Application Video

Why the TMBA is a Good Fit For Me at This Time in My Life

Twenty years ago I was a newly minted MBA (Duke) doing my obligatory stint on Wall Street. I soon discovered that my necktie was strangling the creativity out of me and that corporate politics was squashing my entrepreneurial spirit.

I had to make a change, so I set out to develop criteria for my perfect pursuit. (That criteria is, by the way, as relevant today as it was then.) Those criteria included being creative, and being an entrepreneur. I had to have room for personal, intellectual, and professional growth. I had to be doing something new and different and exciting every day. Traveling was huge, an absolute must. Most importantly, I had to be passionate about and engaged in what I was doing. Work would not be work because it would excite me on so many different levels.

I chose photography. As the son of a LIFE Magazine photographer I had a camera in my hand before I could walk. For two decades I succeeded in realizing my goals.

Now it is time for another change.  A year ago I started looking for opportunities that would fill the same criteria. I concluded that Internet marketing was my best option.

I had already done Internet marketing for my photographic business. I had designed and developed websites and marketed them using SEO, Adwords and Social Media. Internet marketing was a sideshow (I made the overwhelming majority of my photo revenue through my agents). Now marketing has now to become my main event.

I set about learning what needed to be learned and doing what needed to be done. I read books and blogs on SEO, social media marketing, Adwords optimization and PPC strategies. I set up new blogs to practice and test marketing strategies and tactics.  And, I developed a new base of clients for whom I do social media marketing consulting.

I know the theory and the tools. I have dabbled and I have practiced.   Now it is time to jump in, to get my hands dirty through a full on, pedal-to-the-metal immersion.

Your opportunity is exactly what I need and it comes at exactly the right moment in my life. I need to expand and refine my knowledge of websites and Internet marketing. You offer that. My entrepreneurial spirit is yearning to break free and boy, do I need to travel. You offer that.  I need to be in a focused, productive environment. You offer that. And it would be really great to be networking with like-minded people. You offer that.

While you have a great deal to offer me, likewise, I can bring a lot to you. There is great benefit to bringing in someone with over twenty years of entrepreneurial business experience as well as with the tools acquired through an MBA program.  Further, I can bring my excellent photographic and communications skills. Ours would be a mutually beneficial relationship.

My Websites and Blogs

For the past ten years I have been active in the development, creation and posting of numerous websites and blogs. All of these offerings were designed as showpieces for members of the photographic community:  photo buyers, assignment editors, stock houses and models whom I wanted to photograph. The idea was to show the quality and breadth of my work, to impress the models with my long list of magazine credits (so they would reduce their rates or work with me for free), and to remind all that I was ready, willing and able to drop everything at a moments notice to travel to the far ends of the earth.

Today I have one blog and one website for my photographic works.  The web site can be found at http://www.bradrickerby.com and the blog at http://www.bradrickerby.blogspot.com. The website is created from a template offered by Photoshelter.com. I find this approach much more time-efficient for the business out of which I am transitioning.

I like to paint. I like oils mostly, but sometimes use watercolor. I do mostly abstracts, but someday, when I learn better skills, I would like to transition to landscapes and seascapes. I have a website and a blog for my painting portfolio. The website is at http://www.colorlightmovement.com. The blog is located at http://www.rickerbyart.com. Lets face it, I’m not the best painter in the world. While the painting is fun, and serves a meditative function, the website and blog are not really business pursuits.

As part of my life’s repositioning I am now offering social media marketing consulting services. My blog for this is at http://www.smmadventures.com.  This blog is strictly for client development. The posts are designed for the social media neophyte. They are written in terms simple enough to demystify, yet complex enough to make it evident to the reader that they require a consultant. I have just added a mailing list subscription, books through Amazon and Internet tools with which I am affiliated.

Still, the blog is not designed to be a mass-market piece. I have had a steady flow of inquiries and have developed a number of clients from the blog, which is exactly what it was intended to do.

Three Great Blogs

I love the following blogs. They are listed in my order of preference.

http://suitcaseentreprenuer.com, by Natalie Sisson, is my favorite. It is truly an excellent blog.

Suitcaseentreprenuer.com gives me relevant, interesting, and, for the most part, well-written content. It also gives what I think of as meaty posts. They have enough information on the bones to be valuable. So many blogs I see just give teases to lure you into buying product. Natalie actually gives you actionable information.

The information Natalie provides comes in a variety of formats, making it easily accessible. The written blog posts are formatted for readability. There are no chunks of text large enough to make your eyes glaze over. She uses plain language, in short paragraphs, with lots of graphics to help one read. Also, she does not write to a sixth grade level, which, while she probably should, is appreciated by those of us with a brain.

Suitcaseentreprenuer.com is also nicely interactive. Natalie seeks out comments and is quick to respond both to the comments and other questions. She is friendly and gracious. You can almost see the smile on her face as she interacts with you. I’ve only made a couple of comments on her posts and already I’m on a first name basis with her.

Lastly, I can follow her on Facebook and Twitter. I spend a lot of time on Twitter in my capacity as a social media marketing consultant.

http://blog.hubspot.com gets second place in my list of blogs. The blog was founded by two MIT graduates. Their writing is very intelligent and covers many areas of interest. There is a large archive of posts and they are constantly giving away eBooks as promotional items.

http://blogsbyheather.com is a blog about blogging, and is my third favorite blog. Blogging is a subject in which I have a great interest. This blog has a lot of useful information and the prose is very clean and readable.