In 1990 I was 22 and hired as the National Promotion Director for Radioactive/MCA Records.  We had just signed a band called Public Affection.  Soon after a name change to ‘Live,‘ the release of a single called “Pain Lies on The Riverside,” and the video making an impact at Mtv (yes, kids, Mtv actually had music videos on it the first ten years it was around,) resistance from radio began to slowly break.

I was working an uphill battle to get a band played on the radio that radio programmer directors thought wasn’t ‘alternative enough.’  The biggest complaint I heard was that there was no way the singer was 19 years old because he sounded like he was in his forties.  (Bands like Doughtry and Nickleback followed in Ed’s boisterous ‘voicesteps.’)  Regardless, I knew that Live had ‘that thing’ that star quality shows.

Granted, I thought that about some other bands that didn’t receive the luck and timing that Live received, but Live had “it.”  I’ve been wrong too.

When I saw Pearl Jam in a showcase  at a music industry conference in New York before their first album was released I thought, “Wow, that singer is charismatic, but their songs are too long and will never get played on radio.”

Before that incidence,  I saw Nirvana in a similar situation in San Francisco on their tour for the Bleach album and I thought, “these guys are the most powerful three piece band ever, …too bad they’ll never get past college radio.”  Nirvana did okay, and so did Dave Grohl’s Foo Fighters.  So, I’ll admit that my premonitions aren’t always correct.

The Throwing Copper album, which I was thanked on the back of, dropped right after “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from Nirvana came out and ushered in a new, but short, era of alternative rock for Mtv and for radio.  Live was in the right place, with the right album at the right time.

Live hit the second wave of Mtv the way Duran Duran hit the first wave of Mtv.  Five videos from Throwing Copper were on Mtv, the album sold eight million copies and was the third album in history to top the Billboard chart at #1 over a year after being released.

“Lightning Crashes,” Live’s biggest hit (a ballad; the ballads are always the biggest hits,) was rocketing up the charts when I moved on.  As much as I enjoyed working with them, there were issues at the label and I realized that I wanted more of a life than Los Angeles would provide me with.

Live was building their career, but riding on their success would only go so far for me.  It was also great working with Dig, The Ramones, Shirley Manson in Angelfish before she joined Garbage, and other great bands. But I needed clean air and a more heartful city to live in so I found a position at I.R.S. Records.  They wanted someone in Seattle  or Denver so I had them move me to Colorado.

It was bitter-sweet to separate from the wonderful guys in Live and others at that time.  Last night that bitter-sweetness struck my heart again.  Chad Taylor announced that Live had broken up after almost 20 years and almost 20 million records sold worldwide.

Live has always used their Friends of Live printed newsletter, which became an online newsletter and then a website, to build a passionate fan base through conversations with their fans the way we all use social media.

Chad Taylor is very active on his Facebook page and his blog which is where the news first broke.  To me Chad represents new media.  He’s always had a warm heart and been more transparent and communicative than the rest of the band.  All the guys are great, but Chad was always the one going out of his way to do what he thought was best for the band and the fans.  It’s no surprise that he’s the one building relationships online.

Eddie Kowalczyk, on the other hand, is reminding me of the older ideas of broadcast media.  His only interaction with the public in months has been a blurb announcing what he’s doing in the studio recording his first solo record.  I’m not in his shoes and I don’t judge anything besides the difference in the communication styles I’ve seen between him and Chad online.

As time goes on with Ed on a solo journey, and the other guys releasing an album under the name The Gracious Few, I’ll be curious to see how their two styles of interacting with fans will affect their careers.

If Ed only broadcasts and announces to fans through mainstream media, while Chad continues to engage in peer-like conversations with fans through social media, will that affect Ed’s solo career?  Or will the music make the difference in an age where radio is less relevant daily and we live online connecting to tribes and Trust Communities?

Time will tell.  As someone who spent the better part of almost 4 years in the early days with Ed, Chad, Patrick and Chad, I wish them all well and look forward to seeing where life and music take them next.

Ironically as I help companies and professionals to build and manage their brands I’m undergoing a personal re-branding.  Later in the post I’ll go into why you need to pay attention to your personal branding. Now I’ll fill you in on how this post came to be.

A few days ago I began the process of being called “Brett” instead of “Sopan.”  Fifteen years ago I went through the same process but in reverse with the names.  I legally added “Sopan” as my first name thinking it suited more of who I was and who I wanted to be.

As I am increasingly working with very high level professionals it seems more fitting to have a name that’s easier for people to pronounce.  It’s also nice to not have to spell and re-pronounce my name every time I introduce myself.

Sopan is a unique name and therefore a good memorable brand.  But judging by the same confused look I get every time people hear it for the first time, and the high frequency of times it’s mispronounced, it has drawbacks also.

When I was a radio DJ I was told that “Brett Greene” sounded strong and sexy like “James Bond.”  Whether that’s true or not, hearing it from a beautiful girl gives the memory weight in going back to that name.  Strong and sexy are good characteristics for any personal or professional brand.

The best comments to this change so far have been:

“Puff Daddy went through it too. From Puff Daddy to P Diddy to Sean Combs and back to Puff Daddy!  No big deal!”

“Don’t worry about the name thing.  Prince went through this too and everyone liked it better.”

“What – no more ‘You don’t mess with the Sopan?”

“It doesn’t matter what you’re called.  What matters is what you answer to.”

So why does this matter to you?  Because it’s the 21st century and your personal brand will help you to sink or swim professionally.

If I have two candidates for a position and one of them has an interesting blog, insightful tweets on a Twitter account and a strong LinkedIn profile (which few know how to create) then I’m hiring that person.

A resume and good interview skills aren’t enough to get a great job these days.

The same goes for people I’m going to hire.  I’ll hire the person who is powerfully presenting themselves as an expert over the person who doesn’t even have a basic website.  This isn’t just me, this is reality now.

We live in a time of radical transparency which I love because it makes bullshit a lot harder to hide.

When you fly your flag you’ll attract your tribe and connect with more and more people internationally that will contribute to your personal and professional lives.  It’s a great time to be alive and the best time ever to be in communication online.

People live online and often get to know about new friends and business associates through social networking and new media.  If you’re not swimming in this pool, which means being in the conversation, not just putting up a profile, then you’re not in the game.

Like it or not you are a brand.  If you don’t get this then I invite you to read this Fast Company aritcle on “The Brand Called You” and Dan Shawbel’s Personal Branding Blog to get up to speed.

What is your personal brand?  Who do you want people to think you are when they Google you or when they say or hear your name?

Are your unique gifts, talents and expertise on display where people can learn about them? What are you doing today to build and manage both your personal and professional brands?

Asking these questions today will affect the results in your life for many tomorrows to come.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the year leading up to this talk, the web tool Twitter exploded in size (up 10x during 2008 alone).  Twitter co-founder Evan Williams reveals that many of the ideas driving that growth came from unexpected uses invented by the users themselves.

As of today Twitter has jumped to 8 million users – a 33% increase over last month.  FaceBook is up to over 175 million users.

To understand the significance of this major shift in influence, lets reflect on  what it’s taken in the past for traditional media to grow.

To get to 50,000,000 users it took radio 38 years and TV 13 years.  To reach the same numbers of users with new media it’s taken computers 4 years, the ipod 3 years and FaceBook only 2 years!

…and today we’re not even going to get into the power of user generated content fueling their exponential growth, interest and viral marketing capabilities.

It’s Wednesday morning and I’ve already attended a Tweetup with about 20 people, the first Boulder Beer and Blog (both of which I learned about on Monday on Twitter) and the biweekly Boulder Open Coffee Club .

I’ve also missed the first Boulder Denver New Tech meetup held in Denver and the latest iVolunteer meetup. Tonight I’ll attend IgniteBoulder .  On Friday morning I’ll be at the Boulder New Media Breakfast. Friday night I’m stopping by the iPhone Dev Camp for iPhone application developers.

Who says technology is alienating people?  It must be people not using technology or people who don’t like connecting with people.

The mission of Meetup.com is “to revitalize local community and help people around the world self-organize. Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.”

In these meetups you’ll find yourself meeting interesting people and having conversations that you’d otherwise never have.  They give you a pulse on your community and professional industry that you can’t get anywhere else because it’s much bigger than meeting up with a few friends or colleagues.  This is the case whether the focus is wine tasting, hiking or technology.

While Meetup.com is an amazing social networking tool that helps to facilitate over 2,000 groups in  local communities, what’s even cooler is that local groups and individuals are going beyond Meetup.com’s model.

With Twitter people are spontaneously saying “I’ll be at this place at this time if anyone wants to meet up” to set up a meetup with anyone on Twitter in the area.

There’s also the power of Facebook to reconnect us with old friends which isn’t any less valuable than the face to face meetings created through Twitter, Meetup and grass roots meetings organized by just throwing up a wiki or a website and emailing friends about the event.

Podcamps, barcamps and unconferences are even better than Meetups.  You get together on a Friday night and figure out the groups interests for topics to cover on Saturday and anyone in the group may end up being a presenter.  Many versions of podcamps are popping up because you just pick a topic and invite people to tell their friends and show up.

I’m very inspired by how people are coming together to create community, to do charity work and to support each other.  It can’t just be my community that’s doing this.  Maybe this was happening five years ago and I just didn’t know about it, but today there’s an amazing fire spreading that’s bringing people together in great ways.

Check out Meetup.com today to see what’s going on in your neck of the woods and if there isn’t a group already started to cater to your interests then start one and get in on the fun.

As the old phrase “technology is killing face to face communication because everyone is buried in a computer or mobile device” continues to be spoken by some, it simply doesn’t ring true for people who are actually using social networking sites.

Yesterday we saw a stunning example of this in Australia with emotional tweets bringing people together through the disaster of the major brushfires they experienced.  How do you not have a visceral feeling reading: @Ingenue_Em: “I’m crying over the #bushfires – how can whole towns be decimated? Over 100 souls lost now, could be up to 200.”

That’s the power of 140 characters of text read by friends and strangers alike.  Anyone who has a pulse, and didn’t work in the Bush administration during Hurricane Katrina, will feel a connection and empathy reading tweets like that.  And because Twitter is both instant and international people near and far were able to connect and help each other.

It’s interesting to read the the ABCNews.com article on this to see how traditional media is following social media because no news outlet has enough reporters to be on the scene of an unfolding event, but citizens with cell phones and Twitter accounts are everywhere now.  Old and new media are converging to give us the best of both worlds.

On a similar yet different note, on Thursday, February 12 over 175+ cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals – meet ups for people on Twitter to tweet, meet and give.  For $10 you meet up with others on Twitter, get a free drink and raise money for clean water charity.  Visit www.Twestival.com for details on the city nearest you.

Here’s why this is a must attend event:

• On 12 February 2009 175+ cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals.
• The events are raising money for charity and the chosen charity is clean water.
• The Twestival is organized by volunteers who twitter and 100% of the money goes to charity.
• It all started in London under the idea of drinking and socializing and doing good for others.
• It was mainly organized in less than two weeks using Twitter.
• 1.1 billion people don’t have access to clean drinking water. 1/6 of the world. 80% of all sickness starts here.

More and more individuals and businesses are starting to catch on to the power of social media for brand building, customer relations, connecting with peers to learn and share with, etc.  One of the reasons that it can be more powerful than traditional media is that it facilitates a two way (or more) authentic conversation.  This is one of many benefits and values to building communities around your company.

When I’m asked to explain the value of Twitter I find it hard to do so in less than 15 minutes.  Newbies ask how it’s like Facebook and their minds automatically throw them in the same category while they are very different animals.  Twitter is a much faster and direct business tool than Facebook while operating on a very different platform.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth even more, I’ve added this video to the blog to help you learn how to get the most from this powerful tool. Yes, it’s even longer than 15 minutes, but it is well worth your time and will deepen your understanding of how you can benefit from using Twitter for your business.  Sarah Milstein of O’Reilly Media created this great presentation.

Click here to view the embedded video.