In short, yes.

But I’m not that Ryan Stephens.

Judging by my recent traffic, someone with my namesake is pedaling some “work from home and make millions of dollars” nonsense.

Stop wasting your time. I assure you that it’s a scam.

Here’s the rub. If you’re one of those people looking to get rich quick exerting minimal effort and working in your pajamas then you landed on the wrong blog. I’m not rich and neither is the clown trying to convince to throw away $97 dollars.

I have news for you. If it sounds too good to be true… IT IS!

Look I get it. I really do.

You would love to pay off your debt. You hate your job and fantasize about being your own boss. You want spend more time with your family. Maybe you just want to supplement your income.

Most people have been there at some point in their lives. I assure you that the Adam Baker’s, and the Ashley Ambirge’s of the world exist. They did it.

But guess what!?

They worked their asses off.

I know a lot of people that make a full time living online. And I’d be happy to link you to their blog(s) or even introduce you to one of them if you’re serious about learning.

But if not — if you’re just trying to get rich quick with some online home career bullshit, then kindly hit back and don’t come back to this blog.

I have a full-time job that I love for an organization I believe in.

I make a little beer money on the side helping people with the following:

• Creating integrated digital strategies that drive revenue.
• Establishing a relationship between social media metrics and business metrics
• Facilitating intelligent growth for online communities
• Leveraging social technologies to scale external marketing efforts and an internal culture of sharing

Beyond that I’m particularly interested in extending the internet/web/mobile disruption we’ve seen in media to other industries like education and healthcare in order to address the challenging economic and social issues of our time.

I also read a lot of business books and bitch about education in America.

If any of those things tickle your fancy then by all means, let’s connect. Or if I can help you achieve your goals (or connect you with someone else who can help you), I’d love to hear from you.

But to reiterate, if you stumbled across this blog because you were looking to get rich quick and start a career working online from home you’re shit out of luck.

Stop waiting for hand outs and start grinding.

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Disclaimer: The following post is self-indulgent. Most end of the year round-up posts are. Despite that fact, I felt like this was a good way to pay respect to the work that went into this year and to provide a review of content you may have missed (or have never seen before). Should you decide to keep reading, I hope that it will give you a foundation for where we’re headed in 2012.

Last January I wrote that I wanted 2011 to be about you. It wasn’t.

I wrote that I wanted to read 52 books. I read 27. I only reviewed 3.

I wanted to write more posts and ship a couple of projects. I wrote 47 posts this year, and only 5 after after July. I didn’t ship either project.

And yet 2011 was one of the best years of my life. It was *easily* the best of my professional career.

• I fell more in love with a job that affords me the opportunity to leverage social technologies and my knowledge of integrated digital strategies to market the nation’s #1 ranked cancer hospital while simultaneously broadening my overall marketing knowledge and picking up skills like video editing along the way.
• I spent a lot of time with my buddies drinking cold beers, listening to live music, hanging out by the pool, grilling, dancing, and watching sports.
• I visited with my family. At least one of my parents every day. I grew even closer to my sister. I absorbed lots of wisdom from my grandparents.
• I found an incredible woman who somehow puts up with me despite my desire to frequently say and do things that are “in the box.” (Notice where the post volume started dropping off…)
• I spoke at a really cool online conference to some very intelligent people.
• I stimulated my mind and body almost daily. (Which included running my first half marathon with no competition, just for fun in 1:49).
• I started saying “no” more often and I stopped doing things I wasn’t intensely passionate about.

What You May Have Missed in 2011:
22 Key Mentoring Messages – Mentorship is a great way of growing and progressing your career. This post features some awesome insights from my organization’s C-suite the basics of mentorship, embedding it into your organization’s culture, approachability and more.

Reasons Your Employees Are Running for the Door – It amazes me how many organizations don’t “get” why their turnover is so high. Here’s 8 reasons that shouldn’t surprise you. And here’s me angrily ranting after a I read a tweet an executive sent about all her employees getting poached.

American Education: You Deserve Better – One of my favorite posts from 2011. I genuinely believe that modern day education is severely broken and this post details the change I’d like to see. Some people smarter than me chimed in as well. And here are some resources that initially sparked the discussion.

Carving Your Own Path – Carving your own path isn’t easy. You will have to think for yourself. You will invariably call attention to yourself. People will hate you if you’re successful. This is why most people yearn to be led. This is why most people spend their entire lives following.

Forget Social Media – There’s significantly more noise than ever before. Trying to keep up with all of it and be everything to everyone is a waste of time. It’s just fear manifesting itself through excuses and procrastination and we’re all guilty of it.

Why Being a Thought Leader is Boring – This post totally contradicts the predominant advice that you should try to be an expert in one, narrow niche. While many people successfully employ this strategy, I think it’s boring as hell and this post attempts to explain why I’d rather be well-versed on a variety of topics.

I Probably Un-Friended You Last Night – There’s so much noise, so many things to keep us utterly distracted from the things that really matter why do we insist on validating ourselves with excess “friends” who’s status updates we’re totally indifferent to? It’s time to de-friend those that no longer add value to your lives.

3 Things the C-Level Still Doesn’t Get About Social Media – This title is pretty self explanatory. And 6 months later I think all of these still hold true at most organizations.

Life is Adversarial Enough… – Don’t test people just to display your authority. Most of us (young professionals) inherently know that in the scheme of things we’ve accomplished jack shit. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to. That doesn’t mean that it’s not really hard to balance our desire to climb with the gentle reminder that patience is a virtue.

The Easiest Way to Evaluate Most Tasks – Time, not money, is my most coveted resource; therefore, I get really annoyed when my time is wasted. Here’s the strategy I employ to ensure I’m balancing the execution of a project vs. the resources (time + money) used.

Forget the Dream Job, Take the Money & Run – I don’t necessarily believe this (as evidenced by my career path), but the notion certainly challenges the status quo and I think it’s an idea that warrants some thought, especially if you’re still in college.

Creating Higher Quality Stimuli – Reading things that challenge the status quo and/or oppose my own core values/belief system/internal dialogue require me to re-evaluate where I stand on these issues. More importantly instead of just saying “That’s outlandish,” or nodding my head in quiet agreement, I’m forced into the process of absorbing a multitude of information, evaluating that information, and then evaluating what I think based on that information. I recommend you start doing the same more often.

Disruptive Social Technologies: How Your Organization is Missing the Boat – I wrote a lot about topics that go far beyond business/marketing/social media this year, but here’s one that doesn’t. I think it serves as a good reminder that more organizations need to use social technologies for tasks such as cross functional information sharing and internal networking.

If you’re a glutton for punishment here’s My Top 10 Posts of 2010.

I haven’t thought too much about where this blog is headed in 2012, but I encourage you to:

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Or…

Vinny Chase and the gang from Entourage debuted their 8th and final season Sunday night. A LOT of people love the show. In fact, it’s a 9/10 on IMDB.

I like the show alright, but it doesn’t stand up to shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, or Boardwalk Empire. One evening I was in the process of pointing out all the shows flaws, when a buddy, irritated with me, explained “you can’t watch it that way.”

Evidently, you have to kick back, enjoy the fun, and try to point your critical lens somewhere else. This is also true of blogging. It’s why people read the shit out of “5 Ways to Get More Followers on Twitter,” but completely gaze over posts that require a little more thought.

Here are 3 ways to obtain more readers using the “Entourage” approach:

Keep it Light

Season 7 ended pretty dark with Vinnie’s cocaine habit, but people who have previewed the final season assure us that the show is returning to its lighter roots — there will be a happy ending for all of the guys. Fans of the show want to see the crew boozing, making boatloads of money, and being surrounded by beautiful women.

Don’t try to explore the depths of complex stimuli on your blog. A couple of people will appreciate it, but the masses will be bored and confused. Keep the tone fun and the content simple enough to understand. Make it actionable enough for a 3rd grader to implement.

Be Predictable

Everything is going to work out for these guys in the long run, we’ve already established that. Hollywood is glamorous. Super-stardom + money + women + fancy shit + an entourage = a simple formula for people having fun watching your show.

And that’s what people want to see on your blog, simplicity and predictability. Whatever the focus of your blog, stay on point. If you write about entrepreneurship, feel free to explore the entire realm of possibilities around that topic, but don’t suddenly shift to community management. That’s not what people are used to seeing. It’s not what they’ve come to expect from you, and they’ll likely skip right over it. They come to your blog your go-to-topic, don’t deviate.

Embrace the Escapist

One of the most appealing things about “Entourage” is that for 30 minutes or so you can escape into their world. For a bit you think “wouldn’t it be nice to have all this excess?” You genuinely feel like you could have their life if you got the right breaks.

This is one of the of the primary reasons all the lifestyle independent blogs and ‘quit your job’ blogs often do well. Most people desperately want to escape the mundane and earn a lot of money, live anywhere they want, and travel as they please. Appeal to this desire by leveraging content that demonstrates how people can obtain a better life whether it’s through side projects, changing their mindset, overcoming their fears and more.

8 seasons and a 9/10 on IMDB are both indicators of success. Your blog’s success metrics are different, but by following the “Entourage” formula you will be well on your way to a long and fruitful blogging career. Unless you get distracted by Google +.

“Artist is an overused term when it comes to musicians. Most are primarily entertainers, giving the public what it wants. Their motivation is not self-expression but attention and acclaim. If no one were watching, they wouldn’t be making any noise.” — Neil Strauss

Would you still be blogging if nobody was reading your posts? If nobody ever left a comment or re-tweeted your thoughts?

For some of us it’s about discovery, building out ideas, examining content, delving deeper, and connecting dots. Maybe.

For many of us it’s about narcissism, pride, and reinforcement. Doubtful.

Some desire to help. Most likely.

Others desire to profit. No chance.

I suspect it’s more complicated than that. It’s a combination of multiple, if not all, of these explanations poking, prodding and tugging away at our identity — shaping not only our writing, but who we are.

There’s no right answer. There’s just your answer. Understand the question – it will lead you down the path that makes the most sense for you. And if you’re like most people it’ll change countless times anyway.

With all the noise overwhelming our lives and our social streams it’s easy to miss the good stuff. Here’s my effort to provide a little signal by curating some of the best/most interesting/funniest posts (and videos) I read during the month of April.

Program Plan: The Social Media Center of Excellence – Jeremiah Owyang

9 Companies Doing Social Media Right and Why – Amy Porterfield

Social Business vs. Social Marketing: Understanding the Fight Over “Content” – Olivier Blanchard

1900 Word Ad on How to Create Advertising from David Ogilvy – 37 Signals

The Realization is Now – Seth Godin

Moving Beyond Teachers and Bosses – Seth Godin

When Failure is Cheap Why Not Give it a Go – David Meerman Scott

Influence is About Information, Not Egos – Jason Keath

Why I Run a Flat Company – Jason Fried

Perfect vs. Interesting – Seth Godin

The Secret to Climbing the Career Ladder: Realize There is No Ladder – Whitney May Parker

10 Truths I’ve Learned on the Open Road – Adam Baker

No, You Can’t Pick My Brain. It Costs Too Much – Adrienne Graham

What the Middle Looks Like – Sarah Peck

The Teaching Cogs – Carlos Miceli

The Creative Badass Manifesto – Justine Musk

The Sleepless Elite – Melinda Beck

Real Time vs. Slow Time & a Defense of Sane Work Hours – 37 Signals

Cranking – Merlin Mann

What Centers You? – Sam Davidson

Awesome/Funny:
The Best Obnoxious Responses to Misspellings on Facebook – Someecards

Incredible Hip-Hop Beatbox Cello Experience – Youtube Video

50 More (Viral) Images the World Shared in 2011 – Adam Singer

Russell Brand on Newsnight – Youtube Video

It (rap) doesn’t force you to pretend to be only on thing or another, to be a saint or a sinner. It recognizes that you can be true to yourself and still have unexpected dimensions and opposing ideas. Having a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other is the most common thing in the world. The real bullshit is when you act like you don’t have contradictions inside you, that you’re so dull and unimaginative that your mind never changes or wanders into strange, unexpected places. – Jay-Z (Decoded)

A couple of weeks ago I discussed tackling side projects to bolster your resume with Mike Krass on his Anti Resume Blog. One of the things we ended up discussing was the notion of becoming a ‘thought leader’ in a very specific niche.

I was struck by how passionate I was about avoiding this strategy for myself. While there are many people who employ this strategy successfully I can’t think of anything more boring than talking ad nausem about personal branding, social media analytics, or anything else for that matter.

That’s why the above Jay Z quote really hit home for me. There are a ton of things I’m passionate about, and while I could probably corner the market on advanced sabremetrics for division III baseball players in the west region, I’d much rather be relatively well versed on all things baseball, Texas Country music, networking, social business, Houston-area food, personal finance, education, etc.

Case in point, in the last couple of weeks I’ve been featured on some relatively prominent websites discussing the following:

• Tips For Small Business Success on eBay – (Mashable)
• My Favorite Business Book & Why – (Huffington Post)
• Reaching Out to Angel Investors – (All Business)
• Tip on Guest Blogging for Well-Trafficked Media Outlets and Websites – (Portfolio)
• How to Find the Right Mentor – (Fox Business)
• How do I Attract Great Interns? (MSN – Business on Main)

I’m not an expert on any of these things, but chances are I knew enough about each to help someone.

Things I believed strongly about a mere 6 months ago, I might totally contradict now. We’re constantly evolving (or at least we should be) and the experiences we encounter shape the people we become.

I want you to do what’s best for you, but know that I’d much rather read Ben Casnocha discuss a wide variety of interesting things than I would someone who essentially writes about the same thing day after day. If you get tired of reading my business/marketing musings, I archive awesome stuff I find on this Tumblr blog.

Would you rather be interesting or be an expert? Very few people are truly both.

With all the noise overwhelming our lives and our social streams it’s easy to miss the good stuff. Here’s my effort to provide a little signal by curating some of the best posts I read during the month of March.

Most health solutions aren’t medical, they’re social – Jay Parkinson

Why Most Facebook Marketing Doesn’t Work – Peter Yared (Guest post on Read Write Web)

Should You Hire an Overqualified Candidate? – Amy Gallo (Harvard Business Review)

“11 Leadership Styles You Must Avoid – Mike Michalowicz

Presentation: New Rules for the New Bubble – Steve Blank

Are You Doing A Good Job? – Seth Godin

SXSW 2011 Affirmed Why I Love this Business: The People – Chuck Hemann

Video: You Will Survive – Dyana Valentine

What It’s Like to Start Work at Quora – Kah-Seng-Tay

Presentation: Conference Insights from the Social Media Industry – BSI

9 Keys to Communicating Diplomatically – Amber Naslund

Video: Economic Reality Check – Tim Jackson

Infographic: The Student Loan Scheme: Gateway Drug to Debt Slavery – CollegeScholarships.org

Why Social Success is No Accident – Jay Baer

“Have An Idea? Do it!” – Bob Goyetche

Quotes:

“Discipline. Curiosity. Empathy. That’s all a person really needs.” – Hugh MacLeod

“The goal of an argument is not a victory, it’s progress.” – Keith Ferrazzi

“Early in a startup, product decisions should be hunch driven. Later on, product decisions should be data driven.” – Fred Wilson

“Influence is both ephemeral and subject-specific.” – Olivier Blanchard

“The single biggest pool of untapped resource in this world, is human good intentions that never translate into action.” – Cindy Gallup

Launches:

My friend Rebecca launched a new blog, Kontrary. The content is sound, and the comments section has been littered with great discussions. The interesting part of of the launch is that she’s charging for access. I offered my commentary, and explained why this blog would always be free, but I do encourage you to check out Rebecca’s latest efforts. There’s nothing to lose.

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A friend of mine and a super smart gal, Rebecca Thorman, just launched a new blog, Kontrary. Ordinarily, this might be news worthy for all of you because she’s a solid writer with great insights. Her blog is one of the first I took to when I entered this ‘social’ realm.

Kontrary is newsworthy for a different reason — she’s charging you to read it. It’s relatively unprecedented waters for an individual blogger, but Rebecca is asking $5/month for full access to her content. It’s bold, perhaps even a little arrogant.

I like it. And I’m watching it closely.

Here’s some things I suspect to see as a result:

• Rebecca writes more frequently AND takes her content to another level. Getting paid holds her accountable for good shit.
• The comments section becomes a goldmine of knowledge. $5/mo isn’t that much. It’s probably what you pay for a couple of magazine subscriptions, BUT that cost of entry will deter idiots, trolls, and most window shoppers from flooding the comments with nonsense. It won’t be big, but a small community will emerge around her content — one in which they all learn, a lot.
• A handful of people will try to duplicate this model and charge for their content, few, if any succeed. Why shouldn’t you get paid for good content that benefits people’s lives? Most of us have invested HOURS and HOURS into our blogs. But you have to do it for the right reasons — not because you want more money. That can’t be the end goal. And if you didn’t do it first the likelihood of you acquiring overlap readers isn’t very high.

Despite the fact that I love what Rebecca is doing, I assure you that Ryan Stephens Marketing will always be free.

The value I’ve acquired from having this blog goes far beyond any monetary value I could’ve obtained at this point. (Rebecca does acknowledge all the value Modite provided her throughout it’s duration).

I’ve received job offers. I’ve been asked to speak. I’ve met countless intelligent people that have impacted my life in a number of ways. Frankly, this blog has opened doors I never could’ve imagined.

More importantly than any of that I don’t want to exclude anyone from the value I’m trying to provide here. There will certainly be projects, endeavors, etc. in the future in which I will ask people to fork over their hard earned cash in exchange for something, but the content on this blog will remain free.

Occasionally I get notes from college-kids, people who hate their jobs, people starting new companies, etc. all thanking me for something I’ve written here. First, that blows my mind. Second, that’s what this blog is about for me. It’s about learning and growing, not only through writing, but from your comments, and it’s about impacting someone I never could’ve reached otherwise.

It’s so humbling and so gratifying and I know that charging for this content would invariably reduce the amount of people who read this blog, and who add value by inspiring me and educating me with their comments and e-mails.

That’s why this blog will always be free.

But… if you’re looking for a deeper dive from a super savvy gal then I encourage you to check out Rebecca’s Kontrary and give the $5/mo a chance.You can cancel at any time and there’s nothing to lose.

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With all the noise overwhelming our lives and our social streams it’s easy to miss the good stuff. Here’s my effort to provide a little signal by curating some of the best posts I read during the month of February.

My favorite posts of the past month:

On Course – Chris Penn

Unreasonable – Seth Godin

The Discipline of Social Media Measurement – Amber Naslund

Compelling Facebook Fan Pages – Chris Brogan

Playing By the Rules – David Meerman Scott

Make the Cheapskates Pay – Andy Singleton

For Every Minute – David Stehle

To Understand Your Market, Harness The 7 Elements of Customer and Social Data – Jeremiah Owyang

The Connected Company – Dave Gray

If You Don’t Want to Influence Others, You Can’t Lead – Linda Hill & Kent Linebeck

A Quick but Important Primer on Becoming a Doucebag – Julien Smith

Why Everyone Hopes You’ll be the Hero – Robert Bruce

The Bitch Slap: Theory vs. Teaching – Erika Napoletano

How Hugh MacLeod’s “Evil Plans” Became an Illustrated Business Manifesto [Slideshow] – Lisa Kay Davis, Fast Company

Risk and Reward Are Not Obvious – Fred Wilson

College and Business Will Never be the Same – Steve Blank

Bother Me, I’m Thinking – Jonah Lehrer

The Top 100 Most Desirable Mentors – The GenJuice Team

How to Make Money in 6 Easy Steps – Jason Fried

Twitter Was Act One – David Kirkpatrick, Vanity Fair

Quotes:

“Conventional wisdom is that you should find a job that matches your passion. Transferring your passion to your job is far easier.” – Seth Godin

“The difference between marketing & selling is more than semantic. Selling focuses on the needs of the seller, marketing on the needs of the buyer.” – Theodore Levitt (Marketing Myopia, 1975)

“We tell our friends about your brand not because we like your brand, but because we like our friends.” – (@mikearauz)

And HUGE props to buddy David Spinks who launched his new company Blog Dash this month! From the site: “BlogDash is an all-in-one blogger outreach tool. If you’re looking to find and reach out to bloggers for press coverage, partnerships, writing opportunities, advertising, or anything else, we’ll help you find, research and engage with the right ones.”

What are some of the best posts you’ve read recently? Better yet, what was your favorite post that you wrote this past month?

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Since some of you are already out there keeping score, and I was curious myself, I decided to see who the most prominently featured bloggers are on this blog.

If you’re keeping score, Maltoni edges out Godin 3-2, with Jaffe and others in third place with 1 post each. — Joseph Jaffe

Keep in mind that I did not go through my entire archives noting the number of times I linked every blogger. I just counted the amount of articles I included in my monthly “essential blog posts” that I have been putting together since August. You can find each respective month here (July, August, September, October, and November).

Here’s the standings:
The # of posts they have had featured are in parenthesis.
1. Chris Brogan (14)
2. Darren Rowse (6)
2. Valeria Maltoni (6)
4. Seth Godin (5)
4. Jeremiah Owyang (5)
6. Brian Clark (4)
6. Dan Schawbel (4)
8. Brian Solis (2)
8. Rohit Bharghava (2)
8. Mike Sansone (2)
8. Mitch Joel (2)
8. David Meerman Scott (2)

8. And if you count both Ryan Paugh and Ryan Healy as one person representing Employee Evolution then they have (2) as well.

If you’re not reading the blogs of these extremely talented and thoughtful social media, blogging, and marketing pioneers, then you are definitely missing out. Take a couple of minutes and go subscribe to their content. While you’re at it, check out my blogroll for some other great bloggers.

Do you read most of these bloggers? Who were you surprised didn’t have more featured posts than this?

At the conclusion of the year, all of these bloggers will be facing off in a celebrity death-match style battle royale for bragging rights.