I’ve learned as an entrepreneur. All of the proceeds from the sale of the books are going to The Humanity Campaign–an international campaign to end hunger, war, genocide, and poverty and provide access to technology, healthcare, and education at home and across the world. I truly do hope to spend the rest of my life as a leader of our generation to help change our world together.

Really–sincerely and honestly–Mad props from my heart for your help in making “Zero to One Million” #1 on Amazon.com on February 5th and spreading a message of social change and entrepreneurial possibility!

The link to the new book is http://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Million-Built-Company/dp/0071496661/.

Love. Hope. Peace. Prosperity…

Entrepreneurially Yours,
Ryan Allis
Chapel Hill, NC

=========================

My new book, “Zero to One Million: How I Build a Company to $1 Million in Sales… And How You Can Too” is launching Tuesday, February 5.

WOULD YOU BUY THE BOOK FEBRUARY 5 ON AMAZON AND INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO JOIN THIS GROUP?

We are working to make the book #1 on Amazon and reach the New York Times Bestseller List–and have a real shot at doing it.

When you buy the book on February 5, email the receipt to bonus@zeromillion.com and you’ll receive two exclusive video bonuses, “How to Raise $5 Million in Venture Capital: If I Did It At Age 22 So Can You!” and “How We Can Change the World Together: A Plan for The Next 50 Years.”

The book is about how anyone can become a multimillionaire entrepreneur. It provides a ten step process for building a company from idea stage to over $1 million in annual sales based on my experience building iContact over the past five years to over $10 million in annual sales and 80 employees. It also talks about giving back, goal setting, and how our generation can change the world together.

Here are some advance testimonials:

Forgive Ryan Allis for being so young. Forgive him for imparting timeless wisdom based upon his own real-life experience as a entrepreneurial superstar. The kid just can’t help it. He has made a million-dollar dream come true and he shares how he did it this roller-coaster-of-a-read book. Your banker will love you for reading it.

Jay Conrad Levinson
The Father of Guerrilla Marketing
Author, “Guerrilla Marketing” series of books

Ryan Allis shares and intriguing story of business success that has few parallels. I know of no other person so young who has demonstrated this level of achievement in business. Young people need individuals like Ryan to look up to and emulate as they work to accomplish their own personal and business goals.

David S. Chernow
President and CEO
Junior Achievement Worldwide