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niche product

Make a Living From Your Passion: Niche Marketing & Niche Product Development

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Last week we briefly discussed the idea of a sales funnel. They’re essentially used to make a person who has no idea who you are or what you’re about into someone that’s going to buy from you.

You’ve probably heard of sales funnels in one way or another. So what I shared with you wasn’t anything new.

But, if you’ve been following the blog or the podcast for awhile, you know that I talk about two things when it comes to making a sale in a business. You can use niche product development or niche marketing. Both use sales funnels in their own way.

In this week’s post, I’m going to share with you what those phrases mean exactly and when you might want to use one over the other.

 

Defining Niche Marketing and Niche Product Development

Both niche marketing and niche product development use avatars to represent the Who. Without having that person in mind, you really have no target in what you’re building your product, service, or even your message for.

However, they both approach the How? in a completely different way.

If you remember from Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle TED talk, he talked about the Why – How – What when it comes to businesses. I can imagine that if you’ve seen the talk, your focus was really focusing on the Why factor – I mean, that IS the focus of the talk after all!

But since a good majority of what we talk about here at New Inceptions is in the Why category, we really don’t need to discuss that right now.

We’re actually looking at the How. The How is all about the process of how products are made.

A quick look at their definitions will show that their end goal is similar, but the approaches are completely different.

Niche Product Development 

This is where you make a product for a specific type of client by helping with their pain points from the very beginning. The more intimate day to day information you actually know about these folks and their pains, the better your product will be able to help them out.

If you really do your homework well and build what this niche of folks really needs, you’ll have no problems selling to them – especially if they help you make it. From there you can switch to niche marketing and using sales funnels to increase the number of users or customers you have.

 

Niche Marketing

With niche marketing, you have a product or service already available. Your job is to simply find potential buyers and convey the benefits of the product to them in a way that makes sense for them to eventually buy.

As we found out in the last post, the main thing you need to learn how to do is help a cold lead turn into a hot lead. Learning how to highlight benefits that will be of interest to that one lead is vital to making the sale.

What’s interesting is that someone who uses niche product development will also employ niche marketing eventually for the same business and/or product. I mean, there comes a time where you can’t keep changing the product too drastically!

Or, they might go the other way. From niche marketing to niche product design. You might have a product that needs another product to explain how to use the first one.

It really depends on where they’re at in life and in business.

You’ll find out more about that in the next post. Right now we’re just going over definitions.

 

Using Niche Marketing

So niche marketing is something that we’re all familiar with. Especially after last week’s post. I mean, that’s the basics of it.

When it’s used at it’s worst, we hear about used car salesmen. When it’s used at it’s best, we can think about people who have made a fortune in direct sales or MLM’s. Or, another thought, is that there’s already a market for a product or service and one company copies another company’s efforts.

Those situations, where a product or service is already been proven to work, are about the only times when niche marketing can be used effectively.

For example, niche marketing is exactly what Brendon Burchard does with Expert’s Academy. However, he uses sales funnels instead of 1 on 1 meetings with potential buyers.

When you apply niche marketing to a new product or service – the results can be disastrous. Not only for the new company, but potentially for the end user as well!

Again, in niche marketing, your job is to be able to communicate the product or service to the potential buyer. That means being able to express potential benefits and caring if they get the right product for their needs.

 

Using Niche Product Development

But let’s say you don’t want to be a car salesman and you don’t want to be involved in an MLM?

You have this new idea that you want to get out into the world. But it’s not market tested. Or perhaps you don’t have even an idea yet? That’s fine as well!

From what I’ve learned first hand and seen out in the world, niche product development (and properly scaling it) is the best way to not only make sure you don’t fail at your first company, but it’s also the most cost effective method.

Since this is something that might be sounding a bit vague at this point, here’s a breakdown of how niche product development usually works.

  1. Ask people what they need in a market you’d like to help.

    If you’re looking to do something with high earning potential, the best choice is a product you can make into a money tree – say a SaaS product or a membership community. Essentially you’re making a tool for a market that they’re “renting” access to.

    Worst choice is a service – because just like Robert Kiyosaki says, you can only work so many hours a day. Even when you bring on more people, there’s a cap there as well.

     

  2. Bring on help to make the product.

    You don’t want to be stuck with all the creation efforts. Again, there’s only so many hours in a day for you to work on this thing. It’s not like Trump made all of his buildings by himself. You need to bring on construction workers for your new project.

     

  3. Ideas take money to develop.

    As much as we’d like them to be, businesses aren’t 100% free to build. Where do you get that money? Investors and early customers are a couple of ideas. Either way you go, you might need to learn how to persuade them to get behind your idea.

     

  4. Run a beta test.

    Get as many people on board to try out your new product in an incomplete state. Get validation and feedback from those folks before you finalize the product.

     

  5. Sales Funnel

    When you do have your product made, it’s time to get that sales funnel going. Again, refer to the last post for the basics.

You can apply this method to any type of product based business. Whether it’s information based, physical, or software. Just remember that if they’re having to rent their access from you, that’s when you have the potential to bring in the most income! More users means more dollar bills.

 

Action Steps:

So hopefully this finally explains some of the differences of the two main ways to be an entrepreneur. If you want to know more about Niche Product Development, check out Pat Flynn’s Will It Fly book. That book covers pretty much everything you need to know in full.

Again, there’s other options out there, such as The Foundation, if you need more accountability.

Next week, we’ll talk about some situations in your life where you might opt to use one method versus the other.

masculine men

Ryan Michler: The Order of Man – Teaching Guys How to Be Masculine Men (AoL 082)

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In today’s world, many would say that a lot of men have lost their masculinity.

That’s why guys like Neil Strauss, Jordan Harbinger, John Eldredge, and Brett McKay are as well known as they are.

They specialize in helping men get better in their lives. However, they each do so in very different ways.

Today’s guest, Ryan Michler, is adding his name to that list with his organization, the Order of Men.

I’m really thrilled to have him on as helping guys step into their own has a special meaning to me.

In fact, it’s one of the reasons I became a Mason. I wanted to join an organization that has been all about developing men as functional parts of their community.

In this session with Ryan, we discuss a number of topics including what inspired him to start Order of Man, how he’s built the group in such a short period of time, and what it might look like to be part of the organization.

As always, thanks for listening, and enjoy the show!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • What pulled Ryan into the military? 9:31
  • What got him to eventually start the Order of Man? 11:47
  • Who were some of the initial guys he wanted to have conversations with in his podcast? 17:16
  • How did Ryan move from free creative thought to monetization of Order of Man? 18:50
  • Is there a difference in membership and the curriculum of Order of Man? 21:26
  • What’s the Order of Man Live Event consist of? 23:53
  • How did Ryan get out of letting society tell him what to do? 27:13
  • How has Ryan figured out how to reach people at different levels of technical know how? 33:41
  • How did Ryan start building the Order of Man’s presence on Facebook? 36:15
  • How has the mindshift been for the members of the Order of Man? 43:34
  • What’s something that Ryan does on day 1 to rattle their chains in his masterminds? 45:28
  • Where does the inspiration for his daily posts come from? 46:43
  • What kind of mentorship has Ryan had and do they develop mentorship rings in the Order of Man? 48:25
  • How old is too old to stop trying to become a better man? 54:29
  • What have been Ryan’s challenges in walking the walk? 55:47
  • What’s Ryan looking forward to in 2017? 58:08
  • One thing under $100 that has changed his life? 59:54
  • Something he believed as a 20 year old that he’d tell himself was completely inaccurate? 1:00:15
  • Something all high school students must know? 1:00:43
  • What’s it mean to live a life of abundance? 1:01:04
  • … and MUCH more!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin (Amazon Link)

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

8 Skill Sets Every Man Must Master:

The Importance of Mastery:

Be a Lighthouse:

10 Questions Answered about Ryan’s Beard:

order of man
masculine men
ryan michler interview
masculine men

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

andre kane

Andre Kane: Good Times, Radio, and Passion: The Making of the Electric Radio Show (AoL 081)

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Passion comes in all kinds of shapes, ideas, and movements.

Whether that takes the form of being a coach, a TED presenter, or an artist, there’s so many ways of expressing what you love to do. You simply have to figure out what that is.

Sometimes figuring out what something is can be the hard part. Other times, it can be the easy part.

Take for example, this session’s guest, Andre Kane.

After realizing he wasn’t going to make a career in a rock band, he went back to school and ended up working in a radio station as an intern.

A split decision made him choose that path. And to this day, he enjoys being on the radio with his partner in crime, Jack Hammer.

In this session, I find out more about that split decision to get into radio, learn about some of the more memorable guests and moments they’ve had on the show, and we also talk a little radio geekery.

As always, thanks for listening, and enjoy the show!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • How did Andre get into radio? 7:45
  • How did he finally get on the air? 13:37
  • What does a producer actually do – radio wise? 16:04
  • Did he ever hear of 1190 WOWO out of Ft. Wayne, IN? 18:54
  • How did the Electric Radio/Morning Show get started? 20:54
  • What’s TSL and how it played a part in them knowing they had a hit. 28:38
  • What are some of the more memorable times and guests they’ve had on the show over the years? 29:57
  • How did Andre get big names on his show? 31:58
  • What’s Andre looking forward to in 2017? 37:41
  • Who are Andre’s 3 top influencers who have helped launch him to where he is today? 44:48
  • Smallest decision that has made the largest impact on his life? 46:19
  • Something he believed as a 30 year old and now finds completely inaccurate and why? 47:52
  • What’s the secret to achieving personal freedom? 48:58
  • … and MUCH more!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Walking Dead Interview Promo:

Footage from 2009 doing Prune Juice Trivia:

Good Times Montage – The Show Must Go On:

On a Ghost Hunt in LimonCello’s at The Orange Inn:

andre kane
electric radio show
electric radio show
andre kane

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

free phone apps

Freebies to Use for Your Business: Free Phone Apps For You and Your Biz

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In the blog this month, we’ve been looking at freebies (or very inexpensive items) which will help you build your business. They are all things that I’ve used myself and will continue to use in the development of my content and in the content itself.

Again, this all came about when I posted a piece about working with others through the cloud – efficiently and for FREE. It primarily discussed cloud storage apps such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and one I use that not many Americans know about: MEGAupload.

In this post, the freebies we’re looking at are apps. Phone apps and web apps. 

Like most apps, most of these will have a free version and premium version. However, just like the cloud storage apps, you can get by with just the basic version.

 

Applications – Not Just on Your Computer Anymore:

Applications are not all on your computer these days. The days where you’d buy a CD or DVD and install your new program on your hard drive for it to completely work on your computer are, for the most part, long gone. In fact, when I don’t have an internet connection, it’s almost a chore for me to remember which applications I can actually use during that down time.

These days, most apps have an online portion – especially if they have a free tier. How else can they collect your data and emails? That’s essentially what you’re paying when things are “free”. But hey, that’s a pretty small price to pay to get all of this good stuff to help you out, right? 🙂

Anyhow – here’s a list of business apps that you can use mobile and on your pc or Mac.

 

Business Apps:

IFTTT:

If there’s one app that I want you all to know about that I believe will save you a ton of time it’s IFTTT. IFTTT (pronounced like “gift” without the “i”) stands for “if this then that” — is a service that lets you create different recipes for streamlining your online activities. For example, you can create a recipe that saves all the tweets of a particular person and saves them on your Google drive in one spreadsheet. Or, if you want to transition your pics from Instagram to Twitter, you can do that too. Ta-da! Countless squinty-eyed hours saved scouring the Internet.

 

Social Jukebox:

Social media can be a pain in the rear – especially if you’re busy making things! Let Social Jukebox help you out. Just like a music jukebox holds and plays music randomly, it holds a bank of messages you can send out via social media. Its free plan will post to your Twitter up to 4 times a day. And if you subscribe to the premium membership, you’ll get to post to Facebook and LinkedIn as well.

 

Doodle.com:

Scheduling 1 on 1 calls and/or meetings is pretty straight forward with something like calendly.com. But what if you have multiple people you’re looking to get together for a meeting? You can’t use calendly for that (at least I don’t think you can). So what can you do? You could start an email thread and waste half a day tracking replies, or you could use Doodle. Doodle helps you effortlessly set up polls for scheduling. And one big awesome thing to me is that respondents don’t even have to join to answer a poll. Doodle cuts down on needless email and streamlines scheduling big time.

 

Slack & Ryver:

Here’s a couple more tools you can use to remove a ton of the emails that you regularly have to make if you’re part of a team. I’ve used both of these in the past on various projects and I’d say they’re about the same in what they do. And what they do, they do well. If you’re familiar with the old chat rooms that were made popular by AoL, Yahoo, and numerous other sites up until social media came around, then you’ll understand how these tools use channels to contain certain conversations between your team’s members.

 

Personal Development Apps:

Not all apps are geared towards making a business in itself. Sometimes they’re geared in developing you.

I mean, a mechanic can only upgrade his tools so much to do a certain job – because eventually, those tools might go outside of his current ability. In that case, the mechanic needs to get better to keep up with the tools themselves.

There are plenty of apps out there which will help you become a better version of yourself. Here are a few of my favorites:

 

Habitica:

There’s so many habits that we want to develop to make ourselves better in our craft. But the catch is that you have to put in the work to get it done. That’s where Habitica comes into play. It’s a habit building and productivity app that treats your real life like a game. With in-game rewards and punishments to motivate you and a strong social network to inspire you, Habitica can help you achieve your goals to become healthy, hard-working, and happy.

 

Headspace:

If you’re looking to learn how to meditate and the price tag on the Muse is a little out of your reach, then I’d say Headspace might be your next bet. It’s first level is entirely free and includes 10-minute sessions for each day that will help you get into the habit of meditating regularly. There are reminders, and you can choose to focus on aspects like foundation, health, and performance. If you want to go deeper, you can with the premium service.

 

Happier:

In AoL session 79 with Barbara Ireland, we talked about how important it was to get rid of your negative thoughts. Part of doing that is to start developing an attitude of gratitude – focusing on what’s good in your life. With the happier app, you can start collecting happy moments throughout the day to add to your mental journal. (I use this because the 5 Minute Journal still hasn’t come to Android yet. If you’re a iPhone user – pick that up here.)

 

Headout:

A lot of us who are in the the creative space work from home. So sometimes we don’t get out and about our own cities like we should. I mean, all work and no play doesn’t make anyone any better, right?

What’s cool about this app is that it features “incredible experiences on demand,” which is a trendy way of saying it has “the best activities, events and tours happening in town.” You can find and book last-minute deals if you’re feeling spontaneous. Paired along with Field Trip, you should always have new things to discover.

 

Reddit Is Fun:

Ok, so this one is kind of a cop out, because it’s a reddit browser. Reddit is the front page of the internet – so that means that pretty much everything that you can find online is on there. However, that said, there are subreddits that you can use to make your life better. Download the app and then check out these subs to get an idea of what I’m talking about: r/stopgaming, r/selfimprovement, , r/entrepreneur, r/getmotivated, r/iwanttolearn, r/lifeprotips, r/productivity, r/zenhabits and r/selfhelp.

 

Action Steps:

Ok, so there you go, guys. Ten apps that I use on a regular basis for my business and to improve it. I recommend checking them all out and seeing which ones fit you. There’s a few other ones that I could have added, but these are the ones that I’ve used the most. 

If I’m missing any that you think should have been on this list because YOU use them all the time, I’d love to hear about it. Drop the name of it below and I’ll check it out!

podcast discovery center

Scott Doucet: The Podcast Discovery Center – A Safe Haven for Podcasters to Master Their Craft (AoL 080)

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As we heard in the AoL session with Chris Ripka, podcasting has been around for quite awhile – just not the form that we’re all used to.

However, it seems that only recently it’s been catching on as a popular medium. I mean, for me, it’s still hard to believe that 36% of all people 18 years old or older have listened to a podcast sometime in their life. I still find myself explaining what it is to most people who don’t know what AoL is.

But once I do describe it, they’re blown away by it’s potential and many even ask “how do I get started?”.

Currently I’m working on a solution for that question, but in the meantime, I often tell them to check out Facebook groups – especially the Podcast Discovery Center (PDC).

As co-founder of the PDC, today’s guest is dedicated in making the members of the PDC feel like they’re part of the family. As you’ll find out, Scott Doucet has had plenty of experience in other larger podcast groups, and what he and his co-founder Anthony found out is that many times those groups like to push an agenda.

The only thing that the PDC wants to push is the success of your show.

In this conversation, I ask him more about how he got started as a podcaster, more about that foundation of the group, and we also find out more about his own business and how he can help you if you’re looking to create a podcast for your business.

As always, thanks for listening, and enjoy the show!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • How did Scott get into podcasting? 6:00
  • What was behind starting the Podcast Discovery Center (PDC)? 9:35
  • What kind of creative influences did he have growing up? 11:34
  • How did Scott and Anthony hook up to create the PDC? 12:24
  • How exactly is the PDC setup to be different than other podcast groups? 14:47
  • Has the themed format that the PDC utilizes day to day worked in creating engagement? 16:17
  • What is Scott’s recommendation for starting a group with a similar spirit to the PDC? 19:50
  • How did he build enough business as a podcast consultant in a matter of months that he now has a waiting list. 21:48
  • What worries Scott about the future of podcasting? 32:58
  • How would he recommend to a podcast purist to monetize their show? 38:49
  • How to find out who’s listening to your show? 43:31
  • What’s coming up for Scott in the rest of 2017? 46:41
  • Scott’s top 3 favorite influences? 49:42
  • Hardest thing he’s had to say no to? 50:53
  • Something he believed when he was 25 but no longer believes today? 51:30
  • What are three truths he’s learned over time? 53:06
  • What does it mean to live a life of abundance? 54:45
  • … and MUCH more!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Editing Guru Cody Boyce on using an iPhone as a pretty good mic:

Carey Green giving a few tips in how to make your shows easier to find:

Arne Giske’s promo of the Millennial Entrepreneur Podcast Session 8:

Scott does some admin work:

scott doucet
podcast discovery center
scott doucet
podcast discovery center

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

business knowledge

Freebies to Use For Your Business: Latest Online Business Knowledge

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This month we’ve been looking at free resources to build your business with. The past two weeks, we’ve looked at ways that you can spruce up your content for free.

First we discussed stock photos and where you can get free ones. Of course, stock photos can be used to add flair to your blog posts and other media.

Next, we looked at non copyright music and how you can use that in your media as well.

This week, we’re changing things up a bit. We’re going mental. I’m giving you some of my favorite places to get “basically free” business wisdom.

I say it’s “basically free” because even if they have premium courses or memberships, they’re relatively inexpensive compared to what’s out there. I’m not including anyone that thas content that is specifically meant for as entries to their course or events. Those all tend to get a bit more expensive that a lot of people can afford. (So, no, I won’t be including Tony Robbins, Brendon Burchard, or John Maxwell in this specific list!)

 

Top 5 Favorite Online Business Figures:

This is a list of individuals who I listen to on a regular basis to keep up with trends, knowledge, and general awareness of the online entrepreneurial space. Sure, there might be plenty of names out there that do this as well, but these were the folks that had significant influence in my own entrepreneurial education.

Without them, I wouldn’t know or know about half the stuff that I do today.

 

  1. Pat Flynn

    I had to put Pat up first because he was the first one who introduced me to making real money online. Up until I found him, I knew of Google Ads, banners, and MLM’s. But as he started exploring this world, I followed along on his journey. I just wish that I had started on my own sooner!

     

  2. Gary Vaynerchuk

    Pat contributed his early work to a couple of people. Robert Kiyosaki, Tim Ferriss, and Gary.

    Gary’s first book, Crush It!, really helped Pat get started. While it was published in 2009, it still has a lot of very practical info. I actually read it the first week that Pat published his first podcast. Which, at the time, sounded so awesome and cool to me.

    Today Gary is kicking even more butt and has an even wider fan base. Having started Vaynermedia since then, he’s brought on a staff, and has started a few series on his YouTube channel: #AskGaryVee and #DailyVee

     

  3. Lewis Howes

    Probably one of my favorite early guests of Pat and another guy I’ve liked watching as he’s been building his business. When he started his podcast called the School of Greatness, I loved how it had examples of folks who had done their own thing. But he wasn’t focused on the how-to, he was all about the lifestyle aspect.

    Today he interviews folks such as Larry King, Wyclef Jean, and Cesar Millan!

    Amazing that he started his journey from his sister’s couch!

  4. Michael O’Neal

    Michael is someone I learned quite a bit from when he was on Pat’s show, so I figured I had to start paying attention to him as well. While i haven’t been following him as long as everyone else, I would say that his podcast is amazing. He reaches those niches that Pat hasn’t been able to go into via his podcast. He’s had some MLM folks on as well as investors.

    Also, Michael approaches interview as an artform that I really appreciate. His ability to be so natural on the mic is simply incredible.

     

  5. Tim Ferriss

    I didn’t really listen to Tim until recently. Yeah, that’s right… I know, I know!

    But hear me out. The reason I didn’t was because his conversations were so long. However, my guests kept saying that they loved his show, so I started paying attention myself. Now the long conversations that once turned me away are the reasons that I listen.

    From a podcaster’s perspective, like Michael, Tim is gifted on the mic as well. His long conversations get a lot more out of his guests then the more typical 30-45 minute conversations. That’s the one reason why I don’t try and keep my guests short – if they want to go on, they certainly can. If they want to keep to an our chat, there’s that option as well.

 

Top 5 Business Resources on the Web:

Sometimes, there’s more than just one person who runs an online business or organization. Whether I need new inspiration, or have a question that I actually need answered, here’s a list of five of my favorite resources from around the web.

 

  1. Fizzle

    For those of you have heard a few episodes of Angles of Lattitude podcast, you know that I’m a huge fan of Fizzle. There’s two main reasons. The first reason is because of their wide variety of video courses to help you go from point A to B in so many different topics. From as broad a topic as picking your own topic to learning how to book yourself solid with prospects and clients, to niching down even further to something like comparing video hosting services.

    It’s a ton of info that you might have to spend lots of time finding yourself or paying out the nose for elsewhere.

    The other reason is because the forum there, I believe, is full of folks who are actually doing something to move their business forward. Because they have to pay to play, they take things a bit more seriously. This means they actually have real experience you can tap into. I don’t think the same thing can be said about many of the groups you can find on Facebook. Some of them are simply too easy to get into and you have little to no idea if the person who’s giving the advice actually knows what they’re talking about!

    Anyhow, check them out, see what courses might be useful for you and get some of your questions answered in the forum. It’ll definitely be worth your while.

    Oh, and they have a podcast too!

     

  2. Art of Charm

    While Fizzle is good at teaching business skills, we should all realize that isn’t all there is to business. You have to have social skills as well. That’s where AoC picks up. Most people know of this group for their great podcast. And while the podcast is hosted by Jordan Harbinger, there is more to the AoC crew than him.

    Personally, I’ve learned enough through the show and Jordan to give myself some life hacks here and there. But you might consider actually attending their workshop sometime in LA if you really want or need to go deep.

     

  3. Social Media Examiner

    We’re all in the business of getting our story out onto the web to our potential clients, audience, and customers. Problem is, the tools to do that are always changing. What worked last year might not work next year. What started off as a one man show has changed over time to what it is today – the forefront explorer of all things social.

     

  4. TED

    If you’re not familiar with TED, then you should definitely take a look. Just about all major thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and educators have been in a TED or TEDx presentation. My favorite three talks of all time on there are done by Mike Rowe, Tony Robbins, and of course, Simon Sinek.

     

  5. Khan Academy

     Most people would initially think that Khan Academy is for students between middle school and college. For the most, they’d be right. However, they actually have lessons for entrepreneurs as well! One of stories on there is from Elon Musk – do definitely something to check out if you like founder stories.

 

Action Steps:

So these are the basically free resources that I get a lot of my “business awareness” from these days.

If you ever need inspiration, more surface level knowledge on a certain business subject, or simply want some good words of wisdom, then these folks are all good ones to know.

Let me know below some of your favorite general business knowledge people!

Freebies to Use For Your Business: Non Copyright Music Sources

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Last week we saw how relatively easy it is to get stock images for free. I mean, with the abundance of resources that are out there, why pay for one again? Unless you’re very specific in your search, I really can’t think of a good reason.

In this week’s post, I’ll share with you the places I’ve found free stock music. If you’re wondering what stock music is useful for, then my quickest response is “what medium isn’t it useful for?”.

To this day, even on national TV, I see commercials that are using stock music.

Whether it’s in the background of a short clip of a speech, to being used in a podcast, to even being used behind GTA and Halo montages on YouTube, stock music can be useful in adding a bit more flare to the medium you’re using to convey your message.

What is Stock Music (aka Non Copyright Music)?

Like I did in last week’s post, I want give a short description of stock music is and isn’t.

Stock music, known by many names including non copyright music or production music, is the name given to recorded music that can be licensed to customers for use in TV, video (movies or online), radio and other media. Traditionally, the music is produced and owned by production music libraries.

If it is owned by a music library, then the user will have to pay a license fee to use that music with their media.

However, with the advent of the internet, stock music artists, like independent artists, can create and release their own music.

This was the main reason that SoundCloud became so popular and why MySpace is even still around. Both of these mediums have been used significantly to get music out into the world.

So that’s what it is.

However, the difference of the two is that stock music is specifically released to be the background of media, whereas other music, while it might be used as background music, is designed to stand alone. Many times, you’ll hear traditional music altered to be background music – especially in commercials with a lot of production value on TV.

Stock Music Examples

Here are a few examples of what I’m talking about if you’re still a little fuzzy.

Here’s a few examples of stock music in a YouTube video:

Here’s something you might hear on the radio – but you won’t because it’s copyright free:

And here’s a sample of stock music that’s not only used for a commercial for Plus Benefits, but it’s also used at the beginning of Ryan Moran’s podcast:

Plus Benefit’s Commercial:

Freedom Fast Lane Podcast w/ Ryan Daniel Moran:

If you ever find the name of this piece, I’d love to know what it’s called!

Using Stock Music

Ok, so like last week with the images, it’s relatively easy to tell if something is stock music. In fact, many pieces of stock music that you can sample will have the name of the library that you’re sampling it from right in the middle of the sample. Obviously, like watermarking images, it’s there to detour you from using it.

In the following piece you’ll hear a slight whisper of “Audio Jungle” repeated over and over. That’s what I call an audio watermark.

Just like I said about images…

DON’T USE ‘WATERMARKED’ MUSIC!

For one, it’ll make whatever you’re doing sound ridiculous, and two, you’ll probably get a cease and desist letter if not a potential lawsuit.

Another way to realize if you need to pay a license to use music is whether or not it can easily be downloaded. If you have to pay something to download it, then it probably has specific details in when it can be used as well.

If you want to read more about the different types of licensing and usage methods – here you go.

It’s not really relative to the next part though! 🙂

Where to Find Free Stock Music

So here’s the part you’ve been waiting for. Where can you find free stock music to use with your media? Well, my top 3 places are…

  1. FreeMusicArchive.org
  2. YouTube
  3. Reddit

The Free Music Archive has just about anything you want. So that’s generally where I get most of my stock music. Like images, you want to make sure that you give credit when it’s asked for and when it’s due. I make it common to acknowledge the artist in all of my work.

If for some reason, you can’t find what you’re looking for in the Archive, then YouTube has a decent source. The Verge did a decent review about what you can expect in there when their library was launched in 2013.

Finally, the third option I find as a potential place to find pieces, but I haven’t quite used anything from here yet, is Soundcloud. As mentioned, this type of work is what helped its popularity. If you want to see what’s available on Soundcloud (or other places around the web), there’s a great resource via reddit that might be able to help you find good stuff: No Copyright Music Subreddit.

Like last time with the images, if you want even more free music, I have a couple of links for you:

20+ Websites to Download Creative Commons Music For Free

And it’s sequel:

20 (More) Websites To Download Creative Commons Music For Free

Also, if you happen to be a DJ and want more specifics in finding music for your work, check out this post from Robert Calabrese over at Home DJ Studio.

Action Steps:

So there you go. Plenty of sources to get free music to ramp up your videos or podcast sessions with. Now you have no excuse to not add a bit of atmosphere to your next project.

If you find anything great via these resources, let me know below! I’d love to hear about your discoveries and even a little show and tell about what adding this music has done for your work!