Thoughts and Visions from Hislop

Moving day…

mitchellhislop — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:22:08 +0000

As sad as it is, I am moving this blog to be self hosted. It will be located at www.mitchellhislop.com, hopefully by the time you are reading this. Any subscribers, I am sorry that you have to change it, but please change it.

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360PULSE launches!

mitchellhislop — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:00:21 +0000

I am delighed to let you all know that my weekly webshow with fahrenheight360, called 360PULSE, is live!!

Our tagline is “The pulse of the young generation”, and we deliver tips, news, and information that young professionals need to know.

Here is the first episode:

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My Favorite Places to Work

mitchellhislop — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:15:51 +0000

No, this is not a post about which company I like best. Nor is it a post about office culture. As someone who does some freelancing, I work everywhere. I have recently started seeing that there are certain places that are more conducive to certain tasks for me.

via mobilechina2007 on flickr

Video Editing:

A new addition to my freelance skillset is video creation. I used to make videos all the time back when I was a climber, but that dropped off in high school.

I have found myself doing a video webcast for fahrenHEIGHT360, titled 360PULSE. I am also doing the editing for it, meaning I had to dust off the old skills. I have found that I work best at my office, in downtown Minneapolis. I have a second monitor there, as well as the external harddrive and my nice headphones.

RSS

To qualify this, I monitor my RSS feeds daily. I use Google Reader, and star any items I want to follow up on. The following up I do after brunch on Sundays, at the Starbucks near my place. This allows me to really focus, and try out the new services I see, look into the sites I read about, and blog about anything noteworthy.

via Ahmed Rabea

Email is a daily occurrence. I usually skim it while my coffee is brewing in the morning, and triage anything that needs my attention right away. I then process the rest of it when I get to work, and again at the end of work. I have started checking my email less, which allows me to focus more.

“Focused” work

This is any work that requires my total attention, whether it be blogging, planning, or designing. I do almost all of this at the desk in my room, with music on to block out all the noise of living in a 100 year old building.

Are there certain tasks that you do best in a certin place? Let me know in the comments.

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My 2009 Dream

mitchellhislop — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:05:45 +0000

My dream, which will hopefully happen this year, is to be fully freelance. While I love the job that I have at fahrenHEIGHT360, I feel like I could do more if I was doing freelance. Rather than doing what I love half the time, and doing market research the rest, I would rather do what I love for more companies. A bunch of social media people met at MOTO-i last week, and the conversation inevitably turned to consulting. What we all agreed on is that there are more companies that need us then there are consultants. By my calculations, this means that I would need to pick up 2 clients this year, as well as convert my current job into project work (which is where my resolution came from in my prior post). If anyone want to help me, please look at my contact page.

(DISCLAIMER: These views are mine alone, and should no way reflect negatively on fahrenHEIGHT360. I love the idea behind the company and the goals that they have. )

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New Years Resolutions

mitchellhislop — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:00:24 +0000

For the first time, I am setting new years resolutions. I thought that is was past due, and maybe this way I can check a few things off of my list.However, I did not want to set things that would start right now, today. These are all goals to complete by the end of the year.

1. Lose 20 pounds-under 200 lbs.

2. Land 1 cigar client, and 2 freelance clients.

3. Maintain a 3.75 GPA through fall and spring semester.

Blogosphere and Twitterverse, please hold me accountable to these goals.

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2008-Year in review, from my perspective

mitchellhislop — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:00:31 +0000

There are a myriad of posts floating around the blog-o-sphere about 2008. If that is not enough, there are tons of radio shows counting down the top songs, or TV stations doing all the big news of the year. Well, I will not be joining them.

Maybe its my ego.

Maybe it is my love of the limelight.

No matter why, this post is all about the big events in my life over the last year. Of all my 20 years, this one may have been the most life changing.

Nothing to huge happened in January. There was some girl drama, lots of rock climbing (I was trying to rekindle my former professional climbing career-unsuccessfully), but not too much else. However, that would all change.

February was a tough month. I got a phone call that my best friend, Greg Adler, had passed away. July 5th, 2006 he was hit by a car while biking to the west coast. He was in a coma for months, and then was still not out of the woods. He died in his home Feb. 4th. Greg had been my right hand man throughout most of Boy Scouts.

March was a roller-coaster month. I went on a trip for spring break-but not like most trips. It was a trip led by Students Today Leaders Forever-the goal of the trip is leadership development through community service. We took a bus trip from the Hamline campus out to Washingtion DC, stopping in a different city each day to help them out. It was a truly amazing experience. It also caused the rekindling of an od relationship, which then promptly ended badly.

April and May-Just school and finals.

June-Landed two things-job and a long term girlfriend. I flew out to Denver at the beginning of June to hang out with my buddy Chris Fettig at DU. When I got back, I had a job in marketing at fahrenHEIGHT360, and a girl to chase. The job got me plunked into the social media sphere, which has garnered me a ton of new friends (love you guys!).

July: More of work and the girl. Also, I started my first company, Next Generation Cigar Marketing, with Joe Ladd.

Aug: More of the above.

Sept-School started.

October: Along with life as usual, I got to attend and participate in the MIMA summit. This was such an amazing event, and it really helped me get involved in the marketing world. I also started coaching my high school mock trial team.

November: A breakup. More life.

December: Launched a new personal blog (which you have found), launched Hislop Enterprises (my consulting), finished the semester, and spent a ton of time playing with our new dog.

This year was filled with gains and losses, but I would not have it any other way. I discovered my love of marketing, grew a ton personally, and found a bunch of new friends.

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Holiday Fun

mitchellhislop — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:25:58 +0000

I would like to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Take this time to spend having fun, whether that is with family and friends or by yourself.

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Ponderings on the MSP Social Media Community

mitchellhislop — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:00:02 +0000

I spent this morning at the Holiday Edition of the Social Media Breakfast-MSP. This is one of the many groups who have a large social media influence in the Twin Cities. MIMA is the other big player. Something sticks out about this community. You have a group of people, brought together by Twitter, Facebook, the blogs, and a myriad of other services, yet when we get together for the events, we all are able to chat and relax. To me, this is the real beauty behind social media, and also taking that into the real world. I fully know that tonight, at Tech Karaoke MPLS, we will all be Twittering what is happening. Still, that is only a side piece to being a part of this amazing community. The focus of the night is the people, the community part of this social media world that we are trying so hard to create. The group, who constantly teach each other, is like none other I have been a part of. Here is to you guys (and gals). Way to rock.

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: Facebook, MIMA, minneapolis, MN, SM, SMBMSP, Twitter

Thoughts on SEO

mitchellhislop — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:03:47 +0000

I recently got into SEO and SEM. I never had planned on it, but my current job and dreams in freelancing necessitated it. I think that SEO is a cool field. There is no “degree” like there is for marketing or PR. There is just thinking outside the box, and trying to make a strategy better than the competitions. I love that. It reminds me of my mock trial days growing up-you all have the same resources, it is all about how you apply them.

I have found SEOmoz to be really helpful. Their SEO pyramid is a great resource to have in my office-it is an easy visual reminder on what I should be focusing on.

I see what I have been missing out on by just focusing on social media.

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: freelance, SEM, SEO, social media

A Little about me…

mitchellhislop — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:09:55 +0000

My name is Mitchell Hislop. At this time, I am 20 years old.

I used to be a professional rock climber in middle school.

I love technology, and am on my second laptop and tenth cell phone.

I am a productivity nerd. David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” is one of my favorite books.

I love marketing. I work in marketing, and I am working on launching myself as a freelance marketing consultant. I am a social media nut.

I have always had an interest in politics, namely political strategy. The West Wing holds a dear spot to my heart.

This blog will be about all of the above things, since this blog is about me. I will write about business, pleasure, and everything in between.

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: business, climbing, marketing, politics, productivity, SEO, work