Dan Sweet

This presentation is a good basic tutorial on social media. It covers the why and how of Facebook, Twitter, blog readers, and personal branding. I designed it for incoming Notre Dame MBA students but it has proven itself valuable for everyone from my parents, to executives, to my peers who don’t quite get why everyone is suddenly talking about Twitter. Basically anyone looking to understand what social media is all about.

Please share it with your friends, family, coworkers, etc.

Yes, I still plan to post on this blog.  Recently real life has consumed all the time I have had available and then some but this blog will come back to life very shortly.

In the past 4 months I have bought a house, watched my little girl grow up, changed lots of diapers, put together a primer on social media for incoming MBAs, gotten my MBA from Notre Dame, seen Joe Montana and Obama at graduation, moved from Indiana to Ohio, grown a lawn from seed, bought my first lawnmower, mounted my plasma on the wall, bought and returned many curtains, bought and assembled several more pieces of IKEA furniture, lost money shorting commercial real estate, bought a new car, filed an amended tax return, and made way to many trips to Lowes and Home Depot.

I start work at P&G in eleven short days an am very excited for it.  Alright, I’m out for now.  Lots more house organizing and stuff buying to do.

This is the seventh in a series of twelve posts. The introduction to the series is here. By way of review, these are my notes of Warren Buffett’s responses to questions from Notre Dame and Stanford MBAs on October 9. 2007.

What are your personal goals for the next 5-10 years?

I’m already doing it.  If I have a better plan I should just do it now.

I like teaching and meeting with students.  Berkshire is great.  It’s like a test tube.  It’s a fun platform.

I have the ultimate luxury—I get to work with people I love.

Tip for you:  If you want a marriage that will last, look for someone with low expectations.  I get that on an extended basis.

There are elephants out there that I haven’t shot yet.  I have a gun and it’s fun to go hunting.

Subscribe to the RSS feed to make sure you don’t miss any of Warren Buffett’s insights from this 12 post series.

LIFE

1. Adjust to sleeping in 2-3 hour stretches.
2. Get the baby sleeping through the night.
3. Make time to play with the baby every day.
4. Lock down the diet and exercise again.
5. Get the broken ankle to finally heal properly.
6. Figure out the babysitter / going out with the wife logistics.
7. Make a buy/rent decision that both makes financial sense and is livable.
8. Find a good church when we move.

FRIENDS

1. Thank Facebook peeps for all the new baby congrats.
2. Stay connected with old friends via phone / Skype.
3. Figure out what roles I want Twitter, blogging, and Facebook to fill.
4. Continue to “unfriend” people who are barely acquaintances.
5. Enjoy last semester with MBA peeps.
6. Find cool friends when we move.

CAREER / PRODUCTIVITY

1. Get caught up on 700+ unread posts in Google Reader.
2. Do something about the 4000 emails in my Gmail inbox.
3. End each day with an empty inbox.
4. Get a Linux install up and running on the laptop.
5. Learn some perl and SQL.
6. Blog more consistently.
7. Kick ass in my new finance manager role.
8. Find a  solid mentor.

Q: How do you tell an extroverted finance guy from an introverted finance guy?
A: He looks at your shoes instead of his own.
(as told to me by my future boss before I started at P&G)

I don’t fit the finance guy stereotype.  I am a little too loud, I joke around a little too much, and I’ve spent seven years in the non-profit world.  However, I recently got an MBA from Notre Dame and have somehow become a finance guy.

I’ve started this blog because I want a place to jot down my thoughts, archive cool stuff I find online, and join in the conversation.

I plan to transcend the “finance guy” stereotype both in my career and in my posts here.

Check out my post on Why You Need Social Media.