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One of the neat things about social media or social networking is that you end meeting people that you would likely never meet unless for the deployment of said social media. I just cam back from a little social media event in Bloomington. It was a tweetup hosted by a local photographer and it was a nice little event. I got to meet some folks that I would have never met before and probably people I would never meet in any other situation. Twitter brings together for common discussion and sharing of ideas.

I also had an opportunity to talk to two very diverse businesses this week about social media and its use. One was an artist and gallery, and the other was a doctor’s practice. Both had attended our social media seminar and wanted to delve a little deeper into its use. Both have different reasons for using the media, and it was fun to explore their business issues, their goals and the best ways to exploit the medium.

Artist Gallery — So how does an artist use social media to grow it s business? First of all what is the business model. In this case the artist operates his own gallery and sells almost all of his art through his gallery. He said tha most of his art can be found within a 50 mile radius of his gallery. He and his business partner/spouse work very hard on promoting their gallery and the art scene in Bloomington Normal. My advice to them was to establish their Twitter account (they already have a Facebook page) and begin slowly to build up a following of friends and followers in Twitter. Here is some other advice I gave them and that other artists might consider:

1. Post tweets about other local artists. Send information about shows and new work by local artists in the area.
2. Re-tweet their tweets. Be kind and tell your followers about the work other artists are doing. Hopefully they will do the same in return.
3. Tweet about thoughts or inspiration you are having about new art you might create. Use twitter as a tool to inform your art.
4. Obviously tell people about events you are having in the studio.
5. Follow other artists.
6. Send pics of your own art…not to often though. Although a simple landscape with no words attached can be a powerful message.
7. Encourage others to follow by using other SM sites.

Are there other suggestions for artists? The Creative class, particularly artists are often overlooked as business people. However they add a lot to the community. They bring new money to the community yet their footprint is usually fairly small. A concentration of artists can contribute large levels of economic impact.

Visit a local artist. Buy some original art. You will be happy you did.

Last week I talked about the use of business plans when starting a business. Some feedback I have received indicates that more people think about a business plan than actually write one. “I’ve got it in my head” say many. Whether you have it in your head or you are meticulously putting down every detail, your success will depend a lot on how open you are to receiving advise and modifying the plan when you need to.

Many entrepreneurs I meet do not want to hear what they need to do to improve their business. The have got it all figured out. They are not interested in learning what they perceive might be the truth. And the truth is that much of their ideas and business plans are no good. A colleague refers to this as “dream-smashing”. I would rather not do any dream-smashing and instead take every idea I hear and help people get to the point where the idea they originally came up with has been modified enough so it is now valid. It may not be the original idea they had, it may be completely different, but it at least is workable.

Sometimes it is not the idea but the would-be entrepreneur themselves. They need modification. Not everyone has the make-up to be a business person. But they can change. Yes they can. With work, a change in how they think, anything can be accomplished. Sometimes it takes years, sometimes months.

Everyone should get a chance to fulfill their human and business potential. If, as an economic developer I can help someone take even an infinitesimal step in that direction I feel I have done my job.

When, as an economic development group we create mentoring programs, access to capital and loan programs, or develop a business incubator, we are helping people. We are caring about people.

When, as an economic development professional and or group we are “recruiting” new businesses to our location enticing them with incentives we are playing a cruel game of shakedown and blackmail with our community and merely appeasing short term political goals rather than growing a community. Who agrees? Who disagrees?

My Blog schedule tells me that today I am to write about personal development and professional improvement. But today, I must digress just a little and talk about the personal development of other people. These people are my daughters. Let’s start young and move up.

Sarah is my youngest.(she is the second from the left, next to Senator Brady). At age 17 she possesses the poise and charm of someone much older. She is interested in a lot of different things. Always a reader, it was during the last presidential election that I became much more acutely aware of her interest in government, politics, and justice. Over the past month, she has been living with me in BloNo and serving as an intern for State Senator Bill Brady (who is also announced he is running for Governor in the State of Illinois). She did the usual things that an intern did, but more importantly she was exposed (good or bad) to how a state senator operates an office, the calls he receives and the important work they do on behalf of constituents. Everyone tells me she is doing great and of course I believe it and am happy to hear it.

I have coached her over the past year to believe in something to have a passion for something, and exhibit her leadership and organizational skills. Do this I say by taking on a cause. Any cause will do as long as you believe in it and work towards making change. This experience alone will make you more aware of how our world works, how a person can have impact and have fun watching positive change unfold. Many have gone before her and many others will. Next year, her summer after her high school senior year, she wants to go to Washington DC and work. I think she is on the right track. Hey Sarah, persevere, don’t give up and make your voice heard. Most people follow and you are a born leader!

Lauren is my eldest daughter. She is 21 and is an amazing artist and entrepreneur among other things. She can write well and has a passionate yearning for justice when she looks out into the world. I have always loved her writing. When I first started this blog she wrote a great piece on local business and how consumers should support them. Lauren and her boyfriend have a great little business going in Rockford, Illinois. Culture Shock is a great eclectic store that you usually don’t find in cities like Rockford. Chicago, New York, L.A. and Seattle no doubt have probably several stores like this but Culture Shock in Rockford is the place to get t-shirts, apparel, pins, vinyl records, jewelry, purses, hats, horror movie stuff, you name it. I love watching them learn about how to grow a business. Lauren is also an excellent artist and is growing a little design firm that compliments their retail endeavor. She has recently immersed herself in the world of social media and is beginning to see how that might help her in her work. A true “chip” off the old block.

OK, big deal you might think. They haven’t solve the mysteries of the universe, achieved Tiger Woods greatness in sports, or received a super high ACT or SAT score. That’s alright.

What I am trying to convey here is not that they are super-achievers. But merely they are comfortable in their own skin, learning new things, trying new things, building their confidence, contributing to their world as best they know how. Both girls are different, and it is fun to watch the difference from afar (they both live two hours away from me), yet at the same time seeing a little bit of me in each of them. Sometimes its the bad part of me, and sometimes its the best parts, but in either case they are connected to me in thought, personality and flesh. The greatest joy of parenthood is to watch your children choose their own way. It is watching them go down the path you might have chosen for them if given that opportunity, but in truth, watching them make those decisions on their own.

Dear Lauren and Sarah: Keep doing the things you are doing, seek justice, love the best way you know how, and know that your Dad is very very proud of you and loves you dearly.

Love

P-Daddy
(They hate it when I sign things that way, but what kind of Dad would I be if I didn’t try to irritate them just a little bit?)

This is a new word to me. What is Philanthrocapitalism? A number of years ago, in another community in which I lived, the City was arguing about the former Library building and what to do about it. They had built a new one and the former Library was sitting empty. Everyone kept referring to it as a “Carnegie Library”. I had no idea what this meant, but soon learned the great Andrew Carnegie of Pittsburgh wanted to make sure he was thought of well throughout the country when he died and provided funding to builds thousands of libraries. Carnegie funded 2,509 libraries between 1883 and 1929. Approximately 1,689 were built in the United States. The last grant for construction of a Carnegie Library was provided in 1919. This is a great example of early 20th Century Philanthrocapatilism. Undertaking social change through the power of dollars by leading business people. Today we see it with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, George Soros and others. They are attempting to create social change in singular areas through the use of the riches they accumulated while growing their businesses. In this TED video, Katherine Fulton talks about this trend, yet shows us and tells us that we have something to offer. I am assuming Bill, Warren, or George are not reading this Blog, therefore it is YOU that can affect change. The end is very moving as Fulton talks about her ancestors: What are your plans? Social Media can impact your plans to change the world one cause at a time. As Fulton says, the “our ability to create problems as humans exceeds our ability to solve them”. But perhaps we can solve them working together and collaborating. And maybe that collaborating occurs through the use of new social constructs and mediums. Time will tell. Follow me @bnedguy P.S. New exciting changes are coming to this blog. Stay tuned!

Something I was thinking about on this breezy summer late Saturday afternoon:

My family thinks I am argumentative. My Mother, sisters, daughters, and ex-wife would all agree that I like to have a good argument with them…often. I don’t see it that way. In fact, I would argue (please just bear with me on this), that I am really just trying to explore all positions of an issue. If someone says something is black, I just want to make sure their information is right, that they received it from a good source, and that we have explored all options. Perhaps it is white, or more certainly grey.

I like to think of myself is easy to get along with. However I am divorced and my family won’t talk to me. Just kidding, they all talk to me, including the ex-wife. But some explanation is needed to justify this characteristic of mine.

When I was in my first class on my first day in graduate school, the director of the public administration program (training to be a city manager) had all the students take out a sheet of paper or two and he instructed us to write for the next fifteen minutes about something we believed passionately about. It could be social cause, a governmental policy, write about anything he told us. We were to make an argument for the position we held. Not wanting to scare my professor, and not sure how carefully he was going to read it, I wrote about something, I am sure, that was not very controversial. I didn’t know how he was going to use this information. I also didn’t know how careful he wanted us to be with punctuation (mine is usually bad), grammar, penmanship (there is a word one no longer hears anymore) and other various issues surrounding a written piece.

After writing non-stop for fifteen minutes he had us stop and he asked us to put our names on the paper and hand them in. He still hadn’t told us what this exercise is about. Was he checking our writing skills, or our ability to synthesize a difficult issue?

“Now, I want you to take out a few more sheets of paper, and using the position you just wrote about I want you to take the exact opposite position and write another fifteen minutes” said the exalted and esteemed professor. A murmur went over the assembled class. The opposite viewpoint? The pencils and pens didn’t hit the paper as fast as before, because frankly we all had to sit and think for a few minutes about what we were going to write, but write we did.

Upon completion, we handed in our papers, and the Professor proceeded to tell us that this, in essence was what our next two years and what public service is all about. Know your position, make your point, but then anticipate and know the other person’s position and understand their point of view. If you can do this with success, you can go a long way. It can reap numerous benefits repeatedly.

Doesn’t that exercise help in life too. Wouldn’t we all get along better? Imagine if automatically we tried to view a position from some other person’s shoes? Maybe your moral or religious makeup won’t allow you to agree with the opposite position, but at least you can have some empathy for their position, and if anything have a decent discussion about the topic.

Too much acrimony in today’s world. As people we are labeled constantly. Right, left, fundamentalist, athiest, it goes on and on. Remember, we are all just people. Don’t give up your beliefs, but try to consider the other person’s position, viewpoint and background before launching into labeling, or judging their human-ness.

Let’s hug!

I hear from a lot of business people who ask me if spending time on social media is worth the time. The people who say, “I don’t care if someone I know just took a shower or what they ate for breakfast,” are the folks who haven’t spent much time trying to figure out what the buzz about social media is all about, and deep down it is much deeper than understanding what your office mate had for breakfast. Others indicate that they have too little time to be screwing around with social media. Their day is as busy as it can be without adding something else to it. Too busy with email perhaps? that ubiquitous looming monster that resides in your desktop or laptop computer that you had not time for until you had time for it and now it makes up the greater part of your day?

Social Media is an expansive term that has many parts. What you do with social media largely has to do with your view of how the world works. There are still people who communicate using the postal system. For some types of communication this method works very well. My mother still sends letters and cards. I have to admit that a card or letter does have some function for certain types of communication, even for me…like sending a letter to my mother.

But social media, to me is merely a progression in the evolutionary life of communication. I think at some point we will be communicating through these trusted networks of people. my networks will talk to your network and we will spread news far and wide. If I am interested in College Football, I will follow, network or socialize with people who like the same thing I do. We either do it in person or via a network. Critics will say how terrible it is that you loose face-to-face time by networking only on the computer. But it is the only way to communicate and develop a relationship (albeit a cyber one) with someone that perhaps you didn’t previously know.

So if you are the person who says you don’t have time, it’s not for you, or it’s just a trend, I invite you to open your mind. Here is your assignment:

1. Ask someone you know that is in the business world how they are using social media. Have them show you your Facebook page or Twitter profile or other social media tool.

2. Sign up for Facebook, develop a profile and “friend” a few people. Scare the crap out of your teenage kids and “friend” them on Facebook. You will be entertained by how they act when they know you can eavesdrop on their world. If you don’t do anything else with social media, this will create new dynamics in the household.

3. Find someone you know who twitters effectively. Sign up for twitter, and then check out what they are doing. You will be amazed. Signing up only takes a few minutes. Also check out twitters new guide for business. This 101 site will help you an it just launched yesterday.

Good Luck. You can follow me on Twitter at @bnedguy

Om Tuesday we heard about the feasibility of starting a business incubator in Bloomington-Normal. The EDC along with Illinois State University has been working on developing a business incubator in McLean County for the past several years. An incubator is a place people can go to and learn how to start and grow a business. They receive a physical location to work, services, counseling and other types of services.

Our consultant, Jim Greenwood has developed a number of incubators throughout the country. He has developed a system for making sure that a real measurement of a communities chances for success can be determined. On a scale of 1-100 with 50 being average we scored a 73. So we are halfway between average and excellent. Our strongest score came in the area of demand and market, having a local champion and several choices of available buildings. Our weakness was that we aren’t a distressed community therefore we cannot get EDA (Economic Development Administration, a part of the Commerce Department) funding. They fund incubators, but usually for communities that have real distress.

Once we get the incubator built, we will be able provide all types of assistance to small businesses, entrepreneurs and people interested in being part of the world of commerce.

Tuesday was also our weekly radio show. We interviewed Brian Simpson of Babbitt’s Books. I love his story. He started his first business, a used clothing store (vintage, I believe), in 1985 after he raised his initial equity by making $500 in a garage sale. He didn’t have a mentor, the luxury of an incubator or any other assistance. He merely had the willingness to take a chance and to live simply. He said he didn’t go out to lunch for five years until he hired his first employee. He got tired of eating in the store.

There is no best way to start a business. In both cases, being the recipient of counseling and services at an incubator or bootstrapping with $500 of garage sale equity, if you have a passion for something, the willingness to FAIL, and don’t know any better, then you might succeed. I wish you luck.

About a month ago I was in Southwest Michigan at a retreat with other economic development professionals. We were talking about the future of the profession and what is happening in the ED world. What are our challenges, how was the recession impacting our budgets, what we needed to do to improve our own abilities were among the topics. One topic that came up was the changing nature of economic development from a transaction based activity to one that is systems based. Let me explain

For a long time many economic development programs and practices were based upon the the client. Everyone was busy helping a specific client with a specific project. Most of these projects were usually based upon some type of expansion of an existing facility, with its inherent threat to move elsewhere if local help was not forthcoming, or an expansion or movement of operations from one locale to another. A “win” for one community and a “loss” for another; job losses in Boogerville because the XYZ corp. moved to Bugtussle.

Part of my frustration with the profession was this issue with smokestack chasing as it is often called. I could never see how in the big picture of things that it was sustainable. Attracting a company from one location with incentives to another location seems to be a perverted form of community competitiveness. I know this has been the case for hundreds of years; people (companies) always move to wherever they feel they can best be served, produce profits and succeed. But it created an industry of people who would sit in their offices and dream up marketing campaigns and advertisements, and creative ways to destroy each others communities by ravaging the economic foundations of those communities. It created competition between states as they created new incentive programs, landed companies and touted how great their state was because someone moved there and created 1,000 jobs.

Granted some of these projects were new operations, not moves, but nonetheless we, as ED professionals would promote ourselves and our organizations in front of our boards and community leaders with stories of grand acquisitions, and they loved it. Pride, is an industry we all understand.

So is there a change in afoot in the Economic Development industry? I think so. In Bloomington-Normal we are living it. Generational shifts are causing it, climate change is changing the profession, recession, globalization, social media, is all having an impact on how we “do” economic development.

Follow me over the next couple weeks as I explore this idea here in my blog.

Note: I write about economic development issues on Wednesdays.

Recently, I picked up the book Tribes by Seth Godin. I have seen his name before was vaguely aware of his writing and had even probably even heard him talk, but I had never paid specific attention to him. Tribes is not a hard book to read, in fact it is written in the style of a blog. If you like reading blogs, you can read this book.

Godin is saying that the new age of communication is conducted through “tribes”. Tribes are leading and connecting people and ideas. He urges us to step up and lead. The Beatles didn’t create teenagers, they merely lead them. Tribes are created by Heretics who have a passion. Mostly they have a passion that the status quo cannot stand. Check out the TED video of Seth describing Tribes. It is informative, enlightening and funny:

Are you in a tribe? What idea or passion do you have that inspires you to lead?

There was a recent movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman called the Bucket List. It was about two old guys want wanted to finish off a list of things before they die. Do you keep a list like that? I do. Most of the things are items that many people might not find very challenging, but are things I want to say I did once, nonetheless. Here is what some of the things are on my list:

– Learn to Scuba dive, and go scuba diving (duh, right?);
– Climb a BIG Mountain; The kind one needs a hire guide to do;
– Go Para-gilding, Sky-diving, or Hang-gliding;
– Learn to juggle
– Go Whitewater rafting ( a week long expedition preferably)
– Run with the Bulls (not talking about the kind in Chicago, although that would also be interesting. I’m thinking the kind in Pamplona. I think I like the white outfits and red kerchiefs more than anything); and
– Visit all fifty states.

There are several more bnut are somewhat personal. I don’t think anyone would care.

The last one, visit all fifty states is fairly close to reality. I have six states to go, And my goal is to get them within the next two years. The state I have yet to visit are Oklahoma, Arkansas, North Dakota, West Virginia, Alaska and Hawaii.

Seems easy enough. I always wondered if anyone else had that goal until a couple weeks ago, when, at the bed and breakfast at which I stayed in Michigan, I ran into a couple who was in Michigan for that sole purpose. Actually it was the women in the couple who had the goal. I think the husband was along for the ride.

On her trip to Michigan, she was able to knockout Indiana as well. She was from Long Island and she and her husband flew from LaGuardia to O’Hare and then drove to Michigan. She was impressed how friendly Midwesterners were and was surprised when I told her that when I was in New York City, how I thought that the people there were very friendly to me. I said perhaps that New Yorkers think they are sometimes rude because they are rude to each other and not to visitors.

I like my “bucket list” and I think it is fun to have non-career oriented goals. Do you have any goals that are fun rather than serious. What are they? Do we share any?