As we have traveled across the country over the past couple years we have met so many people especially small (to medium) business owners that are jumping up and down looking for help in generating more leads, increasing sales, getting more foot traffic, more reviews and more conversations about their products or services. When we’ve had the chance to sit down and chat with these people we’ve asked them where they needed help. Their answer? They need help with everything from developing a strategy to setting up and optimizing their social accounts to designing a new website that is search engine optimized, designing listening and monitoring portals, email marketing and how to measure all of it. This is not too dissimilar from the enterprise brands that we work with at New Marketing Labs however small businesses have some unique needs, concerns and it takes someone with experience in small businesses to fully understand it all.

Over the past several months our team has been working on how we could be more helpful to small businesses. During this time, I’ve done a lot of thinking on what I’ve done at Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse over the past few years and what my competitors and the other businesses in the town where our restaurant is aren’t doing. I’ve also been researching hundreds of small business websites, online communities and talking with people in my local community to understand what their knowledge base is of social media and what they think of their current marketing plans (or if they even have one, in many cases).

With all of that knowledge and experience in hand, I’m really happy to announce the launch of Red Pin Marketing. Red Pin Marketing is powered by the great team at New Marketing Labs and backed by CrossTech Ventures. Our goal is simple: to help small businesses with their social media and digital marketing efforts. We want to help you leverage these tools to level the playing field, increase sales and grow your business.

Before you start hyperventilating, don’t worry, New Marketing Labs isn’t going anywhere. We’re still busy helping our amazing clients, working with fantastic partners and working on the Inbound Marketing Summit 2011. I’ll still be around adding my assistance as the team needs it but I will be donning a new hat as the Executive Director of Red Pin Marketing. Chris Brogan will lend his advice, guidance and mentorship to Red Pin Marketing as an Entrepreneur In Residence advisor. There are a few other changes over at NML that you Chris talks about in this post.

There is so much more to come in the days and weeks ahead that we’re really excited to begin sharing with you (including our website!). But, since I’m like a 2 year old on Christmas morning, I couldn’t keep it a secret any longer and just had to share it with you.

If you’re the owner of or work in a small to medium business, I’d like to invite you to sign up for our free small business newsletter. We have some special projects and info that we’ll be sharing that won’t be available anywhere else except in the newsletters, including one that we’ll be launching in the next few days. Make sure you don’t miss out by signing up today.

It’s an exciting time around New Marketing Labs, Red Pin Marketing and The Pulse Network.

As always, thanks for your support and all that you do. My goal is to continually be helpful to you and hopefully this is another way that I can fulfill that goal.

Did I ask you yet to sign up for the new small business newsletter?

We were interested by some of the data including the prediction that social media will drive more business value than SEO by 2013 and that over the next 3 years Google and Facebook will decline in importance while something new (and currently unknown) will emerge as the most important website or service.

Want to see what else these experts had to say? Here is the complete ebook as a presentation. If you want your own copy, you can download it.

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a personal assistant to a politician or political candidate. A body man accompanies the politician or candidate virtually everywhere, often arranging lodging, transportation or meals, and providing companionship, snacks, a cellphone, and any other necessary assistance.

After learning about Reggie after watching a MSNBC special on an inside look at the working White House, I did some more research.  Reggie has become one of the most well-known body men in political history, due in part to his role as a basketball player with the championship Duke University team and his try-outs with two NFL teams.  There have been some very interesting articles on Reggie and surrounding him considering himself the “Chief of Stuff”.

When President Obama was on the campaign trail, ESPN caught up with, then, Senator Obama and Reggie to profile the Chief of Stuff.  It’s a fun video to watch, in my opinion, since it’s another look behind-the-scenes.

If you can’t view this video in your browser, you can also find it here…

Not only do I find motivation watching people like Reggie Love do whatever it takes, working 18-20 hours or more per day, when I first heard Reggie describe himself as the “Chief of Stuff” it resonated with me.  As General Manager at both New Marketing Labs and at my steakhouse, I tend to focus on operations, processes, and doing my best to ensure everything runs smoothly.  Along the way there are tons of “stuff” that needs to be dealt with on a daily basis.

Also, there a lot of things that I help Chris Brogan with throughout the course of the week.  Now, Chris never asked me to take on a role as his personal aide, though I am his right-hand man with a lot of things.  He does after all have a personal assistant in Kathryn Jennex.  However, I’m always concerned with ensuring that Chris is taken care of and that his other obligations outside of NML are taken care of.

So, why do I do this?  Because first, foremost and most importantly, Chris is a close friend of mine who I want to see continue to succeed.  He doesn’t like doing paperwork, organizing or worry about the detail stuff.  That’s not what he’s best at.  I, on the other hand, enjoy doing that and actually need to be organized to function properly.  So, as much as I can, I work with Chris to make sure he doesn’t have to worry about all that “stuff” that would slow him down.  I also work with our internal team to ensure that we’re aligned on processes, staying organized and always moving things like side projects along.  With how busy everything gets, it is very easy to let certain things go astray.  I try my best to ensure that doesn’t happen.

That role doesn’t stop with NML or Chris though.  I function in this role at the steakhouse and at home too.  Joe, my best friend and business partner at Caminito, is just like Chris in how he feels about “stuff”.  Joe is best at being our Executive Chef, not at organizing, planning, logistics (except as it relates directly to the functioning of service).  At home, I naturally fall into this role because of how much I do it by day.  I handle the bills, the scheduling of maintenance, logistics, and anything else that will help Laura and I out.  That’s not to say that Laura doesn’t do a ton of “stuff” that keeps us functioning.  Things like laundry, dirty dishes and tons more seem to always escape me.  She keeps me in line with that stuff.

I guess that makes me a “Chief of Stuff” kinda too, huh?  I’m okay with that and actually enjoy it.  So, my official title may be “General Manager” but I thing “Chief of Stuff” is a little more fun

What are you the Chief of?  How do you handle all of the “stuff” that needs to be taken care of on a daily, weekly or monthly basis?

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]]> http://justinrlevy.com/2009/07/being-the-chief-of-stuff/feed/ 11 http://justinrlevy.com/2009/05/are-you-a-web-commuter/ http://justinrlevy.com/2009/05/are-you-a-web-commuter/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 10:23:48 +0000 Justin Levy http://justinrlevy.com/?p=1174 Do you spend most (or all) of your time working from coffee shops, airports, bookstores, cars, trains or anywhere else that’s not a typical office?  There is now a new place for you to hang out.  Today I’m super excited to announce the launch of workshifting.com.  workshifting.com is a New Marketing Labs project on behalf of Citrix Online (you know, the folks that make GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar).  The design was done by our good friends, Eric and Justin Rasmussen of CoffeeHouse Ideas.

As Chris Brogan explains in the introductory post:

workshifting exists to swap stories with others (like me) who make their office in some pretty interesting places when not back at the mother ship. Sure, I’ve got a cubicle-style office like lots of folks (thanks, Herman Miller), but I also shift my work to several dozen other places, like coffeeshops, airports, hotel desks, and pretty much anywhere I can sneak some power (we’ll talk about that a lot).

We hope that you’ll stop by and hang out with us.  Over the coming weeks you’ll see more announcements about workshifting.  Are you a workshifter who’s interested in being a contributor?  Shoot me an email (jlevy [at] newmarketinglabs [dot] com) or fill out the short form over on the Contact page.

Also being launched alongside workshifting.com is a report that Citrix Online put together properly entitled “Worldwide Workplace: The Web Commuting Imperative”.  You can download the free report here.  It’s really an excellent document with all sort of pretty charts and whatnot for us stat geeks (you know who you are, don’t hide!).

You can also join the workshifting crew over on Twitter: @workshifting

What say you about the concept of workshifting?

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The video is below in 2 parts.  If you can’t see this video in your feed reader, you can access it here: Part 1 & Part 2

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

To celebrate, Chris Brogan, Colin and I are all headed out to Las Vegas for CES from Tuesday, January 6th to Sunday, January 11th.  Besides checking out all of the cool new toys and going to some great parties, we really want to meet with people about possible business opportunities.  We want to meet with people who fall into one of these categories:

• Event partnerships, exhibitor and/or sponsorship opportunities: In case you didn’t know, we are running 4 New Marketing Summits in 2009.  We also have immediate plans to run 10 New Marketing Bootcamps (website coming soon) with the possibility of many more.  Throughout 2009 we will also be hosting several meetups around the country along with a few other events we have under lock and key right now.
• Social media strategy and execution: In 2009, we will be providing social media strategy and execution to our agency clients.  If you’re a company who is wanting to get involved in new media marketing but not sure where to start or have already started and want to catapult your success, let’s talk.  We have already signed some awesome clients who you’ll find out about really soon.  Let’s grab a beer while we’re in Vegas and talk about what your needs are and how New Marketing Labs may be able to help you.
• Social media practitioners: We are looking for people who are passionate about all things new media ranging from blogging to community management to social media execution.  Looking beyond just passion, we are looking for those people who put their passion for new media into solid execution.  We are going to be working with awesome clients and want your help.  If you meld passion with execution and are interested in possible opportunities, let me know so we can chat.  Also, please take a minute to fill out our practitioner interest form.

But, you’re not going to CES and still want to chat about one of the above opportunities.  That’s great!  Please reach out to Chris, Colin or I and we’ll be happy to chat.  Make sure you connect with all of us on Twitter: @chrisbrogan, @crbrowning and @justinlevy.

Here’s to a fun, exciting, sleepless 2009!  Cheers!

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Photo by: Simon Willison

I have decided to set sail aboard a pirate ship with Chris Brogan.  We have just raised the sails and pushed away from the dock  This pirate ship is New Marketing Labs, our new media marketing agency and educational company.  In my role as General Manager, I will be working hand-in-hand with Chris and will be responsible for the operations and execution of our agency work with our amazing clients.  I will also be responsible for assisting in the delivery of our educational events, including our New Marketing Summit events, New Marketing Bootcamps, webinars and a host of our awesome ideas that we’re busy coming up with.  Over the next weeks and months we will have exciting announcements which will be my new “secret projects” that I tease all of you with.

While all of this is going to be A TON of work, I’m looking forward to hustlin and working my head off.  This is an amazing opportunity and I thank Chris for believing in me.  I can’t wait to learn from the teacher.  I also look forward to working with all of the wonderful people that I’m going to get to meet.

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Photo by: post406