I recently had the chance to grill best-selling Author Bob Burg, who has become a great friend of mine.  In this video interview will break down the crazy idea that givers actually make more money.  We also talk about a whole range of topics including the Law of Value, authenticity, ego, networking.  Oh yeah, and Bob tell us his two things that make up his recipie for success for young entrepreneurs.  Hope you enjoy!

Here are a few notes from the interview:

“The opposite of a go-giver is not a go-getter, it’s a go-taker.”

“It’s about shifting your focus from getting to giving.”

“I believe in living on the creative plane rather than the competitive plane.”

“Most of us failed our way to success.  The key is did we fail forward or fail and get discouraged.”

“When you focus on what you don’t have, you will never be happy.”

“If you want to make a lot of money in sales, making money should never be your target.  Your target is serving people.  If you hit your target, you’ll get a reward and your reward will be money.”

The Bob Burg Interview (35:06 video)

Just add another hot trend to the equation, “systematization”, and organize your efforts to maximize your results (to learn more about systematization read The 4-Hour Work Week). If you have a great story to tell and a systematized approach to spreading your story, you can use social media to build that dynamic brand that will propel you to the next level. Here are some simple yet powerful steps you can take:

Who Are You and What Is Your Story?

You will find lasting success in social media if and only if…you are authentic and you have a great story to tell. So before you start your social media journey make a promise to yourself.

One: Always be authentic. Never shove information down your follower’s throats…just assume they don’t eat SPAM.

Two: Focus on adding value to your community. Everyone has a story that is worth telling. That may sound cliché but it’s true. You may not be the CEO of your company but you can bet that there is someone out there that would love to hear how you got your job! Focus on giving out great content, links, advice, and help and watch your community grow!

Set Up Home Base

Without a home base your social media efforts will equate to trying to fill a water bottle with a fire hose. You will push out great content with nowhere to funnel your followers to. So create your own personal branded WordPress blog and create a clear-cut focus around your personal interest or expertise. Make sure to direct everything back to home base. From your Twitter account to your blog comments everything should be pointed back to your blog where people who show interest in what you do or say find out how interesting you really are.

Use The Big Guns: Engage on Facebook and Twitter

Public is the new default! Millions of people have access to most of your media on the web. Instead of fighting Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of the social web on this embrace it, better yet engage!

Facebook will give you the opportunity to tap into much of your personal network. Many feel like Facebook is for your friends that don’t want to be marketed to. Instead you can look at it as a platform where you can share your interests and passions with your friends (blog links, videos, quotes). Most likely your friends will like what you have to say and be eager to spread your message through Facebook.

Twitter is a whole new world. A world in which the question “What’s Happening?” has opened up an incredible amount of unforeseen opportunities. Out of the social web, Twitter is arguably the best tool that facilitates conversations between people. Twitter is almost completely open, meaning you can ignite a conversation with anyone from Ashton Kutcher to Joe the Plumber. Use Twitter to your full advantage by showcasing your web personality. For example, since you’re a young entrepreneur, following young entrepreneurs will help you connect with the audience you want to engage. Start tweeting some quality links, photos, insights and most importantly @tweet interesting people and start conversations.

Put on Your Suit and Tie

Professional social networks like Linkedin and Brazen Careerist can give you all types of exposure to more professional networks. By establishing your professional prowess on these networks you can dive into unfiltered business engagements (hard to do on Facebook and Twitter). One great feature is that you can cross promote your social media accounts by linking up your Twitter with these websites. Last but not least, make sure to link up your blog to your professional profiles (Brazen might even feature your blog posts).

Flip Yourself

That may have come off wrong. What I mean is that broadcasting yourself through entertaining and educational videos can go far beyond text. Regular blog posts can capture only so much. The more you record yourself on video the more access your community has to your real personality and passions. This can be a huge asset in building your personal brand. Start uploading you videos to YouTube or Vimeo and embed those videos back on your blog. If you are not too bad on the eyes and give good video content, you may become the next iJustine or Gary V!

Blog Simple Blog Communal

Platforms like Tumblr and Posterous are somewhat of new comers to the game but extremely powerful tools. Tumblr focuses on community blogging and can spread content through the social sphere with little effort. Essential Tumblr is a Twitter without a 140 character cap. When it comes to Posterous the ease of use is ridiculous! Just send an email to post@posterous.com and before you know it you have yourself a blog post which can be syndicated on your Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube accounts and much more!

Conclusion

Creating a systematized approach with social media tools can be one of the most rewarding and straight forwards things your can do to cultivate your personal brand. Don’t over indulge in the technology behind the tools; instead know who you are, know how you want to tell the world, leverage the most important social media platforms and link everything back to your blog. And never forget to be yourself and share your passion!

The tough part is that many of our 2009 goals came in the form of a list of ten New Year’s Resolution that was scribbled down on the some cocktail napkin.  With most New Year’s Resolutions there is little to no real goal setting or accountability.  Not to say that resolutions are bad, but there needs to be a system in pace to make sure you are accountable for what you are looking to accomplish.

If you are like me, you are excited about making the most of the upcoming year.  We need to make this the year that we go beyond New Years Resolutions and achieve what we are meant to achieve.

With all that being said it takes a little more than putting a pen to a note pad.  It takes understanding, planning and action to accomplish great things in 2010.

Understanding

Start With Resolutions

We have all fell victim to poor New Years Resolution planning before…there is no need to be ashamed.  Typically what happens is you jot down a few things you would like to do in the new year.  The resolutions are normally 180 behavioral shifts from stuff you did the year before.  That paper you jotted down your resolutions on is supposed to keep you accountable throughout the new year…fool proof right?

Try this…

• Jot down everything you want to accomplish in the new year.
• Explain to yourself why you want to accomplish each item.
• Move you resolutions onto a goal list and see if each resolution fits within your master plan.

Planning

Set Your Goals

Goal setting is where your real planning takes form.  These are the items that you are a 100% accountable for.  These goals should be near and dear to you and act as a constant reminder of what needs to be accomplished.

Here are the steps you can take to make sure you don’t only set goals, but you accomplish your goals:

• Take your resolutions and begin to separate them based on category.  (Example: write for Mashable goes in the Personal Branding/ Social Media category –> Finish my first course of French goes in the Personal category.)
• Start building goals around resolutions you have set in each category.
• Make sure each goal is measurable.
• Give a timeline for the accomplishment of that goal.
• Access all your goals and begin to reduce your list.  Begin to take away the extraneous and time consuming goals that won’t fulfill your overall mission.  Note that reducing your scope of goals can be even more important that building you goal list out.  If your list is too big, you may be overwhelmed and discouraged by your lack of progress because you spread yourself too thin.

Last but not least…

Action

Track Your Milestones

I learned that goal lists often get lost in the shuffle (just like resolutions).  Therefore, I made an effort to break down my yearly goals into monthly action plans.  Monthly action plans is much easier to manage than a list full of goals.  I have seen the best results when I:

• Take goals from each category which need to be addressed right away.
• Break them down into quantifiable goals that can be met over the course of a month.  Example) If your goal is to have 20 guest posts published in 2010, your action plan for January should be to write 2 guest posts for x and y blogs.
• Create milestones for each week.  Over the course of 7 days, what will need to be finished in order to finish up your monthly goals?
• Take a Post-it® and write out what you need to accomplish for that day.  Make sure to keep it short and sweet (maximum 3 medium sized tasks).  This will make sure you never loose site of the task at hand.

Follow these this simple system and you are much more likely to keep you resolutions this year!  I can’t wait to see what you accomplish in 2010.

[Photo cred: sourskittled]

The team at Unstrapp’d has learned a great deal from our peers and we wanted to award and recognize our industry leaders.  We have put together a list of blogs that have a message that can help a young entrepreneur grow their business and are written from the perspectives of young entrepreneurs.  When you take a look at some of these blogs, you may find yourself scratching your head on how they make it look so easy and a few may just downright piss you off!  However, after taking an open look into these bloggers experiences, you will find that much of their road is just like yours and their level of success is fully obtainable.

With all the recommendations and nominations we have received, we constructed this list several factors in mind:

• Quality and relevance of content
• Consistency of posts
• Engagement of readers
• Remarkability
• Overall appeal to gen-y

This post is written completely from the opinion of the Unstrapp’d team and the site’s readers.  We know that there are many great blogs still yet for us to discover.  But, these ones right here, you will definitely want to subscribe to and put them in your Google reader because they are hot!  We have made it easy for you to follow them all at once on Twitter.  So without further delay, our Top 30 Young Entrepreneur Blogs of 2009:

The Rise To The Top

Founder: David Garland | Twitter: @TheRiseToTheTop

The Rise To The Top blends business, education, entertainment, lifestyle for emerging and established entrepreneurs looking to create successful businesses and dream lifestyles.  This blog originated from the fast-moving television show which is broadcast on ABC.  The show features fast paced interviews from high-energy entrepreneurs who are experts in their fields and actually give valuable advice.

Quick Sprout

Founder: Neil Patel | Twitter: @NeilPatel

Quick Sprout is a popular entrepreneurship blog that teaches people how to become a “rock star” in their industry.  Neil is the founder of two companies and he keeps it real with his no b.s. approach to business.  He will give you his success formula for business in “real talk” to shine light on the myths of making money.  He has created quite the community and is very active in the commenting section on his blog.  Meaning: you comment…he responds!

Mixergy

Founder: Andrew Warner | Twitter: @AndrewWarner

Mixergy is the place where the ambitious learn from experienced mentors.  Andrew Warner became a success in his early 20′s where he built an Internet business toppling 30 million dollars in sales.  He brings in-depth interviews with a diverse variety of entrepreneurs allowing you to learn the secrets of their success.

Startup Lucky

Founder: Aronado Placencia | Twitter: @Aronado

StartupLucky is bridging the gap between startup businesses and investors.  Through his many video interviews, Aronando Placencia has constructed a web portal for the education, inspiration and the funding of startup companies.

Young Entrepreneur

Founders: Adam and Matthew Toren | Twitter: @thebizguy

YoungEntrepreneur.com is one of the longest running sites on the Internet that cater to young entrepreneurs.  Adam and Matthew do not only have a powerful blog, but have created one of the most in-depth sites for young entrepreneurs.

Jun Loayza

Founder: Jun Loayza | Twitter: @JunLoayza

Jun has a tremendous ability to paint a picture and put you in it; he is a storyteller.  That is important in business because we learn on real-life experiences, not theory.  He talks a lot about relationships and the grueling yet fun side of entrepreneurship many don’t tackle.  Listen to Jun and he will teach you how to live the startup life.

Under30CEO

Founders: Matt Wilson, Jared O’Toole | Twitter: @Under30CEO

Matt and Jared are two young entrepreneurs from New York who are passionate about helping you ditch doing the things you hate and to start living your dreams.  They talk about a variety of business topics, but primarily lifestyle.  Starting a bootstrapped business is one thing, but these guys will teach you how to start a bootstrapped business while enjoying the freedom you desire and deserve.

Income Diary

Founder: Michael Dunlop | Twitter: @MichaelDunlop

Michael is a young man to keep on your radar.  He doesn’t talk, he just does.  As a lot people ramble about making money on the Internet, Michael pulls in a very healthy profit from his blogs.  Oh yeah, and he’s not even old enough to buy a beer (in the States that is!).  With this blog, he shares with you his experiences, tips and strategies of making money online.

Just Creative Design

Founder: Jacob Cass | Twitter: @justcreative

For all you creative folks out there (or lack there of), you may want to check out Jacob’s ever-so-popular graphic design blog.  Jacob has taken his passion and turned it into a successful business.  Through his business experience, he will show you how important design is when building your brand.

Erin Blaskie

Founder: Erin Blaskie | Twitter: @ErinBlaskie

Erin is known for her passionate love affair with Internet marketing (hey she said it), and she has a tendency to partake in her fair share of PDA.  She has mastered the game of systematizing entrepreneurial success with outsourcing, virtual assistants, Internet marketing efforts and more.  The best part is that she is sharing her secretes with everyone.

Ryan Stephens Marketing

Founder: Ryan Stephens | Twitter: @RyanStephens

Ryan Stephens is the ultimate relationship guy.  He is incredible at leveraging social media to start conversations, build relationships and spread ideas.  In its truest form, social media is all about being social and forging bonds with human beings, not the cool new technologies.  Ryan will show you the why and how of REAL social media marketing.

Ben Lang Entrepreneur Blog

Founder: Ben Lang | Twitter: @entrepreneurpro

Why do we like Ben for this list?  It’s because he provides great value to the young entrepreneur community AND he is just a teenage entrepreneur.  He brings a unique perspective on business and may be someone you younger entrepreneurs can relate to.

The University Kid

Founder: Stanley Tang | Twitter: @StanleyTang

Stanley Tang is a talented young entrepreneur who is passionate about teaching his peers everything about Internet marketing entrepreneurship from the perspective of a young entrepreneur.  Being still in his teens and a published author makes him a good leader to look to when trying make a splash starting at a young age.

I Will Teach You to Be Rich

Founder: Ramit Sethi | Twitter: @Ramit

Ramit is THE blogging superstar of the personal finance world.  His content is practically built for young folks looking to get educated in personal finance while being engaged by one of their own.  Explore I Will Teach You to Be Rich long enough and you will find that this blog goes far beyond personal finance to the realms of entrepreneurship, career planning, psychology and life.  If you’re sick of skipping out on your latte every morning to save that $4 to start your next venture, read this blog and read it now!

Rockstar Lifestyle Design

Founder: Greg Rolett | Twitter: @g_ro

Greg is a real life rock star who lives on his own terms and enjoys every minute of it.  His passion goes beyond music and business as he focuses on helping people find innovative ways to create their own rock star lifestyle by living on their own terms.

Exile Lifestyle

Founder: Colin Wright | Twitter: @colinismyname

Colin embodies the spirit of our generation as he lives a completely unrestricted life.  He is an intellectually stimulating writer, a sustainable designer, a frequent traveler, with an unyielding hunger to learn.  He is currently on a journey across the world with his Mac Book, a few other possessions and his incredible ability to create the remarkable.

Social Pollination

Founder: Monica O’Brien | Twitter: @monicaobrien

Social Pollination gives readers a refreshing look into new media marketing at the juncture of traditional marketing.  Monica has a way of composing intriguing narratives while covering marketing research on new media trends.

Thrilling Heroics

Founder: Cody McKibben | Twitter: @codymckibb

Cody is Gen-Y’s version of Indiana Jones.  Instead of a whip, he is equip with a laptop and a passion for globe-trotting.  He has lived abroad for over a year now and has accumulating some amazing experiences; all of which are eye-opening for any entrepreneur looking to live a location independent lifestyle.

Blogussion

Founder: Alex Fraiser | Twitter: @AlexFraiser

One of our favorites that has not gotten much attention is Blogussion.  With a brilliant design and even better content that helps you become a better blogger, is it hard to believe this site is run by Alex Fraiser who is still in high school!

Zac Johnson

Founder: Zac Johnson | Twitter: @moneyreign

Zach Johnson will help you make money.  Lot’s of it.  He is a young entrepreneur who has built his success through affiliate marketing.  The exciting part is that he is sharing his secrets with the world.  All you have to do is check out his blog.

Personal Branding Blog

Founder: Dan Schwabel | Twitter: @DanSchwabel

In a little over two years, Dan Schwabel has become the spokesperson for gen-y in the field of  personal branding.  His content has been featured on Forbes.com, Fox Business, Mashable and more (so you know it’s good).   If none of that intrigues you, he has a revealing interview with MC Hammer (I know I got you there).  Basically, if you are looking to build your personal brand online, you NEED to read the Personal Branding Blog.

Dorm Room Biz

Founder: Chris Pund | Twitter: @ChrisPund

Chris Pund understands that the college lifestyle presents a unique opportunity to start businesses.  Never will you have as much freedom and access to resources that can help you create your own business.  Dorm Room Biz will show you how to leverage this opportunity to create a successful business.

Small Hands Big Ideas

Founder: Grace Boyle | Twitter: @gracekboyle

Grace radiates her love for life through her writing which makes her a source of inspiration for all her readers.  Her small hands has typed up over 200 articles containing some big ideas about digital marketing, start-ups and the gen-y journey.

Illuminated Mind

Founder: Jonathan Mead | Twitter: @JonathanMead

For those looking to live life on your own terms, you must read Illuminated Minds.  Illuminated Minds is far from ordinary as it encourages us to steer away from mediocrity and embrace our pure essence to help us discover what we are meant to do.  With a modern blend of Zen teachings and the entrepreneurial lifestyle, Jonathan Mead has put together a blog that will shift your paradigm. 

Location 180

Founder: Sean Ogle | Twitter: @seanogle

Like many of us, Sean has discovered the corporate world rigid, bureaucratic and restrictive.  In revolt, he decided to quit his job and live life the way it is supposed to be.  His blog publishes his 180 from young professional to an excitement seeker.  If you are in a job you hate, was in a job you hated or just simply love the nomadic lifestyle, you have to check Sean out!

Blogtrepreneur

Founders: Adam and Matthew Toren | Twitter: @blogtrepreneur

The founders of Young Entrepreneur.com bring you another go to resource for internet entrepreneurs.  Blogtrepreneur covers the areas of entrepreneurship, online marketing, personal development, making money and more.

PluginID

Founder: Glen Allsopp | Twitter: @PluginId

PluginID goes far beyond its aesthetically captivating design. It is a site that will be sure to awaken, inspire and motivate you.  Glen is a master of helping his readers discover possibilities that they may have not been aware of before.

Life Without Pants

Founder: Matt Cheuvront | Twitter: @mattchevy

A Life Without Pants is all about living a life a little less restricted.  Who better to promote that mantra than the always exuberant and infectiously optimistic Matt Cheuvront.  During the past year, the blog has quickly become a sounding board for many rule breaking young folks that are looking to reinvent the status quo.  Matt is constantly finding innovative ways to engage his community and challenge himself.  You can expect some amazing things from Matt in 2010.

Owl Sparks

Founder: Carlos Miceli | Twitter: @CarlosMic

Carlos has been officially dubbed Seth Godin Jr. for his short sparks of owl like wisdom.  Through his thought-provoking write ups, The Argentinian blogger walks a fine line between being a stimulating thought leader and rebel with a cause.  However, it is obvious he would not want to be categorized as either.  His blog gives the young entrepreneur an escape from marketing trends and twitter feeds and keeps the mind fresh and curious.

Viralogy

Founders: Yukai Chou, Jun Loayza | Twitter: @Viralogy

The Future Delivery boys Yukai Chou and Jun Loayza epitomize the spirit and savvy of young entrepreneurs.  They have come together once again to bring you an incredible new web tool that measures your social media influence.  Beyond social media ranking, the Viralogy blog covers all ends of social media, from interesting perspectives on blogging to new Twitter conversation monitoring.  Last but not least, Jun Loayza is still bring you revealing interviews with some of the most influential people on the Internet.  You’re gonna want to see social media through the eyes of Viralogy.

These are words that are often thrown around when you hear people talking about leadership, but not many people address them in the way that I’d like to. I’d like to address these head on and explain the importance of them to you.

The first ‘C’ represents Control…

Control is one of the first things that you must share with anyone who you are leading. But what is control?

Control means the ability for any and every person to make his or her own decisions.
As a leader, you need to make sure that everyone knows that it is their decision on whether they are going to grow with you as a person/team or if they are to leave your team.

Say for example, you are leading a team in Corporate America doing finance work for a company. Some of your employees may or may not want to do this for their whole life.

As a leader, you need to make sure that they get their work done but also let these people know that if they are truly unhappy with their job, that they need to start taking the time to develop another skill set to pursue after leaving this job.  They are in control of their time, but you need to make sure that while they are working with you, they must finish the tasks essential to the success of the team. In their free time they need to be developing their own skill-sets so that they can pursue a different career.

The next ‘C’ represents Connection…

Connections are vital if you are to have a successful business. Leaders need to establish a connection with every one of their employees as well as every one of their potential clients. The connections that you share with your teammates are so important that you can’t help but take the time to develop these relationships.

By holding meetings and learning about the goals of your team, you further develop your connection with each individual. This allows for you to put each person in control of his or her own decisions as well as find out what will challenge each person.  As well as holding meetings, I recommend you share some time outside of work together, maybe head to a happy hour one Friday or head to the golf course and play a round. This further develops your relationships.

Which leads into the final ‘C’…

(Other types of connections that you must develop as a leader are the offline relationships that you develop through networking events. These are essential as they help you identify the needs of your clients and these events often lead to referrals to your business. )

The last ‘C’ represents Challenge…

Challenge is essential to teams. Think about something that has challenged you. Sports were always a major challenge in my life and provided me with enough reason to strive to be the best. Now, I am challenging myself with a 90-day challenge using the P90X workout program as well as a business challenge in which I take an hour out of every day and devote it to reading or creating valuable content.

Without challenges, people get bored and end up wanting to quit. You need to constantly challenge your team members or else you will manifest no creativity or progression within your team. Challenges can range from individual challenges to huge challenges like becoming a world leader in your niche.

As a leader, you need to find ways to challenge each person you are working with as well as an overall challenge for your team and your own personal challenges. This will lead to some amazing breakthroughs in your business and I highly urge you learn to challenge your team as well as yourself.

Take the time to learn and master these C’s and you will be on your way to greatness!

What questions and experiences do you have dealing with leadership?

Photo cred: La ciudad visible

We came a little short of our 10,000 unique visitor traffic goal for November, which was our first month live.  Regardless, we still made a huge splash.  I wish I could shake every single one of your hands personally.   I am honored to meet the many that I have met.  Although these numbers really mean nothing, I wanted to share with the community what kind of splash we are making.  Here is our stat sheet:

• Unique Visitors: (November) – 7,001 visitors
• Page Views: (November) – 10,594 views
• Comments: 667 comments
• Facebook: 810 fans
• Twitter: 225 followers
  

What has impressed me the most is the quality of community members we have attracted.  Not only do we have a great team of guest writers, the readers have been priceless in contributing to the conversations in building a community to help young entrepreneurs excel in business and life.  Big shout out to our top 10: Nick Tart, Jason Markow, Matt Wilson, Laura Deveau Smith, Adam Wexler, Chris Hughes and Adam Rinehart.

The Unstrapp’d team has grown to include three ridiculously talented young entrepreneurs.  These guys are going to help grow this into the resource that we all have been looking for.  Get to know them here:

Community Strategist | Brenton Gieser | @BrentonGieser

Brenton Gieser is an Internet based entrepreneur focused on developing businesses that adds value to people’s lives. As the Founder of BlackTop Hoops, he lead through all the ups and down of building a startup from the ground up with very little resources and a small team. He is currently the Director of Business Development for Avenue Social; he helps lead one of the top Social Media Application Development Agencies in pioneering new technologies and forming strong partnerships with organizations in the social media space. Concurrently, he is working on building and advising multiple internet startups.

He will soon be writing these posts while overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Find out more about Brenton on his blog, A Life With No Walls.

Community Manager & Writer | Mike Montgomery | @MikeMonty

As a serial entrepreneur Michael has slowly been developing a business monarchy since the of age 16, starting out in vending machines, expanding into custom apparel, website development, and recently social media marketing and management. He is an active member in his local community, recently appointed Vice President of the Gem County Economic Development Association; former President of the Emmett Mayor’s and Commissioners Youth Action Council, as well as the current CEO of Educating Young Entrepreneurs Club (EYEclub).

Michael spends his spare time reading books on business, leadership, and personal development. He enjoys yo-yoing and has organized a club in his hometown of Emmett, ID where he teaches the local youth the sport and hobby of yo-yoing.

Graphic Designer | Adam Haroun | @AdamHaroun

Having started his first business at age 19, Adam Haroun is a graphic designer and student entrepreneur from Montreal, Canada. Having the deep-rooted desire to live a beyond-average life and leave a mark on the world, Adam took his entrepreneurial drive and coupled it with his eye for design to launch Advance Enterprises in the early months of 2009.

From the humble beginnings of a college dorm room, Adam’s business now boasts a thriving client base spanning the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and Canada. When not planning his next exciting project or business venture, Adam loves shopping, the celebrity gossip scene, and giving back in the community. Adam is also a full-time Marketing major at the John Molson School of Business.
What’s To Come…

We have some HUGE things coming to cap off 2009 and around the bend of 2010.  Here is what you can expect:

• More guest writers
• Improved quality of content
  
• Thought leader expert interviews
• Young leader interviews
  
• Contests
• Community leaderboard and promotion
• Blog facelift
  
• And much more… (we are open to ideas for improvement)

Again, I just wanted to say THANK YOU to all of you that have supported Unstrapp’d.  I am fulfilling part of my dream by providing this as a resource for you.  Please be patient with us as we strategize over the next few days to bring you some killer content starting back up in a few days.  Go back and read some of the content by clicking some of the categories in the bar above.  And enjoy some wisdom from Will Smith in one of my favorite YouTube videos…Until then…STAY INSPIRED!!!

“Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity.”  -Will Smith

One thing you may or may not have realized is that entrepreneurs love to talk. More specifically, they love to talk about themselves. The more you get them to talk about themselves, the more they will like you. The more they like you, the more they will open up to you. The more they open up to you, the more you can develop a relationship and learn from them.

Get it? The longer you can get someone to talk to you, the more valuable that conversation will become. So, how do you get an entrepreneur to talk their heart out? Start by asking these 3 great questions. To accompany these questions, you can prove yourself as fascinating by incorporating these four ninja techniques.

Parrot

Use this technique when someone is telling you about their business and you run out of questions you want to ask them. Pick one word they used and just say it. 30 seconds later, if they don’t respond, say it again. This causes silence and elicits them to talk.

I’m not kidding. It works brilliantly, especially if you put a question mark at the end of it. You can get someone to talk for 30 minutes straight while saying less than 10 words. You can even make a game out of it.

Tip: Try to choose a noun.

Mirror

Much like the parrot, you’re going to repeat something they said. Except this time, pick a short phrase no longer than eight words. Pick it and say it. 30 seconds later, repeat.

This technique puts their statement into perspective. It allows them to reflect on what they said and they’ll dive deeper into what they were talking about.

Tip: Appear interested by smiling. But don’t laugh.

Paraphrase

This is the technique that most people have used. Basically, you’ll summarize a large block of information by putting it into your own words. This assures them that you’re interested and listening intently to what they have to say.

Paraphrasing is more interactive than the first two but requires a little more effort on your part.

Tip: You can direct the conversation by paraphrasing the information that you want to know more about.

Interchangeable Response

This is the most challenging technique. And the most fun! Repeat back exactly what they said and identify the emotional parts by inflecting your voice. It doesn’t matter what part of the statement you choose to emphasize as long as you inflect something.

This technique adds an emotional connection to the conversation. The other party will know you’re making an effort. However, you could sound like a condescending counselor. Use carefully.

Tip: Practice this one on your roommate/parent/spouse before using it on someone you meet for the first time.

Bonus Technique: Name Tossing

From my experiences, this is the most useful technique for establishing a relationship with someone. Right when you’re about to say something you want them to remember, Bradley, throw their name in the middle of the sentence.
This personalizes the comment and makes them feel special. Plus, if you haven’t used their name for a while, it’ll let them know that you’re planning on remembering their name.

Tip: Right before using this technique…take a pause and lower your voice to a whisper. It’ll be like you’re telling them a secret. Everyone loves secrets.

Recap

It’s important to get entrepreneurs to talk to you. But it’s more important to only use these techniques when you can benefit from a long conversation and a lasting relationship with that person. There’s nothing worse than wasting 30 minutes at a networking event talking to someone who you know you’ll never want to talk to again.

It is fine if we suck at a certain area of business.  We don’t, and never will be great at everything.  Being the ‘CEO’ of your company does not mean you have to take on every single task.  It means the opposite.  You just need to know on how to find the right people who can make up for the things you are terrible at doing.

Being part of a strong team may just be one of the best feelings in business.  Making money is cool too.  But having a group of people come together that have individual strengths and compensate for each others weaknesses is so tremendously refreshing.  I know that there is someone right now halfway across the world who is handling several of the very tasks that I hate doing.  Let me say that again…Right now, I have other people tackling the things I hate to do!

Some can argue that partnerships are not for them.  I can respect that and of course, they are not for everyone.  My personal preference is collaboration.  Whether in a partnership or not, nothing beats having a complete team. I have found that selfishness typically overrides the desire to form partnerships.  One thing to keep in mind when starting out. is that you cannot lose something that you don’t have.

I have had a few partnerships in the past that did not work out the way I had planned.  I hope I am loud and clear to the world when I say that I would not be here today if those partnerships never existed.  They sped up the process.  They took me so much further than working alone.

Recently, I have partnered up with three other 20-something entrepreneurs.  We were all operating in the same space (or what others refer to as competition) and figured we each had a huge contributing value play for the team, so we decided we could get so much further by joining forces.  From what I forecasted as a individual business that will produce $250,000 in 2010, now has the capacity to do 10 times the volume with less effort.  Pretty good trade-off if you ask me.

Partnerships are by no means easy and it actually may be even harder for you to work as a unit.  Realize that a team does not just include business partners.  You can have employees, interns, virtual assistants and so forth.  You want to always take cautionary steps with an attorney before entering any agreement, but don’t shy away from a partnership because you heard that they don’t work out.  Collaboration is key.  If you really want to make them work, understand your business partner thoroughly and where they are going in business and life.

In many a context, Gen-Y has been perceived as the third generation, but I disagree (at least partially).  I argue that Gen-Y entrepreneurs (like you and me) have actually come full circle, have their nose back on the grindstone and are fundamentally redefining the American Dream:

The Original Dream (1st Generation)

The first generation lived the American Dream well before it was called a “Dream”.  These were the entrepreneurs who built this country, the original bootstrappers. They valued quality, hard work, and true opportunity.  Barriers to entry were next to nothing so long as you offered a quality product, you could make a name for yourself.  If you did that, you usually had the “freedom” to “settle down”, build a house on your acre of land, and plant your flag in your corner of the universe.

Old Dream, Old Freedom (2nd Generation)

The most common idea and ultimately misused definition of the “American Dream” is usually peppered with words like “freedom” and “opportunity”.  In the old “American Dream” however, “opportunity” more than likely translated to having the opportunity to work at a large company, crawl up the corporate ladder, and put in your 25+ years.  If you did that, you usually had the “freedom” to buy a house, settle down, send the kids off to college, own your house with the white picket fence (free and clear) and retire in time to get a few rounds of golf in before the big sleep.

New Dream, New Freedom (3rd Generation)

Call it the credit crisis, call it the economy, call it living beyond our means.  There is no mistaking that “it” has been pissed away.  So the saying is at least partially true, but what happens next is the important part.  Since resources were eliminated, the stage is set to the same conditions we witnessed with the first generation, only this time the stage is digital.  People with very little resources put their nose to the grindstone. They value quality, hard work, and true opportunity.  Barriers to entry are next to nothing.  And as long as you offer quality content, you can make a name for yourself. Sound familiar?

So when it comes time to cash in on that “killing” Gen-Y entrepreneurs are earning, what is it going to look like?  The difference now is on this digital stage, and living this mobile lifestyle.  With globe trotting opportunities abound, the old dream looks a lot less free and a lot more restrictive than it used to.  I think the new “American Dream” will come to be defined as: Putting your nose to the grindstone, cranking out quality products/content, and earning a killing so that (and here is the kicker) we have the freedom to go anywhere, and create the opportunity to do truly anything. Now that is dream worth working towards.

Building an e-mail list has never been more critical to online success. Especially when considering the current economic climate, building a list provides you with a qualified target audience who already understands what you are offering and who have already agreed to either purchase or download something from you for in the past.

In short, an e-mail list gives you access to your prospect’s inbox: by far the easiest place to sell to an online customer.

Not only a silver bullet to help you get more buyers, an e-mail autoresponder is also an amazing bang for the buck with a bottom line cost of only pennies per person to reach everyone on your list.

There is, however, a right and a wrong way to build a list. Build a list with intelligence and you will be reaping the benefits for years to come, build it poorly and you will only be erecting walls around your progress.

Follow these tips to start and manage your email campaigns as effectively as possible.

1. Get permission first

E-mail is different from all other kinds of marketing. When you get junk mail at home, all those senders required was a working address. But when it comes to someone’s inbox, you need permission first, unless you want to be considered a spammer (you don’t!). In general, people do not open e-mail from people they don’t know. In addition, only opt in or permission-based e-mails are sure to get past the spam filters which seem to get stronger every day.

2. You have permission, now use it

When someone provides you with permission to e-mail them, send that first communication as quickly as possible. This is a terrific time to send them the free gift promised on your website, whether it is a free ebook or perhaps an email course. Don’t send a sales letter. At this point you just want to remind them who you are so you won’t seem like a stranger when you contact them later. Make your first contact warm and friendly, while also reminding them why they signed up in the first place.

3. Use double opt-in only

Many e-mail marketers swear by the single opt-in autoresponder, but the smart businessman knows it is double opt-in that is truly best. No one is on a double opt-in list by accident. This is because they had to verify the communication themselves. This means that your messages will most likely get through all spam filters. The worst thing that can happen if you’re making money through e-mail marketing is to get considered a spammer. Your files could get deleted, virtually putting you out of business from one day to the next. Protect yourself from the beginning with a double opt-in only.

The modern entrepreneur cannot afford to be shy when it comes to gathering email addresses. Share your expertise and do it through email. Turn leads into clients, clients into raving fans and raving fans into more money than you can spend.

Bonus: Bootstrapping Autoresponder Tip

Usually autoresponders can get quite pricey for a bootstrapping entrepreneur, but having a well built and well engaged list is invaluable.  There is a great service from MailChimp that is FREE up to 500 subscribers.  With this solution, you can send up to 3,000 emails per month and you can get an opt-in box on your page to start building your list today!