The Rich and Colorful History of Integrated Alliances

The roots of Integrated Alliances (IA) really began a long, long time ago. IA is an attitude that its founder, Mike O’Neil, has been living in earnest his whole life. IA is about working together with others to get things done that can’t effectively be accomplished by one individual. It’s about working on cool stuff with cool people that become friends.

Maybe it is the engineer in Mike that fuels this. He’s actually an Industrial Engineer (IE) that practices the IE methodology in business. Maybe it is the leadership component that fuels it. He has always been the host of the best parties, pick out the venue, lead the way.

Mike grew up in Minnesota and attended Arizona State University, living in the greater Phoenix for 10 years. He attended literally hundreds of rock concerts in both Minnesota and Arizona before moving to Denver Colorado in 1990.  It is in Denver, Colorado that Integrated Alliances is formed.

Chronology of Integrated Alliances

2003 – IA is born

After starting out as a PC Guru in corporate America, where floppy disks and Lotus 1-2-3 ruled, Mike embarked on a highly successful career in corporate sales working with the latest high technology products of the day (PC’s, servers, networks, telecom, Internet, Applications, Services). Mike started Integrated Alliances in 2003 after experiencing the Pink Slip farewell and the burst of the Internet Bubble first hand.

IA was built upon the principle of Social Networking, where humans interact with one another, often with a beer or glass of wine in hand, to see how they might benefit one another professionally or maybe even socially.

The First Annual IA Denver Holiday Party was at the Avalon Nightclub, a large concert and nightclub. Over 600 attended and visited 25 vendor exhibits. The wildly popular R&B band “Soul School” entertained well into the night. It was a huge success!

2004 – Mike discovers LinkedIn.com

Mike joins LinkedIn on January 14, 2004, becoming user #125,841. Like most, he didn’t get much involved with LinkedIn until later. Mike also got more involved with MySpace and Plaxo at the time.

The Integrated Alliances Social Networking Event operations were in full swing. Sponsors exhibited, the newsletter reached was over 5,000, Integrated Alliances was really onto something.

The Second Annual IA Denver Holiday Party was held at the Proof of the Pudding Nightclub.

2005 – Mike begins mastering LinkedIn

It was 2005 and Mike saw the future, online business-social networking would become known as Social Media. LinkedIn became Mike’s new event follow-up process. He connected on LinkedIn to event attendees, colleagues, vendors and built his network to over 1,000 direct connections by year’s end.

The Third Annual IA Denver Holiday Party was held at the Sheraton Downtown Denver Hotel and it featured the wildly popular, multi-platinum record selling 70’s rock band Firefall.

2006 – IA launches LinkedIn public training

In early 2006, Mike met up with longtime buddy Kevin Johansen at a crowded Starbucks in the Denver Tech Center. Through what might be called “Immaculate Conception”, this meeting spawned the world’s first LinkedIn trainings – initially held at a restaurant/bar and then in a large high-tech lecture hall at the prestigious University of Denver. Both were played to packed houses and this paved the way for regular LinkedIn training in Colorado and elsewhere via Webinars.

The events and LinkedIn trainings continue. The training expanded to include a 101 Basics, a 201 Advanced User class and even more advanced levels of LinkedIn learning.

The Fourth Annual IA Denver Holiday Party was held at Braun’s Restaurant and Bar right by Pepsi Center. It featured The Randy Rigby Band who brought special guests to jam with them.

2007 – IA launches private LinkedIn sales and recruiting training

Eventually the word got out and the phone calls came in from around North America and around the world about bringing this Integrated Alliances LinkedIn training to other locations as well. This led to Integrated Alliances establishing a North American presence in Phoenix Arizona, Scottsdale Arizona, Dallas-Ft. Worth Texas, Miami Florida, Kansas City Missouri, Madison Wisconsin, Seattle Washington, Washington DC, New York, New Jersey, San Diego California, Charlotte North Carolina, Raleigh-Durham North Carolina.

IA LinkedIn training classes were taking place in locations outside of Colorado. In most cases, the remote operations were run by small independent business owners who were also the trainers. These individuals, called Integrated Alliances Regional Executive Directors, were trained up on LinkedIn teachings and certified by Integrated Alliances.

IA launches special LinkedIn training for Sales, Recruiting and Executives. The multi-part training classes are launched so that users can better absorb the material.

The Fifth Annual IA Denver Holiday Party is held at the University of Denver’s Tivoli Hall, a classic old building that looks like the declaration of Independence could have been signed there. A super-hot 80’s band named Kelli Said entertained the crowd in a super-high energy set.

2008 – The IA Executive Team Grows

Mike appears in Hoover’s business webinar series along with Rich Blakeman of Miller-Heiman, the world’s #1 sales performance training company. The show spawned Mike and Rich speaking at Miller-Heiman’s Client Summit in Lake Tahoe on the topic.

In attendance were many of the world’s largest and most respected sales organizations. The topic was using LinkedIn to drive Sales Performance. Mike is one of the many millions who have been through the Miller-Heiman Strategic Selling program.

Mid-year, Lori Ruff comes on board to bring IA LinkedIn training to the East Coast. She started recruiting new Regional Executive Directors and, because of her background in Organizational Development and corporate training, picked up quickly on what IA was out to accomplish. She moved to Denver to help lead the next wave of activity for IA.

Mike is selected to appear at the National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS) Annual Conference in Orlando. He speaks and trains on LinkedIn to a standing room only crowd. The recruiting industry has always led the charge in using LinkedIn. IA has close ties to many of the foremost recruiting industry leaders. Most of the top individuals on LinkedIn are actually recruiters, including the #1 ranked LinkedIn user, Mr. Ron Bates.

In attendance at NAPS are representatives from Kaye-Bassman, a world leader in recruiting. Mike meets CEO Jeff Kaye (at the hotel bar no less) and is subsequently asked to film and produce the Integrated Alliances LinkedIn training program in a special “recruiting-optimized” 4 DVD package entitled “Ride The Lightning Strike to LinkedIn Recruiting Success”. It now sells for $299.

The Sixth Annual IA Denver Holiday Party was held at the Denver Renaissance Hotel and it featured a SUPER performance by U2 Tribute Band “Under a Blood Red Sky”.

2009 – Rock The World 1 LinkedIn book is written and released

Mike and Lori begin speaking and training on LinkedIn together as a team. This has never been done before. It is 2 of everything, 1 of each, 1 + 1 = more than 2. It resonates with audiences. This experience, energy and perspective make their way into the ensuing book.

Mike finishes up a massive 3 year effort culminating in the form of the Rock The World with your Online Presence LinkedIn book. It took the help of Lori Ruff to complete the seemingly never-ending project. The initial version of the book – now nicknamed RTW 1 version 1.0, is completed and printed just in time for the 2009 holiday book buying season.

The book cover is impactful. A mix of Andy Warhol, Rolling Stone, Sergeant Pepper and the Lonely Hearts Club Band and Mike O’Neil himself, it matches the interior content well. Each section is introduced with a classic rock reference, metaphor or analogy.

The first batch of Rock The World books are printed and rushed off to an International LinkedIn training client, a Cisco networking reseller based in Munich Germany. Mike and Lori are published international LinkedIn & Social Media authors!

Rock the World version 1.1 is set for release shortly after the first of the year in 2010. The new release elevates Lori Ruff to full-blown co-author status, even sporting her picture on the cover!

With the concentration on speaking and training on an International circuit and an impending book release in 2009, IA no longer has an official presence outside of Colorado. In getting to this point, IA estimates that it has trained over 100 other LinkedIn and Social Media trainers, many of whom keep regular contact with Mike & Lori.

The Seventh Annual IA Denver Holiday Party is held at a live concert performance facility named Caselman’s located right near Coors Field in Lower Downtown Denver. This event brings back the super popular Randy Ribgy Band to entertain. It is widely viewed at the best Holiday Party for Social Media types ever held in Denver.

2010 – Rock the World 2 Social Media book is completed

The Rock The World book and tour are officially launched in Chicago followed by San Francisco California, San Jose California, Charlotte North Carolina, Atlanta Georgia, Seattle Washington, Langley Washington, Minneapolis Minnesota, Vancouver Canada, Oklahoma City Oklahoma, Colorado Springs Colorado and more.

Rock The World 2 Social Media book is completed and sent to the publisher. Pre-orders are opened for signed copies of this book published by Tendril Press of Aurora Colorado. Estimated ship date is November 1, 2010, just in time for business book giving season once again.

Mike & Lori are signed on for another multi-book deal with the first books in the series available before the end of 2010.

They will be bringing the Rock The World 2 Tour (2R) to the Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia area in Sept-Oct 2012.