I'm Technically Speaking

Well after a much needed vacation, I am back! During my time away I not only created a website for a small business, but I also updated my own! This fits right into the last few posts that I have had on Building Your Personal Brand. Especially the last post that speaks to the need for a professional website!! What's really cool is that unexpectedly I think that I found my "brand"....well at least my tagline. I'm Technically Speaking....Sometimes you just need someone that speaks the language. You can see more here at my website, but below is at least a sneak peek :) Compare that to the previous version.... And then to the older yet... As you can see a lot of growing and changing of my brand has changed over the last couple years. It was during the creating of the business website that the tagline came to mind. I was fortunate to work with two wonderful ladies at Quality Printing out of Galva, KS. They wanted a website for their ribbon part of

Chapter 3 How to Build Your Online and Offline Assets "In terms of personal branding, assets are the things you own that will communicate your brand message to your target audience. Assets are things like your own website and blog, but they can also be things like your Twitter username and your LinkedIn profile. Offline assets are things like business cards and or traditional newsletters that you send out."  Much of this has been drilled into me and I in turn have tried to impress it upon my students as well....creating that professional digital footprint/tattoo/whatever you want to call it. It is the power of social media and the social communities.  I wish I had known a couple things at the beginning: 1st picking a good "name" and 2nd how to check for that name's availability.  Picking your name (not your nose :)) When I first started my online presence I chose "educateme or educatememrsn". I thought my connection to education and my name

Chapter 2: How to Define Your Target Audience I would say that my primary audience for this blog would be teachers, but anyone who wants to know about using technology could benefit. Establishing a crystal-clear empathy with the audience..... I have been involved in education really for my whole life. Growing up I remember playing school. I even had a chalkboard and stuffed animal students! I didn't enter my college years seeking teacher training, however. It was my second year of college that I made the change to elementary education. I entered the teaching world straight out of college (graduated in December and started teaching in January). I didn't use much technology in those years as a 2nd grade teacher (except for grading and emailing). In the next couple years as a 6th grade teacher, I used the computer lab for student research projects. Of course all of that was before 2001! I left the teaching in May 2001, after two years under a rather difficult principal. Du

Let's get started.... Chapter One: How to Create a Personal Brand Vision I would say that I am interested in creating a personal brand for these three reasons: Grow my professional network so I open more professional opportunities Build online communities to further increase professional opportunities Lay the foundation for future success " The first step to creating your personal brand is to organize your thoughts and create your personal brand vision. This is the way you want yourself to be perceived by others and also how you want to live your professional and personal life." The first part of this section is entitled: "Who Are You?" If you read my blog, you will have just read a post by the same name. If not, feel free to go back and read it by clicking here . I believe that I have accomplished these through that writing (didn't really mean to do it at the time of writing). Step One: Set Your Values Step Two: Prioritize Values St

I've been reading "The Complete Guide to Building Your Personal Brand"  . *Don't stop reading* I know that probably doesn't sound interesting to most of you. Some fellow Launch Me's will completely understand this. However, even if you are not a "Launch Me", stay with me as a explore this more. To begin, I need to go back to where this idea was planted....Launch Me. You can read a little about it here in this past post. You also can find out more here . I've gone back and forth on how to move forward with my new knowledge. There are times that I am ready to become "the presenter" who travels around and makes big bucks. And then I will stop and do complete 180 that I don't want to be doing that. Back and forth. Back and forth. Often asking myself "what do I want to be/do?". However, I'm beginning to see that it isn't (or doesn't have to be) that black and white. It isn't just about becoming a presenter.

Who am I? What do I "do"? Sometimes I don't know how to answer that question. I have a lot of "hats"/roles. Does that person really want to hear all of them? Which one do I tell them about? Hat 1- wife and mother This isn't always the "hat" that I talk about first. Often when people ask about me, I fail to mention these. However, everything that I do and the decisions that I make are based around these important people in my life! I couldn't do what I do without these people! They often believe in me more than I believe in myself. Hat 2- teacher This really sums up what I do and "who" I am in general terms. I love teaching/training. My brain is a teacher's brain. This is one of my favorite teacher outfits :) It signifies a time in my life that I am proud of. When I left my Masters program I knew that I wanted to be in teacher training or working with teachers with technology. This was a huge turning point in m