Social Media Business Hour with Nile Nickel (SMBH Weekly Episodes)
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing - with Jason Falls

Social Media Business Hour - Big Font

Largo, Florida - April 4, 2016- In this show Nile Nickel talks with Jason Falls the award-winning social media strategist and widely read industry pundit, Jason is known as a top influencer in the social technology and marketing space by Forbes, Entrepreneur, Advertising Age and others. His strategies and ideas have touched iconic brands like General Motors, AT&T, Makers Mark, Humana and CafePress, among others. Jason leads strategy for Elasticity, an innovative agency that blends public relations, social media, mobile and SEO to help brands adjust and excel in an ever-changing marketing landscape. He is the co-author of two books: No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide To Social Media Marketing (Que 2011), and The Rebels Guide To Email Marketing (Que 2012). Falls is also noted for founding SocialMediaExplorer.com, one of the industry’s most widely read blogs.

143_Jason Falls

Jason is the co-author of two books: No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide To Social Media Marketing (Que 2011), and The Rebels Guide To Email Marketing (Que 2012). Falls is also noted for founding SocialMediaExplorer.com, one of the industry’s most widely read blogs.  


 

No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing

Book1 The In-Your-Face, Results-Focused, No-“Kumbaya” Guide to Social Media for Business!  

  • Detailed techniques for increasing sales, profits, market share, and efficiency
  • Specific solutions for brand-building, customer service, R&D, and reputation management
  • Facts, statistics, real-world case studies, and rock-solid metrics

Stop hiding from social media--or treating it as if it’s a playground. Start using it strategically. Identify specific, actionable goals. Apply business discipline and proven best practices. Stop fearing risks. Start mitigating them. Measure performance. Get results. You can. This book shows you how. Jason Falls and Erik Deckers serve up practical social media techniques and metrics for building brands, strengthening awareness, improving service, optimizing R&D, driving better leads--and closing more sales. “Conversations” and “communities” are wonderful, but they’re not enough. Get this book and get what you really want from social media: profits. Think social media’s a passing fad? Too risky? Just a toy? Too soft and fuzzy? Not for your business? Wake up! It’s where your customers are. And it ain’t going away. Does that suck? No. It doesn’t. Do social media right, and all those great business buzzwords come true. Actionable. Measurable.And...wait for it...here comes the big one. Profitable. Damn profitable. Want to know how to do it right? We’ll show you. And, yeah, we know how because we’ve done it. This is the bullshit-free, lie-free, fluff-free, blessedly non-New-Age real deal. You’re going to learn how to use social media to deliver absolutely killer customer service. How to R&D stuff people actually want. Develop scads of seriously qualified leads. You’ll figure out what you want. You know, the little things like profits, market share, loyalty, and brand power. You’ll figure out how to measure it. And then you’ll go get it. One more thing. We know what scares you about social media. Screwing up (a.k.a., your mug on the front page of The Wall Street Journal). So we’ll tell you what to do so that won’t happen. Ever. No B.S. in this book. Just facts. Metrics. Best practices. Stuff to warm the hearts of your CFO, CEO, all your C-whatevers. And, yeah, you. So get your head out from under the pillow. Get your butt in gear. Let’s go make some money.


 

The Rebel's Guide to Email Marketing: Grow Your List, Break the Rules, and Win

Book2 A No-Nonsense, Take-No-Prisoners Plan for Earning Positive Return on Your Email Marketing! “They” say email is dead. Baloney! 94% of Americans use email. Passionate social networkers use email more, not less. Mobile email is huge. Email offers marketers more opportunities than ever...opportunities to guide customers from consideration and trial to repeat purchase, loyalty, even advocacy! But email has changed. Email users have changed. To get breakthrough results, you must break the rules! Whether you’re B2B or B2C, Fortune 500 or startup, this is a complete no-nonsense plan for transforming your email marketing. Discover radically better ways to handle every facet of your campaign: lists, From names, Subject lines, calls to action, social network integration...everything! Learn how to

  • Discover which email marketing “rules” are obsolete--and when to break the rest
  • Optimize every component of your message and campaign
  • Drive list growth that translates directly into the top line
  • Encourage opt-in by systematically simplifying signup
  • Bring real humor and creativity back into your email
  • Write a great main call to action--and great secondary and tertiary calls, too
  • Take full advantage of tools ranging from QR codes to texting to grow your email list
  • Make better technical decisions about prechecked opt-in boxes and other attributes
  • Know when to deliberately introduce “imperfections” into your emails
  • Use email marketing and social media to power each other
  • Prepare for the short- and long-term futures of email marketing

 


Links:

Email Address: jason@goelastic.com Twitter Handle: @JasonFalls Facebook Profile: http://facebook.com/jasonfalls LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonfalls Websites: http://goelastic.com, http://jasonfalls.com


Show Transcript:

Segment 1 [Weird Ass News - No Transcript Available]

Segment 2:

Nile:    Hey, I’d like to welcome you to the social media business hour tonight. We’ve got Jason Falls on. You heard a tease upfront so you’re going to learn some great things about social listening and I’m sort of fascinated to hear that topic myself. And Jason, by the way, is a leading digital strategist, author, speaker and thinker in the digital and social media marketing industry. His strategies and ideas have touched iconic brands probably you’ve never heard of like General Motors, AT&T, my personal favorite Makers Mark, Humanic, FA Press and many others. Jason:  Everyone likes that one. Nile:    Yeah, it’s -- that’s always a good one to warm us up in these cold winter times. Jason:  Exactly. Nile:    Well, you know, one of the things that you talk about and you’ve got a sort of a really innovative agency. Elasticity, correct? Jason:  That’s right. Elasticity. We’re about, you know, we’re a boutique agency. We’ve got about 30, 35 people headquartered in Saint Louis. It was founded by three former Omnicom executives and I actually was -- when I was the vice president for digital strategy at Café Press a few years ago I brought Elasticity to Café Press to be our sort of marketing, digital marketing and PR firm. And, you know, just absolutely loved them so much that -- I mean, there was a little bit of an executive change over at Café Press and I was sort of looking for a different opportunity. I just kind of gave them a call and said hey, is -- would it be possible for us to work together? And it sort of worked out. So, I’ve been there a little over a year. I run a Louisville office and we continued to grow and create content strategies and stuff for clients that we just have a lot of fun doing it. Nile:    I was going to say the size of it sounds like you are. I mean, that doesn’t sound so boutique anymore. Jason:  Well, I mean, I guess, you know, I guess it’s all relative. I mean, when I think of a boutique agency I think of anything under 50 people. You know, once you get over 50 you’re starting to get pretty big and layered but we’re small enough as an agency that we are still very flat and by that I mean there’s not a great hierarchy. We bring the right subject matter experts to the table for each client so it’s not just an account executive who is the liaison between the client and everybody else in the agency. When we have a client call or a meeting, you know, the media planning and buying, you know, person on that particular account is at the table, the creative director’s at the table, the account executive’s at the table, the strategist is at the table, the guy doing the SEO and pay per click stuff, the guy doing the community management or the gal doing community management is sitting there as well. So, we have a very flat organization which makes for a great collaborative environment. Nile:    Sounds like it does and I know that you guys have won a number of awards. You personally have as well. You’re widely read in the industry. Considered a pundit. You’re also noted as the top -- go ahead. Jason:  I was just going to say it’s great that I’m considered a pundit because I don’t know how to spell it but that’s okay. Nile:    You know, to me that always sounds like the guy on the football team that, you know, kicks the football. But that’s just me. Jason:  Exactly. Nile:    That’s just me. Well, and you also coauthored two books. I like your first book title. You probably listen to the show and you know that we have a segment in part of the social media business hour. It’s called weird ass news. So, you’ve got the no bullshit social media the all business no hype guide to social media marketing. And then you’ve got the rebel’s guide to email marketing. So, I like both of those titles. I think it says a lot about you. Jason:  It does. I’ve got a little bit of a non-conformist personality. I typically -- I’m the guy in -- that you sat next to in class growing up who always had a problem with authority and was probably continually sent to the principal’s office. That’s kind of me and it’s not necessarily that I’m, you know, that I _____04:16 at rules and all that. But I just have a disruptive personality which, you know, in the marketing world these days is what you’re looking for. You’re looking for people who can -- especially with content marketing online you’re looking at people who can help you disrupt, you know, the status quo of way too much signal or way too much noise and not enough signal. And so disruption is something that, you know, we pride ourselves on at Elasticity creating ideas that make people perk up and take notice and so, you know, no bullshit social media was where I first pitched the idea for the book to Pierson and Q, my publisher. I said if you won’t use the title I’m not going to write this book for you because the title is absolutely the essence of the book. It has to be the title. And they came back and said if Barnes and Noble likes it, we like it. And Barnes and Noble was like thumbs up man. We’ll put that on the in cap. Those are great -- that’s a great title. So, it worked out really well. Nile:    That is absolutely super. And, you know, I’ve never heard that I’m a rebel or a non-conformist ever. Well, at least in the last five minutes so -- listen, I know where you’re coming from and I appreciate that. Well, you know, one of the things that you talked about -- you talked about this in the tease before we got started. You’ve even mentioned it here. As we’ve just got -- we’ve allowed people to get to know you a bit. You mentioned social listening and, you know, I’m going to understand that concept. I talk to people a lot about engagement with their audience and I’m curious how engagement and social listening relate to each other. Jason:  Well, they’re certainly intertwined but I think to define social listening let’s first define social monitoring because there’s a difference. In, you know, in 2007, 2008 as companies started to really look at social marketing as a viable avenue to reach consumers lots of software vendors started to pop up to try to make sense of this social media mess out there for brands and one of the popular sort of verticals of software that popped up was social media monitoring software. And so if you’ve heard of brands like [?] and Radiant Six and, you know, some of those types of software. There’s even a free one out there called socialmention.com where you type in a keyword or a phrase and just like Google these softwares go out to all the social networks and blogs and even beyond that. Forums and message boards. And find mentions of that particular keyword, term or phrase and sort of quantify it for you. How many people are talking about it, what are they saying, is it positive, is it negative? Etcetera, etcetera. So, social media monitoring in my mind or kind of the definition of it is just that monitoring. Watching what’s going on on the social web so that you can quantify the conversation about you. Social listening takes that concept one step further where you’re not just quantifying, you’re not just measuring but you’re actually doing something with the data. You’re doing something with the information. You are extrapolating insights. So, you might be doing what many brands do with social listening which is social customer service. They find people complaining about a product or service. They reach out proactively and try to -- or actually it’s reactively because they wait for someone to say something negative. They react to that and reach out and try to conduct a little customer service on social media but there’s so much more there and real, true social listening is when you say I’m going to monitor the conversation. Not necessarily about my company but about the whole category. The whole category of the industry I’m in and I’m going to look for what people are saying about the types of products they like. The types they dislike. So, you’re trying to get consumer insights out of the social conversation just like you would try to get them out of consumers through a focus group or a survey. The data here is unstructured, there’s a lot more of it and it’s a lot harder to sift through but if you are practicing social listening very well you can actually get the same type of insights for your product, for your consumer experience or even for your content marketing out of just the conversations that are happening every day on the web. Nile:    You know, I want to do something that, you know, when I was in marriage counseling way back when the therapist told me it was a good thing to do. So, I’m going to parrot back what you’ve said based on my perspective and what I heard and I’d like to get your comments on it because I think it might help the listeners as well. What I heard you talk about was social monitoring is sort of the analytics and the keyword analysis to find out what people are talking about on the social platform. Whatever that might be. Social listening is where you start listening for specific keywords, specific topics that you want to engage with if you will. And then we talk just a tiny bit about engagement. I’m going to put engagement on top of this. Engagement is where now you start engaging in some sort of conversation based on the listening that you did as discovered by the monitoring that you -- that lead you there. Is that fair? Jason:  That’s -- yeah. that’s absolutely fair. That’s right in there. What I would say about -- to extend the conversation into engagement is when you’re doing a really good job at social listening you are understanding more about your audience and what it is that they are looking for not just in your product or your service but in the experience they have with companies like yours and the types of content that companies like yours can provide to intrigue them. And I’ll give you a quick example. Vespa, the really fancy scooters that you can buy. You know, it’s kind of like, you know, today’s version of the Moped only they’re really nice and, you know, well designed. So, Vespa had this, you know, standard blog on their website where they blogged all about scooters and driving scooters and what driving a Vespa was like. And they started looking at -- they actually started the practice of social listening to say okay. We want to find out what our customers -- and we want to try to identify our customers online, on social networks and we want to listen to what they talk about besides scooters. We want to know what else intrigues them so that we can understand them more. And what they found when they did that was that Vespa customers, when they are talking online about anything and everything have a much higher tendency -- they index higher than the normal, average person talking online in the categories of art and fashion and design and, you know, sort of that sort of genre of the world. So, you’ve got a higher cultured consumer that is a Vespa customer compared to customers of other scooter companies or just the general web. Well, that insight lead them to say you know what? We need to change our blog and stop talking about -- yeah, yeah. Nile:    We’re going to carry what they learned and what they did about it over into the next segment. Does that sound fair? Jason:  Okay. That sounds great. We’ll talk about what they learned in a second. Nile:    Yeah. so, make sure you join us. Nile Nickel and Jason Falls on social media business hour in our next segment.

Segment 3

Hey, welcome back and if you listened to the first segment, man, we’re into some fascinating conversations. This is Nile Nickel with the social media business hour. You hear me all the time but we’ve got Jason Falls, just a fascinating gentleman and as we talked about in the first segment a pundit. You could go back and listen to that conversation. But in our first segment we got into social listening and you started to describe -- and they’ll have to go back to figure out what we’re talking about, social listening, into that first segment. But we were talking about Vespa and Vespa had done some listening and that listening allowed them to gain insights into other interests, you know, basically the what else their consumers were interested in and then you were given an example of what they did with that. Jason:  Right. And I got so excited about telling the story I forgot we needed to break for a segment so I apologize. But so they discovered obviously that the Vespa customer was a -- has a higher tendency to talk about art and fashion and design. So, what they decided to do with that information was they said we’re going to stop just writing about scooters and transportation and getting around and whatnot on our blog and we’re going to turn our blog into an online magazine and again, the mechanism doesn’t change. It’s still a blog. But they changed the name of it from blog to magazine because again, they’re going after a higher brow consumer, someone who’s much more into design, fashion, art, etcetera. And they changed the content to be really focused on art, interior design, fashion, so on and so forth. And so what they did was they changed their content on their website. They started calling it a magazine instead of a blog and that attracted more people like their customers to come to Vespa, to read articles, to share content, so on and so forth. Over the course of -- I think it was a three-month period. They measured 50000 I think it was new, unique visitors to their website. And from those 50000 new visitors they were able to gain -- I think it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 1400 new leads of people who wanted to buy Vespas. Because again they were creating the type of content that a person who might want to buy a Vespa wanted to consume. So, it was listening to the conversation to try and gain insights about their customers that they could then turn into something actionable which would drive more customers, more leads and more transactions. So, that’s the type of thing you can do if you’re doing social listening well. Nile:    Now, what I took away from that because I’m an analytical guy is I was looking -- and I said well that’s about 2.8 percent conversion from followers to leads. That’s huge. Jason:  It’s -- it is. It’s fantastic. And when you talk to people in the digital marketing space about conversion, you know, click through rates, things of that nature you have to remember the average pay per click advertisement -- just average is a .2 percent click through rate, right. That’s basically one in 10000 visitors to a search page is going to click on that pay per click ad. And that’s kind of the standard that you work from when you’re trying to look at how efficient you are in digital conversions. When you’re talking two, three, four percent -- and there’s some digital marketing case studies I’ve seen where you get 30 and 40 percent click through rates. Those are obviously rare and crazy, insatiable things. But when you’re talking two, three, four percent you’re talking significant jump in visits --

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Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

SMBH Headshot Tom Tancredi.fw Tom Tancredi has worked (alongside twin brother Dominic) on the successful launch of over 250 digital products while building their digital agency, DOM & TOM into an Inc. 500 fastest growing company two years running. Tom is a resource on anything startup related including mobile strategy, onboarding a technical team, finding a cofounder or structuring a fundraising deal. Tom has built high profile applications for Fortune 500 companies and is an expert on intrapreneurship in large organizations.

What is “Intrepreneurship”?

Take Steve Balmer with Microsoft. He’s a great example of Intrepreneurship. One of the first employees of Microsoft (he was employee number 30) – Steve was really the right hand man for Microsoft founder Bill Gates. He negotiated himself 8 percent of the total company, which is really incredible, considering there were 29 employees who were hired before him. Steve helped build Microsoft into the huge company it is today. With over 90% internet using Microsoft products. Steve Balmer was not the entrepreneur. He didn’t come up with the product – he did however, see the potential for the product, understood the strengths of the team and had the vision to take the product (Windows) to the marketplace in a scalable way. Although Tom is not the entrepreneur for his company (his brother Dom is the entrepreneur) – Tom found himself in the unique role as the “Intrepreneur”. In 2008/2009 he saw a unique opportunity to learn all that he could about the Apple iPhone. Since no one was the expert on that platform, Tom realized that if his company could be the subject matter expert for iPhones, they could create demand for their mobile software development services.

How can a mobile application boost retail sales?

70% of all retail “research” is done online, on mobile devices – before products are actually purchased. This makes for an incredible opportunity for any retailer who is open to (or already using) flash sales, deep discount offers or impulse point purchases. In fact, if you’re not using mobile, you’re going to miss a TON of sales, especially around the holiday season, with so many consumers making last minute purchases for gifts. Likewise, if you’re interested in year-round sales, mobile is equally as important. Before creating an application though, you really need to ask yourself what benefits and features your application will offer to consumers. Tom recommends that you don’t even bother with creating a mobile application if you haven’t clearly thought through the features and benefits of you application. Whatever you do, don’t just go copying some other larger corporation’s application. Large retailers for example, the money and resources to “get it wrong” many times before they get it right. As small business owners, we don’t have that luxury. As a small business owner, you must play to your strengths. One of the things that you can do, that larger corporations have a hard time with is – you can be face to face with your customers much easier. This mean, you can solicit feedback, answer questions and solve problems much faster than a larger corporation. If for instance, you can think of features for your mobile application that can help you do that, then your customers will find great benefits with that. Anyone you touch in that regard, will find more value doing business with you, than anyone else. In the hands of your customers or prospects, your mobile application may just be the first time they research what you have to offer and who you are. For a great example of how NOT to create a mobile application, you only have to look as far as the banking industry. It doesn’t matter who you’re banking with, just about all of them have one experience online and a completely different experience on their mobile applications. When you go to their website to do any kind of online banking, most of the time, they have really thought through what features, choices and the “look and feel” you as their customer should experience. Contrast that experience, with how most mobile banking applications operate: They are not user friendly, don’t offer valuable features and worst of all, they can feel totally insecure. Once again, this a great example of how NOT to design a mobile application. It’s absolutely crucial, that you take into account the user experience and value that your customers will get by using your application. 

One Of The Most Common Challenges Business Owners Have When Designing Their Own Mobile Application

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “Timing Is Everything”. Nothing could be more true in the case of mobile technology – especially when it comes to user purchases. Through real world experience, Tom shares with us that if you have some process for a user to go through…as an example, it could be a purchase. If they are using a mobile application to make a purchase, processing time included, if it takes up to 30 seconds, your chances for success are really great. If on the other hand, your purchase process takes longer than 30 seconds, you’ll see your users drop off, discontinue the purchase process and buy from a competitor who has a faster option. This could be making reservations for a restaurant, purchasing movie tickets – whatever the process Is, it needs to take 30 seconds or less.

A World-Class Example Of How To Lower Processing Time For Your Mobile Application

Amazon is a great example of streamlining this process. When you open your Amazon application, you’re automatically logged in. Not logging in before making a purchase, lowers the total processing time. Then, once the application is open, you need to make a selection of what you might want to buy – Amazon did it again, decreasing processing time buy making suggestions for you. Think about it like this: Amazon took a process that was five steps long and shortened it into two steps. All so you can quickly open their application, easily find what you are looking for and make the purchase. This shortened process has created a hockey-stick like growth for Amazon. You can achieve success if you do the same thing. Other examples of organizations who lower processing time to almost nothing include companies like “Trunk Club”. Once signed up for this subscription service, customers automatically receive things they may like. If they choose to keep the products, the purchase is already made. Companies like Trunk Club have brought the processing time down to almost nothing for making purchases from them.

Tom’s Best Mobile Application So FarTom has recently created an application called “Life Is Simple”. It’s a mobile application that connects customers to beauty industry professionals (like hairstylists) and their employees for the purposes of scheduling appointments in a quick and easy way. This really hits at the heart of what Tom is all about. He wants to help those who are struggling to make ends meet. Most beauty industry professionals make less what is considered to be at the poverty line in the United States. If adopted, this application will change the lives of thousands of hard working professionals who are struggling every day.

How Tom Started His Multi-Million Dollar Business With No Money

Starting with offering services to generate cash flow, Tom and his brother Dom created an environment where they could offer value to others, including mentorship for those who are less fortunate. They were able to get the attention from Fortune 500 companies by taking on contracts with a simple philosophy: Do what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it and charge a fair price for doing it. Most people just want to be treated fairly and with integrity. Once you provide services or products with that philosophy, the people who you do business with, will appreciate that and take notice. 

How To Have A Mobile Application Built, Even If You Don’t Know Anything About Mobile Applications

Once you have an idea for a mobile application, do some research. Try to find other applications that do something similar. If you find them, that is actually a good sign. You really want to see market validation before you invest time or money into your application. If you find other applications that do something similar to what you have in mind, the next question to ask is: “How are they doing?” Are they performing poorly? If so, then try to find out what their strengths and weaknesses are. Why haven’t they hit a bulls-eye? What are they missing? Once the above research is done to your satisfaction, before building an application, first find a designer. Designing out the application using wireframes is a great way to figure out how it will work and is a lot cheaper than hiring some one to write code before very important questions are answered. A great designer can be hired for as little as $30 per hour. Once that is completed, find a technical co-founder to work with you. This person can help work out the entire application process and just as important, who to hire for which parts of the development.

weblinksTwitter Handle: @dom_and_tom Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/DomAndTom/ LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dom-&-tom Website: http://domandtom.com/

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Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

How To Take Your Next Vacation For FREE With “Travel Hacking” just starts this great episode.

Listen Along, as we reveal the secrets to using your LinkedIn profile as your very own sales page – capable of generating leads for free, what it takes to grow a business from anywhere in the world plus much, much more!

Direct download: SMBH_139.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Listen as we uncover some tough truths about the perils of maintaining a career and those who follow their dreams.  As you might have heard, passive income is one of the most powerful types of income and our guest Matt, made it work for him.

Direct download: SMBH_137.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

If you’re ready to learn about online marketing from the best, then strap in and hold on tight.  This interview is filled with tremendous advice about how to give your business a kick-start using Social Media to generate conversions and the single most important thing you need to do in any business.

Direct download: SMBH_136.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

You can quickly learn how to become a Twitter Rockstar, 140 characters at a time!

Use this incredible and uncommon advice to leverage the power of Twitter to create an unfair advantage for yourself and your business.  On this great podcast, you’ll learn how to use Twitter to easily test the market for what your audience really wants, how to stand out online and how to avoid some of the biggest mistakes people make on Twitter.     

Direct download: SMBH_135.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Greg Smith is the Founder and CEO of Thinkific, a software platform that makes it easy to create, market and sell online courses. Greg practiced corporate law for one of the largest law firms in the country when he created his own online course and it took off, generating more revenue than being a lawyer.

He left his law career to start Thinkific and hasn’t looked back.

Greg and the Thinkific team have helped thousands of experts create and sell courses while building their brands and growing passive revenue.

Clients include everyone from the yoga instructor who wants to teach online, to companies like Hootsuite taking their training to millions of students worldwide.

Direct download: SMBH_134.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Kevin Kruse is a New York Times bestselling author, Forbes contributor and Inc. 500 entrepreneur. For his newest book, 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management, Kevin interviewed over 200 billionaires, millionaires, and entrepreneurs...including Mark Cuban!

Direct download: SMBH_129.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

If You Are Ready To See Massive Results On LinkedIn, Then Listen To Expert Level Tips And Tricks On This Terrific Interview Between TWO LinkedIn Gurus.  Just A Few Short Minutes Into This Great Conversation About How To Use LinkedIn, You’ll Get:

The Single Most Important Networking Philosophy To Use In Combination With LinkedIn

The “Real” Way To Maximize Your LinkedIn Profile

How To Protect Yourself While Using LinkedIn

Which LinkedIn Connections To Have That Will Boost Your Network (Not Just Any LinkedIn Contact)

Plus Much, Much More!

1.smbh-Mike Shelah NOW TO LISTEN In 2011, Mike began sharing his insights and perspectives on LinkedIn with audiences throughout Maryland. In 2015, He founded Mike Shelah Consulting to work directly with companies and sales professionals across the United States to find more customers and find them fast, leveraging the power of LinkedIn. Mike also uses his experience to evangelize the value of LinkedIn and assist those in the job market wanting to find their dream job and get to the front of the applicant list. A resident of Westminster Maryland since 2005, Mike is a dedicated: husband, father and community advocate.

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What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a very powerful, crucial online tool for professionals. When used correctly, LinkedIn can help you build a great network, find and get introduced to your ideal prospects and showcase your true value and worth to them. All you need is basic networking skills to make it happen. If you have networking skills and understand the golden networking philosophy. It’s a philosophy best described as one where “You to give before you get”. That is you should give value and not just look for an immediate return. When you give true value to somebody, most of the time, they will try to give back to you. LinkedIn is a great place to apply this networking philosophy.

How To Power-up Your LinkedIn Profile

What Makes Mike Shella Unique and Successful? Mike is a well-known LinkedIn Expert, but thinks of himself not as an expert or guru but just a successful salesperson who’s figured out LinkedIn. He suggests, a lot of people think that including words like “expert”, “guru” or “ninja” will make their LinkedIn profile more attractive and will outshine others…but those people have got it all wrong. A LinkedIn profile doesn’t have to be extravagant and boastful. By making it realistic, a profile with value and strong content will easily give you an edge from other professionals in your industry.

LinkedIn Guru With The Answers

Mike started out in sales in 1995 and got into technology sales in 1999. He was one of those traditional sales people making calls and setting appointments. It was a repetitive job. Sadly, Mike noticed he was becoming less effective at it…that is, until a good friend sent him a connection request on LinkedIn. It was a request that started him down a new road in life. That new direction, led Mike from the telecom/communications industry, to starting a business teaching and consulting with professionals on how to properly leverage LinkedIn. Because of his one-on-one consulting, group presentations, and seminars, he was able to help many individuals take full advantage of LinkedIn. After listening to Mike, they were able to find customers, find a job, and succeed in their careers.

How To Properly Leverage Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn was still fairly new during the time he accepted that friend’s request. He did not waste time exploring and experimenting the ins and outs of it. He found a lot of good and bad things with LinkedIn and both helped paved the way to his success. LinkedIn has an extremely valuable section called advice for contact. Most people use this option in the wrong way. Based on Mike’s experience, most of the people contacting him, will just write a long paragraph or even a short one saying “send me an email” without including so much as their email address or phone number. Simple Power Tips For All LinkedIn Users Sending Contact Requests: • Keep it simple, make it easy for people to contact you • Include a phone number • Include an email address • Utilize the summary section to include your contact details Most of us are not comfortable giving out personal information over the internet. Check Out Two Solid Tricks For Protecting Yourself While Building Your Network: • Have A Dedicated LinkedIn Email Address – Create an email address mainly to be used for LinkedIn. This will let you completely control your inbox. • Sign Up For A Google Voice Number – If you are not comfortable giving out your mobile or landline number, go to Google Voice and sign up for a free Google Voice number. You can then pair the Google Number to your mobile number without anyone seeing your “real” phone number. You then, don’t have to worry about people knowing your mobile number. You can also get an application that can be downloaded directly on your smartphone for this.

Are You Committing The Single Biggest Pet Peeve On LinkedIn?

How would you feel if somebody sent you a message or you sent someone a message and received a response with a huge delay (like a week or so later) – only to apologize for the late response. The most common excuse? People say they are not checking their LinkedIn mailbox regularly. Avoid this embarrassing and unprofessional situation, by using LinkedIn often and spend time checking the 3 most important sections regularly: 1) Inbox 2) Wall 3) Notifications. It will only take you around 5-10 minutes per day to check everything. LinkedIn is a great tool to engage others with, even more so, if you are using it for your business. Take the time to answer questions from your notifications, celebrate with your connections (who got a new job, who are celebrating their work anniversary, etc.) and go through your invitations on a regular basis.

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3 “Expert Level” Ways To Spot A Good Connection on LinkedIn

Since LinkedIn is open to networking, you will always get invitations from people you don’t know. Make sure to use this list when considering a new connection request:
  • Always ask yourself the following before accepting an invite:
    • Is this person a legitimate customer for me?
    • Can I do business with this person if I accept his invitation?
    • Is it a personalized invitation to connect? (Only few people personalize their request to connect with a personal message)
Great example to filter your invitations: Try this one fantastic trick to filter invitations, especially from people you don’t or you’re not really connected with in any degree. Don’t ignore invites, but send them all of these “unknown” people an email with the same message -- “Hello Name, Thank you for reaching out to me, I don’t believe we have me. What are your thoughts about helping one another? I will wait 3 days for your response before I accept your connection request” By sending this response email, you’ll find that 90% of those people will not bother to respond. “Don’t bother sending out connection requests if you don’t know what you can do or if you’re not yet ready to start networking with the big boys” Mike Shelah The key is message customization and profile research. If you are trying to connect with somebody and looking at them as a prospective client, be prepared because you need to let them know your value and the level of engagement you can provide. Everyone needs to learn the fact that we have to reach out as a person and try to develop a personal connection because that can and will make a difference.

3 Tips using LinkedIn To Manage, Develop and Nurture Contacts

  • Engaged – LinkedIn will always give you the opportunity to post an update (like Facebook). However, your update shouldn’t be like the regular Facebook posts about your breakfast, kid’s rehearsals, etc. but it should be on more of a business level. Post an update and invite people to engage and join the conversation.
  • Join Groups – LinkedIn now allows you to join max of 100 groups. Joining groups will help increase your audience and engagement.
  • Share your posts – LinkedIn has made it possible for you to share your posts with other social media channels like Twitter.

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Connect With Mike And Get The Following

Anybody that goes to Mike’s website will get:
  • FREE 3 page personalized LinkedIn profile report
  • He will also share with you his top 5 tips and tricks
  • Recommendations based on what he sees on your LinkedIn profile
  • After Reviewing his free report, if you have a specific goal you want to achieve, Mike will offer you one on one coaching!

SHOW [content_toggle style="1" label="Click%20Here%20To%20View%20The%20Full%20Transcript%20Of%20The%20Show" hide_label="Hide"] Mike: Hi, this is Mike Shelah with the social media business hour with Nile Nickel and today we’re going to empower your Linked In profile. Woman: Are you in business or thinking about starting a new business and could do with a bit of help and guidance when it comes to social media? Then you’re in the right place. Social media can seem daunting and even frustrating but it doesn’t have to be. That is why we offer insights and experience from social media experts from around the world. Discover tips, tricks and information that will help you leverage the power of social media so you can start growing your business today. Welcome to social media business hour with your host Nile Nickel. Nile: Hey, welcome back to our first segment and you heard in the tease that tonight we’ve got Mike Shelah and Mike Shelah is a Linked In expert and I really like talking to Linked In experts. We’ve had probably -- what would you say Jordan? About a half dozen on the show? Jordan: Yeah, sounds about right. Nile: And I really like those experts. Don’t die on me Jordan. Don’t die on me. I really like the Linked In experts because that’s sort of what I do so we always have fun. We tend to learn a lot from each other and we all become better so just to give you some background on Mike. In 2011 Mike began sharing his insights and perspectives on Linked In with audiences throughout Maryland. In 2015 he founded Mike Shelah Coaching to work directly with companies and sales professionals across the United States to find more customers and find them fast leveraging the power of Linked In. mike also uses his experience to evangelize the value of Linked In and those in the job market wanting to find their dream job and get in front of the applicant list. And so Mike welcome to the show. Mike: Thank you Nile. Excited to be here today. Nile: Well, I’m excited. You wanted to -- you talked about helping people out with their profile and I look at profiles as where people really can shine and most of the time they don’t. They just fall flat on their face. In fact I do a product why your Linked In profile sucks and exactly what to do about it so I’m really interested in what you’ve got to talk about tonight. But if I look at all of the Linked In consultants that are out there and you and I both know there are thousands. In fact maybe even tens of thousands. What makes you unique out of all of us Linked In people out here? Mike: The first thing that makes me unique Nile -- and that’s a great question. I get asked it a lot. Is I don’t think of myself as an expert or a guru or a black belt or a ninja or any of those other foolish words that people like to put in their profiles because they think it’s going to somehow attract people to their profile. What I am is a successful salesperson. I started out in sales in 1995. I got into technology sales in 1999 and like many salespeople I come from that tradition of you get a list, you make a 100 phone calls, you set 10 appointments, you get three sales out of that, you move on to the next month. Then you repeat. And what I started to notice about eight years ago was that was becoming less and less effective and a good friend of mine sent me a connection request on Linked In and at that time Linked In was still fairly new. People had it but it certainly was not the platform that it is today and I began experimenting with it and I found lots of bad things to do that I stopped doing and I found a lot of good things to do that really helped me be successful as a salesperson and I’ve been able to modify that to also help people that are in the job hunting process because a lot of the skills that it takes to use Linked In for selling also apply to people that are in the job market looking to find a job. Nile: Sure, absolutely. Absolutely. Of all things that you found with Linked In what would you say is your biggest pet peeve on Linked In? Mike: There is an extremely valuable section to Linked In that says advice for contact and it amazes me how many people in that section don’t actually put a way for me to contact you. They’ll write a big long paragraph or they’ll say shoot me an email but I don’t have your email address. I say keep it simple. Put a phone number in there, put an email address in there and I recommend to people create an email address just for your Linked In account. With Yahoo and Gmail and all the other email platforms out there create an email. Keep it just for your profile and for the phone number -- some people are uncomfortable giving out their personal cellphone number which I can understand. Go to Google Voice, sign up for a free Google Voice number, put that in your profile and that way you can check any messages that come directly from Linked In and you’ll know because it’s a separate app on your smartphone that you just pair with the smartphone number and people never have to know your smartphone number. Nile: Both -- a couple of golden nuggets in there. One of the things that I always recommend is you make it easy for people to contact you and like you said there’s the advice for contact section, there’s information but I also even recommend putting it in the summary section. Make it super easy. And you’re right. So many people don’t do that and after all, if they find you on Linked In which is one of the goals that you likely have if you’re really optimizing your Linked In profile and you’re using it for business or to find a job, you want people to contact you. Mike: Absolutely. Let’s make this simple. Let’s take the confusion out of it. How do I get a hold of you? Nile: In fact, not only taking the confusion out of it. Make it super easy. Mike: Yeah. Nile: If they’re used to looking in a place where it’s not at make sure that it’s in the place that they’re going to look so I love it. I appreciate that advice. Of all the things that you’ve done and the people that you’ve worked with what would you say your favorite Linked In success story is? Mike: Probably my favorite one comes from about six years ago. I was actually at a networking event in Baltimore and I met a gentleman who was the owner of a small business and he was one of the distinguished guests at that event. It was very obvious he didn’t want to talk to any salespeople that day but he was nice enough to give me his business card and after the event I sent him a connection request on Linked In. simply Wayne, thank you for your time. It was a pleasure meeting you this evening. And then a couple of weeks later I see in the Baltimore Business Journal that he’s going to be a keynote speaker at an event. Send Wayne another quick message. Wayne, best of luck with the speaking event. I hope it’s a great success for you. Couple of weeks after that a friend of mine is looking for a job and he’s got a perfect background for this gentleman Wayne. I sent Wayne a message. Wayne, I’d love to introduce you to my friend Dereck. He just got back into the job market and I think he’d be an ideal candidate for your company. Wayne immediately calls me. We spent 15, 20 minutes talking about Dereck and at the end of the conversation Wayne says to me by the way Mike, what do you do? And within 10 minutes of that I’m talking to his office manager. Shortly after that Wayne becomes a customer. But even more important, three years later there was another article in the Baltimore Business Journal about a bank and how they’re going through this explosive growth and they’re interviewing the CEO of the bank. I look her up on Linked In and who does she know? My friend Wayne. Reach out to Wayne. Wayne, would you mind introducing me to Mary? And he says, I’m not going to introduce you to Mary. I’m going to introduce you to the person that I do all my work for her bank through. And within 60 days of that Linked In message I landed the largest account of my professional career and today they spend a quarter of a million dollars a year with my daytime job company. Nile: As you go through that story it reminds me of so many things. One of the things that I talk about and I’m really interested on your thoughts on this as well is Linked In is a tool and it’s a networking tool but it’s just that. It’s a tool. So, when you’ve got good, basic networking skills and networking skills is about give before you get, giving value, not always looking for a return. It’s sort of a natural thing that happens. When you give true value to somebody they look to give back. And so I take that networking philosophy that I have and I’ve shared and I just heard you describe that philosophy perfectly but you used Linked In to implement that strategy. You used the tool of Linked In. Mike: That is correct. And I think you alluded to this earlier. So many people really don’t take the time to develop their Linked In profile and most of the time when I meet someone at a networking event now and they say oh, what do you do? And I tell them I do Linked In consulting, I’m a sales strategist. They look down their feet as if they’re ashamed. As if they’re being addressed by their third grade teacher and the answer’s almost always the same. Well, I have a profile but I don’t really do anything with it and oh, please don’t look at mine because it needs to be updated. And my first thought is well, if you know that why haven’t you done it? Nile: Exactly how long does it take to do that? Mike: In my opinion it takes an hour of hard work to really set up a great profile and then depending on what you do for a living it’s 15 to 20 minutes of maintenance a day. Nile: Well, I’m going to give you my thought and it’s one of the things that I teach. In fact, I teach to really develop your profile and I go through -- there’s currently 13 sections and I talk about going through each of those sections in detail. Spend a week on it but spending a week, you’re probably going to spend anywhere between 15 to maybe 20 minutes a week. Not a day. A week. And then go back over each one of those 13 sections after you’ve went through it the first time which takes you about a quarter so first quarter just build your profile. Second quarter is you start to go back through each section just one section a week which will take you another quarter but that means that you’re touching your profile each and every week and you’re making sure that all of the sections are updated and most sections aren’t going to change that frequently. If at all. But the bottom line is you’ve at least looked at it and you could do that in five to 10, maybe 15 minutes a week. And so you could really have a top of the line profile with very, very little time invested. Mike: Agreed. Nile: Now I suspect that when you’re talking about maybe 15 minutes a day you’re doing the other maintenance things like people send you messages. It might be a good idea to answer those messages. People have connection requests and depending on what your personal policies are and I’d be interested in hearing you’re either going to accept or reject them, whatever. But the flipside is -- and there’s other minor maintenance things you do and then strategically how are you using it for your business. So, I know that I gave you a lot about what I’ve done but I’m interested; and I know you followed all of that too but I’m interested in what you think and what you recommend people to do through those processes as well. Mike: Yeah, you’re hitting a lot of similar ideas that I like to reinforce to people and I apologize. You asked me what my pet peeve earlier was and I think I gave you the wrong one because nothing drives me crazy more than when I send somebody a message on Linked In and then a week later they respond and they say sorry Mike. I don’t check Linked In very often. Again, take 15 minutes a day. You’ve got that little banner right on top of your profile. You’ve got an inbox that shows messages. You have the flag for to dos and then you have invitations. It’s really that simple. Those three things, that’s the 15 minutes I was referring to. You’re right. Those three things should not take you more than 15, 20 minutes a day. Answer the questions that come through, check out the notifications. Who wrote a good blog, who’s got a new job, who’s celebrating an anniversary? Engage on those things and then go through your invitations. And I am not _____30:58 Linked In open networker but I’m not a lock down Linked In user either. What I generally recommend to people is -- because you’re going to get recommendations from people that you don’t know. It always happens. My first thought is is this person a legitimate customer for me? Is this somebody that I could do business with and if so then I accept the connection request and I follow that up with hey, thanks for reaching out? How can I help you today? And I want to get the conversation going and I want to start it just as easy as what can I do to help you. Now, for people that don’t fall into that category -- maybe we don’t have a mutual contact, maybe they’re in Switzerland. The list could be extensive. My first thought is did they customize the Linked In introduction? Did they write something in there because if they wrote something in there there’s a very good chance they’ve described why they wanted to connect with me? Very few people do that. I would say one out of about a 100 invitations I get actually have a personalized introduction. So, I recommend to everybody that that’s what they do when they reach out to people. Particularly if you don’t know them. Linked In doesn’t like you doing that but if you’re going to take that risk, customize it and maximize your opportunity to get connected. When people don’t customize instead of ignoring or accepting I reply to the message and my message is consistent. I say to that person hi Nile. Thank you for reaching out to me. I don’t believe we have met. What are your thoughts on helping one another? I’ll wait three days for your response before I accept your connection request. And then I wait to see what happens because what I found is 90 percent of those people don’t bother to respond to my follow through and I think well, if you can't do that you’re probably not ready to start networking with the big boys. Nile: Yeah, that’s probably true. Well, listen, I know that I want to continue this but we’re going to take a short break. We’ll be right back after this message. Hey, welcome back. You’re listening to the social media business hour with Nile and Jordan and our special guest tonight Mike Shelah and we’re talking about Linked In. you know it’s one of my favorite subjects. And in the last segment we were talking about how people -- or better yet, how you personally respond to the connection requests you get in messages Mike and I liked what you were saying and one of the things that I think we agree on but I want you to continue with where you were but one of the things that we both agree on here is that you don’t want to just use the default messages because why do you just want to be run of the mill? Stand out and it doesn’t take long. In fact, I use a program -- I’m Mac based. It’s called text expander. On PC it’s called Brevity. But literally all it does is -- it’s a short key. I type in three keys and it fills in the message for me and I just fill in the blanks if there are any and it doesn’t take any length of time to sort of put my standard message out. Some people could just save it and cut and paste it but because I do different ones depending on the situation I like having that customization there. But you give a unique response and I liked where you were going in the last segment. So, let me hear more about how you respond to some of those requests that you get. Mike: Sure. The key is customization and even more important delivering some value. If you’re going -- if you’re trying to connect with somebody and they’re a prospective client let them know what was the level of engagement. One of my favorite things about Linked In is that you can research a person before you try to touch them. I went to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County also known as UMBC and in this part of the country UMBC is now very well renowned as a top technology school and if I see on somebody’s profile that they’re an UMBC graduate I’m writing go retrievers because that’s our mascot. Our mascot’s a Labrador retriever. Go retrievers. And because that’s something that’s going to really create that common bond. That’s going to -- it’s going to ground us. And for the sales audience listening today it enhances your prospecting tool. You come up with that target list of 20 accounts that you want to engage and you’re going to reach out to someone what better way than your mutual connections. The people that you know that they know. Looking through their mutual contacts. I got a call back from a client one day because the message I left on his voicemail was hey Bob. Calling you today. We’re both members of the Baltimore County Chamber. I saw that you are friends with George and with Brad. How do you know George and Brad? And he called me back and he said well Mike, how do you know George and Brad? And we got the conversation going. I didn’t say anything about my company or my product or any of that. I started as a person and I started deeply, personally and it just so happened the two names that I mentioned that we had as mutual contacts -- one was a business partner of his that he rents space from and the other one was his childhood best friend. Oh, and I could say that the one man was my former boss that I have a good relationship with and the other one’s my fraternity brother. He was more than happy to set a meeting and have a conversation with me because I wasn’t just another salesperson. I was a person. Nile: And he approached you on a completely different level and I always like to say people buy from people. They don’t buy from companies or businesses. Mike: Amen brother. Nile: And so the fact that you’re reaching out as a person and you’re developing the personal connection just makes all the difference in the world. Great golden nugget there. I’m curious, you’ve been using Linked In for a while. Have you ever used Linked In to find a job? Mike: I have actually and what normally happens is jobs normally find me and what I mean by that is because I’ve optimized my profile, because I’m engaging on a regular basis on there I have people reach out to me all the time saying they’re having trouble finding a job and I say well, I get contacted by one new recruiter on average once a week and they say well, how do you do that? I’m like my profile’s optimized for the industry that I’m in. they naturally find me. and I’ve been happy to say that I’ve been able to just reject most of those job opportunities because they weren’t better than the one I have and the company I’m with right now; I’m with them now because I saw an old friend of mine had gotten a new job there as a sales director so he was above a manager and I just reached out and I again, I had no attention -- I said Rob, congratulations on the new job. I wish you nothing but success. And Rob immediately pinged me back and said Mike I’m desperate for good sales people. Will you come and interview with us. And at the time I was open to hearing about new opportunities. I came in. I met with my now sales manager of three and a half years and I’ve had ridiculous success at that company. And that’s how you find the opportunities. By optimizing your profile and doing that daily engagement. I wasn’t looking for a job when I reached out to Rob to congratulate them. I genuinely wanted to say hey, best of luck with your new job. Nile: Again, it’s on a person basis. Not a company basis. Makes all the difference in the world. We’ve talked about some strategies and I’m curious and obviously want to relate this to Linked In but what do you think has made you successful with Linked In from a personal level? Mike: I think it starts with the personal component. I certainly do. When I think about my big wins, like my big successes that I’ve had as a salesperson almost every single one of them has started with a personal referral that I’d leveraged through Linked In to get the opportunity to speak to that client. Almost every single one. I have some close relationship to someone who knew to get me in the door and they got me in the right door and that person had to be ignoring me before and the plates just shifted into place. I had this one company, huge law firm in Baltimore and I had been calling on them and calling on them and calling on them and they never returned my phone calls. And a friend of mine went to work for that firm and I said Joe would you mind introducing me to Brent. I’ve been trying to get a hold of him. He has not been returning my calls. Joe sends one email to Brent introducing me. Brent gets -- sends me a follow up email and says I would be happy to work with you -- meet with you Mike but I don’t think there’s much you’re going to be able to help us with right now. That was the second largest sale of my professional career. It again happened in less than 60 days and I actually got the customer so excited about what I was offering that they broke their contract with their current vendor to come and work with my company. Nile: Wow. That’s actually saying something. Mike: And it really was leveraging that other relationship. He had no desire to talk to me but because I knew someone that he respected he said all right. I’ll hear what you have to say. Nile: Excellent strategy there and thanks for giving us insights into your success as well. One of the other things that I’d like to ask is that I know that you teach people, you have a strategy to average a new connection every day to get the right introductions. So, it’s not just the connection but it’s the connection to get the right introductions. How do you do that? Mike: It’s the value of the second degree connection. That’s what I try to impart on people. I connect with my clients all the time but I -- I say I connect with everyone. I connect with everyone that I meet. Great example, I was at a business expo last week in Baltimore and it’s a big semiannual event. They do one in the fall, they do one in the spring. There’s usually 60 vendors and about 500 people and typically when I go to an event like that I’m going to see 20 or 30 people I already know and I’m going to meet 15 to 20 people that I don’t know. And with each one of those people I follow up right after the event. Nile, great meeting you at the Bizz Expo this week. I hope we have the opportunity to work together very soon. And that’s all the introduction is. I’ll tell you, I have a coworker right now who is doing some great volunteer work with a nonprofit here in Baltimore and that nonprofit has got this big event coming up in June and they’re looking for ways to market and promote the event and so my coworker said well, you’ve got to talk to my friend Mike because he does all this stuff with Linked In and you’re just going to love him. And I have a phone call with my liaison there. Her name is Karin. And it turns out that Karin’s not connected to my friend on Linked In. now, I know that they know each other but neither one of them has taken that step and my first thought was why aren’t you taking that step? Because I found out that another friend of mine in the marketing company is also doing a project for them and in fact I’m helping her behind the scenes to prepare for that presentation. And I said to her why aren’t you connected to Karin? If you’re working with her why haven’t you taken that step? Why wouldn’t you? Because once you’ve done a good job, once you’ve delivered on what they’ve asked for I’m going to ask for a recommendation because I want that on my profile. I want people to see that I have customers that are happy, that love me and that I’ve done great work for. Nile: That makes absolute sense there and again, I think there’s a number of golden nuggets there. As we’re going through this and I’m listening to what you’re talking about there and the way that you’re talking about connecting people -- again, I’m back to old fashioned networking and it’s sometimes good to connect the virtual world to the real world and when we’ve got these real world connections it does amaze me as well how many people aren’t sharing those connections that they have. Not only -- I look at Linked In I guess and I’m going to take a sort of different angle here. I look at Linked In as my best resource for my online rolodex and if -- now, we’re talking rolodex so we’re dating ourselves a bit because most people today have no clue what that is if they’re new to the business world but it was basically on the corner of your desk and you kept notes on there about anniversaries and spouses and children and events and whatever it may be you kept on that little card. I like to keep all of those notes on those little cards in my Linked In section but -- Mike: Absolutely. Nile: But if I’m not connected to those folks I can't do that. And so I like the recommendation you just made. Why aren’t you and why wouldn’t you? Because I think sometimes we could help the folks that are in our community deal with the value that sometimes they overlook or quite frankly they don’t value. And I want to get into some other strategies as well as talking to about how people could find you and all of that but we’re going to do that in the next segment. So, we’re going to take just a short break and we’ll be right back after this message. Hey, welcome back to the social media business hour. We’re here talking to Mike Shelah and we’re talking about Linked In and Mike I personally think we’re into some advanced strategies but before we get into some -- Mike: Love it. Nile: Some of the other questions and all of that good stuff, one of the things that really strikes me in the face and I think of this the same way. I think anybody listening to this is going to say there’s nothing real detailed or real fancy. I could do all of this. Sounds pretty simple. And I would agree that they could. But they don’t do it. like you said, the most common thing that I hear people say is yeah, I’ve got a Linked In profile but I really haven’t touched it. It’s out of date. Don’t look at it. And we’re talking about some tremendous power they could get and it’s pretty simple if you just do a few simple things. Would you agree? Mike: I completely agree, yeah. And that’s why I use the word evangelize, I use the word catalyst because that really is my goal. I want to turn on as many people as I can to this platform. And not just make them aware because as you’ve stated plenty of people are aware of Linked In. they’re not aware of what it could do for them. And by me getting their awareness cranked up to 11 it’s just going to benefit me. I mean, ultimately it’s very selfish. The more people use Linked In, the better off I am. Nile: Well, and the more people you help you become valuable to those folks. They’re more interested in helping you at that point in time. Mike: Very true. Nile: So, do you have any tips on how you use Linked In to manage and develop and nurture contacts along the way? Now, I know you’ve shared a few things but I’m interested if you’ve got any more details there, any more nuggets? Mike: Yeah, I -- my favorite thing is the engagement piece and you may have seen -- you may have talked about this on previous podcasts but Linked In now has that social selling index tab. You can click on it and it will highlight your profile and put it into four buckets and show you where you need to do a better job and it gives you a ranked score of one out of 100. And the one thing that I think most people don’t really take advantage of is the engagement. You have an opportunity to post an update like you do on Facebook although we’re not talking about what you had for breakfast or your kid’s rehearsal or anything like that. We’re talking about things that matter to business. Do an update and invite conversation. A more detailed update, Linked In Pulse -- once a week put your thought together or for people that don’t like to write what I recommend is they take their daily updates from Monday through Friday and they lump those into a pulse blog post on Saturday. So, take the five articles or relevant stories that you connected throughout the week and just do a two, three sentence paragraph on each one and make that your pulse bog post for the week to increase engagement. And not only to increase engagement but to position yourself as a thought leader and an industry expert. That’s really what those two tools do for you. And then you can further leverage that blog post by engaging it in groups. Linked In now let’s you join up to 100 groups and those groups can be everything from your favorite football team to your college alumni to something based in your community. It can be faith based. It can -- the spectrum for groups that you can join is almost infinite. Get yourself north of 50 groups and then once you’ve written that blog post on Saturday the following Monday share it in five groups and it’s as simple as I wrote this blog post about -- what are some of the things you’ve done in this situation that have benefited you? And get the conversation going. And now you’re being positioned as a thought leader. You’re increasing your audience. You’re increasing engagement and that’s really how you get yourself to adding one new connection a day. By going through those steps. You start with the daily posts. You summarize them in a weekly pule blog and then you push them out to your groups to further engage your audience. Nile: Well, groups have changed dramatically just in the last six months on Linked In that for people that think they know about groups and maybe some of the things that they used to do that don’t work anymore -- it’s worthwhile taking a new look at groups and we don’t have that much time. We can't get into that much detail there but I agree with the group power. It’s just people leveraging that power. And developing that power. Having that said, what you just talked about was an excellent social media strategy and when you do those shares -- we haven’t talked about this but a lot of people don’t know this. I know you do. You’ve got this nice little box down in the bottom right hand corner of your post where you could share on Twitter. Mike: Oh, yes. One of my favorites. Nile: And most of those posts that you’re doing make sense to be shared on Twitter as well. People will engage with you on the platforms that are their platforms. It’s where they work and play. That may or may not be Linked In. may not include Linked In. so, if you’re doing something there why not leverage the power and be able to put it out to Twitter at the same time and if you happen to think about how you’re doing those things it works perfectly when you could do that and just check that little tiny box. Mike: Yeah, very -- and you make a good point that it doesn’t have to be automatic. When Linked In first rolled out Twitter there was a feature that you could select to make it automatic and I learned very quickly that was a bad idea because I was getting these random post updates on my Linked In profile for when I would tweet something. So, I quickly learned to make it a toggle that when I post something on linked it then pushes it over to Twitter and not the other way around. Nile: Yeah, absolutely. Because a lot of things that you put on Twitter may not work very well on Linked In. virtually everything you do on Linked In would work on Twitter so use it accordingly. Mike: Flip the phone. Absolutely. Nile: But I love the way that you talked about doing that because that same strategy works with a lot of the different social media platforms and engage with people where they are. They may or may not be on Linked In as I mentioned but certainly the fact that you could pick up one or two over the course of a year -- new contacts that are valuable contacts just by sharing out the same information may not sound like much but if you look at it 10 years later and it was only two per year that’s 20 good, solid contacts. That could make a business all by itself. Sometimes we -- Mike: That -- believed in -- yeah. They’ve believed in what you said and it resonated with them and they wanted to get engaged. Nile: Exactly. Sometimes we think about the big numbers and I’d rather have 10 followers that are actively engaged than a thousand that aren’t. And it’s just so important to make sure that we don’t get caught up in big numbers. We get caught up in good numbers. Mike: Quality. Nile: Quality over quantity so great stuff. Mike: Nothing wrong with quantity but quality and quantity, much nicer combination. Nile: A much nicer combination and sometimes you have to have quantity just to sort of validate that you’re in the game and you probably have some strategies related to that but we’re running close to being out of time. We’ve got about three or four minutes left and before we run out of time I want to ask about what you do with your clients and to the extent that we’ve got people that are interested in learning more and talking to you, how would they do that? So, let’s talk first about what you do for your clients. Mike: Sure. Three phases to that really. First is anybody that goes to my website can get a free three page report where I review their profile and I believe you said you have 13 points. I have 12 points and then my five tips and tricks. So, we’re basically talking about the same things. And I go through there, I make my recommendations based on what I see. Then the next phase is they’ve gone through that report, they’ve done the things I’ve suggested but they’re looking for more the strategic -- they have a specific goal that they want to attack; I’ll do one on one coaching. The nonprofit that I mentioned. I’m going to be doing that for them. I’m going to be working with them starting in December through June on a biweekly basis to promote this event that they have. It’s one of their biggest fundraisers of the year. That’s what I’m going to be doing with them. And then the last one is I do a 10 week program that is sale centric for the business owner that has a sales force of five or more people. I do a snapshot before this program begins where I do an overview of each participant and I present that to management. And then through the 10 week course we’re going through 30 minutes of Linked In and then 30 minutes of sales strategy. Once a week. At the end of the 10 weeks I do another snapshot for management and it generally falls into four categories. You’ve got your DIY people at the top mister manager. They’re doing great. They don’t need any more help. You’ve got your people that are picking it up. They probably could use some more help. You’ve got these people bellow. They really need a lot of help. And then you’ve got that unfortunate group at the bottom that I can hit them over the head with a hammer and they won't know that it hurts. Nile: Well, I just re-categorized your list there. I like it. The DIY, great. They’re ready to fly. Need some help. Needs a lot of help and helpless. Mike: It can't be helped. Yes. Nile: So, yeah. Beyond any help. So, that’s absolutely awesome. So, if people are interested in learning more, give us that information again. Mike: Certainly. I’m on Linked In. you can find me at www.mikeshelah.com. M-I-K-E-S-H-E-L-A-H. Nile: I was going to say make sure we spell Shelah because you know people will be getting that wrong. Mike: Yes, it is not like the girl’s name. Just pronounced that way. And I’m also on Twitter @mikeshelah. I have a Facebook page, Mike Shelah Consulting and I have an Instagram @mikeshelah. Nile: You just mentioned Instagram there. That’s powerful stuff but most people seem to ignore that. Mike: Great for pictures. Nile: Well, great. Great for a lot of things actually. We might talk about that in the future. Well, listen, we’re basically out of time. I want to thank you so much for joining us and us just having this great Linked In discussion. I always like it when I can have other Linked In -- I know you don’t like the term expert. You say you’re not but I like when other Linked In experts are out there and experts are the people that are sort of at the top of it, of the Linked In platform as you are that are really helping pull other people up to the top because it is a great platform. Most people just aren’t using it. So, Mike, thanks so much for joining us. Mike: Nile, this has been a blast. Thank you for your time. Nile: I appreciate it. And to our listeners, I want to thank you for joining us on the social media business hour. Hopefully you learned at least a few new ideas or concepts. Maybe you were just reminded of a few things that you already know but you haven’t been doing to improve or grow your life or business. Our desire is that you take just one of the things that you learned or were reminded of today and you apply it to your business or your life this week. I know that a small change will make a big difference and I’m committed to bringing you at least one new idea each week that you could implement. So, identify just one small change that you could make to your business or your life this week and see what a big difference it will make for you. So, until next week, this is Nile Nickel. Now, go make it happen. Woman: Thanks for listening. Social media business hour is sponsored by linkedinfocus.com. Be sure to get the latest social media business tips and tricks plus free tips on how you can use Linked In to help your business today. Visit socialmediabusinesshour.com. [/content_toggle] weblinksFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikeshelahconsulting Twitter: @mikeshelah Website: www.mikeshelah.com

Direct download: SMBH_133.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Sales doesn’t have to be hard.  It can be easy, but only if you know the secrets of building profitable relationships.

Join us for this incredible interview and discover the time-tested strategies and tactics for how to handle people in a way that excites them and leaves them asking for more.

smbh_bobburg_headshot NOW TO LISTEN Bob Burg is a sought-after speaker at company leadership and sales conferences sharing the platform with everyone from today’s business leaders and broadcast personalities to even a former U.S. President. Bob is the author of a number of books on sales, marketing and influence, with total book sales of well over a million copies. His book, The Go-Giver, coauthored with John David Mann has sold over half a million copies and it has been translated into 21 languages. It is now being released in a new, expanded edition, with a foreword by Huffington Post founder and publisher, Arianna Huffington. Bob is an advocate, supporter and defender of the Free Enterprise system, believing that the amount of money one makes is directly proportional to how many people they serve. He is also an unapologetic animal fanatic, and serves on the Board of Trustees of Furry Friends Adoption & Clinic in his town of Jupiter, Florida.

How To Say No When You Just Don’t Want To Do Something?

Do you want to always please others? Are you afraid of hurting other people’s feelings? Are you afraid to say “NO”? What is it really about saying no that we try to avoid? As human beings, we always seem to have that instinct to please others. We often think that by saying “No” we are going to offend some one…and that it’s not appropriate or nice. It is not congruent in today’s society and our value system, to treat people with disrespect. We’re afraid of losing an important person in our life or even miss out on an opportunity. We don’t want to say “No” because others might think that we’re being unproductive. Believe it or not, we are taught to say No, and the word “No” is already a complete sentence. We are more happy and productive when we do the things that we want to do and not the things we are compelled to do.

“Unless you want to do something or there is a compelling reason for you to do it, then you shouldn’t” -Bob Burg

Bob Burg shares with us the secrets of being polite in this extremely valuable interview. For instance, if you don’t want to do something for whatever reason, maybe it’s due to lack of time, lack of knowledge or inclination, then just say “no” politely and thank whoever it is for asking. The reasons for saying no are your reasons and yours alone.

The Results Of Saying No Politely

You can say “No” and still feel good after saying it. Better yet, you can also leave the person you’re talking to with a good feeling, too – even though you’re declining their offer or request. If you don’t want to do something, you can just simply say no politely. Make sure to thank them for asking you and say how honored and humbled you are by being asked. Unless the person you’re talking to is the kind of person who gets angry for any reason, they probably can’t afford to get mad at you. If you do it right, they might even thank you for the way you turned them down.

The 5 Undisputable Laws Of Business Success

  1. The Law Of Value – Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value that you take in payment. Most people will think that this is a recipe for bankruptcy, but it’s not. To really get the concept, you might first need to understand the difference between price and value.
    1. Price - It is a dollar figure, an amount. It is finite.
    2. Value - It is the relative worth or desirability of something from the end user’s point of view. It is how you might desire a product, service, concept or idea that brings so much worth or value that you are willing to exchange your money, your time and your energy.
  1. The Law Of Compensation – Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.
    1. Your income is determined not just by the value you provide but how many lives you impact with value.
  1. The Law Of Influence – Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interest first. The greatest leaders, top influencers, and the most profitable sales people run their lives and their business through the power of influence. It is all about you looking for ways to place the interest of others first.
When you place other people’s interest first, it doesn’t mean that you will become a doormat, martyr or that you even have to sacrifice yourself for them…but it is seeing all things as equal. It is moving from an “I Focus” to “An Other’s Focus”. “Golden rule of business is to see all things and people as being equal, it is moving from an “I Focus” to “An Other’s Focus” Bob Burg “Be the Protégé, making your win all about the other person’s win” Bob Burg

Automated profits

Building A Bigger, Stronger More Responsive List Of Subscribers Is The Fastest And Easiest Way To Add More Profits To Your Bottom Line.

 

  1. The Law Of Authenticity – The most valuable gift you offer is yourself. Bob mentioned one of his mentors, Debra Davenport. She explained that all the skills in the world like sales, technical and people skills, as important as they are, they are all for naught if you don’t come at it from your true, authentic core.

When you show up as yourself, day in and day out, week after week, month after month, you can expect that people will feel good about you. They will feel comfortable with you because they know, either in a personal or business relationship, they can like and trust you.

  1. The Law Of Reciprocity – The key to effective giving, is to be open to receiving. All the giving in the world won’t benefit you if you are not willing and able to allow yourself to receive as well. You want a sustainable life? You’ve got to breathe in and breathe out. Life is all about giving and receiving.

“The key to effective giving is to be open to receiving” -Bob Burg

Being A Go-Giver

  • The common misconception about being a go-giver, especially to those who haven’t read the book yet, is that Go-Givers are just always giving themselves away. As if those people don’t care about making a profit. This is just not true.

A Go-Giver type of person, gives value constantly and not just gives themselves away. In fact, Go-Givers tend to make a much larger profit that others because they sell high value rather than low price. They know that when you sell “Low price”, you become a commodity. When you sell on value, you become a resource. “A Go-Giver knows that when you sell “Low price”, you become a commodity but when you “Sell value”, you become a resource”

  • Another misconception is that Go-Givers don’t know how to say “No”. Go-givers actually say “No” a lot. Most go-givers are very successful. Typically, they are very busy and they don’t have much time say “yes” to everyone and everything. One great thing about being a Go-giver is, they know how to say “no” in a way that honors the other person.

Influencers

Increase Your Income by Building Relationships with Influencers, VIPs, and Top Performers, Even If You Hate Networking

4 Master Level Lessons To live by

      • If you want to make a lot of money in business or make a lot of money in sales, then do not use “making money” as your sole goal. Your goal should be serving others. When you achieve your goal, you’ll receive a reward. That reward can be money or an opportunity that leads to money. Of course, you can use that money in whatever way that you want - but never forget, money is NOT only the reward for hitting your target. It’s not the goal itself. The goal should be in serving others.
      • Selling is not about you, it is always about the customer.
      • Selling is discovering what somebody wants, what they need or desires and helping them to get it.
      • Great leadership is never about the leader, great influence is never about the influencer and great salesmanship is never about the sales person. It is always about the other person. It is about everyone whose lives you chose to touch and lives you chose to add value to.

SHOW    

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Bob: Hi, I’m Bob Burg, coauthor of the Go-Giver and tonight we’ll look at how a small shift in focus can have significant results for your business. Woman: Are you in business or thinking about starting a new business and could do with a bit of help and guidance when it comes to social media? Then you’re in the right place. Social media can seem daunting and even frustrating but it doesn’t have to be. That is why we offer insights and experience from social media experts from around the world. Discover tips, tricks and information that will help you leverage the power of social media so you can start growing your business today. Welcome to social media business hour with your host Nile Nickel. Jordan: Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and cohost Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you could benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you could do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did. Nile: Hey, welcome back and we are so excited tonight. We have a return guest Bob Burg. He was with us in episode 33. Jordan: Yes, the infamous episode 33. Nile: The infamous. As a matter of fact, we get more questions about that episode than any other episode. Jordan: That’s right. And accusation. Nile: Because everybody thinks we baited them. Jordan: That’s right. That’s right. Nile: We didn’t do that, didn’t we Bob? Bob: No, not at all. Nile: Yeah, we just haven’t got back together to sort of complete that interview but just to give everybody a little bit of recall Bob is really a very sought after speaker at company leadership and sales conferences sharing the platform with everyone from today’s business leaders, broadcast personalities even to a former US president. He’s the author of a number of books on sales, marketing and influence with the total book sales of well over a million copies. His book the Go-Giver coauthored with John David Mann has sold over a half million copies and has been translated into 21 languages. It’s now being released in a new expanded edition with a foreword by Huffington Post founder and publisher Arianna Huffington. Bob is an advocate, supported and defender of the free enterprise system believing that the amount of money one makes is directly proportional to how many people they serve. He’s also an unapologetic animal fanatic and serves on the board of trustees of Furry Friends, Adoption and Clinic in his home town of Jupiter, Florida. We make fun of Florida a lot Jordan but we’re there and so -- Jordan: Well, that gives us license. Nile: That gives us license I guess. So, Bob welcome back. Bob: Well, thanks. Great being back with you guys. Nile: It is awesome to have you back. It’s always a pleasure. You just always have so many great insights and really valuable information but we’re going to go back to the end of episode 33 now and we were talking about how people don’t have time and some of the answers that they give and you were giving an answer and last time technology wasn’t our friend and it cut off in the middle of the answer and people think that we did that intentionally. So, let me take you back to that and let’s just sort of replay that a bit. So, if you don’t have time and you really want to give an honest answer. You were starting to give some recommendations so let’s jump back into that and then we’ll jump into today’s interview. Bob: Sure. Well, it was really about how to say no when you just don’t want to do something. Whether you have time or not it may not be the question. It’s typically we have time to do those things we want to do or feel drawn to do. we never have time to do something we don’t really want to do so it really comes down to is it something you want to do or not and unless there is a compelling reason for you to do it in your mind’s eye then if you really don’t want to then you shouldn’t. Now, the problem is with telling people no, I don’t want to do it. Why? Because as human beings we want to please others. We want to come through for people assuming it’s not a -- assuming that it’s something that’s worthy or something that’s not inappropriate but let’s say for example and I think we used the example of being asked to serve on a committee. Nile: Exactly. Bob: And it’s -- yeah. And it’s something you don’t want to do for whatever reason. You may not feel like you have the time or the knowledge or the inclination, whatever. That’s your business. One way people are taught to kind of say no is to well, just say no. no is a complete sentence and so forth. And people fell often empowered when they hear that but very rarely is someone going to do that. Is someone going to say no, I don’t want to? Because it’s not nice, it’s not congruent with your value system of treating people with respect and you’re probably going to lose a friend or a potential friend or other opportunities when you do it that way so it’s really -- saying no that way isn’t necessarily appropriate and it’s not particularly productive. So, the other way people do it is to say they don’t have time. Oh, I’d really like to but I’m sorry. I just don’t have time. Well, again, the challenge with doing that is you do have the time if you want to do it. You probably don’t want to do it which again is fine. That’s okay. But the challenge with saying I don’t have time is that the other person comes across this all the time and they know how to answer that objection if you will. And when they do so compellingly then you’re in a position where you either have to admit that really I just don’t want to and so you’re kind of saying I lied which doesn’t make them feel good about you and you don’t feel good about yourself or in order to save face you need to take on the assignment or accept the -- their request which you really don’t want to do and then that’s a losing situation for you. So, rather than doing either of those we can say no in way that respects the other person and honors the other person while also respecting our boundaries. And so the way I would suggest is this and that’s very simple. When -- and again, let’s say you’re being asked to serve on a committee you don’t want to serve on. You simply say to the person thank you so much for asking. While it’s not something I’d like to do please know how honored I am to be asked. And that’s it. Okay. And what you’ve done is you’ve answered the question in a way that’s not only polite. It’s very respectful. You’ve honored this other person. You’ve thanked them for asking. You’ve let them know it’s not something you’d like to do or something you choose to do but that you’re honored to have been asked. And unless this person is really someone who is going to be mad at someone for whatever reason they can't be mad at you. In fact, they’re going to feel good about you and they’re going to -- they may even thank you for the way you turned them down. I’ve had that happen to me and others have said the same. So, again, it’s simply thank you so much for asking. While it’s not something I’d like to do please know how honored I am to be asked. Nile: And now we’ve got that great answer to close out episode 33 so adversity to allies. Go back to episode 33 and listen to that. It’s really great stuff. Bob: Thank you. Nile: But tonight you’re touching my heart a bit here. I don’t know how long ago it was that I actually started listening to the Go-Giver on Audible and I enjoyed it so much I actually then got the book sort of backwards of what a lot of people do. But you and John David Mann published that back in 2007. That’s for all practical purposes nine years ago. What has motivated you to take that book which is a great book? If people haven’t read it we’re going to have a link up on the website and of course the expanded edition as well of course. But for the people that haven’t read that what was really the inspiration for that? Bob: Well, years ago, many years ago I had a book out called Endless referrals, network your everyday contacts into sales which was really for people in sales who didn’t necessarily feel comfortable with the selling process or with meeting people and developing the relationships that it took to really have a steady stream of qualified prospects and referrals and the premise of the book was that all things being equal people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like and trust. The way you develop these relationships is to really take the focus off of yourself. Move from what we call an eye focus or me focus and move to an other focus always looking for ways to add value to their lives. You could even say placing their interests first. And so I through the years -- and it was a how to book and through the years I’ve read a lot of business parables, short books that had an impactful message and were entertaining and fun to read. Books such as Ken _____23:30 Spencer Johnson’s One minute series, the One minute manager, the One minute sales person, the One minute apology. Spencer Johnson had -- and Ken _____23:41 had a number of other books through the years and there were many other people who wrote parables and I always enjoyed them. I thought what a great way to learn an important message. Nile: Sure. Bob: And to do it in a short period of time. And I thought wouldn’t it be neat if we could take the general underlying message, the premise if you will from endless referrals and put it into a parable. And so I had the basic idea in the title the Go-Giver but that was pretty much it. and so I asked John David Mann who was the editor and chief of a magazine I was writing for at the time or I had written for in the past and I knew John to have an amazing reputation as a writer and at that time -- now John is in demand everywhere. At that time only people within a certain niche market really knew of his genius and I knew that I wanted him to be the lead writer and major storyteller of the book because I knew I couldn’t do it justice myself. I’m a how to author. I’m not really a parable writer. And so John and I got together and collaborated on it and thanks to his expert writing the book really turned out to have an emotional appeal with people and it’s something that we both believe very strongly in the message and we continue to promote it and it’s been sort of like the ever ready the energizer bunny, whatever it was. That just keeps on going and we’re very grateful for that. Nile: Well, and it is such a beautiful story. It’s easy to get into the story and you’re weaving just invaluable business messages and life lessons into the story. In fact, one of the things that I like as you get into the story, you had a gentleman that just really wasn’t happy with his life. We’re not talking about business. We’re just talking about his life. And with the changes that he learned over time not only did his life change but his business changed dramatically as well. It’s really just a fantastic parable as you said. Bob: Oh, thank you. Nile: And I love the -- and it’s a short read. I think it’s 127 pages and those are small pages. And you end up with the five laws of stratospheric success. That was hard to say. Bob: It is hard to say. Nile: But just valuable lessons. One of the things you do is you talk about the entrepreneurial spirit. But what about those people who aren’t entrepreneurs? Does that message in the Go-Giver still apply to them? Bob: It really does because even if someone is not an entrepreneur in terms of starting their own business they still need to think entrepreneurially even when they are simply an employee within a small or major corporation because remember, in this case you still have your own business and that business is you and you’re selling your time, you’re selling your knowledge, your wisdom, you’re selling your services, you are selling your value to your employer and the only reason that they are going to have you in their company is because they feel they’re receiving more in use value from you than what they’re paying and that only makes sense. Otherwise why would they shell out money, right, to have you working in their organization? By the same token it works the other way too. The employer can add great value to their employees over and above their -- the paycheck by creating an environment where people feel valued, where they look forward to coming to work, where they feel as though they’re making a difference, where they’re learning things that can help them progress in their life after that particular job, what have you. So, it’s really a two way street. Everyone can be entrepreneurial in terms of looking for ways to focus on the other person, on adding value to others and that’s why that shift in focus makes all the difference in the world. When you’re an employee who’s focused truly on providing exceptional value to your employer when the layoffs come you’re still going to have your job. Nile: It’s so, so right and so valuable. Well, we’re going to talk about the five laws and all of that right after we take this short break. Jordan: All right. It’s time for another social media marketing moment. Nile, do me a favor. Talk to me about headshots in Linked In. yeah, I hear you talking to people about that all the time. Nile: Well, one thing that’s so funny is so many people don’t take that headshot seriously. They’ve got their arm around somebody that’s not in the picture or they’re deep in the background you could barely see who they are. Want to know an interesting fact? People that look at your Linked In profile spend 80 percent of their time looking at your profile, looking at your headshot. Why is that? It’s because people like to look into your eye. They feel if they look into your eye that they could see what you’re about. They get an understanding of who you are and that’s important before they move anywhere else. Jordan: Another great pearl of wisdom. Thanks Nile. For more just like that join us at linkedinfocus.com, sign up. You’ll be glad you did. Nile: Hey, welcome back to the social media business hour where we’re talking with Bob Burg, the author of the Go-Giver and there’s a new expanded edition that Bob’s just put out. We talked a little bit about that in the first segment but one of the things that we talked about is the five laws and can you maybe give us a quick review of the five laws that you and John share in the book? Bob: Sure. The five laws themselves are the laws of value, compensation, influence, authenticity and receptivity. The law of value says your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment. Now, this sounds like a recipe for bankruptcy when you first hear it but it’s not because we need to simply understand the difference between price and value. Price is a dollar figure, a dollar amount. It’s finite. It is what it is. Value on the other hand is the relative worth or desirability of a thing of something to the end user or the holder. In other words what is it about this thing, this product, service, concept, idea that brings so much worth or value to it that someone will willingly exchange their money for it or their time or their energy, what have you, in order to obtain this value and feel great about it while you make a very healthy profit? And this can be anything from someone selling accounting services to someone owning a pizza restaurant. When someone buys a pizza for 15 dollars and the pizza is absolutely delicious; they’re really hungry so that pizza has even more value to them; they’re eating it with their family and they have a great family experience; your pizza restaurant -- everyone there makes them feel just fantastic for being there, valued and appreciated and you do this consistently with excellence. You’ve give this person well over 15 dollars in value. Okay, so they feel fantastic about it. They receive much more in value than what they paid but because the pizza and your employees and everything else probably cost you about three dollars per pizza you also made a very, very healthy profit. So, both parties come out ahead and that’s why understanding the difference between price and value is so very important but it all starts with that focus on providing value to that other person which is why John and I both say that money is simply an echo of value. It’s the funder if you will to values lightning which means the value must come first and the money is simply a very natural and direct result of the value you’ve provided. That’s the law of value. The law of compensation says your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them. So, where law number one says to give more in value than you take in payment law number two tells us that the more people whose lives you touch with the exceptional value you provide, the more money with which you’ll be rewarded. The pizza restaurant owner -- I’m not sure how we got into that but that’s how -- who we used it for so let’s continue with that. Nile: Sure. Bob: The pizza restaurant owner, it’s not enough just to provide value to one person. They have a lot of guests in every single night and so the income is determined not just by the value they provide but how many lives they impact with that value. So, law number one represents your potential income. Law number two, the number of lives you impact with that value. That equals your actual income. Now, law number three is the law of influence. This says your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first. Again, this sounds counter intuitive but it’s really -- it makes a lot of sense because when you think about it the greatest leaders, the top influencers, the most profitable sales people, this is how they run their lives and conduct their businesses. They’re always looking for ways to place the interest of others first. Now, when we say this and let me qualify this. When we say place other people’s interests first we certainly don’t mean you should be anyone’s doormat or a martyr or self-sacrificial in any way. Not at all. It’s just that as we mentioned earlier in the show, the golden rule of business is that all things being equal people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like and trust and there’s no faster, more powerful or more effective way to elicit those feelings toward you from others than by -- again, moving from an I focus to an other focus as Sam, one of the mentors in the story told Joe, the protégé, making your win about the other person’s win. And then you have number four. Law number four is the law of authenticity which says the most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself. One of the mentors, Debra Davenport explained that all the skills in the world, the sales skills, technical skills, people skills, as important as they are and they all are very, very important, they’re all for naught if you don’t come at it from your true authentic core. When you do however, when you show up as yourself day after day, week after week, months after month, people feel good about you, they feel comfortable with you, they know, like and trust you. They want to be in a relationship with you. They want to do business with you and refer you to others. And law number five, the law of receptivity says the key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving. All the giving in the world is all for naught if you’re not willing and able to allow yourself to receive as well. In the story we use the example of breathing out and breathing in. it’s not just the matter of doing one or the other. In order to sustain life you’ve got to breathe out and breathe in. we breathe out, we breathe in, we give, we receive. Giving and receiving, contrary to popular belief and popular culture; giving and receiving are -- they’re not opposite concepts. They’re simply to sides of the very same coin and they work best in tandem. Nile: As you go through your description there; sort of distancing myself from the story because I can do this now this sounds very spiritual. In fact, I feel almost like I’m being churched. But one of the things that I noticed in the book was the way that you weave it into the story and into the lives in the story. As I said earlier on it really becomes more than a business story. I mean, it sounds like we’re talking about business here because we’re relating it to business but it was really all about life in general and business just became a natural part of it. Is that a fair assessment? Bob: Yeah, I think that life and business -- all the aspects, all the areas of life are intertwined. People talk about balance, work and life balance or work life and personal life. I’m not sure balance -- and I’m certainly not the first one to say this but I’m not sure balance is the right word as much as harmony is maybe more -- Nile: I like that. Bob: Yeah. Again, I didn’t make that up. That’s something I’ve heard. I’m not that smart. I don’t have a whole lot of original thoughts. John does. I don’t. Nile: Well, I know that you listen well and you collect those thoughts and you repeat them well so there’s value that you’re giving there so I appreciate it. Bob: Thank you. And so I’ve never believed in that story about the person who could be one way at work and another way at home. I’m all nasty, so and so at work but oh, when I get home I’m kind and I’m gentle and -- people pretty much are what they are. I remember reading a great book by _____37:07 called secrets of the millionaire mind and the theme that went through his book -- I just love this -- was that how you do anything is how you do everything. Nile: Exactly. Bob: And I think that’s basically true and I think because of that universal laws and principles, work across the board, _____37:25 anything that works in life is pretty much going to work right across the way in business and vice versa. Nile: Absolutely. Well, again, knowing how you received the messages that are sent to you there -- I’m curious and we’ve got about three minutes or so before the break. If there’s a piece, one piece of advice that maybe you received before you knew anything about what being a Go-Giver entailed that really was a difference maker for you. Bob: When I was just starting to get my legs in sales, just starting to produce a little bit, I remember coming back to the office after what I will call a non-selling appointment. In other words, the sale did not happen and -- Nile: So, that’s what we call those now? Non selling appointments? Bob: Right. Nile: I like that. Bob: That’s like misremembering something, right? And I remember one of the older -- I guess he was a guy who was about to retire and he kind of took me aside. I think he saw me as sort of like Joe in the story and saw me as a guy with good potential but who really needed to adjust his focus and he said to me something like Burg if you want to make a lot of money in business, if you want to make a lot of money in sales, do not have making money as your target. Your target is serving others. Now, when you hit the target, he continued, you’ll receive a reward and that reward will be money and you can do with that money whatever you want but never forget that the money is only the reward for hitting the target. It’s not the target itself. The target is serving others. And I just was hit right in the heart by that advice and for me it was really a difference maker. What it told me is that selling is not about me. It’s always about the customer. And I personally define selling as -- simply as discovering what somebody wants, needs or desires and helping them to get it. And I think in all sorts of instances -- I think great leadership is never about the leader. Great influence is never about the influencer and great salesmanship is never about the sales person. It’s always about the other person. It’s about everyone whose lives you choose to touch. It’s about everyone whose lives you choose to add value to. Nile: Well, I know we don’t have a great deal of time in the segment but what you just said really resonated with me because I’ve been in sales for quite a number of years as well and I’ve always considered myself a consultive seller meaning that I really want to listen and I want to consult with the clients and if there’s something that I have to offer them that offers them value then certainly I’d like to have them consider that but my big question is do you really need what I’m selling. There may be a better solution for you. And I remember going through that a number of times in the past and sometimes my recommendation was you don’t need my product. You may want it and somewhere down the line I hope that you use my product but this is what you need today. And I remember with some associates some time they’d say what are you doing? And I’m saying don’t worry. That always comes back. They either find somebody that needs exactly what I have and they refer me to them because I wasn’t trying to sell them. I was trying to help them. I was trying to give them value and what you said really just struck me so I think there’s just such a powerful message there and sometimes we miss it and I know that that’s the part of the message of the Go-giver as well. There’s so much more to talk about. We’ve got one more segment to share but what we’re going to do is we’re going to take a short break, do a couple of the commercials that pay for things and we’ll be right back after this short break. Jordan: All right Nile. I think it’s time for another social media marketing moment. Do me a favor. Talk to me about key words in Linked In. Nile: Linked In is a very high authority site. In fact, most people say it’s the fourth highest site for authority that you could go to. Well, you’ve got your own personal web page on that and as everybody knows in web page strategies you want key words so that when people search those key words anywhere on the internet you’re found. Linked In, because of its high authority transfers all of that authority to you so if you take your profile, you key work optimize it, making sure you use key words that users are using to search for you. Not the ones you like. You’re going to get tremendous results. Jordan: Thanks Nile. For more tips just like that join us at linkedinfocus.com, sign up for more tips and tricks. You’ll be glad you did. Nile: Welcome back. And as you know I’m so excited that we have Bob Burg here, the coauthor of the Go-Giver and Bob, I’ve been waiting for this interview for so long because the book has meant so much to me and I know that you’ve got an expanded edition. Before we get too far into our last segment, what was the motivation about that expanded edition and what’s the expansion, what’s the impact? Bob: Sure. Once the book hit the 500000 mark in sales the publisher asked John and me if there was something that we wanted to do in order to celebrate that and to -- if there was any additional value we could put into the book and so forth and we thought about it and obviously with the story being a parable you can't change that. But we could add something at the end of the book that we felt would be of significant value to our readers. We had always heard and well, we had discovered that people were -- we knew businesses were using the book in their sales meetings, their leadership meetings and so forth and discussing certain ideas from the book. We certainly knew schools were doing this from colleges to high schools to -- and churches and other religious institutions. Book clubs were using it and discussing it so we thought well, why don’t we give them a discussion guide. So, at the end of the book we have a discussion guide at the back where they can utilize those discussion points in order to lead study on the book. We also have been asked so many questions throughout the years. Good questions. Just a lot of times the same questions that we figured if one person or if many people are asking probably a whole lot of people who read the book ask and so we put a question and answer section in there as well. We also have a new foreword by -- well, it’s not a new foreword. It’s the only foreword by Arianna Huffington who’s the great entrepreneur and very nice person and the founder and publisher of the Huffington Post so all in all it -- we feel very happy, very excited about this expanded edition. Nile: I can't wait to get my hands on it. And when is that available by the way? Is it on shelves now? Bob: Yeah, yeah. It’s out. Nile: Oh, well, I’m slipping. That’s something I got to get the latest, greatest copy of. Bob: Thank you. I hope you enjoy it. Nile: I absolutely will. I know that there’s one line in the book that’s raised quite a few eyebrows and it’s where you and John wrote does it make money. It’s not a bad question. It’s a great question. It’s just a bad first question. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs especially when in the startup phase might disagree with you just a bit. They might say it’s the only question when it comes to business. Otherwise you’re just naïve. So, what do you two mean? Bob: Well, actually we would say that if you -- and I think history has born this out that if the first question you ask is will it make money you’re focused in the wrong direction and it’s less likely to make money because if it doesn’t provide value to others, if there’s not a market for this either an already made market or one that you can create and that’s always created by providing value, then the second part, the money part is moot. So, we sort of mean that in a -- on a couple of levels. One is just as we mentioned. First ask does it serve. And when we say does it serve that simply means is there a market for it or could there be. Do people want it? You can create the best widget in the world and you might be thinking oh, man this is fantastic. We’re going to make a lot of money with this. But if there’s no market for it you’re not making money from it. You basically are just investing in something fantastic that’s a hobby. On the other hand if you determine first if there is a market in other words does it serve, now you can say will it make money. Is there a way we can take this product or service that really does serve and market in such a way that there’s a lot of money to be earned from it. On a bit deeper level we say well, first ask if it serves because we always want to add value to people’s lives by the very nature of what we do. We want to find a way to add value to others. Back in the -- I think it was the 1950s a young MIT student by the name of Amar _____47:11 went into a radio shack store and bought a pair of headphones and -- or speakers. Excuse me. Not headphones. Speakers. And he was very, very disappointed by the sound quality and he felt this is something that consumers should not have to have. And so he basically devoted his life to making great speakers, right, and creating great sound quality. We all are familiar with _____47:41 speakers. And he became a billionaire because he first asked does it serve, will it serve, how will it serve others. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m sure he deposited every single one of those checks and he should. He earned them. But his focus was not on the money. His focus was on providing value. His focus was on does it serve. Then it was will it make money. Nile: Yeah, and I love that story. It’s a great one because obviously he didn’t like it and he knew if he didn’t a lot of other people didn’t either and it starts out. Throughout the book -- in fact, I’d say the book is really about mentorship so what do you think is the best way to find a mentor and perhaps most importantly what should an up and comer not do when trying to find one? Bob: Oh, that’s a great question. Both questions are excellent. What I would suggest not doing is approaching someone and simply asking them to be your mentor. I mean, you could admire someone and you can study that person and then you approach that person and say hey, will you be my mentor. And basically, when there’s no relationship there what you’re basically asking this person is hey, would you share your 40 or 50 years of experience with me and just let me know everything it’s taken for you to be successful even though we don’t even know each other. And so typically that’s not going to work. What I would suggest is when there’s someone whose work you admire is to contact that person and first study their stuff. If they’re an author or whatever they do, read their books. What have you. Watch their videos. Or read the articles they’ve written. Just learn about what they’ve done first so you’re not asking questions that you should know the answer to already because you don’t want to waste their time. But you can ask. You can let them know that you admire their work, that you’re studying to or that you’re looking to so and so and if it wouldn’t be inappropriate may I ask you one or two very specific questions. Boom. So, now what you’ve done is you’ve communicated in a way that says to them hey, I honor your time, I respect you and your time, I’m not just looking to waste your time and want something for nothing, that sort of thing. Now, once they do and if they do answer your questions whether it’s letting you take them to lunch or just a cup of coffee or answering a couple of questions on email or over the phone, make sure you send them a hand written note afterwards thanking them. Just a short note thanking them, letting them know you’ll take action on their ideas and so forth. You can report back to them. You can determine or discover what their favorite charity is and make a small donation in their name. that will get back to them and basically again what you’re letting them know is even though I certainly am not in the position to add the kind of value to your life as you are to mine I want to let you know I’m not taking it for granted and I’m looking to add value to you in some way. You can add -- if you’re close enough geographically you can ask to drive them around, be their chauffer and so forth. That way you can be around them and maybe ask them some questions. I mean, there are all sorts of ways that may not apply to some people and will apply to others but the point is this. A mentor/protégé relationship is just that. It’s a relationship. And it usually takes time to develop. It’s much less likely to happen when you come right out and ask a person who doesn’t know you will you be my mentor. It’s more likely to happen when you build a relationship always looking for ways to express gratitude and add value to that person’s life. Nile: I love that answer because it reminded me of what you said as you went through the laws. Breathing is an in and out thing and so you get somebody that’s giving you value as a mentor, as a protégé you’re able to give value back to them. It might be at a different level but they’re recognizing the value that you’re giving. And I know we’ve got just a couple of minutes left and before I get through the final interview I’m going to ask one question but I also want to be able to ask and save some time if people want to know more, how they could get in touch and some other things you’re doing because I know you do a whole lot more than just write books so here’s the question. Are there misconceptions about being a Go-Giver? I mean, the name itself almost implies that you give constantly. Can you be taken advantage of that way? For example, does a Go-Giver tell people no, I don’t want to do that? Bob: Well, okay. So, these are great questions and it -- and there are misconception, misperceptions about what being a Go-Giver means and I think that happens when people see the tittle of the book or they hear about the title from someone and they haven’t read the book. Naturally the mind goes to oh, the Go-Giver. They’re just giving themselves away, right? Or they’re -- they don’t care about making a profit or -- and of course none of that is true. As a Go-Giver you don’t -- you give value constantly, certainly. But you don’t give yourself away. In fact, Go-Givers tend to make a much larger profit than most others because a Go-Giver sells on high value rather than low price. They know that when you sell on low price you’re a commodity. When you sell on value, you’re a resource. So, typically a Go-Giver makes more money and they have a higher profit. Of course, their focus is on the other person. Do they say no? Yeah. Go-Givers need to say no a lot. Just like we talked about at the beginning of this -- at the -- of the show. Go-Givers are typically very successful so they’re typically very busy and if you were to say yes to everyone and everything you wouldn’t -- you really wouldn’t have the time to say yes to those and to that which you should say yes to. But what a Go-Giver would do is they would say no in such a way that honors the other person. Nile: Again, I appreciate that and I appreciate you being a giver that decided to give so much value to all of our listeners tonight. Bob: Oh, thank you. Nile: But one of the things that I’d really like to ask though -- you do a whole lot more. Can you tell the listeners a little bit about what you do and if they’re interested in finding more how do they get in touch? Bob: Well, the easiest way to get in touch is just to visit burg B-U-R-G.com and as you know I speak at a lot of corporate and organizational sales and leadership conferences. We also have a Go-Giver certified speaker program where we actually train people how to become a professional speaker and deliver the Go-Giver message as well as my other intellectual properties that I’ve developed over the last 27, 28 years or so and how to actually market themselves as a speaker and they can get all that information as well as information on the book, the Go-Giver by visiting www.burg B-U-R-G.com. Nile: And we’ll make sure that all of those links are one the Social Media Business Hour page so as always we encourage you to download our episodes on iTunes. Subscribe there. That way you get all the episodes delivered right to you. But we have show notes and links and all of that on the socialmediabusinesshour.com. This is episode 132 just to make it real easy. If we were one more episode in we would be exactly a 100 episodes from our first interview that we did Bob. That’s sort of amazing. Bob: Wow. Nile: Yeah, I agree. Well, listen, to all of you and especially you Bob, I want to thank you for joining us on the Social Media Business Hour. To our listeners I hope you learned a few new ideas or concepts. Maybe you were just reminded of a few things you already know but you haven’t been doing to improve or grow your business. You know that my desire is that you take just one of the things that you learned or were reminded of today and you apply it to your life or business this week. We know that a small change will make a big difference and I’m committed to bringing you at least one new idea each week that you can implement. So, go back and identify just one small change that you could make to your life or business and see what a big difference it will make for you. So, until next week, this is Nile Nickel. Now, go make it happen. Woman: Thanks for listening. Social Media Business Hour is sponsored by linkedinfocus.com. Be sure to get the latest social media business tips and tricks plus free tips on how you can use Linked In to help your business today. Visit socialmediabusinesshour.com. [/content_toggle] weblinks       Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/burgbob Twitter: @bobburg Website: www.burg.com

Direct download: SMBH_132.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Maurice Cherry is the founder and creative principal at 3eighteen media, a design and consulting studio in Atlanta, GA that helps creative brands craft messages and tell stories for their targeted audiences, including fostering relationships with underrepresented communities. Past clients and collaborators include Site5, The City of Atlanta, NIKE, Mediabistro, and SitePoint.

He is a pioneering digital creator who is most well-known for the Black Weblog Awards (the Web's longest running event celebrating Black bloggers, video bloggers, and podcasters) Other projects of Maurice's include Revision Path, 28 Days of the Web, and The Year of Tea. His projects and overall design work and advocacy have been recognized by NPR, News One, CNN, AIGA, Creative Bloq, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, and The Los Angeles Times.

Maurice is also an educator, and has built curriculum and taught courses on web design, web development, email marketing, WordPress, and podcasting for hundreds of students over the past ten years.

Direct download: SMBH_131.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 6:16pm EDT

Most entrepreneurs and business owners are mistakenly doing the wrong things on Social Media.  It shouldn’t be a surprise when they don’t get the results they’re looking for.  Join us on this episode to learn:

-Which Activities Are Actually The Income Generating Activities You Should Be Focusing On

-The “Real” Definition Of Having A Business vs Having A Hobby

-What Is The Difference Between Social Media Marketing And Social Media Sales…And How Not Knowing Is Probably Hurting Your Business

-How To Become A Professional Revenue Generator

1.smbh-SholaAbidoye NOW TO LISTEN Shola Abidoye (SHO-LA AH-BEE-DOY) is a serial international entrepreneur, private equity investor and author. She's also the Co-Founder of Convertport.com the predictable sales technology that turns website clicks into clients. Her team has bought and sold 25+ Billion sales ad impressions, generated 100,000+ profitable business and consumer leads and create 25,000+ customers, lifetime recurring revenue customers among them. She lives between the East Coast, Europe and 526 ft from the beach on the Baja, Mexican Riviera where she goes to think, write, produce, conduct market research and support a local nonprofit. >> Insert Summary Here << >> Insert Transcript Here << weblinks Website: www.CONVERTPort.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sabidoye LinkedIn: https://mx.linkedin.com/in/sholaabidoye Twitter: @vrecapitalgroup

Direct download: SMBH_128.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Heather Ann Havenwood, CEO of Havenwood Worldwide, LLC and Chief Sexy Boss, is a serial entrepreneur and is regarded as a top authority on internet marketing, business strategies and  marketing. Since marketing her first online business in 1999, bringing together clients and personal coaches, she has played an active role in the online marketing world since before most even had a home computer.

In 2006 she started, developed and grew an online information marketing publishing company from ground zero to over $1 million in sales in less than 12 months. Starting without a list, a product, a name or an offer, Heather Ann molded her client into a successful guru now known as an expert in his field.

Heather Ann has been named by a few as an ‘Icon Creator’ or the ‘Wizard Behind the Curtain’. She has instructed, coached and promoted hundreds of entrepreneurs leading them down the path to success. She has produced and managed over 350 seminars and events and hosted tele-seminars with many top online thought leaders such as Richard Flint, John Alanis, Susan Bratton, Alicia Lyttle, Tom Antion, Alex Mandossian, Legend Joe Sugarman, Anthony Blake, David Lakhani, Robert Shemin and many others.

Heather Ann currently is the Author of…Sexy Boss: How the empowerment of women is changing the Rule Book for sex, money and success (available on Amazon click HERE!)  and The Game of Dating and How to Play it: A rule book for divorced men stepping back into the game.


Heather Ann Havenwood is smart, sexy, savvy and now stepping out from behind the curtain to educate, enlighten and empower women entrepreneurs to grow or start an online business and live a fearless and fulfilled life.

 

SMBH Headshot NOW TO LISTEN Heather Anne Havenwood, CEO of Havenwood Worldwide, LLC and Chief Sexy Boss, is a serial entrepreneur and is regarded as a top authority on internet marketing, business strategies and  marketing. Since marketing her first online business in 1999, bringing together clients and personal coaches, she has played an active role in the online marketing world since before most even had a home computer. In 2006 she started, developed and grew an online information marketing publishing company from ground zero to over $1 million in sales in less than 12 months. Starting without a list, a product, a name or an offer, Heather Ann molded her client into a successful guru now known as an expert in his field. Heather Anne has been named by a few as an ‘Icon Creator’ or the ‘Wizard Behind the Curtain’. She has instructed, coached and promoted hundreds of entrepreneurs leading them down the path to success. She has produced and managed over 350 seminars and events and hosted teleseminars with many top online thought leaders such as Richard Flint, John Alanis, Susan Bratton, Alicia Lyttle, Tom Antion, Alex Mandossian, Legend Joe Sugarman, Anthony Blake, David Lakhani, Robert Shemin and many others. Heather Anne currently is the Author of The Sexy Boss: How the empowerment of women is changing the Rule Book for sex, money and success (available on Amazon click HERE!)  and The Game of Dating and How to Play it: A rule book for divorced men stepping back into the game. Heather Anne Havenwood is smart, sexy, savvy and now stepping out from behind the curtain to educate, enlighten and empower women entrepreneurs to grow or start an online business and live a fearless and fulfilled life.  

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➲ When Your Greatest Mistake Became Tremendous Success

Heather’s life is pretty phenomenal. She started out creating her first business plan in 1999 while taking an Internet Marketing course. The funny thing is, she found herself enjoying it so much, that a few years later, she developed and grew her online information marketing publishing company from ground zero. Heather didn’t have a list, product, name, offer and STILL went from zero to making over a million dollars In less than 12 months…and the really impressive thing is, she did it all over again with her next venture. Sadly, no story about a true master is complete without some acknowledgement of failure and Heather, like so many of us, was not immune to setbacks. Read on to learn how Heather handled bankruptcy, starting over from scratch and the important lessons she learned along the way…

Tough Lessons Learned And What It Means To Be An ENTREPRENEUR

After she lost her business, Heather had nothing.  She even had to go back to Corporate America and get a job. Not satisfied with failure, she quickly set about analyzing what happened, how the business failed and how she was going to prevent it from happening again.

Heather says “In business and entrepreneurship, you have to fail.  Success and failure are always part of the journey. You will fail over and over and over again, but no matter how many times you fail, if you want to finish strong and successful, you just have to continue to play the game strong”.

Heather learned her lesson the hard way and now she plays the game as a master. She is now stronger and wiser Heather. Something she would not have achieved without such a strong desire for excellence. Heather looked for the main reason why her business failed.  Not being a lawyer, she realized that when it comes to legal help, she needed to employ experts to guide her.   Now, anything that comes across her desk gets reviewed by her legal team.  Something she recommends for all entrepreneurs…especially those of use just starting out.  

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➲ “The Sexy Boss”

Heather is the author of “The Sexy Boss” – How the empowerment of women is changing the rule book for sex, money and success. Unlike Many other business books, that are all about marketing and business, Heather aims to inspire you. She offers some incredible lessons about how she rose above her CHALLENGES and how you can do the same.

The Real Deal…You Must Promote Yourself

Like most people, Heather initially didn’t want to promote herself.  We often see it is “Bragging”…which in our culture is socially unacceptable.  Then she looked at the most successful entrepreneurs and realized that if she’s going to emulate them and achieve their level of success, she would have to emulate how they promote themselves as well. Now, a very strong advocate for self-promotion, Heather instructs all entrepreneurs to embrace that very necessary skill – no matter how uncomfortable it may be. Whether you belong to a big or small corporation, no matter what kind of business you’re in, you have to be constantly and consistently promoting yourself. Everyone needs to learn how to market themselves, especially in today’s corporate and entrepreneurial world. This is a skill that is often ignored as it makes most people uncomfortable…but it is absolutely essential. If you do not learn how to promote yourself, you’ll simply fall behind your competition who is willing to learn how to promote themselves.

Top 3 Reasons Why Most People Won’t Promote Themselves

Nowadays more women than men are resistant towards self-promotion because:

  • They don’t know how to promote themselves
  • They don’t feel comfortable
  • They are not taught how to self-promote

Heather declares (and this is crucial):  It is all about the right mindset. She understands that you are taught NOT to be strong self-promoter.  However, once you get past your personal hang-ups embrace the importance of self-promotion, then it will become easy to “Own it”.  Becoming a great self-promoter will be second nature to you.  Learning how to do this is one of the many reasons why she wrote her book, “The Sexy Boss”.

➲Life Lessons From “The Sexy Boss”

Here are Heather’s key takeaways and life lessons openly shared to all of us in this incredible interview

  1. In business and entrepreneurship, you have to fail to succeed
  2. You have to constantly promote and market yourself. Become a master of self-promotion. Some entrepreneurs even become successful because they know how to promote themselves – not necessarily because they are good at performing.
  3. Know your skillset and be good at it. Choose something you are confident with…something no one can seriously question your background and authority.
  4. Never stop advertising yourself and your business.
  5. Keep at it – don’t give up and don’t let your failures beat you down.
  6. If you’re going through something… just get out of your head. There’s a time and place for everything.
  7. Always say to yourself “I’m the most important person in my life” – Practice Mature Selfishness.
  8. Everything happens for the best – It is a journey. As long as you feel that no matter what the situation is - Bad, good, car wreck or someone giving you flowers everything happens for the best. It's all about the process.
  9. Always try to learn a new skillset.
  10. If you’re a writer. Be confident. Be Confident That You Have the Power Of The Pen.
  11. Learn how to use the power of words and understand the world of wordsmiths. Understanding marketing and getting people to buy something for your business is key.
  12. Learn to shift your mindset completely to your advantage.
  13. If it is just you and your head, you’re in the worst place. You've got to get out of your head.
  14. Treat your failure not as failure but a learning experience resulting to a better you.

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➲Heather’s Marketing Strategy

Heather maximizes the power of email marketing.  She has many different market segments (Yes, she has pretty big business). What she normally does is constant email communication with her subscribers. Normally she emails all of them four to five times a day and applies all of her marketing strategies. Check out even more of Heather’s great business advice…

  1. Depending on the day – Learn Broadcasting. Constantly send out email marketing
  2. Email marketing should be like TV advertising. They like to sell products to an audience any time of the day.
  3. Never get tired of advertising your business.
  4. Strategize and Prepare The Information You Want To Release.
  5. Try to have A “Demographic Plan”
  6. Include “Follow-Up’s” in Your Marketing Plans

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[content_toggle style="1" label="Read%20Full%20Show%20Transcript%20Here" hide_label="Hide"] Heather:                      Nile. Nile:                            Tell me you could hear me today. Heather:                      Yay. Nile:                            Good, good, good. Heather:                      I can. Very well actually. You sound great. Nile:                            Well, this is the way it should've sounded yesterday but for some reason it wasn’t so -- Heather:                      No worries. I had some other technical stuff that was just kind of going on then so it's okay. It happens. Nile:                            Great. Well, we are going to do a complete do over. Heather:                      Okay. No worries. Nile:                            We'll do the tease, I'll welcome you back and we will do your bio interactively as I talked about. One thing that I'm going to take -- I thought about this overnight that I want to do a little bit of a shift on is just what we did yesterday. You talked about hey, I made my first million and then I found it was easier to do it over again. And that's a big mind set thing and I don't know how much into mind set you are but I want to talk about. Heather:                      Oh, have to be. You fail that much. You go through your mind set. Yeah, absolutely. Nile:                            Not a problem. So, just so you know where I'm going to go. Heather:                      Okay. Nile:                            Super. So, you know everything now. We're rolling so the tease and then about five seconds of silence and then I'll come in and do the bio interactively. Heather:                      Okay. Hi, I'm Heather Havenwood and welcome. Hold on, I forgot the -- I just went blank. One second. You edit, right? Nile:                            Yeah, we do. Heather:                      I just went -- I've got to have your name right in front of me or I just go blank which I just did and I'm pre coffee so -- Nile:                            Oh, no. Heather:                      I'm like a quarter in so all right. Here we go. Let's do it again. Hi, I'm Heather Havenwood and welcome to social media business hour. In this hour you and I are going to explore together with Nile an amazing story of overcoming adversity and more importantly how you can make money in business today so stay tuned. Nile:                            I'm absolutely excited about our guest today for a number of reasons. One is I like not only her physical name but I like her company name. The way she's branded herself. I think it's cutting edge and I think you'll be excited about it as well so who am I talking about? I'm talking about Heather Anne Havenwood. She's a serial entrepreneur, sales and marketing coach, copywriter, small business activist. I love that Heather. And chief sexy boss. Welcome Heather. Heather:                      Thank you for having me Nile. This is going to be a lot of fun. Nile:                            Oh, it is going to be a lot of fun. Well, I want to tell everybody that's gathered here a little bit about you just so -- they've got the same background I do so you are the CEO of Havenwood World Wide LLC and as I'd mentioned earlier chief sexy boss. I love that. A serial entrepreneur and regarded as a top authority in internet marketing, business strategies and marketing in general. Since marketing your first online business in 1999, bringing clients and personal coaches together you've played an active role in the online marketing world since most of us even had a home computer. Heather:                      That sounds like I'm so old. Nile:                            That's one of the things I was commenting yesterday. If anybody goes and looks at your website at heatherhavenwood.com -- yeah, you're not old. Heather:                      I'm not old but _____03:31 that way. I did that in 1999. I was actually in college and I had an internet marketing course. It was the very first one and I was taking a marketing course from this particular professor and she got the university to let her into this one little internet marketing course. This is '98, '99. No kidding. And I took these courses. Like I want you to take it so I was like I'll take it, I'll take it. So, I took it and then we create this whole business plan. I mean, it was like 50 pages, 60 pages plus, plus. It was called best fit coach and I did this whole -- it was '99. How do you market? No idea that was going to be my future. It was just more like oh, this is fun. So, I just find that interesting little things along the way in life. All of a sudden you go oh, that's why that happened. So, yeah. 1999. Nile:                            Well, one of the things that I love about that is you said this was fun and of course that's what makes it easier. We're going to talk a little bit about mind set today, just a bit but that fun part's going to be a key portion of it. But let's fast forward just a little bit. In 2006 you started and developed and grew an online information marketing publishing company from ground zero to over a million dollars in sales in less than 12 months and you started it without a list, a product, a name, an offer, nothing. Heather:                      Correct, yeah. Nile:                            That's pretty phenomenal so I think if anybody could help us learn what to do to grow our businesses I think you're well qualified but you haven’t done that once, have you? You've done it multiple times? Heather:                      I've done it again, yeah. And I -- what's interesting about it is that that one business that I kind of bang my head on at the same time it's also my biggest failure. It's also the business that I went to bankruptcy over and lost everything over because I had a business partner that he was the face and I built everything around him and then there's this thing called contracts and lawyers and I forgot all that stuff so one day I came home and it was all gone but it was just like oh, aha, I've made this huge success but then my biggest failure and this other side of it, how did that happen? So, spent a few years trying to figure that out like how did that happen, who am I, kind of those things and I think it's through those kinds of times you really realize who you are as a person and what your really want because there is definitely a moment in time like screw this. I'm going to corporate America again which I did try. I lasted 90 days. Nile:                            Wow. And I bet that was pure torture. Heather:                      It was, it was, yeah. And so I went okay. I get it. It was just a -- you have to -- in business and entrepreneurship you have to fail. It's part of it. Now, we all sometimes hear stories of people like their first home run. That doesn't happen. Even home runs, even people on -- who literally do football and baseball and touchdowns. How many times are they going after that touchdown, how many times they actually try to hit the ball to get that -- at the park. It's over and over and over and over and over again so that's entrepreneurship is same thing. You have to play the game the same way where it's over and over and over again and you're going to hit one maybe out of park. You might be the next Facebook. I don't know. Maybe not. You might be striking out. But at the same time it's about getting up there on the bat and hitting over and over again. But once you -- I was _____06:50 long time ago after my failure. I was like if you can do that Heather you can do it again because it's just like a game. You get up there, you hit again where you hit but then some stuff happened afterwards and now you know where your hole is, legal stuff. Now guess what. I got a lawyer. Nile:                            I'm not going to make that mistake again. Heather:                      I do, yeah. And nowadays if anything comes across my desk in that world I'm like okay. I'll run it by my lawyer. And they get why are you doing that? I'm like because I learned my lesson. So, it's an interesting dynamic of what you learn over time. Especially in the entrepreneurship world. Nile:                            That's outstanding. I love the fact that you learned through those failures and I know that will be part of what you've talked about and everything else here. But then I know that you went on to help a ton of other people and some big name people and I'm not going to drop the names. The names will be shared in our show notes at social media business hour but I could tell you looking at the list I'm impressed. And some neat people too. Just besides being recognizable names I know a number of these folks as well. They're great and fun people. But you're currently the author of sexy boss. How the empowerment of women is changing the rulebook for sex, money and success and I suspect you probably tell a few of these stories in that book. Heather:                      Yeah, I do. Sexy boss, that book specifically, it was my -- it's kind of coming out of my life story. Up unto this point it's been more about niche marketing and doing business but sexy boss was kind of like this is who I am by the way behind the curtain and it was -- the name sexy boss came from _____08:38 and I are dear friends and I was visiting him in Vegas and he's like you're like a sexy boss. He's of course a wordsmith and so I was like oh, I like that. He's like yeah. So, all of a sudden we trademarked it. So, and then I was like I should write a book about over that. He's like well that's who you emulate so it was kind of this that's interesting. How do I emulate that and how do I become an entrepreneur and then how do I help other people to tap into their higher self. I call it a higher self and how to tap into their entrepreneurship because I think everyone is an entrepreneur. Everyone is. No matter if they're inside a big, large corporation. I call that an intra entrepreneur. You have to be constantly promoting yourself and constantly be marketing yourself, all the time. No matter what kind of business you're in you have to be _____09:29 to do that especially nowadays. So, if you're not learning that skill set then you're going to be falling behind and I think more for women than men necessarily is that women necessarily don't always know how to do that, they don't feel comfortable doing that. They're not taught that. We're taught to share our toys. Not to beat up and be strong. So, it's just a different mindset that once you learn it and understand it and then own it then you can be a great self promoter. I mean, look at Donald Trump right now. He's -- I would call one of the masters of self promotion and some people fault him for that. And I'm like he's actually brilliant for that because self-promotion is the way of the future and you have to continue it all the time or you're not going to be able to what I call succeed in whatever you want to do so that's my take and that's why I wrote that story. Nile:                            I knew that my cohost Jordan was going to be jumping up and down and wetting himself because he heard the name Joe Sugerman and Jordan likes to study copy write. He likes to practice copywriting and Joe's one of those big copywriter names. Heather:                      He is. He's a dear, dear friend of mine. _____10:37 time. We did an event together, we cohosted together called successmagnetseminar.com and the other speakers on the stage were John _____10:47 John Carlton, Joe Polish, Joe Sugerman, myself. And we actually had a hard time getting people there. It was like only 110 people there and then a few months later they did the Titans event, the big, huge Titans event and they got hundreds of people there at like triple the price and people -- the reason why we had a hard time is people didn't believe it. Like how are you getting all those names on one stage? And it was really because of Joe. So, Joe -- so, that was the reason but it's just kind of -- looking back now I -- now I sell the DVDs of it but it was a phenomenal event with some powerful, powerful copywriters and entrepreneurs on that stage. Nile:                            Yeah. It was funny. I knew most of them. And we're up against a break so let us take a break. Everybody stick around. Join us next segment. Hey, welcome back to social media business hour. We're here with Heather Havenwood. We're having a great time and I cut my poor cohost off last segment. He's jumping up and down, squiming sideways, just making all sorts of faces because he's got something that he just has to ask so Jordan what do you got for us? Jordan:                        Well, I just had to -- I actually had to interject is what I had to do because I thought Heather just dropped so many awesome golden nuggets on us. I mean, just to start with you've got to be promoting yourself even if you are in corporate American and I've got to tell you I laughed when I heard that. Nile:                            You didn't learn that lesson for a long time, did you? Jordan:                        I did not. No. and as a matter of fact there were people who I felt like this person is dumber than me. How could they possibly be making more money in a better position than I am? Well, the answer is they were better at self-promoting than I was. In fact, they understood self-promotion and I didn't even understand it. Nile:                            You just thought that was for the circus, right? Jordan:                        I thought that was just for the circus. Nile:                            Well, I know that Heather's going to talk with us a lot about mind set and some things like that as well and obviously that comes into that but I think that's great. I think we've got a good idea of your background but I have to ask you the question. You talked about sexy boss being your coming out book. What was the motivation behind that for you? Heather:                      Thanks for asking that. The motivation was -- how do I say this? It was a -- I call it the butterfly effect because I went through my bankruptcy and I went through this kind of dark time of trying to discover what am I going to do and I held the skill set of online marketing and copywriting but I feel like this kind of failure bla, bla, bla. And I lived on an island for about a year. I did nothing except stare at the ocean. It was kind of interesting. And for being an A type personality starting at the ocean for a year is actually challenging. It's like being in a yoga position or something for a year and it was hard. I didn't know what to do, wasn’t sure, questioned who I was so I went through this process and then I moved to Austin which I'm at now and that's when I started my dating business where I teach women how to communicate with women mainly because I knew the skills of information marketing, online marketing and someone said to me once you should do something where no one questions you for your background. No one questions you for your authority. No one can question me on that. And so -- because I didn't want to come out and start teaching people how to do online marketing when I “was a failure” at that point. I just don't like when people do that but that's all I do is teach internet marketing. They don't have any other businesses. So, I thought okay. I'll do that. And then after a few years of growing that business and being full time on that business and kind of coming back I thought it's time I told my story and I'm not really like that. I'm not a person that's going out there usually telling my story. I'm like this private and I don't want people to know that I failed and -- so, it was kind of for me my butterfly coming out and actually going oh, my god. I'm actually going to tell people that I went through this because not many people knew. It wasn’t public. I just kind of disappeared. The most powerful part of that was not really writing it. I did an audio book. It's actually on Audible and if anyone's ever done an audio book, audio book is very different than a communication like this because you have to read every single word of the book and you have to actually act like you're not dying doing it. And I'm having to sit here and read my story with emphasis, with like every word _____15:35 and it was hard and that's when I really got that this is my story and coming out there and telling people hey, I failed. I failed big time and I lost everything and I've come back. This is -- now I've come back. And now I want to help you. And so that's why I wrote the book. It was more of an inspirational motivation book for myself and for other people in telling my story. It's pretty powerful. Nile:                            In that story that you just told though I find something very fascinating and gosh, there's just so much I want to get to here today and I know our time together is limited but this is just fascinating to me because here you're talking about applying what you learned in your online marketing business. Granted, hey you failed at that at least first time out. Came back -- Heather:                      Legal side. Nile:                            Knocked it dead so that's not a failure. That's a learning experience. But the second part of that is you talked about applying what you learned to dating advice for men and how to better communicate to women. Heather:                      Yes. Nile:                            I find that so fascinating. Can you tell us just a little bit about that? Heather:                      Yeah. Oh, sure, yeah. That's my main business. That's what I do day in and day out and it's called datingtriggers.com and the niche is from a woman's perspective teaching men how to talk, communicate, attract, date, be with women. So, and that's a big market. That's a big challenge people have especially nowadays and the reason why it's a challenge mainly is not that women are weird or men are weird or something's wrong or anything. It's more about just communication has changed over time and so you see men who maybe got divorced and they're trying to get back in the dating world and it's like all confusing. It's just different or they're surrounded by women in the workplace, they're surrounded all the time and they're not taught necessarily how to communicate in a way that's effective that they get what they want. I teach a lot about how to get what you want in a relationship with a woman. I know that's kind of like counter intuitive but it is about how to attract and get what you want. So, yeah. That's what I do. It's kind of fun. Datingtriggers.com and onlydateyoungerwomen.com and I love that business. It's a lot of fun. I call my little guys, I talk to them all the time, I call them hey studs and they love it but they're a lot -- it's a lot of fun. I really enjoy it and that's kind of my bread and butter of my life. That's also where I do all my testing for my “marketing experience”. I do email marketing, I email them four to five times a day. I have all kinds of different segments with them. It's a pretty big business. Yeah. That's where I do a lot of my what I call testing and what I call marketing strategies and I do no social media with that business believe it or not. Nile:                            Oh, wow, wow. Well, you know -- Heather:                      Yeah, none. Nile:                            As we're sitting here chatting I'm thinking -- first of all, my wife and I, I think have a very good relationship and we communicate very well but I don't think that you could ever communicate at your peak all the time and I do believe -- hey, we're the same creatures but we communicate differently. I like the old 80s book whatever. Men are from Venus, Women from Mars. Whatever, vice versa. Women from Venus actually. But in any case -- Heather:                      I'll teach you one -- let me teach you one thing that I've sometimes I've had to teach this or communicate this or teach this really to someone I was just doing business with. We were having a kind of a challenge talking and I finally go let me explain something how women think if you're working with women. He just kind of had this like -- Nile:                            Rolling his eyes? Heather:                      Yeah, yeah. Well, it was on the phone so I'm sure he was. I said, women like choices. We like choices. That's why we shop. That's why we go shoe shopping because there are all these choices. We like menus. We love choices. He's like okay. I go when I come to you with this problem whatever it was you coming back with one solution -- no. give me my choices. I want to pick. He's like oh. So, the next time we talked he's like okay, here's all your options. Oh, great. I get to choose. You know what I mean? Nile:                            I love it. Heather:                      Yeah, yeah. It's really funny. I think he was like -- he's young. I could tell on the phone he's like young. He's like 25 and I'm thinking I hope he's really getting this. I hope he's really taking this to heart. Like this is a good lesson for him because I promise you you'll use it forever. It's not honey, you want to go to dinner, you want to go to this restaurant? It's like honey, do you want to go to dinner at seven? There's this, this or this. And she'll go oh, I want that. Nile:                            There you go. Heather:                      And then she's all happy. Nile:                            And she's happier. Well, my wife is a very patient and strong woman and so in that respect she's done a good job I think training me although I've got a long way to go I'm sure. Heather:                      Of course, that's -- Nile:                            But I like where you talked about your dating site being your bread and butter. Well, I want you to put some honey on top of that bread and butter because I think you've got a great program for us married men that really want an enhanced and powerful relationship with our wife and that's a great thing. And one of the things that we know sometimes as men we're not necessarily ready to put it out there with somebody that we treasure. Sometimes we are but hey. We'd rather have a chat with somebody that sort of got our back and has the best advice to get us the optimal results which is ultimately what you're doing. Heather:                      I agree, yeah. I have a good time with it. There's a lot of guys out there teaching other guys like pick up artists and things -- that's like the niche. That's not me. I'm coming from a woman's perspective. I call it be, be real, be the stud that you know you are because it's kind of this I've got your back, I'm your -- the woman in your side. I want to help you become the man you know you were meant to be. Whatever that is. Because I think in this society today men sometimes feel like -- not all of them. Like I'm not sure here. I feel like I need to like dumb down a little better. I'm not sure. So, they feel insecure. They're just not sure like where to -- so, I just kind of help them move to that process which I find funny by the way is when I have guys unsubscribe from me and they say thanks and unsubscribe from me. I've got a girlfriend. And I'm like it just got started buddy. Nile:                            The victory's done, right? Yeah. Heather:                      Yeah, well, it just got started. Why don't you stay on the list? Nile:                            You've got a long way to go there. Heather:                      You've got a long way to go, right. But I go okay. Nile:                            Well, you talked about your first business and what you did and how you did it and what you learned about -- hey, I missed the legal stuff and it caused the business to blow up. And in the scheme of things that was a minor thing that you overlooked that became major and relationships are sort of the same way so I could see where that would work and I have to say I've grown through my failures because I've had a lot of failed relationships as well so I'm just happy that I have a very loving and passionate wife today so it works out well. Heather:                      Good, that's awesome. Congratulations. Nile:                            We are just about at the end of this particular segment. Heather:                      Okay. Nile:                            I want to shift in the next segment and we've got limited time there but I want to talk about mind set and then you talk about some really interesting things. I mean, you compare email to the new TV. You talk about how the TV guide is really so important today and I really want to dig in and get some of that so I'd like everybody to stick around, follow us into the next segment on social media business hour with Heather Havenwood. We'll be right back. Okay, Heather. Heather:                      Yes. Nile:                            I'm going to go for about eight minutes and that will leave about four minutes left in this segment and what that will do then is it will give you time to really creatively pitch exactly what you'd like to achieve out of this, what you'd like people to get out of it but what -- where you'd like them to go, products, websites and stuff like that. Heather:                      Okay, thank you. You're going to let me know when that is so I can -- Nile:                            Yeah. I just want you to be prepared for it. I'll give you a queue. In fact the queue that I'll give you is Heather, you've got so much great advice and stuff here. How can you help people and so the helping people will be the transition for you to pitch. Heather:                      Okay. Nile:                            Okay, we'll be just about ready here. Hey, welcome back to the social media business hour. We're here with Heather Havenwood and as I'd mentioned in the last segment there's a couple of things that I wanted to talk about. One is you've had a number of multimillion dollar businesses now. You've learned a lot about mindset and we haven’t talked much about mind set on this show. We get into the social media elements of it. We're going to get into some of that in just a bit here but in the mindset portion I think it's so critical and I know that you've had to get your mind set right. Tell me a little bit about that process and what you've learned and maybe some of the mentors that you've had along the way. Heather:                      Well, I've had a lot of mentors along the way. It definitely wasn’t me in my head. That's the worst place to go. Just you and your head is the worst place. You've got to get out of your head. Especially if you're going to do something and I had a lot of different mentors along the way, coaches. And that's why I think -- that's why I'm a great coach now and do business because I've been through it. I'm a business coach. I would say more a marketing business coach now. But I do have a few things I stare at every day. Life lessons. I call them life lessons and they're written down on a piece of paper. I wrote down on that piece of paper. Oh, my god. Almost six years ago. Probably in the middle of my bankruptcy in Florida when I was literally broke. I mean, I was broke. I had -- I lost everything I had. My car, my dog and a cell phone. And I -- my car was paid off luckily so literally my only expense in life was a cell phone and gas in the car and food. And kind of did what I call hopping on people's couches for a little bit and a life lesson that I wrote down and I have now kept literally along the way. I'm staring at it right now. I'm looking at one. Okay, number three. I like this one. I'm the most important person in my life. Mature selfishness. Okay. That's a key one. That might not sound like -- what do you mean? It's like because if you're not taking care of yourself you can't help other people. If you're not taking care of yourself you can't build a business. If you're not taking care of yourself you can't be in a great relationship. It's called mature selfishness. I'm going to go back to Donald Trump just because he's in the news. He's what I call mature selfishness. People think he's narcissistic. He's not. He's just mature selfishness. He takes care of himself and takes care of this business and then takes care of people. His loved ones. Therefore he has a rock to stand on to go out and promote whatever he wants if you notice. So, that's what I call mature selfishness and I had to learn that versus constantly just taking care and building everybody else up. I had to take care of myself. That's a huge mind set because we're not taught that at a young age, we're not taught that in school, we're not taught to care of yourself first. Mature selfishness is more like don't be selfish. Share your toy. So you are constantly sharing. Especially as a female. You're sharing, sharing. Don't be selfish, don't be selfish, don't be selfish, be a good little girl. So, you have to shift that when you're an entrepreneur. You have to take care of yourself. You have to take care of the legal stuff. You've got to make sure that the Ts are crossed dotted Is so that's a big mind shift that I had to really focus on but the more I take care of my business and myself then I can help other people more. You can't help somebody when you're homeless. So, it's harder to do that. So, would say that that's a key lesson I had to take on. The other one was from Joe Sugerman actually and he taught me this. Everything happens for the best. Everything happens for the best. You probably heard everything happens for a reason and he said don't say that because then your mind will look for the reason. Well, what's the reason, why, why, why? You can't do that. It's like everything happens for the best and as long as you feel that no matter what the situation is. Bad, good, car wreck or someone giving you flowers everything happens for the best. It's about the process of where else you're going. It's on the journey. And he's gone through his own failures and so we talked a lot about that and for me that was a big one. It's that shift. Because I always thought everything happens for a reason. So, when the bankruptcy happened it was like there's a reason. I just went into that spiral. Like something's wrong with me. And you can't do that. It's like well, what was the lesson? Lesson was illegal. The lesson was you didn't look at this piece of the business. That's why this happened. It wasn’t that you didn't build something great. You did. In fact, today, that business is still alive doing very well. So, it's not that you didn't build that. You just forgot to look at this piece life lesson. Everything happens for the best. And actually it did happen for the best because if it wasn’t for that business partner taking everything then I probably would still be working for him or working with him. Not for him but with him and I would -- still would be in that business. I'd still be building that for him because it was like his face versus building something strictly just for me. So, I think that did happen for the best and I wouldn’t have been on the island for a year and stared at the ocean. I think that's the big piece is mind set as you have to shift that completely. Nile:                            I love that and I like how you talked about -- you keep those things in front of you like a vision board if you will. It's a part of where you're going and where you're heading. Well, the other thing that I wanted to get to is you talk about email is the new TV and you talk about how TV guide is so important. I want to work those things in because I know they relate a little bit to the social part _____30:21 part of what we're doing but we're just such -- limited time. We've got to get those in. Heather:                      Yeah, let’s get that in. so, I'll give you my mind set on email marketing. I would say my expertise is email marketing online perspective and copywriting. I do a lot of copy in email. So, email copywriting I guess and I mean, I'm doing between -- depending on the list, between four to six emails outbound a day. That's broadcasting. Sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the day. So, I'm constantly doing email copy and email writing and people always say -- in some of the lists I send more than two or three times a day. People go why would you ever do that? Bla, bla, bla. And I always say well, let's analogy with TV. If I turn on the TV right now are they going to be advertising to me? Yes. Are they going to be advertising to me at eight o'clock at night? Yes. Are they going to stop advertising to me at all ever during the day just because they don't want to upset me? No, never. So that's the first key. Never stop advertising to your business meaning going to a click or going to an offer. Whatever that is. Number one. Number two, let’s look at the TV and I'll have you answer it. What's on usually in the morning? Nile:                            News. Heather:                      Great. What's on usually around noon? Nile:                            News. Heather:                      _____31:46 channel, right. Yeah, usually soap operas, stuff like that, okay, game shows, okay. What's on usually around four? Nile:                            I'm going to go back to news. Heather:                      News. Yeah. Throw them back. I watch FOX News all the time so I totally get that. So, around four it's usually like Ellen Show, different shows, talk shows, okay. And then what's on at night? Nile:                            Total entertainment. Heather:                      News. Total entertainment or news, right. So, I'm a big Kelly file -- like Megan Kelly I love you. I want to be like you. Okay. I do. I'm totally a Kelly freak and for like -- what's funny is I'll only watch her. I'm like I want to watch her. But I'll catch snippets of Bill O'Riley or catch snippets of _____32:28 right before and after her and they're saying the same story, okay. They're literally covering sometimes the same thing but I like how Megan Kelly says it. Nile:                            Absolutely. Heather:                      Right? Nile:                            If I go back to the tease that you did hey, I could say the same thing but I like the way you said it. Heather:                      Thank you. But that's email marketing. People -- FOX News is not going to go well Bill you already covered that. Kelly you can't cover that. They're not going to do that. Nile:                            Right. Heather:                      Because they know people like -- there's a demographic for Bill, there's a demographic for Hanna, there's a demographic for Kelly and people go tune in. they still want their advertising dollars and those eyes. So that's why they do that. They know that. Why are we not doing that with email marketing? You should. Same thing for social media I think. Social media unfortunately is a little more distraction but it's changing to have that entertainment and the timing value but with email specifically we're taught news in the morning, entertainment -- a little more relaxing in the afternoon, information around four o'clock and then news again. Wrap up of the day, right. We're taught that. Over and over. And 30 years of that on TV. 50 years, 60 years. So, why are we not doing that with our marketing? You should be. Nile:                            It makes perfect sense. Well, listen, in a minute or less though because I want to have people know how you might be able to help them but I want the TV guide story so can you give us that in like maybe even 30 seconds or less. Heather:                      Yeah, so TV guide story is _____33:58 the TV guide is -- you should be following the TV guide, old school TV guide in -- Nile:                            See, I missed that. I'm thinking the printed TV guide. Heather:                      Yeah, no, the TV guide -- the old. It is old school _____34:10 TV guide. I remember those days. You used to pick it up at the grocery store. But the old TV guide and how they structure it is what you should be doing with your marketing. You should be following up. Nile:                            Makes sense. It just took longer to communicate with the thickhead so I appreciate you clarifying that for me. Heather:                      Sure, no problem. Nile:                            So, hey how can you help people? Heather:                      So, I can help people in two ways. If you're a guy and you want to learn how to talk to women and communicate and attract a woman in your life you can go to datingtriggers.com. You're welcome to get on my list and communicate that way. But the thing I'm being focused on for 2015 is my coaching and my goal is to take 10 people and their business and focus with them on their marketing and double their business this year. So, I'm a marketing coach. I'm looking for people specifically that want to work with me and taking their business, doubling it. Now, it could be online or offline. Right now I'm working with a weight loss center. I'm working with a guy who's a producer, a guy who's in _____35:11 it doesn’t have to be “online” because there’s always an online perspective of every business. _____35:17 acupuncture. So, that's what I'm looking for and I want to help people do that so you can go to heatherhavenwood.com and then click on work with me and let's get on the phone and talk it out. I'm a one on one person so I want to work with specifically about 10 people this year. Nile:                            And I bet you want the people that really are the right fit, that you're highly confident that you could really help. Heather:                      Yes, yes, absolutely. Nile:                            Makes perfect sense and by the way, then it gets fun for everybody to -- Heather:                      Yeah, they make a lot more money and they have fun, they learn a new skill set, yeah. And it's not a done for you. I teach you how to fish. Not -- I'm going to -- I'm not a consultant or I do it for you. I'm not a service provider. I want you to learn the skillset of this so you have it forever and that's what I did. I had to learn it so now I have it forever and I get to do it over and over and over again and constantly make money. Joe Sugarman said to me once; he said -- he goes sometimes people ask me if I get nervous _____36:15 or whatever and I said no -- he said to me no. I never have that fear because I know in my heart that I have the power of the pin. I can write an ad to sell anything and there's a confidence there and I feel I'm gaining that confidence that I can really sell anything with the power of the pen. In my case it's the typewriter or a note book or MacBook Pro, right. But it's the power of the words and understanding wordsmith, understanding marketing and getting people to buy something for your business is key and that's what I help people do. Nile:                            Well, Heather I want to thank you so much for joining us and -- Heather:                      Oh, you're welcome. Hey Jordan. Nile:                            Jordan ran off a different direction already but hey, thanks of joining us and for all of you thanks for joining us on the social media business hour as well. Hopefully you learned a few new ideas or concepts. Maybe you were reminded of a few things that you already know but you haven’t been doing to improve or grow your business. In this case your business or your life. My desire is that you take just one of the things that you learned or were reminded of today and you apply it to your business or life this week. I know that a small change can make a big difference and I am committed to bringing you at least one new idea each week that you could implement so go back and listen if you didn't pick up anything. Identify just one small change that you could make to your business or life this week and see what a big difference it will make for you. So, until next week, this is Nile Nickel. Now, go make it happen. [/content_toggle]

weblinks

Website: www.HeatherHavenwood.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/heatherhavenwood LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherannd Twitter: @hhavenwood

Direct download: SMBH_127.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Sales Funnel Basics Is where we start in this jam-packed interview, but we cover the gambit with sales psychology, sales copywriting and how to implement a sales funnel system using social media.

How Should A “Sales Funnel” Be Defined…

Aaron defines the term “Sales Funnel” as a step by step process, for attracting the right people to your business, enables you to build a relationship with them and eventually, sell your products or services to them.  The word funnel is used, because it is designed like a physical funnel: It has a wide top and narrows toward the bottom.

Ideally, when a sales funnel works, you can put a bunch of leads in the top, build a relationship with them in the middle and then turn them into customers. A good sales funnel does a number of things for your business.  One of those things is prequalify your customers. To get through the funnel, these customers will have the ability to buy your products and services – otherwise, they wouldn’t have made it through your funnel.

“A great sales funnel should be intentional” – Aaron Hoos

How To Create An “Intentional” Sales Funnel

As an entrepreneur, you realize, that every business has a sales funnel. According to Aaron, a great sales funnel should be intentional. The goal is to build it and watch it work on its own. Below are Aaron’s incredible tips on how you can create an intentional sales funnel…

  • Create an ad – Start by creating an ad (Facebook can be a good starting point) where your audience can click on it and the ad drives them to your landing page.
  • Invest in a great video – Invest in putting together a great video for your landing page. This video will be so your audience can see you and your intentions.
  • Email Capture Form – Have an email capture form where your prospects can give you their email address. You can email them periodically and even send them special offers from time to time.

Increase Your Income by Building Relationships with Influencers, VIPs, and Top Performers, Even If You Hate Networking

Aaron’s Inspirational Story: How He Got So Interested In Sales Funnels

After his undergraduate degree, Aaron started a business with high hopes that it will be successful but sadly, it failed. After a couple of years, he started again with a second business and this time, he succeed in a big way.  As a result, he became fascinated with this experience and wanted to figure out what happened.  Why did he failed on his first business and succeed on the second?

This led him to pursuing a MBA.  He wanted to research deeper into business and discover the different strategies that goes along with it.

While Aaron was writing his thesis and looking at all of the business strategies, he realized, it was all theoretical and academic, he couldn’t find a business strategy based on experience that was connected to the real world. He was looking for a specific, real, strategy where he could create actionable steps and build his own marketing systems.

Aaron ended up inventing his own sales funnel strategy. Many people he knew heard of sales funnels, but never exactly knew the power of them or how they worked.

His goal was that he want to take the sales funnel concept one step further.

He wanted to help people become aware of sales funnels and in turn, use them in their own businesses.  Aaron knew it couldn’t be just a theory, but something that he would implement in real life and help other business owners grow their businesses.

The Greatest Myth About Sales Funnels

The greatest myth or misunderstanding about sales funnels according to Aaron is…

“Throwing a whole bunch of marketing at the wall. Then, whatever sticks, that’s how you’re going to grow your business…”

This strategy is commonly called as the “Dump Truck” or “Shot Gun” approach.  This is when business owners will try to market to as many people as possible.  They don’t use just one sales approach – they try a whole bunch of stuff in the hopes that “something” will work.

It is the same mindset that many people have, “You have to spend money to make money”.

While that may be true, a well-constructed sales funnel will target only a few good, solid channels (or leads).  By targeting your message, you can integrate your sales funnel effectively.

Aaron believes, this second approach will make your marketing much easier, more effective and less expensive.

How Is Copy-writing Involved In Creating A Sales Funnel?

Copy-writing occurs in all sorts of areas within the sales funnel. You need it for the following:

  • Capturing your audiences attention
  • Generating high quality leads
  • Qualifying your leads as solid prospects
  • Converting your prospects to customers

Anytime you use copy-writing, your focused goal should be: To use the power of copy-writing for moving people from one step in your funnel, to another until they’ve reached the last step…which is the sale.

How To Design Your Sales Funnel With Social Media

Aaron likes social media because it plays on four different parts of his Sales Funnel

Why Does Social Media Play Such A Big Part In Aaron’s Sales Funnel?

  1. Social Media helps capture the necessary attention that in turn, generates leads. It is so powerful that it can easily position you as the industry expert.
  2. It’s easy to create a system that turns your fans, followers or even friends into leads on any of the social media platforms.
  3. Social Media is a great place to build relationships with your followers by simply conversing with them. Once you’ve made them happy and through the love of your products and services, they can easily become your “evangelists”.
  4. Social media allows you to capture your friend’s followers, turning them into YOUR followers.

Clink on the box below for more information:

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Aaron’s Formula For Creating Great Headlines

After years of study, Aaron shares his time-tested Headline formula…

Aaron is uses his own proprietary system, that he build from all the years of his experience, mentoring from others and his formal education. Most importantly, he reminds us that while writing headlines, you  first, have to know your target market.

Below is Aaron’s 5 step process for writing terrific headlines…

  1. The core, building blocks of your headline should include first, knowing what type of emotion you want to convey. After that, it’s easy to hook them and capture their attention.
  2. Have a character to portray – Every headline needs to have a voice, you always should position yourself as the speaker and at the same time the reader.
  3. Use The 1926 Sales Letter Of John Caples as a writing guide – He wrote the headline “They all laughed when I sat down at the piano but when I started to play …. “ Most of the frequently shared content right now in social media is built with this kind of model and it almost always works.
  4. Use the very powerful word of “FREE” – Anything free always catches attention.
  5. Make your headline is exciting – When something grabs your attention, it is hard to divert your attention elsewhere.

Aside from his top 5 list, Aaron offers another piece of advice:  We should always try to incorporate sales into our writing.  We should always have a call of action that will led to that sale you are aiming for.

Special-Offer


Want To Have A Solid Sales Funnel Strategy?
Grab Aaron’s Sales Funnel Bible Now!

Aaron’s “Sales Funnel Bible” is a step by step guide meant for people who are starting a business or who are growing an existing business.  This terrific, jam-packed book is divided into these four parts:

  1. Sales Funnel Introduction
  2. Step by step guide to figuring out what your sales funnel should looks like
  3. Basic ways to optimize your new and existing sales funnel
  4. Finding more leads and more profit from your customers
  5. The Advance level

weblinks

 

 

Website: http://salesfunnelaccelerator.com
Facebook: facebook.com/aaronhoos.writer
Twitter: @AaronHoos

Direct download: Aaron_hoos.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Periscope Is The Hottest New, Most Trending Video App. Out There And Most Business Owners And
Entrepreneurs Dont Know About It. Learn How To Prepare For And Deliver Your Very First Scope
 
From Expert Natalie Cutler-Welsh And Nile Nickel.
We Cover All The Basics, Talk About The Smallest Details To Make Sure You Have The Best Chance To
Create A Spectacular First Set Of Periscope Broadcasts.
Natalie Cutler-Welsh is an Author, Blogger, Podcaster and Mother of three.  She is known as the ‘Go to Girl’ for women entrepreneurs who want to connect and get the word out about their business.
Born and raised in Canada and now living in stunning New Zealand, Natalie is all about embracing change and making dreams a reality.  She does this through connecting and coaching women in business in online communities and high level Mastermind groups.
She’s all about making Social Media & Networking easy, fun & fabulous.

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WHAT IS PERISCOPE AND WHY IS IT SO HOT?

Periscope is the new must-have app. It lets you broadcast live video to the world and allows you to explore the world through someone else’s eyes.

The great thing about Periscope is, when you go live, your viewers instantly get to see you and hear exactly what you have to say.  They can even engage with you by adding real-time comments and send you “Hearts” – Periscope’s rating system. The more hearts you get, the higher your Periscope Broadcast is rated.

6 EMBARRASSING MISTAKES YOU DON’T WANT TO MAKE IT PERISCOPE

Tip#6:  Your Viewers Can Always Get A Replay.

Natalie encourages you to not worry about the number of your viewers during your Periscope broadcast. If you only have 5 or 50 viewers in the beginning and then suddenly your viewer numbers drop down to 27 or lower, that’s fine.

Always remember, people come and go.

As a Periscope host, Natalie has had to realize that her viewers might be walking their kids to school or maybe even doing some shopping – whatever is going on in their lives.

Sometimes they just lose their internet connection. Worrying too much about the number of viewers will not help you create an awesome Periscope session.

Natalie also mentions, that you should primarily care about giving value to each and every viewer that you have.  Be there for them, be yourself.  Don’t be disheartened if something unexpected happens,  your viewers have the Periscope “Replay” function available.

Tip# 6.1: When you go live with Periscope, you need to hold your phone vertically and not horizontally.

Tip# 6.2: When people start coming in, greet them enthusiastically!

Tip #6.3: Periscope will make your scope available for 24 hours via Twitter. Twitter will automatically tweet out a link for your Scope allowing you and your viewers to repost it all over social media. You can also upload your scope to YouTube.

 
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Tip #5: Have A Call To Action – But Don’t Be Pushy

Natalie says, “When you’re using Periscope, don’t be super salesy“.  Don’t be the type of person who makes their pitch straight away, constantly selling your products/services. The call to action can be as simple as inviting your viewers to follow you on Twitter or make another “No obligation, No Pressure” type of offer.

Tip# 5.1 – You have to realize that when you’re using periscope, it’s a matter of giving your viewers value as well as instructions to where to go and get your materials or the items that you’re selling.

Tip# 5.2 – Don’t physically type URL’s. What most people do, is hold out a piece of paper with their websites pre-written on it and present it to the camera. As the person hosting a Periscope broadcast, physically typing anything is simply not possible.

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Tip #4: Do Not Engage With Comments Too Much

When Natalie started her first periscope, she was actually shaking. She had been a podcaster for three years and is comfortable recording video. But Periscope is not the same as recording a podcast, hosting a webinar or creating a video. It’s an entirely different thing altogether.

Tip 4.1 – When you want to host your own periscope, make sure of the following;

  • Download the app
  • Watch at least 3-5 periscopes, this will give you the feel for what it is all about

It is easy to get distracted while using Periscope, especially with the thought that viewers are commenting in other scopes and not yours. Getting distracted by engaging in comments or totally ignoring them all together is not a good strategy.  Find a good balance.  Engage with your viewers but not too much.

 
 
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Tip #3: Don’t Come Across As Too Polished Or “Salesy”.

Periscope is real and raw, that is why people love it. It’s a genuine form of you extending yourself to your viewers.

“One of the most common mistakes that people make is to try to be that “perfect poster” type of person and even try to behave that way. This is not a website. You don’t want to be seen as the vanilla, website spokesperson. Everyone wants to see the person behind your business” – Natalie

Tip #2: Have An Enticing Topic

Twitter will send the topic of your broadcast to your followers so it’s really important to have something that sounds enticing and engaging.  Ideally, target your ideal audience on your Periscope broadcast and tell people, “What I’ll do is “this” or “this is a tip I got from an industry leader…”.

“Any time I have an idea, random or not, I write it down because I’m not going to remember them all.”

Tip 2.1 – Periscope drops the call sometimes and you have to start all over. Taking notes (maybe in your phone) will help you if this type of situation occurs. When a connection drops, all you have to do is copy and paste your enticing topic back into Periscope.

Tip 2.2 – Periscope will automatically capture first, whatever you have in front of your phone. Natalie’s suggestion: Create an image that basically says the title of your scope and have it as the primary display, so when it’s saved your viewers can replay it, they see the image you created.  It will be will be the very first thing that your audience will see. Otherwise, just make your primary screen look professional.

Tip 2.3 – Be aware of what’s going to come first and give be aware of the impression it’s going to make.

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Tip #1: Be Prepared

Periscope gives Natalie’s business so much potential to showcase her expertise and share her wonderful knowledge with all of her viewers

Natalie’s Proven Advice;

  • Go for it but be prepared – If you have plans to host a content driven scope, make sure to write down the main points you want to highlight so that you can always go back to your notes when you feel like you’re off the topic.
  • In terms of backdrop, lighting and sounds: Just make sure that you’re not pointing straight to the wind, your headphones must have a microphone when using them and if you’re planning not to use a desktop, make sure it has a microphone.
  • Do a little recap and summary every once in a while. Maybe when you’re halfway through your periscope. This will benefit those viewers who came in late and those who come in and out of your scope.
  • Research first before scoping.
  • Spend quality time thinking of your headline, title and contents of your topic.
  • Have fun!

Special-Offer

 

 

 

 

 

Natalie loves making social media networking easy, fun and fabulous.  She understand that many people start their business because they have a passion for something. However, sometimes, situations don’t always pan out the way we want them to.
If you need help or just want to be part of a group with people who have the same mindset, then join Natalie’s group and stay connected.
  • Go to gotogirlsocialmedia.com/mm which stands for “mastermind” and join the community. This community will give you an amazing network of focused and fabulous women entrepreneur. Twice a month, they have an online community live session, where a guest expert will be invited and there will be group discussion, coaching and mentoring session. All of this you’ll get in an awesome price of $47 per month.
  • Avail her 7 Secrets Social Media and Networking Course only for $197.00

weblinks

  Facebook: FB/GoToGirlSocialMedia
Twitter Handle: @gotogirlnz
Website: http://www.gotogirl.co.nz
Direct download: SMBH_125-2.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

The eBook revolution has totally empowered entrepreneurs beyond their expectations.

The question is: How Can You Take Advantage Of It?
Writing a book traditionally, with all the printing and publishing costs, just doesn’t make sense anymore. 

It’s not an investment that has a profitable return for most authors and business owners. 

Enter eBooks…If you sold just a hundred copies of your book, it could really boost your business as much as the next 12 months and beyond. 

All you have to do is to keep up the momentum, once you get started. 

Listen In As We Talk About…
- A Valuable Lesson From Some One Who’s Been There: How Morgan Started With A “Middle Of The Night” Inspiration
- How You Can Start Writing Your First Draft
- The Single Greatest Misconception About Writing A Book
- The Most Common Ways You Might Be Sabotaging Yourself
- The Incredible Benefits Of Writing A Book
- 3 Practical Strategies To Get You Started Effortlessly Writing
- How eBooks Have Changed The Publishing Industry
- Social Media Tips And Tricks For Publishing Your Book

 

 

 

Morgan Gist MacDonald is a writing coach and editor of nonfiction writing and the founder of Paper Raven Books. Morgan and her team help authors write, edit, and publish books that create impact.
Her latest book, Start Writing Your Book Today: A Step- by-Step Plan to Write Your Nonfiction Book, from First Draft to Finished Manuscript, is available in the Amazon kindle store. Morgan blogs about writing techniques and motivation at paperravenbooks.com

 

Morgan’s Middle Of The Night Inspiration

 No one wakes up at age 18 and says “I’m going to be an entrepreneur and this is going to be my target market” Morgan

Like most of us, Morgan did not wake up on her 18th birthday with an established business. She was also unsure of what the future is going to be, until an inspiration came to her in the middle of the night…. Morgan was a good student and already a talented writer while in school, she actually went for a Phd in sociology at Vander Ville University. For a couple of years as Morgan was involved in academics, she reached a point in her life and asked herself if she really has the passion for writing, which led to huge self-doubt. During this time one fateful night, Morgan was sitting at the graduate student offices while one of her colleagues was up late working on a paper…and her friend was struggling. With a few hot cups of coffee and a dark room, they talked through the assignment.  For three-research intensive hours, Morgan stayed with her friend and accomplished what seemed to be impossible:  The huge essay was complete.  At that very moment, a realization came to Morgan:  She absolutely loved every minute. Morgan realized that she wants to help others with their writing. She knew her personal writing process could make it easy for everyone to write a book – if only they used it. She left her pursuit of a Master’s Degree to become an entrepreneur and immediately started her own Writing And Editing Business. As life goes on, it has a way of distracting even the best of us.  Morgan started her business at an early age, but quickly found excuse after excuse as to why she can’t write her book and share her incredible writing process to the world.  “Why” it wasn’t the right time, “Why” she couldn’t fit writing a book into her schedule.  Being a mother with an infant, certainly didn’t lend itself to writing.  

The 4 AM Revelation

We need to have starting point. We have to start with something that we don’t have our head wrapped around yet – Morgan

While feeding her 4 month old daughter at four o’clock in the morning, a revelation came into Morgan. It is now or never. I will write my book”, she thought. At the time, she wasn’t even entirely sure of what kind of book to write. As she reflects in this terrific interview, Morgan said, “There is something about being up at four AM…in the middle of the night - your reasoning skills have not quite kicked in yet.  I was willing to start with something that didn’t entirely makes sense.”  She knew in her heart, starting is all she really needs- just a starting point. Sometimes we just have to start something even when we don’t have our head wrapped around it.

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The Journey Of Writing Her First Draft

Time to quit playing, time to get real, time to start.  - Morgan

Morgan was still not entirely sure what her book was going to look like and that kind of uncertainty kept her from really starting.  She had one thing going for her that wouldn’t occur to most people:  She was totally exhausted. Morgan turned it into an advantage.  Being exhausted and up at four AM allowed her to give up her doubts and really start on something amazing. She didn’t know exactly what she is was going do to, but Morgan committed to herself that THIS time, big things are going to happen. Morgan started with free writing.  She made it a habit that whenever an idea came to her, she would write it all out on paper.  Morgan started writing for 30 minutes each day. After 2 months of 30 minute writing sessions, she had a good first draft.  She quickly moved on to editing.

Morgan’s Edge

What separates Morgan from the pack? It is her crazy writing experiences. What has helped her communicate well to her clients and with coaching them, is her understanding of the writing process. Morgan said, “You might know you want to write a book, you just don’t know how”. She helps her clients understand the process first, then she’ll show them what awaits them:  An incredible journey and amazing process of discovery.

The Great Misconception About Writing A Book

When someone says “BOOK”, people are sometimes intimidated by the term. Why? Because most of us think of Barnes and Noble and that a book should have 200 or 300 pages with research involved, etc. Nowadays, we can write an eBook with 20,000-30,000 words and about 100 pages in length and you can quickly get your story and your message across to countless readers and better yet, prospects.

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Are You Sabotaging Yourself Out Of Starting Your Book?

Morgan shares some insights about how people most commonly sabotage themselves:

  • Sitting in a room and thinking about your book all day – is not the same as writing your book.
  • Waiting too long to start – If you’re waiting for life to get easier, it’s never going to happen! You might as well start today.
  • Keeping your book a secret – If you tell absolutely no one that you are writing a book, then the book is never going to happen. Morgan said, we need to have accountability and others will provide that to us.

What Are The Benefits Of Writing A Book?

Morgan shares some incredible benefits of writing a book:

  • You can write a book about your business.
  • You can be a coach
  • Ideal clients can be reached
  • You can be an expert in your chosen field which in turn, can land you lucrative speaking gigs

3 Practical Strategies To Get Yourself Into Writing

Here are Morgan’s Top 3 practical strategies to get yourself motivated for writing:

    1. 1. Write against a timer - Even if it’s a timer on your mobile device, set the timer for 25 minutes and start writing as soon as the timer starts…and stop as soon as the timer goes off. This strategy will give you a nice, intense focus while you’re writing.
    2. Track your progress - Every time you write, write down the date and the number of minutes that you wrote, along with your word count. The proof of your accomplishment will help keep you motivated.
    3. Schedule three to five hours per week, every week, for writing – Writing a book may not be super easy, but it also doesn’t have to be hard. Spend some quality, focused time on it.

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How eBooks Are Changing The Publishing Industry

The eBook revolution has totally empowered entrepreneurs beyond their expectations. Are you taking advantage of it? As an entrepreneur, one of Morgan’s goals is to get clients. Writing a book traditionally, with all the printing and publishing costs, just doesn’t make sense.  It’s not an investment that has a profitable return for most authors and business owners.  However, with eBooks, if you sold a thousand copies it might boost your business for the next 12 months.  All you have to do is to keep up your momentum.  After your book is written, get it out there in eBook format and you’ll get a quicker turn around with much less invested. Once your eBook is ready, you can create a small, targeted campaign that gets you clients, speaking gigs and great connections with industry leaders.  Doing this can really help to boost your business. Morgan also offers us that while writing your book, you really need to crystalize your mission. Really narrow in your goals for the book. Crystalizing what you mission is and what your purpose is will make everything involved in your business come together. Once again, just get your book out there and you will start seeing other benefits, the greatest of them for most entrepreneurs is, you’ll start bringing in new clients which will eventually become regular clients.  You just can’t beat having a dependable revenue stream!

Social Media Tips And Tricks For Publishing Your Book

Social Media is a great platform to promote and launch your book. It allows you to be engaged and converse with your network even before the book comes out.  Even better, you get to take charge of the conversation on any social media platform you desire. Here are Morgan’s Social Media Tips and Tricks:

  • Periscope - Morgan’s most recent favorite social media platform is Periscope. Through its live video streaming, (you’re just using your phone), you can start broadcasting and anyone in the world who is signed up on Periscope can see what you’re broadcasting, what you’re saying and can hop on and watch you live. They can even join the discussion.
  • Amazon – Another favorite of Morgan’s is Amazon. When they like your book, Amazon offers you the functionality to make your customer’s online shopping experience simple. This means, if your prospect wants your book, Amazon makes it easy for them to buy it!

Another great feature of Amazon is it allows you to give your book away for free every 90 days. Morgan says, this is a great way to promote your book. One of her favorite strategies is to put a Facebook ad with just the picture of the book and a little tag that says “Available For Free on Amazon”. Run the campaign for 5 to 7 days, encourage the people to get your book while it’s free and in return, it will boost your Amazon ranking.

  • Google Search – If you’re set on the traditional way to publish your book, you can search blogs and google for accumulated lists of literary agents. Just search “Literary Agents” and the “Genre” in google, and you’ll find blogs that list what you are looking for. Follow them on Twitter and start a conversation. Along way, these agents might just help you get traditionally published.

weblinks      

 
Website: http://paperravenbooks.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaperRavenBooks Twitter: @morgangmac LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/morgan-gist-macdonald/27/79/704

  Special-Offer

Have you ever thought about writing a book? You are in the right place! 

To all listeners of The Social Media Business Hour, Morgan is giving away a special free gift just for you. It is 12-step checklist on how to write your eBook. If you want to write an eBook that brings in clients, lands you speaking gigs and gets you known as an expert, then follow Morgan’s 12 step process. It is super easy to follow…and it’s FREE! Download Morgan's free quick start guide: "12 Steps to Write a Book That Boosts Your Business and Builds Your Platform" right ~ HERE ~!        

Direct download: SMBH_124-2.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

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Join us and learn all about how you can start your own, professional sounding podcast for just $200 or less.
Spend a few minutes with us and you’ll also get:
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Twitter Handle: @ellorywells
Direct download: SMBH_123-2.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Most Entrepreneurs think branding just means what their logo looks like.  Fortunately, we’re not most entrepreneurs, because we know nothing could be farther from the truth!

Although it can be overwhelming to really understand all the things branding touches in your business, our guest, Mimika Cooney is here to help.

Join us on this great interview and you’ll get…

- Four Proven Tips For Any Company To Create A Successful Brand
- Why “Branding” Is Absolutely Critical For Your Success
- How “Branding” Should Be Defined And Implemented

 

 

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South African born Mimika Cooney is an international award winning photographer, TV Host, published author, speaker and business branding, video and marketing expert. Mimika has run four successful businesses in three countries. She is the host of MimikaTV, a web show that inspires passionate entrepreneurs to build a business around doing what they love.

Mimika has been an award-winning photographer for 12 years in two countries, she has authored two books on the business of photography, is a public speaker, and has experience as a live television broadcaster. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Mimika's passion is helping entrepreneurs attract their perfect clients and build a brilliant business brand. As a digital marketing, branding and video specialist; Mimika teaches her signature courses and offers executive coaching on branding, online marketing and video skills.

If You Think That Branding Is All About Your Company Logo And Name, Then Mimika Cooney Will Tell You - That You Have It All WRONG.

When someone asks you about branding, what exactly comes to mind? As an entrepreneur, do you really know what branding is? And, why is it so important to your business?  If you think that branding is all just about your company logo and having a catchy name or tagline -- then Mimika will tell you that you have it all WRONG. Mimika says in this interview, that branding goes way past a logo…and it is not about having an appealing organization name. She advises us that when you're thinking about your company  image, you have to consider the whole client experience. That is everything from your logo, to your site, your online networking encounters, the way you answer clients questions over telephone, email and even clients visiting your office and the way they encounter your staff. When you take a look at the expansive meaning of branding, it can be overpowering to consider what is included in your brand. To put it plainly, your brand is the way your client sees you. A decent brand doesn't simply just happen. It is a well thought out, heavily considered and deliberately arranged experience.

How Should “Branding” Be Defined Exactly?

Many small organizations and start-ups neglect spending the necessary time to intellectually think about their brand in a broader sense and the impact it will have on their business. Mimika tells us that branding is very important as it represents you and your company, especially with the following aspects:

  • How you walk
  • How you talk
  • How your website looks.
  • How you engage and give your support to your prospects.
  • How you introduce and behave publicly.
  • How you treat your customers.  (Does you company have a really good turnaround time or do you make people wait to hear from you?)
  • How you think of yourself as the brand ambassador of your business.
  • How you make an emotional connection with someone - even without meeting them in person.
  • How your products and services provide a good experience for your customers or subscribers.

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Mimika’s Four Proven Tips About Having A Successful Brand For Your Company.

The best branding is always built on a strong idea. An idea that you and your staff can hold onto, can commit to, and can deliver upon. Your brand needs to permeate your entire organization. When your organization is clear on the brand and can deliver on the promise of the brand, you will see tremendous results while building brand loyalty with your customer base. Below are Mimika’s Four Proven Tips On How You Can Elevate Your Brand To The Next Level.

  1. Develop Your Story

    Mimika’s “Spot On” advice includes developing your story. She says, it always starts with, knowing yourself first. It is essential that you know who you are, your history, your triumphs and failures, your skills and expertise, etc. If you don’t consider who you are first, then building a consistent and powerful brand will be almost impossible.

If you don’t know who you are and what you stand for, then people won't genuinely connect with you. Mimika says, your story, skills and experiences can be used to find great connections with prospects and customers.  Especially with people who have been through similar circumstances as you. Creating an instant connection with your prospects and customers a great way of elevating your brand…and often absolutely necessary to create a connection.

  1. Create A Video.

    Branding your products through emails is good. It is a very good way of warming up your customers about how amazing you and your products/services are. However, all of the important messages that you are trying to communicate through emails can actually be combined in one, well-done video. Be comfortable sharing your story and telling people the parts of your story that relates to your product or services. Being comfortable in sharing your story is a vital component of connecting effectively.
  1. Know Your Customers.

    Taking the time to understand who your clients are will make your business more successful because there is no point of giving information to prospects and customers that do not relate to them. Knowing your audience puts you in a terrific position to get their attention. Understanding the demographics of your clients allows you to better market your business to them. This will establish a strong business/client relationship and creates an environment of trust and comfort for mutual success. Always bear in mind that
    “People will always do business with people they Know, Like and Trust”
  1. Create A Good Strategy

    Mimika shares some of the ways she creates a terrific strategy in this interview.  She calls her time-proven strategy “reverse engineering”.

It is because she knows and following her client's and their background before figuring out a working strategy that will bring her clients to where they want to be.

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Why Is “Branding” Absolutely Critical For Your Business Success?

Mimika tells us that your brand should reside within the hearts and minds of your customers, clients, and prospects. Always remember that branding is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that you cannot. Having a strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies day by day. It's vital that you spend time investing in researching, defining, and building your brand. After all, your brand is the source of promise to your consumer. It's a foundational piece of your marketing communication and one aspect of your business that you do not want to be without. [content_toggle style="undefined" label="Click%20Here%20To%20Read%20The%20Entire%20Transcript%20Of%20The%20Show" hide_label="Hide"] Mimika:           Welcome to social media business hour with Nile and Jordan. My name’s Mimika Cooney and today I’m going to share with you three tips for building your business brand. Woman:          In business and know the way forward most include social media. Perhaps you find it a bit confusing. Even frustrating. Well, you have no idea how to make it work for your business. Fear not. We interview some of the best social media experts in business who will share their experiences, ideas and knowledge. Plus offer tips and tricks to make using social media a breeze. Leverage the power of social media and grow your business now. Welcome to social media business hour with your host Nile Nickel. Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did. Nile:                 Hey Jordan, I’m really excited about social media business hour. We’ve got a lot of listeners around the world now. Jordan:            Yes we do, don’t we? Nile:                 We do and I’m really finding that amazing and something new. You know I do Linked In focus. I can now say I’m an international provider because I contracted with some European clients now if I could say that. I know. It will get better before the show’s over. Jordan:            Well, that’s great. So we can say that you are now internationally known. Nile:                 Renown. Jordan:            Internationally renowned Nile Nickel. Nile:                 Well, you know why I say that? Because we’ve got a good southern girl on the show tonight. Jordan:            Really southern. Nile:                 Really southern. In fact, could you hear that southern twang in her laugh there? I heard it. Mimika:           Well, you all I’m not southern. I’m southern African. Nile:                 Well, that’s still southern, right? Mimika:           It confuses -- exactly. When people say what part of the south are you from? I’ll go I’m south but way south like Africa, South Africa south. So yes. That’s where we are from but I’m talking to you from Charlotte, North Carolina and we mentioned this earlier. Back in March I got my American citizenship so I’m officially African American. Jordan:            Hey, congratulations. Mimika:           Thank you. Nile:                 And you can truly claim that title. Mimika:           Exactly. Nile:                 I love it. I love it. well, obviously people already know you’re south African born but you’re an international award winning photographer, a TV host, a published author, speaker and business branding video and marketing expert. You’re sort of the everything girl. Mimika:           And that’s been a bit of a problem. As you can tell I think I talk really fast and I suffer from the shiny object syndrome. There’s always something like oh, swell. Something shiny and I get to figure out things that I like to learn and then I start being all over the place but what I’ve learned over the years is that I do have to use the F word a lot which is focus. I’m reminding myself every day I’ve got to focus, focus, focus. So yes. But through all of that we can definitely have a lot of school of hard knocks and lessons we’ve learned along the way. I’m excited to share that with everyone today. Nile:                 That is outstanding. When you said the F word I thought I was going to hear some French. Oh, that’s an F word too. Jordan:            No. I thought you were going to use -- Mimika:           Exactly. Parlez-vous Francais? Jordan:            That’s right. Nile:                 Oui, oui mademoiselle. Now we just picked up some French audience. Mimika:           Exactly. But hey, if we really want to get this party started I could start explaining things in Greek because my dad is Greek but then it’ll just be Greek to you, right? Nile:                 Yeah. It’d be all Greek to me. I love you already. It’s determined early in the show here. Mimika:           Oh, yeah. Thank you. I should’ve put my bright lipstick on just for the occasion. I know no one can actually see it but a girl’s got to look good even though when she’s talking so there you go. You could just imagine. Nile:                 Just the mention of it made me feel better. Mimika:           Oh, good. There you go. Nile:                 You talk about focus though but with all of those things that you’ve done -- you’ve ran four successful businesses in three countries. Now, we know South Africa, we know that you’re in Americas so where else are we talking? Mimika:           In the land of tea and cupcakes darling. That was in England you see. Well, the story goes is that I like airplane rides a whole lot and people always ask me oh, well how did you get to America. And I always say well, airplane duh. But via England you see. My mom and my sister live in England and my husband and I being South African born we started our business in South Africa. But the rest of the world ignored us for years and south Africa was considered the butt end of the world so trying to get a more international flavor and reach with our business we really had to become -- well, establish ourselves in a first world country which was in our -- England in our instance because we had family there already so yeah. We spent six years in England. Nile:                 So what prompted the move to the States just out of curiosity? Mimika:           The weather. No. not really. Well, again, it really came down to business. When we started our business in South Africa it was the days of Google -- not Google. The days of internet dialup so it was really trying to do business overseas. People are like where? South Africa? Where? Everything from time zones to money tree. Trying to take money from people overseas, there were all of these exchange problems and we really felt we wanted to be able to move towards being having a reach in England and Europe and my husband has a British passport so naturally we went there in the time. I would not advise this to people. But we immigrated and within six months we had a baby and started a business. So it’s not the ideal way of doing things but I’m always into just throwing myself into things head first. Nile:                 You sound a little crazy to me though. I mean, starting a business and having a baby in that period of time, that’s insanity. Mimika:           Yeah. Pretty much so. But I don’t take the easy route. Nile:                 I take that. I take that. Well, you’re the host of Mika TV, a web show that inspires passionate entrepreneurs to build a business around doing what they love. I love that because the saying goes if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life and so many people, they just -- they don’t learn to work in the area that they really love, that they’re passionate about a lot of times until later in life. Mimika:           Yeah. And I think it’s really got do with the way society is tailoring -- especially now I have two kids that are in high school and it just annoys the snot out of me when I have to see how these teachers are pushing them towards following the status quo about going to college. I’m not saying college is bad. I didn’t have a chance to go to college but I was always able to make success out of life thinking a little differently. But where there’s a will there’s a way, right? Nile:                 There absolutely is. Well, as we talk about these four successful businesses -- I’m going to come back to that because one of the things that I know is you’re also an award winning photographer for 12 years in two countries. Mimika:           Yeah. Well, this is what happens when you make your passion into a business, right. So the whole story goes is I -- working with my husband, we were in the internet business and then I really loved taking pictures of my kids. It’s the typical mom with a camera. Always in their face taking pictures. And eventually I was like I really love doing this. I wonder if I could make this a career. And in England things work a little differently. It’s a boy’s club to say the least. And back in those -- it was like 2003 on the cusp of when digital cameras came out. I actually learned how to shoot on film and actual fact slide film which is very unforgiving which basically means it’s probably the hardest way to actually learn. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me so I really felt this could be a really good business but coming from the business side, then becoming a photographer really helped a lot and a lot of creatives have it the other way around. They’re creative and then try to make a business or you’re not even a creative -- you have an idea for a business and because you love it so much you will actually do what you love for free because you just love doing what it is. But there comes a time when we have to really put our big girl panties on and start to think of this like a real business. So yeah. There were some really great lessons I learned along the way taking my knowledge about business and branding and marketing and turning it into a photography business which we then moved again from England to the USA. My husband stayed in business, internet marketing. He started getting a lot more clients here in the US and this is some way we really wanted to be. So we eventually made the move after living in England for six years and we’ve now settled in Charlotte, North Carolina and we’ve been here for nine years. So yeah. It’s been a little bit of a roundabout way but that’s where we are now. Nile:                 Serious question. I mean, it’s going to sound funny and I’m making a bit of a joke about it but I’m also serious. I couldn’t imagine -- I have difficulty understanding all of the laws in this country. All of the tax laws, business laws, internet laws, what you can and can't do. You haven’t had to learn that once. You’ve had to learn it three times. I mean, again, this sounds like it’s back to insanity to me. Mimika:           I know. Really is crazy. Sometimes I’m like what the heck are we doing this for, right? But it has -- I think it’s got to go back to when I think about the way I grew up in South Africa. I had -- my father has always been a serial entrepreneur and he’s always been -- we lived through that feast and famine. Like when he did well he did really well. And then he became a millionaire in South African terms when he was 25 but he lost it several times over. And for me, I was always used to that sort of risk. You work really hard, you put your mind to it, you do what the -- and failure is just one of those things. It’s fine if you dust yourself off, you get on to the next thing. It’s like being a horse rider. You fall of the horse, you don’t sit and boohoo. You basically pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get back on and teach that horse a lesson. So for me it wasn’t like -- I’ve never seen failure as a stumbling block. It’s more like just a learning exercise because there’s nothing like failure to really teach you what not to do, right. But for us it’s always also been about just having this really determined desire to do something and we’ve been thrown several sort of obstacles and had to jump through so many hoops and even now we’ve been here nine years. We’re still not over that. In actual fact, my 16 year old was having a hissy fit earlier because she wants to get her driver’s license. But to get a driver’s license you have to be a citizen. And to be -- and to get a social security number you need to be having American citizenship so before that we had to be green card holders and before that we had to be Visa card holders and before that we had to prove that we could live here. So it’s been a very long process but I can tell you I know we’ve done it completely legally. It costs us a fortune but knowing the way -- the rules of the land has really helped us to take advantage of what we feel are the opportunities. Nile:                 We haven’t got in the good parts of the -- what you’re promising to tell everybody and I’m really interested in that but I’m fascinated by this international experience and all of that. I have to ask a question just for my own interest but you mentioned you’d become a citizen. What does -- how does that apply to your children? What do they have to go through? Mimika:           Well, let me tell you this. Let’s back it up. So my eldest daughter was two when we lived in South Africa so she has a South African passport. We then moved to England. My husband is on a British passport. I then had my son who then acquired British citizenship. And then I then applied for my daughter and myself to become British citizens so again, that was our first example of going through the citizenship process in another country so we did that for five years and then once we were all on British passports, then we came to the US and then I had another baby. So she’s American. So we are a real colorful family. But now, nine years later, we all are American so depending on what our mood is, what kind of passport _____22:16 way that immigration Mimika in and out so it’s -- yeah. Kind of bizarre. Nile:                 Well that could absolutely be handy in traveling today. That is certain. But I only know one other person that has three passports. Mimika:           Oh, there you go. You know another one. In actual fact, I have four. Don’t tell anybody. I have a Green as well but I haven’t bothered renewing that once so you can imagine I have a bag under my bed that is like all the -- my cash, passports, new identities. I could be like an international spy. Nile:                 I think we’re talking to a spy here Jordan. Little did I know. Mimika:           Exactly. You don’t really know, do you? Nile:                 She’s going to give us a lot of secret knowledge. Mimika:           Exactly. Nile:                 But to get that secret knowledge -- you know what? You’re going to have to listen to our second segment on the social media business hour and we can't wait to get back and get into it. We’ll be right back. Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did. Nile:                 Jordan our first segment was so interesting. You always have a plan when we get ready to sit down and talk with somebody. And so many times now I sit down to talk with somebody and you end up learning all sorts of things through that talking process that you never sometimes get to the questions you’ve got. Jordan:            Your plan goes right out the window. Nile:                 It does. And our South African -- I’m sorry. Now she is a African American. Jordan:            Yes. Yes. Nile:                 From North Carolina so that would make the south there. Anyway, I’m just totally blown away. How about you? Jordan:            Me too. This is absolutely fascinating and you were asking in the first segment all the questions that I would’ve asked. All the things that I wanted to know. Nile:                 So Mimika, what did we miss? Mimika:           The stress, the tears, the tantrums, the throwing my tiara out the window. Do you want all that too? No? It’s okay. We’ll skip past that and just say we survived, we are excited to be here in the USA but I tell you. I definitely need to write a story about all of this one day. About the whole travels and the whole -- how to actually get here and what we’ve had to travel in order to prove ourselves to be legal citizens to be able to make use of this American dream. Nile:                 Well, again I’m fascinated because I’m adopted and I’ve been on an adoption search recently. Recently found my adopted mother and found that I had a sister and some things like that. But now that I’ve got a bit to study and learn about my family tree -- trying to trace people and things like that is very, very difficult. I can't imagine if you were my birth mother and I was trying to track you because it would be virtually impossible. Mimika:           And if we really want to get technical, back on my father’s side two generations ago they had to change their name to avoid being -- during the Greek Turkish war they actually changed our Greek family name to avoid being thrown in jail so ha-ha. It gets even more interesting. Nile:                 It does. You find out many fascinating things when you tend to look in somebody’s sort of family tree and where they’re from and all of that. Mimika:           Oh, yeah. I love that stuff. Nile:                 One of the things that I know that you do is you help people brand their business and design that brand. Now I’d imagine based on your experience that gives you really a pretty wide berth of experience to bring to bear there. So when somebody comes and they say hey, I need to brand my business. How do you start that process? Mimika:           Well, that’s a very good question. So really, for me, anything that I ever teach people is usually after having learnt it myself and for me, I really fell in love with this concept of branding because I was doing it unconsciously but not realizing that I was doing it anyway along the different ways of -- whenever we started our business because back when I was in south Africa, when my husband and I first got married I actually started a web design company when the internet first came out and at the same time I was always thinking what kind of clients do I want to have, how do I want to be perceived in the market and how am I going to be competitive compared to the competition. And how it evolved is every time I had a chance to restart or rebrand my business I’ve always had to go back to that but the thing that got me in love with branding is it’s often not the first thing people ask me. It’s -- it goes back to with some -- the coaching that I do. People will come to me and say I’m not getting any clients, I’m spending a lot of money on Facebook ads while I’m trying this social media thing and that social media thing or spending on this and spending on that and I’m not getting any traction. And what I’ve realized is that’s just a symptom. We need to sort of backtrack ourselves and start to look at -- that is just a result of previous efforts and having done cold sales as well I realized it’s usually like a three to six month turnaround. The effort you do now is eventually going to come out in three to six months and then you’ll start to see results. But of course everyone wants a quick fix. So they come to me and the first thing I have to realize is I have to say to them you might be struggling with clients but that’s actually the wrong question. What we need to start doing is start to look internal first and then realize who we are as business owners. Who we are personally does translate to our business because actually I totally believe this. Business is personal. Especially in today’s society. People want to do business with people they know, like and trust and no one wants to do business with something that’s sleazy or cheesy and slimy. So at the end of the days, if your marketing tactics aren’t working we need to reverse engineer things and start to look at how have you positioned your business and your brand because maybe you’re swimming in the wrong waters and this is something I learned personally was that even in my photography business I was really getting annoyed that I have clients that wouldn’t give me the creative freedom, they would argue with me about price and then I realized and started to look at this backwards and realized I was marketing in the wrong area. I was attracting the wrong client. Because if you attract a cheap -- low bill client you’re never going to be able to make high end dollars. So it really becomes part of the process and I’ve got it down to a fine art and taking somebody through the process is almost deconstructing what they have and deciding can we move forward with what you have and do some tweaks or do you require a completely new rebrand. And that’s what’s exciting about it. There’s always the restart button, there’s always a chance to do over. Nile:                 As you’re talking about branding there I realized that we probably -- and I think I’m pretty comfortable with branding. Jordan, what about you? Jordan:            I wish I was more comfortable with branding. Nile:                 But I’m not sure that everybody that we’re talking to understands branding so we might want to take a step back and say give us your definition of branding if you don’t mind. Mimika:           Yeah. Sure. And that’s a good question because  a lot of the times I see that people don’t know that perhaps the problem is with their brand because they’re not even sure what a brand is. Now, the first thing is when you say the word branding we think of logo, company name, tagline, right. Based on all the big companies like Apple and Coca Cola and all these things. But really what branding is it’s how people feel about you. it’s those subliminal things that -- those sort of choices we make about a brand based on things we can't put our finger on and once you start to look at it and realize everything -- your brand is how you walk, how you talk, how your website looks. It is your logo but it’s not only your logo. It’s how you answer your social media posts, it’s the layout of your website, it’s how you introduce yourself at a networking event. It’s how you treat your customers. So do you answer -- do you have a really good turnaround or do you make people wait really long. I mean, it’s like any restaurant, right. Let’s compare two Italian restaurants in a nice area. What makes one really busy and one like crickets where nobody is there? It’s how they’ve positioned themselves in the market. They might offer the same product, they might use the same ingredients but if they haven’t positioned their brand properly they don’t have that sort of stickiness that attracts people to their business. So you really need to think about -- and especially as solopreneurs or entrepreneurs who are building a business from themselves -- I’m not talking about people who have preps. They just buy a product, you slap on a price tag and you’re just reselling a product. I’m particularly talking about -- especially when you’re providing a service like whether you’re a coach or you’re a speaker or you’re a author, you’re selling something that you create or something that involves a lot of your time and investment. It’s really how -- we need to think of ourselves as brand ambassadors for our business. So just like -- not that I care to pay attention to like the Kardashians. You have all these beauty brands coming at them, paying them millions of dollars just to be able to wear their clothes or use their makeup. It’s that association with them and that’s what makes them really high paying brand ambassadors. So yeah. That’s -- I would probably say is a roundabout way of saying you are your brand. Nile:                 That makes sense. There’s a lot of different things. But one of the things you mentioned is -- it’s not just buying a product and slapping some sticker on it and that’s branding. But I like to differentiate here and when you were talking about that what came to mind for me was Amazon because Amazon doesn’t really create anything. They collect a lot of things and they make it easy for people to go to one place to buy those things. Whatever that may be. But part of that brand becomes how they engage with the customers, how they deliver things, how they communicate, how the website’s organized to find things. So it may not be your product but your brand can influence sales of the products that you’re reselling. Mimika:           Definitely and I think that’s -- even though Amazon -- you’re right. Does sell other people’s products and I’m not dissing products. All I’m saying is they’ve created the way -- they’ve positioned their brand that you know that if you want something really fast you can order it on Amazon and within a couple of days -- especially if you’re a prime member like two days. You can have that product. And you are spoiled for choice. And it’s really -- a lot of the brands separate themselves and differentiate themselves for owning something and being really good at that one thing like -- we could even compare like say -- Blockbuster was a really well known brand and business that did well. They never even thought that they would be out of business one day but you have the likes of Netflix has now changed the game. It’s changed the way we do business. So a lot of things are constantly changing and we have to learn to adapt and for this -- personally I’ve been through a rebrand process twice with my business. Once when I moved from England to the US and then after five years of running my business I realized I positioned myself wrong, attracting the wrong clients. I really had to start off the clean slate and totally threw out the old branding and did a complete new one so I was attracting the right clients from everything. From the look in the field to the product selection to the service. Everything had to be different. Nile:                 That’s a golden nugget there and I know that’s inspiring and that had to be a hard decision to make after five years or so to say okay. I’m doing this wrong. I’ve got to do resent and do it right. Mimika:           Oh, definitely. And I think that’s a lot of the time is -- and for me personally the whole story goes is that I could see the signs but I was -- I didn’t want to see, I didn’t want to deal with it. I was almost like no, no. I’ll get to it later. But the problem is unless we admit defeat when we need to admit defeat we can't move forward and a lot of us as I say, we see failure as a huge major catastrophe but sometimes it’s a good sign that something’s not working and you need to pivot and change. And for me personally I built my brand on -- my photography business on who I was and what I delivered and then when clients just -- I wasn’t getting good referrals because I was delivering late or my -- I wasn’t delivering on the promise because I couldn’t keep up with the way that I had to build the business. I really realized that I had to look within and say what do I stand for, what do I value and how do I want people to treat me? So once I realized I was not going to deal with these people who just want to fight with me on price, who were just these coupon shoppers. I can't extent the effort anymore. And once I started valuing what I have to give the world and realizing that my value is not based on a number. It’s based on how my experience, the products and service that I’m offering and how I want the world to see me. Then I was able to look internally and decide. Okay. How do I want to redo this? And there is -- I mean, a lot of people don’t talk about this. They think oh, yeah. We just changed it. but they’re missing a key element is that it’s almost like a loss and for me I felt like I went through a period of mourning where I realized I have to let this business go, I have to let it die and it was really like I got depressed. For four months I was like why am I such a failure, having these little pity parties and -- where am I going to go and I don’t know what to do next and this isn't working. I’m almost feeling like you can't see the wood for the trees. But once I started to be -- to listen to my own voice and what it is that I had been screaming at me for years to do but I kept ignoring it then I could sort of turn up the volume on what it is that I wanted to do and then started to think okay. How do I want the world to see me and who do I want to service. And then it started to evolve from there. Nile:                 There is so much gold in there for people and -- Jordan, I haven’t talked to you about this but I recently had a steakhouse experience in Fort Worth. Jordan:            That’s right. In Texas. Nile:                 And I think it ties in so well to what we’re talking about here. I think we’ll talk about that in the next segment because we’ve got a lot more to come but we’ll be back in the next segment. Please join us there. Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did. Nile:                 Hey, welcome back. I have enjoyed learning about branding and it’s not all we’ve got to talk about. So man, this is great. But I told you about a steakhouse that I wanted to talk about in the last segment. And because we’re talking about branding and what you -- what would make a steakhouse different? I mean, a steak is a steak, right? You could cook it differently. Maybe you’ve got a great chef, maybe you’ve got great sides. Jordan:            Well, in some areas of the country just having a steakhouse is special but you went to Texas. There’s a steakhouse on every corner in Texas. Nile:                 Sometimes on all four corners. Jordan:            And sometimes on all four corners. Nile:                 But I went to the steakhouse and it wasn’t overly expensive. It certainly wasn’t cheap. But we went in and we were treated like royalty as soon as we walked in the door. Pretty impressive. And the service was outstanding. And the food was outstanding. So we get home and I get a letter -- a note, handwritten, hand addressed from Del Frisco’s, the double eagle steakhouse in Fort Worth, Texas. I believe they deserve a call out here. But so I get this nice note. Is that a nice note? Jordan:            Yeah. Nile:                 And it says simple. It’s says dear mister Nickel and family, thank you for dining with us at Del Frisco’s, Fort Worth. It was a great pleasure and privilege serving you and your lovely family. We look forward to your return visit soon. Wishing you all the best, Amy who was our waitress. Jordan:            Really? Nile:                 So -- and you know, did the manager come around? Yeah, absolutely. The hostess. All of that was perfect. But -- Jordan:            Wow. Nile:                 Is this branding Mimika? Mimika:           Oh, for sure. How did you feel about that experience compared to some other experiences you’ve had at steakhouses? Nile:                 Well, I thought it was a good steakhouse like I said and I thought about the food a couple of times, my wife and I talked about it so they did a good job on that. but when I got this today -- if I’m back in the Fort Worth area I’ll be there and you know who I’ll ask to see? I’ll ask to see Amy. Mimika:           Exactly. So that’s exactly branding done right even though they’re a steakhouse and maybe the steak is the same as the one down the road. How they treated you and how you felt about your experience is completely branding done well. And that’s what’s great about branding. It doesn’t have to be this huge, major makeover where you completely have to spend a ton of money to change the way you do things. Sometimes it’s the little things. And for me in my photography, I like to do hand written notes too and to -- every time someone spends and invests money with me I want to make sure that they know that they feel taken care of and it’s at time that I haven’t been consistent with my brand way -- maybe I see a client three times in a year. The first time it’s all great and the second time I forget to do a handwritten note. Even though the first time was great, if you go -- if you lack that brand consistency you go and shoot yourself in the foot. So you really need to think about who it is you are and what you want to stand for even if it’s just customer service. Or just the pretty packaging or the quality of the food or -- you can pick something and really put your name on it and say this is what -- how we want our brand to stand for. Nile:                 Well, I look at this as a branding differentiator and all told and maybe this cost between the card, the postage and the time investment maybe it cost two dollars. Is that fair? Jordan:            Sounds about right. Mimika:           Yeah. I would say. I mean, a little extra time and look how much more it’s done for their business. Neil:                 Well, yeah. I mean, they get a call out on the show. Okay. Great. I know that that’s why they did. Not. But the thing is doing this with every customer they’ve got they’re building relationships. They’re not a steakhouse. They were -- you come home and you feel like you’re family. and it really was outstanding so I love what you’re talking about in the way you’ve approached branding that we did in segment two so -- to segment three here. there’s a lot of things that we could talk about branding but I know one of the things that you do to build your audience, grow your list, attract clients, even part of your branding I know is video marketing so I am dyeing for you to tell us how you got into video marketing and I know that you do some neat video marketing products. We’ll talk about that in a little bit. But in the meantime I would like to talk about your video marketing. Can you tell us how you got into that? Mimika:           Yeah, sure. Well, I mean, for me, I’ve always loved the visual format and in South Africa before we moved out and before we started our internet business I worked for two years in a TV production company and totally fell in love with the medium. And then when we went to England I had an opportunity to actually be a TV host or a broadcaster for a live morning breakfast magazine show that had no budget so we had no wardrobe and no styling and we would arrive at places like -- it was one day it was an underground cave and then there was a hanging war place and there was a ski place and then there was one that was like a racing car track and literally we would arrive, the director would say here’s the information love. Read up about it and we’re on in 10. And I’d be like okay. So I have to read what the thing is about and  come up and just add lib and entertain and ask questions and interview people so kind of thinking on my feet. It really helped with that. But telling a story with visual format especially video is so -- it goes a long, long, long way because seeing a picture of me is great. It’s better than not seeing a picture of me, right. But seeing me talk and when you can hear my accent and you can see me waving my hands around like a lunatic and just you get to see somebody’s nuances. You connect with people on a much deeper level when you use video. But let me tell you this. I’ve heard several times over. A lot of people get stumped and hold themselves back from putting themselves in front of the camera because they don’t know where to start or they feel totally shy about being on camera. And these are the things I like to adjust or deal within my courses that I do and training people and it doesn’t have to be that hard. You just need to put yourself out there. But why I feel this all ties into branding is that if you were making an emotional connection with somebody other than meeting them in person video is the next best thing because they can see you, they can hear you and that’s part of the tips that we talked about in the beginning is that giving you these three tips that I want to share with you about branding. Number one is to develop your story. If you don’t know who you are and you can't share what you’re about and what you stand for people won't connect with you. so using a story and looking back at your skills and your experiences and using that to find those connections like if somebody else has been through the same position as you they then feel that connection with you and then that’s another notch up the ladder to liking your brand. So using video I really feel is going to totally change the way people do business in terms of getting that connection and really shortening the sales cycle because if you have the  same copy of the copy and you’ve got these sales funnels and I mean, I have them myself set up in Infusion Soft. You want people to read them and you’re basically trying to warm up what you would probably do in four, five emails you could probably do in one video. But being able to be comfortable sharing your story and telling people the parts of your story that relate and would connect with them is vital. And then knowing -- the other tip is knowing who you’re talking to. It’s having your client avatar. If you don’t know who you’re aiming it at -- like before we started recording I asked you about your client avatar for the show because there’s no point in me telling you information that doesn’t relate to your audience. They’re not going to find it useful. So the same thing with any author and speaker and coach. If you’re wanting to position yourself and you want people to connect with you you need to be able to share your story and talk to one person. Like this is Susie, she’s 30 to 45, she has kids in school, she drives an Audi, she likes to -- goes to yoga on a Friday. I mean, all those little particular things. You are describing a person and that’s how you develop your avatar. And then thirdly the other tip is once you know who you are, who your audience is then you can use strategies. Because going back to what we said in segment one was people ask me well, my Facebook marketing isn't working or Google Ads isn't working. And I always say that’s the wrong question. Once we’ve figured out and reverse engineered your story followed by your avatar, then we can figure out your strategy of where you want to be and then tactics and how you measure those tactics fall into place so it’s definitely -- there is an art and a science to it. Nile:                 I have to go back and let Susie know that I really didn’t tell her everything about you Susie. Honest. I didn’t. Just wanted Susie to know that. No. I couldn’t agree more and I think those tips are invaluable and I know that you’ve got so much more but time is not always on our side as we talk about this. What I’d like to do is I know that you’ve got some really great video products and courses and tips and information that you share. Tell us a little bit about what you have and where people could find it. And of course, everybody knows that listens to the social media business hour on a regular basis, we have all these tips for you on the social media business hour page on show notes. This is episode 122. Makes it easy for you so if you’re running, you’re working out or whatever don’t worry about stopping and grabbing a pencil. We have all the links for you. But share some of that information if you would. Mimika:           Sure. Well, I like to keep things simple so any social media platform is my name Mimika Cooney but where you want to get the good stuff is on my website so you go to mimikacooney.com and you will be able to access -- I have a free video series which is "Three Tips of Building your Business Brand so really we sort of fast tracked through the tips but I go into it in more detail and you can grab that at MimikaCooney.com and then once you’re on my email list I like to share a lot of good stuff. As we mentioned earlier I also have my own video podcast where I interview other people who then help with the whole branding and marketing strategies. And then the course that I’m known for is Confident video so you go to ConfidentVideo.com you can get another three free videos that will help give you some really actionable tips for you to get started with video because it doesn’t have to be that hard. We cover everything from lighting to sound to performance, how to speak nicely on camera, how to get your -- put your -- or edit your videos and even social media ideas for using video for like Facebook. And my latest favorite thing is Periscope. Are you on Periscope Nile and Jordan? Nile:                 Absolutely. Absolutely positively. As a matter a fact we haven’t Periscoped our show in a while or scoped our show to use the terminology. Jordan:            The slang. Nile:                 The slang. Mimika:           Scope you out. Nile:                 Yeah. We haven’t scoped in a while but we typically scope the show. Mimika:           Well, there you go so people can get a little bit of the behind the scenes skin on what you’re doing, right? Nile:                 Absolutely. Yeah. The biggest channels we had -- but for those that don’t know it’s mobile platform based so you’ve got to be a mobile platform. The biggest challenge that we had is making sure that we’ve got all the sides of the audio on the scope because we’re not using monitors in the room here. We’re on headsets and so that made it a little bit more difficult to do that but after a while we figured it out and it worked out fine. Mimika:           Oh, good. Well, I’ll definitely be checking you out on Periscope so if anyone wants to see -- I’ve been challenging myself to do it more often. I’ve been doing it once a week but I definitely -- I’m stepping it up now but I’d love to be able to cover things that I like to talk about and in actual fact the one I did yesterday was -- it’s on my blog. I figured out how to actually reuse the content and save it on my blog. Nile:                 Oh, yeah. Mimika:           And using cash.me which is a great little app and I went through all the takes so if you want to know like what -- ideas for sound and making yourself look good and I’m going to be covering a lot of that in the scope. So yeah. Definitely check me out there. Nile:                 They’ll definitely want to check you out because there’s a lot of good information you could find that way. I would love to talk more and as a matter of fact I think that -- Jordan, I don’t know if you agree with me. We’ve got to have Mimika back. Jordan :           Oh, absolutely. Nile:                 One is she’s fun. Two, she’s beautiful but not everybody gets to see that. But three, and probably most importantly she’s got great information. Jordan:            Oh, yeah. Great golden nuggets. Mimika:           Oh, I’d be delighted to. We’ve got loads we can talk about darling. Nile:                 Oh, absolutely. I want to thank you Mimika for joining us on the social media business hour and to you, our listener, I want to thank you as well. You make this show. Hopefully you learned a few ideas or concepts. Maybe you were just reminded of a few things you already know but you haven’t been doing to improve or grow your business. Our desire is that you take just one of the things that you learned or were reminded of today and you apply it to your business this week. We know that a small change could make a big difference. I’m committed to bringing you at least one new idea each week. I know today -- I don’t know about you Jordan but I got about four or five new ideas. Jordan:            Absolutely. Nile:                 And all I have to do is take one of those. Just one small change and implement it and find out what a big difference it will make for my business this week. Your business as well. So thank you for joining us. Till next week, this is Nile Nickel. Now, go make it happen. Woman:          Social media business hour is powered by linkedinfocus.com. For show notes, updates and to pick up the latest tips and tricks head over to socialmediabusinesshour.com. Until next time. Thanks for listening. [/content_toggle]

 

Weblinks:

Website: www.mimikacooney.com Facebook Handle: www.facebook.com/mimikacooney Twitter Handle: @mimikacooney   

Direct download: SMBH_122_-_Mimika_Cooney_-_Final.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

The birth of social media massively affected the way online marketing works nowadays.

Our special guest, “One-Click Lindsey” shares with us her “Perfect Traffic Strategy”, what it takes to convert site visitors to customers And…
- The Single Greatest Benefit Of Having A Solid Social Media Campaign
- The Difference Between Your Website And Your Landing Page?
-How To Convert Site Visitors From Skeptical Strangers To Great Leads
- How To Make A “Rock-Star” Landing Page
- 5 Proven Tactics To Generate A Never Ending Cycle Of High Quality Traffic And Leads

 

 

One-Click Lindsey is a web strategy expert working with small business owners to help them utilize the web to produce more website traffic and leads. Lindsey is the founder and CEO TrafficAndLeads.com that specializes in driving traffic, getting leads and the art of nurturing leads to become lifelong clients. One-Click Lindsey is an expert in landing pages, email sequences, search engine ranking, newsletters, analytics, social media, pay-per-click ads, websites, blogging the list goes on. She knows how to utilize the myriad of online marketing options to generate more traffic and leads which produced more paying clients.

Social Media:  The Cornerstone Of The BEST Type Of Traffic And Leads

Lindsey definitely agrees with the fact that the birth of social media massively affects the way online marketing works nowadays. She mentioned that it is now considered the cornerstone of effective marketing. Unlike any other marketing method like, SEO (search engine optimization) where you have to wait three to five months to see the results, social media will give you the quickest way to generate high quality traffic, where leads can be produced and results are often gained effortlessly and sometimes, you can even get results in real time.

The Single Greatest Benefit Of Having A Solid Social Media Campaign

If you have a great social media campaign, then you can drive leads from your social media channels directly to your landing page and easily get people on your list.

The Perfect Traffic

Social media is a great starting point in building relationships and targeting people through the area of interests that you’re after. Lindsey says in this terrific interview, that your main objective is to catch your target's interest and attention.  Once your targets are hooked, that is the best time for you to start marketing your products and services. When your audience is hooked on something they are interested in, they will almost always “buy in” to some degree - this is where your opportunity is….and that is what she calls “the perfect traffic”.

Is Your Website The Same As Your Landing Page? If You Answered Yes, One Click Lindsey Says, Think Again.

Another great tip from Lindsey:

You have to always be mindful as an entrepreneur that your website MUST always be different from your landing page.

What Is The Difference Between A Website And A Landing Page?

A website is where people can visit and find out about you and your company. It should showcase your past, present and forthcoming excellent projects. It should have a myriad of subpages and each subpage must have a specific goal. On the other hand, a landing page can look identical to your website. The difference is, it is focused on a very specific topic. It is sometimes known as a "lead capture page" or a "lander". The landing page is usually the extension of your advertisement, search result or direct link. Lindsey says, that landing pages are also often linked from social media, email or SEO campaigns, all to enhance the effectiveness of your advertisement or the product that you’re selling on that landing page.

How Is Your Landing Page Performing?

The main goal of your landing page is to convert site visitors into sales or at least great leads, it should also include a method for the visitor to get into  contact with you. A great way to execute this, is by having a subscribe button or a contact form where your visitors can share their information.

**WARNING** Never make your subscription page complicated.

Asking for your visitors to share their Email address and Name is already enough.

How To Make A Rock-Star Landing Page

Below are Lindsey’s proven strategies for making your Landing page rock-star quality:

  • Make your Headline beautiful, big and bold
    Address IMMEDIATELY HOW you can help them and WHY they need to subscribe and buy your product.
  • Invest in making a video
     In making the video, sell the idea and the benefits of your product. Be a Superhero! What you offer is going to help your customers SO much, they’ll think you’re a Superhero for it.
  • Create a bulleted list
    If you don’t feel like doing a video then you want to do a nice bulleted list of how your product can help them.
  • Create an enticing and beautiful form
    Convenience is the key here, always make it a “one-click” process.

Tip Directly From Lindsey: Your form should only ask for minimal information. Focus just on these three items- first name, email address, submit button. Add a picture of your free offer in return for their email address – Always remember, FREE items are always up for grab.

  • Make your landing page mobile friendly
    Always remember that almost everyone now has a smartphone. If your site is not mobile friendly and optimized then they will not spend time on your website.

How Do You Effectively Generate High Quality Web Traffic and Leads?

Lindsey knows that generating traffic and leads from the internet is very important and knowing HOW to create this traffic and leads are two different things. She mentioned that though it is challenging, there are virtually limitless amounts of resources and techniques available to make big things happen for you. As a matter of fact, Lindsey reminds us on this interview that if you want absolutely the highest quality web traffic and leads, then you need to focus on only one main thing, and that is to be transparent and keep your customers happy...and not forcing them to through the waters of online marketing options.  

Lindsey’s Top 5 Proven Tactics To Generate A Never Ending Cycle Of High Quality Traffic And Leads

Lindsey has 5 proven tactics to generate a never ending cycle of new faces for your small business. If you start implementing these in your business now, you’ll launch yourself ahead of your competition.

  1. Invest In Having A Killer Website

Your main website is the central part of all your online activities. It is absolutely essential that your website is super easy to understand, crystal clear and straightforward.   Invest in making your website’s design beautiful. Your website should also be responsive and interactive.

  1. Have A Great Marketing Plan That Will Result In Generating Traffic

What good is a website without traffic? Lindsey advises, after you have setup an awesome-killer website, you now need to focus on marketing your website. The best way to do this is by utilizing the social media channels and search engine optimization. This will funnel huge amounts of traffic to your site.

  1. Catch Your Target Audience’s Attention

Now this is where you need to create a targeted landing page. Having a landing page will not just increase your sales conversion rate, it will also give your visitors precisely what they are looking for.  

  1. Email Marketing Is Not Dead

Lindsey tells us that “Email marketing is NOT dead”. It is actually the powerhouse for generating leads online - if used wisely.  Her best piece of advice? Make it simple. Don’t ask for a lot of information. Their email address is the only information that you REALLY need. Your goal should be for your targeted audience to deeply desire your irresistible offer and subscribe to your mailing list with just “one-click”.

  1. Build A Long Lasting Relationship

Let’s face it, most of our website visitors are not really ready to purchase just yet. Therefore, Lindsey gives us another great piece of advice: Nurture your leads through a “Know, Like and Trust autopilot email sequence”. This will ensure that when they are ready to spend and subscribe, it will be with you. [content_toggle style="1" label="Click%20Here%20To%20Read%20The%20Full%20Transcript%20Of%20The%20Show" hide_label="Hide"] Lindsay:           This is one click Lindsey and I’m social media business hour with Nile and Jordan and today you’re going to learn how to leverage social media and generate more traffic and leads for your small business. Woman:          In business and know the way forward most include social media. Perhaps you find it a bit confusing. Even frustrating. Well, you have no idea how to make it work for your business. Fear not. We interview some of the best social media experts in business who will share their experiences, ideas and knowledge. Plus offer tips and tricks to make using social media a breeze. Leverage the power of social media and grow your business now. Welcome to social media business hour with your host Nile Nickel. Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did. Nile:                 Hey, welcome back and we’ve got one click Lindsay on tonight Jordan. Jordan:            One click Lindsay. Nile:                 Isn't that a name? Lindsay:           That’s right. That’s right. Jordan:            I like that. Lindsay:           Thank you. Nile:                 I have to ask Lindsay, where did you get that name? Lindsay:           Well, essentially I was a web developer and there’s a difference between a website that just kind of sits there and a website that actually generates traffic and leads for your small business which is what we all need. And so I had a client of mine and we were constantly working on this landing page and for every conversation that I was having with them I was constantly referring to we have to get them to click that button, we have to get them to click. And eventually we got that landing page to work really well and he came back to me and said you’re one click Lindsay. You got them to click the big subscribe now button so from then on I thought it was kind of catchy and that’s really what everyone’s goal should be is to get people to make that one click and actually get enough people to your website to make that click so it kind of -- that’s what I’m going with. Jordan:            That’s awesome. Nile:                 I have to say I think that’s bold. Lindsay:           Thank you. Bold. Nile:                 Because I don’t know that I can be that bold. Can you imagine one click Nile? Lindsay:           Yes, I can. But you can't steal it. Can we come up with something else? No. I’m going to let you keep one click. Trust me. Jordan:            We could call you Linked In Nickel. How’s that? Lindsay:           Yeah. That’s cute. Nile:                 Linked In Nickel. Jordan:            Linked In Nickel. Nile:                 Well, as you probably gathered one click Lindsay is a web strategy expert. She works with small business owners to help them utilize the web, to produce -- that’s key. To produce. You like that Jordan? Jordan:            I do. It sounds much better than branding or getting your image out there. No. produce. Nile:                 Yeah. Produce more website traffic and leads because traffic in of itself isn't important unless you get leads from it so she’s got those married together. I love that Lindsay. And she’s -- Lindsay:           Yeah. I mean, I could send a bunch of spammers to your website but that really wouldn’t help you get phone calls now would it? Nile:                 No. That just messes up everything for the people that really want to get on there so we don’t like traffic without leads. Lindsay:           That’s right. Nile:                 Traffic with leads, great thing. And Lindsay’s a founder and CEO of trafficandleads.com Bit catchy, don’t you think? Jordan:            I think so too. Nile:                 Goes with one click Lindsay. I mean, she’s all about that. Lindsay:           I like you guys. I like you guys a lot. Nile:                 Well, she specializes in driving traffic, getting leads and the -- I love this. The art of nurturing leads to become lifelong clients. Lindsay:           Which all starts with social media by the way. Nile:                 Oh, I like it. But I like the art of nurturing. I’ve got this gourmet one click traffic and leads strategy in my head now. Lindsay:           Well, I guess I can sign off for the day. No, I’m kidding. Nile:                 And one click Lindsay is an expert in landing pages, email sequences, search engine ranking, newsletters, analytics, social media, pay per click ads, websites, blogging and the list goes on and on and on and on. I bet you like to talk a lot too, don’t you Lindsay? Lindsay:           I do but I’ve been doing this for a very long time and there’s so many myths and everyone gets so confused and overwhelmed that I do tend to know a lot about what’s going on out there. Nile:                 Well, one thing that I know about one click Lindsay, she knows how to utilize the myriad of online marketing options to get what we all want and that is not traffic but traffic with leads and produce more paying clients. That is -- I mean, that’s what you want at the end of the day. Jordan:            That’s solid. Nile:                 I think we’re done here. Jordan:            Yeah. Lindsay:           Enjoy. Nile:                 Hey, great show today. Jordan:            Lindsay has left the building. Nile:                 Well, I know that you talked about how social media is really the corner stone to this process so tease us with that. Tell us a little bit about it. Lindsay:           I will. I will definitely call it the cornerstone and the reason why I like social media so much and the birth of social media recently is because it’s the quickest way to generate that high quality traffic that actually produces leads where if you were to run a search engine optimization campaign, that can take three, four, five months. Where if you do a good social media campaign you can drive those leads from your social media channels to a very nice landing page and get people on your list. So social media’s great because you can start building those relationships, you can target the people in the area with the interests that you’re after and really target market them to get that very perfect traffic to come to your website. Nile:                 As we’re talking about this here I figure that we have a problem Jordan. Jordan:            Uh-oh. Nile:                 Well, we probably need to understand what a landing page is. We’re talking about websites and landing pages on it so -- Jordan:            You mean, it’s not a website? Nile:                 Lindsay, we need your help. We need your help. Lindsay:           Nile and Jordan, you have so much -- I’m kidding. Okay. Well, so there is a difference between your website, your like main website where people go to find out about you and your company and all of your wonderful projects and everything that you’ve ever done. That is what we’re going to call just like your regular corporate website. Well, a corporate website should have a myriad of subpages and these pages should all have very specific goals to them. So for example, let’s take a chiropractor. I have a chiropractor client. He has a corporate website all about mister chiropractor but we also created a very specific landing page for those experiencing back pain only. So I have this website. It’s about back pain. If I am a person with back pain and I go to this website I can see he is the man for me because this website has a guy grabbing his back and that’s exactly how I feel and it has a whole bunch of pain points about how much that hurts your life because you have back pain and how this guy is going to fix it and all these testimonials about everybody’s back pain that mister chiropractor has ever fixed and so I know he is the guy for me. So I am going to have more of a likelihood to actually click that button, right. So that is the difference between a main website and a landing page. A landing page is about a very specific topic. It’s going to be kind of duplicated a lot on your website. Now, from your website you’re not going to be able to get to all these landing pages. They’re just kind of hanging out there ready for an SEO campaign or a very dedicated social media campaign to drive those individuals with back pain to this landing page to let them know that you are the man for them. Nile:                 So if I’m mister chiropractor I probably have people with back pain and neck pain and foot pain and that are pain in the -- oh, that’s another one. Hold on. But what you’re saying is you’re going to have different landing pages for each one of those little niches that the chiropractor may deal with? Lindsay:           Yes. And don’t get overwhelmed by it because they’re pretty much a carbon copy of each other except you’re going to change those key words or those key pain points because essentially when people -- if you were to drive people to just a generic website they’re going to kind of look all over and be like, oh I don’t know if this guy really does back pain but you kind of want to make it look like you’re a specialist. The other thing about a landing page is you don’t want it to have a menu. You don’t want them to be like my two year old and kind of like wanting to click around. You want -- this is the information, I want you to fill out this form and schedule an appointment, get on my list, whatever and go from there. That’s why lead pages is so popular. We’ve probably all heard of lead pages and they’re very good at this and if you ever make a lead page you’ll notice that it has nothing really to do with your website but it’s basically a video or a bold list of items and a nice form and a big red button. And that is a landing page and they work and that’s why lead pages are so popular and work so well. Jordan:            Yeah. I think that’s a really good point Lindsay. We actually use lead pages as one of the tools that we use and just to give everyone an idea of what it is give lead pages a little bit of free exposure here. When we build our websites and our landing pages we have a myriad of ways that we can do that. We can do that with Word Press, we can do it with Drupal. Lead pages really just specializes in kind of a drag and drop -- you see what you get, no coding involved, super easy way of just building your landing page and man, it’s really a dream. It’s a nice, nice website. Nile:                 So I’m -- I need help here. I need clarification. Jordan:            Okay. Nile:                 So we’re talking about the function of lead pages and what they are but now we also just switched in your conversation and question Jordan to lead pages, the company. Jordan:            Okay. Nile:                 There’s a difference there. Jordan:            Yeah. That’s true. Nile:                 Do you use lead pages, the company to create the lead pages on your website or is that something you do on your website yourself? Lindsay:           No, no, no, no. I was totally talking about lead pages, the company. Jordan:            I knew it. I knew it. Senile? Nile:                 I am see Nile. What are you talking about? Okay. Good. We’re talking about lead pages, the company. Our folks like Tim Page and Bob and those beloved that we’re talking about lead pages, the company. Jordan:            Yeah. Nile:                 So Lindsay. Lindsay:           Yeah. Nile:                 Tell us more about that. Lindsay:           About utilizing lead pages, the company? Nile:                 The lead pages, the company. Jordan:            The tool. Nile:                 We’re now doing an advertisement for lead pages even though they didn’t know it. Lindsay:           I know. But I mean, it’s a super useful tool and they were very revolutionary because -- in coming up with that because it’s such an important tool for small business owners. Yeah, you can get a Word Press plugin to create the lead pages and all of that but you do have to have a bit of HTML and CSS hand to be able to do those and make them look decent. So lead pages came out, there’s these beautiful templates, they’re proven to word so it’s an excellent option for any small business owner to create these exact lead pages that I’m talking about. Nile:                 Now, Jordan I understand that on one of our lead page processes that are going on right now you found a recent problem. Jordan:            Oh, yeah. Yeah. We’ve been using the lead pages here for a while and now we’ve got a Facebook can. Nile:                 A Facebook can? I’m glad that you have problems like I do every so often. Jordan:            That’s right. By the end of the show I’ll be spot on. We’re running a Facebook campaign to a lead pages page that is hosted by lead pages but as far as anyone is concerned, it’s our page and on that page we can open it up for Facebook comments. So we’ve got a bunch of Facebook comments from our Facebook ad showing up on our lead pages page. If you follow me. Nile:                 I’m confused already but I think I’m there. Jordan:            So the end result is a new prospect gets to our lead pages page, they see our offer and then they see all of these great comments that people have left from Facebook. Oh, wow. This is great stuff, thanks so much. Nile:                 That sounds super. Jordan:            Yeah, absolutely. Lindsay:           Yeah. Social proof. It’s powerful. Jordan:            Yeah. With tiny little exception. Nile:                 Oh, here it comes. Jordan:            A lot of those people may be fake profiles but a lot of those people are leaving spam in our comments as well. So they’re saying here, check this fitness thing out. Nile:                 Oh, so we just need to delete those. Jordan:            Yeah. I would love to just delete those but so far it looks like lead pages only allows me to turn on or off the whole section of comments. I can't get rid of any particular comment through lead pages. I think. I’m about 80 percent sure at this point that I cannot. Nile:                 You know what? We have an expert here. We have one click Lindsay. Lindsay:           Yeah. One click Lindsay -- see, I don’t use -- I don’t personally use lead pages for my company. I help clients with it a lot but I actually -- I kind of specialize in making custom lead pages so I have not run into that problem so I can't help you. Jordan:            It’s all my problem. Lindsay:           I’m sorry. Shoot. Jordan:            That’s alright. Lindsay:           But it doesn’t sound like a great problem unfortunately. Nile:                 Can you pass me the tissue? Lindsay:           It’s time to hang up now. Nile:                 Well listen, we’ve about wrapped up our time in our first segment today so we will be jumping out to our next segment and we ask that you just join us there. We’ll be right back. Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did. Nile:                 So now we’ve talked about lead pages and how we’re going to use social media and all of that good stuff and so I’m jazzed and I’m excited. Now Lindsay, I’ve got people going to my lead pages and they like what they see and they’re taking some action. What typically do you get them to do? Lindsay:           Well, the easiest thing for them to do is subscribe to your list and return for an awesome, super mega irresistible offer that you’re giving them like a pdf or a free video series. That’s the easiest thing to do because it’s very difficult to convince people to call you or to fill out a boring contact us form or do something for you without you doing something back for them. let me press this -- that whole sentence by social media is a super awesome way to drive people to your lead pages and I’m sure -- and I know you’ve covered this on your show before but it’s worth repeating as Facebook owns all of your fans, Facebook owns all of that, it could change at any moment so we want to try to grab all those fans and all those people that we worked so hard to nurture through social media and get them on an email list where we can actually market to them and we own those names. So that’s the whole point is if you can get people to make that one click and get on your list then you can actually like start nurturing them and selling to them. Jordan:            That’s a really good point and I’d like to just point out one thing real quick and this is just something that just sticks in my -- I know it bothers you Nile but Facebook’s so arbitrary about how they do things that one day we’re going to go to try to communicate with our fans and Facebook’s going to say no. we’re not going to let you do that. Or now we don’t like that kind of communication and it could be something that we thing is relatively harmless. Nile:                 No. I totally agree and that’s -- unfortunately it’s not our sandbox, we don’t get to make the rules. If we want to play in the sandbox, the sandbox owner in this case Facebook gets to make the rules and we could either play in the sandbox or not. Jordan:            Yeah. I like what you’re saying Lindsay. Facebook’s a great place to make friends but to keep them you want to get them on your list. Lindsay:           Yeah. I mean, and what you’re saying is not untrue. I have literally had a client who logged into their page. They had -- let’s see how much. Did they have 25000 fans. And they could not login because Facebook kind of deactivated their account. We had spent a fair amount on running ads for them and it was because they had put some like weight loss stuff on their fan page or running some ads for that in the wrong way so Facebook just -- one morning they couldn’t login which -- let me give your fans a little -- or your listeners a little hint. Is to make someone else also an admin of your page so if your personal account gets shut down someone else can manage that page as well. Nile:                 Yeah. we always use -- and I know -- we talk about all the time that you want to do that not only on Facebook but literally all of the social media platforms that you have pages or groups or things like that set up on. Lindsay:           Yeah. Nile:                 You absolutely positively want to do that so yeah. I agree. Or it could be something as minor and I say as minor. It’s not necessarily minor when it happens to you but your account gets hacked and now your account’s hacked and they’ve got to shut your account down for a period of time. Sometimes you don’t get the same account back. And like you said Lindsay, you sort of passed over that really quickly but you spend a lot of money getting that built and it’s like sorry about that. Lindsay:           Yeah. And they don’t have to apologize. Jordan:            Oh, no. yeah. I was going to say -- Lindsay:           It’s their cross form. They can do whatever they want. Jordan:            I’ve never heard them apologize to anybody. Lindsay:           No. Nile:                 I’m apologizing for them. Jordan:            Oh, okay. Nile:                 But that’s what they say. Sorry about that. It doesn’t matter. It’s done. Jordan:            That’s right. I think the listeners are getting the impression that we have a love hate relationship with Facebook and that’s -- Nile:                 Well, that would be true. Jordan:            I was going to say it’s not inaccurate. Nile:                 Yeah. That would be true. Lindsay:           Yeah. I mean, everybody screamed and hollered when everybody’s reach dropped earlier last year but again you’re kind of using their platform so you can pay a few dollars a day to boost your posts so your fans can see it, right. And they’re actually kind of like doing you -- and I’m going off on another tangent but they’re doing us a favor because your fans don’t want to see a bunch of ads anyway. Otherwise they’ll never come back to Facebook. Nile:                 Yeah. It’s a balancing act and I get the balancing act but I also get that if they want to take your money for ads that -- yeah. so anyway, we’ll leave that alone because now we’ve just become -- we’re crying in our beer and the big problem is I don’t have a beer right now so that’s not going to work. Lindsay:           And this is an evening show. What a crock. Nile:                 Great. Well, normally I drink the bourbon on the evening show. I don’t even have my bourbon here tonight. What’s up with that? Jordan:            So you’ve got 99 problems and having no bourbon is one of them. Nile:                 Yeah. That’s the big one. Big one. So  help us out here. Can you give us an idea of -- or a description -- maybe some of the qualities of a good landing page? Lindsay:           Sure. Absolutely. There’s a few main components to a landing page. First one is a beautiful, big, bold headline that basically addresses their pain point. Back to the chiropractor example. It’s going to say having back pain? I can solve that. Big, bold. Okay? Typically left hand side you’re going to have a video which -- you had a lovely guest on talking about the importance of video but nobody ever wants to do video but have a video of you saying how you can cure back pain and how you’re the super hero of all back pain problems. If you don’t feel like doing video then you want to do a nice bulleted list of how you can address these back pain issues. On the right hand side you’re going to have this beautiful form that I was talking about asking for very minimal information. First name, email, submit. And a picture of your free offer or whatever you’re going to give them in return for their email address. Bellow that, you’re going to want to have this wonderful social proof. You guys were talking about that with that Facebook plugin. And that is about all there is to a landing page. Obviously, it needs to look super nice, it needs to look really great on mobile and it needs to have some nice imagery to make the person feel like you can solve their problem. Jordan:            That’s great and not to beat a great horse but you covered an awful lot very quickly and it’s all such good, good information. Let’s just take a half a step back here. When you’re writing a headline and you’re off -- you’re creating your irresistible free offer, we don’t want to go milli-mouth on it, we don’t want to just go yeah. We can probably do this for you. No. we want to make it bold, right. Lindsay:           Yes. Bold. You are the super hero, you are the man of their back pain dreams and the five bullet points as to why and what you can fix. Jordan:            That’s great. And with every one of those things and correct me if I’m wrong here. With every one of those things we just simply see a boost in conversions, right. Lindsay:           Right. Jordan:            So if you do one thing you’re going to get a certain number of conversions meaning people who are interested and sign up. and if you keep on kicking it up a notch you’re just going to continue to increase those conversions and from what I’m to understand video really is the best so it does take the longest to kind of map it out and really think through a good video but that’s really important, isn't it? Lindsay:           Video is super duper important and that’s why you guys dedicated one of your last episodes to it but I would say even though I tell clients that’s going to convert more people, seriously though, it’s not a big deal if you’ve got your cell phone, take a nice 30 second video of yourself. Like five percent of my clients will ever do it. And it’s a pain but it totally converts. Jordan:            So in other words, if 95 percent of the people are not doing it and you’re one of the five percent who is you get to stand out. Lindsay:           That’s right. You’ll make the most money, you’ll get the most leads, you’ll get the most options. It’s true. Jordan:            You know it helps if you un-mute yourself when you want to go talking to us. Just an idea. Lindsay:           Unless we’re having connection problems. Nile:                 I was. I was having problems connecting with my mic. See, that’s because somebody -- I complain so much about not having the bourbon. I know how bourbon sounds. This is a good thing. This is an adult show. It is the -- Lindsay:           This is officially the best podcast I’ve ever been on. Nile:                 Hey, we like to hear that. One of the things that we glossed over very quickly too was mobile and how critically important mobile is today and so many people don’t think about that. Do you have clients that you have to really work through that process with to explain the importance? Lindsay:           Earlier this year I did and obviously as a web designer you’re kind of on the up and front. Like you know what’s coming so maybe two or three years ago you’re like telling people your website’s got to be mobile friendly. Please, please, please. And like nobody will do it but then at the beginning of the year when I finally had Google backing me meaning on April 15th of this year Google came out and said we’re going to start considering mobile friendliness in who we rank. So that actually pushed the majority of my clients over the edge for them to be like oh, so yeah. Mobile is friendly. But especially for like Facebook ads and social media, people are constantly checking social on their phone. So it’s so important that when they’re redirected from an ad or anything at all even if they want to just -- if you put a post and they want to like follow your blog post to your website that they see a nice mobile friendly version of it because then they’re just like turned away. Most of my clients are well over 50 percent of all their website traffic happen on a mobile device so you cannot ignore it. You cannot ignore it. Jordan:            So that to me, right off the top of my head sounds like there are two major things to consider, right. One is technology. You’ve got to make sure that whatever you’re using, whatever platform you’re using supports mobile, right. Lindsay:           Right. Jordan:            So like lead pages is automatically mobile friendly. There are Word Press themes out there that are automatically Word Press friendly. They call it responsive, right. Lindsay:           Yes. Jordan:            So if you see something says responsive, that’s mobile friendly. But the other thing is kind of the bane of my existence as of recently and that’s short form copy. Nile:                 I was worried for a minute it was going to be me. Okay. Good. It’s short form copy. Jordan:            That’s right. The bane of my existence, Nile Nickel. That’s right. Nile:                 I'm here. Jordan:            The booze hound, bourbon drinking Nile Nickel. Nile:                 Hey, I want Bullet as my sponsor. But let’s get back to short form copy. Jordan:            Let’s hurry and get that shout out going. Yeah. So short form copy. You can't have a super long page anymore, can you? Lindsay:           No, you cannot. No. especially on a mobile device and I know you had a copywriter on a previous episode. Those words, small amount to convince people to do it. Not only because it’s on a mobile and people don’t want to scroll. People love micro content. That’s why Twitter is so popular. You’ve got to keep it short and to the point and do that one, two punch and get them on your list. Then you can kind of like talk their ear off a bit. Nile:                 She’s called one click Lindsay but she’s been clicking our podcast. She’s been listening some. Lindsay:           Oh, I have. Nile:                 So one click Lindsay -- Lindsay:           It’s a great podcast. What can I say? Nile:                 One click Lindsay’s given us a number of clicks. So let me ask a question because we’ve only got a few minutes left in our segment here. So you’ve listened to a few of our segments so what do you think of our different news, different views or as my wife calls it our weird ass news segment. Lindsay:           I really, really like it. I think -- it’s one of my favorites. It’s what keeps me remembering your podcast so keep it up. Nile:                 Oh, wow. Listen to that. Jordan:            Yeah. You just keep fishing Nile. You just keep fishing. Lindsay:           But then again I am one click Lindsay so I mean, as far as trying to stand out and stuff I totally support that. Nile:                 Yeah. We just can't get better than that. That’s perfect. Actually we tried to -- Lindsay:           So does your wife like it? Is that what she’s trying to say? Nile:                 She does like it. She just doesn’t like the name different news, different views. Of course, we did officially just a couple of episodes ago, officially renamed it weird ass news. Lindsay:           I heard that. Nile:                 That was a good story to rename it on, wasn’t it? Lindsay:           Yeah, it was awesome. Nile:                 People will have to go back and listen to that. Well listen, we’ve exhausted this segment. We know that we’ve got a lot coming up. Listen to us in segment three. Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did. Nile:                 And Jordan this has been a power packed series. Jordan:            Yes. Lots of golden nuggets. Nile:                 And we’re in the third segment of the series. We’ve got one click Lindsay. Love the name. Lindsay:           Thank you. Nile:                 I just get excited about that. That is such a big, bold name. Lindsay:           Well, you’re going to remember it, right? Like you’re not going to remember my real name which is Lindsay boring Anderson, right? One click Lindsay. And by the way, you can get to my website by spelling Lindsay in any myriad of ways your heart’s desire because I bought every domain name. Jordan:            That’s great. Nile:                 Smart tactic. Jordan:            That is smart. Nile:                 Smart tactic. No, I won't forget one click Lindsay and there’s one thing that I guarantee you has never went with your name and that is boring. I guarantee you. In fact, in your high school yearbook, what was the little subtitle under your name? Lindsay:           Most boring. No, I'm kidding. Nile:                 You just had to try to throw that in, didn’t you. Jordan:            Most likely to bore. Lindsay:           I don’t think I had one. Nile:                 Miss congeniality. Lindsay:           I’m sure that’s what it was. I’m sure that’s what it was. Nile:                 It had to be. Absolutely. So we’ve talked a lot about how to convert or how to get traffic, how to convert that traffic into leads, some social media strategies and tactics to do that. One of the things that I’m really interested in and this is not scripted, not prompted and I can't wait to hear the answer and that is -- Lindsay:           Oh, I hope it’s another question I can't answer. That’s going to be awesome. Nile:                 Okay. Good, good, good, good. Well, we’ll see. Here, I’ll give you some thinking time. But I haven’t asked you the question yet. So the question is this. What do you think is the most difficult obstacle that you fight on a regular basis getting those conversions? See? I need to give the pause. Jordan:            Get some Jeopardy music going. Lindsay:           It would definitely be -- if you want something super specific it’s going to be the wording or that irresistible offer. You need to make that something that the user doesn’t feel like they can just go Google the answer for. You need to make it extremely appealing. I’ve gone through different versions of those irresistible offers with clients until we finally had a winner. You can't just stick something up there like -- I couldn’t just stick one up like 10 places you need to list your website. No one’s going to opt into that. You have to make it special, you have to make it something super unique that they’re actually going to give you their email address for. Nile:                 I think that’s a great golden nugget. Jordan:            That is a great golden nugget. Lindsay:           And you have to put your time into it. Let me add one more thing. Nile:                 Absolutely. Lindsay:           You have to put your time into it and please know -- I’ve had clients just kind of throw -- be like oh, here is my irresistible offer. Maybe the first chapter of my book or what not. But you have to remember this irresistible offer is like the first piece of service or of your representation that they’re going to get from you so you need to pour a bit of heart and soul into that because that’s their initial impression. Don’t just get their email address and send them some piece of garbage. Like make it thought out so that it -- use it as a sales tool. Don’t just use it as ha-ha, I got your email address. See you later suckers. Nile:                 See? I’m telling you. Boring does not go with one click Lindsay. Just doesn’t happen. Jordan:            Congratulations. You’ve just been bait and switched. Lindsay:           Yeah. You know what I’m saying boys. You do. Nile:                 I’m enjoying this because now we’re boys. I get bourbon, get called boy. We’re doing good. I love it, love it, love it. So you mentioned another thing on there too besides not having this boring offer if you will or your irresistible content. You mentioned copy as another critical thing. So I suspect that you probably go through revisions on both of those. Lindsay:           Yes. Now I’m going to get into the part that stresses everybody out which is AB test thing. Quite literally you can change a word, change a color of a button, add an image with an arrow pointing and it can increase your conversion rates. But I get a lot of people stressed out about that because you don’t even know where to start. It’s like okay. Everything I’m going to put on here is garbage because I can just make it all better. Just -- you’ve got to start with something and then you’re going to want to -- maybe you see something that catches your eye then go and reword your button. Maybe a certain button on a landing page you visit caught your eye so go try that. Try it for a few days and see if it improves. If you talk to someone about AB testing it can be super overwhelming. I get overwhelmed and I’m in the business. But just know it’s just like life and as a person you can always constantly improve but be happy getting what you’re getting and just kind of test it out. Don’t get overwhelmed by it. But yes. One piece of copy can increase your conversion rates by a certain percentage which sucks. Nile:                 I think we should call it BA testing anyway. Lindsay:           Yeah. Nile:                 Well, there’s a reason for that. You see, because we’re always trying to improve our grade so if we start out with a B we’re trying to get an A. Lindsay:           That’s very true. Nile:                 So everybody says AB testing. I think it should be BA testing. Just personally. Lindsay:           You know what? Let’s go ahead. Let’s start an internet marketing movement and start that way and we will know it started on the social media business hour. Nile:                 It started right here. Lindsay:           On this evening. Yes. Nile:                 You heard it here the first. It was bourbon inspired. Bullet I might mention. No, really, I have a friend that has a program. He calls -- and it’s a sales training program. But I think it’s applicable here. It’s beat your best. And what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to create your best but you’re trying to then beat it. So you really put your best foot out there. You’re trying to do something you think is good but then you’re trying to make it better. Lindsay:           Yeah. That’s really awesome and I think -- yeah. That’s a really good way of going about it. Don’t try to get overwhelmed by should this be green or red and what should the caps all say or whatever. Just put something out and like you said beat your previous score. It’s like playing Pac-man when you were a kid. You always just wanted to beat the previous score, right. Nile:                 Yeah. Absolutely. And imperfect action I should say. Lindsay:           Love it. Nile:                 Is better than perfect inaction. Lindsay:           Love it. Nile:                 Do something even if it’s wrong and then get better. Lindsay:           True. Nile:                 So I love it. Jordan:            Lindsay, I’ve got a quick question for you and I’d really like to hear if you’ve seen the same results but all the guys that I’ve talked to who’ve really maximized split AB testing have said I just changed this one word or I just changed the picture or -- it’s just -- it was such a minor change and then they boosted their -- it’s not like they rewrote the whole page to get better results. Do you find the same thing? Lindsay:           Yes. Absolutely. And that’s actually the key to AB testing is you don’t want to have like version A and then version B being something completely different. Like I literally was running a Facebook ad and I changed the word amazing to awesome and I kid you not, my cost per like went down about 50 cents. No clue why. I was pretty happy about it and it stayed around but you just want to make very subtle changes so you actually know what made the difference. Nile:                 Okay. Lindsay:           Because actually you could redo your whole page and it could get way crappier results and we don’t want that. Nile:                 So I am now -- my mind is spinning and it’s not from the bourbon I might add. Lindsay:           Yet. Nile:                 You changed -- what was it? Amazing to -- Lindsay:           Awesome. Yeah. Awesome to amazing. Nile:                 Awesome to amazing. Lindsay:           Or was it -- now I’m all backwards. Maybe I’m drinking too. One or the other. Nile:                 But that one word changed. You mentioned -- I assume it changed your results but it also changed your ad cost and it lowered it. Lindsay:           Yes. Jordan:            Which means that people were engaging more because of that one word, right. Nile:                 Man isn't that just so totally amazing though? Not only are you getting better results, you’re getting lower ad cost. Jordan:            Well, I think it’s awesome. Lindsay:           And amazing. Nile:                 I think it’s amazingly awesome. That’s the next BA test. I’m sorry. Lindsay:           And like I said, I -- it can get really overwhelming to do that but as a starting point you guys can do some like Googling, like best color for buttons, best -- all the best things because people kind of know like really if you have a blue button versus a green button on the get my free offer now button, that all important, one click button, it can totally change. And so there’s tons of articles on Google about the best colors for everything and all of that and again it’s another good reason to use lead pages, the company because they have tested all that out and that’s why they have this format that we’re all used to seeing because it works. Nile:                 I’m thinking that we need to go to a light golden brand. As in color. Jordan:            You mean the color of the bourbon in your glass right now? Lindsay:           Have I not taught you anything? Nile:                 That’s exactly what I was thinking. So listen, we’ve been talking about this. You get asked this all the time so what’s your canned answer for how can I make my website more effective? Lindsay:           Let me pull up my beauty pageant answer for this one. Nile:                 Oh, I like it. This is exciting. Lindsay:           World peace. Nile:                 World peace. Lindsay:           I’m kidding. Nile:                 Hey, that just went with Miss Congeniality. I’m just saying. Lindsay:           Yes, I did. Right, right? In fact, my high school mascot was a potato so Miss Rosti right here. So anyway -- Jordan:            I’ve got nothing. Lindsay:           To make your website better -- listeners please stay with us. Anyway, to make your website better we’ve kind of discussed that. My number one, two and three things. Have a video on the home page. Number one. Number two, make sure it’s super duper mobile friendly. Pretty please. Number three, spend some time on copy. Don’t just do some throw away website. Literally spend some time on copy and address the pain points of the people coming to your site and let them know you can address their issues. Nile:                 Hey, that’s worth the cost of admission right there. Jordan:            Yeah. Everybody got a seminar for this podcast. Nile:                 They really did and they got to enjoy some humor, some bourbon. Jordan:            No. That was just you. Nile:                 They didn’t. Just me. Yeah. I’m sorry. I did. So I have to be thankful for that but Lindsay you have given just awesome information. One click Lindsay in a completely non boring way. I know that there are people that are clamoring right now. I know our listeners. They’re clamoring to say we want to get more from this exciting one click Lindsay person. How do we find out more about her? Lindsay:           Well, you can visit my website where I do tons of video and tons of ways where you can improve your conversion rate and get more traffic and leads to your website at oneclicklindsay.com and you can spell that however you want. You’ll find me. Nile:                 I like that. That is also a powerful piece of advice. Using the common misspellings. Lindsay:           Yes. Well, my original company -- anyway, my original company name was webimpakt with a K and I swore I didn’t want to ever tell someone how to spell something ever again. So I learned my lesson. Nile:                 Makes absolutely perfect sense to me. Jordan:            That’s a good lesson to learn. Very good lesson to learn. And most people don’t know that they can do that. They can relatively cheaply go and get all the different domain spellings and make sure that they do redirects to the right website and all that good stuff. Lindsay:           Yeah. Nile:                 And so again, that’s worth the cost of admission. So just remember you heard BA testing first here on social media business hour tonight with Nile and Jordan and one click Lindsay and to give everybody your name again it’s Lindsay Anderson but Lindsay not boring Anderson. One click Lindsay. Jordan:            Lindsay awesome Anderson. Lindsay:           That’s better. Thank you. Nile:                 Lindsay awesome amazing Anderson. My daughter has three names or two middle names so we could do the same thing here. Lindsay:           That will totally work. I love it. Nile:                 Yeah, yeah. So there you go. Hey, thanks so much for joining us on the social media business hour. Lindsay:           Thanks boys. I really appreciate it. It was super fun. Nile:                 Oh, thank you so much and to our listeners, thank you as well. We love all the comments and feedback we get on our Facebook page at social media business hour as well as socialmediabusinesshour.com where you could listen to the episode again because I know you’ll want to. You can find all the links. This is social media business hour episode 121. But I want to thank you again and hopefully you learned a few new ideas or concepts. Maybe you were just reminded of a few things you already know but you haven’t been doing to improve or grow your business. You know that our desire is that you take one of the things that you learned or were reminded of today, you apply it to your business this week. Not next week. This week. We know that a small change can make a big difference and I’m committed to bringing you at least one new idea each week that you could implement. So go back and listen, identify just one small change that you could make to your business this week and see what a big difference it will make for you. So until next week, this is Nile Nickel. Now, go make it happen. Woman:          Social media business hour is powered by linkedinfocus.com. For show notes, updates and to pick up the latest tips and tricks head over to socialmediabusinesshour.com. Until next time. Thanks for listening. [/content_toggle]

Weblinks:

Website: www.oneclicklindseys.com www.trafficandleads.com Facebook Handle: www.facebook.com/moretrafficandleads Twitter Handle: @moretandl

Direct download: SMBH_121_-_Lindsey_Anderson_-_Final.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Join us with our guest, Ty Cohen who really just wants to help you build your passive income stream…and is ready to prove it.  Very generous with his advice, Ty shares with us his secrets for generating a TON of revenue through selling ebooks on Amazon.  Learn from this entrepreneurial master, who overcame some pretty major obstacles early on, but turned those challenges into an incredible (and profitable) ebook empire.

- 4 Incredible Facts To Create A Passive Income Stream With An eBook Business
- 4 MORE Things To Guarantee Your eBook Gets Completed
- How Amazon's Sales Ranking “Really” Works
- 4 Proven Strategies For Promoting Your E-Book

Ty Cohen is an accomplished publishing expert, internet marketer, personal development coach, mentor, internationally known speaker, former morning talk show radio personality (WCLY1150 Raleigh, NC) and author who over a decade ago, took a major gamble with his life financially by quitting his corporate job and starting a business of his own.

That business soon became both an offline and online successfully generating millions of dollars in sales and totally transforming Ty’s life as well as the lives’ of countless others in just a few short years. Over the last 11 years, Ty has taught tens of thousands of individuals how to successfully market, promote & sell their books on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing Platform using the very same system that allows him to generate upwards of $50, 000.00 a month with KDP publishing.

You'll learn his simple formula for turning life’s obstacles into life’s financial opportunities that will enable you to effectively reach your personal and/or business goals. Using a unique combination of tested and proven methods and resources, Ty’s goal is to educate and empower individuals just like you with the tools needed to operate a successful business both on and offline.

After creating millions of dollars in sales and successfully working with thousands of clients across the globe, Ty decided to take his expertise global and has created or consulted with thousands of individuals and businesses around the world helping them to find that missing piece that would allow them to create lasting success in both business and life.

 

“Either you accept the fate that was handed to you or you make an unwavering decision to create the one you want.”
Ty Cohen

How did Ty Turned His Major Life Obstacles Into An EBook Empire of Greatest Success

Ty is an accomplished publishing expert, an internet marketer, a personal development coach, a mentor, an internationally known speaker, a former morning talk show radio personality and an author who took a major financial gamble by quitting his corporate job to take a huge step by starting his own EBook business.  You might say that “success” is his last name. However, you’re wrong. Like most of us, he did not start out as a success right away. It is actually the opposite. He was born in one of the nation’s most crime ridden towns, where gang wars and drug related crimes exited daily.

Ty was also born with a rare, chronic life threatening blood disease called Sickle Cell Anemia. His Doctors even gave a prediction of a life expectancy of only 17 years. At his early age, death was already a reality for him.

However, his mindset is different, he took these obstacles as his life motivation to change his destiny. And, he did not fail. Ty soon learned that life is what you make it, “Either you accept the fate that was handed to you or you make an unwavering decision to create the one you want.”

4 Incredible Facts To Create A Passive Income Stream With An eBook Business

Ty became very successful by having a passive income stream, through his E-Book Business. However, during the time that he was just starting, he actually attended different types of marketing and business seminars, which in the end, just gave him all the same information.

He found that either the main focus of these seminars were just to sell their products or the presenters were just good at speaking but didn’t really know what they were talking about.

These meetings led him to his ultimate and unselfish goal, and that is to help people who have the same mindset as him to become successful by giving them genuinely helpful information that they can use.

Ty’s 4 Essential Steps To Creating eBook Success

Ty wants you to experience the same success that he has experienced, and you can start by following his essential Top 4 Success Tips;

  • Research - If you want to become successful, you have to spend time to study the business. Research and find out what people really want, what is selling and what is not. If you want to use the Amazon platform, it is very important for you to check the Sales Rankings all the time, Sales Rankings should be the foundation of your decision.
  • Create the actual E-Book - Once you’re done with your research, it is time to create your e-book. On this interview, he gives a few great tips on writing an e-book;
      1. An E-Book Doesn't have to be long. Don’t pressure yourself too much. Spend more time with your headlines. If you have a great headline, make sure the content of your e-book matches the headline.

    A reminder from Ty: Amazon normally reviews all e-book published on their site. They will check if the cover, title and the headlines of your ebook matches the main article. If not, your sales ranking will greatly suffer.

      1. Don’t spend too much. Create a checklist and have a plan. Ty’s strategy; if your ebook sells minimum of 10 copies, then selling 1000 copies is easy to achieve. However, if it sells less than 10, then leave it as is, but don’t invest anymore it advertising it.
      2. Outsource. Hire an e-book/ghost writer, graphics designer, etc. to take care of your ebook cover or the contents of your entire ebook.
      3. Publish your Ebook to Amazon. Amazon’s goal is to become the biggest online bookstore, so having your book published on it, is the first major step you need to take (after completing your ebook).
      4. Monitor your sales. Monitoring your sales is important because business is all about sales. As a business owner you should be aware of your strategies and if they are working, whether your sales are increasing or decreasing.

    If you stay on top of those really important points, you’ll have available solutions and more options that otherwise you would not know.  Pay close attention and you will have the chance to have an early response to any sales problems that may come along.

    What Is The Amazon Sales Rank Guide?

    Every product on Amazon that has ever been purchased includes a sales rank on its product page. Now you, who wants to sell your EBook on Amazon will ask, What is sales ranking? The sales rank is a number with 1 to 8 digits. And below are the guidelines (from Amazon.Com):

    • The better a product sells at Amazon, the lower the sales rank number. The best selling product in a category has a sales rank of 1.
    • The worse a product sells at Amazon, the higher the sales rank number. If a product hasn’t sold for several days, its sales rank will likely be in the millions.
    • If a product has never sold on Amazon, it won’t have a sales rank.
    • Different editions of a product (like hardcover, paperback, and Kindle books) each have different sales ranks.
    • Every product page has its own sales rank.
    • Sales ranks are different in various categories. For example, books, Kindle e-books, software, and office products each have different sales ranks.
    • Books have overall ranks and also specific ranks within subcategories. Ranking #1 in books overall is much, much better than ranking #1 in a specific subcategory.

    Authors, publishers, marketplace sellers, and many other people and businesses use sales rank data to help judge how well their products are selling. They also study sales ranks to help predict how well a product may sell and to help decide whether or not to sell a particular product on Amazon.
    Know more about Amazon Sales Ranking by clicking here.

    Ty Shares His Top 4 Proven Strategies In Promoting His E-Book. How Many Are You Not Practicing?

    Turning an Ebook business to an empire is not easy. However, Ty mentioned that it is not all about hard work. Business success is about having a rock-solid strategy, a strategy that will generate continuous income and year-round profits.

    Read below for Ty’s Top 4 proven success strategies.

    1. Don’t spend a lot of time and money unless it is going to sell. This is one of his essential tips now turned into a strategy. Ty seriously advises to never throw away your money and don’t invest unless you are confident that your E-Book will sell.  A lot of entrepreneurs jump in immediately to all the steps of promotion, without testing first if the product is selling or will sell.
    2. Translate your ebook to different languages. Now that you’re sure that your ebook will sell. Consider now investing toward translating your ebook into another language (most common is Spanish). This will not just expand your market reach but will also increase your sales.
    3. Create a audio book. Creating an audio book is another way to reach other markets. There’s a lot of people who are not fond of reading an ebook or don’t have time to read, they are always on the go and would like to read a book by listening to one.
    4. Create a physical book. Like Ty’s wife who is not an avid fan of Kindle, or ebooks -- she loves reading physical books. These are traditional readers or sometimes called “digital natives”, who love how a book smells, they like scribbling in the margins, underlining interesting sentences and folding a page corner to mark a place. If you don’t have a physical book then you’ll instantly lose this market.

    specialoffer

    An Irresistible Offer That You Have To Grab --Now!

    Ty has a program called Kindle Cash Flow in which he will share with you his entire system. This means, he is going to share everything. His promise, whether you’re someone who’s totally new to this business, like the way he started or maybe you’re someone who may have a few kindle e-books and they’re not just selling the way you anticipated -- 

    If you are someone who has always wanted to create serious, passive income from your very own eBook, then this is the program for you.

    Ty’s program will tell you everything that he learned and studied about this business.  With his program, he will show you how he earned more than $10k per month!

    Ty’s program is an awesome place for total beginners, where you can get answers to all of your questions and even get regular updates for the latest in trends and strategies.

    For anyone who's listens to the Social Media Business Hour, Ty will give you 50% off the original retail price.

    So what are you waiting for, Grab Ty's Offer NOW!

    [content_toggle style="1" label="Click%20Here%20To%20Read%20The%20Entire%20Transcript%20Of%20The%20Show" hide_label="Hide"]Ty:                   This is Ty Cohen from kindlecashflow.com and I’m here with Nile and Jordan for a social media business hour and today I’m going to show you, your business partner, spouse, kids, family and just about everyone else how to create a passive income stream by publishing digital eBooks on Amazon.com. Let’s go.

    Woman:          In business and know the way forward most include social media. Perhaps you find it a bit confusing. Even frustrating. Well, you have no idea how to make it work for your business. Fear not. We interview some of the best social media experts in business who will share their experiences, ideas and knowledge. Plus offer tips and tricks to make using social media a breeze. Leverage the power of social media and grow your business now. Welcome to social media business hour with your host Nile Nickel.

    Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did.

    Nile:                 Jordan, it’s not very often that we have the opportunity to have a guest on that is a former radio personality.

    Jordan:            Yeah. That’s true. That’s true.

    Nile:                 And Ty -- you probably don’t know this. Ty Cohen is joining us tonight. You heard that from the tease folks. Whenever I do a bio or an intro I don’t just read it. I do it very interactively because I think reading it, that’s just boring. I’m doing this long introduction for you. I’m going to do a long introduction anyway but we’re just going to have fun with it. We’re going to do it interactively so I want to ask you. You’re a former radio person. Where were you at, what did you do?

    Ty:                   I was actually on a business talk radio show here in Raleigh, North Carolina and I was invited to co-host the show and I did it for about a year as a way of just stretching myself, right. And getting out of my comfort zone because prior to that I was just this totally introverted guy and I said you know what? this would be something that will not only help me but it will help other individuals by me being able to share some information so I did that for about a year and got it out of my system and that was that.

    Nile:                 And nothing wrong with that. I haven’t got it out of my system yet. Who know? I might but everybody says I like to talk too much anyway so I’m not sure if that will be the case or not.

    Ty:                   You might be fake introverts.

    Nile:                 Yeah. Well, no. I think I’m more of an introvert in person and better behind a microphone which is quite the opposite for a lot of people.

    Ty:                   Awesome.

    Nile:                 Well, Ty is an accomplished publishing expert, an internet marketer, personal development coach, mentor, internationally known speaker, former morning talk show radio personality and an author who took a major financial gamble by quitting his corporate job and starting his own business and that’s a huge step. That’s a scary step.

    Jordan:            Yes, it is.

    Nile:                 So kudos to you Ty for that.

    Ty:                   Absolutely. It’s so scary but it actually took me three years to quit that job. The security of my job. Three years after I had created my business and I was doing well I still wasn’t mentally secure enough to say let me leave this thing.

    Nile:                 That happens to so many of us. It really is amazing so I’m glad you’re sharing that with us because I know we all struggle with that and some people just don’t like to admit it so I know that as we talk about it here it’s just absolutely encouraging to all of us that we hear something like that, that we’re not alone in this journey. But I know over the last 11 years since you made that transition you’ve taught tens of thousands of individuals how to successfully market, promote and sell their books on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing Platform and we’re going to be talking about that a lot and I know that all of us are interested in that so I can't wait to hear it but before we get into that, I was reading a little bit of your background and one of the things that jumped out at me immediately was you really said you should’ve been dead by the age of 17 and so you’re really grateful and surprised that you’ve made the transition and been as successful as you have. That caught my attention so tell us about that a bit.

    Ty:                   Absolutely Nile. I actually had two obstacles going against me. Probably more than that. Two major ones, right. I was born with a disease called sickle cell anemia and just to give you a short on it sickle cell anemia is actually a blood disorder that affects people of African American descent, people from India, couple of folks from Italian -- not Italian. Italy, from Sicily. And I lost a sister to the disease when she was 27 years old and it’s one of the most painful things that you can ever experience. As a kid I spent weeks and sometimes months in a hospital, Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut where I’m from and it was during one of these stents in the hospital -- I had been in a hospital for six weeks and outside of my bedroom door, my hospital room door I heard my doctor tell my mom as clear as day Mrs. Cohen, you shouldn’t expect your son to live past the age of 17 because this disease is going to kill him. And I was about 10 or 11 years old at the time and it just stuck with me. To this day I can just -- I can still hear those words, I can still literally see, smell and just feel everything that was taking place in the room. So that’s how much it was cementer in my memory. About two years later my sister had died and as I said she was 27 when she had died and it was just -- out of eight siblings it was just her and I that have this disease, that we’re born with it. so by that time when she died I was 15 and I’m really -- I’m just totally shaken up because I’m still thinking about what the doctor said and I hear my sister had passed away from it and on top of that we didn’t grow up in the best neighborhood. We actually grew up in the worst neighborhood. Now, when you think of Connecticut you’re probably thinking that there couldn’t be any such areas, a bad area in Connecticut but during this time we had the highest crime rate in the nation and we were second in the murder rate in the nation behind Louisiana. So I thought that either I would die from a disease or I would die like so many of my friends at the time, young friends who were in their teens that were dying just from gangs and drugs and just all the other elements that come with growing up in the hood. So that was -- and as you said, when I hit 18 I said wow. This -- okay. Well, maybe there’s a difference here. And it was a few things that lead up to that shift in my mindset that got me to say this is not going to be my destiny. There’s other options for me.

    Nile:                 Yeah. That’s really inspiring. I know it touches me. I’ve had friends that I’ve watched deal with that and it is scary because you just don’t know. And I understand things have gotten better but I’m not sure. Is that true?

    Ty:                   Health wise, yes. Absolutely. Things have gotten better and my neighborhood has changed big time. It’s done a total 360, right. Health wise I have not been in a hospital for two years now.

    Nile:                 Wow.

    Ty:                   Whereas before I would be hospitalized let’s say every six months.

    Nile:                 Wow.

    Ty:                   And the difference is knowing how to cope with things and knowing how to condition not only your mind but your body and how to better understand -- how to train yourself to eat so that your body accepts certain foods and then is able to use those foods to help nourish itself and also to avoid things like stress and just a few other things that can promote a sickle cell anemia attack.

    Nile:                 That is absolutely -- that’s great to know and I really appreciate you sharing that with us. I have to ask you and we may have just got some insight into that. we’re going to talk about obviously your success with Kindle books and what you’ve done and all of that and I think that’s outstanding but with all of that, I always like to know what’s your big why, what is your reason, what has motivated you to teach so many people how to become successful and you’ve been doing it through publishing eBooks on Amazon but what’s that bit why?

    Ty:                   The biggest why for me is probably twofold. Number one, because I want to be able to give someone -- my goal has always been to give people genuine information. Okay. when I first got started with marketing in general one of my first businesses was an offline business where I would sell old Disney windups and GI Joes from the 60s and 70s and things like that and I didn’t have the resources at that time so I would literally take the bus to downtown bridge port and visit the library and pick up copywriting books by guys like Gary Halbert, Gary Bencivenga, Dan Kennedy and just read everything that I could on marketing. So there was no YouTube, right, at that time. There was no Google, there were no -- there were probably seminars but at that time I wasn’t aware of them. Probably couldn’t afford them. So it was a long process for me. And then as things got a little bit better as far as my understanding of being able to go out and get access to resources I started to attend different seminars and events and a lot of the seminars and events that I attended and even spoke at -- excuse my French but a lot of it was BS. I mean, the presenters would sell information that really was a bit outdated or it didn’t work or they had no true knowledge so I said if I ever get into a position to be able to teach people I have to make sure that if I get up on stage or if I get in front of a group or if I get in front of an audience that I can teach those individuals the same information that I would be comfortable with teaching my mother, my wife, my daughter, my son. So I don’t ever want to be in a position where I have to just sell something just for the sake of making money or to present something to someone that is not something that I am legitimately doing. So that’s my why right there.

    Nile:                 And that’s a great why. That actually is much more than I know we expected so I appreciate that. It gives us great insight into obviously why you’re doing things and what your motivation is. So let’s jump into it just a bit here. And we haven’t talked a lot about eBooks so I want to start real basic. I talk about eBooks and I throw the term around. You probably do as well but I know not all of us do that and so just so that we’re all sort of on the same page -- no pun intended since we’re talking about eBooks. But since we’re all on the same page, tell us what your definition of an eBook is.

    Ty:                   Yeah. Absolutely. An eBook is just a digital version of anything that you would want to have more information on or anything that you would want to use to be entertained so just like you would pick up a book, a physical copy of a book like Think and grow rich or the Alchemist or whatever it might be. A Millionaire’s notebook. Those are physical versions but now digital versions -- because of companies like Amazon and even Apple and Barnes and Nobles is even in the game, right. But because of companies like the companies that I just mentioned digital books are becoming more and more popular. So much so that they actually outsell physical books. I was reading a -- there was a piece by Jeff Bezos who’s actually the CEO of amazon.com a couple of years ago and at the time he said that eBooks were outselling physical books two to one. Two to one. And it just shows you the direction that we’re going in which is similar to the direction that the music industry went in, right. Before we used to primarily listen to music in physical formats. We had eight tracks. I know I’m dating myself, right. We had vinyl records, we had cassettes and now how do we primarily listen to music or audio books and things like that? In a digital format. And we’ve got our iPhone, we’ve got our iPod, we’ve got some type of a mobile device that we’re listening to music on and the same thing now applies to books. If you look at individuals at an airport they probably have a Kindle device or some type of a mobile tablet, right. Like an iPad or an iPad mini and they’re just consuming eBooks and they’re reading their eBooks on these devices. So that’s where we’re at.

    Nile:                 As we end the first segment here we’re getting ready to jump into this in a more heavy way so I want you to join us into the next segment. But in the next segment we’re going to talk about how to create an eBook. Obviously we’ve talked what they are. Let’s talk about how to create them. Join us in the next segment.

    Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did.

    Nile:                 Hey, thanks for joining us once again. In the earlier segments we got to know Ty Cohen a bit and we talked about what is an eBook, what motivated Ty and if you haven’t listened to that we absolutely need to go back and listen because it was a great foundation there. But Ty what I wanted to talk about in this segment is -- we talked a little bit about the eBooks and we understand the transition. How do we go about creating an eBook because that sounds like it probably has some special formats and special process. What’s the process you teach people to go create an eBook?

    Ty:                   Yeah, absolutely. So there’s actually several different ways that you can create your eBook and it depends on what you’re after, right. And I want to step back for a moment just to briefly, quickly explain why you would probably want to go about creating your own eBook. Amazon who right now is the planet’s largest book store has done something amazing for authors, writers and just individuals who are looking for a way to create a passive income stream. And what they’ve done is they’ve created this platform called the KDP platform and that’s short for Kindle Direct Publishing platform. Now what Amazon has allowed you to do is now they’ve allowed you to take your written material, your content, turn it into an eBook, a Kindle eBook more specifically and make it available to all of their customers, their Kindle readers. And it’s just a great time to be able to go out and do a little bit of research, find out what people are after and create an eBook that will provide them with a solution to a problem that they’re looking to solve or actually even entertain them, right. If you’re looking to go in and create a fiction eBook. So the process for creating an eBook is to -- if you go in the nonfiction realm and nonfiction sells incredibly well especially when you’re creating how to titles. How to create a rose garden. How to go in and redo your back patio. How to buy a car. How to sell a house. If you’re creating a how to title the first thing that you would do is to go in and do some market research and you do that by going on amazon.com and typing in a few keywords that are related to the topic that you’re thinking about publishing your eBook on. And then just go out and take a few minutes and look at some of the eBooks that are selling. You can always tell those that are selling because you’ll see where they’ve got a good number of reviews and then you’ll see where their sales rank is -- it’s lower than 20000. So if you scroll down to the left you’ll see a sales rank number and if it’s lower than 20000 then that’s a good seller. The lower of a number, the better of a seller it is. So that’s the first step is to go in and find out what people actually want because you don’t want to create something that they’re not -- that’s just not going to sell, right.

    Nile:                 Absolutely. But I’d love to stop you because I didn’t understand something there.

    Ty:                   Absolutely.

    Nile:                 But you mentioned it and I’m really interested. What is the sales rank number? How is that derived? I’ve never seen that so I’m unfamiliar with it. I know I’m not alone.

    Ty:                   Absolutely. So Amazon has this algorithm that they use and basically depending on how many units your book sells, your eBook sells a day it will be assigned a sales rank. So if you’re selling -- let’s say if you sell a 100 copies a day which is a pretty high number for someone that’s just starting out, right. So don’t get your hopes up high here if you’re listening. But if you’re selling a 100 copies a day then they’ll assign you a sales rank of about 1500. Alright. That will be your sales rank. If you’re selling like 75 copies a day then you’ll have a sales rank of about 2000. And these numbers are not set in stone because it changes from time to time. But that’s how they calculate their sales rank there because Amazon literally has millions of products that are sold from their site. And it’s just a ranking system.

    Nile:                 So it sounds to me like the sales rank number is how you’re ranking of all the sellers on Amazon.

    Ty:                   That’s right. That’s it exactly.

    Nile:                 Okay, okay. I could understand that.

    Ty:                   And it becomes a game. You do things to help promote your books and to get your sales up and it’s just really exciting. So we were talking about -- I think your question was how do you go in and create your content so --

    Nile:                 Yeah. And you were talking about the market research which is where we got on the sales rank and I interrupted you so we’ll jump in.

    Ty:                   Good question.

    Nile:                 We’ll jump back in together and go through the process now.

    Ty:                   Alright. Awesome question there. So now if you’re going in, you found a topic that you want to go in and publish your eBook around. Let’s say you want to publish an eBook on how to create your -- how to increase your energy levels throughout the day. So the next thing would -- you have two choices. You can either go in and write it yourself, right. Now, when I say write it yourself, some of the individuals that are listening right now may be thinking I don’t have time, I don’t have three, four, five, six months a year to go in and write an eBook. Well, here’s the good news. Your eBooks don’t have to be long. I find that some of the bestsellers are eBooks that are 40, 50, 60, 70 pages. In fact, I never publish anything that’s more than 75 pages. EBooks traditionally of this sort especially nonfiction are shorter than what you would normally find in a book store. They’re shorter than what you would normally find in a physical book so you don’t have to go in and pet 200, 300 pages. So that’s the good news especially if you’re writing this. The other option of getting your eBook created is to hire someone so to hire a ghost writer. Now there’s several different outsourcing sites that you can use to go in and hire a ghostwriter and usually for 50 to 60 page eBook I’ll pay about 150 dollars to have someone write that eBook for me. You can find a ghostwriter on sites like eLance which is E-L-A-N-C-E.com or Guru which is G-U-R-U.com and then there’s another site called Upwork U-P-W-O-R-K.com that I like to use. And I’ve actually hired dozens and dozens of ghostwriters to write eBooks for me over the years, over the last five years actually of doing this and the beautiful thing about this is it’s a win-win situation so you have people that are on these sites that love writing, that are awesome researchers, right. That are great when it comes to grammar and punctuation and spelling and all of the stuff that I’m terrible at and you pay them and they provide you with a finished product. So it’s -- like I said. It’s an awesome win-win.

    Nile:                 I know. I’m drooling at the process. I’m drooling at the process. So we were then talking about after we sort of get the content created, then what? Because I know that there’s some format stuff that goes on but I don’t understand all of it so --

    Ty:                   Absolutely. So once you go to kdp.amazon.com if you’re listening right now you might want to write that down. kdp.amazon.com. That’s Amazon’s -- that’s actually where you can go in and sign up for your Kindle publishing account. It’s free. They don’t charge anything to go in and sign up. once you’re in you’ll see that there’s an area where you can actually upload your eBook so in most cases, nine times out of 10 you’re going to have your finished product returned to you in a Microsoft Word format. Okay. On some of the same sites that I mentioned, you can also go in and hire someone to format this eBook for you. Amazon has specifics when it comes to formatting and it’s -- there’s a ton of different things that you can do as far as formatting. You can upload the Word document as is which I don’t recommend or you can go in and hire someone to format it for you which is very inexpensive. It’s about 20 bucks to do so. You can also find folks on Fiver that will do it for you for about 10 bucks. Fiver is F-I-V-E-R.com and on that site you’ll find folks that have actually formatted hundreds and thousands of eBooks so very specialist in formatting. And the formatting, I actually -- I don’t do myself. I wouldn’t do it unless you have a good amount of time. I would also outsource that as well. And then once you have it formatted the other thing that you’re going to need is a cover. You can find a graphic designer on any of the three sites that I just mentioned as well as on fiver.com as well. And the covers are not expensive either so you can get this entire thing done for just about 200 bucks. Now, the beautiful thing about that is once you make it available on Amazon if it’s a seller because not every single one will be a home run but you can create a monthly residual, recurring income stream. I have eBooks that I published four and a half years ago that are still generating me income every day to this day. So that’s a bit of a process. The first thing is step one, go in, do your market research, find out what people actually want to buy, what they want to learn about, what they want to read, in what ways they want to be entertained. Step two is to go in and create the actual eBook and you can write it yourself or you can go in and outsource it which I would -- I prefer to actually outsource it. And then step three is to actually go in and after you’ve had it formatted, you’ve had your cover created, go in and publish it to your Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing account. And then the next thing is to watch the sales roll in and that’s where the addictiveness of it starts to kick in because for the first three years of me doing this -- I’m not so bad now. I went to a couple of meetings. But the first three years of me doing this, I would literally get out of bed in the middle of the night, login into my Amazon account, hit refresh to check my sales and I’m just looking at the sales coming in and it’s a beautiful thing to wake up in the morning and you’ve made money because someone over in the UK or someone in Australia has purchased an eBook that you’ve made available for sale.

    Nile:                 I have to ask you Ty. Do you mind if we get really personal?

    Ty:                   Let’s do it.

    Nile:                 Yeah. I’m curious about two things. The first thing is the most money you’ve made from an eBook. That may be too personal of a question so if you want to give us a vague answer that’s fine. But I’m curious about that because you’ve told us sort of the process and the investment. So let me ask that question.

    Ty:                   So I’ve got an eBook right now. One single eBook that makes me about 4200 dollars a month.

    Nile:                 That’s not small change.

    Ty:                   No, it’s not. And again, I want to put a disclaimer out there. Not every eBook will do that because I also have some that make me about seven bucks a month. But once you do this and -- the key is the research, right. That’s the key. The key is to find out what people want and then the second thing is to not overcomplicate the process. It really is -- now, there’s a few things in between each of those steps but it really is as simple as doing the research, having your content created and then publishing it. And the reason why it’s that easy is because you’re dealing with Amazon. Amazon is a multibillion dollar company and if you think back to when Amazon first got started. Their initial goal was -- do you remember what their initial goal was Nile or Jordan?

    Nile:                 I really don’t.

    Jordan:            I think it was just to sell books.

    Ty:                   It was to sell books but it was to become the world’s largest book store.

    Jordan:            Oh, that’s right.

    Ty:                   Okay. And you can't do that alone. Like you can't do that with just the published authors that are out there and just the folks that are submitting manuscripts so the way you do that is if someone over there is really smart -- I don’t know if it was Jeff Bezos or if it was sort of his cabinet members, right. But someone said why don’t we just open up our platform to anyone that has content?

    Nile:                 I love this and I know that we’re going to learn a whole lot more about this. This is where you need to hang around, go with us to segment three.

    Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did.

    Nile:                 Ty, you’ve been blowing us away with all you’ve told us and I understand that some of your books -- you said it’s as little as seven bucks a month. I suspect some of the books it’s as little as zero but you’ve also encourages us where you’ve had some books that have been making thousands a month.

    Ty:                   Absolutely. I went from nothing to 50000 dollars on average. Now I do between 40000 to 50000 a month especially during the holidays. You’ll see those numbers shoot up. And it’s been a journey but it’s something that if you get involved and you stick with it and you make that first sell. The first sell is all that’s required. Then you’ll see the possibilities.

    Jordan:            I’ve got a question for you. Actually, I have two for you Ty.

    Ty:                   Let’s do it.

    Jordan:            Early on in segment one you mentioned picking up some marketing books and then you went about mentioning as far as I’m concerned the holy trinity of direct marketing Gary Halbert, Gary Bencivenga and Dan Kennedy. We didn’t stop Ty by the way to let our listeners know what kind of huge gold nugget that is right there. I mean, we want to talk about using anything that those guys read as a bible. I do that all the time. I think those are incredible, incredible copywriters. My question is do you -- how much of their influence do you include when you are actually building the actual content of your books? I mean, they’re sales copywriter guys and I think most people without really knowing who they are and what they’re about they’d say okay. Well, great. You can use them to sell but can you really use their techniques and their strategies to actually write the content? I’m curious.

    Ty:                   And that’s a great question. I love that. No one has ever asked that so I can tell that I’m talking to someone who really loves marketing, right. And I love that. But as far as the actual content, no. I don’t use any of their techniques to write the content. But where I do use their techniques is in writing the title for my eBook, right. Because your title has to be something that’s attractive, it has to be something that stands out to a degree without being just totally overblown. It has to be something that answers the questions that your prospects are subconsciously asking themselves in their head, right. when we’re looking at these eBooks on -- when we’re looking at something on Amazon or when you’re just shopping in general online you don’t know this but you’re looking for something specific and it’s the title or it’s something about that item that you click onto and you ultimately buy that has grabbed your attention. So it might be the title, it might be a description and the description is basically sales copy so that’s where I’ll use a lot of these principles. In the title and then in my eBooks’ descriptions. I’ll go in, I’ll use bullet points, I’ll use some of the _____42:31 principles. Attention, interest and things like that. And then I’ll just talk about how the prospect is going to feel after they’ve read this book, what can they accomplish, what can it help them with. So you start to inflict those emotions. You get the emotions involved there so if they’re at the point where they say okay. This is definitely what I want. And then you’ve got to back that up by making sure that the book actually delivers on what you’ve written in that description, right. what you’ve written in that sales copy because if not Amazon has this amazing review system where if your book doesn’t match up to what’s written in the description you’re going to get negative reviews. But if it does match up you’re going to get positive reviews and the more positive reviews, the more sales you’re going to get because people are going to look at those reviews and they’ll say this is awesome. This is what I’m looking for. Most of my purchases when I buy on Amazon -- I bought a USB extender today and I bought it based off of the reviews. It had like 3000 four and a half star reviews and I’m like this has to be good.

    Jordan:            Man, that’s great. All of that is just solid, solid great advice. So speaking of sales copy and how you actually write your description I’m curious and maybe I’m jumping ahead a little bit Nile. I’d like to know how you promote your books.

    Ty:                   So here’s the things. I don’t put -- and I want everyone that’s listening including you and Nile -- Nile and Jordan. I don’t put a lot of time, I don’t put a lot of money into any one eBook unless I know it’s going to sell. So with that said, I don’t go in and market and promote them until I see where I’ve gotten at least 10 sales. Alright. Because at that point, if I get 10 sales I know that I can get 10000 sales. It’s just a matter of me making it available, me making more people aware of it.

    Jordan:            Wow.

    Ty:                   And that’s it. And then what I’ll do is I’ll go in and start using some Facebook advertising and that’s probably -- at this point that’s the most what I do. And I actually just started using Facebook advertising about a year ago. Before that it was all internal. I mean, all of my sales just came directly from Amazon because Amazon -- they’ll promote your eBooks especially if it’s something that’s selling. If it’s something that has a demand you’ll see where -- and you guys have probably noticed this, right? When you go to Amazon, you buy one item and it’ll say people who purchased this item also purchased -- so Amazon will start to promote your books and that way they’ll send folks that buy eBooks that are of similar content, emails and they’ll say we noticed that you purchased this book. Here’s something else that you might be interested in. so up until last year I really didn’t do any marketing outside of Amazon.

    Nile:                 So do you currently work exclusively with Amazon? Do you use any of the other eBook publishers or do you just stay with Amazon?

    Ty:                   Great question. I do. I actually do publish to Barnes and Nobles NOOK platform and Smash Words as well but that’s only again after I’ve gotten 10 sales. Can I share something with you that I think will be pretty beneficial to your listeners?

    Nile:                 Oh, absolutely. I mean, we’re all hanging off the edge of our seats waiting for it so yeah.

    Ty:                   Awesome. So here’s the process, right. Again, I said I don’t like to put time and too much money -- I’m a -- I hope this doesn’t offend anyone. I’m a black Jew. Alright. My name is Ty Cohen. Alright. So I hustle like hell and I save like hell. Alright. So the black part hustles, the Jewish part is the saver, right. So I like to make sure that I’m not just throwing money away and I think everyone that’s listening should do the same thing. So with that, you don’t put a lot of time, a lot of effort into this stuff until you know that you’re going to get a seller. Now, once you get 10 sales, right. And I like to say 10 sales within a one month period. That’s pretty lenient because it takes time for your eBook to get into the system and for it to get visibility. But once you get those 10 sales then you can open up the floodgate. Alright. The next thing I do is I start promoting it using Facebook ads. And again, I’m very, very cautious with how much money I spend, right. I’ll set my daily budget to about three bucks initially a day. I’ve made a mistake of setting my daily budget to a 100 bucks, 200 bucks a day when I first started and it was just a nightmare so you don’t want to -- I’ve made the mistake already. Just don’t follow my path in that regard. The next thing I’ll do is once I start to get about a 100 sales, right. I’ll have the eBook translated into other languages so Spanish, right. I might have it translated into French and there’s a few other languages. But I always start with Spanish first. And then the next thing I will do is I’ll then have it turned into an audio book version and you can make that available on Audible and that’s a whole another call. And then the next thing I do is I’ll use Amazon’s sister company which is called Create space and I’ll turn an eBook into a physical book. So now, why am I doing this, why am I turning it into an audio book, why am I translating it into Spanish and why am I turning it into a physical book? Because if you have the interest in new digital book, you best believe that there’s folks that are Spanish speakers and they don’t know how to read English, right. And they want to buy that book too but they just can't because you’ve just made it available in English. You best believe that there’s folks like myself who -- I’ve got about 400 audio books on CD that are around here that drives my wife nuts because I just don’t have the time to read physical books, right. So if you don’t have an audio version of it then you’re losing out on those folks. If you don’t have the physical version of it, you’re losing out on folks like my wife who just loves to read physical books. She won't read a Kindle book, right. And I know a lot of this can sound like it’s a lot and it could be overwhelming but each of these steps are actually very easy to do. You can do each of these in a day, right. And it’s just an awesome way to continue to add onto those income streams. I would never have an eBook that’s selling and is doing well without adding the other components onto it because it’s just -- you’re just missing out on money that’s just sitting there for you to take it.

    Nile:                 That sounds like when you’ve found where the fish are and they’re biting you want to make sure you put more lines in the water and give them more things to bite on.

    Ty:                   I love that. That’s exactly that. I’m going to steal that and I’m going to use that as Ty Cohen original.

    Nile:                 Ty Cohen original inspired by -- there you go. Well, I appreciate that. I’ve looked at a number of links that you have on your website and your website will be shared out on our social media business hour page as well as our Facebook page. It’s episode 120. But you’ve got a lot of great things. You’ve got great training, you’ve got some YouTube videos and all of that that we will also share links for. But I’ve got one final question I want to ask because we’re getting close to Halloween. A lot of people are going to listen to this right at that time or maybe even over the Halloween holiday. Do you do seasonal books just out of curiosity?

    Ty:                   I do not.

    Nile:                 So that’s something you don’t do. I know some people that have been successful with that. I was just very curious. There are people that specialize in that.

    Ty:                   Yeah. There are. And there’s a lot of money that could be made in seasonal books. I mean, the Christmas stuff, the cook books and -- I mean, it’s just a ton of things that are out there, right. But so I don’t publish books that deal with fads, right. And I don’t publish books that are seasonal because I want to make sure that the effort that I put in is going to generate me year round profits.

    Nile:                 I love that. I love that. All the way around the year.

    Ty:                   That’s right.

    Nile:                 Well, I know that you’ve got a special offer for us. We’ll have the link shared up for the special offer. Just go to socialmediabusinesshour.com remember again this is episode 120 where you’ll find all the details but share with us this great special offer you have. I can't wait to hear.

    Ty:                   Absolutely. I have a program called Kindle Cash Flow in which I share this entire system. I mean, I share everything. Whether you’re someone who’s totally new to it the way I was when I first got started or you’re someone who may already have a few Kindle eBooks that are up and they’re just not selling the way that you anticipate them selling or if you’re someone that’s even more advantaged and you’re already doing well. You’re making five, six, seven, 10000 dollars a month doing this. This program that I put together has actually taken everything that I’ve learned, everything that I’ve studied and it’s just totally, totally just one package. And why I put this together. When I first put it together I said to myself -- my daughter as 14 at the time. She had just turned 14. And I said I want to be able to structure this thing in a way that my daughter Maya -- that’s her name, Maya. Would be able to take the course and without coming in my office and bugging me and saying dad, how do I do step six, how do I do step seven. Be able to take the course and follow along. So you get to actually look over my shoulder and you watch on my screen as I do things and you see what I do and why I do it. The rhyme and reason behind it. So I put this course together in that manner so that Maya could take it and get results and it’s actually worked. I’ve taught it to just literally thousands and thousands of people. We actually have close to 700 members in our Facebook group, our private Facebook group for members only and we’ve got folks in there that are doing 20000 dollars a month. I’ve got a guy Darren Devery who’s one of my students. He’s -- Darren’s about 67 years old. I’m really proud of him. He’s from Perth from Australia and he’s just killing it. And then we’ve got folks that are just total beginners that have just come on board and they’re just finding their way. And it’s an awesome place to come in and ask questions and get updates when things are updated. So with that said, that is the entire program and for your listeners, for the social media business hour listeners I’m going to give anyone that wants it 50 percent off of the original retail price that I normally sell this program for.

    Nile:                 Man, that is absolutely awesome and really we can't thank you enough Ty. You have shared just extremely valuable content and I know that I’ve learned a whole bunch. I know that I’m not alone so I want to thank you for joining us but to the listener, I want to thank you too. Hopefully, you’ve learned a few new ideas or concepts, maybe you were just reminded of a few things you already know but you haven’t been doing to improve or grow your business. Our desire is that you take just one of the things that you learned or were reminded of today and you apply it to your business this week. We know that a small change can make a big difference and I’m committed to bringing you at least one new idea each week that you can implement. So go back and identify just that one small change that you can make and see what a big difference it will make for you. So until next week, this is Nile Nickel. Now, go make it happen.

    Woman:          Social media business hour is powered by linkedinfocus.com. For show notes, updates and to pick up the latest tips and tricks head over to socialmediabusinesshour.com. Until next time. Thanks for listening.

    [/content_toggle]

    Weblinks:

    Twitter: @TyCohen
    Instagram: @CohenTy
    Periscope: @TyCohen
    Meerkat: @TyCohen
    Linkedin: Ty Cohen
    Pinterest: pinterest.com/tycohen
    Website: www.tycohen.com/

Direct download: SMBH_120_-_Ty_Cohen_-_Final.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Marketing is all about making a connection. If you want to be successful in business, you need to create a “Genuine Handshake” between you and your prospect.

Some of the most successful entrepreneurs, start by building an online platform where like-minded people can get-together, share and engage with one another.
Check Out This Jam-Packed Podcast And Learn:
- Which FREE Tool Tracy recommends that helped her build her list and boost her connections
- 3 Essential Tips For Growing Your List Right NOW!
- Marketing's Biggest Problem And How To Overcome It
- Top 4 “Eye-Opening” Marketing Mistakes That You’ve Probably Already Made
- How To “Ace” Marketing Using Social Media

Tracy Moore is an accomplished marketing expert and business owner with 20 years of experience developing client relationships through marketing and sales. She has experience with firms from start-up, to mid-market, to Fortune 100 firms. A business owner of seven years, Tracy understands the challenges small businesses face. She grew her franchise territory to the second highest grossing location out of 100 territories using her strong marketing, sales, and networking skills.

As a Marketing Business Partner in the Hewlett Packard Strategic Sales Center, Tracy designed and implemented strategic marketing plans that helped HP win multi-million dollar pursuits with companies such as American Express, International Paper, Cardinal Health, and AlleganyEnergy.

Now combining her strong marketing expertise and understanding of growing a small business, Tracy is leading Marketing Eye Dallas. She is helping small to mid-sized business owners develop solid marketing strategies and initiatives and ultimately grow their business.

Tracy The Woman With A “Marketing Eye”

How did Tracy start leading the “Marketing Eye Dallas” Marketing Agency,  to it’s known success?  Marketing Eye originally started in Australia and founded by Melissa Smith, who grew the business so large making her irresistible, that even international clients wanted to partner with her. The same time that Melissa decided to bring her business in the United States, that is the exact time also that Tracy is getting ready to sell her business which she owns for seven years. Selling her business will ultimately make her passion for marketing a living and owning a marketing firm a reality.  Marketing Eye is a perfect fit for her. After many conversations with Melissa, Tracy became the first licensed franchised owner of Marketing Eye in the US.

Marketing Agency Owner Uses This One "Free Tool" To Build Her List And Boost Her Connections - And It’s Available To Almost Everyone

Tracy highlighted that marketing is all about making a connection.

It is a human to human interaction. If you want to be successful in this business, have a Genuine Handshake. Build an online platform where like-minded people can get together and engage with one another. Cultivate your community by being involved. Being involved offers you wonders, as it will lead to you having connections with people who you never thought were out there.  Tracy continues by saying, “If you want to connect and build a great list of connections, LinkedIn is a great starting point.”

Tracy’s Top 3 Essential Tips For Growing Your List That You Need To Start Using In Your Business Right NOW!

  • Make a Genuine Connection.

    Spend time in finding people who may be good alliance partners for you, people who have the a business that’s complementary to yours.  Create a solid connection with them in a way where leads can be shared. Just imagine having a TON of qualified leads and how they can help you grow your business.

  • Do not isolate yourself.

    Are you one of the many entrepreneurs who isolate themselves while running their business? You need to stop isolating yourself right now. Again, marketing is all about making a connection. You need to learn how to Interact with a wide variety of people. Consider changing the way you interact even with your employees-- you may be surprised that they can provide you with great and valuable ideas that will positively affect your business growth and help overcome huge challenges.

  • Maximize the use of social media

    Do you have your own social or community group, like LinkedIn or Facebook groups/pages?

Are you involved in or part of an online social media community page/group? If you don’t have one, start one or at least get involved starting today. Social media nowadays, offers the greatest platform for you to make a connection. It’s especially valuable for finding other entrepreneurs that you can share your ideas with and talk about your situation. You may learn how other successful entrepreneurs balance things in their life, grow past their challenges or even find a secret formula they’re using to grow their business.  

Being part of a community or group where you can learn, share and bounce your ideas off one another will make you realize, you’re not alone and will help keep you motivated and energized.

What Is Marketing’s Biggest Problem And How To Overcome It?


Being part of the marketing industry is difficult. In this interview, Tracy points out the biggest problem in this industry. What is that problem? Not all entrepreneurs are born marketers. Some are born “Sales People” who most of the time, perceive “Sales” as "Marketing".

In reality, sales is NOT the same thing as marketing.

Tracy says, “Before sales and marketing problems can be solved, you as an entrepreneur must face this fact first.”  Once you conquered this problem, only then that you can make the right decisions for your businesses.

4 Eye-Opening Marketing Challenges That You Didn't Know

Aside from the “biggest problem” in business previously mentioned, Tracy provides below, the top 4 challenges that marketers are facing right now.

  1. No Cash Generating Clients

    No one can run a business and have employees without great clients that makes cash flow possible. Choosing, attracting and keeping the right clients is an essential part of the business that every entrepreneur should not ignore.

  2. Marketing Know-Hows

     While running a small to medium sized business, sometimes, managing cash flow is also the responsibility of the business owner. If an entrepreneur doesn’t have a rock solid understanding of what marketing is, especially the constant shifting of client goals, then the company will suffer.  

  3. Don’t want to face the reality

     Face the reality that your business needs some marketing structure and flow. Meet with marketing agencies or marketing coaches who have proven successes and let them take a look at your business. They will make sure that you are on track and working within your budget. They can also help you stay in line with what you want to do or achieve in your business.

  4. Keep Yourself Positive

     Tracy considers this the biggest challenge of them all. Every entrepreneur needs to accept the fact that there will always be ups and downs. Sad to say, some failed with their business mainly because of losing their positive outlook, they just can’t keep up with the pressure.

How To Ace Your Marketing Strategy In Social Media

Do you want people to follow you? Do you want your business to be successful? Then follow Tracy’s Time Tested, Marketing Strategies...

  1. Consistency and Transparency

     You need to ask yourself, How often do I post on my social media pages? If the answer is not so often, It’s time to check your social media strategy. Tracy highlighted that as an entrepreneur may want things to always be updated and always connected. Sending out consistent and transparent messages across all of your social media profiles, all the time, is very important.  We have to focus on building a platform where top of the mind awareness is being practiced and people can respond genuinely, engage with you by sharing insights...and where most importantly, they can make a connection with you. Try to get your followers to not just share or like your post, but also really connect with you. It’s important for them to leave valuable comments or great insights on your posts. Consistency and building your audience might take some serious time and effort, but once people are engaged and responding to you, then it’s all worth it.

  2. Love to hate Spamming

    Always have an awareness. Make sure that what you’re sending out is not spam. Tracy explains, if you’re making connections, we have to learn how to connect the right way and not just the “spam” way.

Social Media Tip (Tracy highly recommends LinkedIn, which is a great way to connect with people and make alliances for networking, sales and finding new clients, etc)

How To Have The Same Marketing Eye Like Tracy

If you want to have the same marketing eye as Tracy’s, start connecting and be engage with her now. What sort of services she offers? Tracy can help you mostly with everything about Marketing and PR. From branding to websites, to content development, creating blogs, checking your existing marketing strategy and improving it and a lot more. Everything that falls under the marketing umbrella, she can help you. 

Tracy can be contacted via her website at marketingeyedallas.com.

specialoffer

Tracy’s Irresistible Special Offer That You Have To Grab Now

She is offering a two hours, no obligation marketing discussion, where you can sit down with her and she will look at your marketing strategy. If you’re not in the Dallas area, get her special offer and you can discuss everything through Skype. If you’re in the Dallas area, good news, she can meet you. She will take a look at your social media, your web, branding, logo and we’ll also do a little bit of analysis on how that compares your other competitors in the industry, the people that you’re competing against and Tracy will let you know your business holes and gaps, including the areas that you can revisit and strengthen to improve your marketing.

 

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Tracy:              Hi. This is Tracy Moore with Marketing eye Dallas. This is social media hour with Nile and Jordan and we’re going to be talking about growing your business through social media today.

Woman:          In business and know the way forward most include social media. Perhaps you find it a bit confusing. Even frustrating. Well, you have no idea how to make it work for your business. Fear not. We interview some of the best social media experts in business who will share their experiences, ideas and knowledge. Plus offer tips and tricks to make using social media a breeze. Leverage the power of social media and grow your business now. Welcome to social media business hour with your host Nile Nickel.

Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did.

Nile:                 Jordan, I always enjoy our different news, different views segments. I still haven’t got used to the label that my wife has given it and I know we officially renamed it but --

Jordan:            Yeah. What’s wrong -- what do you not like about weird ass news?

Nile:                 I just have trouble with that ass part in it even though I’ve got an ass hat. Don’t know. I’ll work on it. Okay?

Jordan:            You’ve got to get over that.

Nile:                 I know. I know. I so much do. Well, we have a great guest tonight. You heard from the tease at the beginning. We’ve got Tracy Moore with us and Tracy is a marketing expert and business owner extraordinaire. She’s got over 20 years of experience developing client relationships through marketing and sales. I have to say something Jordan. I hear this all the time and Tracy knows that I like to make fun of bios.

Jordan:            Okay.

Nile:                 People can make fun of mine all over the place. But I hear this developing client relationships. You know what I think of? I think of that big piece of apparatus that they used to have in the -- like pharmacy CVS, Walgreens, whatever that developed photographs. We dump our clients in and they come out all developed. Don’t you wish it was that easy Tracy?

Tracy:              Oh, I do. I wish it was that easy. Yeah. Not all of them develop so well.

Nile:                 Exactly. Well, she has experience with firms from startups to mid market to fortune 100 firms. That’s a lot of ground to cover. And as a business owner of seven years Tracy understands the challenges that small businesses like so many of our listeners face every day. She grew her franchise territory to the second highest grossing location out of 100 territories using her strong marketing skills, sales and networking skills. We like to talk about networking skills because we like to talk about Linked In and I know when we were talking before we started the interview today you talked a little bit about Linked In Tracy so I know that we’ll be talking about that today.

Tracy:              Good. I love Linked In.

Nile:                 So as a marketing business partner in the Hewlett and Packard strategic sales center -- I know. It’ll get better before the end of the show.

Tracy:              Tongue twister.

Nile:                 That’s right. Tracy designed and implemented strategic marketing plans that helped HP win multimillion dollar pursuits with companies such as American Express, International paper, Cardinal health and Allegheny energy. So now combining her strong marketing expertise and the understanding of growing a small business Tracy is leading Marketing eye Dallas. Okay Tracy, so Marketing eye Dallas. Where did that name come from?

Tracy:              So it’s not mine. Though I think it’s actually a good name. Marketing eye actually started in Australia so it’s basically targeted small and medium size businesses. The founder Melisa Smith started the business about eight to nine years ago. She grew it very large in Australia. She had some international clients. Came -- she had a couple of clients in New York and decided to start and bring the business here to the US and Atlanta about two and a half years ago. I knew that I was getting ready to sell the business that I had been running for seven years and that I always wanted to go ahead and start my own marketing firm. I started doing some research to see exactly -- I sort of knew what format I was wanting to do and what type of marketing firm but I just wanted to see -- do my research, figure out what’s out there, what models I liked. I came across Marketing eye. I really liked it. I thought it was a good fit for where my experience was, where my knowledge was and the kind of clients I like to work with and there is a little piece on the Marketing eye site that said they were looking for licensees so after many Skype conversations across the pond Melisa and I talked and I am licensee number one in the United States.

Nile:                 Oh, that’s pretty cool.

Tracy:              Yeah. so that’s how I got started and I had been a franchisee for years with a company that has lots of franchisees and I said this will be good because I kind of know a little bit about how the structure will go and she has a great model so that’s how we started working together.

Nile:                 Sounds great. well, I know right now you’re helping a number of small to medium size business owners develop solid marketing strategies and initiatives to help them grow their business and I think that’s a great thing especially with the experience you have. But when I look at your experience, you’re the mother of two, you’ve got a 13 year old and you’ve got a 10 year old.

Tracy:              Yes.

Nile:                 So you’re a mother, a wife and a small business owner. What? Are you crazy? I mean, do you still have hair left?

Tracy:              Yeah, I think so. Yeah. It’s really crazy and then going into the teenage years kind of makes it even a little bit more scary. So yeah. That’s a lot to handle. It always seems really good on paper but then when you live it sometimes some days are more challenging than others.

Nile:                 Well, I have a nine year old daughter and she was talking to me this weekend and she looked into my eyes very seriously -- in fact Jordan, I haven’t told you this story yet. She looked at me and she said dad, you know what? And her -- we call her Liberty. I said no. what Liberty? And she goes you know, puberty really sucks. So with a 13 year old and a 10 year old guess what I -- I understand where you’re at and I agree with her. Puberty sucks.

Jordan:            From the mouths of babes.

Tracy:              Yes, yes.

Nile:                 I figured that was her bit of wisdom that comes into the podcast this week. But let me ask you a question just before we really get started and we get heavy into things. What’s the one thing do you think that most people don’t know about you but that’s sort of fascinating and interesting at least to you? That’s a hard question, isn't it?

Tracy:              Yeah. It is a very hard question. I’m trying to think what would be most interesting. Obviously I was going to say I get bored easily because I keep starting businesses and I don’t generally jump to new companies a lot but I do start new ideas which is kind of why it’s fun to work with other businesses because I can just pretend I’m their marketing person and I get a lot of them and it keeps me very active. I mean, I just -- I guess I never really intended for this to be my journey I guess. I always thought that I was going to end up to be a college professor and it just -- that’s not the -- I -- that was my intent all along was to be a professor and now I’m a business owner so kind of a different trail that I went down but I kind of like it.

Nile:                 Well, we could call you a professor of practical business applications now.

Tracy:              Yeah. I’ll take that.

Nile:                 There we go. I haven’t answered that question for most people Jordan but I’ve been thinking about it.

Jordan:            Okay.

Nile:                 Because I talked to you about it a little bit today but the thing that I think most people would find surprising about me because I think in today’s world it’s unusual and that is that I always have two silver dollars in my pocket.

Jordan:            Yes. Yes, you do.

Nile:                 How many people carry silver dollars anymore?

Jordan:            Just weird ones.

Nile:                 Just weird -- well, I have one that’s a money clip but i have one that’s the same year as my oldest son’s birth.

Jordan:            Okay.

Nile:                 And so I just find that fascinating. It’s just sort of a neat thing. So we talk about some weird things that people would find interesting and they’d never know but I’ve never asked you Jordan.

Jordan:            Why I carry silver dollars around?

Nile:                 We’ll leave you alone for now. We’ll get to the interesting part. Tracy’s far more interesting than you.

Jordan:            And cuter.

Nile:                 Much cuter.

Jordan:            Yes.

Nile:                 Much cuter.

Jordan:            Yeah.

Nile:                 I can look at her picture and smile. I’ll leave that alone with you. So you use social media a lot in your businesses and we talked about that just a bit. What do you use and why?

Tracy:              So I had an art business. I still actually have it but -- going into the hand off stages. But with that business I used Facebook and anytime that you’re doing a B to C it’s a really great way to communicate to people and I used it as a communication tool. Letting people know when we were going to have art classes, what children were drawing, things that they may be interested in from a family standpoint so if there was an art festival that was going on I’d add in a little bit of information if I knew about something and I thought it was a really great thing that they might be interested in doing because they had children and I had children. And I think it was -- and I’ll come back to this several times. It’s always about making a connection with people. They want to see a human side, they want to -- they don’t want to look at something that seems static or is boring. That isn't a way to engage people, it’s not a way for people to want to share anything that you have and it’s also not a way for them to respond back. When people did respond back so that they love the pitcher that a child drew or grandma wrote oh, good job Johnny. We would chime in and a lot of times we would really encourage the teacher because I don’t -- I run the business but not teach the classes. The teacher to say we had so much fun in that class. It’s just a nice way to connect. Working now in a marketing business where we do so much from a B to B standpoint Linked In is terrific because once again you make those connections, you can talk back and forth, you can comment on people’s posts, they can comment on yours. And once again you are basically making a handshake to people, having a conversation with them and engaging them. when people just post really boring stuff or they just keep reposting other people’s stuff but they don’t make any comments that’s really boring and not very engaging and no one will want to engage with them so really what you’re doing is -- like we’re doing here is you want to have a conversation. Twitter works both from a B to B and a B to C standpoint so those are the three primary ones. I should probably get myself a little more on Instagram. My kids go at me all the time because they love Instagram but -- which -- but if you have a visual business Instagram is terrific for that.

Jordan:            Well, let’s talk about those. But first let’s go back -- I want to talk about the art classes that you were talking about earlier. What kind of art was it by the way?

Tracy:              It was drawing so visual drawing skills for children three and a half to 12.

Jordan:            Oh, that’s cool. Okay. And did you build a website for that?

Tracy:              So the website -- it’s a franchise organization. There is a franchise or -- and then you have what they call mini sites and that’s a great way for you to be able to optimize your site so when people were looking for locations in the North Dallas area they could find me. So I manipulated it a little bit but I didn’t necessarily create it.

Jordan:            Okay. Good, good. So I guess the point that I was driving to is that you didn’t spend a whole bunch of time trying to cultivate your list? I mean, that’s really what we’re talking about is getting a list of people who are likeminded, who have similar interests. You went to social media to really cultivate that list. I mean, it sounds like you had a micro site but it was really kind of just to use it because it was there and why not, right. But you didn’t spend thousands of dollars building up a site to build your community and your list. You went to social media and you cultivated it there first.

Tracy:              Exactly. And then on every communication I would send out I would have the Facebook link and then you want to go ahead and when you get people in -- and once you get involve you want them to share it with other people and that’s kind of how you can cultivate that.

Jordan:            Yeah. I absolutely love it. and by the way Nile, I mean, how many entrepreneurs do we run into where it never occurs to them that all they really have to do is build a Facebook page or a Facebook group or maybe a Linked In group and then just go and get those hot prospects or those people who are part of their community and just get them to engage with them there instead of spending all the money getting a website built and business cards and whatever else. You could start a lot easier.

Nile:                 You absolutely can and I so much like what Tracy said here because what she’s talked about is engagement and we know how critical it is to engage with people. It’s just -- it’s one of the most overlooked things that happen today so when we look at the engagement we know it’s critical but she talked about building her list through it, she talked about communication so I know all of those things absolutely were critical and part of what Tracy was doing to build her business. And so I can't wait to hear how she built her business and what her challenges were in our very next segment.

Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did.

Nile:                 Hey Jordan.

Jordan:            Nile.

Nile:                 Our first segment was so great I can't wait to hear more from Tracy and what she’s done to build her business but Tracy one of the things that I’m really curious about is I know that every time that somebody starts off and you’d mentioned in the first segment for that matter; you’d mentioned how you really always thought you’d be a college professor. Obviously there were a number of things that happened along the way that changed your path. You’ve had some challenge. What have been the most difficult lessons you’ve learned in this process and challenges in building the business you’ve been building?

Tracy:              Well, I mean, with any business I think there’s a lot of challenges. I went to a school that was all about entrepreneurship and undergrad and I remember the one thing that they told us which always will come back to me and it’s so true is cash flow is king. I mean, you must have cash flow client. You can't run a business and have employees without some clients and cash flow coming in. so that was -- that’s always been a big issue with every business that I’d had. I’d try to make sure that I’ve always kind of padded the amount that I need because I worked in the corporate environment for years so I would go to work, they would pay me, that’s how it worked out. Now, working for myself I work really, really hard. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer to get paid than other times. And then there’s always also trying to always find that balance so you -- work starts coming in, you’re like great, this is terrific, I’ve got lots of work coming in, I have to hire someone new but you don’t want to hire someone that’s really great but maybe the work goes away because you have to make sure that there’s always that balance. So I think with any business owner that’s always one of the biggest challenges and I think the other big challenge is just staying really positive because the business has ups and downs. Sometimes you take it a little bit personal but it’s always business and so I kind of try to come back to -- okay. What would I do if I was running someone else’s business? How would I respond to the things that go on? But at the end of the day I pretty much put my heart and soul into the businesses that I run.

Nile:                 Well, no. I could also see how cash flow is so critical in that process too. But you mentioned something in that explanation balance and clearly you have a lot to balance. You’re a business owner, you’re a mother, you’re a husband -- you’re a husband. You’re a wife. You’ve got a lot to balance there. Do you really think that there’s such a thing as balance in being a business owner or for that matter in life today?

Tracy:              I think as soon as you achieve it it kind of slips and everything changes. Kind of like raising children, right. So as soon as you get used to pre puberty, clean years, then they go into your teen years. Same thing about -- as soon as you get them to sleep at night then they start walking all day. So it’s -- I mean, I think the same thing with business. I mean, as soon as you get everything balanced then you’re like oh, gosh. What’s -- and now I need more clients and then that’s more clients come in and everything gets a little bit more hectic and you’re like oh. And then you get that all under control. So no. I mean, I think it’s an ongoing struggle. there’s a couple of things though that I do that just sort of help me and one of those things is I kind of structure my business so that there’s certain times that I spend with my family and those are family times so it doesn’t seep in too much into all of my personal life and then also I exercise. I run, I do pilates, I do yoga. It’s not that I’m exercise clean. It’s just that it’s nice just to have a little bit of time that is mine and it’s away from the phone and it’s away from the computer and it’s away from anyone asking me a question so that’s always nice.

Nile:                 That makes perfect, perfect sense and I think those are absolutely great tips for trying to get some of the balance that you’ve got to achieve. So let’s jump back into the business side and the social media part of the business that you do. Clearly you help a lot of businesses with their marketing so and you’re talking about what to do with social media so how about we talk about the do’s and dont’s but let’s talk about the do’s first. If you were to give a client sort of the high level advice. Maybe 10000 foot advice on what they should be doing with social media as a sales tool what would your advice be?

Tracy:              Well, you want to have some consistency, you want things to link together, you want to have a consistent message, you want to have consistency in how often you put information out on social media so something people tell me they use social media and then I ask how many blogs they’ve written and then they’re like one. Six months ago. And how many times have you tweeted or how many times have you posted something on Linked In? Well, I did once and no one responded or liked it. So it really has to -- there has to be a consistency because what you’re doing is you’re basically showing up. you want to build that top of mind awareness but you also want people to get to know you and people don’t get to know you if they’ve only seen you one time so definitely be consistent and then make connections and connections go two ways so if you want people to comment on the things that you post you need to be able to be engaging other people as well and the things that they’re posting.

Nile:                 Yeah. I think that’s great advice. The consistency thing is so big. And I see so many people that say hey, I’m a blogger. And you’re right. They’ve published one blog. I guess that’s sort of like a virgin. You’re only a virgin once. I don’t know. That’s sort of my whacky mind. Maybe a way to remember. You’ve to have consistency in doing this. Just because you’ve done it once doesn't change your title. Well, that’s the do’s. What about the dont’s?

Tracy:              Okay. So the dont’s are -- yeah. Don’t be annoying I guess is one of the things. I mean, and when I say that I mean make sure that you don’t over tweet, over share information so Linked In is a very -- is a great place to share great business advice and it’s nice to be human, show a little personal side but you don’t want to expose yourself to everyone because no one is interested in that and even on Facebook. So Facebook is a place where a lot of times people are very exposed but if you’re handing a business _____33:48 a little bit. Also make sure that what you’re sending out is not just really spamming so if you’re making connections on Linked In which is a great way to connect with -- making alliances, networking, sales, finding new clients, sending messages. That’s a terrific way to do it but when you make those connections you need to have read their profile, looked at their website and make a personal comment to them that connects you and shows that you actually took a little bit of time and you’re not sending the same email to them that you sent to a 100 other people.

Nile:                 Such a good piece of advice. I have a friend that will remain nameless now. I actually have more than one friend but this particular friend -- well, it goes back to that annoying part. I might press some buttons there. Who knows? But this particular friend is just getting ready to release a book and it will be out just a little bit later in the fall and I saw his post about it earlier today and I commented on it and he liked the comment and he immediately sent a comment back and then I went to look at his feed and he had probably at the time I looked at it maybe 30 comments in his feed and he had responded to every single one of them.

Jordan:            Oh, good for him. Good for him.

Nile:                 That goes with the engagement. It really goes with the connection, carrying on the conversation and all of that. so I like your advice there but one of the things that everybody talks about today is being transparent and so how do we manage this transparency especially on a site like Linked In that’s sort of a stiff business professional site? And I love Linked In but Linked In is a little bit more that way. How do we manage the transparency without crossing the boundaries?

Tracy:              Well, I mean, I think there -- yeah. There’s always those rules of what -- politics and religion shouldn’t be there. Things that you would say when you go to a networking event -- sometimes there’s a great story that you can tell but it’s not so insanely personal. I think that there’s other places to be really personal. Oh, and I’m going to add this one thing because it just drives me nuts. But it is a very professional place so that your photo should be this -- should be professional and then on your personal Facebook page you can have a picture of yourself at a party and that’s totally fine because everybody will say oh, yeah. I was there too. But that shouldn’t be your Linked In photo. That’s also being a little bit overly open. But I do think it’s a gray line and I’ve talked to a lot of bloggers who write blogs and there’s this gray line that you kind of need to walk because nobody wants to read a blog that reads like something a professor would’ve -- going back to the being a professor. That sounds like something that you would read in a classroom. You want it to be engaging, you want it to be fun, you want there to be a story and you want someone to seem kind of human but you also don’t want to know all the skeletons that are in the closet.

Nile:                 No. That makes perfect sense and I think I could go with that. one of the things that I found that’s interesting -- I’m a real analytical guy and I like to look at the analytics on social media and clearly politics just don’t play in social media at all. They have a very strong negative taint that they bring to your post as analytics show. But the one thing that surprised me is because sometimes you could put religious post up there and I know I look at them and I may not highly of them one way or another but the religious posts as far as the analytics go don’t seem to affect the way people interact or view you.

Tracy:              Yeah. That might be true.

Nile:                 Yeah. So politics, bad spelling, bad grammar -- I’m dead already. And cursing. Those are the things that really tend to pull somebody’s social media post down. So I find that interesting and your comments are great on that. I want to ask you a quick question. We’ve only got a couple of minutes left in this segment but -- and we may have to carry from this segment to the next segment with the answer and that’s okay but you talk about growing your business through networking on social media. What’s sort of the big tip that you could give our listeners as a takeaway from that?

Tracy:              Well, I think it’s just good to go find other people who may be a good alliance for you so who do a business that’s complementary to yours, one where you can share leads. Also as an entrepreneur a lot of times you feel a little isolated so you’re running a business, you may have employees but you don’t have anyone who you can share ideas on growth or challenges so I’ve also used social media to find other entrepreneurs that I can talk to and say well, how do you handle this situation or how do you balance these things and it’s just as nice because then you feel like you have some -- a group that you can learn from, bounce ideas off of and not feel so alone on the entrepreneurial journey.

Nile:                 This segment Jordan has been power packed. We’ve talked about cash flow, balance, consistency, one of the do’s that you want to do, making connections and connections are sort of a two way street. Man, just so many things and it’s always neat when we get that heavy into something like that and it’s just so power packed. So this is definitely a segment that people want to go back to and listen to over and over again. Hey listen, we’ll be right back. Join us on our next segment.

Jordan:            Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did.

Nile:                 Wow Jordan, we’re already into segment three of our interview on the social media business hour with Tracy.

Jordan:            Time flies while you’re having fun.

Nile:                 Tracy you are such an awesome guest. You’ve given such great information. I’m blown away quite personally so thank you.

Tracy:              Well, thank you. Thanks for having me.

Nile:                 Well, it’s great to be here. but I think you’ve got so much more to share and one of the things that we want to know -- I know you’ve got a special offer for some of our listeners as well so we’ll talk about that when we get to the end of the segment here but we talked about how you could grow your business through networking on social media. You gave us some great tips in the last segment. One of the things I loved was you talked about finding complementary businesses that you could share leads with or anything. I’m curious. Can you expand that just a bit and maybe give us some examples that you’ve used?

Tracy:              Yeah. So I’m always looking for people that i can help solve of issue that they may have, right. A gap in their business, something that they’re needing. So there’s a couple I’ve reached out and been working with some venture capitalists so what they do a lot of times is they decide whether or not they’re going to invest in a company and they’re usually great financial and ops people so they go in and they can run all the numbers and look at where a business should be but one of the areas that they generally aren’t as strong in is in the marketing and the market analysis. So I’ll go in and be able to do an analysis of where the market sits, where the market’s going, growing, where that particular businesses in comparison to others in the industry. We break it down with all the different marketing elements and then we can relay that information back. Another thing that we do for venture capitalists is when they do decide that they’re going to invest in a company most generally they need an infusion of marketing so they need either rebranding. A lot of them need new websites because their websites are old. They need to be optimized, social media, all of those things. What we’ve found is a lot of these businesses are actually -- have -- were very strong, did very well for years, the owners are older as they transfer to more millenials or a younger generation. Some of those things that you need now. Social media, really great website for inbound marketing. They just don’t currently exist. So that’s where we can jump in. I’ve also found people who do the same thing that I do. They outsource HR services so if someone needs HR services a lot of times they’ll also need marketing services so we work with the same types of businesses and the same types of people who say hey, I don’t really want to bring in a full staff. I would really like to have you either come in and supplement the staff that I have or be my entire department. So that’s been really helpful because you can share those leads and you do a similar type of business or you fill a need that someone needs.

Nile:                 Well, I like the idea of looking at synergistic businesses too. I heard you say that and it makes sense. If somebody’s got to outsource marketing and they’re looking at branding and new websites and all of that type stuff it’s sort of -- it makes sense that they might need to outsource some other things like HR services for example. A perfect, perfect idea. I really appreciate that illustration as well. So now we’ve got through the do’s and dont’s of social media, we’ve got through some of the ways to grow your business through networking on social media. How do you best target these specific groups that you’re talking about using social media? And I’m curious if Linked In is your golden tool or if you use other things as well.

Tracy:              Well, Linked In is my favorite so -- and Linked In is great because you can actually go through -- I think sometimes you have to purchase a little bit higher package but once you do you can go in and sort exactly what you’re looking for so you can find the size of business, the industry and then you can look at the different individuals. A lot of times what I’ll do is I’ll look through, I’ll go check out their website, I can read their profile so I know a little bit more about them and then I can determine whether or not I might be able to help them. So that’s a great way from an outbound standpoint that you can find people and -- so I like Linked In in that way. Twitter, you can always go -- there’s always following other followers so you can look and say there is a business that may be complementary to yours, maybe your competitors but you can always go and follow those followers and then start making connections in that regard. With Linked In it’s a little bit more direct and you can definitely kind of stick out your hand to do a handshake so that’s a little bit faster than Twitter but I know that Twitter can be very successful just for making those communications. Most generally, when I start making the communications on Twitter I jump over and also connect with those people on Linked In.

Nile:                 I use Linked In the same way and I think it’s great for everybody to use it. It surprises me how many people don’t. So great advice there and --

Tracy:              And like with any other marketing you have to connect with multiple people so a lot of times I meet with people and I ask them if they’ve used it in that manner and they say well, I did and I contacted two people and they didn’t respond back and -- like well, that’s because you only contacted two people. You have to contact -- sometimes it takes quite a few people to find people who are wanting your services or who are engaged on Linked In. so just because they’re out there doesn’t mean that they’re engaged even though it should ping over to their email. But it’s also like going to a networking event. If you went to a networking event and you talked to two people and left or a party and you only talk to two people you may not have very much fun or meet anybody very interesting so sometimes you’ve got to talk to a few more people to find the people that are interesting that you want to connect with.

Nile:                 I hear that advice so many times and you know my weird mind Jordan. I always get different thoughts with it. But I always come back to networking being so much like personal relationships, like dating and can you imagine only asking two people out on dates in your life? Because one of the two -- you’re looking for your potential partner but you’re only going to ask two of them.

Jordan:            Yeah, yeah.

Nile:                 How many people would remain single forever?

Jordan:            Yeah. That’s a good point. I wonder why people do that because you and I both have heard that kind of story over and over again. Do you think it’s fear? Do you think people are just generally afraid of putting themselves out there?

Nile:                 I do. I do. I think after you’ve done it a 100 times -- at that point in time I think you’re comfortable about it and you’ve sort of just -- you go with the flow, you’re having fun with it.

Jordan:            How about you Tracy? Do you think there are any other emotions wrapped up in that?

Tracy:              I mean, I think there’s two reasons. I mean, one I think is fear. Yeah. There’s always that I was rejected by two people and then also I think people are expecting that -- well, I reached out to someone. Why didn’t they reach out to me. Now, generally the people who tell me this that they’ve reached out to two people when we start getting contacts and we start connecting with people on Linked In I’ll tell them oh, well, we’ve had five people respond to you and here’s what they say and they’re usually like oh, I’m not interested in at least four of them. Well, likewise. It’s a -- it works the same way. So it’s also like if you’re driving down the street and you’re hungry and you see all these signs for all this different food, right. You’re not going to stop at all of them hopefully. So you pick the ones that you think are going to be a good fit for you and so if a client isn't -- if I’m not a right fit for them well, they’re probably not a right fit for me so what we want to have is a really good, strong working relationship that’s successful for both of us.

Nile:                 You looked at my profile picture on Linked In, didn’t you? I know. Because talking about those fast food restaurants and stopping at every one of them. Just saying.

Jordan:            You just don’t want those business owners to feel bad that you passed by them and didn’t give them any business.

Nile:                 That’s really what it is. Yeah. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried this but have you ever done a fast food gourmet meal? That’s where you figure out who has the absolute best French fries or onion rings, whatever it may be. The best burger or a taco or whatever it may be and you end up going to five or six of these to prepare the perfect fast food gourmet -- you’ve never done that?

Jordan:            Only in America.

Nile:                 Only in America.

Jordan:            Only in America.

Nile:                 Well listen, after all of this fun and frivolity I know a lot of people would like to engage with you. What sort of services do you offer and how do people best engage with you?

Tracy:              So we’re a full service marketing firm meaning that we can do everything from branding to websites to content development, blogs, your traditional marketing collateral, PR. So basically everything that falls under that marketing umbrella we can do for them. They can contact us on our website at marketingeyedallas.com so we’re really easy to find.

Nile:                 Now the eye is E-Y-E? Not just the letter I?

Tracy:              E-Y-E. Yeah. So it’s like the eye, like seeing. So basically what we are is we’re your marketing eye. We take a look at your marketing, find out where the holes are and then we keep watch to make sure that everything is consistent, running smoothly and working to the best that it can.

Nile:                 And of course we share all these links out on social media business hour so everybody could always go to social media business hour and find all of the links that you’re talking about. Now, one of the things that you’ve done is you’ve got a special offer for our listeners. Now, I want to tell our listeners right up front. I think she’s crazy. I mean, I think she’s totally crazy. So I’m not even going to talk about the special offer. I’m going to let you talk about it because I’m not claiming any liability here. I think you’re doing something that is just tremendously powerful and valuable for any listener that would like to take you up on the offer so could you tell us a little bit about that?

Tracy:              Yeah. So we are offering two hours, no obligation for us to sit down and look at your marketing. So if you’re not in the Dallas area we can Skype. If you’re in the Dallas area we can meet but what we’ll do is we’ll look at your social media, your web, your branding, your logo and we’ll also do a little bit of analysis on how that compares to maybe some of the other competitors in the industry and the people that you’re competing against and let you know kind of where those holes and gaps are and what areas that you could strengthen to improve your marketing. So many times that our clients -- marketing is not the business that they’re in so they think that things are going really well and then we turn down and we say things aren’t really going as well. we have a client who gave us all of their social media the other day and we realized that some other social media’s a little negative so we want to make sure that we’re turning that around and figure out how to change that. Sometimes we found that we have clients who have multiple Twitter accounts and they had no idea so some are dying and they’re splitting their people -- splitting their followers. So we can go ahead and take a look and find out where there might be some issues and where there is definitely opportunity for improvement.

Nile:                 Well, we will have the links for that special offer on our website at socialmediabusinesshour.com. I think that is quite generous. I know that there are so many marketing firms that -- for that type of sort of consult you could easily pay a 1000 dollars or more so I think that that is a huge offer Tracy and as the host of the show I thank you so much because I love when our listeners get great value out of the show. So thank you so much for that.

Tracy:              Thanks. I love helping businesses though.

Nile:                 Well, I know that they’re going to love what you can do for them and to our listeners, I’d like to thank you for joining us on the social media business hour. Hopefully you learned a few new ideas or concepts. Maybe you were just reminded of a few things you already know but you haven’t been doing to improve or grow your business. Our desire is that you take just one of the things that you learned or were reminded of today and you apply it to your business this week. We know that a small change can make a big difference. I’m committed to bringing you at least one new idea each week that you could implement so go back and listen to either segment one, two or three. Maybe all three of them. Identify just one small change that you could make to your business this week and see what a big difference it will make for you. So until next week, this is Nile Nickel. Now, go make it happen.

Woman:         Social media business hour is powered by linkedinfocus.com. For show notes, updates and to pick up the latest tips and tricks head over to socialmediabusinesshour.com. Until next time. Thanks for listening.

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Weblinks:

Website: www.marketingeyedallas.com
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/marketingeye
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracymooremktg
Twitter: @marketingeyeus / @tracy.mooremktg

 

 

Direct download: SMBH_119_-_Tracy_Moore_-_FINAL.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Do you ever wonder how successful entrepreneurs streamline their businesses?

In this wonderful interview, Natalie Sisson shares with us her magic formula for creating freedom and success through streamlining everything about her business.

It takes most entrepreneurs a long time to get this right, if they ever get it and Natalie openly admits, took her awhile to figure out, too.  Save yourself time and frustration – join us for some great business advice:

-Top 3 Stages For Building A “Freedom Lifestyle” Business
- How One Entrepreneur Can Live Out Of A Suitcase And Still Be Successful
- Natalie’s Magic Formula For Success
- Timeless Business Advice From An Entrepreneur Who’s “Been There”
- How To Leave Your Legacy Intact

 

Natalie Sisson is No #1 bestselling author, podcaster, speaker and adventurer who believes everybody has the right to choose freedom in business and adventure in life. Shes on a mission to ensure 100,000+ entrepreneurs do just that by 2020 over at the SuitcaseEntrepreneur.com

Born in New Zealand Natalies built her multiple six figure business from her laptop over the last 5 years while living out of her suitcase, traveling to 70 countries and showing others how to build a profitable online freedom business that supports their ideal lifestyle through her definitive Freedom Plan program.

A Mission Of Freedom And Adventure…

Natalie is on a mission. Her mission is to ensure that 1,00000+ entrepreneurs will have their well-deserved freedom with their businesses and an adventure in their life by Year 2020.

She provides some terrific resources at suitcaseentrepreneur.com.

Natalie's Magic Formula For Success

Do you ever wonder how successful entrepreneurs streamline their business? In this interview Natalie shares with us the magic formula for creating freedom and success, which she admits, took her awhile to figure out.

What is that magic formula? The answer isn’t as simple as just one thing BUT if there was one very important element that stands above all others, it is  DISCIPLINE. She tells us that the more disciplined you are around your team, the more disciplined and organized your team is.

Just watch.  As you become more disciplined, you’ll see your team change in the way they take care of your business.

Natalie’s “Sexy Operating Procedures”

Natalie further said, because she and her team work with discipline and strictly follow her protocol (named “The Sexy Operating Procedures”) she can take as much time off as she wants (within reason) and still be confident that her business will still make money.

Even without her being physically there, her business still operates just fine.  

If You’ve Ever Wondered How To Do It, Then Just Ask Some One Who Already Has...

Natalie has found what she absolutely loves.  She is able to travel around the world, taking on new coaching clients and leisurely write new blog entries... all because of her supreme confidence in having built a tremendous business.

Success Isn’t Always Easy

Knowing she wanted an awesome lifestyle, Natalie committed herself with incredible discipline, to building her community, portfolio of products & programs.

Natalie’s Timeless Business Advice

Her one piece of advice, live and breath what you preach. If you focus and discipline yourself into just one thing that you truly love, the rewards will be wonderful.  Don’t forget to put a lot of effort and fun into it.

Make sure you make an effort to build a business around people who  appreciate what you offer, your work and share the same vision.

Find people who want to have the same adventure and share the same definition of freedom as you do.  

Why Would YOU Want To Live A Suitcase Life

Natalie describes herself as an entrepreneur who is Rich and Homeless. She is living a “suitcase life”. Natalie does indeed own a house and she doesn’t care about what other people think of, her property and belongings. All Natalie cares about is that her place is enjoyable, where her guests can feel comfortable  and welcome.

She believes that material things really don’t matter.

Even if you have the fanciest car, the most incredible sofa, the most amazing artwork hanging on your wall, none of this stuff matters.

How To Leave Your Legacy Intact

Natalie shares with us, that there is so much more beyond having possessions. Let’s just say that you were to leave this planet tomorrow. Nobody will remember you for the car or the expensive artwork that you had.  You have to aim and hope that people will remember you for the legacy that you’ve left through the amazing work you’ve done and from the people, whose lives you’ve touched. That is much more important than material things.

Invest in experiences and in memories that can never be taken away. In the end, those things are really your priceless possessions...and no amount of money can buy them.

Three Stages Of Building A Freedom Lifestyle Business

Natalie quickly turned her attention to building an online business that helps others escape the confines of an office, work remotely, still be productive and earn good money.

Below, Natalie shares with us her time-tested, three stages of building a “Freedom Lifestyle” for any business.

  • The Freedom Mindset -  This is the stage that is the hardest for people to really understand. It’s the freedom mindset. She explains that once you have a business or a career that affords you to have a little bit of more flexibility, a lot of people start to struggle. Their mindset changes to “I don’t necessarily have to work a normal working week nine to five”, “I can take more time off”, “I can take a mid week weekend”, “I don’t have to be based in an office”. “I don’t need to have clients that are in the same location as mine”.Despite the flexibility, you should not lose your vision and still be clear about it. Having great friends and family who keep you reminded about your vision is also a good idea and will also help you stay on track.
  • The Financial Freedom - The second stage “Financial Freedom” which really comes down to how we setup our business or career. Do you have enough revenue and income to afford a great lifestyle, that will not tie you down at the same time?Natalie’s goal for financial freedom is having a revenue stream or a stable cash flow that will allow flexibility in whatever you’re doing and lets you be involved either actively or passively in your business. These are the nuts and bolts of building an online business.If you want Financial freedom in your business, you should carefully consider your business model.  As an example, what are your plans for social media, sales strategies, sales funnels and outsourcing?  What are the systems you’ll used to create your business?
  • The Lifestyle Freedom - And the final part is lifestyle freedom. This is asking yourself, “What sort of a lifestyle do I want?” “How am I going to live it?”, “How often do I want to travel, how much time do I want to spend at home?”, “How will I travel?”, “how do I pack lightly?”. It’s really thinking about minimalism and how do you get rid of unnecessary possessions that are weighing you down to be more free.

Natalie Talks About The Transparency Of Living A Suitcase Life

While she says that she “really enjoys the constant change” her travel brings, it also gives her a few downsides. For instance, it can often be difficult for her to forge long-lasting, meaningful relationships with people. Structuring days can also pose a challenge for her. She hoped that her businesses will get over the fact that she doesn’t need to be present to reach out and connect with people and still add value.

As a result of this, she plans on slowing things down.

Natalie is looking forward to spending a little longer in the places she visits. She looks forward to finding somebody who’s up for an adventure to share and for moving around as well.

The Ultimate Goal

Natalie hopes that more people will be able to live her way in the future.

She wants more entrepreneurs to build and design their businesses based on what they love doing and around their lifestyle needs. She hoped also that everyone will aim on having a lifestyle business that will give all the freedom to take a time off at any time.  This means especially for that time you might need to drop everything to take care of yourself, relationships and family.

In that circumstance, she wants you to still have the confidence that your business will be stable and will still generate income even when you’re not around.

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Natalie: Hi. I’m Natalie Sisson, the suitcase entrepreneur and I once was almost arrested in Sydney airport for being a little bit silly with one of the security officers and telling him that he wouldn’t find explosives in my suitcase. That he’d actually in fact find them strapped to my chest. I thought it was really funny at the time. He didn’t think it was funny at all. If I’d been in America I probably would’ve been arrested. Not my smartest move on my travels.

Woman: In business and know the way forward most include social media. Perhaps you find it a bit confusing. Even frustrating. Well, you have no idea how to make it work for your business. Fear not. We interview some of the best social media experts in business who will share their experiences, ideas and knowledge. Plus offer tips and tricks to make using social media a breeze. Leverage the power of social media and grow your business now. Welcome to social media business hour with your host Nile Nickel.

Jordan: Hello and thank you again for joining us. This is Nile’s trusty sidekick and co-host Jordan and I’d like to take a moment to share with you how you can benefit from Nile’s incredible experience using social media for real business success. If you’re an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business then using social media might be the most cost effective and time effective way to get your business real results. That’s not to mention much of what you can do to get those terrific results on social media is even free. Take Linked In for example. Nile always says it’s the best social media platform for business today. And that’s why I recommend you go to linkedinfocus.com and start your social media education today. Sign up for Nile’s free tips, tricks and strategies. Once again, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds. Go to linkedinfocus.com today. You’ll be glad you did.

Nile: Hey, welcome back. And after our funny news story there -- obviously you heard the tease at the beginning of the show with Natalie Sisson and by the way with the tease that Natalie gave us at the beginning of the show -- if you take a picture of Natalie I think if I was on the other side of that I would be laughing but let me tell you a little bit about Natalie. Maybe together with her. But Natalie Sisson is a number one bestselling author, podcaster, speaker and adventurer. Definitely an adventurer. Who believes everybody has the right to choose freedom in business and adventure in life. She’s on a mission and I love this mission. In fact, Natalie I’m going to ask you about this as soon as I tell everybody what your mission is. Your mission is to ensure 100000 plus entrepreneurs have freedom in their business and adventure in their life by 2020 over at suitcaseentrepreneur.com how did you come up with that and how do you go about helping people do that?

Natalie: Actually I just changed it recently to a million because somebody told me I was playing too small and when I started my business around five years ago that seemed like a pretty big number for me to reach either directly or indirectly through spreading the word in my books and my podcast and my blog and my programs and my retreats and my workshops around the world so now it’s a million people. So I’ve got a lot of work to do. But how I help people doing that is really showing them what’s possible and I think a lot of people are able to build a business that supports their ideal lifestyle. They just have to get really clear on what their ideal lifestyle looks like. And freedom means a lot of different things to a lot of different people and so for me it’s just getting them really clear about if you could wake up tomorrow and do whatever you wanted, spend time with the right people, be in a location that you wanted, what would your life look like and what would you be doing and how would you be spending your time? And it’s a great place for people to start and from there I can then get them to look at how they’re going to monetize themselves, build a business that’s mobile and really make revenue and make enough money to support their lifestyle and have an amazing life. That’s not the specifics of how I help them do it but that’s essentially the overall division of what I’m trying to help them with.

Nile: One of the things that I find fascinating is people might detect you have a little bit of a different accent.

Natalie: I have a different accent. Awesome accent.

Nile: Might even say a southern accent. I think it’s awesome too. Sounds very romantic I might add but that’s just me. But you come from New Zealand and you came up with this big bold thing. You’ve been living it, you’ve been doing it so by the way, this isn't a -- just a vain promise. You’ve been out there doing it. But New Zealand’s a fairly small country, not heavily populated. What brought all this on? I’m just really curious.

Natalie: That’s a great question. Well, it is paradise here in New Zealand. I’m actually just back here visiting family and it is a beautiful place but it’s also as I like to say on top of the world so there’s a whole lot more world out there to explore. And ever since I was a kid I’ve been traveling, my parents have been amazing. They’re both from Europe. They took my sister and I on tons of boat travels and so I just have this massive curiosity about the rest of the world and the countries and the cultures that I wanted to explore but what lead me to this point of living out of a suitcase and running a business and teaching other people how to travel the world and create a business that they love is really I think just kind of partly by accident and partly because I really wanted to not be stuck in an office working for other people so when I did finally go out on my own and become an entrepreneur and start my business and run some workshops I took everything that I did online and thought if I can make money from anywhere online from my laptop then I don’t need to be in one place to do it. So that’s what started the adventure and freedom quest.

Nile: So you’ve mentioned that your parents took you as a younger adult, a child on a number of trips. Is that where the inspiration really came from?

Natalie: I don’t know. I mean, I love that they’ve always encouraged us to travel. But as I said the inspirations probably come from a myriad of things that happen in my life. I recently found a photo of myself in a suitcase when I was a kid. I’m like literally poking out of a suitcase. And if I look back on my university studies, all my corporate jobs that I used to host, the cofounding and technology company, everything’s always been around technology, information management, communications, presenting, magazine style work and travel combined so I really just pulled together marketing, brand management from my corporate jobs, the technology side and social media from the company I cofounded and then my love for being able to teach, learn, teach and learn and just really be able to do that from anywhere. So it was -- like I think an accident or genius really on my behalf to be able to do it and probably a very strong longing from the get go to still be able to incorporate travel into anything that I do.

Nile: How many miles would you say that you travel in a given year?

Natalie: Oh, I don’t know because I work in kilometers. But a lot. For example, just coming back --

Nile: Well, we could go to kilometers. That’s fine.

Natalie: Do you know what? I’ve never really actually taken the time to look at that because probably it would scare me. But just for example coming back to New Zealand I -- it was a 37 hour journey because I had a flight from Lisbon to Dubai. Then I had a nine hour wait in an airport which was actually not as bad as it sounded. Then I had a 13 hour flight to Melbourne, a four hour wait there and then a three and a half hour to New Zealand and I think I was looking and there were at least 10 -- or was it 12 and a half thousand kilometers on one of those legs alone so I’ve taken a lot of trips already this year and more to come so I don’t even know. Probably more like you with your 100000 miles I’m used to do in a year.

Nile: Yeah, well, one of the things that I found and I’m going to get a little personal with you if it’s okay. I know that -- I had a family at the time and it was really hard on my family life to do that. I’ve got to believe for family or dating or whatever it may be that’s a pretty difficult thing to do. Have you found that or does it matter?

Natalie: Yeah. I mean, obviously if I had family independence which by the way is not something that I do want so that’s the reason that I can't be even more free. I’m sure it would be even more complex or challenging but I’ve actually interviewed and profiled a lot of people in my community. I have lots of customers and clients who have families and they do make it happen. It’s awesome to see how they do it. They go off in RVs around the world and they go off to Guatemala and get their kids involved in nonprofits or working on the land or home schooling so there’s always ways to do what you want even with families. But for me personally I enjoy being single and I enjoy traveling the world. I enjoy having romances on some of my trips but for sure it makes it having a relationship a lot harder and that’s probably my next stage is how do I make that happen and make it more appealing to a person that I meet that oh, look. I’m heading off in a week here. Why don’t you come with me? Or being a bit more stable and sticking around in a few places which is my aim right now is to have a few more bases around the world and actually spend my time in fewer places, more time in the communities that I want to be in getting to know people, developing better relationships with friends and people and settling a little bit more so I think that time is coming up.

Nile: Well, that makes sense and I could see that being the next book that will be coming out.

Natalie: Maybe.

Nile: I mean, I’m planning seeds here.

Natalie: Well, I did touch on it in my Suitcase entrepreneur book. I did touch on how to manage relationships with family and friends while you’re traveling and also as a single person or as a couple but I didn’t go deeply into how do you find love on the road because frankly I don’t have the answers for that and I know a lot of people do struggle with it so I think when the times comes you put your mind to what you want to do. You’ll make things happen and you’ll put the effort in priority into that but this -- it is always challenges whether you’re single or married or whatever so it’s really up to you to kind of figure out what you’re wanting out of that.

Nile: It absolutely is. One of the things that I have been really fascinated with -- clearly people go to your website which we’ll have in the show notes so we’ll make it easy for everybody but they go to your website, they look at your book, they see any of that. Clearly you’ve had a lot of success in what you’re doing. Now, that requires promotion and branding and all sorts of things like that. That being the case, how have you found the magic formula to do that as you’re on the road all the time?

Natalie: The magic formula ironically to have all this freedom is discipline and it took me a while to figure that out. so the more disciplined I am around having assistants and a team and processes and what I call sexy operating procedures but most people call it standard operating procedures has really helped me to streamline my business so that I don’t have to spend much time on it. I can take as much time off as I want within reason. The things will still operate without me that I’ll still make money without it and that’s from all the years and hard work and hustle of building community and building up my portfolio of products and programs and committing everything that I have really to this and living the lifestyle as well. Living and breathing what I preach. So I think it’s taken focus and discipline and now I get to reap the rewards which is wonderful. But I still love what I do so I put a lot of effort into it but it’s fun and it’s wonderful because I built it around what I wanted it to be and I really appreciate getting to help people all the time with choosing their own adventure and their version of freedom.

Nile: Well, I could clearly see that. I mean, your book the Suitcase entrepreneur -- if you look on Amazon at that it’s a five star review which isn't easy to get and reading through the comments that people have left I would say the majority of them are positive. Some of them are not so positive. But what I see and what I find about you through this process is through everything it appears that you’re very real, down to earth and transparent.

Natalie: Absolutely. 100 percent. And I don’t want to be anything else. That’s funny that you say that about Amazon though because I think the very first one that comes up is a one star review saying living -- selling the dream or something. And the lady is really complementary about me. She’s like I’m sure Natalie would be a great person to hang out with. She seems really fun and cool but can't help but think that she’s selling a dream here and it’s such an interesting thing that you come up against because even just being back in New Zealand so many people look at this and they’re like well, how does somebody do that? How do you run a business from a laptop? How do you make really, really great money and be able to make an impact by selling how to make a business or how to run a business, how to live this lifestyle. So I get it. And it’s something that people have really taken a while to _____22:39 onto. How do you become a digital nomad. Use software and tools and technology and outsourcing to run any type of business actually from the road. And I think the biggest thing that’s been my success as you’ve mentioned Nile is just being really open and transparent about everything. My screw ups, my failures, the good times, the bad times. I recently ran a webinar and I totally forgot to plug in the Wi-Fi router and I was right at that critical moment of talking about my program that people could join and it cut out and I was like oh my god. This is ridiculous. And I just laughed out loud and then I shared it in a podcast. Like how not to run a webinar or how to -- things to avoid based on what I just did and people really appreciate that. It’s not all perfect. I don’t think there is this magic formula, I don’t try and put on a front and I think people appreciate that it’s just real and you show them the good, the bad and the ugly of being an entrepreneur and traveling the world.

Nile: Now, so the next thing that I’m really curious about and I’m going to come back to the social media and the promotion and all of that in a bit but you mentioned a 100000 people that you really want to -- if you will transform their lives. And that wasn’t big enough. Now that it’s a million how are you going about that and how are people enrolling in this process because I assume that that’s where they say yeah. That’s what I want. How do I get it? So tell me a little bit about that.

Natalie: Yeah. It’s a great question. Well, what’s coming out this year that I’ve been really excited about is social enterprise that I’ve been considering in my head for way to long which is why I need to take action and it’s still based around freedom. It’s called the Right to freedom and to answer your question I feel that’s the movement, that’s the initiative that’s going to spike hopefully up to a million people to join. So it’s still very much based on my Suitcase entrepreneur business and what I’ve been doing there but I’ve always had this long held belief that underneath the soul there’s a greater desire for me to understand what freedom really is because in the US it’s completely different to other parts of the world and I’m just fascinated by it now and I still see people getting blocked in my community that I’m working with and I think it’s because we have this real disparate idea around can I have an amazing lifestyle and a really successful career or business, family and all the freedom that I want or is that being too greedy, is it even possible and so Right to freedom is this movement that I’m going to be beginning actually later this month to start working on social enterprise and the first hopefully global study on freedom and from there I’m going to be expanding out into a whole bunch of things. Hopefully a documentary and a book and a whole assessment type profile where people can understand and learn more about how they can have more freedom. So that to me is the -- what I’ve been working to for the last five years with my business has gotten me this place where I’m like great. Now I can work on an even bigger initiative with a nonprofit aspect that has a huge amount of potential to be one of the most scary but exciting things I’ve embarked on but also make a huge impact on the world. So that’s why I’ve stepped it up to a million people this year because I finally feel I’m ready for the next five to seven years to go on this journey.

Nile: One of the things I’m interested in is -- and the US is sort of a unique place if people haven’t traveled outside the US. The majority of my listeners are US based but that’s not true of all of the listeners. We’ve got people listening all throughout Europe and Asia and so on and so forth. But that being the case, you mentioned the difference in the US and how sometimes their idea of their right to freedom or that freedom view that they have is different. Talk to me a bit about that.

Natalie: Oh, sure. I mean, I’m probably insulting people right now because I have a lot of American friends and I love them and I love visiting and being in America but it always blows my mind that people there are like having to be busy and working all the time and if they’re not seen to be doing that then something’s wrong. Like having time off, taking time out, enjoying half a day off from your business seems like you’re not doing the right thing or that something’s going wrong if that’s what you’re doing. And there’s a huge inherent nature there to be just hustling all the time, to be ambitious, to be making money, to be working as hard as you can, to be setting up that American dream and I think you’ve got it all wrong. Completely the wrong way around. And what you end up doing is working so hard to earn as much money as you can to buy things and more things and more materials that you don’t need that ultimately make you unhappy and you see so many people over there who’ve done really well for themselves, super wealthy and they’re miserable. So I’m not saying that’s indicative of all of the US but there is this -- very much this nature there that you have to push hard, work all the time and everything is a priority and a commitment in that respect and I’m like why are you doing all this work and why are you working so hard when your life is sitting there waiting for you to live it and go on adventures and really enjoy it and spread happiness and cherish every single moment and live like there is no tomorrow.

Nile: That’s an interesting observation. We’ve got the phrase in the States and you’ve probably heard it as much as you’ve been here. Keeping up with the Joneses. Do you think what you observe with a  lot of people in the US is a bit of that keeping up with the Joneses syndrome?

Natalie: Yeah. And I don’t think it’s just limited to the US but for sure it’s there. I mean, you see it in other cultures as well. And I get it but I just don’t agree with it. Like I mean, here’s a person speaking -- it’s easy for me to say. I live out of a suitcase but if I eventually buy and live in a house I frankly don’t care what other people think of my house, of the goods and the things that I have inside it. I want it to be my place, I want to enjoy it, I want people to feel comfortable and welcome there. It’s not about that I have the fanciest car or the most incredible sofa or the most amazing artwork on the walls. None of that stuff matters. If you were to leave this planet tomorrow nobody is going to remember you for the car that you had or the artwork that you had. I hope. I hope they’re going to remember you for the legacy that you’ve left through the work you’ve done or the people’s lives that you’ve touched. So all of that stuff just seems so unimportant in the scheme of things.

Nile: I’m curious because I think in my own life apart from my family there are very few material possessions that I really, really enjoy and most of them are relatively small. I'm curious if you have any of those material possessions that find their way in the suitcase and travel around with you.

Natalie: Short answer is no.

Nile: Okay.

Natalie: I mean, obviously if I lost my new Macbook tomorrow or my iPhone six I’d be a little bit frustrated but it’s -- all of it is replaceable. And even to the point that my mom bought me a beautiful ring for Christmas, the Christmas we just had and I love it and it’s the only thing that I wear every single day but even if I lost that it’s -- I’ve still got the memory. It’s more important that mom’s here than the ring that she gave me so I would say there’s pretty much nothing. Sometimes when I get a bit sick of my suitcase I’m kind of excited that if it got lost by the airlines because I’d have to go out and buy something new and refresh my wardrobe and start it fresh and just keep it interesting.

Nile: Well, there you go. Well, no. I think of that. As I said, there’s very few things. I have for example a silver dollar money clip and that’s what I carry every -- the physical currency that I carry around is in that money clip. But I’ve now had that money clip probably for 25 years and is it materially worth a whole lot? No. it’s just worth something to me. But I -- little things like that that I enjoy. I was curious if you had any of those little things like that. you mentioned the ring but that’s interesting because it’s really -- if you get down to it and there’s a big fire or a big flood and you’re going to lose everything or virtually everything other than what you can carry in the palm of your hand; I always like to ask people what would that be because it really sort of defines a lot of things about you.

Natalie: It does. And you know what? the things that nobody can ever take away from you or be lost is memories, experiences and the people and the relationships that you have so that’s the most valuable thing in my life right now and the reason I’m even back home in New Zealand right now is my dad was in the hospital and it was incredible to just see how I dropped everything. I finally had plans to stay in Portugal for a few months which is quite a long time for me and I was really loving it. I’d actually bought a scooter for the first time, I was doing Portuguese lessons. I was actually trying to integrate into society a little and enjoying it and I just dropped everything to come back here because family, friends are just so much more important than anything else that you could ever own. So experiences as I said and memories that can never be taken away from you and they’re worth millions of dollars in my mind.

Nile: Yeah. No. I would agree with you. Other than the fact that I’m getting a little bit older and some of those memories fade. I’m not sure you can --

Natalie: Yeah. That’s true. You need to write a book maybe. You need to write a book.

Nile: Yeah. That might be it. I’ll have to read it to remind myself. That’s all.

Natalie: Yeah.

Nile: Well, again, I want to go back to the promotion and I want to go back to the promotion because when -- you typically promote to a community and you typically build that community from people that you know, like and trust or people that know, like and trust you. so as you’re traveling around the world obviously you’re meeting a lot of people but that marketing gets to be challenging and I think you have an interesting take on it which is I guess why I wanted to get there. It’s certainly not what I want people to focus on with the interview with Natalie here but I think you’ve got some interesting takes on it so what -- how do people get to know you?

Natalie: That’s a great question. I mean, I think you touched on it earlier. It was a really lovely compliment. I’m pretty open, I’m very transparent and recently I was in Berlin and I held a meet up there with my community and one of the guys from Netherlands said oh, you’re just like you sound like on your podcast and you look like in your videos and you’re just you. And he’s like we thought you’d look like a celebrity when you walk in and we’re all -- but no. but you came straight over and talked to us. And I was like well, what did  you expect me to do? So I think people get to know the real me if they ask the right questions for sure. As you said, I meet people all the time every single day and it can be overwhelming to remember every single person you’ve met but some people you just really connect with and those ones that usually share a curiosity and love for life. They ask intelligent, smart questions. You have discussions over all sorts of topics and from there you forge friendships and you actually make an effort to keep in touch and I’ve met up with several people around the world in two or three different countries. It’s kind of becoming a theme with some of my good friends is to see how many places we can meet up with around the world and share more experiences and good times so people just have to ask and get in touch.

Nile: Well, one of the things I guess I was going on was you do an awful lot of your business on social media and social media I think has become a little bit of cornerstone in your business. But it’s social at the same time. So I -- at least from what I could see a lot of people that get to know you and a lot of your marketing for that matter is social media based.

Natalie: Absolutely. Yeah. Precisely. So I’m anywhere and everywhere on social media because I love it and it’s how I built my business so very, very important and has allowed me to just have my unique voice and be who I am and people really connect that way. I think they feel they can reach out on Twitter, through Facebook messages and Periscope which I’ve started using and through my blog and podcast and all of it has just helped to build an engaged audience and community of -- I call freedom fighters who get what journey I’m on and want to be on a similar journey but on their own unique path.

Nile: Do you find that there are people that engage with you and you mentioned that engagement. That’s one of the things that we talk about quite a bit because you could do a lot of things and a lot of big marketing programs that people do but unless you engage it just doesn’t matter. But do you find that there are a lot of people that engage with you and that initial part of the engagement is following you to really build their belief that this could really be done? I mean, are they -- do they question that can she really do this and this is the way she lives her life and they follow you and find out that maybe it is?

Natalie: I think that people have told me a lot in the past that they live through me vicariously until they can take their own leap of faith and build their own freedom plan. So yeah. I think that’s a huge part of it and why I like to live and breathe my brand and I do show it. I mean, obviously it is possible. There are some people who may be cut out to be entrepreneurs perfectly but it doesn’t mean that they can live the lifestyle that has more freedom or they couldn’t incorporate more of those things into their daily life so I love to -- I’m all about taking action and showing what’s practical and implementing so people who like that and actually want to get something done, not just talk about it generally are the type of people who -- I'm in their lives and they're in mine if that makes any sense. And you do start to attract a certain kind of person. I’ve seen that with big brands online how often men will attract men of a similar age or women will attract women who were into that particular topic or thing that they’re talking about. So I’m pretty sure I attract some weird ass awesome people who want to achieve all sorts of different things and travel the world or even just stay at home but experience more adventure. Yeah.

Nile: Before I transition to sort of the heavy question I have to ask one of the light questions. Whenever you travel a lot you come up with some different strange stories. And you and I were talking a little bit before the interview about some of the strange stories and you said well, so many things happen to me I don’t even know where to go. And I have to give you an example because -- and just like me I’m sure that you have hundreds if not thousands of these stories but I got stuck in an airport and they gave us meal vouchers. Not an uncommon thing. And so the only thing that was open was a little sundry shop and you could go in and get cookies, crackers, potato chips and drinks or whatever. That was going to be dinner so I went in and I got a box of cookies and I knew that I didn’t need the whole box of cookies and if anybody looks at my social media profile you’ll know I didn’t need the box of cookies either but nevertheless I got a box of cookies and something to drink and I was reading the paper and I opened up -- reach in my bag and I open up the box of cookies and I pull out a cookie and I have one and there’s a little boy playing there and he’s probably four or five years old. And he comes over and he reaches in and gets one of the cookies and I go well, that’s sort of interesting. He didn’t ask or anything and his mom just looks up and smiles at me and so at this point in time I’m reaching in and getting a cookie and he’s reaching in and getting a cookie. And we go on like this until the last cookie of the box comes out. And I pull out that last cookie and his bottom lip comes out and starts that quiver. And I’m going what? I’m just eating my cookies here. And his mom doesn’t say one word to me. She reaches over and she takes the cookie from me and she breaks it in two and she gives him half and me half. And I’m going wow. I’m a little bit blown away by this but I really don’t need the whole box of cookies but I was just looking at it from -- there was no discussion and it was my box of cookies and all of that. And so we get ready to load the plane finally and we get on the plane and I go in and sit down and I open up my briefcase and in my briefcase was my box of cookies. And so I realize I’d been eating his box of cookies the whole time. Gives you a little bit of a paradigm shift there. I reached across the aisle and the mom and the kid were there and I gave her my box of cookies back -- or my box of cookies and we just both laughed because both of us were like well, this is interesting. But that’s just -- hey, I’ve got hundreds of stories like that. But I bet you’ve got even more. So I’m going to put you on the spot. I need some of your stories.

Natalie: Well, I’d say -- I mean, I’ve got some pretty funny ones. I tend not to attract too much drama into my life so I’m sure what other people would tell a tantalizing tale about -- I just kind of take in my stripe but probably one of the most significant and it was pretty scary at the time and ridiculous afterwards. In Vietnam a year and a half ago and I’d actually just been -- I’d won over the role of being an editor for a book for startups in Asia and I’ve been editing this book about Vietnam for entrepreneurs so I’ve been learning tons about the culture and the way in which they do business but also the safety of the country, the communication, the political setup and I remember writing about this particular area of Ho Chi Minh City where you shouldn’t really stand as a tourist and it’s notorious for theft and you have to be careful and you should catch taxis and I’ve just come back on a six and a half hour bus ride from Mui Ne. I’ve been on the coast and I’ve been enjoying some beach time and relaxation and a digital sabbatical. Time offline. And I got back into the capital and got off the bus and I knew that my hotel was only a five minute walk away because I’ve been there before and the taxi driver’s like you want a life? And I was like no. no, I’m good. I’m going to walk because I’ve just been on a bus for six and a half hours and I’m walking along with my suitcase in my hand. Obviously rolling it along. And I had my laptop bag with every single thing in it tied around the handle of the suitcase and I’m looking at my phone which I’m holding pretty firmly in my hand but I’m looking at the map to go yeah. I think it’s this way and not that way. And out of nowhere comes this scooter like a sort of a very, very quiet scooter motorbike, two guys on it and then they suddenly speed up and I’m like totally off in my own world. I’m tired and I’m jetlagged and I’m looking at this phone. And they just came by and they grabbed my laptop strap out of my -- like off my shoulder. And just sped on and I just remember spinning around and shouting out no and watching my entire life like speed off down this street and I started running after -- I wouldn’t have had any chance in hell of catching them but all I could see was my purple suitcase and my laptop bag and everything just gone and I start running towards them like yelling going darn you. And they dropped it. they dropped the whole thing because what had happened as I -- one thing that I did as a safety move was I attached as I said my laptop loosely, the strap around the suitcase handle and so by grabbing a laptop bags that also hooked to my suitcase and it was just too heavy and they couldn’t get away with it. So then some respects I was -- I just stood there and went oh my god. My suitcase just saved my life because I had my passport in there, all my money, my hard drive, my computer, everything. I hadn’t even split anything out onto myself. Normally I will hide like another card somewhere else or I just won't have everything in one place and also it was the only time that I put a jumper in my laptop bag. I don’t know why. Sort of a jacket which padded the fall when it fell down so my laptop didn’t smash. Nothing got broken. It was incredible. And I just remember standing there going you are an idiot. Like you wrote about this in a book and here you are standing in the exact place. I’d even crossed over the road to be on the quiet side so there wasn’t anybody around for once which is pretty not common in Vietnam and yeah. It was incredible. So that was my story that I got everything back and I felt ridiculously lucky and fortunate to have all my stuff back and be alive.

Nile: Well, it’s always interesting when we get those reminders like that too. Now, you teased everybody with a story about coming back into Australia and making a joke that maybe wasn’t a good joke so we can't let that story go either.

Natalie: Oh, yeah. That was just another wonderful moment where sometimes my sense of humor which we talked about before doesn't go down so well. So I was waiting for a flight out of Sydney. This was back when I was in the corporate world and I was waiting in line to actually just check in on the flight and this guy came up to me, a security guy and he’s like ma’am do you mind if I check your bags? And I was like no. That’s fine. Go ahead. But can I ask you what you’re checking for. And I knew what he was checking for but I just wanted to make conversation because frankly I’ve been on the airport for a while and it was a bit boring. He’s like I’m checking for any explosives. And I was like well, you’re not going to find them there. I’ve got them strapped right here and I pointed at my chest. And I was wearing quite a fitted top so it was clearly obvious that I didn’t have anything strapped under there and I thought it was hilarious and he just -- that’s a federal offense ma’am. I could have you arrested right here on the spot. I’m not going to but that was stupid. Don’t do it again. And I was like okay. The more people that I told about that -- they were just like Natalie what were you thinking? Like what an idiotic move. So every so often even as a frequent traveler you do do some pretty stupid things.

Nile: See what lack of sleep could do to a person. Well listen, we don’t have a huge amount of time yet but one of the things that I’d love to talk about if it’s okay -- in your book you talk about the three stages of building a freedom lifestyle business and I found that fascinating and I don’t know if I could indulge you but would you mind sharing those with us?

Natalie: Absolutely. So _____45:01 is not surprising. The first stage is the -- I think the hardest one for people to get their head around. It’s the freedom mindset so once you do have a business or a career that affords you a little bit more flexibility a lot of people really struggle with oh, that means I don’t necessarily have to work a normal working week nine to five. I can take more time off, I can take a mid week weekend. I don’t have to be based in an office. I don’t have to have clients that are in the same location as me so it’s that -- there’s a lot more to it. There’s also dealing with friends and family which we’ve talked about here and really getting clear on your vision for how you would like to live so that freedom mindset is the first stage that I take people through. the second stage is financial freedom which really comes down to how you’re setting up a business or a career so that you have enough revenue and enough income to afford you a great lifestyle but also not tie you down; your revenue streams that you have allowing you to be flexible in what you do; how active or passively do you want to be involved in the work that you do as well. so that’s all the nuts and bolts of building an online business, the business model, the social media aspect and strategy, your sales funnel, outsourcing, systems etcetera. And the final part is lifestyle freedom. So what sort of a lifestyle do you want? how are you going to live, how often do you want to travel, how much time do you want to be spending at home, what does that look like to you, how do you travel, how do you pack lightly. Really talking about minimalism as well and how do you get rid of a lot of those possessions that are weighing you down to be more free.

Nile: I like that travel hack. I noticed you’ve got a few interesting terms like travel hack and digital nomad and things like that.

Natalie: Yeah. I don’t make them up but they’re quite common in my world. But for people who’ve just heard them for the first time they’re like oh, digital nomad. I like that. And I’m like yeah. I didn’t make it up.

Nile: Well, that is quite alright. I know that you’ve got an awful lot to share with people. We will have the links up on our website and it will be on social media business hour. Episode 119. But can you tell a little bit of -- the listeners -- share with us what you have and what you do and how people could engage with you?

Natalie: Yeah. So a little bit more about kind of how I run my business or what I have on offer?

Nile: What do you have that you offer people so that they could learn to do what you do and sort of roam around the world and be fun and fancy free.

Natalie: Well, most of what I do actually is free for people which is great. So I do have a blog at the suitcaseentrepreneur.com and I have a twice weekly podcast which is also free on iTunes. And the Suitcase entrepreneur all within the branding. The book which is really, really affordable on Amazon and just a ton of stuff that I put out there free. I do webinars, I do -- I’m starting to do more Periscopes and I just love teaching people and sharing how they can do this for themselves. And then I have digital products that I sell on my site that are all related to building an online business and also using crowd funding to sort of kick start your business if you need. And my most definitive program that I’m really excited about launched last year which is my main stand. Every single piece of advice and experience and learning has gone into it. It’s the Freedom plan and you touched on the three stages. There’s what basically makes up the Freedom plan so it’s 12 modules. There’s a lot more to it than that but essentially I take people through those three stages with 12 modules of online learning, support and community involved and that’s my baby that I’m really wanting to get more and more people through because I’m starting to see incredible results that people are getting. And as I said, I think it’s like everything that I’ve accumulated over my entire lifetime but also five years in business to help people do this for themselves.

Nile: Well, I can't recommend highly enough. As I said, you’ve got a five star rated book. When you look at all of the ratings on Amazon. The Suitcase entrepreneur. I recommend that. We’ve got that available as a link on the show notes as well for episode 119. And I have to say I’ve got the privilege -- I like all of the pictures on your website and everything like that but one of the pictures that just says freedom to me is your Skype picture and I’m not sure that everybody gets to see your Skype picture.

Natalie: Oh, does it? I should look at it. Oh, that one.

Nile: Yeah. Well, you’re up high. I don’t know if it’s a mountain top. I’ll call it a hill top. But beautiful scenery behind you. There you are with a great smile and two thumbs up and to me that just says freedom in a really great way so I love it.

Natalie: That’s true. I should probably put that one out. That was actually a panorama looking across the _____49:51 it reminded me of the hobbit’s land and Middle Earth because it’s just so beautiful so maybe I’ll incorporate that into my blog.

Nile: It needs to be because it really is a great picture that says freedom in a big way. But Natalie I would like to thank you so much for joining all of us today on the social media business hour. And for our listeners, I want to thank you too. Hopefully you learned a few new ideas or concepts. Maybe a dream got started. Maybe you were just reminded of a few things that you already know but you haven’t been doing to improve or grow your business or your life. Our desire is you take just one of the things that you learned or were reminded of today and you apply it this week to your life or business. We know that a small change can make a big difference and I’m committed to bringing you at least one new idea each week that you could implement so go back and identify just one small change that you could make to your business or your life this week and see what a big difference it will make for you. So until next week, this is Nile Nickel. Now, go make it happen.

Woman: Social media business hour is powered by linkedinfocus.com. For show notes, updates and to pick up the latest tips and tricks head over to socialmediabusinesshour.com. Until next time. Thanks for listening.

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Weblinks:

Facebook: http://facebook.com/suitcaseentrepreneur
Twitter: @nataliesisson

Related Books:

Direct download: SMBH_118_-_Natalie_Sisson_-_Final.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Evan has a crazy passion for Salsa dancing.

Years ago, he discovered people were willing to pay for him to teach them.

The problem?  At the time, there were already BIG players in the “Learn To Salsa Dance” market.

How could he possibly compete?

In this inspiring interview, Evan tells us how he took his crazy passion and turned it into a huge business, despite battling competition that dominated the industry and had much deeper pockets.

Better still, now Evan uses his time-tested formula to create massive profits with other products Amazon.

 Join us and learn:
- How One Man Against The Odds, Built A Business EMPIRE Out Of Salsa Dancing
-How To Combine Your Passion With Selling On Amazon To Create Profits
-Terrific Marketing And Rock-Solid Business Advice

Direct download: SMBH_117_-_Evan_Margolin_-_Final.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

How does your generation differ from others?  You might be surprised at what the real answer is.

On this great interview, Lee Carahar and Nile Nickel talk about how your interests aren’t exactly shared with other generations.  If you work with other people, the odds are you’re working with a couple different generations…and the huge differences between those generations could mean lots of frustration and misunderstanding.  

Listen And Learn:
- Why Most Baby Boomers And GenerationXer’s call Millennials the "Strange Generation"
- Understanding The 4 Different Generations At Work
- The Common Myths About The Millennial Generation
- Why The Millennials Are Called “The Generation Of Negativity”
- Marketing Death By Millennial
- The Tremendous Advantages Of Being Imperfect

Direct download: Lee_Caraher_Final.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

There are many people who are very talented and even
have great ideas. You have so much promise and potential but fortunately, as
the world gets noisier and more crowded, your ideas aren’t getting heard.
In this awesome podcast, Dorie Clark and Nile Nickel teaches us the importance of Standing Out and Becoming A thought Leader.
We also talk about:
- Terrific Marketing Ideas To Get Your HEARD
- 5 Strategies For Getting People Focused
- How To Get People To Follow You
- Dorie’s Very Own, Almost Magic Secret Sauce For Success
- Why You Should Be Very Motivated to Standing Out In Your Own Industry
CAN YOU STAND OUT?
Direct download: Dorrie_Clark_Compiled_Final.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Noah is a marketing expert. As a thought leader in strategic marketing and customer loyalty, Noah helps clients;

  1. Dramatically and rapidly increase sales,
  2. multiply profits, and
  3. maximize customer value.

He is the trusted source for coaching and consulting to thousands of owners, executives, and individuals.

Noah is the author of the Amazon #1 bestselling book in Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service - EVERGREEN: Cultivate The Enduring Customer Loyalty That Keeps Your Business Thriving (AMACOM). He’s an expert blogger for Fast Company Magazine, and a regular contributor to The Globe and Mails Report on Business Section. Noah has been routinely quoted and mentioned in publications like Forbes, The New York Times, Reuters, and more.

Webiste Links:

http://www.noahfleming.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/noahfleming

https://twitter.com/noahfleming

thumbnail (1) [audio mp3="http://socialmediabusinesshour.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Noah-Flemming-Final.mp3"][/audio]  

Is Your Company Seeing The Forest For The Trees?

In today's show, we will have another very impressive guest by the name Noah Fleming.

Noah Fleming, The Evergreen Guy

Who does not like to interview Noah. He is a marketing expert, a thought leader in strategic marketing and customer loyalty. A trusted source for coaching and consulting to thousands of owners and executives and individuals who helped his clients to dramatically and rapidly increase sales, not just sales but maximized their profits and customer value too. He is also the author of the Amazon #1 bestselling book in Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service – EVERGREEN: Cultivate the Enduring Customer Loyalty That Keeps Your Business Thriving. He’s an expert blogger for Fast Company Magazine, and a regular contributor to The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Section. Noah has been routinely quoted and mentioned in publications like Forbes, The New York Times, Reuters, and more. Also a member of Alan Weiss’s Mentorship Program & Growth Cycle®, two highly respected and world-renowned programs dedicated to the refinement of advanced consulting skills, and one of only 36 people who are globally recognized & accredited by Dr. Weiss as a Master Mentor.

Hammers, Drills and Screwdrivers

Why do we have hammers, drills and screwdrivers here? Bizarre right? Might be, but not for Noah. His Skype name-- guess what? It’s Tool Junky. Aside from being an expert, he is obsessively in love with hammers and drills and screwdrivers. It actually has to do with the band Tool which represents a heavy metal band during his high school days.  I’m sure you know exactly who he is talking about. And, he admits that until now he is still junky for the band.

What is an Evergreen? Is it a Christmas tree?

You might know or not know, But, What is an evergreen really? No it is not a Christmas tree. The concept of this very successful book came from an idea whilst he and his wife are walking in Cathedra Grove at Vancouver Islands. They have some of the tallest trees in the world. Some are even 30 feet wide. They’re 150 feet tall and walking through this forest again with his wife on their honey moon, made him think about anything, and this includes business. He finds himself staring at these trees and thinking that these tress can be an amazing metaphor. The Evergreen trees are lush, lively, they’re green, steadfast, and they grow really in any condition. They also last forever in perpetuity and they don’t have cold winters where they’re struggling to put new growth on the trees or all the leaves fall off and then they have to come back. This metaphor is really staring him on the face. And that is where it all started.

The Evergreen. Cultivating the enduring customer loyalty that keeps your business thriving.

This famous book Evergreen is a funny, highly pragmatic and detailed playbook on customer retention, customer experience, and customer strategy. It is more of a mindset book which provides strategic framework in owning a business. The book suggests to readers that most organizations are “addicted to sex” – the thrill of the chase of gaining new customers – as opposed to “looking for love” – finding worthwhile customer relationships that will last for years and years. In addition, many companies fail to analyze the profitability of their existing customers or the potential profitability of different types of new ones. As a result, companies lurch from one customer base to the next—losing some of their most valuable customers, as well as, gaining others many of whom turn out to be duds. Fleming describes this phenomenon in Evergreen to that of how trees lose their leaves each fall.

The Worst Business Advise In the World

"It is five times less expensive to keep an existing customer than it is to get a new one". Noah highlighted that this specific advice is always given by most authors and speakers, his difference, he get serious about it. He thought that this is the worst business advice in the world because none of these people ever tell us how to actually do that, how to actually make that customer five times more valuable. And so they would say things like well, provided you provide good customer service they’re going to spread the word of mouth about you, right? But he again highlighted that it is really hard for a business to build marketing budgets around, to create projections around or to try and define some tangible business outcomes like increased profits so aims to understand how do we actually make the existing customer five times, 10 times, 20 times more valuable, more profitable. And that is Evergreen, the first half of the book is really this big sort of strategic framework that I found that I was using and that my own clients were using and that big companies are using and that anybody can really implement in their own company to make some dramatic shifts. And then the second half of the book was really the tactical stuff which I was just talking about in terms of how do you actually bring back a lost customer, how do you actually increase referrals, how do you truly define the value of a customer and know which ones you should fire and those are the things that are covered in the second half of the book.

The Mad Pursuit. The Problem that needs to be fixed

His bank, a multibillion-dollar Canadian organization, on one issue that he raised with them, they told him that the resolution would take three days to be fixed. However, it ended up taking 30 days with all the hilarious story behind it. When he finally asked the manager, why? Why did it take this long? What could’ve possibly happened in something you told me would take no longer than three days? She flat out said him and told him that they were too busy with our new customers that we just can't take care of our existing customers. Most businesses right now are too focused on chasing new customers, losing the track of retention.  We're running around jumping from one thing to the next because we think it’s going to be sort of the savior and salvation to a struggling business or to a business that’s not seen the type of growth it wants to have. The problem on this, ending up spending more time, more energy, and more money on probably efforts that could’ve been much far more focused.

The Three C's

Wondering what makes Noah's business tick? It's all about the tree C's.

Character - and character is really my term to talk about positioning which we all know in the marketing world positioning is how the world sees you, how you’re quickly understood and represent.

Community - Community is all about how we engage our customers. We talked about customer engagement but how do we bring them closer together around what it is we’re doing, how do we get them to be interested more in the bigger, broader picture of things.

Content - Content is the term that he use to describe the thing you actually do. So content is your product, your service, the thing you actually give in exchange for money.

Would you buy a mattress worth $30,000?

When was the last night you've had a really good night sleep? This the golden question. Noah also shared about a mattress experience. He has a friend who owns a mattress company in Rhode Islands with each mattress sells averaged of $30,000. You might find it very expensive, but here's the catch. He is selling the mattresses with that average amount. What's his secret? Customer Engagement.

The Power of Reconnection

His book has a whole chapter talking about the idea of engagement and re-engagement. Reactivating lost customers and reactivating lost clients. An opportunity left behind. Knowing why we’ve lost a customer, sadly, most of us don’t even know when we’ve lost a customer and so the first key is really trying to understand when those changes have happened, being aware that they’ve happened and then learning from them. Once we know the reason behind this and putting solid actions about it, our profits will massively increase with little to no investment.

Website Links:

http://www.noahfleming.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/noahfleming https://twitter.com/noahfleming

Related Books:

Direct download: Noah_Flemming_Final.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

thumbnail   [audio mp3="http://socialmediabusinesshour.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Liane-Caruso-Final.mp3"][/audio]   A marketing communications specialist with twenty years of experience ranging from strategy to design to execution, Liane Caruso launched Limelight Marketing Consultants in 2009. This well-respected Tampa-based firm was singularly committed to the establishment of meaningful campaigns that connected clients with their customers and prospects by powering brand awareness. Limelight expanded rapidly with the addition of in-house specialists in design, demographics, branding, social media management, and content marketing. The second phase of the expansion included the addition of SEO and SEM digital marketing strategists to develop cohesive, research-based approaches to further client initiatives. In 2015, Liane merged Limelight with The CRUSH Agency out of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; the company responsible for supporting the franchise marketing needs of new and established businesses across the country. Now responsible for managing the recently formed agencys creative and marketing teams while identifying proficiencies and efficiencies in budgeting, planning and strategy, Liane oversees the creative process; ensuring quality control and marketing planning are in place for the clients and for the agency.

 Additional Info:

A lot has happened since I launched Limelight Marketing Consultants back in 2009. After a comparatively short time in business I had the latitude to add an intern who soon became a trusted employee. That led to hiring more employees, and then even more employees. Now I am proud to say our new office space is brimming with exceptional professionals. Late last year a golden opportunity arose to merge with a Pennsylvania-based firm that specializes in franchise marketing. Long story short, we have officially joined forces into one crazy-talented team! Our new name is The CRUSH Agency, and I will serve as President of the entire agency with two locations in Tampa, FL and King of Prussia, PA. Marketing Communications specialist with an emphasis on social media marketing and management, workshops and presentations, training and consulting. Equally passionate about creating brand identities, developing content for all marketing initiatives, and internet marketing through a collaborative effort. Specialties: Social Media Management & Training, Branding and Brand Identity, Interactive and Online Marketing for brands, products, services of all sizes. Experience in franchise marketing.

Website Link:

http://www.thecrushagency.com

Related Books:

 

Direct download: Liane_Caruso_Final.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Mike shares with us some great strategies and the latest social media platforms he uses with great success for marketing large AND small businesses.

 

SMBH Mike Sallander thumbnail   [audio mp3="http://socialmediabusinesshour.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Mike-Sallander-Final.mp3"][/audio]   Mike Sallander is a serial entrepreneur with online businesses dating back to his high-school years. Although he started his entrepreneurial journey as a high school years. Although he started his entrepreneurial journey as a high school dreamer, he has emerged as a leader in the digital agency industry, co-founding the world-class web agency Chicago Digital and running the Business Catalyst App Store in collaboration with Adobe. He is a unique problem solver who enjoys helping businesses and developers alike.  

Website Links:

http://www.chicagodigital.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikesallander

Related Books:

Direct download: Mike_Sallander_Final.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Former Good Morning, America field producer, local NBC & ABC news producer and current video marketing storyteller & teacher, Mary Jo Cranmore helps her coaching, consulting and entrepreneurial clients to tell their stories effectively to attract new local and on-line clients.

 

For the past 6 years, Mary Jo has built four television shows, countless YouTube Channels and video content for clients around New England, including Health New England, Hampden Bank, Yankee Magazine, Plotkin Commercial Realty, Juliano’s Pools, The Kennebunkport Resort Collection and The Spelman & Johnson Group,

 

Through a program called "Bottle Your Brilliance", a mix of storytelling and client attraction "pull" marketing methods, Mary Jo's video production and marketing programs teach these experts to breakthrough their blocks to video, leverage their knowledge and create content their clients crave.

 

 

Between the media career and her current video marketing practice, Mary Jo also worked as Client Service Director for a large, international marketing agency and her clients were Discovery Channel, Kraft Foods, Ann Taylor and Verizon.

thumbnail   Listen to former Good Morning America field producer, local NBC & ABC news producer and current video marketing storyteller & teacher, Mary Jo Cranmore as she provides video marketing tips. Her program Bottle Your Brilliance has helped 1000's of entrepreneurs to create and use video as a powerful client attraction tool. You will not want to miss her insights and simple to implement tips to help you better use video in your marketing! From her experience as a former Good Morning America field producer, local NBC & ABC news producer and current video marketing storyteller & teacher, Mary Jo Cranmore helps her coaching, consulting and entrepreneurial clients to tell their stories effectively to attract new local and on-line clients. For the past 6 years, Mary Jo has built four television shows, countless YouTube Channels and video content for clients around New England, including Health New England, Hampden Bank, Yankee Magazine, Plotkin Commercial Realty, Juliano’s Pools, The Kennebunkport Resort Collection and The Spelman & Johnson Group, Through a program called "Bottle Your Brilliance", a mix of storytelling and client attraction "pull" marketing methods, Mary Jo's video production and marketing programs teach these experts to breakthrough their blocks to video, leverage their knowledge and create content their clients crave. Between the media career and her current video marketing practice, Mary Jo also worked as Client Service Director for a large, international marketing agency and her clients were Discovery Channel, Kraft Foods, Ann Taylor and Verizon.

Special Offer:

I offer free, 30-minute video strategy sessions for your business and special offer right now - a $129 crash course in YouTube for entrepreneurs.

Website Links:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/maryjocranmore http://www.youtube.com/c/MaryJoCranmore http://www.clientcyclemarketing.com

Related Books:

Direct download: MaryJo_Cranmore_Final.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

John Warrillow is the creator of The Value Builder System, a statistically proven methodology for improving a company's value by up to 71%. 

He is also the author of The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry and Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You.

 

As any business knows the lifeblood of your business is repeat customers. But customers can be fickle, markets shift, and competitors are ruthless. So how do you ensure a steady flow of repeat business? The secret—no matter what industry you’re in—is finding and keeping automatic customers.

These days virtually anything you need can be purchased through a subscription, with more convenience than ever before. Far beyond Spotify, Netflix, and New York Times subscriptions, you can sign up for weekly or monthly supplies of everything from groceries (AmazonFresh) to cosmetics (Birchbox) to razor blades (Dollar Shave Club).

According to John Warrillow, this emerging subscription economy offers huge opportunities to companies that know how to turn customers into subscribers. Automatic customers are the key to increasing cash flow, igniting growth, and boosting the value of your company.

Consider Whatsapp, the internet-based messaging service that was purchased by Facebook for $19 billion. While other services bombarded users with invasive ads in order to fund a free messaging platform, Whatsapp offered a refreshingly private tool on a subscription platform, charging just $1 per year. Their business model enabled the kind of service that customers wanted and ensured automatic customers for years to come.

As Warrillow shows, subscriptions aren’t limited to technology or media businesses. Companies in nearly any industry, from start-ups to the Fortune 500, from home contractors to florists, can build subscriptions into their business.

Warrillow provides the essential blueprint for winning automatic customers with one of the nine subscription business models, including:

  • The Membership Website Model: Companies like The Wood Whisperer Guild, ContractorSelling.com, and DanceStudioOwner.com offer access to highly specialized, high quality information, recognizing that people will pay for good content. This model can work for any business with a tightly defined niche market and insider information.
  • The Simplifier Model: Companies like Mosquito Squad (pest control) and Hassle Free Homes (home maintenance) take a recurring task off your to-do list. Any business serving busy consumers can adopt this model not only to create a recurring revenue stream, but also to take advantage of the opportunity to cross-sell or bundle their services.
  • The Surprise Box Model: Companies like BarkBox (dog treats) and Standard Cocoa (craft chocolate) send their subscribers curated packages of goodies each month. If you can handle the logistics of shipping, giving customers joy in something new can translate to sales on your larger e-commerce site.

This book also shows you how to master the psychology of selling subscriptions and how to reduce churn and provides a road map for the essential statistics you need to measure the health of your subscription business.

Whether you want to transform your entire business into a recurring revenue engine or just pick up an extra 5 percent of sales growth, The Automatic Customer will be your secret weapon.

Direct download: John_Warrilow_Final.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

World-changing with words is the manifesto of Creative Custom Writing, Inc. Sarah Grear is a creative copywriter, speaker + published author. Her focus is on helping entrepreneurs turn online lookers into buyers by making an emotional connection with persuasive writing.

Along the way Sarah has been a speaker at Social Media Week Los Angeles and her work can be found in a National Public Radio ad campaign, Open Places Travel Blog + Los Angeles Fashion.

 

When she’s not hosting live Unleash Your Voice workshops giving entrepreneurs the time + space to write their own website content she is holding online writing classes that have been taken by over 150 people in more than 15 countries. Wherever she goes her mission is to help entrepreneurs reveal their greatness while amplifying their voice.

 

Direct download: SMBH_Sara_Grear_FINAL.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Robbie Kellman Baxter created the popular business term "Membership Economy" and is the author of the McGraw-Hill book by the same name. She is the founder of Peninsula Strategies LLC, a strategy consulting firm. The Peninsula Strategies website is www.peninsulastrategies.com

Her clients have included large organizations like Netflix, SurveyMonkey and Yahoo!, as well as smaller venture-backed startups. Over the course of her career, Robbie has worked in or consulted to clients in more than twenty industries. 

Before starting Peninsula Strategies in 2001, Robbie served as a New York City Urban Fellow, a consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton, and a Silicon Valley product marketer. 

As a public speaker, Robbie has presented to thousands of people in corporations, associations, and universities. 

Robbie has been quoted in or written articles for major media outlets, including CNN, Consumer Reports, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

SMBH Robie Baxter

 

Robbie Kellman Baxter created the popular business term "Membership Economy" and is the author of the McGraw-Hill book by the same name. She is the founder of Peninsula Strategies LLC, a strategy consulting firm. The Peninsula Strategies website is www.peninsulastrategies.com.

Her clients have included large organizations like Netflix, SurveyMonkey and Yahoo!, as well as smaller venture-backed startups. Over the course of her career, Robbie has worked in or consulted to clients in more than twenty industries.

Before starting Peninsula Strategies in 2001, Robbie served as a New York City Urban Fellow, a consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton, and a Silicon Valley product marketer.

As a public speaker, Robbie has presented to thousands of people in corporations, associations, and universities.

Robbie has been quoted in or written articles for major media outlets, including CNN, Consumer Reports, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Direct download: SMBH_Robbie_Baxter_FINAL.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Get the secrets to creating affluence from a successful business woman who was once, just a wide eyed little girl growing up around millionaires.  Listen to the simple strategies for creating affluence that even a child can understand.  There are only three types of personalities on the “Affluence Wheel” – Which one are you?

SMBH Alison Pena

 

How does money define, and narrow or expand our view of whats possible for us? Alison Pena grew up rubbing elbows with millionaires. She saw that limitless opportunity and limitless possibility aren't just about money, but affluence. Affluence is seeing all the possibilities around you. And having the faith, confidence, and skills to go after them. The myth is that affluence is for the lucky or rich. Alison consults with entrepreneurs and businesses, unlocking their affluence code mindset and actionable strategies for sustainable affluence.

 

Direct download: SMBH_Alison_Pena_FINAL.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Diane Gardner, Your Tax Coach, is a Quilly Award recipient and the best-selling author of Stand Apart and Why Didn’t My CPA Tell Me That? She recently released her fifth book, Stop Overpaying Your Taxes!  11 Ways Entrepreneurs Overpay and How to Stop It Now!

Diane specializes in saving small business owners between $5,000 and $50,000 per year in 60 minutes or less through proactive tax planning. To date she has saved over $417,000 in tax for her clients.

She is a licensed Enrolled Agent (EA), which allows her to prepare income tax returns and to represent taxpayers in all fifty states. Diane is also a QuickBooks Pro advisor, an Accredited Tax Preparer (ATP), and a Certified Tax Coach (CTC).  Certified Tax Coaches are an elite group of professionals who focus on helping businesses and individuals pay the least amount of tax that is legally possible.

Diane has worked hard to make her businesses stand apart from other accounting and tax professionals by specializing as a tax coach. Her personal goal is to make sure business owners are not overpaying their taxes, by utilizing proactive tax planning.

Her clients also benefit from her coaching and mastermind groups. She is the leader of the Business Breakthrough Mastermind Group, which meets in her hometown of Rathdrum, Idaho and her Get Off the Wheel virtual masterminding and coaching program.

When Diane isn’t busy working with business owners, she is a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother. Her toddler grandson, Braden, is a very important part of her life, and she is fortunate to be able to spend quite a bit of time with him.

Diane is quite active in her church and serves on the board of the Twin Lakes Friends Camp, which offers summer camping programs for kids. She is also active in her community and in several local Chambers of Commerce.

For more information about any of the information Diane has presented, you may reach her by calling

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Diane Gardner the Mad Marketing Accountant

Diane Gardner, Your Tax Coach, is a Qub illy Award recipient and the best-selling author of Stand Apart and Why Didn’t My CPA Tell Me That? She recently released her fifth book, Stop Overpaying Your Taxes! 11 Ways Entrepreneurs Overpay and How to Stop It Now! Diane specializes in saving small business owners between $5,000 and $50,000 per year in 60 minutes or less through proactive tax planning. To date she has saved over $417,000 in tax for her clients. She is a licensed Enrolled Agent (EA), which allows her to prepare income tax returns and to represent taxpayers in all fifty states. Diane is also a QuickBooks Pro advisor, an Accredited Tax Preparer (ATP), and a Certified Tax Coach (CTC). Certified Tax Coaches are an elite group of professionals who focus on helping businesses and individuals pay the least amount of tax that is legally possible. Diane has worked hard to make her businesses stand apart from other accounting and tax professionals by specializing as a tax coach. Her personal goal is to make sure business owners are not overpaying their taxes, by utilizing proactive tax planning. Her clients also benefit from her coaching and mastermind groups. She is the leader of the Business Breakthrough Mastermind Group, which meets in her hometown of Rathdrum, Idaho and her Get Off the Wheel virtual masterminding and coaching program. When Diane isn’t busy working with business owners, she is a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother. Her toddler grandson, Braden, is a very important part of her life, and she is fortunate to be able to spend quite a bit of time with him. Diane is quite active in her church and serves on the board of the Twin Lakes Friends Camp, which offers summer camping programs for kids. She is also active in her community and in several local Chambers of Commerce.

For more information about any of the information Diane has presented, you may reach her by calling

(800) 841-0212 or (208) 687-0508 or by going to her Web sites: www.AdeptBusiness.biz www.TaxCoach4You.com

Books:

Obamacare Survival Guide

www.taxcoach4you.com/books/obamacare-survival-guide/ 10 Most Expensive Tax Mistakes That Cost You Thousands! www.taxcoach4you.com/books/tax-mistakes/ Stop Overpaying Your Taxes! 11 Ways Entrepreneurs Overpay and How to Stop It Now www.taxcoach4you.com/books/stop-over-paying-your-taxes /

Direct download: Diane_Gardner_FINAL.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Andreea Ayers is the CEO and founder of Launch Grow Joy & Get Media Happy, the go-to source for top editors and bloggers seeking product-based news stories from media-ready entrepreneurs.

Her mission? To make PR less intimidating for those entrepreneurs who can’t afford a monthly retainer fee for a professional PR firm.

Andreea opened her first product-based business selling inspirational t-shirts in 2006. Despite knowing little about the industry, she went on to sell over 20,000 tees in over 300 stores in the United States and around the world. In more recent years, Andreea has focused on helping hundreds of entrepreneurs secure media coverage through one-on-one consulting and coaching over at her website Launch Grow Joy

Andreea Ayers 102_Guest_Template Andreea Ayers is the CEO and founder of Launch Grow Joy & Get Media Happy, the go-to source for top editors and bloggers seeking product-based news stories from media-ready entrepreneurs. Her mission? To make PR less intimidating for those entrepreneurs who can’t afford a monthly retainer fee for a professional PR firm. Andreea opened her first product-based business selling inspirational t-shirts in 2006. Despite knowing little about the industry, she went on to sell over 20,000 tees in over 300 stores in the United States and around the world. In more recent years, Andreea has focused on helping hundreds of entrepreneurs secure media coverage through one-on-one consulting and coaching over at her website Launch Grow Joy. If you have a product line, I'd love to show you how to get more traffic to your online store by getting your products featured in magazines and on influential blogs! I sold Tees for Change in 2011 and closed Soaps to Live By in 2014 (you can read more about that here) and I’ve worked with thousands of entrepreneurs to help them share their products with the world.

Are you next?

How it all started...

I wasn’t always an entrepreneur… It sort of grew on me… After graduating with a degree in Business & Marketing from Cornell University, I spent the next few years working for many well known companies in NYC, including McKinsey, Citibank, Starwood Hotels and New York University. Even though I worked for some great companies and learned a lot, I got super excited about trying entrepreneurship when I got the idea to install a few candy machines at my current job. I was on the subway on my way to work one day and I was reading Entrepreneur Magazine when I came across an ad for candy machines. There were testimonials in the ad from people who were making a few hundred dollars extra per month with each candy machine and I thought, WHY NOT? So I went into business for myself while holding down a full time job! I bought three candy machines and some candy, installed them in my office’s kitchen and that’s how my entrepreneurial journey began! It turned out that I had a lot of fun buying M&M’s and Skittles wholesale and selling them at a profit to my co-workers. Plus, they loved having an afternoon pick-me-up and many of them would huddle around the candy machines instead of the water cooler to socialize.

But I wasn't quite ready to leave my full-time job and become an entrepreneur...

I ended up leaving that job about a year later and worked for a few other companies until I was about to have my first baby in 2007. I knew that I didn’t want to be pregnant and live in a fourth-floor walkup with a new baby, so my husband and I took the plunge and moved from NYC to Boulder, CO. Talk about a HUGE change (in a good way – Boulder was on my dream list of cities to live in and I was so excited to slow down and try something new). When we moved to Boulder I had a hard time finding a job – and it was the best thing that happened to me because all of those “no’s” are the reason I am here today! While I was taking a prenatal yoga class at a local studio in Boulder, I felt inspired to become a full time entrepreneur and that’s when I got the idea for Tees for Change. I knew nothing about the apparel or t-shirt industry, how to manufacture a t-shirt, how to print one, how to sell to stores or even how to set up an online store to sell a product.

I was determined to see this idea through!

I started to research and learn as much as I could, ordering t-shirt samples and coming up with design ideas. And since graphic design was not my strong suit I decided to do t-shirts with only words, not graphics. That way I could still have control over every aspect of running my business and do it all myself (which was not such a good idea, as I soon learned). So, about a month before my son was born, Tees For Change was also born! I was slowly learning about the t-shirt industry and reached out to a lot of already-successful t-shirt entrepreneurs to ask them for advice. Some were very generous with their time and with sharing their knowledge, which I definitely appreciated. I attribute a lot of my success to learning from others who were where I wanted to be! To make a long story short, I’ve come a long way since that day in 2007 when I started with 96 t-shirts (and sold out of them within a month, to my surprise!). After four years of running Tees for Change, I’ve sold over 20,000 t-shirts in over 300 stores in the United States and internationally and have had six figure sales after only eighteen months of running my business. My t-shirts have appeared in over 200 magazines, newspapers and TV shows, including ABC, NBC, Fox, The Bonnie Hunt Show, Redbook, The Chicago Tribune, USA Today Magazine, Ladies’ Home Journal, Self, Shape, The Nest and many more. And I even got Tori Spelling, Ed Begley, Denise Richards, Sarah Jessica Parker and Sarah Michelle Gellar to wear my tees! Of course I made a lot of mistakes along the way! Like the time I spent $6,000 on a PR company hoping that they would help me get tons of press. I got some press, but definitely not enough to cover my $6,000 investment. Or the time I spent $1,000 on advertising in a local magazine, only to get zero sales from it. Or the time I signed up for a booth at a trade show that was definitely not for my target market – and had only three sales in two days. And what about the time that I trusted that my manufacturer would get my order right, so I didn’t bother to ask for samples before ok’ing the full production run of over 5,000 shirts? Well, half of the shirts came back the wrong color, ALL of them came back with the wrong neck label and another half came back a size too small! Needless to say, I could have done things better, but I was grateful to have learned all the lessons that I did (even though some were very expensive and time-consuming lessons).

Can you relate?

As I was growing my t-shirt company, I started to receive a lot of phone calls and emails from aspiring t-shirt entrepreneurs asking, “How did you do it and can you share your secrets with me?” I remembered all of those ‘mentors’ I had when I first started and how helpful and giving they were. So, in 2009, I wrote T-Shirt Profits: The Complete Guide to Starting Your Own Successful T-shirt Business. In this book I cover everything you need to know to set up and run a successful t-shirt business like mine. And in 2010 I launched the T-shirt Profits Coaching Program, which included private and group coaching on how to set up and run your own successful t-shirt business. Through this program, I have helped many entrepreneurs through the different stages of their t-shirt business, whether they were just starting out, looking for a manufacturer, selling their shirts to retail stores, setting up their website or wanting to get their shirts on celebrities or in the media.

But I didn't stop there...

I kept getting emails from other entrepreneurs (who had products other than t-shirts) and who wanted to get them into stores and wanted to know how I did it all. I started to focus more on working with other entrepreneurs and helping them increase sales for their product-based business. In 2011 I sold Tees for Change and now my main focus is on working with entrepreneurs like you and sharing with you everything I know about getting your products in the media and increasing your online exposure and sales. In 2013 I got the itch to start another product company and Soaps to Live By was born! Although the company lasted only 9 months, Soaps to Live By gave me the opportunity to try some new publicity and online strategies and to see what’s working now in the online marketing world. In 9 short months, my soaps were featured in more than 50 media outlets and I sold more than 6,000 bars of soap! I call that a success! And, in the meantime, I sold two more companies (an organic coupons website and a yoga product reviews website), launched Get Media Happy (a PR matchmaking service to help you connect directly with magazine editors who are looking for products), had two more kids, moved back to NYC and then back to Boulder again, spoke on a few stages (including CreativeLive) and worked with thousands of entrepreneurs like you to help them take their business to the next level!   Twitter Handle: andreeaayers  

Direct download: Andreea_Ayers_FINAL.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Rachel Olsen is the Founder of Best Mom Products, The Media Strategist for Mom Entrepreneurs, #1 Amazon Best-Selling Author and Co-Founder of GetApplr.com

BestMomProducts.com is where mom entrepreneurs go to share their start-up story and learn how to get the media buzz they deserve to generate more sales and have the family lifestyle they crave.

She is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Shark Tank MOMpreneurs Take a Bite Out of Publicity …. which Barbara Corcoran called a “must-read” (so download it now at Amazon).

Rachel is the Co-Founder of GetApplr.com, where you can easily discover your friends’ favorite apps, why they recommend them and share yours too.  Check out her 10 favorite apps athttp://getapplr.com/bestmomproducts.  Psst. If you're an app developer, GetApplr.com lets you communicate directly with users and get more reviews.

Rachel’s been featured on the ABC News, Good Morning San Diego, Huffington Post, Better Homes + Garden, Millionaire Girls Movement among others but her greatest honor is when clients say working with her is “like having a best friend who happens to be a PR and marketing genius.”

SMBH Headshot

Rachel Olsen is the Founder of Best Mom Products, The Media Strategist for Mom Entrepreneurs, #1 Amazon Best-Selling Author and Co-Founder of GetApplr.com BestMomProducts.com is where mom entrepreneurs go to share their start-up story and learn how to get the media buzz they deserve to generate more sales and have the family lifestyle they crave. She is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Shark Tank MOMpreneurs Take a Bite Out of Publicity …. which Barbara Corcoran called a “must-read” (so download it now at Amazon). Rachel is the Co-Founder of GetApplr.com, where you can easily discover your friends’ favorite apps, why they recommend them and share yours too. Check out her 10 favorite apps athttp://getapplr.com/bestmomproducts. Psst. If you're an app developer, GetApplr.com lets you communicate directly with users and get more reviews. Rachel’s been featured on the ABC News, Good Morning San Diego, Huffington Post, Better Homes & Garden, Millionaire Girls Movement among others but her greatest honor is when clients say working with her is “like having a best friend who happens to be a PR and marketing genius.”  

Special Offer:

http://bestmomproducts.com/smbh For $15, get our video course and worksheet created by Theresa Loe, award winning PBS TV Producer on "How to Pitch a TV Producer" or any media for results. (usually $25)

Book:

Links:

http://bestmomproducts.com/

Direct download: SMBH_Rachel_Olson_Final.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

"I thought I just killed my boys..."

Tim Maudlin shares his incredible story of what happened when a tornado ripped apart his hometown.  Five personal friends died...and with the crucial decision he made during this terrifying emergency, he realized it was that decision that might’ve just killed his own children.

Listen along as Tim, a loving father, shares his inspirational story about what happened when a tornado ripped through his town and the incredible thing he did to help rebuild it.

SMBH_Logo

"I thought I had just killed my boys..."

Tim Maudlin shares his incredible story of what happened when a tornado ripped apart his hometown. Five personal friends died...and with the crucial decision he made during this terrifying emergency, he realized it was that decision that might’ve just killed his own children. Listen along as Tim, a loving father, shares his inspirational story about what happened when a tornado ripped through his town and the incredible thing he did to help rebuild it. When I saw it, my heart sank. I thought I had just killed my boys. Friday March 2, 2012 is a day I’ll never forget. The day a tornado ripped apart my hometown. My boys didn’t die that day but five of our neighbors did. The next day, March 3, 2012 is also a day I’ll never forget. Because on that day I learned a lesson that changed my life. A lesson I want to share with you.

T-shirts That Inspire - How ONE T-Shirt help inspire and healed a broken community

The $89,000 T-shirt tells the story of the March 2, 2012 tornado that hit my hometown. T-SHIRTS THAT INSPIRE: The $89,000 T-Shirt: (How ONE t-shirt inspired and healed a broken community)

Direct download: SMBH_Tim_Maudlin_FINAL.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Defender of truth, justice and effective business practices.

Jason has special business and marketing powers. His mission: to save the galaxy, one business at a time. Sixteen year ago, Jason heard cries of distress coming from beleaguered businesses and he decided to take action. He founded a successful digital agency, and over the span of 12 years as CEO championed in the digital advertising arena for clients such as Aflac, Lotus Cars, Hitachi, AT&T, Coke and Legal Zoom. A friend and protector to all, Jason sold his agency in 2011 for 7 figures and used my powers to author a book and develop a smartphone nutrition app.

 

Today, he continues to use his powers for good by creating proprietary business tools, client coaching, and blog writing and podcasting. He ward off evil-doers and helps business owners achieve their goals. Operating out of his office of solitude in Atlanta, Georgia, Jason makes the most of my in-the-trenches experience and today’s cutting edge business strategies to help innocent businesses defend themselves against villainous competition

Direct download: SMBH_Jason_Swenk_FINAL.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Alan is a highly accomplished and successful sales and marketing strategist creating 6- and 7-figure evergreen, automated, marketing funnels and high-profit sales funnels.  www.HighProfitSalesFunnel.com

He has generated more than $25,000,000 in additional revenue for his clients through implementing Full Funnel Optimization.

With over 20 years experience in turning companies around and exploding their growth, he has a proven track record for helping companies attain massive revenue increases, slash marketing costs, and growing bottom-line profits through implementing innovative sales and marketing strategies

Direct download: SMBH_Alan_McKenna_FINAL_leveled.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Dr. Hans Finzel is a successful author, speaker and trusted authority in the field of leadership. For 20 years he served as President and CEO of international non-profit WorldVenture, working in over 65 countries.

Hans speaks and writes on practical leadership principles from the real world not the classroom. He has written nine books, including his newest release, The Power of Passion in Leadership, and bestseller, The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make. Hans has trained leaders on five continents and his books have been translated into over twenty foreign languages. Today he serves as President of HDLeaders, and is chief leadership guru on, The Leadership Answer Man podcast on iTunes. Contact Hans at hansfinzel.com.

Direct download: SMBH_HAns_Finzel_1stbrk_0-21-to0-30_2nd_brk_9-08_to_9-14.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Scott Duffy is Founder & CEO of The Launch Project™, a company dedicated to helping millions of entrepreneurs launch new businesses, products, and services. He is a valued asset to corporations that want to remain competitive in today’s entrepreneur-based economy. He is also the best-selling author of LAUNCH!™ a blueprint for launching and growing great companies.

 

 

Scott began his career working for best-selling author and speaker, Tony Robbins, and went on to work for big media brands like CBS Sportsline, NBC Internet, and FOXSports.com. Next, he founded Smart Charter, an online booking tool for private aviation, which was acquired by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. Scott has spoken at the NYSE and provided commentary for numerous media outlets including CNBC, FOX News, & CBS Radio. Scott currently lives in Southern California with his wife and two children.


Businessman and Life Coach, Aaron T. Walker, has inspired many through his leadership, mentorship, and consistent pursuit of excellence. He enjoys helping others and believes experience is a great teacher. 35 years of entrepreneurship and marriage have given Aaron a wealth of experience. Aaron continues to reach new heights and broaden his perspective of the terrain by examining his experiences and growing from them.

Direct download: SMBH_Aaron_Walker-brk-0-16-to-0-27-brk-6-58-to-7-07.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Jimmy Burgess has ridden the rollercoaster of life.
Bouncing back from the tough times led him to write the multiple category Amazon #1 Bestselling BookWhat Just Happened?
How to Bounce Back in Life So You Can Do More, Have More, and Be More.
He helps frustrated writers become Amazon bestselling authors at his website www.bemoreuniversity.com and he is the cofounder of
Self-Publishing Success Academy with Kimanzi Constable.
Jimmy is a contributing writer for large websites including Entrepreneur, as well as The Good Men Project. He is a speaker, coach, encourager, and eternal optimist.

Direct download: SMBH_Jimmy_Burgress-brk-0-18-to-0-27-brk-10-28-to-10-33.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Tom is a pioneer in inbound marketing, a leading industry consultant, author, and speaker. He grew his own business, Goodbye Crutches, from a regional direct-to-consumer company to a national leader.

 

He is the owner of 2 companies - Goodbye Crutches, the direct-to-consumer company, and Inbound for eCommerce, the leading eCommerce inbound consulting company.

Direct download: SMBH_Tom_Schwab_brk-0-13to-020-2ndbrk-7-22-to-7-31R3.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Greg Hickman is the Founder of Mobile Marketing Engine, a mobile marketing agency and education company for small businesses.

 

He’s a blogger, podcaster and speaker and his work has been featured on Mobile Marketer, Mobile Marketing Watch, Target Marketing Magazine, Copyblogger and Social Media Examiner. 

 

His interest in mobile marketing led him to create a weekly podcast, Mobile Mixed which is featured on iTunes.

 

He is the author of The SMS Marketing Handbook and writes about entrepreneurship and building stuff on his blog.

Direct download: SMBH_Greg_Hickman_brk-0-12-to-0-20-brk-8-24-to-8-34.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 8:43pm EDT

Jim Palmer is a marketing and business building expert and host of Newsletter Guru TV and Stick Like Glue Radio. He is known internationally as ‘The Newsletter Guru’- the go-to resource for maximizing the profitability of customer relationships. He is the founder and President of Custom Newsletters, Inc., parent company of No Hassle Newsletters, No Hassle Social Media, The Newsletter Guru’s Concierge Print and Mail on Demand, Magnetic Attraction and Retention Training Program (MARS), Success Advantage Publishing, Double My Retention, Stick Like Glue Radio, and Newsletter Guru TV.


Host of the podcast “All Things Post” Niel Guilarte has created an incredible following for his podcast.

Following his own formula, Niel has created a podcast, attracted fans and then monetized the whole thing…and he’ll share with you how he did it, along with the most EPIC business fail EVER.

 

Lots to learn from on this episode!

Direct download: SMBH_84_Niel_Guilarte_brk_at_8-22_to_8-33.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

In previous years as an entrepreneur Yaro created, managed and sold several different Internet businesses.

His successful projects include a Magic: The Gathering card game trading forum and e-commerce site, a proofreading business called BetterEdit and a portfolio of website investments, including a blog called Small Business Branding and a collection of sites about miniature motorcycles. All of these projects were sold off when he turned his focus to teach others how to sell digital products and services using a blog.

 

Direct download: SMBH_83Yaro_Starak_brk_at_8-30_to_8-43.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

#1 Best-selling author of Feed A Starving Crowd, He’s a Reality TV Pilot Host and wildly successful marketer. Recently listed by Startup Australia as one of Australia's Top 50 Entrepreneurs.

 

In the past 18 months alone he’s built a super-responsive global online community of serious business owners, almost broke the world record for most number of people in a webinar, filled up dozens of live events, been featured extensively in the media, launched three best-selling books and signed a Reality TV show deal with Hollywood. 

Direct download: SMBH_82_Robert_Coorey_brk_at_9-00_to_9-09.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Erlend Bakke is a Norwegian entrepreneur, speaker, and author born in London, UK. He is the current CEO and founder of

Mr. Outsource – A Done-for-You ,

YouSpin – An app that has made it simple for anyone to create a 360 animation of products using a SmartPhone, laptop or standard camera.

3sixtyfactory - is your all in one photo editing and image editing company that caters different types of photo editing and image editing. With services such as Photo Airbrushing, Photo Retouching, Photo Masking / Clipping path and 360 Photo Editing.

He manages 20 employees in 2 countries and lives between San Francisco, London, Oslo, and Davao City in the Philippines.

As a member of the young breed of forward-thinking businessmen, he advocates the idea of leading a freedom lifestyle while building cash flow through businesses.

Erlend trains entrepreneurs on how to start, run, and own freedom businesses through his seminar The Freedom Bootcamp, his membership website WorkLessEarnMore.tv, and his weekly podcast Invincible Entrepreneur.

In 2013 he first published the book ‘Never Work Again‘, which is focused on applying freedom to your life as well as your business by cutting the crap and getting real about your true needs and desires.

Direct download: SMBH_81_Erlend_Bakke_brk_at_10-21_to_10-26.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Kimanzi Constable is a former bread delivery guy who self-published two books that have sold over 82,000 copies. He is a published author, international speaker, life and business coach. You can usually find him writing at his home in Maui, Hawaii. In the last year he has lost 170 pounds. 

 

He is also a contributing writer for the Huffington Post, Business Insider, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Mind Body Green. He is a weekly columnist, and editor at The Good Men Project. His mission is to help men and women create true freedom in life. Join him at KimanziConstable.com and on Facebook at Kimanzi Constable.

Direct download: SMBH_80_Kimanizi_Constable_brk_at_9-26_to_9-35.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 2:19pm EDT

Dave Kerpen is the founder and CEO of Likeable Local, the cofounder and Chairman of Likeable Media, the NY Times Bestselling author of 3 books, an international keynote speaker, and the #1 LinkedIn Influencer of all time in page views, ahead of Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Mark Cuban, and President Barack Obama.

Likeable Local, a social media software product for small businesses and Likeable Media is an award-winning social media and word-of-mouth marketing firm with triple digit revenue growth for 4 consecutive years. Likeable Media was named to both the 2011 and 2012 Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies in the United States. In 2012 and 2013, Likeable Media was named one of Crain’s Best Places to Work in New York City.

Following a sponsored wedding which raised over $100,000 including $20K for charity, Dave and his wife Carrie started and transformed theKBuzz (founded in 2007) into Likeable Media, 1 of Facebook’s Top 65 Preferred Developer Consultants as well as the only 3-time WOMMY Award winner for excellence from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and one of the 500 fastest growing private companies in the US according to INC Magazine for both 2011 and 2012.

 

Dave blogs twice a week on LinkedIn as part of LinkedIn’s Thought Leader Program and is the 25th most followed person in the world, with more than 300,000 followers, which is growing at about 3000 followers a week. In 2013, Dave’s blogs received over 16 million total page views, including the most popular article of all time, 11 Simple Concepts to Become a Better Leader, with 2.5 million page views, ahead of Bill Gates, Tony Robbins, Barack Obama, Jack Welch, Ariana Huffington, and Richard Branson.

Dave has been featured on CNBC’s “On the Money”, BBC, ABC World News Tonight, the CBS Early Show, the New York Times, and countless blogs. Dave has also keynoted at dozens of conferences across the globe and webinars for organizations such as WOMMA, TEDx, SXSW, and the American Marketing Association.

Dave reaches an additional 100K followers through social media and his subscriber list and is backed by a team of 75 social media thought leaders who collectively have managed over 250 accounts on Facebook and other social networks, for brands such as Verizon, 1-800 Flowers.com, Neutrogena, Logitech, The Pampered Chef, G.E, Medtronic, Restaurant.com, and Heineken.

Dave is also a Venture Partner at Gen Y Capital Partners an early-stage venture firm, which is leveraging Gen Y to support Gen Y. 

 

Direct download: SMBH_79_Dave_Kerpen_brk_at_9-24-to-9-34.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 2:21pm EDT

Julie Lowe is a Social Media Strategist and the Founder of Socially Aligned. Julie creates social media strategies for busy entrepreneurs who desire more leads, more sales, and a real plan to grow their business!

In addition to strategy development, Julie offers 1-on-1 coaching and digital training programs for entrepreneurs. With nearly 15 years of experience in advertising and marketing, Julie leverages a wealth of hands-on experience and proven results to help her clients succeed online.

After helping an e-commerce company make Millions over the past 4.5 years, Julie is now working full time in Socially Aligned to help other entrepreneurs succeed with social media marketing.

You can find Julie at SociallyAligned.com and on Facebook at Facebook.com/SociallyAligned

Direct download: SMBH_Julie_Lowe_brk_at_6-52_to_6-57.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Joe Pulizzi is founder of Content Marketing Institute, the leading education and training organization for content marketing, which includes the largest in-person content marketing event in the world, Content Marketing World. Joe is the winner of the 2014 John Caldwell Lifetime Achievement Award from the Content Council.

Joe’s third book, Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less was named one of “Five Must Read Business Books of 2013” by Fortune Magazine. You can find Joe on Twitter @JoePulizzi. If you ever see Joe in person, he’ll be wearing orange.

Direct download: SMBH_77_joe_pulizzi_brk_at_6-08_to_6-12.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Josh Elledge, Chief Executive Angel of SavingsAngel.com

He has been on TV and radio more than 1000 times in more than 100 different cities and owned a newspaper.

 Josh currently writes a syndicated column read by over 1.5 million readers each week. Has created more than $8 million in free advertising for his company.

 

Has taught very large audiences how to do the same thing

Direct download: SMBH_Josh_Elledge.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Jason Hartman has been involved in several thousand real estate transactions and has owned income properties in 11 states and 17 cities. His company, Platinum Properties Investor Network, Inc. helps people achieve The American Dream of financial freedom by purchasing income property in prudent markets nationwide. Jason’s Complete Solution for Real Estate Investors™ is a comprehensive system providing real estate investors with education, research, resources and technology to deal with all areas of their income property investment needs.

The United States offers nearly 400 distinct and diverse markets while most media pundits characterize the “housing market” as if it were a single entity. We realize they do this to cram a cogent comment into a simple sound bite. Real estate cannot be described that simply. It’s just not accurate. There is NO such thing as a United States real estate market. However, there IS an Atlanta, Georgia or a Dallas, Texas real estate market. To that end, we at Platinum Properties Investor Network scour the entire country with an “Area Agnostic™” approach and select the most suitable and sensible markets to recommend to our investors so they don’t waste countless hours doing it themselves. Through our podcasts, educational events, referrals, mentoring and software to track your investments, investors can easily locate, finance and purchase properties in these exceptional markets with confidence and peace of mind.

Through our podcasts, educational events, referrals, mentoring and software to track your investments, investors can easily locate, finance and purchase properties in these exceptional markets with confidence and peace of mind. Visit www.JasonHartman.com and one of our investment counselors will provide your free portfolio makeover. We are here to help!

Jason Hartman is the Founder and CEO of Platinum Properties Investor Network, The Hartman Media Company and The Jason Hartman Foundation. Starting with very little, Jason, while still in college at the age of 19, embarked on a career in real estate while brokering properties for clients, he was investing in he own portfolio along the way. Through creativity, persistence and hard work, he soon joined the ranks of the top one-percent of Realtors in the U.S. and in quick succession; earned a number of prestigious industry awards and became a young multi-millionaire.

Jason purchased an Irvine, California real estate brokerage firm which he expanded dramatically and was later acquired by Coldwell Banker. He combined his dedication and business talents to become a successful entrepreneur, public speaker, author, and media personality. Over the years he developed his Complete Solution for Real Estate Investors™ where his innovative firm educates and assists investors in acquiring prudent investments nationwide for their portfolio. Jason’s highly sought after educational events, speaking engagements, and his ultra-hot “Creating Wealth Podcast” inspire and empower hundreds of thousands of people in 26 countries worldwide.

While running his successful real estate and media businesses, Jason also believes that giving back to the community plays an important role in building strong personal relationships. He established The Jason Hartman Foundation in 2005 to provide financial literacy education to young adults providing the all important real world skills not taught in school which are the key to the financial stability and success of future generations. We’re in a global monetary crisis caused by decades of misguided policies and the cycle of financial dependence has to be broken, literacy and self-reliance are a good start. 

Direct download: SMBH_7X_Jason_Hartman_brk_at_7-33-to-7-38.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Katie Wagner spent 15 years as a television and radio journalist, working for news outlets all over the world, including ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN & National Public Radio.

Today, Katie owns a Social Media agency made up of journalists like herself. The agency, Katie Wagner Social Media, specializes in both content creation and social media management. They work with clients like Anthem Blue Cross, The County of San Bernardino, Paul’s TV, Senegence International, FocalPoint Business Coaching, The California Landscape Contractors Association and Author Michael E. Gerber.

Katie also works as a consultant, helping business owners integrate social media into their traditional media marketing plans. She is a popular speaker, and regularly gives keynote presentations and leads workshops for small business audiences.

 

Katie sits on the Advisory Board for Web Wise Kids, a non-profit focused on keeping kids safe on the internet and social media. She was awarded the organization’s Champion for Children Award in 2012. Katie also serves as a Mentor in Chapman University’s MBA Program and is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship.

Direct download: SMBH_Katie_Wagner_brk_at_7-11-to-7-15.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

The Stacey Harris is a powerhouse online entrepreneur helping her clients reach rock star status with communities full of raving fans who follow them anywhere. She has a passion for building and being active in communities and teaching folks to use networking to build relationships that grow businesses.

 

Her passion for rock stars goes back to her roots, she graduated with a degree in audio engineering ready to take the music scene by storm. She quickly started working with an up and coming record label finding bands to sign and feature on their web radio station. Now returning to her web radio roots Stacey is the host of her own show Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris.

 

You can find out more and connect with The Stacey Harris atwww.thestaceyharris.com and over on Twitter at @TheStaceyHarris.

Direct download: SMBH_Stacy_Harris.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Social Media Brand Strategist, Business Consultant , and Speaker, Karen Yankovich is the CEO of Dimar e Group, LLC. Having “been there and done that” i n the arena of losing (and then re-finding) a focu sed approach to business and life, Karen now offer s coaching and consulting for entrepreneurs. Her u nique specialty blends her “get it done” attitude with a passion for soulful living in her personal services and online workshops.

Social Med ia and LinkedIn Evangelist, Karen guides entrepren eurs to creating wealth by combining smart busines s practices with simple proven systems that develo p and maintain strong customer relationships. She offers results oriented and expert Conversational Marketing strategies that position her clients to bring in instant results. Karen’s background inclu des over twenty years in the fields of information technology, marketing, and customer relationships , making social media her ideal niche.

Direct download: 67_smbh_karen_yankovich.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Kathleen Gage is the “no-nonsense, common sense” online marketing strategist, speaker, author, product creation specialist, and owner of Power Up For Profits.

 

She helps entrepreneurs make money online. Her clients are driven by making a difference through their own unique voice

As an early adopter of online marketing, Kathleen is considered to be one of the nation’s most passionate speakers.

 

She is known for cutting through the fluff and helping people leave their sob stories behind so they can stop focusing on the past and start looking towards the future. (This isn’t by accident)

 

She speaks and teaches about what she believes are the core elements of a successful life: accountability, integrity, honesty, and living with passion and hope. 

Although Kathleen is recognized as a top leader in her field, this wasn’t always the case.         - - -  Now’s please listen,  Business life isn’t always easy - - -  But let’s talk about stacking the deck against yourself - - - Kathleen has that story as well

 

You see, Kathleen made choices in her teens and early twenties that took her from a comfortable middle-class upbringing to a life of homelessness and being unemployable. 

But that condition didn’t stop her or define her.


Kathleen Gage rose above seemingly insurmountable odds to become an award winning business owner, bestselling author, Internet sales and marketing trainer, and award winning keynote speaker. 

With more than thirty years of experience in sales, marketing, management, public relations, and promotions, Kathleen has consulted with and trained organizations such as the U.S. Marine Corps, Novus Corporation, and AT&T. She has acted in leadership and advisory capacities for many organizations, including being past president of the National Speakers Association Utah Chapter, past vice-chair and marketing chair for the Central Region Council for the Department of Workforce Services of Utah, and a member of the legislative council for the American Cancer Society of Utah.

Kathleen has written dozens of information products and books, has hundreds of interviews to her credit, and is a highly skilled, inspirational keynote speaker.

 

Her mission is to help people understand that their business is merely a means to get their message out to the world.

 

 

She teaches that it’s not just about what you do, but the reasons behind why you do it.

Kathleen’s most recently published book is, Power Up for Profits! The Smart Woman’s Guide to Online Marketing.

Direct download: SMBH_71_Kathleen_Gauge_brk_6-47_-_to_-_6-51_.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Jason M. Silverman, Martial Arts Master Instructor, Information Marketer, Marketing Expert & Coach, Sought-After Speaker, CEO of Powerful Words Character Development and Co-Founder of Dance Sites Done Right / All Star Cheer Sites, is known for his no-b.s. yet supportive approach to helping entrepreneurs and their businesses to thrive.

His “Out of the Box, Powerful” Marketing and Business Systemization Strategies have proven successful for the growth of not only the Powerful Words Character Development System (now being implemented in over 500 schools in 10 different countries), but also in the successes his clients experience in their businesses.

Jason has been a featured expert at The Martial Arts SuperShow, The Dance Teacher Summit, ASGA Conference, USA Gymnastics National Congress, USA Gymnastics Regional Congress and the US Swim School Association’s International Convention.

Direct download: Jason_Silverman_Show_Nile_Interview_FINAL.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

When Debra was a kid, her Dad programmed the first mainframe computer for The Salvation Army’s Western Territorial Division. In 1985 he gave Debra her first computer, a TRS-80 from Radio Shack with an 8-pin, dot matrix printer. In 1989 Debra was on Prodigy chatting with a friend who moved to Kentucky, on dial-up. She was desktop publishing by 1991 with the first version of Microsoft’s Publisher.

In 1990 she created The Business Resource, a local small business publication with a community of business owners who wrote articles for the paper. The members networked twice a month at business luncheons. Because of her desktop publishing skills, McGraw-Hill persuaded her to help them build their first New Media Division.
Debra worked for McGraw-Hill from 1994 to 2003. It was an exciting time on the Internet. McGraw-Hill was pioneering online learning tools. Eventually Debra was programming the websites that supported McGraw-Hill’s textbook division.

When they closed their Carlsbad office in 2003, Debra started a business helping other business owners use the Internet to market their businesses. In 2006, Debra started podcasting, North San Diego Business @Large (http://northsandiegobusiness.com), where she interviews business owners in North San Diego County. Today she consults with business owners who want to work with WordPress, social media and podcasting.

Direct download: SMBH_Final_Debra_Simpson_brk_at_8-08_to_8-10.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Ted Prodromou (pro-dro-mo) is the award-winning author of Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business and Ultimate Guide to Twitter for Business (Entrepreneur Press 2012). Ted is also frequent contributor to Entrepreneur Magazine and Entrepreneur.com.

Ted is an online advertising consultant generating leads for his clients using Google Adwords, Facebook ads, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media platforms. He also teaches online and in-person classes on LinkedIn, Twitter, and online advertising.

Direct download: SMBH_Ted_Prodromou_mixdown.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Carolyn Herfurth, founder of The Biztruth and creator of Art of the Ask Academy, is a serial entrepreneur, author, speaker, trainer and business mentor.
She has advised thousands of people to make thoughtful decisions about business ownership and helped launch nearly 100 businesses.  Fed up with the plethora of super talented entrepreneurs who struggle with sales, Carolyn has made it her mission to equip service-based entrepreneurs with the confidence and skills to double their closing rates and multiply earnings.

Prior to starting The Biztruth, Carolyn established the Minneapolis office of The Entrepreneur’s Source, North
America’s leading business ownership consulting organization. In addition to advising clients, Carolyn is author of “Buying a Franchise: Tips, Tools & Tales for Doing It Right” and cofounder the Minnesota Franchise Spectacular, an annual trade show attracting thousands of individuals interested in owning a franchise.  Prior to pursuing her lifelong dream of owning a business, Carolyn enjoyed a successful 13-year sales career with Oracle, Rand Worldwide and several other leading companies.
Carolyn speaks extensively on sales and business ownership to a variety of entrepreneur groups, including New York Expo, Savor the Success, Small Business Expo, S.H.E. Summit, Enlightened Entrepreneurs, National Association of Women Business Owners, SCORE, Small Business Development Center, Bloomington Chamber of Commerce and more. Whew!

In addition to receiving a bevy of sales awards, she has been recognized by Upsize magazine for Best Practices in Customer Relations, received numerous awards from The Entrepreneur’s Source & been honored by the National Association of Women Business Owners. Carolyn loves performing standup & improv comedy...anything that brings levity to an all-too
serious world. She has “competed” in a duathlon and a half-marathon & looks forward to her
next physical & mental challenge… TBD!   She has proudly served on boards for the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, Ordway Circle of Stars, and PaceMaker 5000, a 5k walk/run that raises funds for Children’s Hospitals.

Direct download: SMBH_66_Carolyn_Herfurth_FINAL.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Rebecca's website ProfessionalContentCreation.com is dedicated to teaching small business owners how to use content to market their businesses.
We do this by providing tutorials and info on best practices for different aspects of blogging and other types of content creation.
Knowing that the blogging journey is a marathon, not a sprint and can be hard and discouraging at times, anybody blogging needs a huge dose of encouragement to keep you motivated. Recognizing that issue you’ll also find posts that focus on mindset and motivation.
For those who need help that goes beyond the information provided in our content, we provide a small range of services to help you use content to make a difference in your business.
Rebecca Livermore is the owner of Professional Content Creation and has been a professional freelance writer since 1993.

Her company is focused on training small business owners on how to effectively use content to market their businesses.

Direct download: SMBH_66_Rebecca_Livermore_FINAL_break_at_12-09_to_12-12.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Erlend Bakke is a Norwegian entrepreneur, speaker, and author born in 1981 in London, UK. He is the current CEO and founder of Mr. Outsource, YouSpin, and 3sixtyfactory. He manages 20 employees in 2 countries and lives between San Francisco, London, Oslo, and Davao City in the Philippines.
As a member of the young breed of forward-thinking businessmen, he advocates the idea of leading a freedom lifestyle while building cash flow through businesses. Erlend trains entrepreneurs on how to start, run, and own freedom businesses through his seminar The Freedom Bootcamp, his membership website WorkLessEarnMore.tv, and his weekly podcast Invincible Entrepreneur.
In 2013 he first published the book ‘Never Work Again‘, which is focused on applying freedom to your life as well as your business by cutting the crap and getting real about your true needs and desires.

Direct download: SMBH_63_Erlend_Bakke_brk_11-15-to-11-17.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Gene is fiercely committed to working with high-achieving leaders in small businesses who want to lead with confidence and achieve true financial freedom (in months, not years). As the Managing Director of Core Elevation, Inc., Gene helps leaders transform from stagnate, stressed and struggling to thriving, growing, and loving their work.

Direct download: SMBH_59_with_Gene_Hammett.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Since 1993, Alex Mandossian has generated nearly $400 million in sales and profits for his strategic alliance partners, clients and students on five continents.  His expertise is in electronic broadcast media such as teleseminars, webinars, podcasts and most recently, Google hangouts.

 

His marketing strategies helped convert his annual income in 2001 into a month income by 2003 and then into an hourly income (16 times) by 2006.  His colleagues acknowledge him the Warren Buffet of the Internetbecause of his unique ability to make money for his partners, clients and students.

Alex’s blog is read weekly by over 155,000 subscribers. He has shared the stage with diverse thoughts leaders such as Richard Branson, Harvey Mackay, Donald Trump, Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, Suze Ormand, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the Dalai Lama.

 

He has pioneered Internet marketing innovations such as online audio (Audio Generator – 2003), online video (Instant Video Generator – 2004), crowd sourcing (Ask Database – 2005), Tele-Summits (Virtual Seminar Week – 2006), and G+ Hangout monetization (Hangout Marketing Secrets – 2013).

Alex lifetime goal is to become the world’s 1st “work-at-home” billionaire not in Net Worth, but by creating over one thousand other Internet marketing millionaires before his 77th birthday. He lives in Marin County, CA and is a dedicated dad to his two young children, Gabriel and Breanna.

Direct download: SMBH_58_Alex_Mandossian.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:14pm EDT

Lisa Manyon is “The Business Marketing Architect” a content strategist for mission-driven entrepreneurs and business owners. The creator of The New Marketing Model for Success, Lisa’s “Challenge. Solution. Invitation.™” copywriting and marketing formula has shifted – and is shaping the future of – the way we market today. Her relationship-first approach is friendly, effective and teaches people how to create marketing messages with integrity based on values.

 

Her philosophies have been featured in Inc. Magazine and alongside visionaries Richard Branson, Jessica Jackley, Arianna Huffington and B Corporations like Ben and Jerry’s in the bestselling books Wonder Women: How Western Women Will Save The World and Engage: Your Step by Step Guide to Creating a Workplace that You, Your Co-workers and Your Customers Love!

 

 

A thought leader in copywriting, strategy and marketing, she specializes in powerfully communicating your marketing message to increase results. Her innovative marketing vision has been known to accurately predict marketing trends. Lisa’s philosophies offer an alternative to the notion that “copy is king,” with her message that copy is actually QUEEN (the feminine energy of marketing), strategy is KING (the masculine energy of marketing), and together they are the key to creating strong, effective results. She is a master of matching your message to market. Renowned for her Manyon Marketing Web Makeovers, Content Strategy Plans and website copy and strategy packages, Lisa helps clients build relationships, attract ideal clients and increase income online and offline (often uncovering unrealistic web expectations). Lisa’s consulting techniques have doubled client engagement and opt-in rates quickly, generated over $40,000.00 in just one focused email campaign and produced over $75,000.00 in sales via a single launch concept. Lisa’s big vision ability to see all the pieces of your marketing puzzle allows her to help you reverse engineer your big ideas into tangible action steps to turn your dreams into reality.

Direct download: SMBH_57_Lisa_Manyon.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 6:44pm EDT

In this episode, Brad Baldridge interviews Nile about how to help students use LinkedIn to get into college and how to land that dream career after graduating.

Brad Baldridge is a Registered Representative, Securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research, Inc. a Broker/Dealer, Member FINRA/SIPC.  Investment Advisor Representative, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor.  Baldridge Wealth Management and Baldridge College Solutions are affiliated. Cambridge and the Baldridge companies are not affiliated.

Direct download: SMHB_Brad_Baldridge_Interviews_Nile.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Tyler Anderson is a social media marketing entrepreneur, speaker, and host of the Social Media Social Hour Podcast. Tyler is the founder and CEO of Casual Fridays, a social media marketing agency and creators of Scoreboard Social, a simplified social media reporting and benchmarking tool. Tyler also is the host/organizer of Social Media Day San Diego, one of the best Social Media Day events world-wide.

Direct download: SMBH_54_Tyler_Anderson.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:40pm EDT

Originally from Israel, Jacob moved to the U.S. to pursue his LLM in International and Comparative Law. Jacob’s goal was to complete his studies, find a job and advance in his legal career.

He found a job with a mid size law firm and realized the American Dream.
However, he soon realized that having a legal job is not like in the movies.
Jacob worked hard, but his salary was capped.
He had to bill hours, work weekends, and witnessed how clients should not be treated. He knew he could do it differently if only he had the chance.

In 2004, he left his Law firm job and started his own Law Office
“Jacob J. Sa-PoeSH-nick U.S. Immigration Law”.
He had no plan and no prospects, just a two-year-old Dell computer, a scratched glass desk, and a small back room rented from a fellow attorney. With his first child on the way, he needed it to work very, very fast.

Less than 8 years later, Jacob has built a 7 lawyer, 14-person immigration law practice, with plenty of clients.
He used social media to make it happen.
As an example, he built the largest Facebook community for lawyers in the U.S. with more than 88,000 fans and real engagement.: http://www.facebook.com/myimmigrationlawyer

In addition, he publishes 2 Legal Blogs, regularly produces videos on his You Tube Channel and runs a mini publishing arm at the law office.

I believe that social media and “Becoming Enchanting” are crucial to the business of any business today. However, I don’t believe that it needs to be stressful or taking up hours of your life.

Direct download: SMBH_53_Jacob_Sapochnick.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 11:15am EDT

Dino Dogan is a professional speaker with a real job as the Founder and CEO of Triberr, the social network for content creators that sends millions of monthly visitors to its members.

Dino has been the subject of stories pertaining to business and technology in publications like Forbes,Yahoo!News, and BizJournal. His startup has been featured on thousands of blogs, including The Next Web, Yahoo, Technorati, Huffington Post, Business Insider, and INC.

Dino has spoken or consulted for a variety of companies and audiences, including IBM, Rutgers University, Vocus, New Media Expo, 140conf, and many others.
A prolific content creator himself, Dino has been referred to as a “raconteur and champion of bloggers everywhere,” by writer Rosemary O’Neill.

Frequently featured as an expert commentator on new technologies and the latest social media developments on sites like ReadWriteWeb, Dino is also the co-author of the book Engagement From Scratch along with Guy Kawasaki, Mitch Joel, and other notable authors and community builders.
His blog has been profiled by Technorati on multiple occasions and offers an insider’s view into his social networking expertise.
A recovering network engineer and a failed musician, Dino spends his free time doing Mixed Martial Arts, and walking his german shepherd named Dojo.

Direct download: SMBH_51_Dino_Dogan.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:02pm EDT

Steven Essa is known internationally as the “Make Money with Webinars Expert.” He was raised in the western-suburbs of Sydney, Australia by hard working immigrant parents. Steven now excites audiences in Australia, the UK, USA, UAE, Ireland, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Cyprus, Singapore and New Zealand. Steven has trained thousands of people to leverage the power of “webinars;” their efficiency, convenience and flexibility, to generate thousands of dollars an hour in product sales. Steven’s methods give all business owners something that is much needed in today’s New Economy: the flexibility to create additional streams of income in their business.

 

Direct download: SMBH_50_Steven_Essa.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 2:24pm EDT

Mara Glazer is a marketing and social media strategist, public speaker, and like many of her fans, followers, and friends, highly successful entrepreneur.

Known as the CUT THE CRAP COACH and GET MORE BUZZ STRATEGIST, Mara most excels at helping business owners all over the globe build incredible (+profitable) buzzworthy businesses fast!
Mara started in her industry working alongside her father, Bill Glazer, at the company he founded, Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle (GKIC). During her 2-years at GKIC, she had access to the top training and Offline & Online Marketing Experts in the world. These 2-years were equivalent to a PHD in marketing and the latest social media strategies. While at Glazer-Kennedy, she generated an additional 7-figures in less than 278 days using social and alternative media alone.

Since then, she has been featured in hundreds of marketing training videos, traveled the country speaking about marketing and money making, has launched her virtual assistant and social media management agency called Best Damn Biz Team, and her CUT THE CRAP business coaching company, which can be found at maraglazer.com

What Mara loves most is showing small business owners how to build businesses that allow them to create and transform into the life they have always dreamed of but maybe never thought was possible for them through her CUT THE CRAP approach to business and success.

In other words, to be blunt, Mara shows entrepreneurs how to CUT THE CRAP and only focus on what works to bring in the money so they can stop wasting their time on BS Business Strategies, and instead spend that time doing what they love.

Because of the demand from top business owners and entrepreneurs to hire Mara as a marketing and social media strategist, Mara works with a only handful of business owners each year to help them grow their business using social media and online marketing THE RIGHT WAY.

Tune in an hold on for this entertaining and information packed episode

Direct download: SMBH_49_MaraGlazer_01.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 10:42am EDT

Joleene Moody is a nationally known speaker and client-closing expert for
entrepreneurs, specializing in speaker training and coaching. She guides
these amazing individuals to a place where they can incorporate their
purpose-driven message to write kick-a$$ presentations and find or create
speaking gigs that generate cash and hi-paying clients.
Joleene studies what’s working NOW to help entrepreneurs make more
money, build confidence and grow a lucrative and sustainable business.
With her on-fire, no-nonsense comedic approach, Joleene energetically guides her clients through self-esteem,
growth and money issues that may keep them from becoming the remarkable leaders they are meant to be!

Direct download: SMBH.EP.47.Joleene_Moody.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Join Us This Week For A Special Show, As Kerry Lutz Interviews Nile Nickel !

Excerpt From The Nationally Broadcast, Financial Survival Radio Show.

Kerry Lutz is the founder of the Financial Survival Network 

The Financial Survival Network® is a nationwide alliance of investment professionals with a common objective: delivering the timely truth aboutsound financial investments over local radio stations. We bring hard-working and ethical professionals in the country together to provide the media and forum necessary for local investors to learn about all the important aspects of financial life, especially inflation protected investments.

The Financial Survival Network® brings you a “live and local” show hosted by well-respected investment and financial professionals who want to educate you on building your financial fortress.

Kerry Lutz has been a student of Austrian Economics since 1977. While attending Pace University, he stumbled upon an extensive cache of Austrian Economic Literature in a dark, musty, abandoned section of the school’s library. After graduating from The New York Law School, he became an attorney and life long serial entrepreneur. His diverse career has included: running a legal printing company, practicing commercial law and litigation and founding a successful distressed asset investment company.

After the 2008 financial collapse and the continued global economic deterioration, Kerry realized people needed a reliable source for accurate information. Believing that inflation would eventually run rampant, he dedicated himself to helping people protect and preserve their wealth. He urged investors to re-balance their investment portfolios and to implement precious metals based strategies to adapt to the new economic order. The ability to perceive economic reality, as well as to separate truth from governmental inspired economic fantasy will be essential for economic survival and prosperity in the years ahead.

 

In 2010, Kerry gave up most of his other interests to pursue his long held desire of becoming a radio show host. Thus the Financial Survival Network was born. Its mission is helping you to prosper and thrive in the New Economy. He has done hundreds of interviews with such financial luminaries as Peter Schiff, Harry S. Dent, Martin Armstrong, Jim Rogers, Marc Faber and Peter Grandich. He continually releases new segments and interviews on iTunes and YouTube. His new Triple Lutz Report was an instant hit and continues to increase audience share. As he says, “The Financial Survival Network, It’s All About What’s Next!

Direct download: Nile_Interviewed_by_Kerry_Lutz.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Erik Luhrs is known as “The Bruce Lee of Sales and Lead Generation.”

He is the creator of The GURUS Selling System and the author of the book BE DO SALE.  Erik is the only expert in the world on Front-Loaded Lead Generation, Persona-Positioning and Lead Generation Message Linguistics! Erik is also a Master Practitioner of NLP, and certified in The Silva Method and Accelerated Learning. And he has been featured by Selling Power, Entrepreneur, Fox Business News, Sales Gravy, Chief Executive and BNET.

Direct download: SMBH_43_Erik_Luhrs.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Dan wrote one of the first books on Internet Marketing back in 1994. He taught the first Internet Marketing class at Berkeley and also taught Internet Branding at Stanford. He now focuses on helping clients build their brands so they can sell more products and services.

For more info please go to www.PressReleaseSender.com

USA Today called Dan Janal “a true cyberspace pioneer.”

Through his coaching and consulting services, his clients have been featured in nearly every major newspaper and magazine including the New York Times, Forbes, Fox Business and the Wall Street Journal.

He is the author of eight books, including “Reporters Are Looking for You.”

Direct download: SMBH_41_with_Dan_Janal140421_01.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Bestselling Author. Acclaimed Speaker. Filmmaker – Greg S. Reid is a natural entrepreneur known for his giving spirit and a knack for translating complicated situations into simple, digestible concepts.

As an action-taking phenomenon, strategy turns into results fast and furious, and relationships are deep and rich in the space he orbits.

Published in over 45 books, 28 best sellers, five motion pictures, and featured in countless magazines, Greg will share that the most valuable lessons we learn, are also the easiest ones to apply.

Recently, Greg has been hand selected by The Napoleon Hill Foundation to help carry on the teaching found in the bible of personal achievement – Think and Grow Rich.

Don’t forget to check us out on iTunes to download prior shows, and please leave us a review and a rating! It helps pay the bills!

Direct download: SMBH_40_with_Greg_S._R4.14.14.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Our guest Rick Cooper. Rick is an Online Marketing and Social Media Trainer. He is the author of Seize your Opportunities, Marketing Magic, and Extreme Excellence. Rick is Founder of Social Media Outcomes and Director of the Technology Services Division of Eric Lofholm International, Inc. Rick works with small business owners who want to generate more leads and earn more sales online. He helps them increase their visibility online. Rick was featured in Comstocks magazine and has been interviewed by The National Networker, the East Bay Times Business Journal and AllBusiness.com.

Direct download: SMBH_37_with_Rick_Cooper_64k.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Social Media Business Hour presented by Nile Nickel.  

Join us each week for the latest in Social Media and Business.  

Don Crowther is a leading social media marketing and online marketing expert. He helps companies ranging from Fortune-500-level giants to entrepreneurs make more money online using proven social media and search marketing techniques.

These terrific, thought inspiring shows include "News Of The Weird" segments where you'll get the strangest stories from around the world.  Impress your friends and family with hilarious and often surprising news stories that the major news networks don't cover. 

In addition, get some great tips for how to attract and keep your perfect customers using Social Media.  On top of the laughs that you'll share, Nile will deliver you golden business lessons from truly great entrepreneurs.  

 

These incredible men and women have been where you are and have struggled through the challenges you face every day.  Take this opportunity to invest in your business, your education and enjoy it along the way!

 

Direct download: SMBH_35_Don_Crowther.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Gary George is the founder and CEO of Blazin Multimedia, a
creative and marketing solutions company specializing in
Web & Mobile Development, Online Marketing, SEO,
PPC, Local Search, Video, Mobile and Social Media
Marketing. Since launching the agency in 1998, he has been
integral in acquiring and serving its high profile clients,
including Vonage, Virgin Records, The United Nations,
Panasonic, Roc-A-Fella Records (Jay-Z), Teddy Pendergrass,
Michael Baisden, The Urban League, National Association of Real Estate Brokers and
many more.
Gary is an internet technology and marketing expert, thought leader and consultant to
a variety of global business leaders, entertainers, celebrities and athletes. He develops
technical and marketing solutions for Fortune 500 companies as well as progressive
startups that are challenged in reaching their niche markets.
As a consultant, Gary has generated more than $48 million dollars for his clients
within the past 5 years, by identifying and reversing limiting patterns in their marketing
strategy. He’s successfully applied his business success techniques to a variety of
industries, teaching clients how to duplicate their efforts via technology and marketing
automation. The results speaks for itself and he continues to be the go to guy when
organizations are tired of thinking small and ready for explosive growth.

Direct download: Social_Media_Business_Hour_1.27.14.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Social Media Business Hour presented by Nile Nickel.  

Join us each week for the latest in Social Media and Business.  

These terrific, thought inspiring shows include "News Of The Weird" segments where you'll get the strangest stories from around the world.  Impress your friends and family with hilarious and often surprising news stories that the major news networks don't cover. 

In addition, get some great tips for how to attract and keep your perfect customers using Social Media.  On top of the laughs that you'll share, Nile will deliver you golden business lessons from truly great entrepreneurs.  

These incredible men and women have been where you are and have struggled through the challenges you face every day.  Take this opportunity to invest in your business, your education and enjoy it along the way!

Direct download: SMBH_19_11.18.13.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Join us each week for the latest in Social Media and Business.  

These terrific, thought inspiring shows include "News Of The Weird" segments where you'll get the strangest stories from around the world.  Impress your friends and family with hilarious and often surprising news stories that the major news networks don't cover. 

In addition, get some great tips for how to attract and keep your perfect customers using Social Media.  On top of the laughs that you'll share, Nile will deliver you golden business lessons from truly great entrepreneurs.  

These incredible men and women have been where you are and have struggled through the challenges you face every day.  Take this opportunity to invest in your business, your education and enjoy it along the way!

Direct download: Social_Media_Business_Hour_9.30.13_64bit_24000.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Join us each week for the latest in Social Media and Business.  

These terrific, thought inspiring shows include "News Of The Weird" segments where you'll get the strangest stories from around the world.  Impress your friends and family with hilarious and often surprising news stories that the major news networks don't cover. 

In addition, get some great tips for how to attract and keep your perfect customers using Social Media.  On top of the laughs that you'll share, Nile will deliver you golden business lessons from truly great entrepreneurs.  

These incredible men and women have been where you are and have struggled through the challenges you face every day.  Take this opportunity to invest in your business, your education and enjoy it along the way!

Direct download: Social_Media_Business_Hour_9.23.13_64bit_24000.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Join us each week for the latest in Social Media and Business.  

These terrific, thought inspiring shows include "News Of The Weird" segments where you'll get the strangest stories from around the world.  Impress your friends and family with hilarious and often surprising news stories that the major news networks don't cover. 

In addition, get some great tips for how to attract and keep your perfect customers using Social Media.  On top of the laughs that you'll share, Nile will deliver you golden business lessons from truly great entrepreneurs.  

These incredible men and women have been where you are and have struggled through the challenges you face every day.  Take this opportunity to invest in your business, your education and enjoy it along the way!

Direct download: 91613_SMBH_64bit_24000.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Join us each week for the latest in Social Media and Business.  

These terrific, thought inspiring shows include "News Of The Weird" segments where you'll get the strangest stories from around the world.  Impress your friends and family with hilarious and often surprising news stories that the major news networks don't cover. 

In addition, get some great tips for how to attract and keep your perfect customers using Social Media.  On top of the laughs that you'll share, Nile will deliver you golden business lessons from truly great entrepreneurs.  

These incredible men and women have been where you are and have struggled through the challenges you face every day.  Take this opportunity to invest in your business, your education and enjoy it along the way!

Direct download: 9-9-13_smbh_64bit_24000.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Real-life business names that you won't believe!  Nile and Jordan review the funniest business names you've ever heard including the debut of Nile's very own funny business name.  Listen along to find out the Social Media story behind the idea of the creation of this brand new (and hilarious) business.

Of course, you'll also get some great tips and tricks for using Social Media in your business.

Direct download: Social_Media_Business_Hour_8.19.13_64bits_24000.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Listen along as we talk about funny customer service experiences...some good, some absolutely hilariously, bad.
With Social Media Business Hour, you can always take away valuable tips and gems that you can use in your business today.

Direct download: Social_Media_Business_Hour_8.12.13_64bit_24000.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Mike McCormick shares some really business insights and a very rare treat:  A report from German economic scientists who rate the top 100 countries for the most business friendly environment. You'll be surprised to hear where your country ranks!

 

Direct download: Social_Media_Business_Hour_7.29.13_64bits_24000.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Listen along as Howard Berg, the World's Fastest Speed Reader tells us about how he rose to greatness after growing up in a crime ridden city, filled with gangs. 

Howard Berg has perfected teaching people how to read at amazing speeds AND retain more of what they've read at these new unbelievalbe speeds.  Often funny and always enlightening, join us for a great conversation with Howard.

Direct download: SMBH7-22-13.mp3
Category:SMBH Weekly Episodes -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT