Only listen to this show if you’re ready to learn about how to test in your business, what to measure, and when to refine. It all comes down to converting prospects into customers and you must do it if you want to be successful.

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Need help? Justin and Josh are available to consult with you on your business or idea.

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• How to attract the right kind of client
• How to create an about me page

Josh and I talk about how to make sure your target market still matches what you’re selling. If you’re finding the right clients aren’t finding you, it’s time to update.

Rob: Hi Justin, I’m placing my 1st business on hold to start another one, sort of a practice business of sorts. The issue is that I’m concerned that it might be considered a conflict of interest. I’m trying to set up an “About me” page under a pen name. The problem is that I won’t be able to use a picture of me. Do you think that would be an issue? Can you think of any other ideas that will help me give visitors a comfort level of who I am?

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1. Everyone needs a coach, mentor, or someone to ask and get answers
2. Some need that person to be long term (6 months)
3. Some only have a need for answers to short questions

I’ve dedicated the past seven years to long term relationships: spending anywhere from 30 days to 12 months or more to help my clients get ahead. You’ve never been able to get 30 minutes of my time but that all changes today.

A new platform has launched to make it easy for me to offer shorter calls and coaching sessions. Instead of booking six months of coaching or even a full hour, you can grab me for 15 minutes and get critical answers to your questions.

Grab your time with me now. I’m looking forward to talking.

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Sometimes we’re looking for break through and what we really need is follow through.

Want to do something? Stop praying.

Doing something so long that you’re afraid to let it go.

LiveNinja and Clarity are platforms Josh and I are both trying out. You can grab a few minutes through either service and talk with Josh or I.

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• How to make crowd funding successful

Today I’m recording a show before flying to Seattle. I’m attending an event with my wife and friends and honestly don’t know what it’s all about. Have you ever done that?

I’ve seen many people try to crowdfund the startup of a new business and unfortunately it’s rarely successful.

Differences between Kickstarter, Indiegogo and others.

Andy and his wife are running a campaign to fund their new business, Threaded Together Vintage Rentals, and has questions about raising money.

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• Lessons from a one month break
• Truthful blog feedback
• Setting up your own radio station

I took one month off because I wanted to make some wise decisions without wondering how I’d come across to an audience. Being in that position is never a good thing but one that many, more popular, celebrities are involved in every day.

Listen to hear why I’ve decided to stop working at The Exodus Road and why I’m working more closely with BombBomb.

Jesse: I could use some help with my blog, survivingthedayjob.com. It’s not yet a profitable business but that’s what I always intended to make it. I’ve spent the past year writing quantity and I’m now starting to writing quality.

My problem comes mostly in the form of finding my voice. I know if I can find that then I can start to retain viewers and maybe even grow. My other real problem is faceing fears. That one I’m working on.

I need a second opinion. When you read my stuff does it seem real or fake to you? What turns you off about the site and what’s one thing you like. I’m not looking to get cheered on. I already have enough family members telling me I’m awesome. I need a brutal reality check.

Stop listening to other experts for at least two week. Maybe even two months. It’s some of the best advice anyone has ever given me.

To be real, consider speaking your blog posts. As you listen to yourself talk, does it sound like you?

Ibrahim: I watched your studio tour video and I was overwhelmed with what I saw in that video, setting up my own radio station has always been my dream, I hope you wouldn’t mind if you advise me as to what to do? What I need and any advice so far as setting up ur own radio station is concerned.

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“You never quite know in business if what you are doing is the right or wrong thing.

Unfortunately, by the time you know the answer, someone has beaten you to it and you are out of business.” – Mark Cuban

So what do you do…give up?

I’ve pressed up against my share of possible failures the past few months and I’m here to say it never gets easier. All I know is to keep going, even at the risk of failure.

Will you give up or keep going?

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They’re ambivalent.

Meanwhile, higher performing workers are picking up the slack and see what’s happening behind the scenes, all while not being very happy about it. Does this describe your work? Oh, I can’t forget that in these instances the lower performing workers often didn’t know they fell in that group.

So, how would you describe how you fit in with your team? It’s ok, they’re probably not reading the comments.

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There’s a challenge for any public figure no matter how big or popular they are. That challenge is to put up a front and be someone they’re not so they can maintain their image in the eyes of their community. In the airlines our manuals actually had a description of this. As a captain I wasn’t supposed to do anything that would “break down the delicate shell of passenger confidence.”

I’m not afraid of what you think, or course. I even wrote about losing 85% of my income.

I am, however, making some decisions and defining longer term outcomes in my life and I don’t want the weight of “but what will I tell my listeners?” to be weighing on me. Thus the need for the short break.

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• Your desk – clean or messy
• Turn an idea into a business

We talk about organization and refer to this picture of Seth Godin’s desk. Attach a picture of your desk in the comments. Is it messy or clean?

Abraham: I decided to publish a blog about my weight lost journey. Initially it was for updates and to keep me accountable  But now I keep getting questions from friends wanting to know more about the products I’m using. Can I turn this into a business? If so how can I go about it where I don’t make people feel like I went from information site to a here is the products sales site. I want to have a free membership site where people can collaborate about this diet program, discus pros and cons.

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• Using a business to fuel a non-profit
• Twitter vs Facebook

I spill the beans behind the scenes of a new business startup. What we made, how we did it, and how we’ll continue to scale.

Last week we launched Exodus Auctions and it was a big hit. This week we’re back for more but only selling for 1.5 hours each week.

Josh and I also talk about some differences between twitter and Facebook and why we’ve been favoring one over the other.

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• What would your spouse say?
• Viral vs. Fungal
• Meet us in May

In today’s show, Josh was stumped and a bit scared by a question his wife had to answer in a board game. What would your spouse answer?

We also talk about getting your ideas to go viral, or rather, fungal. Leave your ideas in the comments.

Will you join us in Seattle this May? We’ll be at Love Does.

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If you had visited Ted’s website for woodworking plans as I did on January 17, 2013, you would have seen this special, limited time offer.

Makes you feel special, right? I mean, Ted could be selling this for $497, but since he likes you and just launched this product, it’s only $67, but just for a limited time.

The funny thing is you can see in the archives that Ted has had this same offer for almost two years now. This screen shot is from May, 2011.

Yup, good old Ted hasn’t updated this page in a long time but makes you feel like you have to act now. Maybe it’s the yellow highlight.

Scarcity and deadlines are marketing tactics that make you want to buy. But highlighting throughout your mile long page is an old school ploy used to push something that’s generally not remarkable enough to stand on its own.

Take a lesson from Ted: tell the truth. The pricing was never $497. It won’t end tomorrow.

Make your customers feel good about your product and themselves after the purchase. Old school marketing isn’t a great way to dress up something boring.

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I have a new business model and it relies on the people who love my work to support me. It’s not been an easy decision to blow up how I’ve worked for the past few years, but as you can tell when you listen, one I’m very excited about.

Somehow we again ended up talking about tampons and periods. It’s good marketing but I promise this is the last show we’ll do that.

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Donations and advertising have both come up over the years as a way for me to monetize the work I put into this site, and yet I’ve never done it. Nothing turns me off faster than google ads plastered on a website. Advertisements and donate buttons are the same.

Well,the time has come for me to accept donations, but it’s not what you think. You won’t find a donate button on this site and you still won’t see advertisements.

This coincides with the changes I brought up last week. The next big one…I’ve decided not to take a salary with the anti-trafficking coalition I’m working with and instead, raise my own funding.

I May be Crazy

You probably think I’m crazy and honestly, I don’t think you’re far off. This isn’t a place I thought I’d ever be and it feels weird to share. But I’m here nonetheless.

Before we go further, I should remind you I’m a business guy. When I’ve needed money in the past, I’ve created a business.

Businesses Fund Non-profits

To support The Exodus Road, the first of many business ideas we’re launching is Exodus Auctions. But, it’s going to take at least six to 12 months for our revenue to be high enough to support salaries, and to build as fast as we can we’re investing revenue back into the business as well as a portion going directly to the field to empower the rescue of global slaves.

Thus, donations.

When you donate, your funds go directly to The Exodus Road (deductible if you live in the US) and are earmarked for my salary. If you want behind the scenes info from the US and our trips abroad, as well as other top-secret stuff we can’t share with the public, stop by and sign up for those.

I won’t share the personal details that Christine and I have had to work out here on this website, but visit our page to see videos like the one to the left, and another I shot with an undercover camera while walking through a red light district.

Three things you can do there:

1. Learn our personal story
2. Sign up to support us monthly or one-time
3. Join for behind the scenes video updates

Coach Radio will continue just like it always has. I’m still working with businesses and a limited number of 1-on-1 clients and sharing those lessons on this blog. There’s even more crossover between business and non-profit worlds than I thought there would be. You’re in the right place for behind the scenes info.

As always, thanks for following along. Business is about more than tactics and planning; it’s also about people and emotions. I’m glad you’re here with me.

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• More on the recent separation between me and the startup I co-founded
• Finding a calling before you have money
• Tampons (not sure how we got here)
• Broadcasting a show

Last week I wrote a post where I talked at length about separating (mutually) from the social app I was co-founding. I share more details in the show and on Friday I’ll talk about the next big piece.

Do you think many people find their callings only after becoming financially healthy?

Somehow we end up talking about periods and this rebuttal from Bodyform. Funny stuff.

Nicholas: Hello, which computer program do you use to control the radio show, like Google Radio Automation? Also how did you get a radio station to broadcast on?

Check out this in-depth article on how to podcast if you’d like to learn about getting started.

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You may or may not have seen that I became co-founder of a social app with huge potential last year. It was the dream I had been working towards for many years: launch a bunch of successful startups, gain experience, then parlay that into co-owning a company that makes tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

Then, I quit.

You may be asking, “Are you out of your mind, Justin?” There’s a lot of merit in that question.

For the past few months/years/lifetime I’ve been trying to answer the question, “Who am I and why and I here?” Well, I finally figured it out. Or maybe it’t be more accurate to say I figured out a large piece.

Working on Stori was a lot of fun. Six of us rallying around an intese project that could change the world and make us a lot of money. But I began wondering if I was doing it for the money or if it was really fun. To get there, I began asking myself, “Would I be sad if I gave it up?” And the answer was yes.

So why, exactly, did I leave? While building the app and running the company as COO was a lot of fun, it wasn’t my mission. And when you know your mission you should drop everything that gets in the way and do that.

That for me is my position as Marketing Director at The Exodus Road.

Now don’t get me wrong. I believe the guys at Stori can build something that will change the world. They’d do that with or without me.

But giving up millions?

The potential to make millions of dollars definitely hung in the air. It would have been a long, tough road, and if I wasn’t in 100% I knew I’d begin to resent having to do the work every day.

I was on this path path before I left for SE Asia in January and a few weeks after returning I solidified the idea in my mind and then let my co-founders and team know. It was a tough week and a sad day when I left, but I have no doubt it’s the right decision for me.

For years I’ve known I like to be hands on. I like building and doing. In SE Asia I spent many nights undercover with Matt Parker, founder and Executive Director of The Exodus Road, working in brothels and places most people would find way too dirty to think about going in. And the thought in my mind the entire time? If I don’t do this, who will?

Last weekend we celebrated 24 children we rescued from prostitution. Girls and boys, the average age about 14.

These are my kids; your kids. And if we don’t do it, who will?

Not Giving Up

I’m still here at Coach Radio and I’m not going anywhere. There’s a real challenge in building a non-profit and a lot of carry over between us and a business. In fact, I’m launching a for-profit called Exodus Auctions next month to support our rescue work.

Many of these challenges and ideas will continue to be written and talked about on this blog. In April I’m speaking in Colorado Springs about major ideas that carry over into business. If you’re there, be sure to say hi.

Next week I’ll be sharing another new idea for me and talking about the internal struggle I’ve had for the past two months against doing it. I’ve been against it for some time but I’m finally coming around to making it a reality. You’ll be able to get involved in this too and I invite you to take a big part in it.

Pay close attention to how we’re growing Exodus Auctions. I believe it’s a game changer for us and it could be for you as well. Most of that business model will live on Facebook, so if you want the inside stuff, be sure to like the Exodus Auctions Facebook page.

Thanks for following along. I’m looking forward to sharing more next week.

P.S. That picture above is me consulting with one of the best organizations in the world. As we work together, rescue is coming.

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• The importance of a 2-3 year plan

Next week I’ll be talking about major changes in my life, some of which may affect you. I’ll also have a blog post out this week detailing some changes. For now, I’m answering questions.

Dallon: I have a new on-demand CMA review product and I’m using AWeber for my e-mail marketing. I’ve tried most of the major customer relationship management (CRM) systems, but I’ve shied away from them for lack of integration with other tools – especially Evernote. I know you have used Salesforce for many years, and I have a few questions about it.

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Faith In Motion

The flow of things important
The thoughts of doing good
The seeing of a purpose
Of what and when you should

Much begins with giving
But again about the flow
The energy between us
And sharing what we know

Trust in your intentions
And share with all your heart
Faith will guide your journey
And show you where to start

It really is so simple
That many miss the chance
To put their faith in motion
And enjoy life’s precious dance

Last year the US Army started providing one of Rob’s poems in the packet that is given to children when a parent doesn’t come home. Thanks for thinking of me, Rob.

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• How to quit a job you’ve worked at for more than a decade
• How to manage your self when you become self-employed

Jeff Jones is a former guest, where he first shared his thoughts of running a business while he toured with a band. Today, he’s followed through with his decision to leave the band and become fully self-employed.

Here’s a video I recorded a few years ago on Jeff’s tour bus with Big Daddy Weave.

“Most people admit to not living an extraordinary life.” – Jeff Jones

Jeff and I talk about his

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Cover up the right side of the above graphic and you’ll see positive growth. Many people would kill for that kind of growth on their business page. Uncover the right side and you’ll see growth that’s out of this world, including growth of a facebook page from 200 something fans when I joined The Exodus Road a few months ago to about 1,000 now.

So why the growth? Remarkability.

My computer doesn’t think that’s a word and it probably isn’t. But it should be.

Remarkable means there’s an idea cool enough to talk about and spread to your friends. And that’s where growth comes from.

Since joining The Exodus Road as Marketing Director, operations and technology guy, and since a January trip to SE Asia, undercover investigator, we’ve not been shy about pushing ideas forward that might not work. Have we failed like we expected we might? Not yet, but it’s probably coming. I know it’s coming because we’re scared about nearly every idea we launch, but we launch just the same.

And the Facebook graph above is the result.

We’re pushing ideas forward because lives hang in the balance. The work is too important not to take risks.

Most organization (maybe your business?) think the work is too important to risk on far out ideas. That’s where they’re wrong.

At the time of the above screenshot, over half our fans were talking about us. 10% is a high number for most business pages with 1-2% often being the norm.

Go ahead and push the limits by being and doing remarkable things. You’ll fail along the way but it’ll be worth it.

Do you think your work is important enough to fail?

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• The importance of a 2-3 year plan

Josh and I talk about the importance of having a 2-3 year plan. Is it important? After all, how can you really plan for things you don’t know will happen?

Does a 2-3 year plan set you up for success?

Josh didn’t renew one of his long time, main websites. We talk about the consequences and how he arrived at that decision.

“God is less concerned about what I do
and more concerned about who I become.” - Josh Gordon

God doesn’t care what you do.

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• Mission: boring or world changing

I’m fresh out of the dentist chair with drool seeping out of the corner of my mouth. If anything, the talk Josh Gordon and I have about mission will be entertaining.

Your mission can be boring or wold changing. The choice is yours.

The military goes on mission and it’s serious. They have fun, there’s teamwork, and it’s serious. But most of the time when we talk about mission, it’s boring. Why is that?

Justin’s three words:

• Give
• Trust
• Faith

Josh’s four words:

• Romance
• Courage
• Simplicity
• Discovery

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• How to guest post on more
• Reaching out to new sites with content
• Home / life balance

What’s the ideal amount of time to put into new projects without neglecting family? Josh and I discuss our thoughts and experiences.

Here’s some press I recently receive for the startup of Stori.

Dallon: He’s guest posting on other blogs more than he’s posting on his own. He’d like to know the right approach to reaching out to new outlets to offer posts, and which sites we know of to offer posts.

A page Josh set up to get in touch with Brett McKay.

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Relaxing on the couch, not sitting in traffic.

The comfort of your home offers a warm bed with no chance of cold rain.

These were my thoughts as I woke up from a nap on the other side of the world last week. As Marketing Director for the Exodus Road I’m in a foreign country giving our bloggers a tour during the day and working undercover cases at night.

I was tired after a nap that was just a bit too long and I didn’t want to leave my room. It would have been easier to get some local food and turn on the TV.

Pushing myself out the door is what it took to meet a girl, stuck in a brothel, who needed a bit of love that only I could give her. She changed my life and I hope I changed a part of hers. We’re coming for you!

Moving through the door changes your life. Many people never leave the couch.

photo by John Bergquist

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• When to work for free
• Collecting donations for a podcast

We often work for free to get the first bit of work or to build experience. Josh and I talk about where to draw the line.

Greg: I just received a $100 donation (first time ever) from a podcast subscriber. As a result I put a PayPal donate button on my site for future convenience. Would it be advisable to list my few expenses on the donate page? It only takes $160/month to cover expenses.

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• Kicking 2013 off the right way
• How to find real people to help build a business
• Designing an ebook at a good price

Duane: Justin, I am making my way through your podcasts and have really been enjoying them. Thanks for all of the great information!

I am reaching completion, or so I think, on my e-book, “Low Cost Business Ideas for Teens and Adults”, but I am stuck on the design. I believe you said that you have hired yours. What is a reasonable price to expect to pay?

I am considering making an offer to a high school student. I will be speaking to a business class at our local high school next week and would like to encourage a young designer with an offer. I just don’t know if I have the resources if a fare price is a high price.

Things Josh is thinking through as we start a new year:

1. Unless you’re learned to be disciplined, the time flexibility that comes with self employment is a curse, not a blessing.
2. Who can tell you ‘no’? Who in your life do you trust enough for them to tell you ‘no’, and they’ll listen to you? In business? In spiritual matters? In marriage? In finances?
3. Who in your life has full access to you? Who really, really knows you? I had a friend attempt suicide this weekend… It was a huge shock to me. It makes me wonder how many people are living behind a false front, afraid to let anyone know what goes on in their mind and heart.

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• Behind the scenes of an internet startup
• How to find your passion or calling

I’m launching a startup called Stori and people have said they’d like to follow along so I’m putting updates on our progress, successes, and failures on twitter and facebook of the app. Follow along it you like. The app is like Wikipedia for locations.

Josh has two words that guide his life: people and ideas. We talk about the fun stuff we’re doing at The Exodus Road. Go here to view info or join the blogger crew.

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When we moved to Colorado my wife and I were looking for a larger house (we were coming from 1,200 square feet) with an unfinished basement. What we ended up with was a 1,300 square foot house with no basement.

In the end we paid less than we would have for a larger, more unfinished home, but we paid much more per square foot because everything was finished. Cherry floors, an upgraded kitchen, stonework; it has everything we would have done ourselves, except it would have taken 20 years to finish it.

Business is like that. Some people want to build from scratch, saving money along the way. It’s how I started out during the first 12 months of my business.

Other people spend money where it counts and fast track their growth to get to profitability quicker. That’s also a great plan if you have the money and are confident of your direction.

The danger is in thinking you can do it overnight if you’re building from scratch. I’ve seen plenty of people (and many clients) approach business with this thought process and it’s wrong. They want it now. They’re putting in the work but not seeing a return.

Like the house I almost ended up with, you need to realize it could take many years to get there. There’s nothing wrong with building from scratch, but don’t expect instant results. It’s a marathon; maybe even an ultramarathon. Certainly not a sprint or even a long walk into town.

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• Software to keep track of clients, notes, and calendars
• Website domains and hosting services

Hermes: What system do you use to keep track of clients notes, future follow up events and such? What do you recommend? Is there something connected with a calendar?

Hermes hit it on the head with this question.

Many software packages exists, but few have integrated calendars. I talk about why that’s important. I use a mix of Salesforce, Evernote, dropbox, and Google Docs to keep track of everything.

Timm: I am wondering about your comment a few years back about problems purchasing domains from one company and then using another service (like Blue Host) for domain hosting. Is this still an issue? It’s been suggested that I purchase the domains on godaddy (affiliate link), and then set up my blog through Word Press. I am wondering if Word Press will become a domain host for my website (using their blog function), or do I need both word press and something like godaddy/bluehost? I like the idea of using a one-stop service like blue host, but am concerned about costs potentially escalating.

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Something non-boring.

This is what it looks like and how it works. The key is working with an awesome designer.

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• Starting a podcast network from scratch
• Moving across the country with no plan of income
• Spending money you don’t have on training you think you need

Jeff Ullrich runs the Earwolf Media podcasting network with a story to tell about massive growth. He quit his job in the financial world and moved to California to reunite with his girlfriend. I join Aaron McHugh for the interview.

Over the next six months, Jeff read and thought about what he wanted to do next in his life.

After a period of thinking, he launched a business management company to help comedians. Random, right?

Turns out he didn’t end up liking it much so he started making plans to launch his current podcast network.

This is Jeff’s story about turning dreams into a business and how he did it.

In 2012 Jeff’s network has had over 4.5 million downloads per month with revenues of over $1,000,000. Pretty good for starting about two years ago.

Breakdown of how Earwolf Media makes money:

• 68% advertising
• 6% Donations
• Selling live shows as premiums
• Merchandise
• Licensing fee to another company

“It’s your job to find products for your customers,
not customers for your products.” – Jeff Ullrich

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Reciprocity

Interesting: when a server gives a diner one mint after their meal it equals a 3% increase in tips.

Fascinating: two mints equals a 14% increase in tips. (Watch the video to see how to get a 23% increase in tips. Hint: it’s not by adding a 3rd or 4th mint.)

Be the first to give and be sure it’s special, personalized, and unexpected and the other party is usually quick to reciprocate.

Scarcity

Your product is not only about the benefits yet we’re quick to jump straight to them. Point out what is unique and what we’ll loose if we don’t take advantage right away.

Authority

We follow the advice of experts so act like one if you want to change minds. Diplomas on the wall, uniforms, and how you dress affect our buying habits. It’s why I used to be ultra dressy early in my business. Have someone else like your assistant say how brilliant you are.

Consistency

Ask for small commitments on the way to a big sale. My team used to sell two month boot camps to businesses but would first sell a free lunch and learn session before selling the big program.

Liking

We say yes to people we like. This isn’t complicated. You like the cashier at the pizza place so you continue to buy from the same place every week. We like people who are similar, offer genuine compliments, and cooperate.

Consensus

Many people have an iPhone because they know someone who has one. We don’t want to be left out.

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• Booking guests on a podcast
• How to get reader questions for a blog or podcast

Jesse: First I’d like to say thank you for your show. It’s one of the highlights of my week and I look forward to it. 

I’m trying to write a blog at survivingthedayjob.com to motivate my readers to go out and live their dreams. I try to provide encouragement and inspiration to help them go from just surviving the day job to living out their dreams. Your Your Story episodes caught my ear as I’ve been listening to your older shows. Can you tell me how you tracked down these amazing people?

Here’s a page Josh put together to get in touch with Jamie Wright.

Here’s another one that Josh put together to contact Andy Traub.

David: I was thinking about starting a podcast, but a few weeks ago I asked on my blog for any questions from my readers, and it was crickets. What do I do?

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Before taking a break from your blog during the holiday, ask yourself the question, “what if people are still reading?” If they are but fewer people are creating good stuff, what are the chances they’ll find and fall in love with you?

Food for thought.

Are you taking a break from your blog this holiday?

photo by Jeremy Bronson

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• How to charge
• How to find new clients

David: The problem I am having is figuring out how much to charge, and of course finding new clients. I have considered putting something on Craigslist, business cards in my neighborhood, and possibly trying to talk to a couple relator friends and see if i could partner with them to help people with their finances to assist with a home purchase to try and attract new clients.

I have a page on my website titled “work with me”, have not listed pricing, but haven’t figured out how to get people to ask me to coach them. 

I just looked at Free Agent Academy’s new pricing. I will have to look into it deeper, but which would you recommend?

Eric: I’d love to know your top five blogging calendar plugins.

WordPress Editorial Calendar how to video.

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I found myself taking notes on some of the things these guys are doing to grow their young businesses. If you’d like to join their Board of Director’s group, email me (feedback@coachradio.tv) to see if there’s still a spot open.

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Deep

Is your product multifaceted? Can it be used on multiple levels? I’m working to launch a mobile app in a few months, and while we’ve designed many ways for our customers to use the app, we’re still not sure exactly how they will.

Since the product is deep, we’re convinced we haven’t even discovered the best ways people will use it yet and we’re fine with that. The point is that it’s not a one trick product.

Indulgent

A great product makes you feel proud and perhaps a little guilty for all it does. The average Mac user will never edit a feature film or compose music. But they’re very proud of the fact that their machine will do all that and more if ever called upon.

Complete

You stand a higher chance of people using and adopting your product the more supported it is. No matter how user friendly it may be, people will always have issues and feel the need to ask questions. Provide support, FAQs, and good videos showing multiple ways to use it.

Elegant

My Sony Blu-Ray player has a lot of features. Netflix, Hulu and Pandora are all built in, but using them with a remote instead of a keyboard is not elegant or even fun for that matter. I use the Netflix website to choose what I want to watch and only select it on the Blu-Ray player when I’m ready to watch.

An elegant product may have a lot of features, and if it does, it’s a pleasure to use them.

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• How Canada votes (I didn’t understand it either)
• Starting and running a business as a single parent
• Publishing a novel

Josh has a baby!

Canada elections

Thoughts on starting and running a business as a single parent.

Eric: You have recommended the Facebook Comments plugin previously; however  it doesn’t seem to integrate into my WordPress Dashboard to let me know when someone submits a comment – and I’d like it to. Do you know how to get that to work? 

An additional question is: You use Disqus instead of Facebook Comments. Why? What other comment plugins should I be aware of and which are the best, in your opinion to use. I’d like to build website traffic and make it easy to share comments – and I’m not sure how well Disqus or others do that.

Chad: My wife has recently finished writing a fiction novel. I’ve been looking at createspace after hearing you talk about it on a podcast. Do you have any experience with any other avenues of getting a novel published? Any advise is appreciated.

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This is a pet peeve of mine and I see it happen all the time. Someone tries to be too professional or they write completely different than how they talk. It’s not real, nor is it genuine, and that person is wasting their time.

Social media is personal. It doesn’t matter if your brand has 198,000 fans and you’re working in a big social media team, or it’s just you with a few hundred friends. Remember to type how you’d talk. If you don’t, it’s boring at the least and disingenuous at the worst.

Don’t be afraid to be you. Your parents told you that when you were little and it’s still good for business today.

photo by Marc Wathieu

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• What I learned from spending a day with Seth Godin
• Get better screen clarity while using Screenflow
• Which event to attend first

A few weeks ago I spent a day with Seth Godin and 14 of the most brilliant thinkers in the non-profit world on behalf of The Exodus Road. One of the results of that day caused me to write a post called, Seth Godin Made Me Cry. In this show I talk more about that day and what I learned.

Dallon: Whenever I do my Screenflow (affiliate link) recordings, I can never get the same level of clarity or definition on the recordings as I do on my screen. I’ve tried recordings on a laptop (old 13″ MBP – just bought the 13″ Air last week) and my 27″ iMac, so I think it’s an issue with Screenflow itself. I just haven’t seemed to find the right place to adjust my recording settings where I can record at least in 720p.

The easiest way is to set your recording area at 1280×720 since that’s the native resolution for 720p video. In Chrome, I use the Resolution Test extension to set a tab at 1280×720 and close it when I’m done.

David: I have helped about 20 people with their personal finances (but, only 5 or so have actually taken the steps to change). I enjoy coaching, but haven’t been able to get a paying client yet. I asked the last 2 couples to write a testimonial for my website and they gladly did. One of the people people asked me to speak about personal finances on a conference call with about 30 people on the line, and the feedback was great. I have also spoken about our story in front of our church.

I have read numerous books and now I feel the need to attend a live event next year. I work shift work, so I’m not sure if Free Agent Academy would be best for me (even though I am open to it, but don’t have the $7k lying around to pay for the whole class). I was debating between attending Dave Ramsey’s Counselor Training, Coaching with excellence, or even Speak it Forward.

Eventually I’d like to quit my job and work for myself. I am aware that it’s difficult to do that in the personal finance world, but helping people with their finances really does excite me. I have taken the disc profile and I’m a very high “c” along with some “s”. I have been blogging every day for a few months now and I enjoy it. I just want to have your opinion on the best use for my money.

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Twitter and facebook are excellent tools for addressing complaints but don’t stop there. No matter your product or service, people today are socially minded. That means they’ll likely visit your social profiles before making an initial purchase. If all they find are complaints, their chances of purchasing something that day go down.

A few years back I consulted with a company in Chicago that had this exact problem. Except they didn’t know how to address the complaints so all you saw on their social profiles were customers complaining and no response from the company.

Addressing customer complaints within social media is a great idea. As you address them, current and future customers see how you’re taking care of issues. But don’t stop there. Among the complaints, talk about your happy customers and the results they’ve received. Talk about your business and the new products you’re rolling out.

We know all businesses handle complaints. But if it’s all we see online, we’ve hesitant to buy.

photo by trodas

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Most of the videos I embed on my sites come from Vimeo. It’s a clean player and since I’m a Plus member, I can customize the look to get just what I want. However, since YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, your videos also need to be posted there.

With oodles of video sites you’ve never heard of, you no longer have to guess where to upload your video. Instead of spending hours uploading to one site at a time, Oneload makes it easy. (I’m an ambassador for Oneload but was not paid to post this.)

In this video I show you the process I use to upload a video once and distribute it to six video sites in the amount of time it would take to do it only once.

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• Setting up auto-responders on twitter
• Programs to write blog posts in
• Non-profit or for-profit business

Tom: Hey Justin, I notice that many people I follow on twitter send out an immediate response thanking me for following. Some also send out an offer…such as a free report, which then captures my email address. Do you know how to do this?

I don’t do this since it takes the human part out of twitter. There are several programs that help you set it up, but 99% of the responses I receive feel like spam. If I want to check out your free thingy, let me get to know you first. You don’t offer someone a free download as soon as you meet them at a party, do you? I hope not.

Keith: Some time ago, you mentioned you shouldn’t initially write your blogs on Microsoft Word because Word has stuff hidden in it & then when you copy & paste it into a post, you can have issues. Where did you say you could go to write your blogs where you won’t have these issues? I’m hoping to be making some changes soon so I won’t be so frustrated with where I post them & also have a more consistent look & feel to them.

I clarified with Keith to learn he is using Blogger. WordPress has a button that allows you to copy and paste from word. It then strips out all of the hidden HTML for you, giving you plain text, which is exactly what you want. You can write in a text editor or use a nifty program like Omm Writer, which works on the PC, Mac, and iPad.

Dave: My wife wants to create a program to teach disabled adults basic life skills, skills to get around in their community, and possibly even job/business skills so they can earn extra spending money. (Most are on disability and for those who are functional enough to hold down any type of basic employment, are limited in what they can earn). There are a number of these types of programs already, all of which are non-profits and get the majority of their funding from states. While she wants to do the same thing, she wants to find other sources of funding, and possibly find a way to monetize this not just for the disabled adults, but for herself as well. She isn’t sure if she should have this as a non-profit, a regular business, or even a combination of the two. Any ideas would be very much welcomed.

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Kickstarter appears to be cracking down on projects that fund but are never fulfilled with the new rules, requiring a working prototype to be available and show in the project. They go on to state that Kickstarter is not a store, thus no longer allowing multiple quantities of product to be included in a reward.

The new rules for Hardware and Product Design projects:

• Product simulations are prohibited. Projects cannot simulate events to demonstrate what a product might do in the future. Products can only be shown performing actions that they’re able to perform in their current state of development.
• Product renderings are prohibited. Product images must be photos of the prototype as it currently exists.
• Offering multiple quantities of a reward is prohibited. Hardware and Product Design projects can only offer rewards in single quantities or a sensible set (some items only make sense as a pair or as a kit of several items, for instance). The development of new products can be especially complex for creators and offering multiple quantities feels premature, and can imply that products are shrink-wrapped and ready to ship.

This is a big deal for anyone thinking of using Kickstarter to fund their new product. Will they affect you?

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I should say Seth almost made me cry when I spent a day with him last week. Then I realized he was doing to me what I do to many of my clients and I had a choice: accept it as truth and find a way around it, or live in denial and fail.

I was surrounded by some of the world’s brightest non-profit profit leaders and Seth said my plan wouldn’t work. I had been selected from hundreds, maybe thousands of people to spend the day working on ideas that will change the world and here I was, wondering if I should even continue forward.

After a few minutes I came to my senses. Seth was right, of course, and I quickly began creating and thinking through new ideas with the team; ideas that have a good chance of succeeding.

That moment will always be pivotal to me. I was faced with the truth, and painful as it was, I decided to embrace it and find a way past my obstacle. I find the truth to be crippling for many people, perhaps even you. Are you set in your ways, oblivious to the help others are trying to give you?

If you’re like me, you need to embrace the truth. It hurts to admit defeat, but it hurts more to have to admit it after failing.

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• Finding your writing voice
• Getting your first book published
• What to focus on if you want to become a writer

Jeff Goins is my guest as Aaron McHugh and I interview him about his success as a writer and how he made it. To date, he has over 25,000 members of his tribe and shows no signs of slowing down.

Aaron and I ask Jeff some hard questions about making it as a writer and building a community who will go to bat for you.

Would you put in 10,000 hours knowing people may not take you seriously?

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Continuing on with the 36 Rules of Social Media, today, always write back.

The notion is simple and sound. When a customer or prospect writes to you, always write back. Facebook, twitter, blog comments, written letters, emails; the list goes one. When someone takes the time to write to you, always take the time to write them back, no matter how many people are writing and no matter how busy you are. It’s called brand engagement and the more you do it the more sales you’ll make.

But I don’t agree with it.

Always writing back is generally a good idea. But when you’re at a party, do you try to be part of every conversation, jumping in every time you see someone talking? That’d be rude and the same rules apply online.

I’ll change this rule to always write back when appropriate. Sometimes it makes no sense to add your thoughts to a comment so don’t always try to do it.

Do you have rules about writing back?

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• Taking payment installments
• How to focus a niche
• Moving posts from wordpress.com to wordpress.org

Whitney: Do you allow payment installments or require it all at once?

Checkwriter is a great program for the PC that allows you to take checks and bank drafts over the phone and schedule payments in the future. I talked about it more on this show.

Chris: Do you have suggestions of how to focus your niche? I teach public speaking as an adjunct instructor at a university, but I think it would be helpful for others to improve upon as well. I would love to train people and businesses in that, as well as other communication soft skills. How would I focus this in a profitable way or do you think there is another way for me to coach that I am not looking at?

Check out Kent Julian’s Speaker’s Boot Camp (affiliate link). I led the Boot Camp for a few years with Kent and it’s amazingly helpful.

Dave: How difficult is it to move blog posts, comments to those posts and other related content from WordPress.com to a WordPress.org site? My wife wants to start blogging while building her own site. 

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There’s a handful of tools that I recommend coaches and lifestyle business owners to implement no matter what their niche. They are tools to enhance your client experience and polish your the professional feel of interacting with your business.

One of those tools is Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service). Sadly, S3 goes largely unused by the majority of small businesses and bloggers because it’s not crystal clear what it is or how to use it. After reading this article though you’ll have three very powerful ways that Amazon S3 can help in your own lifestyle business.

What is Amazon S3 anyway?

Amazon S3 is basically a huge online hard drive. Once you sign up for an account through Amazon, you can store as many files as you want and only pay for what you use (about 12 cents per gigabyte per month).

There are two things that S3 is very good at:

• storing files (very) securely
• serving files (very) quickly

Both of these will help you protect your most prized business assets, and create a first-class user experience.

Three ways Amazon S3 will help your business

Archive your important files

Everyone has files that are critical to their business and personal lives. If you’re not backing them up someplace offsite (away from your computer’s location), you could be in for a tough time if disaster strikes. Apple’s Time Machine (for example) is an amazing system to backup your computer locally, but it is not protection against theft or fire!

S3 makes it easy to create an offsite backup of your important files so you’ll never be caught unprepared. Amazon has done all the heavy lifting to ensure your S3 files are securely stored in multiple locations so there’s no single point of failure. You can rest assured your files are extremely safe in your S3 account!

I store my huge library of ebooks, presentations, and screencasts on S3 to keep them safe. I’ve spent years developing and curating a library of information to help me succeed, and it’s important to me to secure it.

A great tool that can help you automate this process is Jungledisk. For $2 a month (plus your S3 storage fees) Jungledisk will automatically upload your important files and folders every night to your own S3 account.

That’s the part I love the most: Because Jungledisk uses your S3 account to store your backups, you own all of the data. If Jungledisk keels over one day (as internet businesses sometimes do) your data is still safely stored on Amazon’s servers in your account (I suspect that Amazon isn’t going out of business anytime soon).

Jungledisk also allows you to mount your S3 account as an external hard drive so you can drag-and-drop files onto S3 like you would any other device. Think of it like a really secure, highly redundant Dropbox.

Blazing file downloads for your site

S3 is equally great at serving files you’ve stored on it. For example, if you download my eBook 7 Ways to Profit from a Lifestyle Business, you’ll download a PDF straight from my S3 account, not from lifestoked.com.

Why? With a shared hosting account service speed is never guaranteed. You’ve probably had the experience where you click to download a PDF from someone’s server and it’s slow. Really slow. It’s not the experience you want to provide someone who’s just raised their hand to say they’d love some more content from you.

The bigger the download, the more critical it is to get it off your site, and onto S3. By hosting your downloads on S3 and making them public (see the demo video), you can rest assured the download will go smoothly and quickly no matter how big the file or where people are located.

I use S3 to quickly serve downloads of:

• eBooks & worksheets
• Call recordings for clients
• Private screencasts from an online course

WordPress backups with BackupBuddy

Perhaps the most critical way I use Amazon S3 in my business is with a (paid) wordpress plugin called BackupBuddy. BackupBuddy makes complete archives of my site periodically and automatically stores them on S3. It copies the database, images, plugins, widgets, and settings, zips it up, and uploads it to S3 for me.

Most WordPress backup solutions only backup the database. That’s better than nothing, but there’s a lot more to your site than just the words on the page and some basic settings. There are images, widgets, plugins, and a huge number of little tweaks you’ve made along the way you probably don’t even remember.

If something catastrophic happens to your site, you can rebuild it from the latest backup in minutes, not hours or days. With the backups stored safely in your S3 account, you can guarantee that you’ve got a complete working copy when you need it.

How will S3 help you?

Whether you need to beef up your backup system or enhance your download experience, S3 can hook you up – cheap! These are three methods that I use, and I personally recommend all my clients also use to keep their business running smoothly. You’ve invested a lot of effort into building your business, so protect it!

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Hat tip to Todd for pointing out how horrible even a branding company can be. Would you hire these guys?

Too often we don’t present our businesses well. This company is in the business of branding and they can’t seem to figure it out. First impressions are everything and this doesn’t cut it.

More than anything else, a good brand is where you should be spending money in the early days of your business.

How do you feel about your brand? Could it use an overhaul?

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• Affiliate link plugins
• Competing with current employer
• Technology for social website

I start this show by talking about my decision to close Need a Topic and end recording shows for No More Mondays. It was a sad decision to make, but one that needed to happen so I could focus on larger projects.

Paul: Do you have any experience with wordpress plugins for the Amazon Affiliate program? Only about 33% of my readers are from the US. Therefore, I’d like something that I can specify the recommended ISBN and that works properly with the Amazon Store for the reader’s locale. Thanks for a fine podcast and thanks in advance for any advice you have.

In Colorado, I’m not allowed to be a member of the Amazon program. I do use Commission Junction, e-Junkie, and Avant Link to manage multiple affiliate programs, but I don’t use any specific plugins.

Eric: Hi, Justin. I’m trying to get my coaching/consulting business started, helping small businesses work with the State of Florida. I have worked for the state for the past 8 years and definitely have insight to provide. I currently work for the state’s eProcurement system, where vendors register and get potential business opportunities. I know there is a little cross-over (or conflict) in these roles, but the state is not willing to fund this type of training. I want provide my knowledge about working with the state for free as bridge to get paying clients for marketing and process improvement. In your opinion, am I putting myself in a bad position because some of my day job roles I would be blogging about, but as myself and not as an employee of the state?

Be sure to run your ideas by your employer. In a government job, you might want to get their response in writing.

Brad: I want to create a website to accompany the financial class I’ve written. The site would include forums and allow people that have gone through the class to socialize. It would also be a way to obtain additional forms used in the class, maybe an FAQ, but mostly be a place to get more information. The site would be for present and past class participants.  I want a solution that is ready for me to use; I would just need to customize to fit my class. Do you have any suggestions or recommendations for what I describe?

The best solution for ready-to-use is NING. If you want to assemble something, you could also take a look at plugins for WordPress.

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Download the show | Leave a review on iTunes | Submit a question or call (919) 355-8275.

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What keeps you from getting your work done?

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Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select

I won’t spend much time on this part, but some may not know about the Kindle Direct Publishing Select program. The KDP Select program is Amazon’s plan for growing their lending library, so that Kindle owners, who are also Amazon Prime members can download books at no charge. If you agree to enroll in their program you will get paid a split of a pool that KDP has every month based on some fancy calculator work.

Here is where it gets good!

In exchange for giving your book away for free, you will also get 5 promotional days to sell your book on Amazon for free, every 90 days. You must agree to not sell your book anywhere else (including your website), during the contract period.

Why would I give my book away for free?

If you do well in the free promotional days, your book will rise up in the free rankings. If you do well in the free rankings, it will also rise up in the paid rankings. Therefore your book becomes more visible to people searching for books to read on Amazon. You get your name out there, and you can build your email list at the same time. I have used this strategy to sell my book, and I have almost doubled my email list.

I have not only used this strategy for myself to give away almost 10,000 copies of my book, but I have shared it with some other fairly unknown authors like Ryan Brewer. Ryan gave away 2,600 copies of his book in one day! While I can’t promise huge revenues from your book, I can tell you I have made $60 to $200 dollars per month for several months.

How To Promote Your Book

You’ll find some good nuggets in this video to get your book noticed and promote what you are doing beyond your book. There are many groups online, such as this DIY e-Publishing group, that you should check it out.

What’s your best idea for promoting a book?

Tony Elam is the best Dad in the world, voted #1 three years in a row by his two daughters. He shares online strategies to help you work in your business not on it. Connect with Tony on Twitter @findingforward.

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• Successful funding on Kiskstarter
• Working with a team
• Taking care of backers
• Creating a great Kiskstarter video
• Putting personality behind a brand

Stefan Loble is my guest as Aaron McHugh and I interview him about his success on Kickstarter. Stefan set a goal to raise $13,500 and ended his crowd funding project at $128,722 to launch Bluffworks.

Bluffworks is launching a line of men’s pants that work great on the trail and look good in the office. Stefan touts them as being able to go a week without washing or ironing, perfect for jumping out of a trout stream and in to a client meeting.

A number of great insights are shared in this show, but my favorite is how Stefan believe so heavily in his product that he hired a branding and consulting firm months before putting the project together.

Here’s the video Stefan mentioned where Barbara Corcoran pushed the video to launch his campaign for him.

Stefan mentioned hiring a design firm to help him figure out the identity of his brand.

###

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It doesn’t matter how large their website is or if they even have one. Number of Facebook friends or Twitter followers is irrelevant; everyone is an influencer.

When Christine and I reviewed a new line of socks from Injinji, Christine jokingly wondered if they made a fun, striped version. Very quickly, the company heard the request and sent a large package of nothing but striped socks, not only in Christine’s size, but in just about every size they make, ensuring they’ll be given away.

While Injinji may have done the research to see how big Christine’s network was before sending the package, considering the speed it arrived after our video, I have a feeling they treat everyone as an influencer, which is the way it should be.

Last year a friend of mine mentioned a pair of running sandals on twitter. He has a very small audience there, but one of his followers picked it up, and near as I can track, the original post could have been seen nearly 200,000 times. I lost track after a user with 147,000 followers retweeted it.

Treat everyone as an influencer because they are.

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I agree with the intent of this statement. If you’re trying to sell directly through social media, not only will it not work well in most cases, but many times you’ll also make people mad. Selling on Facebook feels a bit like spam.

But people do buy through social media and it can be done tastefully, especially in the realm of Pinterest. A study by RichRelevance shows that traffic to a retail site which originated from Pinterest  had an average order of $168 per order, compared to $95 for Facebook and $71 for twitter.

Social media users are definitely buying, but if you make it look like spam, they’ll head the other way.

Have you experienced success with sales through social media?

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• When to start monetizing a blog
• Make a Google Voice number go straight to voice mail

Paul: When should I start to monitize my blog?. I’m thinking that anytime is okay as long as long as it is done tastefully, appropriately and with the audience in mind. My thoughts are to start with the Amazon Affiliate program by inserting the appropriate book recomendations at the end of each post. Ultimately, I want to build some of my own Videos on Demand that don’t conflict with other interests I have. These would be specifically targeted to the individuals reading a type of article. I’m currently at about 4700 unique visitors a month.

Dallon: How do you make a Google Voice number go straight to voice mail? I am getting about 25 downloads a show on my first three podcasts, and I want to start promoting feedback and iTunes reviews.

###

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John Bergquist

How important is your campaign video?

Honestly I think the video is the most important component for the campaign, any campaign. We first did the animatic, which is the first part of the video, as a pitch piece for investors about a year ago. We got so much positive response from it that we decided to make it the anchor for the Kickstarter film.

The video is what hooks people and gets their attention in the first place. Once they watch it they can see we are serious about making the game and paying attention to detail.

As a Kickstarter addict, I see a lot of projects come and go. The core element of successfully funded projects is a compelling video. We chose to make ours a polished professional pitch since we are focusing on design, UI and media so heavily in the game itself. Plus it was incredibly fun to shoot and direct.

We really could not have done it without our very talented team and help from friends like Sean Brown and Amy Hunter. It showed what is possible. Max Mitchell’s music composition alone was incredible.

How much time did you put into creating your video?

Oh my. It took about three days of filming across a few weeks and I would say about a week and a half of post production and editing. That doesn’t even include scripting, storyboards, illustrations and animation. It was a great effort on the part of many talented folks with a wonderful result.

How did you arrive at your funding goal of $235,000?

That is a great question. At first the team was all over the board. Do we ask for just enough to get started or do we go out of the gun with half a million dollars? Looking at other game projects on Kickstarter we decided to shoot some place in the middle. Some of the bigger, older shops have asked for over half a million and were backed well beyond that.

We knew we needed to break new ground. And that is not easy. Many mobile app campaigns that had been successful on Kickstarter were much smaller; but we’re not building only a mobile game. The open world RPG aspect of The Directorate requires a more complex infrastructure on the back end than a simple geo-based capture and control game. We’re providing that leveling and questing feel familiar to RPGs, so that means we need something that can deliver hundreds of hours of structured storylines, thousands of level and class based items and team dynamics. Then the game has to then overlay that information on an ever changing set of variables in our real world map. In the end we decided to pick the smallest number that would allow us to produce a quality game.

How did the project become featured as a staff pick within the first 24 hours?

Boy, now there is a million dollar question. I want to say that it is just as Kickstarter says on their FAQ page, which is a compelling video, good award structure and deliverable plan if backing occurs among other things. We hope that all those were seen by the Kickstarter staff as reasons for showcasing us.

This has been an incredible journey for all of us. We have learned so much and have been taken back by people’s generosity and excitement for the project. It has really driven home the fact that this game has to be made.

You know that feeling you get after watching an awesome Bond film? The sad feeling after all the Bondiness wears off and you realize that you’ve wasted your entire life by not following your dreams and becoming a secret agent with an Aston Martin equipped with machine guns and an ejection seat? We do too. That’s why we’re creating The Directorate.

The Directorate is an espionage game that takes place in real life. Combining geolocation tools and RPG style leveling and questing, The Directorate allows you to become a field agent in a real life game of espionage and intrigue. We’re bringing back all the fun of the Cold War and offering it to you at your doorstep. Your neighborhood, city – the entire world, really – becomes your gameboard as you set dead drops, proximity bombs and take out your enemies with poisoned umbrella guns.

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Which are your favorites? (Click graphic to see full size.)

1. If all you do is respond to complaints, that’s all people will send you.
2. Stop and ask. Would an actual person talk that way?
3. Everyone says they don’t want to be marketed to. Really, they just don’t want to be talked down to.
4. The consumer is out for himself, not for you.
5. As monetization attempts go up, consumer experience goes down.
6. Don’t try to be clever, be clever.
7. Social is 24/7, not a one-time stunt.
8. Always write back.
9. Have an ROI. Have an ROI. Have an ROI.
10. People would rather talk to “Comcast Melissa” than “Comcast”.
11. Solve problems for people who talk about you, even if they don’t address you.
12. Not everything will work, and that’s fine.
13. Embrace negative content about your brand.
14. Everyone’s an influencer.
15. If fans distribute your content without your permission, offer to help.
16. It’s okay to drive people to your site instead of Facebook’s.
17. Update your page or delete it.
18. Don’t make people do X, Y, then Z. Stick with X.
19. Last year: Pump out content. This year: Optimize content.
20. Become BFF’s with your Facebook Reps.
21. Social media doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Make traditional media and social work together.
22. Desktop is conquered territory. Mobile is the battlefield.
23. If you don’t see financial results, you wasted your money.
24. People fight for their privacy.
25. The only way to scale word of mouth: paid advertising.
26. Have a crisis plan.
27. Don’t use ads to prop up boring content. Use ads to accelerate successful content.
28. Forget individuals. You’re creating content that encourages groups to form.
29. People don’t want to shop where they socialize.
30. Contests and Sweepstakes are fine, if you want to encourage short relationships.
31. People care what you had for breakfast – if you’re a food brand.
32. Pinterest works.
33. Your fans own your brand.
34. If you’re bored by social media, it’s because you’re trying to get more value than you create.
35. Think past vanity metrics like followers.
36. It’s an organism, not a process.

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