Ah, is she an entrepreneur or simply an agent of change? Does it matter? She has important things to say to all of us and is a strong voice for African American women who want to impact the world around them and perhaps don’t feel empowered enough to do so. I first found out about her when I read Guy Kawasaki’s blog post

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. Because it is so good and you can read it in its entirety, I won’t repeat a lot of the details he’s already highlighted.

A fantastic speaker, a MacArthur fellow, a woman fighting for environmental and urban change (talk about a lot to take on in one lifetime-wouldn’t one of these have been enough?), and an economic consultant, Majora is a testament to passion and drive. Raised in the South Bronx, Carter has dedicated herself to improving this area and devising templates for fighting, what she calls, “environmental racism”.

It’s been drummed into you over and over. You know you need to be active on social networking sites, tweeting on Twitter, interacting in groups on Facebook, and answering expert questions on LinkedIn. But you are a busy solo practitioner or entrepreneur and this is all so time consuming. We have several online applications to suggest that will help you manage this increasingly important task! We want to thank Guy Kawasaki and his recent post

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Ping.fm

: This is a must-use site. Ping.fm allows you to register all of your sites, including some of the social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us, and then update your status or blog from Ping. It then sends those out to the ones you’ve registered. So you can update your Twitter feed and your status on LI and FB quickly, all at once.

TweetDeck: TweetDeck is an app you download to your computer and it acts like a dashboard for Twitter primarily. You can manage multiple online screen names (some have one for business and one for personal use), watch feeds, shorten URL’s instead of moving to another site to do this. It’s a handy tool and very slick. However, if you don’t want to download anything and you want most of the same features, we suggest…

HootSuite: HootSuite is a Web-based applicaton that also lets you manage multiple personalities, is less cluttered than TweetDeck and still allows you to watch your incoming tweets. It doesn’t have as many features as TweetDeck but the learning curve is faster and it is extremely user-friendly. If you work in a corporate environment with restricted Internet access for social sites, it may allow you to get around this and tweet from work.

FriendFeed: FF is a one-stop social networking stop! It collects information from a variety of other sites, including Flickr, so you can easily see what the people you follow are doing across multiple platforms and vice versa. It shows your social activity in a variety of places and gives you a broader idea of what your contacts are up to.

Seesmic: We are less familiar with Seesmic at TVLAI, but it is also a downloaded application that more easily allows you to manage Twitter and Facebook, combining the two sites and their activities into one window. You can post to both simultaneously and watch the activities of your friends and those you follow in one spot without going to two different sites. LinkedIn would be a nice add but LI doesn’t offer as much “real time” activity as the other two so at this point perhaps it makes sense not to add it.

If we were going to recommend just two of these apps, it would be HootSuite and Ping.fm. However, if you are a heavy FB user, Seesmic seems like a good add. If you are a Sessmic user, share your experiences below and let us know what you like or don’t about the application.

Love or hate Guy Kawasaki, or know nothing about him at all, he can give you the “down and dirty” about almost any topic related to starting a business or branding yourself (though he rarely refers to it that way). The Art of the Start followed Rules for Revolutionaries Men of Honor hd (which I still plan on reading) and is an easy to read guide “for anyone starting anything”, particularly a business. It has zero fluff and is broken down into categories like The Art of Positioning, The Art of Branding, and The Art of Bootstrapping. Most importantly, each chapter happily starts with “Gist”, an up front summary of the whole chapter. Regarding positioning he says: “When done properly, it represents the heart and soul of a new organization [even if you are the organization], stating clearly:

• why the founders [YOU] started the organization [or business]
• why customers should patronize it
• why good people should work at it

Kawasaki is an experienced venture capitalist who has seen many businesses succeed and many fail. His advice on finding and dominating a niche, getting cash flowing quickly, on finding angel investors, on understaffing and outsourcing (to a VA?) in the beginning is all brilliant and written in cut to the chase style. The book can literally be used as a guide, picked up when you have a business question, but it is also really motivating. The last chapter is about being a ”mensch” or ”helping people who can’t help you.” Who doesn’t love that?

If you are considering starting a business or heading out on your own, grab a copy of this book to take a long with you for the ride. If you already own it, share your thoughts with us! You can follow Guy on Twitter: @guykawasaki and you can follow TVLAI: @arethagaskin.

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Formal or informal, written or verbal, the ways in which you communicate set you apart from your competitors (or not). Regardless (NOT “irregardless”) of your exact profession, many of your competitors are leaving a space for you to really stand out because, well, they are so crummy at business letters, proposals, public speaking, PowerPoint presentation and more. Given that many of us are developing the majority of our own communications materials, it makes sense to do everything you can to improve this basic, but powerful, skill. Here are 10 tips and resources to help you brush up:

1. Be succinct. Review your post, letter, presentation and make sure you said what you needed to say in as few words as possible while still engaging your audience. Tell a story by getting to the point. We all have really short attention spans.

2. Edit and proofread. Write a first, second, or third draft, edit it for brevity and pass it off to someone else to review. Then proofread it again. It’s sort of like the carpenter’s mantra of “measure twice, cut once”, though you may have to cut more than that.

3. READ and WATCH others. Go to TED.com

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and watch great speakers. Read literature and business books and magazines.

4. Watch out for common errors. It’s vs. its. Their and there. Have seen and saw. Ensure vs. insure., etc. If you need reminders, go here.

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5. Who knew a tiny little podcast about grammar would become such a huge hit, lead to a book and cd

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(aka Mignon Fogarty). Her podcast is entertaining and educational.

6. Ugh. I’ve sat through some abysmal PowerPoint presentations. You know the ones? Fonts are all over the place, too small, the presenter reads to me, totally amateur. There are some easy cures for this. See Guy Kawasaki’s (very funny) 10-20-30 commandment about Power Point presentations. Or get a copy of Presentation Zen

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7. Get a good style manual. You need a basic guide and there are several classics available that are regularly updated. The Elements of Style, On Writing Well, and Grammatically Correct are all good choices.

8. Get free online mentoring. There are so many amazing sites offering you free professional level training. My favorites include Copyblogger, Problogger

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, and Remarkable Communication. Presentation Zen also has an informative site.  

9. Join a writing group and/or Toastmasters. The power of many people is always helpful. Go to Meetup.com

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and look for “writers” or “writing” in your area. Go to the Toastmaster’s site to find a group that will, gently, help you improve your public speaking skills.

10. Hire it out. Harder to do for public speaking (but impossible? who knows.) but you can find really good affordable copywriting fairly easily. If you need some referrals, let us know!

What parts of writing or public speaking do you really struggle with? Share your experiences below!

SXSW Interactive is one of the most popular and hip tech fairs out there, partly because it is associated with the music and film festivals of the same name and it’s in cool Austin, Texas. This is the place to be for in-depth conversation about social networking, online marketing, increasing creativity and all the technical stuff like open source software and Web design. It offers awesome presenters like Pamela Slim, Guy Kawasaki, Imdb’s Col Needham The Elephant Man dvdrip and Chris Anderson from Wired. By the way, Guy Kawasaki has added FindVirtual.com, part of the virtual professionals social networking group that I’m a part of, to AllTop.com, his site for recommended blogs and web sites! You can read about that here

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However! I have a treat. My business colleague, Kelly Livesay, from AROnetworking

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, will be reporting several times for us from SXSW and hitting some of the highlights from the presentations and keynotes she attends, along with posting some photos for us! You can follow Kelly as she goes on Twitter (kellylivesay) or you can wait for that day’s post with a summary of what she heard and saw. If you can’t be there, it’s the next best thing and TVLAI There’s a Stranger in my House dvd

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is excited to offer it to you!

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Being in practice for your self can be daunting. You are sales person, HR manager, accountant, IT support and venture capitalist all rolled into one.  (Hopefully you have a VA

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Fast Company. FC is the baby brother (in theme only) of the older and stodgier (but still solid) Inc. Far more likely to cover topics like new media, social networking, virtual outsourcing and emerging technologies, FC is an easy read. Its companion web site is a social network in and of itself and I recommend signing up and being active. Tom Peters published his first article on personal branding on FC, setting the tone for the magazine in coming years. 

Wired. Wired is hot, fun and cool. While you’re learning about new technologies for business, you can also learn about gaming, music and film. It’s a cheap subscription and it’s packed with content. 

Entrepreneur Dust Devil dvd . What was once a sort of cheesy catalog of franchise opportunities has turned into the ultimate “must read” for anyone dreaming of, or already running, their own business. Whether it’s how to find funding, managing a home office, inspiring success stories (often profiled here) or just the great articles by Guy Kawasaki

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, Entrepreneur is now definitely a worthy and easy read. 

PC World. Yep. Unless you have an IT department, you need to stay caught up on the basics of setting up a wireless network, which cell phone to purchase next or what the best anti-virus software is. PC World hasn’t been topped yet in giving you basic computer info. 

Reading each of these monthly periodicals should provide you with all the information you need to add the Wow! Halloween H20: 20 Years Later dvd The The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe movie The Constant Gardener trailer

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There is so much juicy goodness in the form of free training and motivational videos on the Web! You can listen to top speakers who charge hundreds or thousands of dollars, all for FREE. Here are some of the best I’ve found:

1. Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 Rule

for PowerPoint

2. Seth Godin’s Sliced Bread

(all about standing out in the marketplace)

3. Richard St. John’s Success is a Continuous Journey

4. Richard Branson (Need I say more?)

5. David Allen on Getting Things Done

6. Tom Peters (founder of personal branding) on Gain Respect by Giving It

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7. Lisa Irby’s Creating a Wordpress Blog (ALL of Lisa’s YouTube videos about online marketing are excellent)

8. Gary Vaynerchuk’s Enormous Talent is Not Enough

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10. Keith Ferrazi’s How to Turn a Contact into an Ally

Personal branding is a catch phrase founded by Tom Peters over 10 years ago in a Fast Company article entitled The Brand Called You. (I urge each and every one of you to read this not once, but to bookmark and read it at least quarterly-we always need to be reminded of this message). He went on to write a fantastic book by the same title, but the original intent was personal branding of yourself as an employee within a corporate setting. The concept of personal branding has changed since then and is used regarding solo practitioners most frequently. What is a personal brand?

Your word is your brand.
Your loyalty is your brand.
Your product and services are your brand.
Your personality is your brand.
Your style of dress is your brand.
Your innovation and ideas are your brand.
WHO you ARE is your personal brand.

So is your brand saying what it should-or more importantly, what you want it to? Have you identified what you want people saying about you in the marketplace? Do you want to be known as a change-agent, an innovator, a thought-leader, and an expert? Or is your line of work respected for honesty, timeliness, attention to detail and dependability? Do you provide product or services? Are you a public speaker whose charisma is key? Understanding the best way to present yourself is key to a well-developed brand.

Personal branding is a topic with an inexhaustible amount of Web content. Keep in mind: any thought-leader/expert that you know by name only (not affiliated with a company) is really a personal brand: Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan,  Arianna Huffington, Seth Godin, and Oprah (perhaps the biggest!).

Here are some consistently strong choices of content on PB for you to check out:

Personal Branding Magazine, founded by Dan Schawbel, personal branding expert and author of his own blog at Personal Branding. He is considered the current leader in personal branding and he’s only 23.
Tim O’Brien
Personal Branding Summit
Tom Peters
The Personal Branding Blog (different than above).

How are you building YOUR brand? Tell us below!  

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Here at TVLAI, the laptop is a frequent companion. I notice, too, that I have a lot of company on the airport lose-the-shoes-and-everything-metallic security line.  My laptop is never the only one scooting along in its square plastic bin past the rubber “blinds” and under the X-ray machine.

Like most laptop owners, I try to be real careful about how I handle it, trying to minimize the bangs, bruises and spills that happen.

So, I was intrigued by this article in Gizmodo about how Panasonic makes its Toughbook tough.

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It undergoes 500 tests. 

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It’s dropped from three feet.  26 times.

It’s drenched in water spray for 12 hours.

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They shut it off, and subject it to temperatures that swing from 205 degrees Fahrenheit to -60 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Humidity.  Dust.  Vibration.  The list goes on. 

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I think it’s a great read for any Virtual Assistants on the go because we all know it’s a hard, dusty, wet, humid, bumpy, coffee-saturated world out there where the meetings, conventions and potential clients are.

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Recently, Fortune Small Business discussed the same topic, assaulting the Toughbook and the DRS Armor with real-life doses of coffee, nails and sawdust.  This article also discusses customer service.

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Who hates PowerPoint? Who’s found a better way? Lately there has been a real call to improve presentations by sharing concrete information on how to do so. One of these ways is called Pecha Kucha

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. It’s a Japanese term meaning “chit chat” and a couple of architects developed it as a way of sharing information quickly and without putting the audience to sleep. It’s 20 slides, each shown for ONLY 20 seconds. Pecha Kucha was actually a social event and the Wikipedia entry says it was for “young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.” These events spread the good old cyberspace way and now there are Pecha Kucha nights everywhere. I mean everywhere, like Chattanooga download The Reader movie Terror in a Texas Town film

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Guy Kawasaki uses a similar method he calls 10-20-30

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: no more than 10 slides (GASP), 20 minutes spent on the slides and no smaller than a sized 30 font. This prevents the unprepared from reading their presentation TO US. (We can do this ourselves) and forces them to know their material.

Want to know more? Dan Pink, author of the amazing and insightful new book A Whole New Mind

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