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AoL 041: Authenticity Rules – How a Performing Artist Can Become a Digital Marketing Maven with Mari Sauer

June 23/by JC

No matter your age, background, sex, or culture, in the United States you’re free to pursue anything you want to in your career. Many people don’t realize this. They believe that what they’ve always done or what they’ve always been determines their future.

One of the best mainstream movies that come to mind that I recently watched the sequel to is My Big Fat Greek Wedding. In that movie, there’s a ton of traditions that the main character, Toula, has to deal with as she realizes more about the life she wants to live and with whom she wants to live it with.

I know my own previous thoughts of what I could be always included something “technical”. I grew up loving video games, reading n0n-fiction books about astronomy, being a sci fi geek in general, and thinking about places that I could travel to – and how their cultures were different. All of these things in a small town were hard to achieve. So as I got more involved in the internet, I found myself exploring the world wide web even more. I believed that my excursion into electrical engineering would help me understand the technology that goes behind how it worked – but I don’t know if I ever expected for it to be the focus of my job, in retrospect.

Today, I like to believe that part of my quest with New Inceptions is helping people reconnect to that in which they loved to do in the past, or even more so, help them realize that the silly interest that they care about but no one else does, might actually be the thing that sets them free.

The guest of this session is someone I believe has had a similar realization. She’s a great example of someone who is discovering her new inception.

She loves to help people connect with others about what they’re doing through digital marketing. She also has a love of performance and, in fact, wanted to be a professional dancer as she was growing up. However, as you might know, artists generally can’t make a living on their art early on in the career – so they have to pay the bills through other work. And like many struggling artist stereotypes out there, she became a waiter.

Funny enough, though, she developed an interest in her work there too and soon in the rest of the world of hospitality.

When I found out about her past in dance, I knew I had to have her on the show to talk about her transition to the role that she plays now. Needless to say, she’s not just some kid in their 20’s who just because she knows how to set up a social media account calls herself a social media guru. She’s someone that uses her experience in these other fields to make her clients not only feel great about the work they’re doing, but also plan it out so well that it’d be suitable for a five-star hotel.

In this session with Mari Sauer, we talk about her trek through dance, hospitality, and what brought her to digital marketing. We’ll also discuss why she believes why solopreneurs need to be more consistent with their social media. And we also talk about Gary Vee a bit and his interest in SnapChat.

If you feel like you’re stuck on an island that is closed off to opportunity to become a truer version of yourself, I hope that this talk inspires you to get out of your comfort zone of who you think you are professionally. Let’s learn to reconnect to the new version of yourself!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

Where her interest in pursuing a degree in dance came from. 7:06
How Mari made Hospitality and Tourism Management a big part of her career – even though she didn’t have a degree for it. 11:28
How authenticity helped her climb in the hospitality industry – including ending up working at the Four Seasons Maui. 16:02
How Mari ended up moving from Maui to Chicago. 18:20
What she learned from her time a PTA President when it came to dealing with volunteers. 20:29
How she eventually got back into the working world – this time in startups. 23:49
When she felt it was time to start her own thing vs starting again elsewhere. 30:10
How Mari gets paying clients and what she does for them. 36:52
How she keeps all of her client’s social media schedules straight. 39:40
What types of things she sees her clients doing when she first starts working with them. 42:41
Some of the hacks that she’d recommend to help solopreneurs out with their consistency in posting to social media. 47:05
Why it’s important to plan out your marketing and involve storytelling into your marketing. 48:21
What Mari is excited to be doing these days. 52:10
What she thinks SnapChat is a tool of authenticity. 53:22
What she’s looking forward to in the not too distant future with her brand. 49:42
How she wants people to remember her by from listening to her in this show. 57:30
Who are some influencers that she likes right now. 1:02:24
What she’d tell her 25 year old self. 1:09:23

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

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Mari Online: Website, Facebook, Facebook Page, Twitter
The Delusion of Passion
Erik Deckers Interview (session 37)
Gary Vaynerchuk on Facebook
Stephanie St. Clair

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Episode 13 of #AskGaryVee: Gary mentions that SnapChat will be HUGE in 2016

Cliff Ravencraft’s guide to SnapChat:

Marie Forleo and Gary Vee talk about the future of Social Media Marketing (ca 2013):

Smart Passive Income Podcast Session 215 – How to Keep Up With Your Editorial Calendar (and How to Get Ahead):

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

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!

The Truth About Network Marketing: Should Your First Business be with a Multi-Level Marketing Company?

June 21/by JC

As many of you might know, I officially started my journey into entrepreneurship through Amway and LTD. It was where I had the opportunity to learn the true entrepreneurial mindset, learn more about what freedom really is, and even more about what this country is all about. I also got to meet great go-getters that I plan on bringing onto the podcast from time to time.

While I might not have gotten great financial results from being in it, I’m glad that I was able to absorb the knowledge and influence. Without that experience, I really don’t know where I’d be today. Maybe a teacher or engineer somewhere. I’m really not quite sure.

What I do know is that what I’m doing today allows me to utilize what I found out about myself when I was active in Amway. I realized that I do like to teach, coach, and work on a team.

However, I also realized some of the things that I wasn’t so great at as well. One of those things was to scrape off the negative connotation that comes with the industry. I just found it too difficult to constantly fight through that stigma. I hated being in “one of those things”.

So in this post, I’m going to utilize a list of Pro and Cons that was inspired from the Fizzle forums and give them my personal touch. They are items that the original author (Tony Rush – who’s earned well over $100k in a single month) and I have learned about through working in our groups (and what I’ve found out since I was active) and hopefully it will allow you to make a better choice if joining a group and company is good for you!

Pros:

Build on a Shoestring Budget / Low Barrier to Entry:

As with an online business, you really don’t have to have that much money to start. Of course the more skills you bring to the table (sales skills specifically), the better off you’ll do from the get go. (In the online business world, the more technical skills you have, the more things you don’t have to pay others to do.)

Can (Should?) be a Part Time Endeavour:

While starting a traditional business is definitely time intensive, doing an MLM isn’t nearly as bad. In fact, because they’re designed for you to bring more people into the group as opposed to just sales, it’s almost foolish to not have a job as you’re getting started. Building your army of distributors takes time!

Team Game:

The more people you bring into your team, the more you’ll win. Period. That said, don’t rely on one person that you bring into your team to do all the recruiting. You won’t get rewarded for that. It’s not how it works.

Personal Development:

Your “Upline” has your best interest at heart. If you do well, they do well. So they’re going to want you to be as great as you can in all areas of your life – not just in bringing in money. The more stable your life is in the business, the more stable their life is. The more business skills you have, the less work they have to do in your line of sponsorship (LoS).

Learn about Real Freedom:

Somewhere in your upline there will be people who have really made it. These people live celebrity lifestyles without the worry of having to dodge paparazzi. With the ability to see and learn from these folks directly or from team events, this is often the first time that many people honestly see that they don’t have to work a 9 to 5. For many people who might be familiar with online business, they might also realize that they have better skills to perform in the MLM arena because they don’t have to have “technical” skills to do the work there.

True Passive Income:

Real Freedom comes from being paid over and over for work you did once. That’s the whole idea of passive income. If you become a sponsoring machine in your first two years in business and you do well in your own personal circle of sales (selling to people you know), you have really the main ingredients to be successful at any MLM. You build your group and help others build theirs. It’s really that simple. If you can’t do these two main activities, you’re going to have problems in having true success. (If building courses and creating other content is more your thing, then I HIGHLY recommend going the online route. This is definitely more my strong suit!)

Don’t have to handle Customer Support:

Again, your job is twofold: selling and coaching. You sell the idea of the business to prospects and the products to customers. You coach downline to do the same thing.

What your job doesn’t consist of is having to worry about invoices, returns, shipping, and other merchant issues. Totally the opposite of having your own online retail store.

Built-in Community:

There was a saying that I learned in my LTD days that I still use with online business making. You’re in business for yourself, but you’re not by yourself. In an MLM, this is particularly true. Again, you’re upline and downline both want you to succeed. When you succeed, they look good and are more likely to have success.

However, you can find plenty of community to help your online business as well these days. There’s plenty of Mega Groups on Facebook as well as paid membership sites like Fizzle. Heck, many courses that are out there these days have a group as part of the bonus for enrolling!

Cons:

So now that we’ve looked at the things that I think are great about MLM’s, let’s look at the issues that I saw when I was active.

Low Barrier of Entry:

This is on both lists because there are simply some folks who shouldn’t be in business – period. They don’t know how to invest in themselves and/or their business. They’re consumers through and through and only take. You don’t want these kinds of people on your team and taking up your time as a coach.

Little or no Autonomy: Remember how I was talking about Freedom up above? Well, there is a catch to that. When it comes to your business, you usually have very little or no freedom when it comes to prices of products, what your online portal (“website”) looks like, marketing materials, and how customers are interacted with from the customer support side. You’re essentially a freelance salesperson/coach. Unless you make the board of one of these companies (which is possible in Amway), your thoughts on the business are not going to be anything more than feedback.

This personally drives me CRAZY.

Stigma of being in “one of those things” or a Pyramid Scheme: Yeah, I hate having to fight this. So many people believe that MLM’s are pyramid schemes. Heck, I’ve known a few people that would even go out of their way and tell others that I was in a pyramid scheme. Simply this aspect of being in an MLM can make life and the work you’re trying to do uncomfortable – even if you have all the best intentions in the world.

Not all MLM’s are created equal:

Some MLM’s like Amway have been around for awhile. Amway, itself, has been around for 50+ years. However, most MLM’s come and go as quickly as a summer storm. So one of the things that you’ll want to make sure you do is kick the tires if you’re thinking of joining a particular group and/or company. Find out how long they’ve been around. If they’ve been around for awhile, then you should be good. If they’ve only been around a handful of years or less, then check out the fruit on the trees. Are the leaders where you want to be? Do they have high morals or do they give you a feeling of being used car salesfolk?

This is a really important thing you check out!!

Commitment Levels Vary:

You might be completely jacked to start your new business. However, not everyone is going to be as excited as you are. You might sponsor some people who simply get started because you’re the most confident people they know. There might be people you sponsor who put more work into building this thing right away and then vanish all of a sudden. It’s probably because they’ve found the next shiny object project.

A Cult-like Experience:

Again, for many people, this might be the first time that many people have ever been exposed to self improvement material. At first, it feels unnatural that all of these people are constantly talking positively about life. For me, it was just weird.

Once you get past this, though, and you realize that there are all kinds of people in the group, you’ll find that there’s not many places like this in the rest of the world. In our perspective, this is great! It solidifies our interest in the group because we feel that it was the group that gave us this new understanding of the world.

In the perspective of the people that we’ve been around up until we joined the group, we might be changing in a way that they’re not comfortable with.

So, when those people, who might be life long friends or spouses, criticize the MLM, trouble might be brewing. The folks who are on the outside “just don’t understand” from the perspective on the member. From the outside, the member is drifting further away.

From what I’ve found out, this is entirely from a lack of communication. It’s completely unnecessary for relationships to get to this point. However, they do and I think you should be aware of it.

Wrap-Up:

It might sound that I’m being ungrateful of my experience. However, it’s the contrary. I really enjoyed my active years and it really helped me change for the better.

The thing is that I don’t think many people see both sides of MLM like I do. Once you get in it, and if it’s really the only thing you’ve experienced, you might find it hard to leave. Or, if you’re like people I know that have built their fortune on it alone, then you can’t explore things outside of it due to risk of losing what you’ve built.

Ultimately, these are some of the reasons why I ultimately focused more on building New Inceptions.

However, not everyone minds these limitations. If what you’re passionate isn’t going to bring in the resources for you to continue to pursue it, then perhaps you should consider being involved with a MLM company. Simply think of them as a vehicle for you to bring in income that allows you to engage in your passion more.

Action Steps:

If you’re interested in getting into Amway, checking it out, and being shown the ropes, I’d be more than happy to sponsor you. The products are great and there’s plenty of people who aren’t Independent Business Owners (IBOs) and want to use the products as well. The last I checked, the buy in is around $63. However, you can get larger starter packages that have sample products at a discounted rate.

Also, Maria is in various ones herself. Each group has it’s own products. One is insurance focused, another is jewelry based, and yet another is health food based.

Connect with us if you’re interested to see if any of the lines that we’re involved with might be a solution for you!

For further information about MLM’s and network marketing, there’s a great podcast session with Michael O’Neal that I think you might want to listen to. The MLM he’s involved with is Isagenix. This particular interview features him in a conversation with David Wood at a dinner table at Joe’s Crab Shack. David is a multi-multi-millionaire in Isagenix and you can get connected with his brand here.

They talk more than just MLM, however. They also talk real estate and the entrepreneurial mindset as well. A well rounded great talk. The best advice towards MLM starts just after the 57 mark. However, the conversation is great after the 34 minute mark.

Also, David mentions an interview of Tony Robbins in there as well talking about Network Marketing. Here’s that interview:

So, I think that’s a good start. Let me know if you have any further questions regarding this topic below. Those of you who have seen some success in an MLM in the past – whether financial or not – let me know about your experience too!

The Importance of Why: Learning How to Get Going when the Going Gets Tough

June 14/by JC

People wonder where I get inspired for my writing. Sometimes I get inspiration from the people I’m working with. Other times, it’s just to fill a knowledge gap in my content.

Yet, other times, it’s when I’m constantly berated by a subject and I need to make an account of all that is coming my way.

I mean, when the universe tells you to do something, you better be listening and be prepared to act, right?

Passion is Half the Battle:

In the last two blog posts, I wrote about building a website. While this might not necessarily be the most interesting to me, it is a question that I can answer and have a knack to help people get started on. It’s kinda like me and math. Can I teach it? Sure. Do I have a passion for it? Well, I have a passion that people are educated. So… in a way I guess? But not directly.

Same thing for building websites. Is it something that I can help people with? Sure. I had to figure it out on my own and if I can help someone else figure it out, then I’m happy.

Also, it’s a question that I’ve been meaning to respond to in a blog post form for awhile.

Today’s post has a little bit of both: “Something I want to make sure people get because it’s important” and something that I’m asked about quite a bit.

How did I find my Why?

The Secret is in the Why:

Pursuing your Passion with a definite Why, I believe, is one of the critical parts of being happy, building a successful life, and building a thriving business.

I share this belief with a well known author, Simon Sinek.

If you’re unfamiliar with Simon, there’s been a big TEDx speech of his out there on the web for several years now. Time and time again I recommend it to people if they’re having trouble finding their Why.

Good stuff, huh?

Bonus: He also just recently did an interview with Marie Forleo that came out last week about his newest book.

Don’t Forget about Being Happy:

As Simon was saying in that last video, many times we get so focused on the small details of a job that might actually be part of our Why, that we forget about why we started it in the first place. When this happens, we might actually become unhappy.

I was listening to a really interesting conversation between Jordan Harbinger and Raj Raghunathan that was paralleling this thought as well.

Among many of the great points that Raj talks about in the discussion, he points out that we all need three main things to be happy: Mastery, Belonging, and Autonomy.

Mastery: We need to feel that we’re good at something.
Belonging: We need to feel a sense of intimacy or connection with at least one other person.
Autonomy: We need to feel a sense of freedom in what we’re doing. (Not to be micromanaged.)

Just a note here: Mastery is another way of describing passion. Those that don’t have a passion in a particular subject rarely care to develop a mastery in or of it.

A Recent Example:

Say you’re interested in starting a podcast. You want to have really interesting conversations with people and get those out into the world and inspire others to take certain actions.

That focus – having really interesting conversations with others – might meet the three criteria of being happy.

However, when you start figuring out the details of where the host for the recordings might be and what the your site looks like that you’re posting the talks to, those might be things you don’t really want to deal with.

As you get lost in the details of getting technical things prepped to do the show, you might actually start asking yourself why you started thinking that you wanted to do podcasts in the first place.

Right?

Well, for starters – the two are not mutually related. Technical parts of doing a podcast aren’t the same as actually being the host. In fact, the only “technical” thing a host should do is hit the record button. In the ideal world, you’d have people to help you with all the other stuff.

You don’t necessarily have to pay those folks, either. There’s plenty of trading that goes on in the business world behind the scenes – both online and offline. Maybe you have a talent that they need as well? They help you, you help them.

And the other thing is that this is where the Why gets you through. Without a strong Why, you might just tap out early on in your endeavor of being a podcaster. There’s a saying that goes, “If you want something bad enough, the facts don’t matter!”.

More Resources to Help You Find Your Why, Your Passion, and Find What Makes You Happy:

If you’re wanting to make sure that you’re on the right path, that you’re on it for a good reason, and that you want to make sure you can make it all the way through to completion, then there’s a few resources that I think you should check.

Pat Flynn’s Book: Will It Fly
Cal Newport’s: So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
Mark Nathan and David Anderson’s Book: The Delusion of Passion
Raj Raghunathan’s HappySmarts Project

Action Steps:

As I was writing this post, I took a short break and ran across an interesting piece that I wanted to share with you guys:

When you think about this family – is it clear to you that Garrett knew his why when he was building his business? Do you think it was what he started with or did it grow over time? Or perhaps he realized it when he sold his business?

Regardless, the Why was deciding factor of the life that they have now.

The best thing you can do with yourself before you ever start your business is to figure out what really motivates you to start working and to keep going when it’s hard for you to do anything. Us solopreneurs, we have very wild emotional roller coasters. One day we feel like we’re on the top of the world, the next day we could feel like “meh”.

If you don’t get the books that I’ve mentioned in this post (which I think might be a mistake), I’d definitely check out interviews that they’ve done, and talks they’ve given across the web.

Also, another something that I think would help you is making a bucket list for yourself as well as a list of things that would be fun to do with your family (if you have one). Make each one at least 10 to 20 items. Let it be as wild as you want.

Now from there, start categorizing these into things that don’t cost anything or very little, all the way up to those that cost a fortune (like a prolonged trip, a boat, or a better house!)

Those that don’t cost anything or cost very little, you should plan to do them as rewards soon.

The more the something costs, the higher up on your success ladder you should place it. Think of it as a reward for getting to that level of success.

Now find some pictures of these rewards and place them on a bulletin board, tape them on the back of a door, or, put them up on a refrigerator. These are forms of what many people call Vision Boards. If you need help of what I’m talking about – here’s an example:

I’d love to see what you all come up with!

AoL 039: Overcoming Obstacles in Life, Building a Church, and Pursuing Passion in Life and Business with Brawn Lide

June 9/by JC

The road to success is often not very clear. That’s one of the reasons I’m in favor of having a roadmap for your business. For many, however, even having a roadmap isn’t enough. Sometimes, an entrepreneur’s situation is so unique, that they simply have no idea where to begin. Or other times, the journey might be going smoothly, it’s just that it isn’t going fast enough for the goals that they have.

For me, my major problem was getting over my paralysis by analysis. I’m glad I finally started focusing on building New Inceptions last year. I’ve gotten a ton of experience and I’m definitely looking to ever larger opportunities.

For this session’s guest, however, even though things seem to have been going his way, he didn’t have a very long runway. In fact, when he first started his coaching business, he was mainly going on Faith that things would work out. Besides paying for his coaching training with his tax return that could have been used elsewhere (like supporting his 5 kids), he also committed to a mentorship program that almost cost nearly as much as the training itself.

When I met Brawn as my roommate at the John Maxwell Team training event, he would tell you that he was “hurtin'”. A big reason for that was that he had been a full time church planter for a couple of years at that time. What income he did have was coming from being involved as a math teacher for homeschooled kids.

Through all of this (and a little more), he’s been able to persevere and is now not only a full time JMT coach, speaker, and trainer, but a successful one.

In this session, we’ll learn why he left his stable job as a mechanical engineer to become the church planter, how he was able to grow that church from 23 to 350 members, and why he took a sales job during the time that he was building his coaching business.

If you or someone you know thinks life might be too complex to leave their comfort zone, I’d strongly urge you to listen to this chat. Brawn’s story is truly inspirational and is probably one of the best stories that I’ve heard thus far about overcoming obstacles in life. I’d especially listen if you need that extra kick in the pants to leave your comfort zone or you need help being honestly truthful with where you are in life.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

How Brawn decided that he was going to go from a stable income as a Mechanical Engineer to being a church planter. (7:20)
What kind of struggles he had when he was trying to shed his label of Engineer (13:27)
How Brawn was able to be a full time volunteer for four years of his life with a family by helping with home school teaching. (17:48)
How he was able to help grow his church attendance from 23 to 350. (22:12)
What the John Maxwell Team, and JMT Mentorship program has meant to Brawn. (25:07)
What Brawn would tell someone if they found themselves having to suddenly lead from a position where they never saw themselves in. (31:43)
Why he went into sales when he wasn’t able to achieve his financial goals with his coaching business. (37:01)
How he was able to focus on his sales job, his business, and his family during this period in his career. (42:26)
What were some keys that lead to his success in speaking and coaching (44:35)
How Brawn was able to build his business outside of networking. (47:31)
What he likes the most about being a professional speaker and coach (51:58)
What are projects he sees himself doing in the next 5 years. (55:39)
If he had money to buy commercial space on TV, what would the message be? (1:01:06)
What purchase of $100 or less has most affected his life? (1:01:50)
What are 3 truths he’d want to share with others (1:03:00)
If someone wants to get out of their day job that they don’t find fulfilling? (1:08:06)
… and MUCH more!

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

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Brawn Online: Website and Facebook
Wells Branch Community Church
John Maxwell Team
Mark Nathan’s AoL Interview (Session 23)
Mark Nathan’s Facebook LIVE Video for Pre-Launch

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Brawn on what he does:

Brawn’s first interaction with John Maxwell:

Getting into Mechanical Engineering Wasn’t Easy:

John Maxwell and Brawn on what the word “Potential” means:

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

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

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!

AoL 038: Yoga, How to Measure Creativity, and Being a Better Human with David Rachford

June 2/by JC

Being in business for yourself has many different labels. Solopreneur, Expert, Entrepreneur… the list goes on. Many times we’ve found out that these particular names might not necessarily mean anything other than you have a passion for what you do and you happen to make income doing it.

Most of us go the long way of doing that. Going to school for one thing and then making our business from something else.

I frequently ask myself, could I have learned what I know today about online business without going to school? Would I have been able to help people they way I do today?

While I think that I might have been able to shortcut the process, the truth of the matter is simply this: I wouldn’t have the experience to be able to help people at the LEVEL that I help people today.

The same goes for today’s guest, David Rachford.

David started his career in the military after being an athlete for years in several sports. After getting out of the military, he went to college to become an accountant. Growing tired of that world in 10 years, he found himself at a position that he could do something that utilized those accounting skills, but at the same time, he didn’t want to make that his whole career.

That’s where his interest in teaching others about Yoga and starting the Better Human Show came from.

In this session, we’ll learn exactly how a kid who was too husky to be in youth football started playing all kinds of sports, How his yoga journey started, how he “measures creativity”, and why he started doing his podcast.

Listen to this episode if you’ve ever found yourself bouncing from one thing in your career to the next, thinking about starting a business, or you’re simply curious in what it takes to sit with “strong determination” like monks do in meditation.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

What kind of sports David played growing up despite being too big to play football. (10:04)
How David got into Meditation, Yoga, and eventually learned how to sit in “strong determination”. (13:48)
David’s advice to someone who says they get migraines when meditating. (20:42)
Why he left the accounting world after doing it for 10 years. (22:50)
How Dave measures creativity. (26:22)
Why Dave focuses on established entrepreneurs for his ideal clients (29:00)
How the Better Human show came into being. (34:38)
Which talks on his podcast have stuck in his mind the most. (38:18)
What’s an occurring theme that he’s gotten from his guests. (42:20)
David’s thoughts on falling back on a safe job (45:07)
What purchase $100 or less has most affected David’s life. (50:43)
What are three truths that he wants to share with others (53:10)
Who are David’s three favorite teachers (56:55)
What Dave recommends in spreading your message into the world (1:03:34)
… and MUCH more!

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

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

David on Facebook, Twitter, and his Website
Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod (Amazon Link)
Hal Elrod on SPI
Indy Mini
Buddhify
Muse
Other Useful Meditation Apps
Headspace
Sharlotte Bouniol’s Interview
Gary’s Message to Recent Grads
Norwegian Lundehund
Presa Canario

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Installing a Retargeting Pixel on Your Website:

https://www.facebook.com/rachford/videos/1550197105273045/

Travel Yoga Poses on KKFX News:

Couple Yoga Poses on KKFX News:

David’s Norwegian Lundehund, Nikolina checking out a T-Rex!

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

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

Cheers!

Repurposing Content Roundup: How to Use Your Content Sawdust

May 24/by JC

As online content makers, we all put a ton of work into the content that we create. That work takes time. And unless you’re some 5th dimension alien being that has no problem traveling in the 4th dimension (which is time), then you probably don’t have the minutes in a day to make new piece after new piece of content for each platform you’re on.

However, that’s not too say you should just throw one piece out there, forget about it and move on to the next. On the other hand, it also doesn’t mean that you should go out there and post “20 posts on Facebook a day”.

There is a happy medium between making one post and moving on to the next (which is highly ineffective) to repeatedly saying “Hey everyone! Check this out!” 10+ times a day (which is another highly ineffective way to get your message out there).

What’s a way to produce that content in a way that isn’t overwhelming? And what’s the correct amount?

Content “Sawdust”

In a video that came out last week, Gary Vaynerchuck dropped this w ord to describe macro-content. While I had heard of his strategy from Brendon Burchard, in how he uses quotes for Instagram and Facebook, I hadn’t really thought about applying it to anything else than that platform.

Essentially content sawdust is little snippets from the main content. As Gary said, when people think of .gif pictures, that is a form of sawdust. When you see a trailer for a movie, that consists of sawdust. Heck, you might even be able to think of sawdust as that thing that Paul Harvey used to do before he did his Midday NEWS or The Rest of the Story.

(Speaking of Paul Harvey, Mike Rowe – yes, from Dirty Jobs – is starting a new podcast that Paul Harvey was an inspiration for. Check that out here!)

Know Thy Platform

Before you go posting content sawdust, you need to know how to work the platform that you’re posting that sawdust on.

For example, the topic of this post came to me last week from one of my favorite Facebook Groups: The Expert Community. If you don’t know about Facebook Groups and how they’re helping online business in 2016, then you have a few things to learn about how Facebook currently works.

In the old days, before Pages, Groups were the place where people could come together and discuss things that they had an interest in. I know that when I was going to Purdue, that I made several off the wall ones. So did some of my friends.

One of the ones that I was proudest of was called the 10/22 Club. It started of as a club at Purdue who members had their birthday on October 22nd. Very elitist, right? Haha.

Back then, you could search for people by birthday. And, if I recall correctly, I had 25 members at one point. However, by this point, it had grown beyond Purdue itself.

Eventually, Pages did come into the picture, and when they did – groups essentially stopped having a purpose. If you had a Page, you could essentially create a profile for an organization, game, or anything else that wasn’t just one person. Dogs, cats, birthday clubs… you name it.

Just like you can on your own wall, a Page could post something and people who liked that page would see it on their feeds. Groups never had the ability to really do this.

Technically, that’s still the way Pages work. Unfortunately for us business owners, things changed again about 2 years ago. To get more than 10% of your followers to see what you posted on a Page, you have to pay for it – regardless of what the Page is being used for. I call this the Page Pay to Play. It’s very one direction.

In retaliation(?) to this, groups started making a comeback. However, instead of just passively posting things on your page wall, with groups, you have to pay attention to the rules of the group. Many don’t support posts to external links. They fear that the use of external links will drive people away from the group. A greedy owner of the group might see this as a threat.

Personally, I feel the more the merrier. As long as posts are relevant to the group and are offering free value to the members – it’s a great thing to do. However, if spam starts entering then, you might just have to draw some lines. Simply come up some rules in which the community has to follow. That’s why big groups with 1000+ members often have themes and rules when it comes to what’s going on each day.

Another thing about groups is that you actually have to engage and become connected to the people in the group. To do this well, I think you really have to think of it more as a community and not so much of an authority page.

That said, I think Facebook has become community driven. You just have to be willing to friend up to the max of 5000 people if you want it to work that way for you. Otherwise, go with the Page Pay to Play method.

That all being said, you’ll have to figure out how to use the platform that you want to connect with your audiences on. Do you use Instagram? What works over there? Do you use Snapchat? How does that work? Periscope? Again – figure out the best way to package the sawdust to those audiences.

If you want some specific examples of how you can package sawdust from your blog posts, specifically, you can check out Pat’s examples here.

Correct Amount to Post

If you feel I haven’t answered this part indirectly already, then I’ll go ahead an answer it directly here. The correct amount to post is… ::drumroll::

…up to you.

Brendon posts 4 times a day. He uses 2 posts that he made that morning. I’ve seen him do 2 images on Instagram and 2 on Facebook. Specifically he says his times are 7am, 11am, 3pm, and 7pm for those posts. He posts many of his YouTube videos on Sunday (who does that?).

Pat posts several times a day. I wasn’t able to pin down exactly other than a 9am post, a midday post, and an after work post. Generally speaking he does a good job of posting on the weekends a couple of times. However, when he’s traveling – he kinda goes through all the platforms. On his trip to the Food Blogger Conference in Salt Lake City this past weekend, he ended up Instagramming a pic of his luggage during the day. Then later, he did a ‘scope and then a couple of Facebook Live posts in the evening. As well as saying thanks to the people he had dinner with and the tours he got though the rest of the weekend.

Gary posts… well, I haven’t been able to pin it down yet. But I’m assuming it’s similar – AND he has a guy shadowing him for DailyVee. So, it’s not necessarily a one man band. If you’re really interested in when his accounts post (or anyone) – make an account on IFTTT and create a recipe that monitors certain accounts and posts the message on a spreadsheet. Then from there you can see patterns after a week of monitoring.

Action Steps:

So this week, as you’re creating your new epic posts. I want you to start going through some of the work you’ve already done. See if there’s anything in there that you might be able to say to yourself “man, that was good!”. Quote it and repackage it.

So many people don’t reuse the evergreen content they have. If you’re on a budget (like me) use what’s free and what you can afford to spend. If you have some extra funds to try some other stuff, get a subscription to Edgar or something similar. Spend some time coming up with a daily and monthly plan of how you can line up content. Make themed weeks. If that goes well, start doing themed months!

AoL 036: Going from Good to Great in Business Coaching with Stephan Seyfert

May 19/by JC

When people think of the labels consultant, coach, or teacher, they often think of the same type of person. Someone that instructs and helps others. However, each one of these labels are actually different than one another. The consultant uses their skill set to help their client. The coach helps bring the client to a solution by asking the right questions. While the teacher uses both skills to help their students learn and apply what’s being taught in the classroom.

As far back as I can remember, I’ve always found myself being all three in one way or another. I’ve been the tech person when it comes to helping friends and family with their computers. I’ve always been the listening ear when people are trying to fix a problem in their life – helping them with problems they might not see right in front of them. And I have that uncanny ability to be able to mix the two and teach complex topics. Hence why I taught algebra for a couple of years.

I was quite amazed when I found out that each is it’s own separate skill.

For today’s guest, coaching has been something that he’s been utilizing for sometime as well. In fact, you’ll find out that when he started coaching people professionally, he was simply relaying information that he essentially had just learned in his classes in college. However, he found that he had a passion for it and he’s made it his full time career.

In this session, we’ll learn how he got into coaching in the first place. How it’s helped him along in his career. What he learned from the John Maxwell Team that sets him apart from other coaches, and how he specifically helps business go from Good to Great.

If you’ve wanted to find out how you might be able to become a professional business coach, then this might give you a couple of ideas in how you can get started down that career path. If you’re in need of a coach, then Stephan might be a great solution for you!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

Why Stephan’s formal education track wasn’t so different than most. (9:03)
How he got introduced to entrepreneurship (12:53)
When he felt that it was time to go separate ways with his first business partner from college (17:29)
How he was able to get his first clients while he was still a student (22:41)
How the John Maxwell Team has helped his business (28:27)
How John Warrillow has inspired the new version of his business (31:06)
Stephan’s 2 additional Value Drivers (beyond John Warrillow’s first 8) (33:50)
Why it’s important to intentionally develop a company’s culture (35:04)
Upcoming movies we’re excited about (40:23)
Why he likes working with groups as well as individuals (42:29)
How he currently meets his potential clients (46:25)
How his current career aligns with his “Why” (52:05)
Why Apple shows how its important to have a definitive “Why”. (58:24)
What’s the difference between the popularity of the Beatles and Boston? (1:02:05)
Stephan’s 3 influences in business (1:04:45)
…and MUCH more.