Toby Barnett, Senior Consultant
Experience
Toby first got his experience in the consulting industry while studying at the University of Washington, Bothell. He worked as the team leader and manager of a team of four that provided consulting services to a Kirkland based millwork company, Masterpiece AG-Limited. Through that experience Toby learned team dynamics, leadership, time management and task completion skills while providing high quality and usable products for Masterpiece AG-Limited.
Simultaneously, Toby was interning for the Seattle Mariners leading a team for the Field of Lights Christmas event held in Safeco Field. It was his duty to put together a part of the event and manage it through the holidays. Using his leadership skills, Toby created an area that catered to kids and families. Customer Service and creating a welcoming environment was of the highest importance. The Seattle mariners awarded Toby with a Letter of Recommendation and a authentic Mariners player’s jersey during the even recap meeting.
In his second consulting project, Toby was the team leader in a collaboration project with the Yakama Nation Museum and the University of Washington. The project goal was to benchmark another company/organization to see how their practices could be implemented for the success of the Nation. Through the project the student team put together a fundraising program and made recommendations like creating a Board of Director to govern the direction of the Museum and to direct its fundraising effort.
After graduation, the University of Washington, Bothell approached Toby in being a student advisor in an international collaboration project. The project took Toby to Bosnia for two weeks to assist in teaching business strategy, team building and leadership skills to students at Slobomir P Univerzitet. Toby experienced the Bosnian culture first hand by spending time with the students, in and out of the college environment, attending dinners with student’s families (while talking history & politics), experiencing a school dance and living at the University as the only American.
Toby Barnett is a person driven by experiences and his motivation comes from his interaction with people and learning attitude.
Toby’s Other Websites
- Snohomish County Real Estate
- Personal Blog
Danielle Decker
My long time friend, Danielle Decker just graduated from Cornish College of the Arts and today I took off work early to go over and see her art exhibits. As I walked around the college it got me thinking how could Danielle break out in the art world through effective small business marketing?
There are many paths that Danielle could try but being a recent graduate money is always tight and exposure is limited. So here is TW Resource Groups 5 Step Plan to promote talent and sell art in the process.
Get Connected
Getting out in the art community is the most important item. Right now Danielle is working part time at a local art store, excellent, and what better way to get connected through the community than to work where artists purchase supplies. As people come in and out of the art store, it gives Danielle the opportunity to meet people who might no someone, who knows someone that could use her services.
Participate in the Community
There are many local market festivals and out door events where a small booth, a reasonable amount of money, where portraits can be done while showcasing other works. In addition to this direct exposure, flyers, brochures and other print marketing material can be displayed for consumers to pickup.
Get a Website
Danielle has already taken advantage of this advertising medium. Having work displayed brings content to her professional name while having a avenue to generate sales 24/7/365. Two suggestions, one would to have the price and a brief description of the piece and two is to incorporate an easy payment option like PayPal or another type of secure payment option.
Beat the Street
Get out in the town and talk to business owners that to see if they may need window murals for up-coming specials or holiday offers, to see if an artistic rendering could be down in the interior of their restaurant or if there is any possibility to offer art work on consignment. Sales are tough this way but experience is the ultimate goal; just by getting out in the street and talking to people Danielle would be taking risks and learning a great deal how to communicate with people who may be in the market to purchase such items for their business.
Don’t Give Up
Never give up on your dream and passion because that is all we have in life and if we can’t enjoy what we do for a living then why do it at all? There are many people that will say “why don’t you get a real job” or “you can’t make any money like that” and try to bring you down to their level. Being an entrepreneur is something special and it takes vision, drive and determination that no matter what comes along you will continue to move forward, if only a little bit each day.
Danielle, I hope this is of some help to you and your success venturing out into the art world. I look forward to purchasing your pieces for my house. Also, if anyone is interested in seein Danielle’s art work she can be found at www.DanielleDecker.com.
Chris Wille passes Series 7
TW Resource Group would like to extend a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Chris Wille, Senior Consultant, in passing his Series 7 General Securities License exam today. This is a major boost to Chris Wille who already has his BA from the University Washington with a major in Finance.
Chris Wille is a founding father of TW Resource Group and a major player in the companies development and having his expertise in more than just marketing is going complement our clients. Having a Series 7 shows Chris Wille’s ability to take his knowledge to the next level.
This affects our client’s bottom line in a positive note because a broader understanding of the finance realm can be utilized to take your company to the next level. Increase client’s market presence isn’t that good unless it is validated on the bottom line.
Work with TW Resource Group because we can look after more than just a marketing presence, we look after your whole financial marketing position.
Meeting in Person
Blogging and the interaction of social communities is the foundation to the blogosphere’s success. But one thing that doesn’t happen to often is meeting other bloggers face-to-face and only recently have I begun to get out there and professionally socialize with other bloggers in the community.
I have met most of the founders from ActiveRain and one from Social Media Systems but haven’t extended it more due to work and other obligations. But on Thursday the 17th, I had the opportunity to meet up with a blogger from Las Vegas News blog for lunch while spending some time in Las Vegas. It gave us more time to ask questions and pursue discussions in a shorter time frame than what usually happens in the blogosphere.
Social networking is nothing new but blogging has given people another avenue to connect on and I encourage anyone who has taken up blogging to get connected to also get out and meet other bloggers face-to-face. Start small by asking someone to a cup of coffee at the local Starbucks and let the conversation begin.
Social Bookmarks
Today I have been busy working on inserting social bookmarks on our blog and after tons of trial and error I found one that worked great, though pictures would have been nice, download.
Update: Social Bookmarks w/ Images
Social Bookmarking is an easy way for bloggers to save all their favorite posts using a variety of applications. They can be found at the bottom of every post and some of the most popular are Digg, Del.icio.us, Newsvine, Reddit and Stumbleupon.
Why are these a important items to have on a blog? One they give a way for people to save posts and second, the big one, that they assist in building quality backlinks from many sources.
Saving Posts: Saving posts, or submitting them to news readers, builds upon the social networking of blogging. The interaction between website and user is taken to another level where users can rate, to encourage readership, or burry, to discourage readership, of posts.
Quality Backlinks: Having users submit posts to news readers a blogger has the potential to achieve thousands of backlinks in a very short period of time, for example Digg.  If a blogger A breaks news, or has a really excellent written blog, and many people Digg it then blogger A will gain a link to their post from all the Digger’s profile pages. Getting a thousand links from Digg is every bloggers dream.
Take some time to add social bookmarks to the bottom of your blog and you’ll find it a nice little bonus when links come in.