A few years ago, my wife Lauren, along with some friends of hers, planned a surprise baby shower for her best friend. My wife sent out an email to her pregnant friend with their "pretend" plans to get lunch and BCC'd (blind carbon copied) the other friends she was planning the shower with. The email came

I was in a meeting with the CEO and the marketing person. The marketing person doubled as the CEO's personal assistant. The CEO had just returned from a conference and was upset because he missed a session he wanted to be part of. He blamed the marketing person for this. "I don't understand why I

How to Use Snapchat. 1. Download the app. Go to the Google Play Store or iTunes Store, search for "Snapchat". Install. (Note: there's no "computer" version - this is phone/tablet only.) 2. Open up the app. It looks like this: 3. Once you've installed the app, open it up, and click "Sign Up" 4. Enter

In 2010, I went on a job interview with a tech company that made mobile apps. Toward the end of the interview, the interviewer told me one of their clients was a major bank who wanted a Facebook app for their customers to use for transactions.  At that time, Facebook games and apps were the

How do you feel about getting older? Personally, I'm not a fan. Not at all. I can accept it, but I don't have to like it. I have a good amount of gray hair, which I'm not thrilled with. It's been a thing people commented on for years. It started with comments like "Oh wow,

Short answer: No. Long answer: No. Unless you have a reason you want to keep some things private. In 2015, the best way to gain a following is to have great content and: 1. Be famous, friends with someone who's famous, or go places with famous people frequently. 2. Engage in conversations with as many

On Thursday night, I went to a “Choose Yourself” meetup, which was titled as an “Idea Mixer”. The point is to come up with ideas – ideas are the new currency – and take one idea and combine it with another idea, until you have a completely new idea baby. We broke into groups as

"Have you ever ridden in an ambulance before?" That was the EMT's first question. "No," I responded. "You're going to love it. This vehicle costs a quarter of a million dollars, and this thing MOVES." He was right. We were definitely doing 90 MPH on Route 287, with my wife in the back on a

I like to ask people questions. One of my favorite activities is to ask people who are probably ignored by the general population about their day, or for their greatest story while on-the-job.It's actually reached the point where I do this without realizing. A few weeks ago, my wife and I went food shopping  at

I was interviewed yesterday about a young man I met who was homeless. I was in Journal Square in Jersey City, NJ. He walked up to me, ranting and using expletives. He couldn’t have been more than 25. I listened to his story, which was terribly sad. He’d been in multiple shelters, he’d had no

Are you on Buzzfeed right now? Or Facebook? Or LinkedIn? Let me guess what you’re doing. You’re sitting at work, reading articles all day, pretending to be working. You’re bored. You’re frustrated. You feel trapped. You know you’re slowly wasting your life sitting and working for someone else. But you’re earning a paycheck, who wants

I recently gave a talk at 12:30 PM. That's when I eat lunch, so I figured others would probably be hungry, and their minds might be thinking about food rather than what I was saying. Do you get nervous when it comes to public speaking? According to surveys, fear of public speaking ranks higher than

I don't write as much I want to. Not nearly as much as I should. There's this voice. It's constantly talking. It's so loud I can't concentrate. Do you have it too? It's the voice (or maybe there are multiple voices?) telling you that you’re not good enough. The voice saying that you can’t take

Everyone says "I want to lose weight." But very few make the changes needed to accomplish their goals. Here's my story. I remember the moment I decided I needed to lose weight. I went to buy new jeans, and I hunted through the entire store looking for jeans that could fit me, as long as

Last year, about this time, my boss IM'd me and my counterpart, her other direct report. “Can you both please call into my conference bridge?" I dialed in first, and as we were momentarily the only ones on the bridge, she began. “Dan. I’ve been offered another position at another company, and I’m going to

On Tuesday night, I did an online session using Google Hangouts, where I discussed building a following online or locally – one person at a time. It's about 30 minutes long and I specifically discuss: 1. Building Your Voice 2. Using Social Media 3. Making Money The time went really quickly, and I had a

Can you imagine if someone told you they were in an abusive relationship, but then, in the same breath said, "well, I just feel lucky to have a boyfriend (or girlfriend)!" You'd think, "Wow, you need help." Not all abusive relationships happen in our personal lives. It was mid-2008. The economy was getting bad. I

This question came up in the online session I did on Tuesday night (watch the replay here!) and since some people prefer to read, here's the answer. The general opinion of social media professionals is that buying followers is wrong. It's not authentic. It's not organic. On one level, I totally agree with that.  But

Here's what I believe: 1. You can make money on your own without working 9AM- 5PM (or 7AM - 7PM) for a company that doesn't care about you. 2. You can build your own following that will launch your business. 3. You can use technology to do all of this. It's not as difficult as

There's a group of people being ignored. You're one of them. Does this describe you? You work for a company. You're not getting paid enough. The company doesn't really care about you. If 2008 happened all over again, you could quickly be out of a job. You have a hobby or a passion you could

Hi. I'm Daniel Hill.  I have to ask you a couple of things, if you don't mind.First, I don't know who you are. You're kind enough to come to my website and read my writing, but I don't know a lot about you other than that. I read a number of websites every day, some of

  Everyone wants to be happy.  In 2011, 33% of Americans claimed to be happy, a drop of 2% from 2008. That means 66%, or most people, aren't happy. And I know why. I'm a people-watcher. I could do it all day, every day. My favorite part of vacations is going somewhere new to watch

How do you view the world? What statement defines your personal outlook? When building a following, it's necessary to determine your worldview before doing anything else, because it gives prospective members of your tribe something to identify with.You don't need everyone to identify with your worldview - but the ones who do identify with it are the

Twitter has been described as the world's largest cocktail party. I think that's a great description. But with that comes the sheer volume of information that goes 24 hours per day.  Managing that flow of information can be hard. To help manage it, the phrase "Follow easily. Unfollow even more easily," gets thrown around. Here's

Everyone has strengths and other things that they’re … not as good at. In 1993, after winning 3 championships, the greatest basketball player in the history of the sport quit to play baseball. His father had always wanted him to play professional baseball, so he tried. And while he wasn't terrible, he wasn't great. How could

Everyone wants to have more followers. When you get one on social media, you think "yay! New follower! I must be doing something right!" And typically, you'll look briefly at the person's profile. If you go the extra mile, maybe you'll Google them. Maybe you'll even try to reach out to them personally with a

If you've read the first article I wrote, you know "Why A Following Is Important". Now, let's talk about how you grow one of your own. The first step is to start figuring out a way to tell others what you're passionate about.  It doesn't have to be huge steps.  Here are some small steps

  Instagram is an amazing platform and a great way to connect with people. Want more followers?  Make sure you’re not making these mistakes:   1. Being set to private: If you want get more followers, people need to see who you are and what you’re about. Setting your account to be private is a

Earlier today, one of my contacts, Rachel, posted on Facebook the following: Know anyone that needs an internship (there is a small stipend) ...See below: message me for the inside scoop.  Successful Construction and Real Estate Services Company is seeking an Intern to assist with Setting up our Social Media Marketing Platform. We’re an established