Thought Provoked by New Media Europe

I hope that you and your audience are doing well and the week has
been productive and positive so far.


Mine is not as productive as I wanted it to be, but on other hand
we all deserve a break once in a while, right?


In the previous episode I promised to share with you my thoughts
and experiences provoked by the New Media Europe.


For those who don’t know - and probably many of you don’t since
it is not in the US - New Media Europe is a conference for people
focused on growth.


This is the conference for entrepreneurs, freelancers, business
owners, content creators (including podcasters, bloggers,
vloggers) and startups in all stages of growth.


And I had the privilege of being one of the speakers at that
event. I was a speaker for the first time but hope not the last
because I sort of enjoyed being on stage. As one of my speaker
friends puts it “it’s like being a rockstar”. And I have been a
rock soul since my teenage years… Hoops it seems I drifted away…
that is not what I wanted to talk to you about.


During the intense week end I had several thoughts that I wanted
to share with you, because they are related to what we do. So
let’s start…


1. It is very important to be among like-minded
people


We usually spend most of our days working online and that can
make us feel a bit lonely. Most probably there are not many
people among our relatives and friends who are from the same
field. That means that they do not understand what does it feel
to be in our shoes - they don’t imagine our struggles, challenges
and success stories… When I land a guest post on a big website,
when I am invited to speak, when I get a good review for my book
or a podcast many don’t really realize that it is a big deal. And
self-motivating ourselves non stop is not an easy thing to do.


That is why events where like minded people gather are very
important. That is where we realize that we are not the crazy
weirdos who have chosen to go against the traditionally accepted
career path. So events like this are great place to finally feel
like a fish in a water. And you end up meeting new awesome
people, which is always an amazing bonus!


2. Be yourself


We talk a lot about personal branding and branding your business.
There are various elements and tactics and strategies, which we
definitely will be covering in the Brand Architect podcast. We
also hear a lot about being authentic and genuine and how
important that is. Being authentic has become one of those fancy
new expression everyone is using these days.


Well at New Media Europe I vividly saw why being true to yourself
in your online branding is very important. The conference lasted
two days + we had a gala dinner and award ceremony. This is a
pretty long time. This means that if in your online branding you
had positioned yourself anything else but who you really are -
pretending for 2 whole days + the evening would be very hard.
You’d rather spend time having fun and not stressing out about
how you are perceived. And that can happen only if that’s how you
and your brand is online. This personal meeting should only
reinforce the image you had created and not confuse people. You
don’t want people realize that you are not at all who they
thought you were.


3. Online vs offline


These days we have so many different means to connect with...