A summary of things you should know about The 15 Success Traits of Pro Bloggers according to Jonathan Milligan: Introduction In this episode Jonathan Milligan takes a deep dive intoRead More
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]]>In this episode Jonathan Milligan takes a deep dive into his book, The 15 Success Traits of Pro Bloggers, where he shares a roadmap to becoming a full-time blogger.
In his book Milligan provides a simple blueprint with actionable summaries of the 4 significant habits that aspiring bloggers should add to their daily routine if they want to become online professionals. The goal of the book is to teach you what it takes to achieve maximum results with your blog, how to get your blog noticed by more people, and what types of content generate the most traffic.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs that own or plan on owing an online based business and what to know the ins and outs of establishing a popular yet profitable blog.
I was very specific in the beginning and I did not want to write another book about how to write a blog. My book is a business book first, it’s something someone can take and use as a self-development plan that you can fall into over the next couple of years.
I would say that if you are just starting out as a blogger you should read it straight through. If you’ve been blogging for a while you might be interested to jump further to the actual processes.
I would hope that the reader would walk away with the heart of the book. The heart of the book is that the best way to grow a business is teaching and serving an audience well.
At the very beginning of the book I share with you a way that you can get access to a one page colored PDF that I had designed that explains the essence of the whole book. This one page infographic is what I call The Blogger Success Pyramid. It’s got the 15 traits in a pyramid format and both my students and I use to help form and build our businesses. And so the chapters are divided into each of those traits.
The very bottom of the pyramid is what I call Tier One and it’s the mindset. The mindset is so important for us to be able to grasp the things that we need to get ahold of in order to achieve success. For many of us, we are going to act out of our thoughts. And so if our thoughts are defeating we are not going to take action. The five mindsets that I share are passion, resilience, confidence, consistency, and patience. You have got to have these five mindsets because without them you will not be able to stay with it over the long haul to achieve success.
In Tier Two we jump into what I think many people get hung up on, the habits. There are so many things to do that you don’t know where to focus your time and so I boil it down in the book to four simple keystone habits. The first habit is the create habit; this habit is to use text, audio and video to get your message out to the masses. The second habit is the capture habit which is the art form exchange of value for e-mail addresses. Building that e-mail list is so critical and so important. From there you have the compile habit and that is where you package your knowledge and perspective into products and services. And then you move into the connect habit which is your ability to connect with other people and build community with other passionate influencers.
In Tier Three we go over systems and there are three traits in this tier which are people, processes, and plans. When you get the right people, you create the right processes that you can outsource, and you put the right plans in place, you can begin to scale your business way beyond yourself.
And finally, the top tier is the Leverage Tier and that’s how you stay on top. There are two essential traits to staying on top and those two traits are learning and listening. Learning is the ability to unlearn and sit at the feet of your peers. The second leverage point is listening and that is the constant awareness of the goals, passions, and struggles of your audience.
NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 05:57
“What’s the ultimate result we want from all of this hard work? For me it’s not money, although I need money to live and reach my goals, it’s not fame or popularity, I find more fulfillment in stewarding the gifts Gods given me even if popularity never comes my way. The final success trait cannot be achieved as a goal; instead it’s a result of doing everything else well. It’s the ultimate gift from a lifetime of serving others, trust and authority. You are rich when you’ve earned trust and authority with your audience.” – Jonathan Milligan
I started my career as a high school teacher and both of my parents were educators and so I thought that might be where I was going to land. After about three years of coaching and teaching, I loved the kids but I found that it wasn’t the right environment for me. I had a real entrepreneurial side to me and so I joined up with a startup company that was an executive search firm. I did that for about eight years and from there I got into blogging. Over the course of a couple years I ended up getting to a place where it could replace my job and now today it’s what I do. I am a fulltime blogger and I have two blogs that I manage.
I always had multiple e-mails asking questions of how I became a fulltime blogger and so I began thinking through how exactly I could teach this to others. After running it by friends and family I boiled it down to what I considered 15 success traits.
Work Simply by Carson Tate
Buy The 15 Success Traits of Pro Bloggers by Jonathan Milligan on Amazon today
Visit BloggingYourPassion.com to learn more Jonathan’s book and online courses
Follow Jonathan Milligan on Facebook and Twitter
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books:
Real Moms Making Real Money Blogging by Stephanie O’Dea
The Art of Social Media by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick
The Website Investor by Jeffrey Hunt
Relevant advice and tips:
7 Recommended Books for Starting an Online Business
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
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]]>A summary of things you should know about Mindsharing according to Lior Zoref: Introduction In this episode Lior Zoref takes a deep dive into his book, Mindsharing, where he showsRead More
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]]>In this episode Lior Zoref takes a deep dive into his book, Mindsharing, where he shows you how to master the art of crowdsourcing everything.
In his book Zoref offers several practical tools for unleashing powerful creativity that you can get from a large crowd as well as success stories of several people who succeeded by using crowdsourcing. The goal of the book is to help you use social media to learn things faster, build stronger relationships with people online, and understand the intricacies of the digital age today.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs who are unfamiliar with social media and want to know more about interacting with their friends, followers and influencers.
To my knowledge there isn’t any book that explores what is happening in this era other than my book. My book is tapping into this specific area on how crowd sourcing and social networks can help us solve problems and think better.
I recommend reading the introduction because it will give you a great overview about what to expect from the book. The book is divided into four parts and I think that each part is one that you can jump in and out of.
I would say that We are stronger than Me. When you think with a big crowd it’s basically as if you are upgrading your brain. There is another way in order to solve big problems and it is by going to big crowds and asking questions.
I start by telling you how crowdsourcing can help anyone in their career from startup to big organizations and in the first part I give many examples/stories of this.
Then there is a part about how we can use crowdsourcing in our personal lives. In this part I tell you a story about a startup called CrowdMed who is using crowdsourcing to solve medical mysteries.
There is another chapter where I talk about the How To which is basically going to places where there are big crowds of people and asking questions.
The last part is my favorite part and it’s about making dreams come true. For me it all started a few years ago when I started my PhD. I told a friend of mine that maybe one day I would present my research on the TED stage and my friend told me I had a better chance at winning the lottery. When my Facebook friends heard that they decided they would help me make this dream come true and so we did. And then I tell other stories of how inspiring people used crowdsourcing to make their dreams come true also.
NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 08:45
“Great minds think alike but clever minds think together.” – Unknown
I am 44 years old, married with three kids. I was obsessed with technology early in age and became a computer scientist and studied computer programming. From there I worked for Microsoft for 14 years. Right before turning 40 I hit my midlife crisis and I decided to retire from Microsoft and started on my journey to get my PhD. In the last few years I have been consulting to brands and startups that are using crowdsourcing as a strategic tool to innovate.
The inspiration is a story I heard a few years ago about Debra who lives in New York and at that time her four year old son Leo had fever. So Debra went to the doctor and told her it’s probably strep but after leaving the doctor she had a bad feeling about it so she took a picture of her sons face and posted it on Facebook. She began to get a lot of messages that said her son might have a very rare illness that could kill him. Immediately she took her son to the hospital to check to see if he had that illness. After checking they concluded that it was in fact the disease, started treatment immediately and were able to save his life. After hearing this story I did my research and wrote the book about the power of big crowds.
The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer
Buy Mindsharing by Lior Zoref on Amazon today
Visit Mindsharing.info to learn more about Lior and his book
Follow Lior Zoref on Facebook and Twitter
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books:
A World Gone Social by Ted Coine and Mark Babbit
The Art of Social Media by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick
Digital Bacon by Alex Rodriguez
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
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]]>When starting any sort of new business venture, social media marketing and online promotion have become two of the most important ways for an entrepreneur to get their products outRead More
The post 5 Social Media Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs Make appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>When starting any sort of new business venture, social media marketing and online promotion have become two of the most important ways for an entrepreneur to get their products out to consumers.
While social media is free (for the most part) and easy to use, it is also easy to make mistakes. Getting distracted by all of the bells and whistles that come with social media can keep a budding startup business from true success.
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” – Seth Godin (Highlight to Share)
There are a variety of social media mistakes that entrepreneurs make when it comes to marketing their business online. Using social media platforms to communicate is a great format, but only when done properly. We’ve interviewed many authors on social media marketing and I compiled a list of the common social media mistakes most entrepreneurs make so you know what to avoid.
Perhaps you were extremely accomplished in your previous ventures or maybe you have a very strong pedigree. There is nothing wrong with being proud of the accomplishments of your past, but most of your social media followers will not care to hear about them on a daily basis. When you share too much about your past achievements, it is a huge turn off to those who do not already know your work.
Just like anything else in life, talking about your past achievements is best done in moderation. There are instances where your past experiences will come in handy and when they are germane to the discussion, there is nothing wrong with bringing them up.
However, social media users are savvier than ever. They will see through any attempts to call attention to yourself by being boastful and may decide not to use your products or services because of your arrogant social media presence. Even worse, this affects your company’s word of mouth in a negative manner.
Social media is great, because it gives potential consumers a chance to get to know you on a more personal level. This can be a bad thing if you are a person who allows themselves to get swept up in negativity. We all have bad days and personal beefs, but social media is no place to air your sour grapes or complain about the hard times in your life.
Consumers use social media as a means for escaping the drudgery of day to day living, so the last thing they want to be confronted with are the harsh realities of your life. Airing your personal frustrations about the problems that you are having with other people or whining about how hard you life is will lose you social media followers and create bad word of mouth.
Put yourself in the shoes of the consumer. Would you want to buy a product from someone who used their social media profile as a place to vent and complain? The answer is usually no in most instances. Before you fire off your negative social media post, take a moment to consider what your customer base will think of it.
Social media is a great outlet to speak intelligently, but it is even more important for you to use it as a place to listen. By using social media to garner consumer feedback, you have the opportunity to collect information that is specifically designed to help you. If a consumer has a complaint, you can rectify it immediately and ensure that you do not lose their business.
You can also use social media to engage with customers on a more personal level, getting to know them better. While it is great to let consumers learn more about you, learning more about them allows them to feel more valued. Speaking to them about matters more important than your latest sales and promotions is pivotal.
The plethora of tools and usages that social media provides for its users can be overwhelming, causing an entrepreneur to lose sight of the ones that are most important. Social media comes equipped with analytic tools that are geared towards measuring the impact of your social media marketing push.
These tools often come free or can be purchased at exceedingly reasonable prices. The tools will show you which of your posts have become most popular and let you know if any of your materials have shown the ability to go viral.
Posts can also be scheduled when you are too busy to get to a computer or smartphone. With so many options available to you, an entrepreneur would be a fool not to at least explore some of them. No matter what goal you are trying to accomplish, there is an analytic tool designed to help.
One of the best parts of social media is its ability to offer you a means of promoting several different products at once. An entrepreneur can easily leverage social media’s reach to gain as many new customers as possible. There are so many possibilities and there are a million thoughts that are probably crossing your mind about how to pursue them. Enhancing your business prospects comes first and foremost.
Be careful about getting caught up in the madness of trying to promote several different products and services at once. Over promotion can fatigue the audience and cause them to pass by your posts when they are using social media. Training your focus on just one venture allows the audience to get to know the product better. It also decreases the the number of distractions.
As a business mentor for MentorMojo, virality expert Emerson Spartz gives some more effective social media marketing tips in detail here:
The Art of Social Media by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick
Digital Bacon by Alex Rodriguez
Trendology by Chris Kerns
Do It! Marketing by David Newman
A World Gone Social by Ted Coine and Mark Babbitt
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]]>Who is Guy Kawasaki and what you can learn from him: Guy Kawasaki is one of the most famous entrepreneurs alive today. He has worked for Apple and Google, writtenRead More
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]]>Guy Kawasaki is one of the most famous entrepreneurs alive today. He has worked for Apple and Google, written for Forbes and MacUser, founded Fog City Software, and is now a successful author and speaker. He also founded or helped found Garage Technology Ventures, Truemors, and Alltop.
With so much success under his belt, it is no wonder that entrepreneurs all over the world want to learn from him. He shares many of his secrets to success in his book, The Art of the Start. He recently updated it for 2015, and The Art of the Start 2.0 has only just hit bookshelves.
He understands that one of the hardest parts of starting your own business is finding the capital you need. In his recently updated book, he shares the following 5 tips for how to get the startup money that you require to launch your new company.
People are always more willing to loan money to people that they know. If you are lucky enough to be on a first name basis with someone who could potentially hand you a large amount of funds, obviously they are going to be your first pitch. If you don’t know anyone with the appropriate funds, or if you need more than one investor (and both of those are almost certainly true for most entrepreneurs) then you’re going to have to reach out to people who aren’t familiar with you.
When you meet with potential investors, you’re going to have to create a feeling of familiarity. The best way to do this is through common ground. To establish this, you need to do your homework on potential investors. Social media profiles are a perfect place to find background information on a person. Find out if there is any overlap between you and them. Attending the same school or frequently travelling to the same destination is the perfect place to start. Other connections like shared hobbies are also fertile ground for making connections.
Above all, be truthful. Never lie to your investors. Trying to make up common ground is almost sure to end in disaster. Name dropping people that you don’t really know or faking enthusiasm for something you are completely ignorant about will destroy your credibility.
Have something to show investors when you meet with them. It is supremely unlikely that anyone will invest in your company if all you have is an outline and a dream. Throwing money at such a venture requires an enormous leap of faith on the part of your investors. Anything tangible that you can show them increases the chances of them supporting you.
Actual sales are one of the best evidences of forward progress. If you can show that people are buying your product or service, investors will be happy. Even if you haven’t sold anything yet, there is still evidence that you can provide. Set up a website and track the traffic flow through it. Ask people to register on your site and show an increasing number of users. No matter how little it looks to you, any traction at all is better than none.
People often meet with investors to pitch ideas with independent studies that show a demand for their product. While this does provide hard evidence that there is a market for your company, it is still a finite vision. It is better if you can drop a few numbers that allow investors to do their own calculations. This will lead to them building their own fantasy. Not only does this create the idea of a vast market, but it also gives them more interest in your startup. When they are casting their own vision, they are much more likely to support you.
An example of catalyzing fantasy is how Pets.com got their start. They showed investors that there are 300 million Americans and 25% of them own a dog. The math leads investors to the conclusion that there are 75 million dogs in America. Then you let your investors know that these dogs need 2 cans of dog food per day. Which means that 150 million cans of dog food are being used in America every single day. That is a huge market that investors will naturally be attracted to.
The hardest investor to get is the very first one. Everyone is reluctant to be the first person to put their money in a new venture. If you can show them that even just one person has already invested in your company, they will be much more comfortable supporting you.
It might sound like a good plan to cast a wide net in order to attract as many investors as possible, but that isn’t the best way to start. Do your research on possible investors and target just a few that you really believe you can convince. Focus on them until you get your first investor. Then you can start reaching out to more people. It is better to have one investor fully committed than to have ten investors who are thinking about it.
People are much more likely to act if you let them know that this is a limited time offer. Tell them that you are raising this set amount of capital and once you reach it you won’t be accepting any more investors. Or determine that you are only going to accept a certain number of investors, at which point it will no longer be possible to join this exciting new venture on the ground floor.
As previously stated, you cannot lie to your investors. If you set a cutoff number, once you reach it you have to stop accepting investors. This might mean that you have to get creative in order to raise any money you need over and above you original investments. While this might seem like a step in the wrong direction, it is a proven way to make your venture more attractive to possible investors.
Preview The Art of Social Media with Guy Kawasaki himself
Buy The Art of Social Media by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick on Amazon today
Visit GuyKawasaki.com to learn more about Guy and his books
Visit Artof.Social to learn more about the book
Follow Guy Kawasaki on Facebook and Twitter
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]]>A summary of things you should know about The Art of Social Media according to Guy Kawasaki: Introduction In this episode Guy Kawasaki reveals all his insights on his andRead More
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]]>In this episode Guy Kawasaki reveals all his insights on his and Peg Fitzpatrick’s book, The Art of Social Media, where he shares over 100 practical tips and tricks on the most popular social media platforms.
In their book Kawasaki and Fitzpatrick give you an actionable marketing strategy that guides you through steps to build your foundation, amass your digital assets, optimize your profile, attract more followers, and effectively integrate social media and blogging. The goal of the book is to help you improve your online presence and dramatically increase your social media traffic.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs who are trying to improve their social media marketing efforts to increase brand awareness, build credibility online, and network with other experts.
Many of the other books on social media are at like a 50,000 foot view. They are written with very obvious advice and my book is not at the 50,000 foot level, it’s more at the 1,000 foot level.
In a perfect world I think someone could read through this book in maybe 90 minutes.
I want the read to find that social media is not as big of mystery as you might think. Social media is blocking, tackling, and experimenting and don’t be afraid of making mistakes because everybody makes them.
This book is an extremely tactical practical book to help you start, understand, and get you on the path to mastering social media as a marketing tool. It’s not a book about how to make more friends; it’s not about how to update your college buddies and family about your life. This is a book that is meant for a business person to use social media as a platform.
NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 07:43
What you want to do is you want to position yourself with someone who is trustworthy, likeable, and competent. And the way you do this is not by constantly pimping yourself but by providing value.
I am currently the Chief Evangelist of an online graphics tool company called Canva. Prior to this I advised the CEO of Motorola for a year, I was also the Evangelist and Chief Evangelist of Apple. I’ve started several companies and I’m a writer and a speaker, I’ve written 13 books.
My main inspiration was royalty. Basically I wanted to enable people to use social media as a fantastic marketing tool.
If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland
Buy The Art of Social Media by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick on Amazon today
Visit ArtOf.Social to learn more about the book
Visit GuyKawasaki.com to learn more about Guy and his other books
Follow Guy Kawasaki on Facebook and Twitter
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books:
A World Gone Social by Ted Coine and Mark Babbitt
Digital Bacon by Alex Rodriguez
Trendology by Chris Kerns
Relevant advice and tips:
5 Reasons Why Your Marketing Sucks
5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make With Marketing and Branding
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
The post A Preview of The Art of Social Media with Guy Kawasaki appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
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