My professional life: Shaun Cassidy

I am writing this blog for people to know more about my work.

I am an international business growth mentor and coach, innovation strategist, author and virtual artist working within the digital realm with over two decades of experience in business development living and working out of San Diego, California.

I have worked on business strategy with professionals from within the United States, Mexico, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Spain. Companies and professionals have profited from my integrated marketing ideas and social selling by leveraging social media. I am a known early adopter within e-commerce and social media marketing. I hold 25 plus years of experience as a sales, marketing and branding executive that is committed to producing high-quality deliverables. I am well known as a diligent and highly skilled professional with a broad understanding of marketing and sales strategies, customer success and creative problem solving.

My firm Cassidy Creative Solutions clients and partners have been featured in the following global sites: The New York Times, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, Wired, Inc. Magazine, Fast Company, Oprah Magazine, HSN, QVC, Amazon, WGBH Boston, Latina Magazine, Univision, Telemundo, Latino USA NPR, ABC News, CNN, CBS News, NBC Latino, Fox & Friends, National Geographic Channel, People en Espa?ol, The Huffington Post, Thrive Global, Lonely Planet Travel Magazine, ARTnews Magazine, Esquire Magazine,The Smithsonian Online, The Harvard Review, the front page of Yahoo!, UT San Diego, San Diego Reader, KPBS San Diego, iHeart, Entertain Weekly, BillBoard, Vogue Magazine, Fox 5 San Diego, Channel 6 San Diego, FINE Magazine, LOCALE Magazine, San Diego Downtown News, Pacific San Diego Magazine. The Times of San Diego Magazine, San Diego CityBEAT, San Diego Magazine, La Jolla Light Newspaper, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Business Journal, San Diego Business Journal, Le Monde France. el financiero Mexico. Capital Business Germany, European Gazette Marbella, Málaga Spain, la Repubblica Italy, BBC Ireland, Raidió Teilifís éireann (RTé) Ireland, IMAGE Publications Ireland and the Irish Times.  Prior to developing my firm, I was a part of the startup of Travelocity.com which is an online travel agency now owned by Expedia Group. It has 12.4 million unique visitors and 91 million page views making it one of the most important sites for e-commerce within the United States.

I am a keynote virtual speaker where I speak on a variety of topics such as The Future of Digital Business, Social Media for Business, Advanced LinkedIn for Business, Business Development for Creatives, LinkedIn for Nonprofits Boards of Directors, Social Selling, and Digital Selling for Executives. 

When California first went into lockdown due to a global pandemic I did an interview with podcaster Christopher Kowynia for his Purpose Podcast where I discuss what I see coming due to a major paradigm shift coming from the tipping point created by the pandemic and shift into "Fourth Industrial Revolution which is a way of describing the blurring of boundaries between the physical, digital, and biological worlds. It's a fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, and other technologies"

My work within business growth, economic development, social media marketing and innovation has been profiled for the San Diego Social Media Conferences, CEO Women's Business Summit, American Marketing Association San Diego and within over 20 different podcasts including the Seamless Podcast that explores all aspects of what makes a Smart City come to life.

I have been using LinkedIn since it’s startup and have over 19 years of professional network development in the application reaching 30,000 contacts in late 2004. I have personally trained over 5,000 professionals on how to leverage LinkedIn for business development and lead generation.

I am the author of The Creative Powers of LinkedIn now on Amazon.com. I write about digital marketing for creatives, LinkedIn for creatives, innovation and art making, creativity and business strategy, goal setting, personal and business branding, online presence, and career advancement.

I am a surrealist artist known for my paintings, prints and drawings of the natural world within dream like states and I share tendencies with the Chicago Imagists and broader Chicago tradition of surreal representation. I am a honored alumni of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago one of the most historically significant accredited independent schools of art and design in the United States and the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Design. This is one my early paintings called Mother Earth from 1992.

I am a creative business advisor for the highly respected arts nonprofit called Vanguard Culture which is an inclusive 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to advancing San Diego’s Creative Industries. I have been a strategist to influential arts and culture organizations, designing, coordinating and delivering workshops for creatives looking to grow their businesses.

I am a founding member and innovation advisor for the San Diego Innovation Advisors Collective which is similar to an Advisory Board, The San Diego Innovation Advisors is a collective of leading innovation professionals with diverse technological and business expertise providing strategic advice through a new model of innovation thinking, strategy development, and action. We help companies identify opportunities to create greater value and accelerate innovation.

I am an online community developer bringing together professionals and creatives around the world within digital pathways and online networking groups. I hold professional and social media networks for over one million people from within over 40 different countries around the world.

?I am the creator and moderator of a professional virtual networking group called the Virtual League where brilliant minds discuss the future of our digital life and society.

?I am the chief development architect for the virtual business network The Ireland California Tech and Creative Professional Group connecting professionals in technology, innovation and creative arts together.

?I am the Director of Social Media for the SD Social Media Experts which is a digital hub web resource and one of the largest private Facebook groups within all of Southern California.

?I am the Director of Social Media for Tequila Buyers, Importers, and Distributors-UNITE which is a professional group that is meant to create synergy between buyers, importers and distributors of Tequila. Both in Mexico, US and Internationally.

?I am the creator and moderator of the San Diego & Guadalajara Professional Network which is the first binational professional group bringing professionals from both Guadalajara and San Diego together online and in joint events to network and develop new business.

?I was a regular contributor to LatinoRebels.com for many years prior to it being purchased by The Futuro Media Group which is an independent nonprofit organization producing multimedia journalism based in Harlem and founded in 2010 by award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, LatinoRebels.com is a media platform focused on US Latino issues and I was one of the original Rebeldes, having been with the group since the very beginning and one of the few non-Latinos who are content contributors invited directly by the founder Julio Ricardo Varela who is now the editorial director for Futuro Media and currently leading new business initiatives at Futuro Studios and Co-host, award-winning In The Thick political podcast. Latino Rebels provides the best available digital independent alternative content. The Latino Rebels are a group of committed Latino activists, authors, bloggers, comedians, artists, filmmakers, and social media influential’s. The work of the Latino Rebels has several times been seen on national and international media for it's cutting edge content.

LatinoRebels.com 4,293,000+ million page views since May 2011-Facebook Fans 124,297 k-Twitter followers 60K -YouTube views 760,000+ make it a social media and highly influential new media platform.

I am a veteran of the U.S. Air Force where I served on a special duty assignment at The Air Force Personnel Center (AFPC) which is a field operating agency of Headquarters, Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower and Personnel. AFPC is comprised of 9 directorates, the Air Force Promotion Board and the Special Staff each managing key programs in support of Air Force personnel operations around the world. AFPC is a Field Operating Agency reporting directly to the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. The Secretary is the head of the Department of the Air Force, analogous to that of a chief executive officer of a corporation.

I would become trained as a data scientist working with classified information under the offices for the Freedom of Information Act.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a federal freedom of information law that requires the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government upon request. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure procedures, and defines nine exemptions to the statute. President Lyndon B. Johnson, despite his misgivings, signed the Freedom of Information Act into law on July 4, 1966, and it went into effect the following year. My years in service would make me understand the importance of information, how to use information and why some information was special this turned me into a data nerd and would effect my future as a business growth strategist.

When I was a keynote speaker at the San Diego Social Media Conference discussing how I assisted a photographer in San Diego go worldwide viral. Here is the Fox 5 San Diego profile on this phenomenon before it hit national and international media https://fox5sandiego.com/2015/02/10/photographer-searches-for-couple-captured-in-proposal-under-rainbow/

Thank you for reading this blog about my professional life reach out to me if I can be of service to you or your organization.