MarketingMel

Matt Overby, Executive Director of Summit Leadership Foundation

Recently I’ve noticed a trend among my 30-something friends with young children. When it comes to social media, you can’t find them (or their babies.) One of those friends, Matt Overby, the 37 year old Executive Director of the Summit Leadership Foundation, decided, along with his wife, to “cut the social media cord” when their infant son was born last year. I was interested in why a very tech savvy, marketing-oriented leader would choose to do this. So I sat down to interview Matt and ask him about it. Matt has extensive training in the hospitality industry both at Starbucks and at Chick-fil-A, and he is a student of Leadership Guru John Maxwell. Our seven minute conversation is well worth the listen to see the insights into a young father’s mind as to why he did not want his baby on Facebook, twitter, instagram or any other public platform.

Although I had seen this trend with Matt and others, in researching this pos,t I found only one article about it called “No Baby on Board: Many Parents Keeping Info About Their Babies Off Social Media.” Ironically, after I left the interview with Matt I bumped into another young father and shared our discussion with him. This very tech-savvy dad told me he also quit social media when his first child was born. “Not with facial recognition,” was his comment as he shook his head “no” when asked if he posted his kids’ photos on social media platforms.

What’s been your experience with other parents of newborns? Are they staying on social media or quitting? I would love to hear from you.

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The buzz over socks just keeps on building! Nationally, #Socktober founder Kid President has teamed with Grover on his campaign to bring socks to the homeless (and who wouldn’t want the power of Sesame Street backing their cause?)

#Socktober founder Kid President with Grover

Locally, our efforts garnered the attention of two TV stations: WCYB-TV 5:30 News (story transcript here) and WJHL-TV’s DayTime Tri-Cities.  Many thanks to Ron Scalf of Out ‘N About Magazine for helping us spread the word in print! More and more people and businesses are jumping in to help us bring socks to the homeless. Once we gather all of the socks we will donate them to United Way of Washington County, TN so that they can give them to their agencies who work directly with the homeless in our community.

WCYB-TV videographer Tim Culbertson and Mary Ellen MIller of MarketingMel show off some of the #Socktober sock donations.

Bonnie White, Johnson City Schools Homeless coordinator told us that,”These socks are so appreciated. Many of these students go to school with blisters on their feet because their shoes are too large or too small and they are wearing them with no socks.  We really appreciate and will use these new socks.”

And who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch? Chick-Fil-A Crossings is now on board with this great offer: Mondays in October drop off three new pair of socks and get a coupon for a free Grilled Chick-fil-A Sandwich. 

In addition to MarketingMel, the following businesses are sponsors for the second year in a row: Appearances Hair Salon, Spine & Sports Chiropractic and Summit Leadership Foundation. This year the Johnson City Morning Rotary also joined as a lead sponsor.

Here are the drop off locations with links to each. We’ve expanded with drop off sites adding locations in both Kingsport and Bristol this year. Let’s hope we get LOTS of socks! Last year we got over 500 pair and this year our goal is more than 750 new pair of socks. Remember, we have over 700 homeless students in the Johnson City school system alone and they’ve got family members, so we need all sizes, all colors, all kinds of new socks. Thank you!

Appearances Hair Salon

Cumberland Marketing

Exalt Academy of Cosmetology

First Tennessee Bank– Crossings, Peoples and North Roan Street locations

Johnson City Morning Rotary at Johnson City Country Club

Spine & Sports Chiropractic

Summit Leadership Foundation

Tri-City Community Bank

Princeton Arts Center

Robinson Animal Hospital

Chick-fil-A, Crossings 

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The following is a guest blog post by Maria Peagler, Founder of SocialMediaOnlineClasses.com and my collaborator on our upoming Personal Branding Webinar.

Join us for a FREE Pump Up Your Personal Brand webinar Thursday, Sept. 13 at 1p.m. ET. (It takes less than 10 seconds to register here!)

How to Create Profitable Personal Branding?

Personal branding is a buzzword being used so frequently it’s become almost a cliche. Most of my clients are confused about what it is, how they actually go about doing it, and why it’s important. So let’s toss out a few examples.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind for:

Tom Cruise?

Charlie Sheen?

Chik-fil-A?

Mission Impossible or TomKat?

All of these “brands” have taken hits lately that take your eyes off their core product: for Tom Cruise and Charlie Sheen, you instantly think of personal fiascos, not their body of work or their latest movie or TV show. Happy investors? Absolutely not.

Why do you think Tom & Katie’s divorce happened so quickly? He knows the longer the media talks about his personal life, the less they’re covering his latest Mission Impossible movie.

Gay Marriage or the Best Chicken Sandwich?

Chik-fil-A has come under fire recently because of one their C-suite’s stance on gay marriage. People who had never before heard of Chik-fil-A now recognize the name and their“family-friendly” culture.

Guess what? I already knew they welcomed my family, because my sons’ favorite fast-food restaurant is Chik-fil-A. They serve delicious, healthy chicken sandwiches and nuggets, offer books and educational CDs in their kids’ meals, have immaculate facilities and superior customer service.

I didn’t need to know about their gay marriage stance. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t quizzing their cashiers on the company’s political affiliations. I’ll just take the healthy, delicious food, thank you.

What Do You Want to Be Known For?

Your personal brand is essential because no longer do Americans (or most international professionals) have the luxury or desire for a single, lifetime career track. Your personal brand extends beyond your latest job position, startup company, or joint venture. Your personal brand is the entirety of you: your personal and professional reputation, tied into one big bundle.

Want a quick snapshot of your personal brand? Google your name.

Are the results professional and consistent? Could they use some improvement?

Pump Up Your Personal Brand Training

Exactly what does it take to create profitable personal branding that you can be proud of? The Personal Branding Infographic I created with Mary Ellen “Mel” Miller of MarketingMel.com details 15 action steps to creating personal branding that becomes a profit center for you.

Want to learn more? Join us for a FREE webinar Thursday, Sept. 13 at 1p.m. ET. (It takes less than 10 seconds to register here!) when we’ll be telling you exactly how to make your personal branding sticky for the right reasons, what to avoid, and how to create a long-term plan so you can develop your branding in stages.

Maria Peagler

Maria Peagler is founder of SocialMediaOnlineClasses.com offers the World’s Largest Selection of 24/7 online classes on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter, Slideshare, and WordPress. Maria is an award-winning author & publisher of eight books, a veteran technology trainer & she skyrocketed her latest book from unknown to Amazon’s top ten for two years using only social media.

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