Chapman University - The Social Media Professor

In Memoriam: Dr. Clas Wihlborg

March 16, 2021 by Niklas Myhr 9 Comments

I hate to share the sad news that my dear friend and Chapman University colleague Clas Wihlborg recently passed away in a heart attack during a walk, 73 years young. Clas was predeceased by his daughter Emma who died at the age of 21 in 2011 and leaves behind his wife of 41 years Lavinia (Lee) Wohlfert of Laguna Niguel, California, and three sisters with families in Sweden. A devastating loss also for our family, Chapman colleagues, former students, research collaborators, and a large international network of friends inside and outside of academia.

I just spoke with Lee who obviously is shaken and heartbroken as they still had many plans for the future such as finally making it to Yosemite. She welcomed that I share this update as she would only be comforted if people honored Clas for the great man that he was. If you have a favorite memory of Clas, big or small, feel free to share that in the comments below or in a private message to me or to Rita in the Dean’s office as we will compile all recollections from various sources to share with Lee in some form.

Clas was still energetic and excited last week when he drove by to personally deliver the two hair gels I had asked him to buy at H&M in Malmö, Sweden. That is the way he was, always happy to help out whether it be driving Selma to the airport, proctor an exam for me, empty my mailbox, etc, etc.

He was frustrated that our MBA Travel Course “Business in Scandinavia” that we co-founded in 2010 understandably now had to be canceled for the second summer in a row due to Covid but we looked forward to many future adventures together. Thanks to Clas’s network, we were able to set up meetings with very senior executives of all the Scandinavian central banks, many large corporations, academic institutions, etc.

Clas didn’t worry too much about things but rather kept his inner child alive to enjoy the moment and was never far away from a good laughter. During our travels, a highlight every summer was when Clas delivered an inimitable rendition of Jimi Hendrix’ “Purple Haze” in a live karaoke session at Restaurant Noel’s in Stockholm accompanied by my brother David Myhr. Students’ jaws would also drop when they learned all the things Clas had experienced such as seeing all the celebs at Studio 54 during its hey day in NYC while accompanying Lee who then wrote for People Magazine. Or that he bumped into Cassius Clay (later known as Mohammad Ali) in a restaurant in London in the 1960’s!

At Mikkeler Brewery in Copenhagen with Business in Scandinavia 2019

Clas Wihlborg and David Myhr — Clas Wihlborg singing with David Myhr

I conclude with a brief bio of Clas: Clas Wihlborg joined the Argyros School faculty in 2008 and held Fletcher Jones Chair in International Business. He completed his Ph.D. in Economics at Princeton University and has been a prolific author in International Finance, Institutions, and Law and Economics. He has held faculty positions in Finance and International Business at New York University, University of Southern California, Göteborg University in Sweden, University West in Sweden (Högskolan Väst), and the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) in Denmark, where he was Director for the Center for Law, Economics and Financial Institutions (LEFIC). Clas served on the European Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA). He also holds an Honorary Doctorate from Lund University in Sweden. At the Argyros School, Clas founded the Chapman Conference on Money and Finance and co-founded and organized for several years the MBA Travel Course Business in Scandinavia.

Thank you Clas for all the good memories, we will miss you dearly, and say hi to Emma!

Sincerely / Niklas

Professor Clas Wihlborg and Niklas Myhr, Chapman University — One of many Scandinavia travel course planning sessions at Starbucks on Chapman's campus

At Russian restaurant Saslik in Helsinki with Business in Scandinavia 2016

Performance Marketing and Google Tag Manager with Jon Rognerud

April 11, 2019 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Jon Rognerud, Chapman University, Niklas Myhr, Performance Marketing — With Jon Rognerud on the Attallah Piazza at Chapman University

Students in my Digital Marketing class got a great opportunity to learn about performance marketing with Google Tag Manager when Jon Rognerud, Founder and CEO of Chaosmap.com came to Chapman University for an engaging guest lecture.

Jon is a fellow Scandinavian who left his homeland of Norway to make it in the US as a musician. While he still plays jazz, Jon Rognerud turned to technology to make a living. He got into software and web development at online giants such as Yahoo! and eventually branched out on his own entrepreneurial journey.

Work on Copywriting before setting up your Digital Marketing

Jon Rognerud founded Chaosmap.com when he discovered that many businesses don't have their digital backends set up appropriately. Worse, he often finds that businesses don't even know what message they have, what market they are serving, and what offer they are going to present. Absent clarity in these areas, no technology solution can save you.

To work on your messaging, Jon Rognerud told my students to go back and read the direct marketing classic Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz to learn some fundamentals of great copywriting.

While Breakthrough Advertising was published the same year as The Beatles came out with its Revolver album (1966), Jon argues that its principles are still highly relevant in today's digital era and can help you set up your online presence in a more effective manner.

Content Marketing to Build Audiences

The main problem Jon sees is that businesses prematurely rush to generate traffic to online sales pages when they instead could be directing traffic to valuable, educational resources to more patiently build trust and nurture their prospects.

ABA = Always Build Audiences!
– Jon Rognerud

In this regard, Jon Rognerud has also been inspired by thought leaders in content marketing and he referenced another former guest speaker in my class, Mr. Robert Rose, Chief Strategy Adviser of the Content Marketing Institute.

The key is to not hard sell to an unwilling audience but rather to provide a good customer experience by offering content people want when they want it in the format they want it.

Jon Rognerud shared some inspirational tips on how to consistently create content and before class, I set him up in a library study room so he could create his daily podcast episode that was simulcast live out on Facebook and YouTube. Subscribe to his podcast here or check out the YouTube version of his Chapman episode below:

Clear Your Digital Chaos with Google Tag Manager

When Jon Rognerud audits the backend of clients' websites, he often encounters a jumbled mess of different code snippets from a large number of applications analyzing various aspects of online performance. This can slow down your website due to the high number of different scripts that needs to run every time someone enters your website.

Each individual tool also offers only a very limited view of overall performance of your online presence. Furthermore, this type of setup is often cumbersome to maintain and risk having scripts that are losing connection when you update your website, etc.

In 2012, Google came out with a solution to this problem in the form of Google Tag Manager and Jon Rognerud finds it surprising that most businesses he encounters are not using it yet. To him, it is simply a no-brainer as Google Tag Manager provides a one-stop shopping solution for measuring and analyzing your digital marketing performance.

Simply put, you can input the identifiers and scripts from a number of different applications into Google Tag Manager and then keep them all up to date inside one interface. Examples of scripts that Jon highlighted that could be unified into Google Tag Manager include Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Google Analytics, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Email Marketing.

Jon Rognerud on his Chapman Experience

Before leaving the Chapman campus, I thanked Jon Rognerud and asked him to summarize what he had been sharing with my Digital Marketing students. Here is what he had to say:

Jon Rognerud on his Chapman University Experience

With HSH Prince Albert II and the Monaco Digital Advisory Council

December 20, 2018 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Proudly I accepted the invitation by HSH Prince Albert II to join The Monaco Digital Advisory Council. This council helps guide the principality through a journey of digital transformation. The goal is for Monaco to become a world-class smart city or city state not only to serve its own citizens but also to provide a good example for the world at large.

Niklas Myhr, HSH Prince Albert II, Monaco Digital Advisory Council — Niklas Myhr, Ph.D., Chapman University and HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco

Ever since HSH Prince Albert II took over the reign as the Prince of Monaco in 2005, he has worked hard to establish Monaco as a sovereign, independent country that is to be taken seriously by the international community. In so doing, HSH Prince Albert II has built an agenda for Monaco based on the core values of ethics, transparency, and sustainability.

For example, Monaco should no longer be seen as (if it even ever was) a safe haven for money-laundering activities. Also, the many initiatives supported by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation very much counter the perception of Monaco as only being concerned about luxury yachts, the Casino, and Formula I racing.

Monaco's Chief Digital Officer Frédéric Genta

While HSH Prince Albert II has made great strides in his first decade plus in charge, he has declared that the second phase of his reign should focus on digital transformation. He recognizes that Monaco could do much more in terms of leveraging smart technologies to support his agenda and big ambitions for his Principality.

Monaco Digital Advisory Council breakfast outside w Prince Albert II — Frédéric Genta and HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco

To spearhead the digital transformation of Monaco, the HSH Prince Albert II appointed the country's first Chief Digital Officer in the form of Mr. Frédéric Genta. Mr. Genta is a native Monegasque with an impressive Silicon Valley technology background at Google, Amazon, etc, and who also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

The Monaco Digital Advisory Council

The Monaco Digital Advisory Council, under the directorship of the country's Chief Digital Officer Frédéric Genta and with HSH Prince Albert II as its Chairman, was formed to support the digital transformation of Monaco. The council is providing the Principality with a digital vision, strategies, and contacts with external networks and companies.

Prince Albert II, Niklas Myhr, Monaco Digital Advisory Council, Gunhild Stordalen — The Monaco Digital Advisory Council 2018 (from left to right): Hani Mahmassani, Northwestern University; Niklas Myhr, Chapman University; Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten, Inc.; Frédéric Genta, The Government of Monaco; Axelle Lemaire, Roland Berger; HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco; Krishnakumar Natarajan, Mindtree; Gunhild Stordalen, EAT; Marc-André Kamel, Bain & Company; Nick Jennings, Imperial College London; with moderator Loïc Plantevin, Bain & Company (missing in photo: Diego Piacentini, The Government of Italy; and, Balaji Srinivasan, Coinbase.)

At our first meeting, expertly moderated by Loïc Plantevin of Bain & Company, I had the great pleasure of interacting with and learning from a number of experts from both the public and private sectors:

Hani Mahmassani: A Professor at Northwestern University who is considered a world expert in the mobility sector.
Hiroshi “Mickey” Mikitani: Founder and CEO of Rakuten, Inc., Japan's largest digital platform.

Hiroshi "Mickey" Mikitani of Rakuten and Niklas Myhr — With Hiroshi “Mickey” Mikitani, CEO & Founder of Rakuten, Inc.

Axelle Lemaire: Former Secretary of State for Digital Technology in France under President Hollande and now a partner in the consulting firm Roland Berger.
Krishnakumar Natarajan: Co-founder and Executive President of Mindtree, India's leading IT company with regard to smart city issues.
Gunhild Stordalen: Founder and Executive President of the EAT Foundation with a mission to transform how the planet feeds itself not only for the health benefits but also with the goal to reduce the negative environmental impact of the food supply chain.
Marc-André Kamel: A Monegasque national and a Partner and Director of Bain & Company. He heads the Distribution and Luxury division for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and is one of the leaders of the Transformation and Customer Strategy and Marketing divisions.
Nick Jennings: Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Imperial College London, who is internationally recognized as an expert in this field.

Monaco Digital Advisory Council breakfast inside w Prince Albert II — Breakfast with the Monaco Digital Advisory Council and HSH Prince Albert II

In addition, the Monaco Digital Advisory Council includes the following two members who were unable to attend our first meeting:

Diego Piacentini: Government Commissioner for Digital Matters in Italy, the first Vice-President of Amazon and its second largest shareholder ($3.2 billion).
Balaji Srinivasan: Co-founder of Coinbase (the largest Blockchain company) and an Associate of Andreesen Horowitz (the largest Californian venture capital fund).

The Social Media Professor joins the Monaco Digital Advisory Council

With such a distinguished group of world-class thought leaders and entrepreneurs, it would be easy to feel intimidated. For example, I did note the fact that the majority of the other council members had their own Wikipedia pages.

Niklas Myhr, Hani Mahmassani, Monaco Digital Advisory Council

However, once we got together, I could quickly relax as the atmosphere was very warm and collegial and we quickly got to know each other. At least, now they all know how to find Chapman University and some of them would even be able to pinpoint my hometown of Piteå in northern Sweden.

Our hosts also contributed to the creative process with a genuine curiosity about what we had to say and with their warm hospitality. To say that the Principality of Monaco took good care of us during our stay would be a gross understatement.

Monaco Digital Advisory Council Lunch at Residence outside — The Monaco Digital Advisory Council with the Minister of Finance and the Minister of State

Myself, I was invited to join the Monaco Digital Advisory Council to share my perspectives on digital transformation and digital leadership building on my focus on social media networks and digital communications. The communications challenge that Monaco faces is how can use social and digital channels both to gain the support from its citizens and to impact how Monaco is being perceived by the outside world.

Monaco Digital Advisory Council at work w Frederic Genta, Gunhild Stordalen, Niklas Myhr — Parts of the Monaco Digital Advisory Council hard at work led by Monaco's CDO Frédéric Genta. Here also with Gunhild Stordalen of EAT and moderator Loïc Plantevin of Bain & Company.

Social Media and Personal Branding for Professionals

I have long advocated for the value of showing up regularly on multiple social platforms to network with and help people. If you keep at it, you are simply more likely to be experiencing so-called serendipitous opportunities, that is, good news that come to you rather than the other way around.

Lunch for the Monaco Digital Advisory Council and its Chairman HSH Prince Albert II at the residence of the Minister of State Monsieur Serge Telle

At least, this form of “Inbound Marketing” worked in the case of the Principality in its search for a social media professor to invite. Apparently, I popped up everywhere and, more importantly, they liked what they saw. So instead of getting a social media professor, they decided to get The Social Media Professor!

I recently elaborated on what you can do to build up your personal brand and online platform so that you too can experience some more serendipity in your life. These strategies and tactics can be found in the chapter I contributed to the great social media book by my friend Mitch Jackson.

Monaco's Digital Future

At the end of our gathering, the Monaco Digital Advisory Council reported its findings in terms of key success factors and ideas for a 10-year vision of what is to become of the Principality. Now it is up to the Chief Digital Officer Frédéric Genta to determine what ideas they would like to implement first.

The Monaco Digital Advisory Council will stay connected with Mr. Genta virtually during the year and then reconvene in Monaco again at the end of 2019. Several colleagues at Chapman University have already offered to join me should their presence be desired!

Regardless, I know that I will be on lookout for good examples and strategies for digital transformation that may be applicable in the case of Monaco. I also feel that my experiences from arranging the annual Chapman University MBA travel course Business in Scandinavia helps prepare me for many of the areas Monaco considers.

For example, issues covered during our two weeks of travel through Scandinavia include digital leadership, digital communications in the public sector, clean technology, 5G telecommunications networks, e-health, self-driving and electric vehicles, flat organizations, e-government, and online education.

Any input or ideas that you may have in terms of smart technologies or solutions that you think may be valuable in the digital transformation of Monaco, please let me know!

Swedish Tech Musketeer to Build Mega Battery Factory

May 17, 2017 by Niklas Myhr 1 Comment

Peter Carlsson, Helena Kristersson, Ingela Carlsson & Niklas Myhr

[Update: On June 12, 2019, Northvolt announced that they have raised the capital required to build “Europe's first homegrown gigafactories for lithium-ion batteries”!]

In the midst of final exam week, I enjoyed a brief visit to Silicon Valley to learn more about the exciting tech startup Northvolt from its CEO, Peter Carlsson, the proud dad of Chapman University student Amanda. The event was hosted by the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce Silicon Valley/San Francisco and by Silicon Vikings in a beautiful office space generously shared by global supply chain specialists Elementum.

Peter Carlsson, with a past as the Chief Purchasing Officer at Tesla where he spent four years reporting directly to Elon Musk, shared the plans of Northvolt to build a mega-sized, lithium-ion battery factory to be located either in Sweden or Finland. He explained how such a factory would play an important role in our world's much-needed transformation from a reliance on fossil fuels to one in which we can live on and efficiently preserve green and renewable energy.

Electrification of society

Peter admitted that it may still be a couple of decades before we regularly commute 500 km via an electrically-powered, self-flying aircraft ordered via an Uber-like interface but technically, that would be quite doable already today, he argued! Complying with regulations, however, would be another matter that could take a long time to resolve.

One bright spot in the transformation to green energy sources is the mining industry in which companies are willing to pay two or three times the regular price to buy an electric excavator. What many people don't realize is that mining companies actually spend enormous amounts of resources transporting exhaust fumes out of the mines in order to create a safe working environment. By using electric excavators instead, they could simply focus on transporting whatever treasures that they are digging for instead.

A Vertically Integrated Supply Chain for Battery Production

Whereas many companies are outsourcing many of the things that they previously used to do themselves in order to focus on their core competencies, Northvolt is choosing a different direction. In their aim to build the largest European mega battery factory, they also want to secure the access to as many of the necessary raw materials as possible either with direct ownership or at least via strong European supplier partnerships. Peter Carlsson emphasized the benefits of operating in Europe and in Scandinavia in particular thanks to its relative political stability compared to many other places where mining is done.

The Location of the Battery Plant

In collaboration with Business Sweden, Northvolt is currently undergoing an extensive screening process in order to identify where the best location of its factory should be. They had hoped to have a list of twenty cities to consider. They got forty! Even now, Peter shared, new cities and even new countries are approaching him to try to be added to their consideration set. However, Northvolt recently declared that they had narrowed the number of possible locations to a short list of eight Swedish cities and two Finnish ones, all of which fulfilled a number of criteria.

In selecting the winner, factors they weigh include the access to reliable energy supply, industrial-zoned land availability, logistical concerns, access to a skilled workforce, university collaboration opportunities, and the degree to which the city could attract foreign expert engineers to move to and live in the area long-term with their families. The plan is to move quickly to get down to only two final candidates.

Why build only one mega factory?

Given that my hometown of Piteå is not on the shortlist, my unsolicited vote that I shared with Peter went to Luleå even if Skellefteå would be a close second. I am confident that either of these two great cities would deliver if they were to be selected and I even proposed to Peter to build two, not “just” one mega factory given that they predict that Europe's demand will be calling for seven such mega factories around year 2025. His response was that he didn't want to risk being accused of suffering from hubris given that the magnitude of this project is large enough as it is proposing the development of one mega factory which will require about 4 billion Euro in investment.

I wish Peter and Northvolt the best of luck and his family a nice transition in their move from Palo Alto to Stockholm. I am also very much looking forward to visiting their Stockholm headquarters this summer with my Chapman University MBA travel course Business in Scandinavia!

SACC-SF-SV team Lucas Eriksson, Tina Bragfeldt, Helena Kristersson, Marcus Oldby & Sofie Birkfeldt

Navy SEAL Agility in the age of Spaghetti Customer Journeys

April 25, 2017 by Niklas Myhr 2 Comments

Chris Brull Kawasaki Motors Scott Shaffstall International Marketing MBA Chapman University — Chris Brull, Kawasaki Motors (kneeling), and Scott Shaffstall (center) at Chapman University International Marketing MBA class (pic by Andres Vaca)

Had the honor of having two exciting guests in my International Marketing MBA class at Chapman University, Mr. Chris Brull, VP Marketing for Kawasaki Motors and Mr. Scott Shaffstall, CEO and Founder at Gen Now Agency as well as Chapman MBA Class of 2014 alumni. Scott has worked for Kawasaki Motors both in-house and as a contractor and we had a good interplay of ideas through the evening with my students.

As the theme of the day was international marketing communications, the discussion inevitably involved how you today need to use digital and social media channels to engage with prospective and existing customers. For example, when I asked Chris Brull about his take on customer journey mapping, I got the following intriguing response:

Chris Brull, Kawasaki Motors, Chapman University International Marketing MBA class

“Journey mapping is definitely important but it's table stakes now, everyone should be doing it so you get it with the insights you gain along the way but in this business, with one brand and all the sub-brands we have, it's spaghetti thrown all over! It's not as linear as it was when you were watching 30 second spots, perhaps with some direct mail, you see a billboard, print magazine, and you go in and hang at a dealership.

The minute you think you've got the map set, it changes, cause you guys (looking at my students), your generation have blown up every piece of marketing technology and in fact today's is already getting old. Why do you think Facebook is trying to reinvent, reinvent? Now the map goes everywhere cause everyone is insanely distracted, they've got their handheld, they've got their entire lives in their hand, so how are you going to connect? Is it a CRM program, an email program? I've gotta be on it 24/7, I've gotta be completely ready for every eventuality, it's almost like Navy SEALs, when they go in, they are ready for everything! It's insane!

But we've got to stay on it, I call it walking point, like in those war movies, they are out there in the jungle, it's scary, you've gotta know where you're going, sometimes you don't, it's dark, you get ambushed, you get shot, but you've gotta get back up, you need to be resilient. Sometimes I'd like to get in front even further but you don't want to get too far ahead. Where are my marketing partners, my agencies? Sometimes those guys want to play it safe but cannot be left too far behind.

What it really boils down to is that you have to be present, you've gotta know your customer completely, then you have a chance at engaging them in the right way in the right channel at the right time.”

Scott Shaffstall clients Gen Now Agency — Scott Shaffstall on clients of his Gen Now Agency

Exciting times to be in marketing, right? Or is it getting almost too scary? Are you feeling agile like a Navy SEAL out there? At least, I am confident that the role of social media to engage with prospects and customers in various channels at different times is not going to go away anytime soon. While the customer journey may become ever-more unpredictable, I predict that social media will play an even more important role going forward both for helping detect the need for and for actually engaging with customers through real conversations.

In fact, I believe so strongly in that the brands that manage social media engagement right are going to find more opportunities to succeed even in an age of marketing automation. This could be their key differentiator. That is why I am writing a book titled The Social Customer Journey and I would be thrilled if you choose to learn more about it by filling out the form below, thank you!

Ski Warmup for Social Media Marketing World

March 20, 2017 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Warming up for this week's Social Media Marketing World 2017 conference while on skis at Mammoth Mountain. Click the video below to join the ride where I share some thoughts and expectations.

I apologize for the wind noise in the video, I need to cover the mic next time I do a skiing vlog! Anyway, some of the key points I discuss are outlined below.

Chapman University Continues Volunteering Tradition

For the 3rd consecutive year, Chapman University is represented at Social Media Marketing World with volunteers helping run and deliver a world-class event. Please see earlier blog post about Chapman University volunteers at Social Media Marketing World 2015. Quite the community has grown around volunteering for this event and many come back year after year. I certainly am looking forward to seeing many of the friendly faces again! See pic here from the registration crew in 2016!

What would you like to learn?

If you would like me to pick up some insights around a particular topic that you are interested in, certain thought leaders you'd like me to interview, please let me know and I will try to pick up some valuable information for you. If you cannot make it to sunny San Diego yourself, you actually can buy the Virtual Pass for Social Media Marketing World which gives you access to all the sessions in recorded form to allow you to stay up to date. You can also make sure you are subscribed to my email newsletter which I plan to use to share some of the trends, tools, and tactics that I identify during the event.

Digital Marketing Strategies

As a “Digital Strategist,” I am keen to learn more about what the most effective strategies are within the realm of both social media marketing specifically, but also digital marketing strategies more broadly. How do you find the right balance between the use of smart tools with marketing automation and true social engagement in which you have to spend more of your time actually building and nurturing customer relationships? Also, what does it mean to be a digital executive today? To what extent does the company brand depend upon the CEO having a presence on social media? Moreover, how can you use marketing analytics to learn what works best for you, what activities you should engage in more and which ones to do less of? Those are some of the issues I will be trying to cover and again, if you are interested in what I learn, please ensure that you are subscribed to my updates further below or if you are really into it, I suggest you consider getting the Virtual Pass to Social Media Marketing World.

TV Interview on Working from Home in the Digital Age

March 11, 2017 by Niklas Myhr 2 Comments

Much can be said about the pros and cons of working from home. Some think that working from home is better as they feel that they face too many distractions in an office environment so that they need to work from home to get things done, at least for demanding work that requires your full attention. Others find that surprising distractions can happen at home, too, just as Professor Robert E. Kelly learned while he offered his views on South Korea's political turbulence after the prime minister was impeached.

Inspired by Dr. Kelly's troubles keeping his kids out of the broadcast, I was interviewed by CBS LA's Stacey Butler and they also made the rounds near Chapman by asking people on the streets around the Orange Circle in Old Town Orange if they had experiences with working from home. Please enjoy the clip below even if the quality is not great as I literally filmed the live streamed news segment on my desktop screen using my phone.

While I recognize that the impeachment of the prime minister was a historic and important event in South Korea, I could not resist laughing out loud when I saw how Professor Kelly's young children stormed his home office. What was funny was the stark contrast between his happy children and his own attempts, only half-successful, at keeping a straight face.

Kudos to BBC News for making this 1-minute “blooper reel” clip available on their YouTube channel. I first saw this clip shared on my brother David Myhr‘s Facebook feed and, in turn, I shared it with my friends adding a comment that this showed the risks that you take while live streaming as just about anything can happen.

I will be on @BBCNewsMedia / @BBCWorld in 10 minutes to talk about the Korean impeachment.

— Robert E Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly) March 10, 2017

A few hours later, another Facebook friend complained that her feed was over-saturated with this video and as I didn't want to annoy people, I removed it thinking that it had served its purpose by then. However, five minutes later, CBS Los Angeles evening news called and wanted to interview me on camera and I had to rush to Chapman University as I ironically enough was “working from home.”

As I only had half an hour to prepare, I crowdsourced some ideas from my Facebook friends who quickly came to the rescue offering many interesting observations regarding the tradeoffs involved (thanks!). In favor of working at home was arguments such as the efficiency of being able to skip the long commute and the ability to focus, but the downside could be that it is hard to remember to stop working, the lack of social interaction with colleagues, plus the aforementioned risk of being disturbed by people at home.

In the interview, I tried to explain the viral nature of the video:

We are overburdened with information, we get too much of the serious stuff so sometimes we take note of things that are the abnormal.

Also, I stressed that workers at home don't necessarily have to wear formal clothing but rather that the important thing was that the employee is feeling productive. I even said that with even more people working from home, it may become unprofessional to be too professional. Takeaway? Take yourself lightly, as Stacey Butler so eloquently put it in the conclusion of the story 🙂

My TEDx Talk on The Modern Specialist

January 5, 2017 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Define yourself in terms of who you serve, not in terms of what you do.

I am very pleased to announce that my TEDx Talk on the role of the Modern Specialist has been published. In this talk, I share some perspectives that at times run counter to some popularly held beliefs on how to set yourself up for career success such as focusing on one thing and become really good at that. While I can see the potential benefits of such an approach, the question is what you do if you don’t know what to focus on, what your passion is, or if there is no demand for your services? Those are some of the concerns that I address and I also present an alternative perspective that I at times advice my students to embrace, the one of “The Modern Specialist.” This perspective is partially developed as a result of my summer internship in New York with Gary Vaynerchuk at Vayner Media and my talk also builds on my previous TEDx Talk at TEDxUmea.

This talk was recorded during a very special day at TEDxMissionViejo superbly managed by Stephanie Paul and where I got to engage with a very dynamic group of people composed of other speakers, audience members, and volunteers. I was proud to share the stage with my social entrepreneur student John Cefalu who spoke on making an impact in Africa and was also very pleased to see my Chapman University students volunteering and helping make the event run very smoothly to make it a tremendous experience for the audience and everyone involved! Special mentions go out to Venice Gell, Laurisa Sanchez, and Taylor Myers and the whole TedXMissionViejo Team and to Noel Witcosky and Annika Streng for helping me with research.

Lawyer and Social Media Expert Mitch Jackson honored me by attending.

TEDxMissionViejoMakeup — Getting ready, makeup time!

TEDxMissionViejo Niklas Myhr — Shot captured by my intern Annika Streng!

The Unsexy Entrepreneur Bares it all

November 28, 2016 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

“Lauren, why aren't you on Twitter? You are missing the boat, it's amazing!” That is the question my friend Mitch Jackson asked his daughter's in-home ACT & SAT tutor Lauren Gaggioli. Lauren took action, became obsessed with digital entrepreneurship after finding the podcasts of the likes of Pat Flynn talking about developing passive income and Michael Hyatt on how to build your online platform.

She drove 7,000 miles a year and worked every day between 3 and 10 pm and never saw her husband. Even if she loved tutoring students and saw great results such as with Mitch's daughter A.J. she decided that this had to stop and she decided to move her business online. First, she developed a course teaching students how to prepare for the ACT & SAT tests. However, she had not primed the pump and found only crickets after launching her online course. If you build it, customers will not necessarily come was the hard lesson.

Then Lauren realized she had to build an audience and trust first and hence her first podcast, The College Admissions Checklist was born. This podcast served as a dual affinity builder by attracting both parents and college counsellors which helped her grow her clientele. Parents, usually moms, wanting to help their kids listened and wanted more of Lauren's help and then she could refer them to her online training. College counselors she developed relationships with by interviewing them on the podcast and in return they often refer business to Lauren as they learn that she knows her stuff.

She found it curious how the big companies in the test prep space had not gotten a handle on good content marketing to build trust and the podcasts they had tried, they had abandoned. This way, Lauren could fill a void in the marketplace and it was more important to get it going rather than making it perfect.

After podcasting for a while, she began networking more and more with other podcasters and famous Walt Disney World Radio show how Lou Mongello has become sort of a mentor for Lauren. Eventually, she was invited to the prestigious Social Media Marketing World to speak on a podcasting panel chaired by Lou Mongello and I personally had the pleasure of attending live when Lauren ruled the show flanked by Chris Ducker and Pat Flynn.

By moving her training to an online course, she freed up her brainspace to focus on digital entrepreneurship. Now she actually has found a new outlet for her thoughts in this arena as she has launched “The Unsexy Side Podcast” where she shares the behind the scenes perspectives of what entrepreneurial life is really like and it is not always a walk the park. This authenticity is key to the organic and successful growth of the brand of Lauren Gaggioli and I can now attest she is a great public speaker too as my social media marketing class at Chapman University stayed engaged for the full hour and were inspired by her genuine enthusiasm and I am too excited to stay connected and follow her next moves on and offline!