Inbound Marketing Mentors: Sorcerer’s Apprentice Redux
I guess I must be suffering a Halloween hangover this morning – despite an extra hour of turn-back-the-clock sleep. For more than a year, as mentioned before, I’ve immersed in the world of inbound marketing, social media and the other tools that will help clients communicate effectively and profitably in the years ahead. In this really interesting and exciting pursuit, I’ve become a willing apprentice and have gratefully accepted mentorship in all of the forms that it’s generously been offered.
While a relative newbie compared to some, this is still a pretty new turn in our industry so I feel something like a pioneer at the same time. As I make my way with everyone else who’s busy ‘trying to figure this all out’, I’ve found myself sitting at the feet of brilliant and talented people who have hacked out the rugged path for my covered wagon.
For the past month or so, since a great Social Media guy Walter Elly introduced me to it at Inbound Marketing Summit 09 in Boston, I’ve been listening to and studying the webinars offered in a free certification curriculum — Inbound Marketing University.
This formidable effort was put together and is offered by HubSpot (www.hubspot.com) as a way to start credentialing people who have committed to becoming knowledgeable in the ways of marketing on the Web. Rebecca Corliss of HubSpot has taken charge of IMU, which leverages the webinars they had been offering over time featuring such experts as Chris Brogan of New Marketing Labs and ChrisBrogan.com, entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk of winelibrary.tv, and Avinash Kaushik, Google’s analytical guru and author of the new Web Analytics 2.0. IMU covers the wide array of topics that comprise the complex Inbound Marketing approach.
For those who clicked on the play button for today’s jazz selection, let me take a moment to explain why I chose it for this post. The group is one of the many configurations over decades of drummer Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Blakey is known as one of the top mentors and nurturers of jazz talent who ever lived. In a musical art form based on apprenticeship and passing down learning from generation to generation, Art Blakey was one of the most prolific teachers.
The tune you’re listening to is Moanin’, composed and played here by pianist Bobby Timmons. In addition to his mentor Blakey, Timmons is accompanied by fellow mentees who all went on to make an enormous mark on jazz — the great trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, and bassist Jymie Merritt. It’s from an October 30, 1958 recording session, making it a particularly apropos selection for Halloween weekend.
Anyhow – I look forward to sitting soon for the exam that will hopefully result in my being recognized as a Certified Inbound Marketing Professional. Thank you to all of my teachers and role models for helping me as I shift my experience and talents into this new direction. I promise to put what I’m learning – and will continue to learn — to good use and pass it forward to others who decide to follow this road. Check out IMU at www.inboundmarketing.com/university/classes.
New PR Words - and Music! 
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