Corey Graham 2.0N Biz Blog

This Blog has been Moved!!!

corey — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 23:25:25 -0200

This blog is now hosted at www.coreykgraham.me/bizblog - As you can expect I am ever evolving and when its time to move its time to move.

Now if you are reading this message in an RSS Reader it would mean that you are not subscribed to my feedburner feed. This means that when I change feeds you would not have a seamless transition and you will have to subscribe to - http://feeds2.feedburner.com/coreykgraham.

Subscribe to my feedburner feed! It helps me to know who is reading which is certainly a motivation to keep writing.

This move is going to be a pretty silent one, no big splash.

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Innovation And Creativity In The Mid Week

corey — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:24:07 -0200

Its the mid week and I am sure that some of your great hopes of things to accomplish this week have started to fizz a little. And you are a bit stuck sitting at your desk with a big pile of things still to be done.

And here comes Corey Graham 2.0 to challenge you. Yeah that's right I am challenging you to step back, and take a few minutes to try to see things from another perspective.

You never know what you might come up with! Its not that scary!!

Let me share some ideas I received in an email last week. Ordinary things, taken from another perspective....

Give Yourself Permission ... To Work Smart

corey — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:39:26 -0200

I have to be honest the past few months have been quite a roller coaster ride for me. The strides I made in the early part of 2008 towards working smart, had slowly slipped through my fingers.

No, no, no lol, its not that I became less smarter, definitely not! Don't get me wrong! I am talking about "Working Smart". My time, money and energy were not utilized in the right way. My priorities were a big fuzzy and well we know that things to do list was not being referred to as much as I should have been doing.

As a part of getting on track and sticking there, one of the key things I decided to do was to give myself permission..... I gave myself permission to take time to learn how to do my job faster. It's something that in 2008 I missed. I was always focused on just getting the job done and making the deadlines. This year I have been spending more time to "work smart".

Let me give you an example.

I created filters for my gmail 2 of them being a documents filter and images filters. Now, anytime someone sends an image or document to me it gets highlighted. Most of the images I get are actually posters and the documents are proposals. These filters make it a no brainer to find documents or posters in no time amidst the tonnes of emails the flow into my inboxes on a daily basis. It has made my life soo much easier. Let share them with you, after all sharing is caring. And I do care!

For GMAIL
(Matches: (.jpg OR .png OR .gif OR .bmp OR .jpeg) has:attachment
Do this: Apply label "Pic")
Matches: (.doc OR .pps OR .xls OR .pdf OR .docx OR .ppsx OR .xlsx) has:attachment
Do this: Apply label "Docs")

Some of the other things I did were -
- Get my facebook under control
- Organize my workspace making sure I have all my tools to get the job done
- Organise my blackberry alerts using - AlertMatrix

Basically I allowed myself to also question my workflows to see if they were effective. In some cases they needed to be changed. I found a change in my perspective of some tasks made my load much lighter. E.g, writing and presenting I not treat as one in the same. They are both communication, different forms of communication but none the less they are communication. I think the key though to working smart especially in this recession time is to build a network of persons and develop healthy give and take relationships. Solve your problems together.

Are you capable of giving yourself the permission to work smart? Are you ready for the next level?

Corey Graham 2.0^{N
www.coreykgraham.com}

REVIEW of the Book - The One Minute Entrepreneur

corey — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 01:17:11 -0200

The One Minute Entrepreneur By Ken Blanchard, Don Hutson and Ethan Willis

The One Minute Entrepreneur was an interesting read. It was different from most of the business books I have read as it was told in a story form. It was about Jud's life and his Journey to become and successful entrepeneur. I found this format to be refreshing as it had a slight element of suspense as to what would happen to Jud next. The bigger purpose where the "One Minute Insights" he learned as he journeyed through life. This allowed the book to take a wholistic approach to the idea of being an entrepreneur.
However, if I had to make a comparation to One Minute Manager I would say that One Minute Manager was a more ground breaking book for me personally because of how it was presented. The One Minute Entrepreneur also had its moments are are some of the insights that stood out for me.

Some of the key insights were

Associate with people you admire and can learn from.
You'll be the same year after year except for the people you meet and the books you read.
When you feel moments impacting your destiny, seize the opportunity.
On the entrepeneurial path, few people come int your life without a reason.
To build a great marriage, especially if you're an entrepreneur, make sure you commit to spending time together outside of meals and sleeping
Never let your expenses outstrip your revenue.
Don't be a banker for ur customers. Timely collection of invoices is crucial
As an entrepreneur, the secret to success is generating CASH, CASH, CASH.
Profit is the applause you get for taking care of your customers and creating a motivating environment for your people.
Working people today want a partnership relationship, not a top-down hierarchy.
Giving can be much more rewarding than receiving.

Overall it was a very refreshing read and also short and sweet. There were some very valueable lessons. One point that also did hit home to me which was not highlighed was hat many persons are married singles because they truly don't get involved with each others passions etc. They simply share a bed and share a table a meal time!

I would recommend that you give it a read!

If you want to purchase the book you can do it here on my Amazon Affliates Store - I actually get a percentage of your purchase, which I can assure you will go along way in me improving my blogging.

PURCHASE One Minute Entrepeneur BOOK HERE

I know some of you like me enjoy the audio books so I have included that for you here -

PURCHASE One Minute Entrepeneur AUDIO BOOK HERE

Corey Graham 2.0^N

http://www.coreykgraham.com

A Vision Of The Future Of the Internet With Adobe Air

corey — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:46:56 -0200

We keep hearing that everything will be online.

Everyone is saying it but I am sure that some of you do not have and insights as to how "everything will move online. I decided to take some time to offer a little insight to this.

One simple and fundamental way our concept of the internet is changing is, using services which are not based within the browser. As great as the internet is today, we still do most things from within the confines of our browser.

Imagine if didn't have to have one tab for youtube, another for email and one for twitter. Imagine if all these all services were actually on your desktop in the same way that you use Msn? or Skype?

Allow me to feature the Adobe Air platform. Abobe Air is making it easy for developers to build some of these services into applications you can access from your desktop. You won't really appreciate this unless you get to using it. Alrite here are some of the applications I like -

GeeMail - Gmail desktop Client

Google Analytics - Google Analytics - website stats

DeskTube - YouTube client

Imeem uploader - Just that allows you to upload songs to imeem

Overlay - Another YouTube Client

Fast And Furious - Features Fast & Furious the movie!

And finally my personal favourite - Twhirl - this app makes twitter a breeze to use!

see more here

Tell me if they were not cool? I really do absolutely love the Twhirl application.
I am wondering though, when I can see some of our Caribbean developers developing some applications for Adobe Air?

Think about it - How about a Directory of Caribbean Radio Stations? Including online stations?

Adobe Air is just one platform there are others. Remember also that these applications might start on your personal computer but might end up on your TV? Or your cell? Maybe even your watch? Think about it .... remember - EVERYTHING moving online?

P.S. If you are working on such a project or know of any, feel free to send me an email about it - corey@coreykgraham.com.

Corey Graham 2.0^N

http://www.coreykgraham.com

Career 2.0 - Getting Started

corey — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:52:19 -0200

The Challenge With Career 1.0

My idea of building a career is a little bit different. Honestly let me stop trying to be cool...It is a lot different from what I have learnt as I grew up in this world. My society and surroundings taught me to get into a particular discipline and keep my focus there. Build my career from that. Its not that i completely disagree with this approach, however I have found it to be incomplete in the context of my life. I couldn't quite decide where I should focus my energy. I have spent a lot of time with persons between the ages of 18 - 24 over the last 2 years and I realised that, similarly to me this way of thinking actually causes them more pain than good. They analyse themselves and their talents and think in many cases they realise that they are passionate about several different disciplines.

This can range from drama to music to marketing to business to engineering, and the list goes on and on. They become disillusioned by too much choice. They have too many paths that their life can take.

2.0 On Career 2.0

I would like to put forward a new perspective. Instead of making your mind about which career path you should take. Take some time and make a big mission or dream you would like to accomplish. Something the lends to your different passions. Once you have completely appointed yourself to fulfil this mission then you can build your career. Make yourself the General!

Now General 2.0 you can relax a little bit, because you know you are going after something you want. As the world is now evolving in to what some term as the new industrial revolution, you can now creatively blend your different talents and passions into a "pepperpot" that defines you and fulls your hunger to accomplish your mission/dreams. Web 2.0 is creating several new possibilities available to everyone.

Creative and talented people, especially in the Caribbean have so much to offer the world. Spread your wings and fly.

Corey Graham 2.0^N
http://www.coreykgraham.com

Give Yourself Permission To Be More Effective

corey — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:30:22 -0200

I know you have a lot to get done today. I am actually feeling some of the pressure myself. Deadlines are coming closer. They only get closer. Deal with it!

Wapaxx, Wake up. Snap out of it.Now before you go slaving away on your deadlines again. I want you to stop for a minute and consider. No don't get frantic. Just breathe! Relax a little bit. Alrite now ...

- Are you doing the things you need to do easily and quickly? - Have you made use of the technology availlable to make your job easier? - Have you made use of the wisdom around you to make the job easier?

Is there a time in your schedule for you to research the best ways to approach things? Why have you been putting this off? Give yourself permission to be more effective.

How much time is HARD work is costing you?

Work SMART!

Enjoy your day!

Corey Graham 2.0^{N
http://www.coreykgraham.com}

The Basic Concept of Networking

corey — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:07:07 -0200

Sum of the conversations we have daily define who we are. Corey Graham 2.0^N

Plans To Enhance My Network

This year I have decided to focus more energy into building my network. Those persons who help to expand my thinking, inspire or listen to my ideas. I wanted to invite them into this '2.0 world' I am building. As it evolves and lessons are learnt, I want to be able to share these lessons with the key persons around me so they can benefit from these learnings. At the same time they can share the things they are learning with me.My aim has now evolved to facilitate conversations and encourage Caribbean people to express themselves.

Take A Moment To Study The Art Of Networking With Me

Ironically, networking has always been one of those topics I have never truly taken the time to put it all together in a cohesive way. Its one thing to know the little bits and pieces, but its also important to put everything together. Many of us do not truly appreciate the fine art of networking, it goes far beyond buying a drink at the bar or shaking hands. Nor is it just being able to stand out from the crowd and be remembered it much more than that! I decided that we could take this journey together and see the big networking picture.

Thoughts From Networking Gurus

I seeked out some people who excelled at network and asked for their opinions.

In a recent interview, with Datwon Thomas the editor and chief of King Magazine shared his perspective on the topic, This is a man who accredites networking to be a key part of his success. He expressed, Always ask for a contact. And for those busy and influencial people you need to be persistent. You have to have something to back it up with though. Don't just come to them because you want to talk. Have something that is worth their while. Also look at the one thing you do best and focus on that. Let it get in. Make sure to get out and to make cold calls.

Nurse Karen, soca journalist who seems to be ever in the know, expressed these sentiments on the topic,'I think that all people have opportunities coming their way. People who don't recognize them, miss them. You have you ask questions, shake hands, represent yourself properly, keep in touch, share your ideas and good things will come back to you, it's a guarantee.Or regularly check in with the people you already know, whether or not they are in your field. When people understand what you do they will talk about you. And all of their contacts become your contacts'

DJ Malcolm X who always seems to have connects under every rock -I second those comments from all the above mentioned. Lucky for me most people find me cause of the business i'm into. As an event coordinator, promotor and as a radio personality, ppl send you stuff, they want feed back on an artist.Or they might need you to make that artist known. You must be straight with them if its a good product or not. Keep in contact, let them know its progress...its helps them to see you serious or genuine. Exchange numbers/emails, keep in contact. If you meet with them or have to bring artist and their team here ..treat them as how you would to your self....eg their accomodation, meals and media... you must make them comfortable... show them a good time . They can only go back and you be recommend to others in the field...once you have clean slate like i do (smile).

Ppl will always find you rather than you find them.. then you become a brand , a house hold name....the guy who makes things happen , the guy who ppl want to work with....you must prove that you can deliver. Don't always network based on the successful shows or parties you have promoted or produced, talk about the failed ones as well...let them know you pick back up and go again.....let them see you as a fighter...because everyone knows not all promotions are successful...keep in contact...always exchange ideas and give pointers as well. Treat ppl with the upmost respect and you can only gain ....This is just how I know or how I deal with ppl ... there is no school I went to, to deal with this...I'm a walking canvas...I'm the screen ppl see, so you always have to be prepared or available to network. The way you carry your self and your self discipline is very important.

My Thoughts On Networking

I really love that especially the part about, expressing ideas. I have found that expressing ideas allows you to show your level of thinking. It also gives others a clear insight to your passions and motivations. When people can see that. People who share those passions will find you. Those you want to connect with introduce themselves to you. When people know your passion and motivation they are more inclined to trust you.

In some cases your passion might be passed on to another. It can inspire.Imagine we all are candles and when one person's passion....their fire touches another and lights it. We now have 2 more light candles.Networking doesn't waste your time. It multiplies it!

Based on what I have LEARNT so far I will simmer networking into a few points

- Define your personal brand

- answer who are you and what do you do? Clearly and in simple words.

- keep in contact with persons try to keep connected with people in your field or sharing your passions

- present yourself well

- be social, help people have a good time- Dedicate time, money and energy to communication and contact with people.

- listen thoughtfully when people talk about their dreams

- live to fight another day. If you are not feeling well, opt to interact another day

- randomly call and say hi.

Interesting Thoughts and Articles On Networking

Article

From Slot Machine to Stock Market: Investment Strategies for Relationships - John Maxwell

It's the Network by Justin Pinkerman

"The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity."~ Keith Ferrazzi

"Always recognize that human beings are ends, and do not use them as means to your ends."~ Immanuel Kant

"Your network determines your net worth."~ Anonymous

Don't be stingy with your relational investments, giving only to those who've first given to you. Rather, take responsibility for setting the tone of adding value in your relationships. John C Maxwell

"Experience will not save you in hard times, nor will hard work or talent. If you need a job, money, advice, help, hope, or a means to make a sale, there's only one surefire, fail-safe place to find them - within your extended circle of friends and associates." Keith Ferrazzi from his book "Never Eat Alone

Feel Free to comment with your perspective on Networking!

Corey Graham 2.0^N
http://www.coreykgraham.com

Podcast : Music 2.0 And The Caribbean (Interview with Simone Harris)

corey — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:29:20 -0200

My first interview turns about to be with young aspiring Music Executive Simone Harris. A Jamaican by birth Simone now lives in Miami where she is pursuing her passion for the music business.
Simone and I discuss the evolution going on in the music industry and how it relates to the Caribbean.

Who Is Simone Harris?
At 26, former LaCadco dancer turned Entertainment Business Consultant, Simone Harris is on her way to completing her 2nd masters degree in Music Business at Florida Atlantic University. She is the first Jamaican to be registered in the program and the only female. Read More on Simone http://kingston21.wordpress.com/about/

LISTEN HERE -

CLick here to download http://www.mypodcast.com/fsaudio/coreykgraham_20090228_0959-389869.mp3

Adding Depth of The Caribbean Online Community Through Networking 2.0

corey — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:10:08 -0200

In 2009 I decided to put more effort into building networks of people. Corey Graham 2.0 N I call it. I believe that in the Caribbean we do not have many of our meaningful discussions online especially in terms of sharing ideas among ourselves. We are not truly sharing our experiences and perspectives with each other in a way that will make us all better, and help to develop our Entertainment Industry for example. I strongly believe that this can be an important step in building a Caribbean Community.

Be The Change You Want To See In The World

About a year ago I started a group on the business networking site linkedin.com called the Caribbean Entertainment Professionals Group. This is one of my initiatives to make sure I stick on the positive side and providing a solution rather than magnifying the problem. This group features persons from around the globe who are interested in Caribbean Entertainment and in many cases depend on the Caribbean Entertainment Industry to pay the bills.

Admittedly when I started it, I knew I did not have enough time to nurture it and activate the conversation. However, recently I have been able to have some very enlightening coversations on it giving me a better "world view" of the things happening in the entertainment industry.

Take a look at the group. Feel free to post your appropriate blog posts and other RELATED material on the group for discussion.

I encourage you to start a group for your industry today!

CARIBBEAN ENTERTAINMENT PROFESSIONALS LINKEDIN.COM GROUP

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=106409&trk=ane t_ug_hm

What is LinkedIn?
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Corey Graham 2.0