KEDC establishes new charitable foundation - Latest news | Bakersfield.com - Kern County news, events, shopping & search

KEDC establishes new charitable foundation - Latest news Bakersfield.com - Kern County news, events, shopping & search

Getting quoted in the newspaper is a great way to promote your practice. Its starts with always being available when the media calls you. The reporter of this article called me about something entirely different. I had nothing to offer him for the article he was writing. Yet, I wanted to give him something newsworthy. What I thought was an inconsequential factoid, turned into a top story in the Local section (not the business section) of The Bakersfield Californian.

When you don't want to be Facebook friends - Digital Life- msnbc.com

When you don't want to be Facebook friends - Digital Life- msnbc.com

The theme of this article applies to LinkedIn. You have the choice whether to accept a LinkedIn invitation. I do not accept invites from people you don't know nor do I invite people to join my network I don't know. If I don't know them, and I want to connect with them, I make it a point to meet them in person first.

Grow Up!

I am back. After a month long plus sabbatical from blogging, my batteries have recharged. What did it? Did I discover world peace and harmony during my leave? Was I the benefactor of a large gift left by an unknown rich uncle and can now work less? Or more realistically, did my law firm chuck the billable hour's requirement? None of the above. Instead, in living normal life, I would see examples of mistakes young professionals make in promoting themselves or their professional practices. If I didn't see them, I would hear about them. I then asked myself whether I was to blame for these poor examples of professionalism. Were young professionals going amuck because "Marketing for Young Professionals" was in hiatus? Something had to be done. I needed to blog again.

Now that I am back, I want to get straight to the point and address a phenomenon that I noticed during my sabbatical. You need to grow up if you have not already. If you have accepted employment as a lawyer, physician, dentist, civil engineer, architect, etc, your days as the life of the party animal are over. You must now act and dress the part of a professional that clients trust for their personal and business affairs. My clients do not want to read about me in the newspaper for getting arrested. My clients also do not want to hear of my antics at the latest political fundraiser or social event. My clients do not want to see video clips of me in compromising positions on YouTube.

Part of growing up is giving up the MySpace page. I have a few young professional colleagues who will not "lose" their MySpace page and get a LinkedIn or Facebook account. The time is now. Move on! Even if you decide to transition from MySpace to Facebook, you must still avoid posting photos or videos that will embarrass you now or in the future. A college aged male relative recently posted a video of himself on Facebook doing a song and dance routine while in a drunken state. Even though my wife posted a message on his wall suggesting that "videos such as these could keep you from getting that dream job," the video has remained on his Facebook site. Apparently, this male relative does not regard my wife's advice or seeks the approval of his college aged friends more than his aunt. As I have explained to more than one colleague, even if my relative removes the video, Google has surely cached the video for prosperity.

Technology has made it easier to stay in contact with old friends or find lost friends. However, technology has also made it easier for the mistakes or indiscretions of our youth to follow us into middle age.