Moomkin

Celebrating and inspiring the athlete within with the founder of Fashletics - Sarah Wilson

2012-03-31T10:56:00.001-04:00

Sarah has been working in the jewelry industry for over 10 years and has been an athlete all her life. Her passion for fitness and jewelry design merged when she created Fashletics in early 2010. Fashletics is based in Miami, FL where Sarah also works as a CrossFit coach and trains for both CrossFit and Endurance Sport competitions. Sarah is a nationally ranked endurance athlete who has competed for Team USA at the World level in the sport of Duathlon. Ultimately, Fashletics is the result of the combination of two distinct interests. Sarah is as much an athlete as she is an artist. She takes pride in the craftsmanship of her designs and works hard creating jewelry pieces that celebrate and inspire the athlete within. Currently Sarah is building her jewelry and apparel collection and will be sponsoring a series of CrossFit events across the country including the CrossFit Games at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA where male and female athletes will compete for the title “Fittest on Earth”.

Do you think the education you’ve invested in helped you on the road to success?

I graduated from the University of Michigan School of Art and Design where I studied Jewelry Design and Metalwork and Graphic Design. My experience at UofM provided me with a very wide variety of skills that are directly applicable to a career in the arts. I always knew I wanted to be a designer. I had my first experience working with metal while I was in high school and from that point on my focus was specifically on jewelry design. I also interned with and assisted a variety of jewelry designers and sculptors from the age of 16 until starting my first company at the age of 24. From these experiences I learned more about the business side of being an artist.

What was the “break point” or an AHA moment in your career that made you decide to start what you’re currently doing & how did you come up with that idea?

Before Fashletics I was building a different type of jewelry company entirely which had nothing to do with athletics. When I moved to Miami in 2006 I became very involved in Triathlon training and eventually CrossFit. My passion for fitness and training was reignited and I began spending a lot of time training, racing, coaching, and socializing with other athletes. Like the old saying goes, art imitates life. I have always been inspired to create based on what I love, what I am passionate about. In addition, my sporty friends began requesting custom jewelry to commemorate their races and athletic accomplishments. The more I made, the more people wanted. I decided that I would create a small collection, set up a booth at a local CrossFit event just to see how it would go. The response was incredible and I knew then that I was really on to something. The positive feedback and the success of this first show inspired me to take this idea to the next level. Prior to the event I had set up a simple website which helped continue the momentum of the business.

As a young professional, what were some of the mistakes that you made and what did you learn?

So much of running my business has been trial and error. While my education in art has been incredibly helpful, I have no formal training in business. I am a pretty cautious person so luckily I have avoided any horrific mistakes. That being said, I have definitely had my fair share of trips and stumbles along the way. I’ve learned that it is okay to make mistakes, and more importantly, I have learned that just because you have never been taught how to do something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Like I said, I am cautious by nature but I have learned that sometimes you have to run right at something full steam ahead without over-thinking it and without knowing exactly how it’s going to work out. I have learned that sometimes I just need trust my instincts rather than facts or logic.

What is one accomplishment that you are extremely proud of?

Qualifying for, training for, and completing the ITU Duathlon World Championship race in Edinburgh Scotland (2010). I qualified for both the 2009 and the 2010 World Championships but in 2009 I got hit by a car while cycling just two weeks before the race. I was unable to compete and not to mention completely heartbroken. I had been training for almost a year for what would have been the most important race of my life. I had a CAT scan after the accident and although I didn’t have any broken bones, the Dr. did find a series of masses on my thyroid that would have to be biopsied. Luckily the masses were benign but I would still have to have surgery to remove half of my thyroid. My surgery was in January and the qualifier for the next World Championships race was in April. I would have about three months to recover and get back to training. Weeks without training felt like years but eventually I was back on my feet (and bike). The surgery left scar tissue in my throat and a partially paralyzed vocal cord compromised my breathing… something you really don’t want to be compromised during a 2 hour+ race. In spite of my shortened training season and recovery from surgery I qualified for the World Championships for the second time. It wasn’t even the actual race or the Team USA uniform that made me so proud, it was the whole journey; the good parts and the bad that made cycling and running through the hills of Edinburgh one of the most amazing experiences of my entire life.

Another big accomplishment is that this year we put on the second annual Heraean Games – an all female CrossFit competition. This was an idea I came up with last year and when I brought it up to the owners of my CrossFit box they were immediately on board. The goal is to provide an opportunity for women to compete in a different type of environment; same grueling workouts but with the spotlight on women. We wanted to celebrate strong women and do something that might encourage even more women to compete and put there strength to the ultimate test. In 2011 we had about 35 women compete in the first ever Heraean Games. In 2012 we had over 100 women! It was unreal! The Heraean Game is by far one the greatest things to come out of Fashletics. It would not have been possible without the support of my CrossFit Affiliate (South Florida CrossFit Endurance) and the amazing women that competed. We are already planning for our Third Annual Heraean games in 2013!

What is your overall career goal? What do you want to accomplish that you haven’t already?

I want Fashletics to continue to grow as a business and as a lifestyle brand. Yes, it is important to me to sell products (that is of course how my business will survive). But it is also important that what I am doing makes a difference in other people’s lives.

Describe your typical day

I get up between 5:30 am 6:30am (depending on my coaching schedule) and head to the gym (South Florida CrossFit). I coach 2 classes and then do my own workout. I head back home for breakfast, to walk the dog, answer emails, and to print packing slips and shipping labels for the previous day’s orders. After that I head to the studio where we assemble, pack, and ship all the orders. I also may be working on new design products or custom pieces while at the studio. When all of the creative work is done for the day, I head back to my home office to handle any administrative duties, answer more emails, and of course… walk the dog again and start preparing a delicious and healthy dinner. Even though I have an office at home and an endless amount of work to do, I try very hard to balance my work and personal life. Being so involved in fitness has taught me the importance of taking care of my body and mind in order to not only be more efficient at my job but to also take the time to enjoy life. I work hard and I am passionate about what I do but I have learned how to NOT be a workaholic… and it wasn’t easy!

What advice can you offer to your readers regarding career and small business?

Just keep at it! If you believe in what you do and if you love what you do, don’t ever give up. It is not easy and it may not click right away but that does not mean you are failing. Fashletics has grown relatively quickly but I have 7 years of running a completely different (and much less successful business) behind me. I was often frustrated, and I often contemplated giving up and getting a “regular job” before achieving the success I have today. Each time I thought about quitting I asked myself “Is there any career or job that has the potential to make you as happy as you would be running your own jewelry company?” The answer was always 100% NO. Even in the hardest times, the prospect of success in the industry that I loved, and the allure of running my own company was always enough to inspire me to keep trying. I simply could not imagine doing anything other than running my own jewelry business. As it turned out, the type of jewelry business drastically changed from what I originally set out to do but I couldn’t be happier with where I have ended up. I think that is an important lesson too… it’s okay to change course, it’s okay to change your goal or your dream. It was hard for me to transition from one jewelry company to the next. In a way, I felt like I was quitting. But I wasn’t quitting, I was evolving. My interests had changed, my inspiration had changed, and I had to have the courage to change with it.

What skills and principles from being an athlete can you transfer to career and small business?

That “never give up attitude” is definitely something that I have the opportunity to practice every single day in my athletic training. The discipline, the goal setting, the work ethic… all of these are characteristics that apply to both athletics and business. I have also gained a tremendous amount of physical strength from athletic training which has given me more confidence in my professional life.

What do you do for fun & where do you get your Inspiration from?

Well, luckily many of the things I do for fun like designing and training are things that I get to do in my personal and business life. Outside of the obvious, I love spending time with the people I love, visiting new places, and traveling back to old familiar places like Michigan to visit my family. I am obsessed with the water and spent my entire childhood dreaming of living by the ocean (which I do now). I definitely enjoy taking advantage of the fact that I live three blocks from the ocean. I love running down the beach with my dog early in the morning and sitting seaside with my husband on the weekends. Stick me on the beach and I’m a happy camper!

What is your favorite gadget(s), software(s), website(s) that makes your life easier and more productive? Include links, descriptions, reasons why you like them.

Square App – Lets you turn your iPad or iPhone into a credit card terminal. This is an amazing app/device that I use at the events where I am selling Fashletcs.

Garmin Forerunner

GPS enabled waterproof watch that tracks time, pace, distance for cycling, running, and swimming. You can also upload your training sessions to a personalized website and analyze the data in surprising detail. When I am training for a big race I keep track of all of my cycling and running workouts using this watch and the Garmin website. This is an amazing training tool. Kinda big and bulky (not cute!) but it provides great info.

Google Voice

This transcribes all my voicemails and sends them to me as a text and email. The website also holds a history of the recorder voicemails. The transcriptions are sometimes off but I can go to the website and listen to and archive all my voicemails. For some reason I prefer this to checking voicemail on my phone… which I hate!!

Contact:

Twitter: @fashletics

LinkedIn: Sarah Wilson

Website: www.fashletics.com

Facebook: Fashletics
SEE ALSO:

How to Build a Successful Yoga Studio with the Founder of RinaYoga – Rina Jakubowicz

How to Build a Successful Healthy Fast-Food Chain. Interview w/the Founder of Salad Creations – Jeff Levine

[Post Tags: how to empower and inspire people, fashletics, business and fitness, tips for personal growth, athletes]

From: http://www.moomkin.com/fashletics/

Empowering Job Seekers and Entrepreneurs with Founder of Keppie Careers - Miriam Salpeter.

2012-03-06T17:02:00.001-05:00

Miriam Salpeter is the founder of Keppie Careers, a website that provides practical tips, useful advice, support, and empowerment to job seekers, entrepreneurs, and business owners regarding how to overcome obstacles preventing progress. Miriam is a career, social media and job search coach and author of “Social Networking for Career Success” (Learning Express, 2011) and “100 conversations for Career Success” (Learning Express, expected fall 2012). Miriam can transform your resume, teach you how to leverage social media, create or optimize an on-line profile and coach you to success with your career plans. She’s also known for her highly regarded blog and expert source for CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, and other media outlets as well as a CNN top 10 tweeter you should be following.

In addition to coaching job seekers and small business owners, Miriam is an in-demand writer and speaker regarding job search and social media, and she transforms resumes and creates online social media profiles for clients.

What makes Keppie Careers unique is that my advice comes from someone who has a very extensive background in social media and from someone who is actually using the different social media tools out there and getting hands-on experience with them and not only do I use these tools to propel my business but also I engage with my audience and share advice with my colleagues and community, which is key when building a business of any sort.

Getting Started with Keppie Careers

When I first got out of college, I worked as a VP for a Wall Street firm for a couple years but I always knew I wanted to work at a college or university in a student’s services kind of capacity. So, I worked at Wall Street for couple of years but then I left to earn my Masters in Student Personnel Administration/Career advising from Columbia University in New York focusing on career development which it was an awesome opportunity for me to blend what I like to do, which is write, edit, coach, and assist people, with my master studies. When I went back to school I choose career services because I knew I could work for a college, agency, or work for myself doing what I love to do.

I worked at Emory University as Director/Career coach at the Rollins School of Public Health where I advised students and alumni regarding career and job search, critiqued resumes, conducted mock interviews, and presented an array of career strategy workshops. After 5 years of doing this, I decided that it was a good time for me to be on my own and soon thereafter, I started learning how to blog because my former boss had suggested it and got bit by the social media bug and this is how Keppie Careers got started. I definitely have to thank John Youngblood, who was my boss at Emory University, for helping me launch my career on the social media path by suggesting me to start a blog, that’s where all started. I had all this knowledge and experience that I had accumulated over the years regarding career and job search, plus my former boss suggesting I started my own blog that I decided to take all this knowledge and experience and put it online through blogging and using the different social media tools.

Do you think the education you’ve invested in helped you on the road to success?

I’m a big fan of higher education and in my case having a Masters degree was absolutely important because I could have never gotten a job at Emory University without a Masters degree and having the degree and what I learned in the program certainly helped me on how to advise people and gave me a real solid foundation that makes me confident to know that I’m helping people in the best way possible. But again is relative to your particular field, in my case, I could have not gotten a job at a University without a Masters, but for some other people, I can understand being skeptical about going to school without knowing if there’s going to be a job for them by the time they’re done with the program and having invested all that time and money. Some of my clients have a vast experience in their field but because they do not have a higher education degree, they kind of like hit a glass ceiling and cannot move forward with their careers. Most companies out there still use higher education degree as a measuring stick and if you don’t have one, they just won’t hire you. In the end, it’s an individual decision and something to think very careful about depending on your personal goals.

As a young professional, what were some of the mistakes that you made and what did you learn?

One of the mistakes I made when starting Keppie Careers was to say yes to everyone who needed my help and over-provide my services. I’m a person who likes to help others but there’s only 24 hours in a day that it’s essential to come up with a plan with specific goals and targets for your day and only focus on those things because it’s going to be more productive than someone who goes about the day and deals with things as they come.

Biggest job seeker mistakes:

Using the same resume to apply for every job and not personalizing it for employers’ needs. You need to spoon feed your resume to the employer. If you aren’t customizing it, you’re doing the equivalent of feeding a toothless infant a whole apple — she’ll likely use it to play a game of “drop and get.” Ideally, you’ll offer applesauce to a baby, and a resume detailing what you can do to solve the employer’s problems.
Applying for the wrong jobs. It’s tempting to apply for “just any job.” After all, YOU know you can do anything, right? It’s possible you can, but writing to an employer with a broad statement offering to be interviewed for “any” job is a recipe for disaster. The employer doesn’t know what to do with you and thinks you are desperate. In other words, you don’t hear back.
Ignoring social media resources or assuming they won’t make a difference. How many job seekers have been looking for work for over a year, but have never even tried using LinkedIn, Twitter or even Facebook to see how social media may help get them out of their job hunting rut? Too many, in my opinion. Using social media well is a big step in the right direction.

On best use of Social Media

Choose the best networks for you – the ones that highlight and show off your skills. For example, if you love to write (and you’re a good writer), a blog might be great for you. If you’re a better talker, consider creating an online radio program. I outline many different social networks in my book, Social Networking for Career Success.
Completely fill out your profiles using key words – the words people will use to find someone who does your type of work. It’s important to do this well so it’s easier for people who may want to hire someone with your skills to find you.
Find people online in your field of work. Use the various search tools in the different networks to identify potential contacts. For example, in LinkedIn, use “advanced search” to locate contacts and join groups pertaining to your interests. Use Listorious.com and WeFollow.com to find people with common interests using Twitter. See what they are saying online, respond, add to the conversation. Try to become known as a person who is “in the know,” is friendly and giving. Do not ask for job leads until you establish a relationship. You may be surprised by how generous your new online contacts are!

What is one accomplishment that you are extremely proud of?

Earning the respect of my colleagues; people who when I started Keppie Careers I looked to them as advisors and guides and learned a lot from them and I’ve been very gratified to be able to become part of their community. For example, Anita Bruzzese, who is a Syndicated columnist for USA today it’s someone that I’ve always admired and looked up to. When I first started blogging, I would spend hours reading and commenting on her blog just leaving thoughtful ideas and touching base with her. When I finished my book, Social Networking for Career Succes, I asked her if she would write the foreword for the book and she was really generous in doing that and saying some lovely things about me and that really made me free proud of all the hard work I had put throughout the years.

Another accomplishment I’m proud of is publishing my book, Social Networking for Career Success and having another book on the way, which I co-authored with Laura Labovich, called 100 conversations for career success which will be out late summer 2012.

I really want to write more books. The first and second book, I really was not planning on it but the opportunity presented itself at the time and I decided to take it. I really enjoy the whole book writing process, and after having two books out, I think I want to write more books and I’m convinced that being an author is something that I really want to continue doing; the feeling of having a book that you authored in your bookshelf is very rewarding.

What advice can you offer to your readers?

Do not be skeptical about the opportunities that engaging in social media can provide. I think there’s a lot of people who think that social media is just a waste of time but when you look at the statistics, companies are turning to social media to recruit candidates and candidate themselves are crediting social media for being able to find a job. I think one of the most frustrating things for job seekers is feeling that they have done everything they possibly can to get a job, only to be unsuccessful in their search, but if you are a job seeker who is not leveraging the use of social media I highly recommend to jump in and become engaged because that could lead you to your next job opportunity.

What do you do for fun & where do you get your Inspiration from?

Whenever I get this question I always end up asking myself, hmm, maybe I should be having more fun, LOL. When you have a business and lot of other responsibilities as a mother and wife, there’s not a lot of time for hobbies but I do enjoy going out to eat, watching selected TV programs, and going out and about with this nice Atlanta weather. Inspiration for what I do cannot really come from anywhere but my main focus to help other people regarding career and small business; whenever I feel stressed out because I have not written a blog post in a while or something, I go to a networking event, go out and about or hear something on the radio and all of a sudden I think about a career message that I can deliver to my audience. I think I need to manage a bit more the work-life balance because I spent a significant amount of time in my business and blogging. I think the main message I want to transmit is that in my case inspiration can really come from anywhere; you might be sitting in front of the computer the whole day and come up with an idea, or going out and about, meeting someone, going to networking events, etc.

What is your favorite gadget(s), software(s), website(s) that makes your life easier and more productive?

Laptop, Twitter, Twittdeck, Hootsuite.

Who would you like to see featured here and why?

Hannah Morgan from careersherpa.net

Contact:

Twitter: @Keppie_Careers

LinkedIn: Miriam Salpeter

Website: www.keppiecareers.com

SEE ALSO:

The Entrepreneurial Wing-Woman: Dana Leavy – founder of Aspyre Solutions.
Interview with the Best-Selling author of The Zen of Social Marketing – Shama Kabani

[Post Tags: how to empower job seekers, keppie careers, tips for career success, tips for career growth]

From: http://ping.fm/fV4dX

Tips for Success at Your New Job

2012-03-01T16:40:00.001-05:00

When you begin a new job there is a game plan that you have better figured out for yourself. The name of the game is “Play It by Ear.” On one hand, it is always exciting to start from a clean slate – no preconceptions to beat. You are expected to fill in somebody else’s shoes, you would be lucky if those are small ones! Even then, you are there to beat those expectations and to build your own role within the team. Utilize your so-called honeymoon period productively. Nobody expects of you to be a star right off the bet. Whatever skill or knowledge you feel you are lacking, now is the time to fill that void! Knock yourself out with those questions; no one would judge you at that time. Make your share of mistakes, it’s somewhat allowed. Blame them on your learning curve.

1. Communicate.
One imperative thing that needs to happen right from the get-go, is the development of your relationships with peers, your direct report and, most importantly, your boss. All three of these tiers require some testing of waters, productive utilization of your knowledge of psychology, and impeccable communication efforts. Your initial days in this new position are crucial stepping stones towards building a foundation to your successful career with this company. This is not the time to take things lightly from the relationship building standpoint: observe, take mental notes, figure out behavior trends and chemistries, identify certain communication tactics that would make you stand out and be perceived at par from the earliest days.

2. Be aware.
Keep in mind that people talk; you never know who’s going to say what about you and to whom. Utilize the word of mouth as your own PR tool. Even a slight change of an attitude, or ignoring someone who you might think is not relevant or unimportant to your position, could trickle that perception down to someone you directly work with by way of unexpected channels within the organization. I am not suggesting being paranoid about every word that comes out of your mouth. Just be aware of your surroundings and even the subtlest of relationships in your new environment. Proactively set adjustments to your own attitude, and overall personal goodness could set a stage to all of your upcoming interactions and social acceptance. Be yourself, be your best self, and keep your ears to the ground.

3. Work on gaining trust.
As in any human relationships, trust is something you earn. Naturally, people have their guards up in all settings, except for the closest circles. When we are approached by anyone outside of that tightly established circle, we are suspicious – What does she want from me? Why is he asking me this question? What is he implying? So, until you gain that trust, expect to be treated as an outsider. On the other hand, utilize every opportunity to build your trust in the eyes of your boss (I did not say ‘brown-nose’), and your team, especially. Keep in mind: it takes months and years to build that bridge and only seconds to destroy it.

4. Learn on your feet.
There is no such thing as a stupid question! You’ve heard that statement many times. Well, even if it’s true, maybe it is not what’s going through your new co-workers’ heads. For starters, fill in the unknowns through your own research, thank God for Google search! If there are still unknowns, bundle your questions to certain individuals who you sense don’t mind helping you throughout your post-onboarding period, or specific subject matter experts. That way you don’t have to bother anyone one question at a time, very annoying to them! Finally, leave ‘good’ questions for your boss. Questions that reflect your intellect, thought-provoking, analytical, ideas-inspired, and process improving innovations are the type of questions that will show that you are the ‘right’ fit for the job. Good luck!
What are some of your tips that helped you to stand out during your first days of employment? Would love to hear!

SEE ALSO:

5 Practical Books on Improving Business Communication Skills
5 Great Ways to Stay Positive
5 Ways to Deal with Stress at Work

[Post Tags: tips for success at new job, new hire tips, best tips on new job, how to succeed at new job]

From: http://ping.fm/dnFFz

Exploring the Best Web Apps with Founder of ProductiveWebApps - Scott Purcell.

2012-02-26T16:16:00.001-05:00

Scott Purcell is the founder Productive Web Apps (http://ping.fm/0iA0m), an interactive directory that lets you search, sort, rate and compare hundreds of the best web applications to help you at work and play. Their customers are mainly common internet consumers/user and many tech start-ups who want to get the word out there about their web apps.

Do you think the education you’ve invested in helped you on the road to success?

I completed a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Sydney in Australia and majored in Finance and International Business. The skills I learned at university have definitely helped me in my analysis and my problem solving. My degree has specifically helped me with the business aspects of the site. When I came up with the idea for the website however, I didn’t envisage it would be so much work but I think, as all start-ups will tell you, the most valuable type of education you can receive when starting a business is ‘on the job’ training.

What was the “break point” or an AHA moment in your career that made you decide to start what you’re currently doing & how did you come up with that Idea?

I knew there were fantastic web apps all around the internet to can help people solve all sorts of problems. But finding them was another matter and then being able to easily get your hands on what you needed was an even more difficult task. After being frustrated with this I decided to build Productive Web Apps. It was meant to be a unique one stop interactive collection of the best web applications available online. My intention was to take the hard work out of finding web apps and make it as easy as possible for people to discover the best web applications that fit their exact needs.

As a young professional, what were some of the mistakes that you made and what did you learn?

I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way, but I wouldn’t exactly call them mistake, more-so lessons. Initially when I started out, I wanted the site to have hundreds of features, be extremely detailed and I had great ambitions to get every single thing all finished at once within one week. I quickly found that my aspirations weren’t exactly ‘realistic’ and what was more important, was making sure that I took the time needed to make every detail perfect and to limit the number of details. For something to be great, it doesn’t need hundreds of features and bells and whistles. It needs to be simple, easy to use and enjoyable.

What is one accomplishment that you are extremely proud of?

We’ve recently redesigned our site to fix a lot of the issues I’ve mentioned above. I think it makes the content and web apps front and center on the site which is most important.

What advice can you offer to your readers?

For any entrepreneurs, go watch all of these videos at this site: http://ping.fm/TjBm3
It features many fantastic speakers from all walks of life. They are a lot more experienced than myself and their advice is invaluable to any butting or even established start-up.

What do you do for fun & where do you get your Inspiration from?

I love watching all kinds of sport and am heavily into following both rugby and cricket. I like to get outside as it helps me refresh from a hard days work!

What is your favorite gadget(s), software(s), website(s) that makes your life easier and more productive?

The website that probably saves me the most time and is my own personal favorite web app is Google Reader. It enables me to be across many of the sites I follow without having to

Who would you like to see featured here and why?

I’d love to see Wunderlist featured on here.

Ways to Connect with Scott:

Facebook: http://ping.fm/or2iM
Twitter: @PWApps
LinkedIn:http://ping.fm/EQSiE
Google+: http://ping.fm/Eu8wW

SEE ALSO:

Organizing Your Job Search with Founder of StartWire – Chris Forman.
Harnessing the Power of Your Facebook Friends with Founder of 3Degrees – Brian Scordato.
Creating awesome videos with Founder of Grumo Media – Miguel Hernandez.

[Post Tags: productive web apps, productivity apps, best web applications, apps for productivity, interviews with entrepreneurs]

From: http://ping.fm/tn5Ud

Organizing Your Job Search with Founder of StartWire - Chris Forman.

2012-02-21T22:39:00.001-05:00

Chris Forman is the CEO and Founder of StartWire: free job search organizer. Our primary feature and what people really enjoy about using StartWire is that in addition to giving you some really simple and easy to use tools to track all your applications and get recommendations during your job search, we provide you with automatic updates on your job application from 5,000+ employers. If you talk to job seekers about the job application process, you’ll find out that besides not having a job, the thing that they dislike most about the job application process is not hearing back from employers and Startwire takes the pain out of that equation.

Do you think the education you’ve invested in helped you on the road to success?

It’s been about 20 years since I was in school, and what I can say is that the knowledge, what was actually in the books and on the tests when I went to university has no bearing whatsoever around what I do every day, but the methodology, and the discipline and understanding how to write and how to think critically are all things I use every day and I can’t imagine being where I am today without the education that I got from a nifty little school, small school in Maine called Colby College, which by the way, just for the record, is a significantly better school than Bates and Bowdoin, which are also small schools in Maine.

What was the “break point” or an AHA moment in your career that made you decide to start what you’re currently doing & how did you come up with that Idea?

I don’t think there was any AHA moment or break point. I’m sitting right next to the other founder of StartWire, his name is Tim McKegney. He and I both built a business together which we grew to 16 employees, 11-12 million dollars in revenue and we sold it, and that business was, for a lack of a better analogy, Salesforce.com for corporate recruiters, people who work at companies whose job is to recruit talent and we enjoyed building that business, we enjoyed working with the company that acquired our company to insure it was a successful acquisition but when we were done with that both of us still had a lot of gas in the tank and we wanted to go and get back into the world of startups and try build something from scratch. Good businesses are built on a distinct and measurable pain-point. You pay someone to have your garbage taken away because you don’t want to take the garbage to the dump yourself; you pay somebody to have your lawn cut because you don’t want to spent two hours on a beautiful Saturday cutting your own lawn; you pay somebody to do your taxes for you because you can’t do them or it’s painful to do them. When we were looking at building StartWire we wanted to find a pain that was strong and emotional and something that we could really build a solution around the people who identified with and from years of experience building software applications for recruiting departments at big companies we interacted with millions of job seekers because those are the folks that would be in the databases and software that we built and we got to know the problems that they had and challenges that they were looking at and this particular issue just materialized from a lot of experience.

As a young professional, what were some of the mistakes that you made and what did you learn?

The key mistake we made while building a business (Startwire) was that we knew what the primary pain-point of our target market was, which is applying for jobs and never hearing back but it’s hard to build a technology that provides those types of updates and to start the business we actually ended up building a social job board because it was simple, straightforward, we could get it done and market it quickly. The reality was that we spent time, money, and energy building that and when in fact what we really needed to build, what we needed to focus on was really that big idea we had when we started the business. We didn’t use our time wisely for the first 3-4 months of the business and that lack of focus is probably the biggest mistake we made.

SEE ALSO:

Harnessing the Power of Your Facebook Friends with Founder of 3Degrees – Brian Scordato.
4 Most Frustrating Facts and Solutions on Job Seeking
Innovating Marketing Technologies with Founder of LocalResponse & Buzzd – Nihal Mehta

What is one accomplishment that you are extremely proud of?

I think is the fact that we got close to a 100,000 people to use Startwire on a regular basis and it radically improves their job search process.

What is your overall career goal? What do you want to accomplish that you haven’t already?

There are 115 million people in America looking for work and we think that every single one of them should be using StartWire and our goal is to grow the business to become a broad and large job search platform.

What advice can you offer to your readers regarding career and entrepreneurship?

Whether you get paid on a W2 or you own your own business it’s probably fair to say that everyone in the USA is their own boss. 30 years ago if you worked for a company, you would work for them your entire career or at least a good chunk of it and today that doesn’t happen. You need to actively manage your career and your job and take ownership of what you want to be doing, what you want to get paid, what you do every day, those are the homeworks of being an entrepreneur and I think they need to become the homeworks of everyone that works in the USA.

What do you do for fun & where do you get your Inspiration from?

My greatest inspiration is my family and I have fun spending quality time with them at the farm and playing hockey.

Ways to Connect with Chris:

Website: www.startwire.com

LinkedIn: Christian_Forman

[Post Tags: startwire.com, online job search organizer, online job search engine, how to organize your job search, online job search tools]

From: http://ping.fm/u6yjS

Harnessing the Power of Your Facebook Friends with Founder of 3Degree - Brian Scordato.

2012-02-06T20:58:00.001-05:00

Brian Scordato is an entrepreneur from NYC. After attending business school at UNC Chapel Hill, he built a Facebook-powered application called 3Degrees that enables users to search their friends’ friends and request introductions, creating meaningful relationships that previously occurred only through serendipity. Whether professional, romantic, or friendly, 3Degrees allows users to create trusted connections with people who share interests and friends.

2. Do you think the education you’ve invested in helped you on the road to success?

Definitely. I recently got my MBA from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, something that was integral to my development as an entrepreneur. I took a ton of e-ship and Venture Capital classes, so I’m pretty familiar with both sides of the table. Also, the network I built at UNC has put me in contact with a few early investors.

The debate of MBA vs. advanced technical degree for entrepreneurs is a good one. Technical people can start a company, and prove a concept, without much (or any) funding. This skill beats any skill you learn at business school by a mile. However, when you need to market, expand, raise money, create a business model, etc., that’s where b-school comes in handy.
Overall, I bet on people over education. If someone is smart and motivated, they’ll figure out a way to get something done regardless of their background.

3. What was the “break point” or an AHA moment in your career that made you decide to start what you’re currently doing & how did you come up with that Idea?

I had a good friend who had recently gotten out of a long-term relationship. She went on a few dating sites and had a terrible experience, with people misrepresenting who they were and what they wanted. I thought there had to be a way to bring trust to the equation – Most relationships that I saw starting outside of school or the office were initiated by an introduction from a mutual friend. However, this relied on a lot of serendipity. I wanted to leverage our years of social network usage to allow users to access the periphery of their social networks. The key was finding interesting people that you could meet through a trusted friend.

My biggest problem was that I didn’t really want to make a dating site. As I looked closer, I realized I didn’t have to. Almost all introductions start through a mutual friend – I got my first job through a recommendation from a friend, was introduced to friends of friends in Chapel Hill when I moved down south, etc. No one knows you better than your friends, and no one is more equipped to make a meaningful introduction than a friend who knows both parties.

4. As a young professional, what were some of the mistakes that you made and what did you learn?

Early on, I followed the crowd instead of what I was truly interested in. I’ve known deep down that I wanted to be an entrepreneur since I can remember, but I still went through the motions of getting a traditional finance background. I rationalized to myself that this was the “safe” move and that I could always start something later.

I’ve learned that the “safe” move is often wrong. I didn’t want to be in finance, and it showed. I performed poorly and essentially wasted 3 years of my life where I could have been working on 3Degrees or a different project.

5. What is one accomplishment that you are extremely proud of?

I’m proud of our current product, and I’m proud of how we got here. I know that’s not a great answer, but if you had told me 8 months ago we would have the product we have now with only a small seed round funding it, I’d be thrilled. I guess specifically, I’m proud of the team I’ve assembled to build this thing.

I outsourced my project because, as I mentioned, I have no tech experience. I figured this would be a detached experience, where I gave someone a list of work, they delivered it to me a month later, and we went from there. However I’ve been lucky and got my developers, Highgroove and The Phuse, engaged and invested in the project. They’re often as passionate about it as I am, and it makes all the difference.

6. What is your overall career goal? What do you want to accomplish that you haven’t already?

I want to build a company that has a positive impact on peoples lives. There are a lot of ways to make money, and I certainly want to do that. However, I’d like it to be through a company that is thought of in a positive light.

Also, I want to write a book about the experience. I write a blog, and my favorite entry so far was on how I survived my first 6 months of being an entrepreneur. It’s a fun topic to write about, and can be very therapeutic.

7. Describe your typical day

I try and wake up early and get a solid amount of work in each morning. I’ve been told that at this phase I should focus 90% of energy on the product, and I try to do that. However, since I’m a solo founder, I’m kind of the judge, jury and executioner. I’ll go through the product, map out new functionality, go back and forth with my dev team, and look at user feedback and analytics each morning. I answer emails when I hit a wall. I’ll usually play some hoops or squash or something in the early evening, have some dinner, then do some creative work at night. My creative juices flow early in the morning and late at night, usually when there are no distractions.

8. What advice can you offer to your readers regarding career and small business?

I’ll pass along 4 pieces of advice that I’ve found to be extremely helpful throughout my life.

First – be honest with yourself. You’re probably good at most things, bad at a few, and spectacular at a few. Understand your strengths and weaknesses, exploit your strengths, and shy away from relying on the things you do about as well as everyone else. I know that sounds obvious, but adding a spectacular skill you’ve got to whatever you’re working on will make it unique, and make you irreplaceable. If you’re a terrific writer, and your producing a commodity, ingrain your writing into your commodity through a blog, or copy, or whatever. It’s no longer a commodity.

Second – maximize your productivity. If you work best in the mornings and evenings, like I do, then working a 9-5 schedule doesn’t really make sense. Going for a run or hitting golf balls is often more productive than sitting in front of the computer from 3-5. Changes in scenery often spur new ideas.

Third – this is straight from my Dad – 99% of everything is just showing up. If you’re an entrepreneur, this means pitching your product to anyone who will listen, going to conferences, meeting with people in the industry, etc. Show up, and the rest will often take care of itself.

Fourth – if you’re an entrepreneur, someone else has thought of your product. Whoever has the most energy will be able to execute and will win the space. Unless you’re Apple, there’s no need to go into “stealth mode” for 3 years then come out with a “perfect” product. I’m more a follower of the Lean Startup methodology. Get a min viable product on the market, get feedback, adapt.

9. What do you do for fun & where do you get your Inspiration from?

I’m a sports nut. I played basketball in college and still play as often as I can. It’s a great way to blow off steam.

I get inspiration from funny places. I’m not smart enough to make anything that doesn’t already exist, so I need to tweak and adapt existing products. I focus on everyday problems, so I watch a ton of comedy. Comedy is based on people complaining about their everyday lives, so what better place to look for problems you can solve? Or at least that’s what I tell myself as I watch my 9th straight episode of Arrested Development.

10. What is your favorite gadget(s), software(s), website(s) that makes your life easier and more productive?

I run RescueTime to keep track of how I spend my time online, it’s an absolute life saver. I get competitive with my friends and developers, who also use it. I love my Jambox as well, it’s great in golf carts. I use all the usual suspects, DropBox, Skype, Rdio, Adium, turntable.fm, and can’t get through the day without Flow, my task master. I’m always thinking of new products and ideas, and I can send them to my Flow account through my iPhone.

My developers and I use Pivotal Tracker as project management software- it’s great once you get the hang of it. Finally, the Netflix app allows me to watch season after season of Psych and Arrested Development – it’s the kryptonite to my RescueTime score.

11. Who would you like to see featured here and why?

Justin Kan, founder of Justin.TV – I really enjoyed his article in TechCrunch, and would like to hear more from him. Additionally, I love hearing Seth Godin’s opinion on entrepreneurship from a marketing standpoint. Some others – the Fitbit guys, Bonobos founder Andy Dunn, someone from Jawbone. I think it’d be interesting to hear from people at startups who make a physical product and compete against entrenched, iconic companies – and win.

12. Ways to Connect with Brian:

Company: www.3degreesnation.com
3Degrees Twitter: @3degreesnation
Brian Scordato Twitter: @Dato22
3Degrees Facebook: http://on.fb.me/zm72Tl
Email: Brian@3degreesnation.com

You Might Also Be Interested In:

Interview with the Best-Selling author of The Zen of Social Marketing – Shama Kabani
Recommending Gifts through Social Media with Founder of GiveEmThis – Zack Oates
Jared Shusterman – Founder of SproutLoud: leading online marketing portal.

Interview by Cesar Romero. Follow his personal blog here or via Twitter @romero866

[3degreesnation.com, how to leverage your facebook friends, ways to utilize your friends' connections on facebook, facebook app]

From: http://www.moomkin.com/3degress-brian-scordato/

The Entrepreneurial Wing-Woman: Dana Leavy - founder of Aspyre Solutions.

2012-01-31T22:17:00.001-05:00

“You have to be open and willing to evolve” – Dana Leavy.

Creative Businesses. Creative Careers.

Dana Leavy is the founder of Aspyre Solutions, and a self-proclaimed “Entrepreneurial Wingwoman”, helping aspiring entrepreneurs & creative freelancers start, build & grow sustainable small businesses, through career transition and business consulting. As a career advisor and small business entrepreneur, Dana has helped hundreds of professionals in advertising, marketing, design, multimedia and other industries in creating and executing effective career plans to find and DO the work they are passionate about. She has presented seminars on navigating careers, transition and work-life balance to several colleges and universities, and her advice has been featured on MSN Careers, Fox Business News, NewsDay, CareerBuilder.com, GlassDoor and About.com.

2. Do you think the education you’ve invested in helped you on the road to success? Highlight the type of education you received, from which school and what part did it play as an integral part of your success

I have a bachelors degree in Communication and Visual Arts, as well as a professional coaching certification from the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching. My career is based on two components – being an entrepreneur and an artist – and while my education helped me expand in both those areas and learn valuable skills, ultimately it was through pure doing that really pushed me to create the career and the company that I’ve built. While I’m not a traditional “coach”, I do utilize a lot of the skills I learned in my program, but most of all, the connections I built with my peers have been the most valuable asset, along with the confidence I built to create a business on my own. You have to have confidence that there is potential in your ideas, and the best way to reinforce that is to surround yourself with positive people who identify with and encourage what you do.

3. What was the “break point” or an AHA moment in your career that made you decide to start what you’re currently doing & how did you come up with that Idea? Try to be specific whether a particular person helped you to the next level, an idea or some event etc)

I moved back to New York City from Boston in 2009; I was managing a creative recruiting agency in Boston at the time, and wanted desperately to get out of recruiting and move to New York. So I took on a job that utilized my account management and client services skills with an IT research company. Shortly after, they began going through round of layoffs, cutting salaries, jobs, and for a good year or so I just sat there doing my job and watching the company crumble. It was depressing, seeing people hired, and fired all within months. Having run my own company, I had some ideas about what we could have been doing better, and areas where I disagreed with how the company was being run. It was probably after surviving the 2nd or 3rd round of layoffs that it hit me that I never, ever wanted to worry about my job security or work for someone else again. The moment I could afford to make an exit, I would.

4. As a young professional, what were some of the mistakes that you made and what did you learn?

Like most 20-somethings, I made a number of mistakes earlier on when it came to properly budgeting my money. I didn’t save well, I was oblivious to credit card debt, assuming I had the rest of my life to pay it off. And while I consider them mistakes in their own right, I more so consider them lessons that I had to go through. Because had I not struggled financially for awhile, I wouldn’t have learned to be better with my money by the time I hit 30, and now I’m in a much better situation where I’m clearing debt, instead of acquiring it. Even with owning a business!

5. What is one accomplishment that you are extremely proud of?

Once I make the decision to jump, I don’t look back, and I’ve always been proud of myself for that. I was at my last full time job for about 2 years, and hardly a year in, I knew I wanted to work for myself. There were probably a million reasons not to at the time – financially, peer pressure, family pressure, lack of knowledge about what I was doing – but I had already made up my mind. And I think that’s what differentiates entrepreneurs in general. Despite our reputation for working insane hours, having no personal life or work-life balance, and facing the constant threat of failure and financial ruin, when you truly believe in your ideas enough, you simply refuse to fail, and you’ll do whatever it takes to keep that vision alive. People argue that passion isn’t enough to propel and sustain your career, and it’s not, but it’s definitely a core ingredient in being a successful business owner.

6. What is your overall career goal? What do you want to accomplish that you haven’t already?

I’ve learned that my artistic side can’t exist separately from my work – there always has to be some element of creativity in what I do. So one of my goals is to grow my consulting business by continuing to help aspiring entrepreneurs and freelancers through the startup process and become sustainable, while also maintaining my freelance illustration business on the side. People tell me I’m a “Freelancer, for freelancers,” and they’re kind of right. I don’t think you have to hyper-focus on one thing anymore. In fact, I believe the smartest thing you can do these days is diversify your income streams. That’s the new look of career stability in my opinion, and what I’m trying to achieve by balancing being a business consultant, and being an artist.

7. Describe your typical day

I’m completely Type-A when it comes to organization and multi-tasking. There are very few components of my business that you won’t find mapped out in some Excel spreadsheet, calendar or Text document. I try to separate my daily tasks out in hourly chunks to keep them manageable and flexible. I start the day at about 9:30, take care of all my emails, follow ups and social media correspondences. I dedicate a solid hour to that, so I can focus. The next hour or two is typically dedicated to whatever task is time-sensitive for that day – things like writing my weekly blog posts, sending out my newsletter, or other marketing functions. I tend to have my best creative energy at the beginning and middle of the day, so that’s when I schedule all of my marketing outreach, and work on any outstanding client projects. I try to break for lunch and go take a walk outside for at least a half hour (though I’ve been terrible at that lately). End of the day I reserve for follow ups, scheduling any social media tasks for the following day, and any smaller, outstanding tasks that don’t require 90% of my brain. Having a calendar is key, but creating a workflow and scheduling system that works for you is critical.

8. What advice can you offer to your readers regarding career and small business?

You have to be open and willing to evolve, whether that’s in your business or your career. Your business will not be the same business 6 months or a year later that it was at the inception. Neither will your career. We put too much pressure on ourselves these days to have it all figured out, to create an infallible career and life plan for ourselves, with the hopes that if we do all the planning and strategizing upfront, all we’ll have to do is sit back and follow it to success. But there will always be roadblocks, challenges, and unforeseen opportunities that make us second guess, or change the plans we had in place. It’s critical that you see this as part of the process, and not as deviating from your plan. The best way to really put this into action is to take things one step at a time and see where it leads you. If something’s not working for you, whether it’s a new job or a marketing plan… you can always change it.

You Might Also Be Interested In:

Interview with the Best-Selling author of The Zen of Social Marketing – Shama Kabani
Get coached on Marketing, Social Networking and Business with Tim Tyrell-Smith

9. What do you do for fun & where do you get your Inspiration from?

I get an energetic high just being around people. My inspiration largely comes from other artists, creative people, entrepreneurs, and generally just people I enjoy talking to and having a good conversation with. I make terrible jokes, and somehow people enjoy it enough to tolerate my presence. You’ll typically find me hanging out at the park or my favorite dive bar sketching things in my notebook, talking to other people about their business and creative ideas. I love hearing people’s stories, and everyone has one. They may think it’s dull, but I love hearing who they are, what they’ve done in their lives, what they’ve learned, and what they’re trying to make happen next. Because we all have that in common as human beings – we’re somebody, we’ve done something, and we’re trying to do something else. Sounds ridiculously simple, but it’s true. Brooklyn is so creative and full of amazing characters, so you’ll usually find me hiding out in my borough.

10. What is your favorite gadget(s), software(s), website(s) that makes your life easier and more productive?

I like Pandora.com for workday tunes, Freckle.com for simple, user-friendly project management software. I live by QuickBooks for organizing my financials, and PayPal for my invoices. Non work-related, I’m a big fan of Apartment Therapy (apartment therapy.com) – they have such amazing design ideas for home and life. I sell my artwork on Etsy (www.etsy.com/shop/Aspyre) so naturally I’m on there a lot, but they also have a great blog with all kinds of small business advice for improving your shop, and marketing and design ideas. I try to minimize my Facebook usage during the workday, but naturally I cave in when I’m craving a little gossip.

11. Who would you like to see featured here and why? Include their names and ways to connect & we will definitely reach out to them.

Any blog can feature people who have made it big. I want to hear from the people who are starting businesses and still struggling – what keeps them going, what do they need from others like us in the community, and what is their ultimate vision for their business? That’s the good stuff!

12. Ways to Connect with you: Include links to your social media profiles, your company url, email etc.

Email: dana@aspyresolutions.com

Website: www.aspyresolutions.com

On Facebook: www.facebook.com/aspyresolutions

On Twitter: @aspyrebusiness

On LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/danaleavy

From: http://www.moomkin.com/dana-leavy/

Interview with the Best-Selling author of The Zen of Social Marketing - Shama Kabani

2012-01-22T20:48:00.001-05:00

Web and TV personality. Bestselling author. International Speaker. Award winning CEO of The Marketing Zen Group – a global online marketing company. Shama is the face of today’s digital world, and represents the best her generation has to offer. She has aptly been dubbed the “master millennial of the universe” and “an online marketing shaman” by Fast Company.com.

Shama is author of the best-selling book, “The Zen of Social Marketing,” and is an oft-quoted social media expert. Shama has been featured by Business Week, Dallas Morning News, Entrepreneur, Fast company, Inc. Magazine, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, the Wall Street Journal and hundreds of blogs and social media outlets. She’s also an accomplished international speaker and hosts her own Web TV show, Shama.TV. The show addresses new media marketing topics, trends, people and relevant perspectives. She also hosts Tech Zen with Shama and Socially Sound with Shama on CW 33.

Shama formed The Marketing Zen Group in 2009. Since then, the company has grown, includes 25 employees and clients that range from publicly held, Fortune 1000 companies to privately held small businesses and non-profit organizations. The company serves clients worldwide, including companies in Europe, Asia and Central and South Americas. Since its start in 2009, the company has grown at an average of 400%

She holds a Masters degree in Organizational Communication from the University of Texas at Austin, and prides herself in being a constant learner. In 2009, Business Week honored Shama as one of the Top 25 under 25 entrepreneurs in North America. In 2010, Shama won the prestigious Technology Titan Emerging Company CEO award. In 2011, Entrepreneur Magazine featured her as one of four Super Sonic Youth, dubbing her a “Zen Master of Marketing.”

When not working directly with her clients or shooting her shows for the media, Shama travels the world speaking on business, entrepreneurship, and technology. The 2nd edition of her best-selling book, The Zen of Social Media Marketing, is due out this March.

2. Do you think the education you’ve invested in helped you on the road to success?

Absolutely! My education at the University of Texas at Austin was tremendously helpful. Not just the courses, but the professors who truly cared about each student’s success.

3. What was the “break point” or an AHA moment in your career that made you decide to start what you’re currently doing & how did you come up with that Idea?

After 18 companies refused to hire me because they didn’t feel social media had a real shot in the business world. This was 2008. I started my own company in 2009. It started out as a social media consulting company, but we transitioned to a full service web marketing company shortly after realizing that clients demanded more.

4. As a young professional, what were some of the mistakes that you made and what did you learn?

I’ve certainly learned to be a lot more objective, and move at my own pace. In business and in life, you have to find what works for you. Other people’s solutions may not work for you.

5. What is one accomplishment that you are extremely proud of?

That my book, The Zen of Social Media Marketing, was so well received. Being an author has been so challenging and rewarding at the same time. The 2nd edition will be out in a few weeks.

You Might Also Be Interested In:

Top 5 Social Media Books to read in 2012
Maximizing Social Media with Founder of Windmill Networking – Neal Schaffer
8 Basics for Creating a Social Media Strategy

6. What advice can you offer to your readers?

Learn to be an editor at heart. Don’t believe your first idea is your best idea. Be open to change.

7. What do you do for fun & where do you get your Inspiration from?

I love watching movies (in the theater with popcorn!), reading historical fiction novels, and playing with my dog. I find inspiration in books, movies, and insightful people.

8. What is your favorite gadget(s), software(s), website(s) that makes your life easier and more productive?

I love Skype! It is the backbone of our company.

9. Who would you like to see featured here and why?

Scott Gerber – Founder of The Young Entrepreneur Council. He is doing so much to foster youth entrepreneurship.

Ways to Connect with Shama:

Facebook: Facebook.com/ShamaKabani

Twitter: @Shama

Website: www.MarketingZen.com | www.Shama.Tv

From: http://www.moomkin.com/shama-kabani/

Creating awesome videos with Founder of Grumo Media - Miguel Hernandez.

2012-01-08T19:40:00.001-05:00

“Life is too short not to take risks” – Miguel Hernandez.

Grumo Media produces fun, concise, and effective explanatory videos for startups and recently some big companies too! Clients include Walmart, Microsoft, Ashton Kutcher, Hipmunk.com, inDinero.com, Olo.com, Buy4.com, PadMapper.com, and many more. Grumo’s magic consists on taking any concept, however complex it may be, and make it easy to understand for the masses.
Check Grumo’s videos at http://grumomedia.com
Follow Grumo on Twitter.

Do you think the education you’ve invested in helped you on the road to success?
The best education I have ever got was working as a door to door salesman when I was 20 years old.
I lasted only 4 months but got to talk to about 12 thousand different people, knock on thousands of doors, learn to deal with rejection and the value of persistence. Being persistent and welcoming rejection are the best two lessons any entrepreneur can learn. A typical door to door salesman gets 90% rejection. On a typical day 90 people will slam their door on your face but 10 will buy whatever you are selling. Learning the power of numbers is the key to learning to overcome the fear of rejection. They way I learn to deal with it was thinking that every rejection was taking me one step closer to the next sale. When you think that way you learn to embrace rejection because you know you need it in order to succeed. For more on this approach you can read an article I wrote on the subject of success here.

What was the “break point” or an AHA moment in your career that made you decide to start what you’re currently doing & how did you come up with that Idea?
There was no AHA moment. Some people have AHA moments. My AHA moment has been a process that has taken an entire lifetime. A few lucky ones know what they what to do with their lives from the beginning, a even fewer lucky ones become actually good enough at what they love that they can make a career out of it. I belong to the 99% of the population sector that never had a clear idea of what to do with my life. I guess the only thing that separates me from my fellow clueless group is that I’ve been always determined to do three things: 1. Always do whatever I want. 2. Never stop trying new things 3. Never settle doing something I am not completely happy doing. Because, like most people I never was sure what to so I have ended up doing many things, from door-to-door salesman, to laser cutting machine programmer, to music video director, to mechanical designer, 3D animator to shooting comedy porn in Mallorca, web developer, inventor, and more recently entrepreneur. I must say the most fun is the latter one, being an entrepreneur, building a company from zero, with no resources to a profitable business is the most fulfilling of all my attempts at figuring out what to do.
I think I am going to stick with that one for a while ;)

As a young professional, what were some of the mistakes that you made and what did you learn?
Luckily I love mistakes because I look at them as learning opportunities and because like anyone that has taking many risks I’ve made many.
The biggest mistake I made for many years was not believing on myself enough to have taken even more risks at a younger age.
Because I was very shy and afraid of trying things I think I missed out on many opportunities to learn and accumulate more experience earlier.
The other big mistake I made was spending 1.5 years building a product I was not passionate about. It was an online project management service that I programmed from scratch and went nowhere, got zero customers, made me broke. The lesson learn is never, never choose to do something you are really passionate about and if you do make sure not to spend 1.5 years doing it. Because even if it is successful, do you really want to be dedicating your life and soul to something you don’t really believe in? In a sense I am very happy that first startup was an utter failure because it lead way to me starting Grumo Media.

What is one accomplishment that you are extremely proud of?
Definitely building a successful company in less than a year. After my previous failures seeing money in the bank from real world happy customers was the most amazing thing in the world.

What advice can you offer to your readers?
Life is too short not to take risks and follow your passion. And if you don’t know what your passion is, I’ve been there and wrote an article about how I went about finding my true passion here.

Find it whatever it is, whatever it takes and hopefully you won’t have any of these 5 regrets

What do you do for fun & where do you get your Inspiration from? This is where you let loose and tell us all your secrets :)
Fun and work are one thing for me. So for fun I work so when I die I may regret having worked too much but at least I will be able to say I had fun doing it.
My inspiration comes from observing, reading, talking to friends, and thinking. I do a lot of thinking and day dreaming. I am continuously thinking of new ideas for startups, products, inventions. Unfortunately some much thinking gets me in trouble sometimes, specially with my wife. She will be talking to me an 5 seconds later I get this gaze in my eyes.. I am not listening to her anymore, I am back in my own world of thoughts solving the problems of the world. It is hard to unplug from it some times, oops!

What is your favorite gadget(s), software(s), website(s) that makes your life easier and more productive?
Favorite Gadgets: iPhone, MacBookPro, iPad
Software: Chrome, TextMate (coding), After Effects (animating), Final Cut(Editing), OmniGraffle (diagramming), Audacity (Audio), ScreenFlow (screen recording), Transmit (FTP client)
Web Aps: Gmail, Google Reader, Google Docs, HootSuite (social media dashboard), Summify (daily news summaries)
Websites: Mixergy.com, KhanAcademy.org, Ted.com, VideoCopilot.net
Shows: MythBusters, Dexter, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfield

Who would you like to see featured here and why?
W. Brett Wilson (Dragon’s Den), Andrew Warner (Mixergy), Andrew Kramer (VideoCopilot), Ben Kaufman (Quirky), Richard Branson (Virgin), Dean Kamen (SegWay), My Dad (Miguel co-creator)

Ways to Connect with Miguel:
Twitter: @grumomigs
Website: http://grumomedia.com

From: http://www.moomkin.com/grumo-miguel-hernandez/

Recommending Gifts through Social Media with Founder of GiveEmThis - Zack Oates.

2011-12-01T09:44:00.001-05:00

“If it feels right, do it; if it doesn’t, don’t” – Zack Oates.

GiveEmThis.com is a personalized gift engine that analyzes your friends’ social media to recommend gifts! It is the creation of Imply Labs and is free to use. Basically, it changes Facebook and Twitter data into gift ideas from Amazon.com

Do you think the education you’ve invested in helped you on the road to success?

I am the founder of Imply Labs and inventor of GiveEmThis.com. I received a BA in Advertising from Brigham Young University and it has been a huge help! While in school, we were able to learn from working on real projects and worked with go-to-market strategies. As a startup, there is ONLY go-to-market strategies! It has been a huge help.

What was the “break point” or an AHA moment in your career that made you decide to start what you’re currently doing & how did you come up with that Idea?

I was helping a friend start his company and there were a lot of things that really bothered me about it. It was not something that consumers really needed. After looking into the space of social media more, I realized, through much research, that people were having a hard time organizing all of their social media AND wanted help finding gift ideas. I thought of combining the two and developed GiveEmThis.com.

As a young professional, what were some of the mistakes that you made and what did you learn?

One mistake I made was waiting to bring on the right people. If you can find people who are innovative, good communicators and dependable, then get them involved in a vesting schedule! I waited too long to do that and could have been further along. Now when I see talent, I keep talent!

What is one accomplishment that you are extremely proud of?

The day after we launched we were featured in Mashable! It was a PR move that I had been working on for 8 months and it was incredible to actually see us on the front page of Mashable! It was so cool and it was then that I realized that if we keep doing the right thing, we are on a winning path!

What advice can you offer to your readers?

Follow your soul. As an entrepreneur, you cannot always afford to make fully knowledgeable decisions. You need to act based on the information that you have, and since it is often so lacking, you need to trust your instinct. Mitigate with as much research and advice from others as possible, but in the end, you are the one to act. If it feels right, do it; if it doesn’t, don’t. Very simple…but then again, isn’t everything important? So follow your soul–mine hasn’t led me astray yet!

What do you do for fun & where do you get your Inspiration from?

My favorite place to be when I’m not at work is in the hot tub or sauna with friends! I am president of the unofficial “Hot Tub Club” and we have a blast trying out hot tubs and sneaking into different apartment complexes to find new ones! When I’m not at work and NOT in bodies of hot water, you can be sure to find me throwing parties or writing on my dating blog, EasterCloset.com

What is your favorite gadget(s), software(s), website(s) that makes your life easier and more productive?

For sure, GiveEmThis.com! But I also really love the android app called GTasks. Keeps me up to speed on all my thousands of ToDo’s and syncs them with my gmail. I also use words with friends to help me stay sane, hence more productive.

Who would you like to see featured here and why?

Courage to Hope, because they are support victims of domestic violence in Ukraine and they are much needed! I can get you in contact with them (heck, I started the organization and still run it!) I would also like to see John Bradshaw of Silicone Slopes features. He has done some amazing things for the tech world.

Ways to Connect with Zack:

@zoates
http://ping.fm/zPPdy
www.EasterCloset.com
www.ImplyLabs.com
www.GiveEmThis.com

From: http://ping.fm/M5xf5

Thanksgiving to Your Success

2011-11-21T14:57:00.001-05:00

Can you imagine — one more amazing year at the finish line! Thanksgiving is the first festive sign of the upcoming and always highly anticipated Holiday Season. Amidst of all the hassle and cheer that every end of the year brings, somehow we need to find the time to reflect back, in order to transition to even a brighter future. Granted, we shouldn’t have waited for this particular holiday to show our gratitude to everyone who we need to thank, but if you are one of those professionals, who simply bulldoze through life with no breaks on, this is your perfect chance to stop and express your gratitude to everyone and anyone, with no grudges to hold back.

So, take a breath, think in retrospect of all the great and not-so-great actions from the whole year behind you that in some way impacted the lives of others. What could make you complete, are your acts of gratitude, apology and acknowledgement of those who play various roles in your professional and personal lives.

1. Measure your Achievements in More Than Dollar Signs.

You would say, “But Cash is king!” On a contrary, a cliché like “The best things are free,” is a perfect rebuttal in this case. What have you accomplished this year that is outside anything that is associated with your financial gain?

2. Learn from Your Challenges

Mistakes and failures are indispensable elements of our lives, if learnt from strategically. The obstacles expose your weaknesses to hone on; the people you could put your trust in; weed out ‘the flakes and fakes,’ as I call them, whom you should not waste your life on.

3. Set Higher Goals for the Coming Year

Your achievements are the true tests of what you are capable of. Don’t sell yourself short by setting goals that are easy to achieve. Continue to ask more of yourself – this way you will continue to amaze yourself of how much higher you are able to reach.

4. Celebrate your Milestones

By the same token, it is not impartial to beat yourself up for the failures and unachieved goals. Look back, celebrate your accomplishments, and reward yourself!

5. Give Thanks to Those Who Made it All Happen!

Most importantly, you didn’t reach the top of the mountain alone! To get to where you are now, you must have a strong support system built around you. Thanksgiving is a perfect time to show your sincere gratitude to the ones whom you could lean on, unconditionally rely on, put your trust in, and who consistently execute all of the behind-the-scene, down-and-dirty legwork to make YOU a success story in all aspects of your life!

Do you have someone to thank? I bet you don’t have to look very far….

From: http://ping.fm/2q4Et

5 Main Marketing Tactics to Dominate Your Business Sector

2011-11-19T15:36:00.001-05:00

Aside from payroll, the majority our business investments get channeled into marketing and advertising. The volatility of the world economy not only puts our business strategies on red alerts across the board, but also forces us to stay focused and search for original out-of-the-box solutions to create a buzz that keeps ringing and attracting more bees. Regardless of the size of your business, there is a number of key strategic tactics to keep in mind in order to continuously receive return on your marketing investments. Below are some of the pillars that you could start building on in order to target a better, broader, and more loyal customer base.

1. Be a student of your target market.

Considering the fact that you are already a professional in the product or service that you are offering, to study your target market should become your next full-time job, your way of life. Not only is it crucial to correctly identify your target market, learning who else could fall into your target range could be another way to think outside of that marketing cube. Why do my customers choose my product/service? What attracts them to me above all others in the market? What are their lifestyles, demographics, interests? What can keep them focused on my product? And the biggest one yet – What Is Next?

2. Keep your customer engaged

Some of the probing questions in my previous point could be answered by constantly keeping your customers engaged in your marketing strategies. Interactive search for further continuous improvement on your product/service is one of the most effective recipes for success. Surveys, feedbacks, trend analysis, predictive analytics, or simple conversations with your customer are some of the most engaging and less costly techniques to proactively study your market sector.

3. Simple messages but redundant

Some of the most elementary advertising techniques with very few words and convoluted messages are the most successful in the market. Keeping your customer out of confusion, re-thinking, wasting time, wasting money, are the most significant points to think about before you invest any more money into your next campaign. Simplicity in combination with redundancy, would take you further along in your marketing game, than any other combination of factors. After all, repetition of some simple concept sinks in our human minds faster and for longer period of time, than some complicated concept and only repeated once. This is a simple human nature, so remember to capitalize on it!

4. Keep your ear to the ground

Even when you are not at work, around your business ideas, around your customers, keep your ears to the ground for more ways to retain your present customer base and attract new ones. Ideas are everywhere; learn to get inspired in all situations! Be a marketing vampire—suck the living day out of the world around you – nature, people, technology, empty spaces.

5. Patience is a virtue

You are pretty sure that you’ve hit the goldmine after you’ve launched that advertising campaign. You are so sure you couldn’t sleep all night, waiting to get back to your business the next day, anticipating that the phones are going to be ringing off the hook, your customers are lining up outside three times around the block. You are anxious to reap those rewards immediately! Before this utopian scenario gets to your head, I need to burst your bubble for the sake of aligning you with the brutal reality of marketing effectiveness. Success doesn’t happen overnight in most of our reality, especially in the advertising world. Your customer loyalty gets built gradually, one ad at a time, one success story at a time! Build up your patience! After all, you’ve done the hardest part—threw your innovation at the wall, now it’s time sit back and watch what sticks!

What are some of your marketing strategies that keep your customer around for a while?

From: http://ping.fm/QnUU7

?Save Children?s Lives? with Aruzhan Sain, Founder of the Charitable Organization

2011-11-10T00:06:00.001-05:00

Aruzhan Sain is one of Kazakhstan’s successful television executives of contemporary entertainment industry. For almost 20 years, her production center, Aruzhan and Co., has been well-known for its daily and weekly television shows, like “Taxi,” a licensed U.S. version of “Cash Cab;” “Warm-Up,” “Astrological Forecast,” “Cash at your Door;” also some culinary shows, like “Quick and Tasty” and “The Superstar Menu.” In addition, there is a program for young parents, called “Mom’s School,” as well as a charitable program “Save Children’s Lives”. Since its inception in 2007, this non-profit initiative has saved 331 children’s lives. For more information about this organization please visit www.detdom.kz and www.aruzhantv.kz.

What was the “breaking point” of your career that made you decide to do what you’re currently doing? When do you think your career officially started?

My career takes its roots from a tender age of 13 when I have decided to sell newspaper on weekends while in school. I’ve even asked my school’s Dean for a favor to allow me an optional class attendance on Fridays and Saturdays, in return of which, I had to excel in all of my grades. And boy, did I ever! Some teachers were not happy with this unconventional idea. My parents, on the other hand supported my choices. Gradually, I’ve started earning money, invaluable life experiences, gained independence, and contributed to the family budget. The delivery job was not easy! These events took place parallel to the end of the Soviet era.

Some other work experiences that have contributed to my diverse professional background were conducting private lessons is aerobics and ballet at age 14. I graduated my high school with High Honors, and was admitted to KazGU, Kazakhstan State University with no entrance exam. Having reached such major milestones at an early age, I felt fully equipped to jump-start on my new and exciting career move in Television that I love and enjoy till this day.

Do you think the education you’ve invested in helped you on the road to success?

Of course it did! I received a solid education, majoring in Ecology at KazGU. This major involves a thorough understanding and knowledgebase of diverse science disciplines, such as geography, math, physics, chemistry, biology, politics, demographics, to name a few. I am elated to know that this type of educational background had shaped me into who I am today. It provided with knowledge of the world from inside out, changed and broadened my outlook on the world and environment. To this date, I continue to apply the knowledge I received into the everyday life and my career.

How is it like to be a woman in your field?

I don’t find it applicable to talk about my career in terms of gender. I tend to think that as

long as you work hard and love what you do, the success will eventually come. No one but you is responsible for your professional development and success. Luckily, I have not experienced gender pressure in my career. I thrive on the fact that I create my own opportunities, and execute them accordingly, despite the pre-defined societal gender pressures.

As a young professional, what were some of the mistakes that you have made and what have you learnt?

People learn from their mistakes. You are very wise if you can learn from mistakes of others. I admit I made a lot of mistakes

, and that is fine. If you decide to create and work on something new, mistakes are inevitable. However, they should be admitted and taken as lessons learned. Mistakes can bring new opportunities. For instance, every time we watch a re-run of any show, we constantly find mistake, but then we learn from them. Some of my other entrepreneurial ideas did not work out, but I walked out from each failure with a pocketful of added wisdom.

What advice can you offer your readers?

Always dream and be determined! Do everything possible to make those dreams a reality! When we decided to start the show called “Warm-Up,” we had no experience whatsoever. Where do we find a director, a cameraman, space, outfits, and sponsors? How do we get it broadcasted? Step by step, surviving only on our dream and determination, we were able to fin
Do not be afraid of laborious and dirty jobs. It is the labor that evolved a human out a monkey. Zamira, my partner, and I have filmed under some challenging conditions. We started from a very bottom and were involved in any aspects of the business: from carrying equipment, washing dishes after the cooking show, and operating with no sleep. Today we understand our business inside out and it gives us a huge competitive advantage. Today we are the experts.d what we needed to create our very first television show. Watching it today, we laugh at all the mistakes we made back then.

How do you define success?

Success is finding a harmony and a balance in life. Professional success is when one wakes up and is happy to go to work every day and able to enjoy every minute of it. Personal success is when one is also happy to go back home after work.

Can you tell us more about your charity project “Save Children’s Lives?”

We started this project in 2007. Today we saved lives of over 300 children. It breaks my heart to talk to parents and see very sick children, but when we find help for these kids I feel better and stronger. Thanks to the financial and volunteer contributions of ordinary people we are able to treat and take care of these sick children.

How can people help?

Our website www.detdom.kz provides detailed information on how anyone can help. The popularity of our charity is getting not only people’s attention, but also our government’s. We work with Ministry of Health on trying to develop a more efficient health system for our kids with disease that cannot be treated in Kazakhstan yet. We would be thankful if some interested parties overseas could help us establish some communication channels with foreign hospitals, to get in touch with other charity organizations that can provide some help, and organize seminars for our doctors here.

Another huge project, “Kazakhstan without orphans” is also in the works. The idea is simple — to get our orphans adopted into loving homes. We are also in a great need for sponsors and contributions here. As soon as we get the legislation to finalize the legalities, we are going to work on our organization’s website.

What is your favorite gadget(s), software(s), website(s) that makes your life easier and more productive?

My Nokia E7. It is great phone, but a little too sophisticated for me sometimes. I am still trying to get used to it. I use Skype for communication with people overseas.

I use my social media mainly for promoting the charity events, news, and updates. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with social media. But I am learning to find my balance in the ocean of information that social media brings with it.

Who would you like to see featured here and why?

Ermek Tursunov, Director of film, “Kelin.” Igor Gonopolskii, a film director. Ilya Autov, from Motor-roller group. Journalist, Tulegen Bautukenov. Alisher Yelikbaev, an influential blogger and activist. Slava Nerush, founder of Chesnok.kz. Actress, Bayan Esentaeva. Erzhan Suleimenov, Khabar TV Station. They are all volunteers of our charity and great individuals.

From: http://ping.fm/Lz4RX

Striving for Leadership as Your Next Career Breakthrough

2011-10-31T16:06:00.001-04:00

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most responsive to change.”-Charles Darwin
Originally, my goal was to refine this topic specifically for female professionals. Once the key points lined up on the page, it became obvious that these soft skill milestones of leadership clearly transgress the gender focus. No matter what type of physiological or psychological profile, for that matter, you fit into; those of us who strive to climb into the ranks of leading an organization tend to create our own unique channels, our stepping stones to success. Here are some of the key milestones that I keep in mind in an attempt to align my professional goals to my own development, as an aspiring organization’s leader.

1. Stand out from the Crowd.
To stand out does not necessarily mean to be born with a specific gift. Being an expert at what you do is, by far, one of the most transforming advantages over the rest of the crowd. When you have the knowledge and stamina to be able to go against the grain, it is the time when you naturally get recognized as an innovator, a leader, a success story. One book that precisely elaborates on the topic is “Collapse of Distinction: Stand out and move up while your competition fails” by Scott McKain.

2. Innovation could take you places.
Great ideas and interesting proposals come to most peoples’ minds at some point. It is the matter of recognizing an innovation as something that could redefine you as a pioneer. Some ideas come and go, some stay around for a minute, and only a few of them have an ability to make an impact on the masses. The way we choose to apply our ideas into practice, is what differentiates us from the pack. Think Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Steve Jobs.

3. Outside the Box should become your comfort zone.
It is the only way to keep ourselves from boxing our ideas and decisions into an expected and very traditional response patterns. Don’t let others label you as an individual and as a professional into a certain group, simply by judging an outer you. Surprising others with your creativity and individuality is something that makes others hesitate to group you with the rest of the herd. Be outside that box: your uniqueness could only be recognized by the few who also float outside that box!

4. Confidence is the key.
This says it all! There is no need to comment further. No leadership is successful without self-confidence. A good thing is that there are many ways to work on it and develop this trait through various sources. Here is one of the best books that I came across lately that is worth checking out, “The Ultimate Secrets of Self-Confidence” by Robert Anthony.

5. Communicate your assets publicly.
This point goes hand in hand with trying to be more self-confident. There are times to be modest and there are times to clearly communicate your strengths to the rest of the world. Successful leaders know how to keep this balance. It is crucial to let others know what you are made of through your actions, and to provide them with many opportunities to appreciate your indispensability. When that happens, others become your herald and rave about your success through their own words.

What are some of your strategies and successful hints on your path to leadership?

From: http://ping.fm/d5pox

Pitch to Profits Series - The Story Commercial

2011-10-26T14:48:00.001-04:00

In the world of networking, you better be able to nail your 30 second pitch or go home. You don’t want to sound like a snake oil salesman, but you do want to be concise in your communications.

This is the 3rd Article in the Pitch to Profits Series. We already asked you if you were Nailing Your Pitch; and we gave you the Guidelines to Writing a good Pitch. We also introduced the different types of pitches.

We have already discussed the Quote Commercial; today we will talk about the Story Commercial.

The Story Commercial is a great pitch; and when used properly, is very powerful. It is a commercial that acts as a personal testimonial of your services based on the experiences of your customers. Your job is to keep an ear out for your customer’s positive experiences with your offerings.

The Story Commercial comes with a big bonus! These testimonials can be added to your website and social media pages.

Like every commercial, this commercial will follow the guidelines identified in What are the Parts of a Good Pitch.

The STORY BODY is where you are going to tell the customer a story. This story will let your audience know how great your services are. Remember, the story body gives you an opportunity to do a live testimonial about your services. You start with the body first and then take some words from the body to create an amazing HOOK! Make sure that you narrow the story down to 3 sentences only.

The Story Hook is pretty easy to do once you have created the body of your story. You want to create a one-liner that piques the interest of your audience. The goal is to keep their interest so that they will listen for the answer.

A great way to hook your audience is to go to extremes! The hook of your story is the PUZZLE and you want your audience to use the body to figure out the puzzle. For example: If you were a rental agent whose target market was Russia; you may want to hook them with “Florida sand can keep your Vodka cold!” This type of HOOK makes your audience say “HUH? I need to know a little more!”

The STORY CLOSE is by far the easiest and yet the most important element of your Sticky 30 Second Commercial. You will provide your contact information, and a closing statement that solidifies your offering.

You should finalize with a Call to Action or Ask.

You should pick the Call-To-Action if your audience is filled with potential customers. You should pick the Ask if your audience is filled business networking and referral partners. Generally, the audience of business networking and referral partners meets on a regular basis and will refer business to you. The audience of customers may also refer business to you, but usually this audience consists of potential customers and prospects.

Sample Story Commercial

When we “walk on water” you get a bonus!

Well maybe we did not walk on water but we did perform a miracle!

A new client at her new job had 1 week to make the impossible happen for a big conference that she was suddenly thrown in to. Needless to say, she was panicked, stressed, and needed a miracle. We delivered a promotional strategy and products in less than seven days, walked on water to do it, and got our client a financial bonus to boot!

NOTE: THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION

My name is ; .Like my Facebook Fan Page and get 3 tips to getting the most out of your promotional strategies.

Or

NOTE: THIS IS AN ASK

My name is of .

A single vendor is only one of hundreds of vendors that show up to conventions. Having unique promotion products that help them stand out from the crowd is critical to make an impact on potential customers. If you know of a sales manager that has a booth at tradeshows or conventions, I am interested in that referral.

I am and .

About the Author

Dawnna St Louis, Professional Speaker, Speaking Coach, and Author with a significant IT, Executive Project Management and Communications background. She is the creator of Five Audacious Acts of Successful Women, Speak Naked, and Superman Wears Tights.

She is the author of Pitch to Profits which is quickly becoming a staple among networking professionals and sales teams. Pitch to Profits is a guide that turns you into a pitching pro and transforms your audience of window shoppers, business card collectors, and browsers into buyers. Get your sneak peek here.

Her next book, YOLO is a parable about taking risks and finding success. YOLO will be launched in front of 500 women at the Women’s Success Summit on November 10th and 11th, 2011. See the book trailer and get the sneak peek here.

Hear Dawnna’s latest national radio interview here.

From: http://ping.fm/2oSpb

Jared Shusterman - Founder of SproutLoud: leading online marketing portal.

2011-10-25T21:23:00.001-04:00

“Be flexible and get ready to change your business model many times over” – Jared Shusterman, Founder and CEO of SproutLoud.

SproutLoud (www.sproutloud.com) helps distributed marketing corporations engage local sales channels through an online marketing portal that manages and deploys marketing programs locally. The SproutLoud platform helps corporations manage local brand compliance, co-op programs and improves speed-to-market while gaining full-transparency into local marketing activities.

A distributed marketing organization may consist of franchises, retailers, dealer networks, VAR Programs, remote sales forces, distributed offices and/or employees, affiliates, field reps, associations, etc. Distributed Marketing Organizations need their brand, products and services to be represented consistently across multiple marketing media at the local level, and especially when marketing decisions are decentralized and deferred to the businesses and people marketing locally.

Jared has been primarily responsible for the development and direction of SproutLoud’s core technology offering for business requirements and feature developments. Before SproutLoud, Jared was with Thomas Weisel Partner’s internet and online advertising investment banking practice in San Francisco.

Jared graduated with a B.A. in Finance and Marketing from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia.

Do you think the education you’ve invested in helped you on the road to success?

Without a doubt. It started in high-school – I feel my high school education, in many ways, paved the way for my success to date.

What was the “break point” or an AHA moment in your career that made you decide to start what you’re currently doing & how did you come up with that Idea?

I’ve had too many AHA moments to pick one. These moments still happen today and allows us to continue to refine the business model and vision for the Company.

I stumbled upon the idea while doing due diligence for my initial business concept – marketing services for small businesses. I asked a lot of questions and understood there was a much larger market opportunity – which ultimately led to the start of our current venture.

As a young professional, what were some of the mistakes that you made and what did you learn?

I continue to make them – that is how I learn. But perhaps the biggest two are not staying hyper-focused on the product and business model plan early on – and understanding that there is a difference between market needs versus “nice-to-haves” – which leads to scope creep and unnecessary resources which could be utilized elsewhere.

What is one accomplishment that you are extremely proud of?

The growth we have achieved off of organic / bootstrapped funding – and the fact that I strongly believe we are pioneering a new industry.

What advice can you offer to your readers?

- Don’t be afraid to fail.
- Have a strong support system in family and friends
- If you are going to do it, do it completely – devote 100% of your energy or don’t do it at all
- If you are young, jump in and get started before you have a family and greater responsibilities
- Be flexible and get ready to change your business model many times over
- Treat everyone with respect – and treat your team members working with you better than you treat yourself

What do you do for fun & where do you get your Inspiration from?

I love traveling, cooking and great food. I just got back from Africa – that was amazing because it had all three. I love golf and snow-skiing. I don’t really look at someone else or get my inspiration from elsewhere. It is hard to explain. I’m deeply competitive. I don’t think about money or any of the secondary things that may come from success. I just truly want to be the best at what we do – and if all of the other things fall in place, that is gravy.

What is your favorite gadget(s), software(s), website(s) that makes your life easier and more productive?

We use a lot of free and open-source technologies here. I love the Google Reader tool – it brings in all the content from the blogs and news I am following to stay up-to-date – its a huge time saver for me. Evernote; dropbox; etc.

Who would you like to see featured here and why?

Michael Karnjanaprakorn from Skillshare.com – he’s a friend and I think he has some great insight for your readers.

Ways to Connect with you:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sproutloud

Website: www.sproutloud.com

Twitter: @sproutloud

From: http://www.moomkin.com/sproutloud/

Project Education: The Khan Academy ? Teaching the world

2011-10-24T16:31:00.001-04:00

By Cesar Romero

For years we have been hearing in the news about education and how our educational system is failing to effectively educate our present and future generations focusing more on quantity and grades rather than quality and complete proficiency in understanding and implementing a concept. It’s no secret that American students are falling behind in science and math to their counterparts in other countries like China and India because there’s a crisis in our educational system that needs to be addressed.

I want to introduce you to Salman Khan, a man on a mission to revamp our traditional educational model by leveraging the use of technology and providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere. As a Harvard and MIT graduate with a background in science and math, Mr. Khan has always had a passion for education and he realized that he’s true calling was to teach when he had an epiphany while tutoring his cousins about 7 years ago. At that time, Mr. Khan was working as a hedge fund analyst for a company in Boston and while visiting him from New Orleans, his aunt told him that Nadia (his cousin) was having problems with a particular subject in math and that it was not allowing her to be placed in a more advanced track for 7th grade. Mr. Khan offered to remotely tutor Nadia, who lives in New Orleans, for 1 hour after work as long as she was willing to do any extra work that he gave her, and this was the beginning of something I consider to be revolutionary in the wa y education is delivered.

Mr. Khan began remotely tutoring Nadia in August 2004 using a telephone to talk and Yahoo Doodle as a shared notepad. Nadia ended up catching up and getting ahead of her class and this triggered Mr. Khan to tutor her brothers as well. Eventually, word got around and he was remotely tutoring a handful of cousins and family friends. Since the schedule coordination became difficult because of time constraints, Mr. Khan started making YouTube videos for them to watch in their own time, at their own pace and it didn’t take long for him to realize that other students were hungry for videos like these so he kept adding more and more videos to his library and this collections of videos became what we know now as The Khan Academy.

For years, Mr. Khan was hesitant about dedicating himself full time to this project because he felt he wasn’t financially ready and he felt like what he was doing was not anything new and it wouldn’t become widespread and resonate with other people. It was the hundreds of letters and comments he would receive a week from students, parents, and teachers all over the world expressing strong appreciation for his work that inspired him to quit his job as a hedge fund analyst and dedicate his life to education and making Khan Academy the world’s first free, world-class virtual school where anyone can learn anything for free.

Mr. Khan explains that in our traditional educational system, everyone is forced to move at the same pace and it doesn’t cater to the different learning abilities of each individual. In our traditional system, the teacher broadcasts a lesson to about 30, sometimes up to 50 students, then there’s homework/practice, followed by a quiz where you receive a grade of A, B, C, D and so on depending on the knowledge you acquired through the lectures and practice. The problem with this is that those students that got a grade of B or less, and sometimes even the student that received an A, have a gap in knowledge that most of the time is not addressed because the class must move on and stick to the program resulting in an accumulation of gaps that creates difficulties when advancing to more complex subjects and concepts. Mr. Khan’s model hopes to close that gap between lesson, practice, and assessment through video tutorials, practice exercises and interactive games, and assessment software that measures the level of proficiency of a student in a particular concept/subject. Mr. Khan, is not trying to substitute teachers around the world but rather providing a tool that allows teachers to automate the “broadcast” lecture and focus more on those students that show deficiency in understanding a concept.

Here is a letter Mr. Khan received from a YouTube user in September 2009 that inspired him to pursue his calling:

“Mr. Khan,

No teacher has ever done me any good–this may sound harsh but I mean it quite literally. I was force fed medication to keep me from talking and chastised for not speaking out when called on. Where I am from blacks are not welcomed with open arms into schools–my mother and her sisters had to go to a small shack two hours from home when they went to school. About five years ago my family collected enough money to move from where i was born, so that I could have a chance at having an education and living a real life. But without a real mastery of elementary math I was slow to progress.

I am now in college and learning more than I ever have in my life. But an inadequate math background has been holding me back. I found the Kahn Academy in June of 2009, right after I completed Math 141 ( a college algebra course). I have spent the entire summer on your youtube page. And I just wanted to thank you for everything you are doing. You are a Godsend. Last week I tested for a math placement exam and I am now in Honors Math 200. No question was answered incorrectly. My placement test holder was so impressed by the breadth of my knowledge of math that he said I should be in Linear algebra.
Mr. Khan, I can say without any doubt that you have changed my life and the lives of everyone in my family.

I wish you and the Khan Academy the best of luck.”

How can you not get inspired after receiving a letter like this? This letter validated Mr. Khan’s efforts and gave him the push he needed to dedicate his life to his project. I cannot think of anything more rewarding than feeling and knowing that you are making a difference in someone’s life through your actions. Khan Academy’s tutorials have become so widespread that got the attention of Bill Gates and Google, who are providing funding to this non-profit organization to continue with its mission and vision of educating the world.

I encourage you to take a look at this website that is on its way to changing the way education is delivered; it should not be seen as a threat to the traditional educational model, but as a tool that will help improve and close the existing gaps in our educational system.

www.khanacademy.org

RELATED POSTS:

The How of Education Marketing
Importance of Continuous Development

[Post Tags: khan academy, non-profit education, free education, volunteer educators]

Article by Cesar Romero. Check out his Blog for similar ideas and tips.

From: http://ping.fm/tjUNm

The Quote Commercial- Elements of Successful Sales Pitch

2011-10-17T16:11:00.001-04:00

In the world of networking, you better be able to nail your 30 second pitch or go home. You don’t want to sound like a snake oil salesman, but you do want to be concise in your communications.

This is the 3rd Article in the Pitch to Profits Series. We already asked you if you were Nailing Your Pitch; and we gave you the Guidelines to Writing a good Pitch. We also introduced the different types of pitches.

This article will cover the Quote Commercial or Quote Pitch.

The Quote Commercial starts with a short but powerful quote and ties your services to the quote. This commercial is great when talking about attributes of your company such as Excellence, Quality, Customer Service, etc.

This commercial is best used when talking to a group that hears about your services on a regular basis. They may know that you sell widgets; but they want to know more about the intangibles; the Quote Commercial will help you get there.

The Quote Hook describes an attribute of your company. For example: “Quality”. If you choose quality, use an internet search engine such as Google to find a quote about quality.

The QUOTE BODY is where you are going to tell the audience how your services connect with the attribute identified in the Quote Hook; in this case Quality.

Your body should contain an opening transition statement, closing transition statement, and no more than three sentences with three descriptive attributes. You want to tell the customer the result of working with you as it relates to your quote.

For these sentences stay away from “I”, “We”, “Our”, “My Company”, etc. It is not about you. It is ALL ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMER. So tell them what they will get as a result of your offerings.

The QUOTE CLOSE is by far the easiest and yet the most important element of your 30 Second Commercial. You will provide your contact information, and a closing statement that solidifies your offering.

You will finalize with a Call to Action or Ask, but not both.

You should pick the Call-To-Action if your audience is filled with potential customers. You should pick the Ask if your audience is filled with business networking and referral partners. Generally, the audience of business networking and referral partners meets on a regular basis and will refer business to you. The audience of customers may also refer business to you, but usually this audience consists of potential customers and prospects.

Here is a sample Quote Commercial leveraging the Quality Attribute:

Quality is never an accident. We do it on purpose. And you will find that quality in everything that we do.

You will find quality in the way that you are greeted; to the consistent way that you get excellent service; to the way that our representatives follow up and ensure that you had a wonderful experience. We plan quality every step of the way; because you deserve excellence.

(NOTE THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION)

My name is ; . Give me your business card and get

(NOTE: THIS IS AN ASK)

My name is ; .

This week we are looking for car dealership managers. The weekend is really busy for them and they don’t want employees to leave so they cater their lunch.

We would like to do that for them. If you know of anyone managing a car dealership, I am looking for that referral. .

From: http://ping.fm/ku7DR

Changing the Mobile Gaming Industry w/Owner of GaminRide - Dave Soliday

2011-10-13T20:49:00.001-04:00

Franchise Owner, Dave Soliday purchased a Gamin’ Ride Mobile Video Gaming Franchise late in 2010. After 20+ years in corporate sales, it was time to do something on his own. What he found was Fun, Exciting, Unique and very, very different. Gamin’ Ride brings the party to you, so you can have a party at your house, not in your house (www.gaminride.com).

The most popular events are private Birthday Parties, but Gamin’ Ride also provides entertainment at Church, School, Corporate and Community Events – just to name a few. The excitement and enthusiasm generated when Gamin’ Ride pulls up is awesome. Parents are amazed at how much fund their kids have in the Gamin’ Ride Theater.

Soliday graduated from North Central College in Naperville, IL with a Business Management degree. A life-long athlete, he volunteered to coach his two daughters in basketball and fast pitch softball. The interaction with the kids was something he really enjoyed; he spotted Gamin’ Ride while looking at Franchise Opportunities in 2010, and it seemed like a natural fit.

Soliday also offers an iDance system through Gamin’ Ride. It’s essentially Dance Dance Revlolution on steriods. Imgaine 32 wireless, arcade style dance mats, all connected to the same system. Participants all watch the same game on a 10′ by 10′ screen, and compete against each other. Although iDance can have many applications, Soliday uses it to promote a new, fund raising program for Schools, called Earn N Burn (www.earnnburn.com). It’s an alternative to product based fund raisers which often reward few kids; Earn N Burn provides a school-wide, interactive assembly for all students!

When people ask Soliday what he does, his reply: “I put smiles on people’s faces”.

Do you think the education you’ve invested in helped you on the road to success?

No question. I sometimes reflect upon my political science and philosophy classes and realize, it wasn’t always about the content – sometimes it was as important to grasp the process of anlayzing a situation, or problem. Challenges in life are not always easy to figure out – there is not a clear right or wrong answer. The education I received helped prepare me to effectively analyze and solve problems.

Life lessons learned outside the classroom also proved to be valuable. Involvement in Athletics, Intramurals, Residence Life, Student Government and various clubs on campus all helped add additional value.

What was the “break point” or an AHA moment in your career that made you decide to start what you’re currently doing & how did you come up with that Idea?

Frustration in the corporate world; watching the company do the same things over, and over again, while expecting different results. Some define that as insanity – and it must have rubbed off on me. I started challenging the direction of the company. I became that guy in meetings, who would ask the questions no one else would ask. I’d question why we were not altering product development processes, because it had been a long time since we’d had a successful new product launch.

When the CEO retired and his replacement was not only from inside the company, but was the guy heading up product development, the writing was on the wall. It was obvious nothing was going to change and I had to get out. As it turned out, the new CEO felt the same way about me.

I looked at Franchises first, because I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. It was amazing to see the variety of different business opportunities which existed. In the end, I saw something which would be fun and very different. So, even though it was a franchise, it was young, exciting and new.

As a young professional, what were some of the mistakes that you made and what did you learn?

Easy – mistake was talking too much. What I learned – Listening is key.

As a sales guy, I thought my job was to pitch the customer on what I was selling. What I learned was, it was my job to understand what the customer’s problem was, and then see how I could help them solve their problem.

What is one accomplishment that you are extremely proud of?
Although not perfect and still a work in process, being a Dad to two daughters who are pretty good kids. When I get feedback on my daughters from other adults – it makes me smile, and it makes me proud.

What advice can you offer to your readers?

Perspectives are really interesting; even more interesting, is how one’s perspective, or outlook on a situation can – sometimes – help pre-determine the outcome.

Happy and optimistic people aren’t that way because everything goes their way; they are that way because they choose to be that way. If you want to know what I would like to do better, it’s to be more conscious of how I choose to look at, and handle different situations.

What do you do for fun & where do you get your Inspiration from?
Youth Sports. I am on the board for our youth basketball association. Until I started my business, i was also coaching. Watching kids learn and have success is awesome. Seeing their face light up when they score their first basket – it’s priceless.

What is your favorite gadget(s), software(s), website(s) that makes your life easier and more productive?

Wow – the problem with technology these days, as soon as you find something, a new site, or app comes along. It always seems like someone is telling me about something new I need to look into.

I’d say Smart Phones are almost a necessity these days – they help you be so much more productive. On the downside however, you feel like you are always connected.

I’ve do like twitter; it helps me stay on top of what’s going on in the world.

Aroundme is an app that helps various types of establishments around, or near where you are.

Who would you like to see featured here and why?

My Franchisor, Michael Falgares is a pretty interesting guy, with an interesting story.

mfalgares@gaminride.com

Ways to Connect with you:
email: dsoliday@gaminride.com
FB: www.facebook.com/gaminride.twincities
Twitter: @dgsolidman
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davesoliday

From: http://ping.fm/fDq6Z

Free Resources for Site Keyword Research

2011-10-12T17:06:00.001-04:00

Even though ContentEqualsMoney.com is not an SEO company, we work with keywords more than most. Since we do SEO copywriting services the majority of our clients leverage their site keywords into everything from their site copy to white papers. And for good reason, we all know that Google makes the world go round. And if Google wants keywords, keywords we will give it.
So how does a company pick keywords?

Unfortunately, most companies do one of two things: they pay a ridiculous amount of money to an SEO “expert” for keyword research or they try to do it alone without the proper tools.

If you think that those are your only options, this article will help. Most SEO companies are using these same tools everyday. There is no magic formula, there are only opinions. If you get 5 SEO experts into a room (real experts, not the ones that just finished a weekend seminar) and you ask them how to pick keywords you will get 5 different answers.

Just like anything else, there are elementary and advanced concepts. Unfortunately, most “SEO experts” are dolling out elementary concepts because…they can. If you could sell basic math skills at $200/hour wouldn’t you?
Here are some examples of elementary SEO concepts:

Choose keywords with high search volume
Choose keywords with low competition
Choose keywords that make sense for your business
Choose keywords that are specific enough that chances are the person is looking for what you are selling.
Choose keywords that a regular person is going to type into a search engine
Choose keywords that make sense for your audience

This is all basic SEO stuff. And you can find the answers to these questions at the following sites – FREE:

SEOmoz.org – A free version of this web based software will provide you access to pretty much anything you need. They have Open Site Explorer which allows you to see where your competition is getting backlinks, the anchor text they are using and their authority. The paid version of SEOmoz makes everything easier and allows you to see the difficulty index and the list of your major competitors but you can spend a few months in their free zone gaining all the knowledge you need. And once you get your feet wet I guarantee you will love SEOmoz so much that you will buy the paid version. They aren’t pushy or salesy…. the products are just that good!

http://ping.fm/EfHWC - This is the Google tool you are probably all well aware of. This is how you see competition and searches. Unfortunately these numbers aren’t crazy accurate and should be your 1st step in keyword research, not the only step.

Use your Google bar – When you type in something check out the options that Google provides. This is a way for you to see what Google expects you to need. This is a pretty easy way to see some other search terms. It also provides a quick insight into all the other things your term might refer to.

http://ping.fm/BBEJh – Yup, this is a blog post. Not just any blog post mind you. It’s by Ian Lurie and it is a rundown of all the things you need to do for SEO. The first section is about keyword research, but it runs all the way through content strategy. Some of the sources in his list are paid, but I’m pretty sure all of them at least have a free trial. Turn off your iPhone, get a cup of coffee and cuddle up with this powerful post.

What about the advanced concepts for keyword research?

The difference between elementary and advanced SEO keyword strategy is the experience of the expert. Do I think Ian Lurie’s Playbook is worth $15k?* Absolutely! Do I think you should spend $200 on some random person who calls themselves an expert without any real experience, no.

This is where content marketing is your friend. Great SEO experts (real experts) like Ian Lurie, Rand Fishkin and others utilize content marketing everyday. This means that all you have to do is read their blogs, check out their twitter and enjoy them. Just by interacting with them you will learn their opinions and strategies on SEO. And all for free.

If I had an extra fifteen thousand bucks lying around I would definitely consult with Ian Lurie’s team for a SEO Playbook. But since I don’t, I read his blog and have learned a LOT about SEO. And that’s from someone who doesn’t run an SEO company or charges for SEO research. Just keep your ears and eyes open and you will learn more than most “experts” in no time.

Have any great resources to share? Do you agree that the difference between elementary and advanced SEO (regarding keyword strategy) is all about the opinion/experience of the expert?

RELATED POSTS:

10 Valuable Basics of SEO
7 Best Books for Search Engine Optimization
Best Ways to Structure Content

About the Author: This post was written by Amie, the founder of ContentEqualsMoney.com. Want to join the ranks of their happy customers? Email her directly via amie@contentequalsmoney.com

From: http://ping.fm/QHCfh

What are the parts of a Good Pitch?

2011-10-11T11:39:00.001-04:00

In the world of networking, you better be able to nail your 30 second pitch or go home. You don’t want to sound like a snake oil salesman, but you do want to be concise in your communications.

In order to help you get there, here are a general set of guidelines to get you started. The first guideline is that there is a HOOK, a BODY, and a CLOSE with a CALL-to-ACTION or ASK. The second is that you want to keep the commercial between 30 and 37 seconds.

The Hook is about seven seconds and it is the first thing that your audience will hear. It is the way that you will engage your audience by creating a single statement that your audience understands quickly and piques their interest.

The body of your commercial builds upon the base schema created in your HOOK and is about 16 seconds. The body lets the audience “off the hook” by telling them what you can do for them; how your services are different; or solidifies the understanding of the product or service.

The body has three simple guidelines:

You will pick only one offering or One Tell-n-Sell. In 30 seconds you cannot give a resume of services to your audience. You want to pick an offering and target market.
You will also leverage the “Rule of Threes”. The “Rule of Threes” means that you create three sentences with no more than three attributes associated with the one product or service discussed in the body.
Finally, you will ensure that the body discusses the results of using your offering. Remember, it is all about the customer. Your commercial will make sure they know what they will get when they use your products or services.

In a commercial closing you will finalize your message. In your closing your audience needs to know who you are, what you do, and how to contact you. You also want to tell your audience of potential customers what you want them to do. This is the CALL-TO-ACTION and should be about seven seconds.

The Call-To-Action is the way that you finalize information with your customer so that they know how to move forward and what you expect them to do next. Many professional commercials close with a call-to-action. Just take a look at the commercials on TV. They will ask viewers to do something and in return, get something.

Imagine that you are not in front of potential customers; however, you are in front of a networking group such as BNI® (Business Network International), which is a business networking and referral organization; however, they may not necessarily be your customer. In a case where you are not in front of your potential customer, but you are in front of business partners that can refer business to you, your closing should have an ASK at the end.

In actuality this is a TELL. You will tell the audience what type of business or business prospects you are looking for. In this case you want to be very specific and not get caught in the trap of listing every type of customer that you want to do business with.

Because organizations such as BNI generally meet on a regular basis, your goal is to educate your referral network to the type of business that you do and then tell them the type of customer that you are looking for. On a week by week basis, your definition will have a TELL that explains exactly what type of customer you are looking for and why.

These guidelines will get you well on your way to developing amazing 30 Second Pitches that take you straight into profits.

SEE ALSO:

Are you Nailing Your Pitch?
5 Ways to Retain Your Clients

About the Author

Dawnna St Louis, Professional Speaker, Speaking Coach, Messaging Consultant and Author, She is the creator of Sticky Mechanics, Speak Naked, and from PowerPoint to Powerful, puts her energies into writing books, coaching presenters and sales teams, and speaking on women’s empowerment and communications successes she’s observed and participated in at great companies. Her focus is on inspiring audiences find personal and professional success by leveraging the most powerful tool available to man, communications!

Dawnna’s newest book, Pitch to Profits, is a step by step how to guide that teaches readers how to turn a 30 second pitch into profits. At most network meetings attendees are asked to stand up and give a 30 Second Pitch. In 30 Seconds you are either getting business or losing it. There is NO IN BETWEEN!

Pitch to Profits turns you into a pitching pro and transforms your audience of window shoppers, business card collectors, and browsers into buyers.

Her next book, YOLO, will be launched in front of 500 women at the Women’s Success Summit on November 10th, 2011. .

Want to find out more. Reach out to Dawnna at www.DawnnaSpeaks.com.

Img Courtesy: syokkahwin

[Post Tags: sales pitch, how to prepare a pitch, parts of good pitch, elevator pitch]

From: http://ping.fm/yOaAh

5 Effective Books on Mastering Your Leadership Skills (part II)

2011-10-05T19:58:00.001-04:00

Moomkin.com continues to receive numerous inquiries to provide our readers with more resources on a continuous development of leadership skills. Whether it is to do with leading a small group, or a whole organization, doing it effectively and successfully at the same time, is a business skill worth developing and educating yourself on throughout your business career.

Most of us have witnessed some negative aspects of an ineffective leadership and the consequences of bad management. As a result, that organization is bound to face profit losses, low employee morale, and unavoidable layoffs, pay cuts, and downsizing, to name a few. Those of us in all echelons of management need to continue educating and utilizing our best practices in order not to fall into the category of leaders that everyone despises and avoids. Moreover, to be become a successful leader we choose to be responsible for the fate of the whole company in the global marketplace.

Here are the 5 effective books on leadership skills that we think are worth dedicating your time to:

1. “What To Do When You Become The Boss” By Bob Selden

‘Training of new managers can be a great boost to organizations that are keen to improve their bottom line. Not only are good managers more productive than their counterparts, but an effective manager who also shows good leadership skills, can have a major impact on both their direct reports and indeed their peers.’

2. “Why Your Boss is Programmed to be a Dictator” By Chetan Dhruve

This piece ‘takes an extra step back from similar books that look at the problems of bad bosses, looking at the bigger picture and giving thoughtful, articulate insight into the root causes of why such negative working environments and behaviors exist.’ The author ‘approaches these problems using “Systems Thinking” – the idea that the component parts of any system will behave differently when isolated from its environment, and that the environment itself effects those components.’

3. “Total Leadership: How to Inspire and Motivate for Personal and Team Effectiveness” by Jim Barrett

‘Focusing on the individual’s relationship with those around him, Barrett looks at how the hierarchical structure of some organizations can hinder productivity. Through personal awareness, team building, influencing, decision making and personal agenda setting, each individual within an organization can learn to act as a leader, taking responsibility for their own tasks and relationships. This improves not only personal performance and enjoyment at work, but is enormously beneficial for the organization as a whole.’

4. “Lead Well and Prosper” By Nick McCormick

‘McCormick, a veteran manager in the information technology sector, argues that management is in a state of crisis. With this compact read he offers a solution to the crisis, giving managers of any level the direction necessary to become good managers.’

5. “Beyond Authority: Leadership in a Changing World” By Julia Middleton

‘This is a book for anyone who wants to reach out beyond their little cubby hole in life. There is another world of leadership. What happens when you step outside the chain of established authority? Suddenly the authority of the office falls away. A new influence needs to be built. In meeting after meeting across the country “Common Purpose” has brought together business leaders, local politicians, regional police forces or hospitals or universities and said: “get together, lead together, and, by being involved in each other’s affairs, build together a stronger civil society.”

RELATED POSTS:

5 Best Books on How to Influence People
5 Best Books to Sharpen Your Leadership skills (p. I)

What are some of the most effective leadership books that you’ve recently picked up and would like to share with our readers?

Article written by Kamilla Kay, PMP. Check out her Personal Blog for similar thoughts and ideas.

From: http://ping.fm/qItpW

Marketing Mix That Will Surprise You

2011-10-03T17:44:00.001-04:00

In a recent post I discussed the power of a multi-pronged approach to content marketing. However, if you are building a business you shouldn’t scrap the “old school” techniques of yesteryear. If anything, you should find a new way to leverage proven marketing tactics for the modern world. Here are some ways that we market Content Equals Money with surprising success:

1) Direct Mail: Whether it is a post card to those we interact with on social media or a hard copy proposal to potential clients, we still use direct mail to market our service. In the past we have used this in conjunction with telemarketing efforts to “prime the pump” as it were before making calls. In every case, we use it to complement other types of marketing. And in every case, it increases our impact from 5-10%.

Marketing Mix that will Surprise You2) Telemarketing: The key to telemarketing has always been the list. When we first used this type of marketing we purchased lists from Hoover’s that did fairly well. Now that we have a more traditional sales person in place, we work together to create a solid lead list. This means a lot less calls BUT a lot more conversions. We have also added casual phone calls to our social media schedule. In other words, Emma (our Social Media Manager) makes a few calls each day to people she interacts with on social media. Just a way to solidify the connections made online.

3) Banner Advertising: This is a bit tricky and we have had many bumps on the road. However, we have found banner advertising to still be an effective way to market our content writing service. We don’t use Google Adwords but instead work with sites directly or with media buy sites like buysellads.com. Buying ads directly from sites can be an arduous but highly profitable avenue of marketing. If you aren’t already watching the podcasts on Mixergy.com I highly suggest them. A recent Master’s Class with the founder of MixRank.com is more than worth the money and walks you step by step through the process of direct media buys.

4) Gifts: Sometimes we send clients brownies or a gift basket or whatever to remind them that we are a company that cares. We used to pick one client per pay period, now we have a certain cost associated with their gift. For example, when a client spends 5k with us we send them a large gift basket. When they spend 10k we send a more customized gift. Since we work closely with our clients we usually know the names of their office members, how big their office is, etc. so we can really shine when it is time to buy gifts. PLUS, if the client is on social media they almost always talk about what we did and bring us more clients.

ALSO SEE:

5 Tips for Savvier E-mail Marketing
Why Unique Content is the Least of Your Worries
6 Effective Ways to Drive Traffic to your Website

And of course, all of this is in addition to our content marketing efforts. Staying creative and leveraging proven strategies with a modern twist will always keep you ahead of your competition. It’s hard to believe that Content Equals Money hits just our one year anniversary next month, as we have been growing like gangbusters. And without any outside funding, it’s been an incredible journey.

What type of “old school” techniques are you using to promote your business? We’d love to hear about it!

This post was written by Amie Marse, founder of Content Equals Money. If you would like to hear about what we can do to grow your business with content marketing email her directly via amie@contentequalsmoney.com.

[Post tags: Content Marketing, Marketing Mix, Direct Mail, Telemarketing, Banner Advertising Gift]

From: http://www.moomkin.com/marketing-mix/

Are you nailing your PITCH?

2011-10-02T21:54:00.001-04:00

The most popular question asked at a network meeting, sales meeting and of most business professionals is “What do you do?” At some network meetings like Business Networking International©, FemFessionals©, or other major networking events, attendees are asked to stand up and give a 30 Second Pitch. Although this is an expected activity every week, the thought of those 30 Seconds strikes fear in the heart of many.

Imagine that you are in a networking meeting and you hear a person get up and babble for 30 Seconds (usually they go on for much longer). What do you think about them? What do you think about their business? How much confidence do you have in their product? We asked networking attendees these questions and the answers were clear.

Attendees said that they remembered how poor the pitch was but they forgot what the offering was. They also avoided the speaker after the event because they did not want to get caught in a conversation full of babbling and sputtering. What’s even worse is that they did not want to do business with the speaker because they felt the company was unorganized.

To be fair, we also checked out some GREAT pitches. With the ones that were memorable there were two outcomes; either people remembered the commercial and the product; or people remembered the commercial but had no idea what product they were pitching. The goal is to be the former.

In one case there was this guy that stood on his head… literally with his head on the floor and feet in the air. As he stood in this awkward position he said, “What do I have to do to get your business? Stand on my head! Well I am doing that!”

Wow! Did we remember that? ABSOLUTELY! A guy stood on his head and he was wearing a suit! Does he do yoga in his spare time?

But the second question is more important. What was his product or business? What was his offering? We had no idea, and neither did the audience. In fact, a month later someone said “Remember when you stood on your head! That was amazing. What’s your product again?… I forgot!”

Whoops! Missed the mark.

The goal is to create a pitch that is memorable and relevant to your business. One without the other is worthless.

Basically, in 30 Seconds you are either getting business or losing it. There is NO IN BETWEEN! Over the next few articles I will cover the 5 types of pitches, when you should use them, and how to deliver.

RELATED POSTS:

8 Ways to Deliver a Killer Speech
5 Best Books on How to Influence People

About the Author

Dawnna St Louis, Professional Speaker, Speaking Coach, Messaging Consultant and Author, She is the creator of Sticky Mechanics, Speak Naked, and from PowerPoint to Powerful, puts her energies into writing books, coaching presenters and sales teams, and speaking on women’s empowerment and communications successes she’s observed and participated in at great companies. Her focus is on inspiring audiences find personal and professional success by leveraging the most powerful tool available to man, communications!

Dawnna’s newest book, Pitch to Profits, is a step by step how to guide that teaches readers how to turn a 30 second pitch into profits. At most network meetings attendees are asked to stand up and give a 30 Second Pitch. In 30 Seconds you are either getting business or losing it. There is NO IN BETWEEN!

Pitch to Profits turns you into a pitching pro and transforms your audience of window shoppers, business card collectors, and browsers into buyers.

Her next book, YOLO, will be launched in front of 500 women at the Women’s Success Summit on November 10th, 2011.

Image courtesy: akrobat777

[Post Tags: how to pitch your message, effective public speaking, how to deliver a speech, successful speech techniques]

From: http://ping.fm/WIKWJ