If you follow my Twitter account which can at times be extremely amusing you’ll see me sing the praises of one Frank Kenny now and again. Keep in mind that no, he’s not paying me to say anything I’m fixin to say and no, I have yet to attend any of his speaking engagements. I’d like to though because I truly believe that he’s got sheer genius going on. Why would I say this? Allow me to tell you why.

I’ll start with how I even heard the name Frank Kenny. I’ll refer back to my Twitter account where yes, I check who’s following me and if they sound interesting, I follow them. I may not always agree with them or vice versa but I love hearing other people’s spin on topics. I call it “opportunity for education”.

photo courtesy of Frank Kenny

So I read about Frank and what he’s doing and start seeing how he’s getting things done. What’s he doing? He’s putting North Mason County back on the map of the state of Washington. How many of you are asking “What? Where? How?” Good, I have your attention on this. For many years or at least as long as I can remember, North Mason/Belfair has received a “backwoods” negative connotation. Why? I don’t know, but visit NM/Belfair these days. There’s great local businesses there and a new energy among those places to encourage you to visit and keep visiting. I salute Frank Kenny and his work in making this happen.

A year ago, if you had asked me to name any business locally owned and operated in North Mason county, I would have blanked out immediately. Sad to say, but absolutely true and get this, the area in which I speak of is maybe a 20 minute drive or so from my current residence. Yes, I just said that. However, thanks to the dedication and vision of Frank Kenny and the North Mason Chamber of Commerce, that’s been changed.

I’ve been blogging for many years. I’ve maintained some semblance of an internet presence for many years as well. To sum that part of my world up in 5,000 words or less, it’s been all trial and error. You try something and either it works or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, you go back to the drawing board and rework your plan and try again. What’s the cost of this? Time? Reading and learning? Your personal reputation at stake? Perhaps.

Showing people that yes, you can sell yourself and/or your business to others via the internet/social networking services and do it effectively without putting them to sleep is incredible. I say that because even for me, explaining this idea to friends who have/own small businesses..I tend to sound so nerdy that they tell me they’re just not getting it.

I attended a workshop geared specifically toward small business owners who were women seeking a better idea of how to use aforementioned tools. First off, I met a room full of incredible women who had great products/services I had no clue were even around Kitsap County. Each of these women shared something in common that I thought was particularly of interest to me. They were all business owners/entrepreneurs/people who had originally started on one path, but due to economy, personal hardship…whatever, were forced to change their path to keep semblance of success in their lives. Each of them were forging a new path, but were in attendance because they wanted to learn how to improve upon that new path. Oh me? I’m just the crazy Kitsap democrat blogger girl in the back row. I’m not there to learn how to promote me because I’m all about me. I’m there to see what is being taught, how it’s being presented and how the crowd is reacting. I’m learning but in a different aspect than most.

So watching and reading and viewing what/how Frank Kenny has done not only on a personal but professional level for about the last half a year or so, I’m giving him one outstanding commendation right here, right now. Oh you bet there are some who can, could, would criticize me on this. Even I will whole heartedly admit that yes, I too can be bitchy and critical of others and their presentation. Ask anyone who’s been at the receiving end of that and they’ll surely tell you. But when one peruses through what Mr Kenny is saying and how he effectively does it, even I have a really hard time finding criticism. Someone give him an award. I whole heartedly believe he deserves it.

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Tags: branding, Frank Kenny, marketing, Mason County businesses, Mason County coaching, North Mason, North Mason Chamber of Commerce

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 17:50:40 and is filed under daily dribble. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.