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The Cast of 'Madam Secretary' Discusses What She Does With It

2018-09-27T01:30:00.001+01:00

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A panel at the Tribeca TV Festival discussed how a fictional character shows 'what could be' in the world of politics and diplomacy.

September
26, 2018

7 min read

As CBS’s Madam Secretary prepares to launch its fifth season (Oct. 7), the cast of this popular show recently spoke on a panel at New York’s Tribeca TV Festival about the new season’s highlights. One is a surprise Episode 1 guest appearance by former secretaries of state Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell.

Another has to do with a secret of the show revolving around a world globe in the Secretary's office (more on that later).

But beyond sharing what to expect this season, the five cast members used the opportunity to discuss their central character’s role as a powerful woman.

Fans are already aware that Madam Secretary revolves around the career and marriage of Secretary of State and former CIA analyst Elizabeth McCord (played by Téa Leoni) She’s a smart and unconventional thinker who we see applying guts and grit to behind-the-scenes deal-making over international hot spots ranging from the Middle East (the Secretary is fluent in Arabic) to Eastern Europe, China and East Asia.

Something else to know about Madam Secretary, especially if you’re a female running a business, is that this character is a great role model of a woman who’s politically savvy and unafraid to tackle both misogynist politicians and established rules of protocol -- two cultures women can face in the workplace.

According to comments by the five cast members and two producers on the panel, Elizabeth gains her strength from her smarts, combined with her uber-equal, almost idealistic marriage to theology professor-turned-intelligence-operative Henry McCord (Tim Daly).

“One of the reasons that I’m in this show is that I respond so strongly to this marriage,” Daly, a.k.a. Henry, told the large audience at the festival in New York, where the show is filmed. “I think that a lot of people have a false calculus about relationships, especially love relationships -- which is that if one person has a lot of power, it diminishes the other person. And I don’t think that’s true. I think everybody gets to have their own power, right?”

Leoni, a.k.a. Elizabeth, meanwhile, spoke about her character's aspirational strengths -- as a senior diplomat who confronts uncooperative foreign leaders with both verve and the occasional threat of U.S might. That part of her character is completely believable. (Less so is how this secretary of state always solves those thorny and complicated diplomatic crises by the end of each episode.)

“There’s something in this climate right now, politically and around the world,” Leoni said, “and it’s not lost on me that we are able to play every day at how it could be … it’s a real joy and an honor to come to work and put forth what could be.”

What "could be" includes the way McCord and her trusty team of series regulars sometimes present fictionalized scenarios that have happened (the South China Sea, human trafficking in Eastern Europe) and that actually happened subsequent to the show's airing (such as a drone strike against a leader, shortly before the real one that targeted Venezuela President Nicholas Maduro).

Then there was Madam Secretary’s own #MeToo-type encounter. “We actually tackled an incident in Season 4," Leoni said, "with Elizabeth and a leader, and he went in for a grope, and Elizabeth met him with an elbow and broke his nose."

The actress was realistic, however, about this fictional derring-do, equating it to those “don’t try this at home” warning labels on something like race-car feats. “Elizabeth handles it,” Leoni said, “But ‘Elizabeth’ is in an incredible position: I have four Secret Service detail with me -- and a TV show! [laughter]. So, I get to win really easily. I think that’s a great moment to show. But it’s also a sobering reminder that it is rarely that easy to solve or face.”

Apparently, what the show’s characters face resonates with its audience worldwide. Zeljko Ivanek, who plays the president's chief of staff Russell Jackson, related an encounter in New York with a Chinese foreign student who intimated that he -- the student -- may have viewed the show illegally in his home country but did so regardless because he was studying political science, and … “I want to do good.”

“Sometimes you realize that once in a while, something [from the show] goes out and comes back, and it’s incredibly gratifying,” Ivanek said.

Erich Bergen, who plays Elizabeth’s assistant Blake Moran, said that what has been gratifying for him is “to see women come out of the woodwork because of our show and say, ‘That’s me!'

"That’s what it’s been like for people of my mother’s generation who were being Elizabeth McCords for so long," Bergen said. "And now we finally have our television show.

"It’s not that [the show’s women characters are breaking the norms: Women were always like this. It’s just that somehow, as we saw in the last election, that being strong is somehow looked down at with women, and I think that what we have done with this show, with Téa and the writers, is we’ve made a ‘there you are’ [scenario].”

Daly also commented on the issue of a woman character in a power position, noting that, “I have a new mantra that I think about that is, ‘Don’t become the thing you hate.’ And I think that one of the brilliant things about the way Téa plays this part is that she is not playing it like a powerful tough man who happens to be a woman.

"This isn’t a woman imitating the way a man does power," Daly continued. "This is the way a woman does power. And it’s just as effective [as a man], if not more so.”

The writers of Madam Secretary are delving more and more into this issue of women's power. This season, Elizabeth has to decide whether to throw her hat into the presidential ring, a decision that promises to be the biggest challenge of her professional life.

As for that inside joke about the world globe in Madam Secretary’s office, Bergen revealed that, “If you’re watching very carefully, whatever country we are talking about or focusing on has been turned front and center on the globe.”

“You weren’t supposed to tell anyone,” show Producer Lori McCreary, also on the panel, chimed in.

Retorted Bergen: “I mean, I’ve just been fired.”

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This CEO's Recipe for Success Is One Part Innovation, One Part Anxiety

2018-09-26T23:20:00.001+01:00

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For this company's leader, paranoia is a driver to create change.

September
26, 2018

2 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

In this latest video from Entrepreneur Network partner MaRS Discovery District and the CEO of League, Mike Serbinis, the business owner talks about the company's intent to be constantly innovating. Speaking about League's sense for change, Sebinis discusses how changes keep the company looking for new angles to pursue.

Serbinis admits that he likes to be a constant state of evolution, and dislikes thinking about the term pivot. The CEO also admits he's constantly in a state of anxiety, and therefore, always thinking ahead.

To hear more from Serbinis on his company's approach to strategy and change, click on the video above.

Entrepreneur Network is a premium video network providing entertainment, education and inspiration from successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders. We provide expertise and opportunities to accelerate brand growth and effectively monetize video and audio content distributed across all digital platforms for the business genre.

EN is partnered with hundreds of top YouTube channels in the business vertical. Watch video from our network partners on demand on Roku, Apple TV and the Entrepreneur App available on iOS and Android devices.

Click here to become a part of this growing video network.

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The E-Commerce Benchmark KPI Study: The Most Valuable Online Consumer Trend of 2018 Revealed

2018-09-26T22:48:00.001+01:00

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The latest Wolfgang E-Commerce Report is now live. This study gives a comprehensive view of the state of digital marketing in retail and travel, allowing digital marketers to benchmark their 2018 performance and plan their 2019 strategy.

The study analyzes over 250 million website sessions and more than €500 million in online revenue. Google Analytics, new Facebook Analytics reports, and online surveys are used to glean insights.

Revenue volume correlations

One of the unique features of the study is its conversion correlation. All website metrics featured in the study are correlated with conversion success to reveal what the most successful websites do differently.

This year we've uncovered our strongest success correlation ever at 0.67! Just to give that figure context: normally, 0.2 is worth talking about and 0.3 is noteworthy. Not only is this correlation with success very strong, the insight itself is highly actionable and can become a pillar of your digital marketing strategy.

These are the top factors that correlated with revenue volume. You can see the other correlations in the full study.

Click to see a bigger version

Average pages per session (.37)

Average session length (.49)

Conversion rate by users (.41)

Number of sessions per user (.67)

Percentage of sessions from paid search (.25)

Average website engagement metrics

	Number of sessions per user	Average pages per session	Average session duration	Bounce rate	Average page load time	Average server response time
Retail	1.58	6	3min 18sec	38.04%	6.84	1.02
Multi-channel	1.51	6	3min 17sec	35.27%	6.83	1.08
Online-only	1.52	5	3min 14sec	43.80%	6.84	0.89
Travel	1.57	3	2min 34sec	44.14%	6.76	0.94
Overall	1.58	5	3min 1sec	41.26%	6.80	0.97

Above are the average website engagement metrics. You can see the average number of sessions per user is very low at 1.5 over 12 months. Anything a digital marketer can do to get this to 2, to 3, and to 4 makes for about the best digital marketing they can do.

At Wolfgang Digital, we’ve been witnessing this phenomenon at a micro-level for some time now. Many of our most successful campaigns of late have been focused on presenting the user with an evolving message which matures with each interaction across multiple media touchpoints.

Click through to the Wolfgang E-Commerce KPI Report in full to uncover dozens more insights, including:

Is a social media engagement more valuable than a website visit?

What's the true value of a share?

What’s the average conversion rate for online-only vs multi-channel retailers?

What’s the average order value for a hotel vs. tour operator?

Video Transcript

Today I want to talk to you about the most important online consumer trend in 2018. The story starts in a client meeting about four years ago, and we were meeting with a travel client. We got into a discussion about bounce rate and its implication on conversion rate. The client was asking us, "could we optimize our search and social campaigns to reduce bounce rate?", which is a perfectly valid question.

But we were wondering: Will we lower the rate of conversions? Are all bounces bad? As a result of this meeting, we said, "You know, we need a really scientific answer to that question about any of the website engagement metrics or any of the website channels and their influence on conversion." Out of that conversation, our E-Commerce KPI Report was born. We're now four years into it. (See previous years on the Moz Blog: 2015, 2016, 2017.)

The metric with the strongest correlation to conversions: Number of sessions per user

We've just released the 2019 E-Commerce KPI Report, and we have a standout finding, probably the strongest correlation we've ever seen between a website engagement metric and a website conversion metric. This is beautiful because we're all always optimizing for conversion metrics. But if you can isolate the engagement metrics which deliver, which are the money-making metrics, then you can be much more intelligent about how you create digital marketing campaigns.

The strongest correlation we've ever seen in this study is number of sessions per user, and the metric simply tells us on average how many times did your users visit your website. What we're learning here is any digital marketing you can do which makes that number increase is going to dramatically increase your conversions, your revenue success.

Change the focus of your campaigns

It's a beautiful metric to plan campaigns with because it changes the focus. We're not looking for a campaign that's a one-click wonder campaign. We're not looking for a campaign that it's one message delivered multiple times to the same user. Much more so, we're trying to create a journey, multiple touchpoints which deliver a user from their initial interaction through the purchase funnel, right through to conversion.

Create an itinerary of touchpoints along the searcher's journey

1. Research via Google

Let me give you an example. We started this with a story about a travel company. I'm just back from a swimming holiday in the west of Ireland. So let's say I have a fictional travel company. We'll call them Wolfgang Wild Swimming. I'm going to be a person who's researching a swimming holiday. So I'm going to go to Google first, and I'm going to search for swimming holidays in Ireland.

2. E-book download via remarketing

I'm going to go to the Wolfgang Wild Swimming web page, where I'm going to read a little bit about their offering. In doing that, I'm going to enter their Facebook audience. The next time I go to Facebook, they're now remarketing to me, and they'll be encouraging me to download their e-book, which is a guide to the best swimming spots in the wild west of Ireland. I'm going to volunteer my email to them to get access to the book. Then I'm going to spend a bit more time consuming their content and reading their book.

3. Email about a local offline event

A week later, I get an email from them, and they're having an event in my area. They're going for a swim in Dublin, one of my local spots in The Forty Foot, for example. I'm saying, "Well, I was going to go for a swim this weekend anyway. I might as well go with this group." I go to the swim where I can meet the tour guides. I can meet people who have been on it before. I'm now really close to making a purchase.

4. YouTube video content consumed via remarketing

Again, a week later, they have my email address, so they're targeting me on YouTube with videos of previous holidays. Now I'm watching video content. All of a sudden, Wolfgang Wild Swimming comes up. I'm now watching a video of a previous holiday, and I'm recognizing the instructors and the participants in the previous holidays. I'm really, really close to pressing Purchase on a holiday here. I'm on the phone to my friend saying, "I found the one. Let's book this."

Each interaction moves the consumer closer to purchase

I hope what you're seeing there is with each interaction, the Google search, the Facebook ad which led to an e-book download, the offline event, back online to the YouTube video, with each interaction I'm getting closer to the purchase.

You can imagine the conversion rate and the return on ad spend on each interaction increasing as we go. This is a really powerful message for us as digital marketers. When we're planning a campaign, we think about ourselves as though we're in the travel business too, and we're actually creating an itinerary. We're simply trying to create an itinerary of touchpoints that guide a searcher through awareness, interest, right through to action and making that purchase.

I think it's not just our study that tells us this is the truth. A lot of the best-performing campaigns we've been running we've seen this anecdotally, that every extra touchpoint increases the conversion rate. Really powerful insight, really useful for digital marketers when planning campaigns. This is just one of the many insights from our E-Commerce KPI Report. If you found that interesting, I'd urge you to go read the full report today.

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7 Things to Remember When Creating a Whiteboard Explainer Video

2018-09-26T21:28:00.001+01:00

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Whiteboard explainer videos are a great way to communicate with your target audience. You can use whiteboard videos to explain a process, illustrate a new product, and even give a step-by-step tutorial on how to do something.

Explainer videos are one of the best ways to sell a product. Statistics and studies on explainer videos show they are one of the most effective methods of reaching people and keeping their attention through your call-to-action.

Types of Explainer Videos

There are many types of explainer videos, but they all have one thing in common: they explain a product, a service, a process, or a brand in ways that are relevant to the customer. Usually, the customer is looking for a specific kind of information to help them understand something about a brand or process. They find the explainer video on YouTube or social media that helps them make sense of things. This gives them valuable information they can then use to do whatever it is they need to do.

Some of the major types of animated videos are character animations, 3D animation, and stop-motion video. These are the most common. Character animations focus on characters that go through the action of a script compellingly and interestingly to portray a position or process that viewers want to know. These types of videos can be quite effective if they are backed up by a compelling script.

3D animation is the newest type of animation for cartoons like you might see in a Pixar Studios video such as Toy Story, for example. These larger-than-life animations attempt to bridge the gap between the earlier 2D animated cartoons and the real-world environment so that they have a more realistic look. Stop-motion video uses a type of ‘one-frame-at-a-time’ process that creates animations from time-lapse frames. This is an old-fashioned type of animation but is still used today in some contexts.

Why Whiteboard Video is So Popular

Whiteboard video is one of the newest types of animation that has caught on with the corporate and business world because of it’s potential to increase sales. People are compelled to watch these types of videos because of the way it takes you through the process step-by-step with a drawing hand. It’s like watching an artist in real-time. Perhaps one of the appeals is also that it seems to mimic a teacher writing on a board in a classroom. This may have some psychological significance to people who remember learning this way while they were a youngster in school.

Psychological Research

There is also some psychological evidence that whiteboard videos and visuals keep the attention of the average person longer than other types of media. Not only is this being see across various markets and platforms, it’s likely also obvious when you come across a regular video and one that is an explainer video. There is just something about them that makes you want to keep on watching until the end.

If we take a look at some of the engagement stats from 2017, we will find that Facebook has found amazing success with the addition of video to their platform. Such stats include Facebook video being rated as the number one social channel for video, and Facebook video reach seeing more than 135% organic reach over photos alone.

Facebook isn’t the only one benefiting for visual and video marketing — as YouTube continues to see massive growth as well. The leading video platform is now reaching more 18+ year olds on mobile than any other cable TV network in the world today. You can see more of the latest video stats here, and how the future of the internet is clearly moving towards a visual and video standard.

Why do whiteboard videos work so well?

One of the main reasons whiteboard videos work so well for explainer videos is that the viewer follows the whiteboard as you “sketch out” or write the information and they feel as though they are looking at a “live” drawing that is unfolding before their eyes. Most importantly, they are more likely to follow your presentation to the end so that they hear or see your call-to-action and act on it.

7 Things to Remember When Creating a Whiteboard Video

If you want to create a stunning whiteboard video that your audience will connect with and remember, keep these seven things in mind before you start.

1. Find a reliable designer for your software solution to create whiteboards.

Most people don’t have the time to create their whiteboard video. While there are some online solutions that you can do yourself, it still takes time to put the animations and graphics together, add music, text, and titles, and render it to a final video that people will appreciate and respond to. One great solution is simpleshow.com. With this solution, you’ll be able to put in your order for a whiteboard video and have the professional team at Simple Show do it for you.

If you would like to try your luck at creating an explainer video on your own, while also saving some money in the process, they also have a self-serve solution at mysimpleshow.com. Again, there are no design skills or technical experience required. It’a all done through a simple drag and drop platform.

2. Focus on your primary message.

One of the problems that arise when creating a video explainer is that your message can be confusing to the viewer. You need to focus on the specific message that you want to communicate without complicating it for the viewer. You can do this by cutting out the clutter that might be inherent in your message and summarize your points in an organized way.

3. Make it entertaining.

One of the reasons people love to watch animated videos is that they are entertaining. The movement of the animation keeps the viewers’ attention while you explain the most important points of the product or company you are advertising. Even corporate executives prefer watching an animated or whiteboard video over a “talking head” or live action video due to the level of interest they have in this format. Most executives also report that they prefer animated or whiteboard video formats over text-based information.

Need an example of just how entertaining and attractive animation can be? Just take a look at one of Google’s daily creations of their name and logo in the art below.

4. Focus on the characters.

One of the main reasons people connect so easily to animated or whiteboard video is because the characters draw them into the action. People connect to the characters more than the action itself. Then the character takes them through the experience via their dialogue and action that they do in the video or movie. By creating interesting characters that people like and can relate to, you will be able to pull in your target audience and keep their interest through your entire message. Getting them to your call-to-action is the goal, and whiteboard animations can do this for your brand.

5. Write a great script.

Most whiteboard videos use a “drawing hand” to present your message, drawing pictures of things and objects that are relevant to your message. The script is important because it helps take the viewer from the introduction to the conclusion by drawing and narration. The narration is important because it is the audio part of the video that helps keep the attention of the viewer through the journey. Well-written scripts are critical to keeping their attention and focusing on the most important part of your message. If you don’t know where to start with a script, sketch out what you want to include in your script, then give your project to a professional whiteboard creator to put it together for you.

Explainer video scripts can be broken down into three parts like in the visual below. The beginning, middle, and end, will each play an important role in the progression of your storyline and video.

6. Use color and graphics to improve engagement.

You may not know this, but you can include color in your whiteboard videos. Many people think you can only create black and white images or videos. Depending on the software system you use, you can often color in the background or much of the whiteboard animation including scenery and objects. This may make the video more compelling for your viewers. Add graphics, titles, and narration also to draw in more views and engage your audience.

7. Focus on your call-to-action.

Your call-to-action (CTA) is the result of your work, and you should always focus on this as the most important aspect of your whiteboard presentation. Every frame counts, but ultimately, you need to keep the attention of your audience until you get them to the final frame where you present your call-to-action.

In the final CTA, you should include the following things:

Specific actions you are asking them to do

Link to click on to perform the action

Contact information

Website URL or landing page

The presentation itself should do the selling so don’t try to keep selling in the call-to-action. Think of this as the final part of your performance that you create to invite your viewers to action. If you have done an excellent job within the central part of your presentation, you shouldn’t have any trouble getting people to click on your CTA.

This is the goal of a whiteboard presentation if you are selling something. If you want people to subscribe to your newsletter to be reminded of upcoming offers or other things you are trying to promote, you can also include these in your call-to-action.

How to Get Started with Your First Whiteboard Explainer Video

When it comes to creating a professional and exciting whiteboard explainer video, one of the first things you will need to decide on, is if you want to create one on your own or outsource the process.

As mentioned earlier in the article, there are plenty of professional solutions out there to choose from, or even a few self-serve video creation tools that can be quite useful as well.

No matter what solution you go with, take a look at some of the example videos that can be found on each of these sites. Once you’ve made a decision on the best option for you and your brand, it’s then time to let the experts work their magic, or putting in the time and expertise to bring your idea and content to life.

Once you create a whiteboard video, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it a long time ago. Start creating compelling content for your target audience today.

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The Best Way to Search PeerFly's Offers

2018-09-26T21:12:00.001+01:00

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PeerFly now has over 4,000 affiliate offers in it’s network. That is a massive amount of offers. With about 100 offers being added each week, that number is just going to continue to increase.

With all those offers, it can be difficult and overwhelming to find just the right affiliate offer.

In 2011, I first launched PeerFlyOffers.

PeerFlyOffers.com is a public directory of all our affiliate offers on PeerFly that anyone, even if you aren’t an approved PeerFly publisher, can search through and view our the offers available.

Recently. I released a giant update PeerFly Offers to bring it into 2018!

There are many big updates I did for the new site, but probably the one I am most proud of is the search.

Search PeerFly Offers with Keywords

I have programmed a custom search for PeerFlyOffers that extracts keywords from your search to provide you with the best results possible and it works super fast.

The homepage explains how to perform the searches, but here are some examples:

Bing Proven EPC
- Bing – we only want offers that allow search traffic
- Proven – we only want to see offers with conversions
- EPC – we want the results sorted by EPC (earnings per click)
Canada PPV New
- Canada – we want offers that allow traffic from Canada
- PPV – we only want offers that allow PPV traffic
- New – we want to see the newest offers added
Approved Biz Opps CR
- Approved – we only want offers that do not require approval
- Biz Opps – we want offers from the business opportunity vertical
- CR – we want the offers sorted by conversion rate

I have also fixed up three of the most popular pages on PeerFly Offers:

My goal with the updated website is to make it as easy and fast as possible to find the offers you are looking for.

You can also now login and register a PeerFlyOffers.com account (separate from your PeerFly account) so you can view all the offers. This is a requirement because some of our clients want to keep their offers private. By requiring a login, we’re helping keep those offers private 🙂

Trending Affiliate Offers

Once you register for a PeerFlyOffers.com account, you can also view the Trending PeerFly Offers.

The trending offers are the offers that have seen a big increase or decrease in conversion rate over the past 24 hours.

Give PeerFlyOffers.com search a try and take a look around. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.

Let’s make some money!

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How This 4-Step Sales Process Has Earned Me $5 Million in the Last 18 Months

2018-09-26T20:56:00.001+01:00

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Sales gets a bad rap, but it's essential to your business.

September
26, 2018

6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Sales has a bad a reputation, and rightly so because so many people go about sales all wrong.

But, good sales is like having a good relationship: Both of you should get something positive out of it.

If you're not both leaving the sales call feeling inspired and motivated about talking the next step, you don't have your sales game down.

So, if you feel like you're leaving a lot of money on the table, and that you and your sales team aren't closing enough deals (or wasting too much time on too many sales calls), listen up because this article is what you need.

My friend Jesse Elder taught me this four-step sales process, and it's helped me and my team generate $5 million-plus in sales over the last 18 months (and we're growing month-on-month). It's changed how we approach our entire sales engine, and if you generate most of your revenue through sales calls and one-to-one meetings, it will change your entire approach, too.

Step 1: Illuminate your customers' pain.

Your first step is to help your prospect appreciate their current pain, so the beginning of every sales call needs to focus on them, their story and their business -- so you can establish common ground.

You have to understand their situation, and where they currently are on their journey. Listen to them. Ask them about their business and life, and sit back as they tell you their story. Takes notes and take it all in, and then flip their focus onto their current situation by asking, "How's your month been?"

This simple question is one of the most powerful you can ask, as it gets them to think about where they are now: the good and the bad. It's rare you'll come across entrepreneurs who are completely content with where they are. They'll likely share some good news with you, but also focus on what they're unhappy with.

Take notes as they tell you about their pain, problems and challenges. You don't need to illuminate their pain, because with that simple question they'll do it on their own.

Step 2: Visualize their vision.

Once you have an understanding of where they are -- and they've reflected on their current pain -- flip the script and ask them to share their plans for the future. Ask them to describe their goals, vision and what motivates them.

You want them to dive deep into where they want to go, and talk passionately about their vision -- as though they're imagining this vision for the first time; picturing it, tasting it and touching it.

Pain alone isn't enough to sell someone a solution. Your potential customers need to desire what's in front of them, and realize what's holding them back.

At this stage, relay what you've learned so far:

"If I'm hearing you right, Joe, you're struggling to scale from six to seven figures, and consistent (automated) lead generation seems to be your challenge." (The pain)

"You want to scale to seven figures so you can finally build a team to do most the work for you, and spend more time with your family and to travel." (The vision)

"Is this right, Joe? Does that sound like where you currently are?"

Good listening leads to good understanding, meaning your role isn't to do most of the talking (or to sell much at all), but rather point out what they already know.

Step 3: Highlight the gap.

At this stage they know their pain, and they have passionately visualized their vision. It's time to highlight the gap between where they are and want to be.

However -- and this is important -- allow them to describe this gap, not you.

Although you're tempted to tell them what their solution is, instead ask them what they think needs to change:

What do you think needs to happen to change all this?
What support would help you the most?
What would be most valuable to you over the next 90 days?

Force them to get specific. If you tend to work with someone over a 90-day period (or six months, a year, etc.) ask them to share what they think they need to do during this period. Allow them to highlight their own gap, because this way they create their own solution -- meaning all you have to do is tailor your offer around their needs.

Finally, repeat all this back to them once again. Ask them if they agree. Ask if you've heard them right. Each time they say yes, it creates a micro-commitment that makes what comes next much easier.

Step 4: Create a commitment.

Until now, your prospects have done most of the talking. Now it's time for you to speak up.

Based on everything they have told you so far (the pain, vision and gap), show them the solution they need based on the methods you use with your clients. But, do not make this about you or your offer!

Say something like, "Here's how I think someone could help you achieve this over the next 90 days." This isn't about how you can help them, but rather helping them see that this is the help they need.

Once you've described this solution, ask them, "If you had this, would it be valuable to you?"

Another micro-commitment. Another opportunity for them to make their own choice. Up until now, at no point has this been about you or your program or how you can help them. It's 100 percent focused on them and the help they need.

"If you don't do this, what's the cost to you?" you ask. "If you don't take action on this now, what cost will this have on you, your family and business in the coming months?"

Asking them this brings them back to their pain and their current situation. They are desperate to change this, so the only question left to ask is: "Are you ready to commit?"

This is when you ask them whether they are ready to work with you. This is when you get specific on your offer, and ask them to commit.

No manipulation or scarcity tactics; none of the tricks that give sales such a bad name. Just you providing them the value and help they need, so the both of you leave the call inspired and motivated to take the next step with each other.

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How Venmo Co-Founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail Pays It Forward by Applying Past Wins to New Projects

2018-09-26T18:48:00.001+01:00

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Since Venmo took off, Magdon-Ismail has combined his passions with the lessons he learned from the successful payments company.

September
26, 2018

1 min read

On this episode of How Success Happens, we chat with Iqram Magdon-Ismail, co-founder of mobile payments company Venmo and audio-sharing app Ense, which is in beta.

Magdon-Ismail co-founded Venmo in 2009 with his freshman-year roommate, Andrew Kortina, a few years after they graduated. But first, they dabbled in other ventures, including a real estate startup that brought in just enough revenue to pay for Venmo's first Philadelphia office space.

Not all of the co-founders' early instincts about Venmo proved correct, but many were right on the money. Braintree acquired Venmo in 2012, and PayPal acquired Braintree in 2013.

In our chat, Magdon-Ismail shares how the Venmo team initially positioned the app for mass adoption, explains why he believes the adage "success leaves clues" and describes a global opportunity for entrepreneurial problem-solving.

Check out the full conversation below and find more episodes of How Success Happens here.

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How to Stay Motivated Working Remotely

2018-09-26T16:41:00.001+01:00

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You'll be looking for an office job if you don't.

September
26, 2018

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Working remotely is awesome in that it gives you the freedom to work when and how you’d like. However, sometimes the lack of direct accountability on a daily basis can make it difficult to stay motivated.

So how do you find that perfect balance of enjoying the flexibility, but also getting work done in a timely and efficient manner? Here are six tips for how to stay motivated while working remotely.

1. Wake up early.

It can be hard to get up early if you don’t have to be at an office at a set time. However, it’s a good habit that’s well worth adopting. Waking up early is a common characteristic of successful entrepreneurs. When you rise with the birds, you have the chance to get a head start on your day.

On the simplest level, you’ll have time to mentally acclimate to the day so that you don’t feel rushed from the get-go. However, there are more specific benefits to your workday as well. You’ll be able to respond to emails, do errands, and maybe even a workout in, so that when it’s time to work, you can really focus on what needs to be done without having to contend with these everyday obligations.

2. Be consistent in your routine.

Success rewards consistency. Unfortunately, when you work remotely, you may not always be working in the same city or with the same desk setup at all times. However, it is possible to set up routines that can follow you no matter where you are.

For example, maybe your routine goes like this: wake up early, go for a run, make a to-do list, respond to emails, then get to work. By adhering to this routine over time, you’ll be able to effectively get into “work mode” no matter where you are, and you’ll likely see positive results in your overall productivity.

Personally, I pride myself on being able to work from basically anywhere in the world where I can find an internet connection. But I make sure to maintain my discipline and motivation by sticking to tried and true routines.

3. Dress for success.

One of the biggest cliches about remote or home workers is that they’re always working in their pajamas. But on a daily basis, a sloppy appearance can make for a sloppy work ethic.

Getting dressed for work can actually help make you feel more prepared, professional, and even boost your confidence -- even if you’re not going to see a single coworker all day. You’ll feel more like a real worker, and will be more likely to do good work. No, this doesn’t mean you have to put on a suit and tie. But by making yourself presentable, you’ll feel more motivated and better prepared to face whatever the day may bring.

4. Get organized.

You might not realize it, but a messy, disorganized space, hinders your ability to think and work effectively.

If your work space is messy, things like finding files or items you need takes just a little bit longer, and the visual noise can be distracting. The amount of time and distraction might be minimal on a daily basis, but when you add it up over weeks, months, and years, it can have a big effect on your output.

It’s worth taking the time to organize your work area. Keep a reasonably neat desk space, and try to keep the icons on your computer or laptop as organized as possible. You’ll probably find it makes your life a lot easier.

5. Reduce distractions.

Are you constantly clicking over to Facebook when your work gets boring? Are the dings and bells from your cell phone keeping you from concentrating on the task at hand?

When a task becomes tedious, annoying, or boring, it can be all too enticing to click over to your favorite blog, Reddit, or social media. If you’re trying to complete a project, try to reduce the potential distractions so that they don’t tempt you. For instance, you might put your phone on airplane mode for certain hours of the day, or you might turn off chat programs on your computer if you need to focus. If necessary, set a timer for every few hours so that you can have scheduled social media breaks.

6. Take breaks.

Speaking of breaks, be sure to take them. You might think that it shows a better work ethic to power through the day without pause, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. If you don’t take breaks, you’ll be more susceptible to distraction and probably won’t be producing your best work.

When you notice that you’re lagging or uninspired, sometimes taking five can actually help revive your work ethic. It can help you return to the task at hand with new focus, allowing you to stay on track. If you notice that you experience lulls at certain times of day, try to take breaks at those times.

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12 Marketing Skills You Need to Survive in the Age of AI

2018-09-26T16:08:00.001+01:00

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The time has finally arrived. We’re living in the era of artificial intelligence.

It sounds crazy, right?

To the average person, artificial intelligence doesn’t seem like a reality of our everyday lives. They associate AI with movies when robots take over the world.

While we’re not quite at that point, artificial intelligence is very real.

From a marketing perspective, we need to recognize this reality and plan accordingly.

In fact, artificial intelligence ranked high on my list of the top marketing trends to look for in 2018. As we reach the final quarter of the year, this prediction has held true.

If you are unfamiliar with AI, let me explain. By definition, artificial intelligence is the ability for computers to perform tasks that would ordinarily require human intelligence.

Some examples of these tasks include:

language translation

visual perception

ability to make decisions

speech recognition

While we may be ready for computers to translate a language, it’s the decision-making abilities that bring AI to the next level.

I know what some of you are thinking. You have a simple business operation, why should you care about AI?

When comparing companies already using artificial intelligence, the top-performing brands are more than twice as likely to use AI for marketing purposes.

Businesses are using this technology to increase sales by personalizing the customer experience.

Over the last five years, jobs requiring AI have increased by 450%.

Artificial intelligence is here to stay. It’s trending upward, and you need to be prepared to handle it if you want to be successful. I’ve identified the top 12 marketing skills you need to survive in the AI era.

1. Adaptability

Adapt or die.

If you don’t adapt now, you’ll fall behind your competitors and put your business at risk of failure. Just look at how many people are currently using AI and how many are planning to use this technology in the future:

As you can see from this graphic, AI is the fastest growing marketing technology with an anticipated year-over-year growth of 53%.

In my work with business owners, I’ve seen different personalities. Stubborn and closed-minded have a more difficult time growing their businesses.

When it comes to AI, you need to have an open mind and be willing to adapt if you want to succeed.

Don’t be stuck in your old ways. The mentality of “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” is the wrong approach to take when it comes to new technology.

If you’re not willing to adapt to the latest trends today, you won’t be able to survive tomorrow.

2. Communication

As a business owner and marketer, you know how important communication skills are for a successful business. You need to be able to communicate well with your employees, customers, and everyone else you encounter on a daily basis.

But in the age of AI, communication is more important than ever.

Here’s why. AI may eventually replace some of the human elements of your business.

For example, maybe you’re using AI to help you provide better customer service by implementing live chat on your website.

However, you don’t want your customers to feel as if they’re losing that human touch. You still need to be available to communicate with your customers.

You can’t rely on the implementation of AI to handle this for you 100% of the time.

While the technology behind AI is groundbreaking and remarkable, it can’t duplicate an actual human response.

You and your team still need to be accessible. Customers should be able to pick up the phone and talk to a real person if they want to.

3. Budget allocation

Implementing AI technology in your business won’t necessarily be the most inexpensive investment you ever make.

This could be why some of you have been hesitant to add artificial intelligence to your business. You’re not alone.

In fact, the high cost is the number one reason why brands aren’t using AI marketing solutions:

I don’t want to sound corny, but there’s a relevant age-old saying I’m sure you’ve heard before:

You’ve got to spend money to make money.

It’s the truth. Sure, the initial costs of implementing AI marketing solutions may be intimidating at first. But that’s why you need to have great budget allocation skills.

Don’t cut corners when it comes to new technology adoption. Find other ways to reduce costs so you can pay for AI solutions.

4. Ability to analyze big data

Depending on what you use AI for, there is a good chance you’ll be presented with lots of data.

Studies show 29% of brands that have adopted artificial intelligence use it to perform automated data analysis. And 26% use the technology for automated research reports and information aggregation.

An additional 26% are using AI for operational and efficiency analysis.

These applications will result in lots of data for you to analyze. You need to be comfortable doing that.

There are different layers to artificial intelligence:

Machine learning and deep learning are two concepts that are within the scope of your AI marketing strategy.

But the deeper you go, the more data there will be to analyze.

The computer is only as smart as it’s programmed to be. Decisions will ultimately be up to you, depending on how well you can analyze the information you’re presented with.

5. Coding

While coding isn’t a requirement for AI, a background in and general knowledge of coding will definitely help you.

This also helps with your budget, as discussed above. Don’t pay someone else to do something you can do yourself.

If you know how to code, you can set up the data you want to analyze. You can program the data sets, data sizes, and sources for whatever you need the AI to compute.

Many times, AI is used to identify patterns. If you have some coding background, it will be easier for you to understand that.

Those of you new to this should read through some marketing forums and learn from others in the same position as you.

View code samples and video tutorials online about basic coding.

You can even sign up for online coding classes through platforms such as Codecademy.

As you can see, this resource offers different coding options to learn.

While any of these would be helpful for your general coding knowledge, the data science coding would be the most relevant for your AI implementation.

6. Content creation

As marketers, we’ve been saying “content is king” for years now.

The basic idea behind this concept is to create content that appeals to search engines that will ultimately reach the consumers. Your entire marketing strategy lives and dies by the content you produce.

Adding AI to your business doesn’t mean you need to stop your content creation efforts.

Keep doing the things that put you in the position you are today. Don’t put all your eggs in the AI basket.

Improve your existing content production efforts through:

blogs

pictures

videos

audio

social media

Use artificial intelligence to help you make your content even better. For example, some brands are using AI software to create Facebook advertisements aimed at different audiences.

This type of process would take humans much longer to complete. Come up with other ways to leverage AI to boost your content strategy.

7. Security

Whenever you implement new technology in your business, security always needs to be a priority.

Over the past few years, many big companies had security breaches, which severely damaged their reputations. If you develop a reputation as a brand that can’t protect your customers’ information, it could put you out of business.

Consumers are concerned that AI may compromise the ability for businesses to protect their personal information.

You need to take proper measures to make sure all your data is secure.

Put everyone’s mind at ease. Run marketing campaigns and promotions advertising your secure process and your emphasis on customers’ digital safety.

8. Ethics

As I mentioned above, AI will gather lots of data for you to analyze.

But unlike humans, computers don’t have a conscience. So it’s up to you to be ethical when it comes to what you do with all the information you collect, which is relevant to my previous point about protecting customer data.

Yes, you want to protect the information from hackers and anyone looking to steal, exploit, or cause harm to others. But you also need to protect this data from yourself and other marketers as well.

Use AI to improve your marketing efforts, but don’t do anything that will cross the line when it comes to the usage of the information you collect.

9. A competitive spirit

Marketing is a competitive game.

There is always a constant battle between your company and the other players in your industry. Consumers have lots of money to spend, but you need to make sure they spend those dollars at your store and not the shop down the street.

As you add artificial intelligence technology to your business, the competition will continue to heat up.

You need a competitive spirit and mindset to survive.

Studies show 84% of marketers agree AI will help them gain or sustain a competitive advantage.

Is your competition currently using AI?

You won’t know unless you do your research. Take advantage of my favorite helpful tools to monitor your competitors.

10. Delegation and time management

When it comes to jobs involving labor, new technology and machine advancements can mean trouble for employees worried about their jobs being replaced by a machine.

But artificial intelligence doesn’t necessarily automate or replace a person’s job.

Instead, it automates specific tasks.

You need to recognize how such automation can benefit your business. Then use that information to delegate tasks to your employees accordingly.

Don’t assign a task to a person that a computer can do.

Once AI replaces a certain task, you need to find ways for that person who used to do it to spend their time wisely.

Artificial intelligence can help you increase employee productivity if you can implement it properly and find the most efficient ways to delegate new tasks.

11. Thirst for learning

To thrive in the AI era, you need to have good learning skills.

As I said earlier, there are different layers to the ways you can take advantage of this technology. There are many unique elements associated with artificial intelligence:

Conduct your own research on this technology to further your knowledge.

Attend classes. Take advice from experts. Listen to people who are teaching you how to use the software.

Don’t approach this new technology with the notion that you know it all because you probably don’t. Even if you have a high level of education, you’re new at this unless you studied AI.

Plus, it’s worth mentioning that technology is constantly evolving.

Maybe some of you have a firm grasp of AI today. However, things may change in the coming years and decades.

Those of you who have an eagerness to learn will have an advantage over everyone else.

12. Big picture mindset

In this moment, does your business need AI to survive today?

Probably not in the same way things such as Internet access, a website, social media, and the ability to process credit card payments impact your survival.

If you don’t need AI today, it may be hard for some of you to justify jumping on board with this technological advancement.

But you need to look at the big picture. As you can see, we’re trending in that direction. It’s in your best interest to get familiar with AI now and figure out how it can benefit your business in the future.

Conclusion

We’re living in the era of artificial intelligence.

Marketers need to recognize this and leverage the new technology to their advantage.

If you’re not using AI right now, it’s not too late to start. But I recommend starting this process sooner rather than later. Otherwise, you’re at risk of falling behind your competition.

There are certain skills that will give you an advantage and help you survive in the age of AI.

Refer to the list I’ve created here to help make sure you adopt these marketing skills if you haven’t done so already.

How is your business currently using or planning to use AI to improve your marketing solutions?

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Why Do Smart, Successful Women Keep Making These Financial Planning Mistakes?

2018-09-26T14:31:00.001+01:00

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Women need to have more confidence in their financial security.

September
25, 2018

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Why do so many successful, hardworking professional women feel shame and anxiety around money? In fact, based on a recent study by Transamerica, only 10 percent of women are "very confident" in their ability to fully retire with a comfortable lifestyle. That leaves a whole lot of women who are not at all confident about their financial security.

These are smart, driven, high-earning women, accomplished in their professions. They got where they are through intelligence, smart decisions and performing well under pressure. And yet many share a feeling of dread that they are not where they should be financially, and that they do not have the power to change that. Money guru Suze Orman notes that fear, shame and anger are the biggest obstacles to wealth. If only women knew that change is possible for them with just a few incremental steps.

Let me share a story with you: When I met Laura, she was initially just looking for guidance with her investments, but it became obvious that what she really wanted was guidance for her career. She was a successful attorney who wanted to change careers but was hesitant to give up the income. Her challenge was that all she knew was law. After relocating to another city to practice law, she realized that it wasn't the location of the job that was the issue, it was the job itself. With her high income she was financially secure, but she desperately wanted to have a life that her current profession just didn't permit. She felt stuck. If she left the industry, she'd give up financial security. If she stayed put, she would remain miserable. We needed a strategy that planned for her to finally make the switch to another career, in her case one that paid substantially less.

As a financial life planner to professional women, I cannot tell you how often the situation is the same when I first sit down with a new client. Many are in high-powered jobs with big salaries, and are miserable. Some have saved money (but is it enough?), others have saved none. If they dig below the surface, they are afraid of what they might find out -- shame around where they currently are financially, anxiety about never being financially secure and what it might take to get there. They are on a treadmill and don't know how to get off. I see this over and over again.

In Laura's case, we dug in to explore what she wanted her life to look like, where she was currently, what had to happen to make the changes she wanted. It came down to getting a clear picture of where she was financially and professionally and what steps we needed to take to get her where she wanted to be. I'm happy to report that several months ago Laura was able to transition into the job and lifestyle she wanted. All it took was a little planning.

There is no magic to financial security. In fact, I have found that for women professionals there are four major obstacles to financial security and living the life you want. By taking steps to manage these derailers, women can turn the shame and anxiety into hope and ultimately financial security.

Derailer 1: Not knowing what you really want your life, career or financial situation to look like.

By spending time here, thinking through what your ideal would be, then detailing those goals out, you can create a plan to reach those goals. Write down where you'd like to be in three, five and 10 years and prioritize those goals. By knowing what is important to you, you can start planning.

Derailer 2: Not knowing where the money goes.

This is a big one, and easily managed if you track where you spend your money. We suggest using an app or a spreadsheet to follow your money for two months to identify trends. Once you know where you spend your money, you can choose to spend it on goals that are more important to you.

Derailer 3: Not having a plan for your career, not only from a compensation standpoint, but from a lifestyle standpoint.

As a professional woman, your career not only funds your goals and lifestyle, but it dictates your quality of life. Think through what you want your career to be and get the resources here that will help you. I've found that business coaches are a great resource here.

Derailer 4: Not having a plan of action.

Without putting pen to paper and taking steps to move you toward where you want to be, financial security is just a wish. You can turn it into a reality if you know what you want to achieve and take steps to get there. On one sheet of paper you'll want to write what your goals are, where you are right now financially, the gaps you see and some small, actionable steps you are willing to take to close the gaps. Revisit this paper once or twice a month. It will change over time as your goals and needs change, but that's ok. You'll find that once you start to take a step your anxiety level drops.

Many professional women do not realize that they can change their financial situation and the anxiety and shame they feel in just a matter of months. By managing cash flow, leveraging your career strategically, making intentional choices with your financial resources, you can have the peace of mind you long for.

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Doors to Copyblogger's Content Marketer Certification Close Today

2018-09-26T14:15:00.001+01:00

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Just wanted to make sure everyone knows that today is the last day to join us inside the Copyblogger Certification program! We’ll be closing to new enrollment at 5:00 p.m Pacific U.S. Time, and this is your last opportunity this year to join our list of recommended writers.

The last time I had a “normal job” was in 2008. Maybe you remember that year.

There was a spectacular market crash in October, followed by a prolonged, painful buckling of the global economy. Lots of hyperventilation and money stress going on, pretty much all over the world.

The company I was working for was going through round after round of layoffs.

I had a three-year-old, and I was the primary breadwinner in my house.

That’s the kind of stress that wakes you up every morning at 4:00 a.m. feeling like you can hardly breathe.

I had a decision to make: Should I quit on my own terms and go freelance, or should I wait for them to push me out?

Even though I was really, really freaked out, I jumped. I turned in my resignation. I set myself up as a freelancer. And I did a lot of that “build the plane while you’re flying” thing.

I really think I would have crashed and burned if I hadn’t had a group of supportive friends to help me figure out all of the “non-obvious” stuff.

Now in retrospect, quitting back then was absolutely the smartest thing to do. It gave me real security, instead of the fake security that comes from a day job. It let me protect my confidence by avoiding the layoff. And it’s opened all kinds of fascinating doors, including my eventual partnership with Brian Clark here at Copyblogger.

But I have never forgotten what it felt like to be waaaay out on a limb like that. And 10 years later, one of the things that keeps me going is the chance to be another person’s “supportive friend” to help bridge the gaps.

You don’t have to have your act together

So you may be feeling like you don’t have your stuff together for Certification yet. You aren’t experienced enough, your website isn’t ready, you don’t feel like your portfolio is awesome, the thought of reaching out to clients still makes you a little nauseated.

You don’t feel like a rock star, or a ninja, or any of those other success clichés.

You’re peering over the edge of this scary-looking gap, and you’re just not sure you’re ready to jump it.

And that is 100 percent normal.

You’re not supposed to come into Certification with everything figured out

That’s what we’re here to help with!

You don’t have to take any huge scary steps right now. Try Certification out.

Take a look around at the strategy course Brian and I are teaching. And at the bonus prospecting sessions we’re including in the Continuing Education area. (The second one is this Friday, and we’d love to have you there live if the timing is good for you.)

Spend some time thinking about what it will be like to see yourself on the Copyblogger list of recommended writers.

If you try out the material and can’t see it working for you, we make it really easy to hit the “Undo” button. You’ve got 30 days to explore it for yourself.

On the other hand, there isn’t an “Undo” button if you let the timer run out on this.

I like to keep our list of recommended writers tight and focused, and we’re not planning on opening Certification again before late 2019.

In the next year, if you just land one good new client a month, what will your work life look like?

In the next year, if you bump your rates up to where they should be for a well-qualified, confident professional, what will your finances look like?

In the next year, if you can say “Yes” to those juicy projects, the fascinating ones that call for a well-rounded strategic skill set, what will your confidence look like?

The Copyblogger team and I would love to be your “supportive friends” to show you the ropes. Let us help make you more visible, and get you the clients you deserve.

The doors close at 5:00 p.m. Pacific U.S. Time today. Here’s the link to join in (Authority members, remember to log in first):

Get started with
Copyblogger’s Content Marketer Certification program

It would be our pleasure to have you with us.

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Public Relations Vs Media Relations

2018-09-26T12:55:00.001+01:00

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In todays world of real-time communications, there are tons of channels that organizations can use to reach their audience directly with valuable online content -- videos, podcasts, ebooks, white papers, photos, infographics, and much more -- and then have that information shared in social networks. Yet many organizations are still acting as if the only way to reach an audience is to use the media as a mouthpiece.

Yes, media relations remains important and is still valid as a way to get attention. Who doesn't want to be quoted in an important newspaper, magazine, or television broadcast? But what we need to realize is public relations and media relations are different activities.

The role of public relations

Public relations simply means communicating with your constituents.

Decades ago, the only way to easily communicate with your public was to use mainstream media and analysts as your mouthpieces. So the public relations department and the agencies they employed spent a great deal of effort convincing editors, reporters and analysts that your company was one worth talking up.

Prior to the Web, there wasn't an efficient way for organizations to communicate directly to the public.

But now there is. You can reach the public directly.

In this new world, smart PR pros realize they have a tremendous opportunity if they can effectively communicate directly to their constituents, bypassing the media. Many are transforming themselves into content creators. However, most are still operating in the traditional press release and pitching mentality.

Don't confuse the superset (public relations = reaching the public with your information) with the subset (media relations = using the media to tell your story) and therefore insist that PR is only about mainstream media.

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Instagram's Founders Say They're Resigning Because They Want New Challenges, But They May Also Want to Get Away From Zuckerberg

2018-09-26T11:51:00.001+01:00

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Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger are leaving on a high note.

September
25, 2018

3 min read

How do you know when it’s time to make your next big move? Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom revealed yesterday in a company blog post that he and co-founder Mike Krieger would leave the photo sharing platform owned by Facebook.

“We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again,” Systrom wrote. “Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that’s what we plan to do.”

Systrom and Krieger are leaving on a high note. This summer, the 8-year-old company achieved a major milestone, hitting 1 billion users, up from 800 million in 2017.

Facebook purchased Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion. Mark Zuckerberg released a statement via on Facebook’s Twitter account.

2/2 I wish them all the best and I'm looking forward to seeing what they build next.” https://t.co/8YFLab4iWw
— Facebook (@facebook) September 25, 2018

“Kevin and Mike are extraordinary product leaders and Instagram reflects their combined creative talents,” he said. “I've learned a lot working with them for the past six years and have really enjoyed it. I wish them all the best and I'm looking forward to seeing what they build next.”

While wanting to generate new ideas and generally avoid the burnout that comes with driving at the same thing every day for eight years is certainly understandable and a healthy decision to make, reports of Systrom’s and Krieger’s exits noted that disagreements with Zuckerberg over Instagram’s independence and place within Facebook’s ecosystem ultimately led to their departure.

Related: Everything You Need to Know About IGTV, Instagram's New Longform Video App

While Instagram’s growth has been on a steady ascent, Facebook has spent much of the past couple of years weathering fallout from scandals, including Cambridge Analytica. As of July 2018, Facebook’s growth in the U.S. and Canada had leveled off, hovering around 185 million users. A Pew Research Center poll found that 44 percent of Facebook users aged 18 to 29 reported deleting the app from their phones in the last year.

How Instagram will change or become more or less incorporated to Facebook proper remains to be seen, but Systrom and Krieger’s decision is one that every entrepreneur can learn from.

When you’re building a company and investing so much of your time and energy into it, it's important to remember that as important as the work is to you, it is not all that you are. Change is scary, and so is leaving something you carefully crafted in the hands of someone who may not share your vision. But if there comes a point where you feel you need to do something else, it’s important to honor that.

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Here's How to Turn Off Google's Saved Searches and Personalized Results

2018-09-26T09:40:00.001+01:00

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Google saves user data to better determine search context, and factors including recent search history can tweak results.

September
25, 2018

6 min read

What’s the difference between President Donald Trump and a takeout sandwich?

For one, it's how Google treats a search for each. Type “best sandwich shops” into the search engine, and chances are you’ll be presented with top-rated spots in your current zip code. Search “Donald Trump,” and more generally applicable content -- recent news hits, the president’s Twitter account and the White House website -- receive top billing.

Though we have an idea of how Google prioritizes different sets of search results, the algorithms themselves are a mystery. When it comes to personalized search, though, we do know one thing: The company saves user data, including recent search history, to potentially tweak results based on each individual. For your lunchtime query, if you type only "sub" into the search bar, Google may use your search history to determine you're talking about a sandwich and not a submarine.

No matter whether you're seeking out the president or a panini, there's a chance your past search history could inform the order of results. If you're, say, a CNN loyalist, Google may use your search history to bump up that publication's Trump content a couple of spots, whereas staunch readers of Fox News may see that publication featured slightly more prominently on the results page. By and large, however, searches should yield similar results for any user -- and Google will never personalize results to be more liberal- or conservative-oriented, said Danny Sullivan, Google's public liasion for Search. The company does not even have a way of sorting results into such categories, he said.

It's important to note that personalization is often conflated with localization, but the search engine giant maintains that they're two separate entities. For your lunchtime query, spots within walking distance of your office may show up first, but those results should be the same for everyone in your area.

"Personalization is when search results change on something that is related to only you and no one else," Sullivan told Entrepreneur. "Localization is when something changes based on the location where a search is happening, which isn't unique to an individual because it's shared by a group."

According to Google, around 2 percent of search queries are treated with some level of personalization. And though the company supports personalization, it condemns bias, as CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in an email to employees on Friday.

“We do not bias our products to favor any political agenda,” he wrote. “The trust our users place in us is our greatest asset, and we must always protect it. If any Googler ever undermines that trust, we will hold them accountable.”

Pichai’s comments follow a recent report in The Wall Street Journal that brought to light an internal Google discussion after President Trump’s 2017 travel ban. The ban restricted travel to the U.S. from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, and in the internal email thread, employees discussed an idea to volley pro-immigration results in search. According to Google, the discussion was simply a brainstorming session and none of the ideas were ever implemented. But the disclosure will likely fuel critics’ complaints, especially as the 2020 election approaches, that large tech companies such as Google suppress conservative perspectives online.

“We build products for people of every background and belief, and we have strong policies to ensure that our products remain free of bias,” Pichai wrote.

It’s a vital conversation to have, as prominent tech companies hold the power to influence public opinion on a mammoth scale. According to peer-reviewed research published in 2015, a search engine’s algorithm may have the ability to shift undecided voters’ voting preferences by 20 percent or more -- and up to 80 percent in some demographic groups -- without the voters’ knowledge.

But in Google's case -- as far as personalized search results go -- that doesn't seem to be a pressing issue.

Although as much as 11.7 percent of search engine results may show differences due to personalization, according to a 2013 paper by Northeastern University’s Algorithm Auditing Research Group, researchers were surprised to find that past searches and browsing history did not seem to inform results in a signfiicant way. They found that a user’s location -- as well as the status of being signed into a Google account -- had the most impact on results. (Note that in this paper, researchers included localization in their definition of personalization.)

Though Google works to avoid top-level bias, there’s a more overarching idea to consider here: Personalization in any capacity can contribute to ground-level bias -- or a “filter bubble” on the consumer level. The term was coined by internet activist Eli Pariser around 2010, and balancing that very idea -- of an “echo chamber” of sorts that purports an individual’s own way of thinking -- is something many tech companies continue to struggle with.

“While personalization provides obvious benefits for users, it also opens up the possibility that certain information may be unintentionally hidden from users,” the Northeastern University researchers wrote.

Whether you're concerned with data security or want to avoid potential tweaks to results, here’s your starter guide for turning off Google’s personalization features on your computer.

To prevent saved searches and browsing history:

Go to Activity Controls, then pause each feature, such as Web & App Activity, Location History, Device Information, YouTube Search History and YouTube Watch History.

To delete account activity:

Go to Delete Activity, then select the date ranges for which you’d like to delete your account activity.

To control ad personalization:

Go to Ad Personalization, turn off the feature, then go here to control it on other websites and apps that use Google ad services.

If you’re aiming to turn off personalization on your Android, iPhone or iPad:

Go here. Then, in each of the four sections on the right, select your device and follow the instructions.

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Why Setting Rules Can Help You Balance Your Work and Personal Lives

2018-09-26T07:27:00.001+01:00

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Following a few rules can make your entire life run more smoothly and help you fit everything in that is most important to you.

September
25, 2018

6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The following excerpt is from Manny Khoshbin’s book Driven: The Never-Give-Up Roadmap to Massive Success. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | IndieBound

One of the best ways to balance your life may be to try slowing down a little. Stephen Covey, who wrote the popular book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, says, “Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” Considering how many people spend a lot of time every day at work putting out fires, Covey may be right. After you’ve been in business for a while, you learn that not everything is an emergency.

By slowing down a little, you can take time to make the right decisions. You can even stop and take a moment to say no. I find that sometimes I just can’t take on another responsibility and have to say no. You can do the same -- say no if you feel you’re being stretched too thin and can’t afford to divide your time up any more. Remember, there are only 24 hours in a day. After seven hours of sleep, you need to divide up your waking hours into business, family time and everything else.

It also helps to not only set some rules but stick to them as much as possible. For example, if someone calls me about setting up a meeting on the weekend, I politely remind them about my rule not to do work on weekends unless it’s a major emergency -- then we set a time to meet during the week.

Another example of one of my self-sustaining rules is all about how to retain your agency and identity and, yes, your money, too. Surprisingly, I’ve found that this rule overlaps a few areas of life, and you can apply it broadly.

I now stick to a rule that I won’t take on other investors. Instead, I fly solo. It’s not that I don’t like helping friends, family and other investors that I know. It’s just that sometimes it requires time and effort that I don’t always have and headaches that I’d prefer to avoid. That’s why people warn you not to invest other people’s money unless it’s your job.

I started investing on my own, with my own money. Then, around 2005, a lot of my friends, along with friends of friends, started saying, “You’re making so much money, you’re doing great, you’re buying Ferraris, driving a Rolls-Royce and own high-rise buildings. Why don’t you share the wealth?” So, I thought, why not bring them in? There were about 10 people, including both friends and family, that came in with me and invested. But as much as I liked these people and wanted them to do well, I found that I had to do a lot of babysitting. Investing takes time and patience. People would be emailing me constantly asking things like why I had not yet doubled their money or how much they could make. And often they had very high expectations. And when I asked them for a management fee to pay for the extra time I was putting in, they complained. I’d hear things like, “You’re worth $100 million and drive a Rolls-Royce, and you’re charging me a fee?” I would tell them, “It’s a business deal, I want to do everything properly, and I’m spending my time on the property.”

Over time, I found it to be too much of a headache and went back to doing my own investing. The truth is, while your intention is to help people, when you’re dealing with money, it can also become a liability. This is because when you take somebody’s money for an investment and you have fiduciary responsibilities, you become a partner and have to answer to them. Overall, they were happy, but in this case, I had one partner who was emailing everybody in the group and questioning my fee and asking me why this property didn’t go up as much as he had expected or as much as I said it could go up. The answer is simple: Investing is not an exact science. I was doing the best that I could, and my intentions were always good. I was not out to screw anybody -- that’s not who I am.

I had one unfortunate situation in which I helped someone make a lot of money, but when they reinvested a large portion of it in another venture of mine, they lost a lot of their investment. They were very upset with me, but I could not guarantee them, or anyone else, that a deal is foolproof. I have a tremendous track record of success, but it’s not perfect. No investor can guarantee success every time. In the end, they still made money on their initial investment but not as much as they had hoped for, and it cost us a friendship.

The goal of a balanced life is to feel good not only about your business but also about your family, extended family, your hobbies, your charitable work and your “me” time. If you can find the time to do all of these things, plus some exercise to keep your mind and body fit, you have achieved a balanced life. But as my wife says, “It’s not easy, and we’re still working at it.”

When you’re young, you may be focused on one and only one goal, but as you grow and your life expands, more things will matter in your life. If you don’t recognize all of your needs and try hard to include and balance the different aspects of your life, you’ll likely have some regrets.

Keep in mind that being rich in life doesn’t always refer to having the most money but instead refers to getting the most out of life. That comes from finding your balance.

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The Woman Behind One of the Country's Largest Animal-Welfare Organizations Shares Her Leadership Advice When Dealing With a Divisive Community

2018-09-26T05:19:00.001+01:00

https://assets.entrepreneur.com/images/misc/1537386955_JulieCastle_CreditBFAS.jpg?width=1000 [ad_1]

Despite its laudable mission, Best Friends Animal Society has its critics. Its new CEO, Julie Castle, shares how to work with those who may not see eye to eye with you.

September
25, 2018

12 min read

This story originally appeared on This Dog's Life

It was 1992. Bound for law school, Julie Castle and her friends were driving back from a trip to Mexico in her 1979 Dodge Colt, celebrating one last girls’ trip before having to buckle down and get serious about their futures, life threw them a curveball. With the gas gauge needle buried below empty and the Colt running on its last fumes, inevitability set in: the car stalled.

With barely enough money for gas and a candy bar for each, Castle and her friends were ready to get home to Salt Lake City, Utah. But not before a detour.

“One on my friends was like, ‘I am sponsoring an animal at this sanctuary in Kanab, Utah and really want to stop there,’” Castle recalls. “We all vetoed it. She kept bringing it up and bringing it up, and finally we caved.”

Arriving at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, now one of the largest animal organizations and known for its “save them all” mission, was a pivotal moment for Castle.

“We pulled in, and it was life changing,” she says.

A lifelong animal lover, Castle fell in love with the founders’ principles and their mission to alter the destiny of homeless animals.

“It has been the same routine for 120 years of basically rounding up animals and taking them to a shelter where they die,” says Castle. “They said it is time to change the narrative around this and talk about a vision where one day we don’t have to do that anymore, where one day the euthanizing of an animal in a shelter isn’t part of somebody’s job description.”

She was sold and decided right then and there she wasn’t going to law school. Castle moved to Kanab and became employee No. 17 at BFAS.

Little did she know, she would be leading one of the biggest movements in the animal-welfare community 25 years later.

In the mid-80s, when Best Friends Animal Society launched, approximately 17 million pets were being killed annually each year, according to the organization.

Today, that number is at 1.4 million, or 30 percent of the 6.9 million animals that annually enter the shelter system.

But for Castle that isn’t a victory; it’s a challenge. With more cities becoming no-kill, or below a 10 percent euthanasia rate, Castle and team wanted the mission to go nationwide.

Recently taking the helm as the organization’s new CEO in March, Castle has her sights set on 2025 to make this dream into a reality.

“At our 2016 National Conference, we decided to announce it, and it was like this nuclear bomb went off in the movement,” she says.

Despite it being considered admirable and endorsed by many, some critics, including a recent op-ed in the New York Times, “Are We Loving Shelter Dogs to Death,” state that this initiative is not correctly addressing the issue and the no-fee or low adoption rates put animals in harm’s way by being adopted to families not equipped to care for them. There have also been agreements made that animals can psychologically deteriorate waiting months (or even years) in a shelter to be adopted, the impact on an animal from bounced from foster home to foster home with no stability and the fact that some animals may fall into the hands of hoarders.

Castle, along with others in the animal-welfare community, has pushed back on these claims, including in a recent blog post taking on Carol Mithers, the op-ed author of the Times piece.

“She claims that low- and no-cost adoptions open the door to abusers and those so wretchedly poor that they couldn’t possibly do right by their pets. The reality is that multiple studies show no statistical difference in the emotional investment or the care given to pets by families who acquire their pets for free and those who pay normal adoption fees.”

She also wrote, “Remember that low-cost and fee-waived adoptions result in the safe and long-term placement of hundreds of thousands of shelter pets each year. In fact, the fourth annual Clear the Shelters adoption drive, sponsored by NBC- and Telemundo-owned television stations, culminated last Saturday with more than 1,200 shelters participating in dozens of communities across the country. The event resulted in more than 86,800 adoptions, with 24,000 on Saturday alone.”

And this year, the organization hopes to make those adoption figures higher. BFAS is focusing on the seven states — Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas – that make up 50 percent of the pets euthanized every year, according to Castle..

We caught up with her to talk about leading a fragmented and sometimes combative community, what keeps her motivated and her next moves.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

The animal welfare world is complicated and can, at times, see things differently. For those looking to build a community, get people to back their vision, movement or mission, what do you recommend?

It takes a thick skin. It takes a sense of urgency and driving towards an end goal. And it also takes a high degree of knowing what the important levers are to pull and focusing on those — and forgetting about all the other stuff.

But the number-one piece of advice is helping people understand that there is a bigger ecosystem to a social problem than just their organization. So, it is taking the whole project, putting it into a strategy and helping them understand what their piece of that strategy puzzle is. It helps them focus on the bigger picture.

What has been a particularly challenging time for you, and how did you overcome it?

It’s an ongoing challenge; it’s never over. You are always dealing with people’s emotions or different points of view, or people who are worried that your motives aren’t totally pure.

We have gone through different benchmarks through this process. We had a lot of trouble in the beginning with veterinarians. They were worried that us doing high-volume spay/neuter was going to take away their business. The way we got around that was to do something with them, and so we got the state vet involved. We did a test to see if the clientele was going to be the clientele that goes to a vet, and sure enough, it was low-income folks that needed that help and assistance and likely would not have gone to a veterinarian for a spay/neuter surgery.

Image credit: BFAS

You need to really focus on building those relationships, versus it being transactional, or having it look like just a win for your cause.

It is hard. It is one of the most frustrating things but also one of the most rewarding, because you know where you want to go. You know what your finish line is. I have learned it is never going to end up like you think it is going to end up, and you have to be okay with that as long it is achieving that collective impact.

You need to listen and understand other points of view and then design a solution together.

During pivotal shifts and complicated times, mentors are often great to lean on. Early on, you made a huge move from law school bound to working in the animal welfare community. Did you need to rely on mentors?

I don’t think any of us get anywhere without help from a community of people. It’s important that you identify that you can’t do alone. I have had several mentors along the way.

The key with mentors is when they give you advice, listen. They have been there before. I think if you can understand that, there is a huge benefit to that.

Are you a mentor now?

If people reach out and ask for my advice, I always try and make time for them, because you are just building that next circle of influencers.

It is so critical to be vulnerable and open and share your shortcomings and where you are having success.

Image credit: BFAS

One of your earlier positions at Best Friends was in marketing and communications, what tactics did you use to build the brand, and do you still use them today?

It is all about telling that story, and to us, storytelling is the most powerful, most important tenant in communication and marketing, because the human brain is hardwired to understand stories.

Another tenant we live by is being positive, and so all our messaging and all of our photographs are positive. You will never see a horrific picture of an animal from us, and it’s because at the end of the day, people gravitate towards [positivity] more.

What has been your most successful campaign and what can people learn from your success?

Our most successful campaign has been our no-kill efforts. The lesson we learned and the lesson I would impart on others is that it takes a community to be sustainable. If you are going to change society, it needs to be a collective effort, because one organization can’t bear the brunt of making that happen. This is why I believe in coalitions; it takes a community to change a community.

You recently become the CEO earlier this year. What advice do you have for people taking over the leadership of a company?

I think every company has problems. A company is made up of human beings and human beings are complex — nobody is perfect, and no company is perfect. That is step one: being real where you are and where your company is. For me, it was important to do a listening tour, and I don’t mean just go around and shake people’s hand and stop in, but to actually volunteer and do some of the jobs. The staff opened up and started talking about their challenges and some situational problem they had. From that, three themes emerged for us. I pulled in our senior leadership team and said here are the three things we need to fix. We designed a whole reorg chart, which is going to be really healthy.

So, the best thing you can do is listen. Take time to listen to your staff, because they have the answers.

You learn on the job, but you also learn by educating yourself. Is there any book you rely on for leadership?

Part of leadership is understanding where you want to go and why. It’s about finding your grand passion as soon as possible in life and then going full throttle to put your passion behind that effort. It’s also about understanding emotional intelligence around the people you’re responsible for leading, not just as their place or part in the organization or movement you’re leading, but also helping them get through life. It’s about creating a culture of humanity and recognizing that life is really hard and part of your responsibility as a leader is helping meet their life needs, while at the same time mobilizing them to be all in and inspired about the work they do.

So, for me, the three books that have helped me with the “why”— the discovering of an employee’s grand passion and truly understanding emotional intelligence — are The Alchemist, Start With Why and Primal Leadership.

When you have critics or people who don’t see things your way, how to you forge forward?

Back in 2009, I was diagnosed with an aggressive advanced stage cancer, and I was sent out to UCLA to get treated there. I didn’t know if I was going to live or die, and I was curious how I was going to respond if I did live: was I going to retire and travel the world, or how I would react to this.

Image credit: BFAS

When you are staring something like that down, everything becomes a lot clearer in your head, and for me, it was about a sense of urgency to think about every day. You are never going to get that day back, so how are you going to spend it.

You can either push things forward to help make the world a better place, or you can be one of those obstacles that is distracting from the greater good.

For me, being out there in LA, I decided we were going to launch NKLA [no-kill LA], and we are going to make this happen in a challenging community. It’s about a sense of urgency, and it’s about conveying to the folks we are working with that this isn’t a time for us to waste our energy on gigantic blackhole stuff, like infighting. Let’s focus on the solutions and get the job done. Literally, you don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring.

What trait do you rely on most to be successful and leadership?

No fear. Being totally fearless and recognizing that sometimes you need to dig deep and move through that fear to get to where you need to be — and sometimes that means being incredibly uncomfortable. It is hard to dig deep, but it helps so much for relationships and communication.

What is on the horizon for you?

Our big areas of focus are going to be Southern California and Texas. That doesn’t mean to say we aren’t going to be in other parts of the country, but because those are no. 1 and no. 2 states for the killing, we are going to have a huge presence in those states.

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Instagram Founders Quit Facebook! 3 Things to Know Today.

2018-09-26T03:10:00.001+01:00

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Stay in the know in 60 seconds.

September
25, 2018

1 min read

Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have handed in their resignations at Facebook. The two have reportedly become frustrated with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s increasing oversight of day-to-day operations at Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion in 2012. Systrom and Krieger said they plan to take some time off before building something new.
HBO wants Game of Thrones fans to come to Westeros. The network plans to encourage tourists to visit locations in Northern Ireland used on the show, including sites used for Winterfell, Castle Black and Kings Landing, starting in 2019.
And one of the top 25 sources of funding for the United Nations is Bill Gates. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gives the UN almost $300 million a year, making it the 25th largest donor.

Watch the previous 3 Things video: Mr. Bezos Goes to Washington?

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Chick-fil-A Makes More Per Restaurant Than McDonald's, Starbucks and Subway Combined … and It's Closed on Sundays

2018-09-26T01:01:00.001+01:00

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Why a restaurant that's closed on Sundays makes more per restaurant than any other fast food restaurant in the country.

September
25, 2018

3 min read

The top three fast food franchises for yearly U.S. sales, according to the 2018 QSR Magazine Report, which breaks down sales numbers from the previous year, were McDonald’s, Starbucks and Subway. Here’s how the numbers shook out:

McDonald’s -- 14,036 units, $37,480,670,000 in sales, or $2,670,320 in sales per unit.
Starbucks -- 13,930 units, $13,167,610,000 in sales, or $945,270 in sales per unit.
Subway -- 25,908 units, $10,800,000,000 in sales, or $416,860 in sales per unit.

Now, if you were starting your own business, you’d be pretty happy with any of those numbers. The worst of them, Subway, is reeling in nearly $11 billion in sales each year.

Chick-fil-A was ranked a not-too-shabby eighth by QSR, after taking in $9 billion in sales. That number trailed Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendy’s and Dunkin’ Donuts in addition to the top three.

But, the most amazing part of this is that Chick-fil-A only operates 2,225 restaurants. That’s less than a sixth as the top three earning restaurants and less than half as many as the rest of the franchises ahead of it. Of the top-50 earning restaurants, Chick-fil-A ranked 21st in the number of units.

So, how did Chick-fil-A rank so highly in total U.S. sales? By earning more per store than any other restaurant. A lot more. In fact, the average Chick-fil-A unit made around $4,090,900 in 2017. By contrast, the total sales for a McDonald’s ($2,670,320 per unit), Starbucks ($945,270) and Subway ($416,860) is $4,032,450.

That’s crazy -- especially since Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays.

Most people would assume that closing one day per week could hurt company profits. However, it’s clear by the per-unit sales numbers that something about Chick-fil-A makes it more attractive than its competitors. Could it be that closing its doors one day a week actually helps Chick-fil-A make more money, not less? Here are three reasons why that might be the case.

Closing creates a craving. It’s like the old saying: “You never know what you have until it’s gone,” and sometimes, when you want Chick-fil-A on a Sunday and can’t have it, it only makes you more likely to get it on Monday.
It helps attract better employees. When S. Truett Cathy founded Chick-fil-A, he wanted employees who would stick around for the long haul. According to a piece in The Washington Post, Cathy used to tell applicants, "If you don't intend to be here for life, you needn't apply." By allowing employees to have a day off -- to go to church or an NFL game or simply live their lives -- Chick-fil-A can create a healthier environment and provide better service to its customers.
Its customers appreciate the mindfulness. While many customers find Chick-fil-A problematic due to Chairman Dan Cathy’s stance on same-sex marriage, many others also appreciate that the company gives its workers a break. As S. Truett Cathy once said, “We aren't really in the chicken business, we are in the people's business.”

Perhaps Chick-fil-A is as popular as it is because it has food that customers like, has chosen good leadership or has a good marketing team. Maybe it has little to do with being closed once a week. But, based on the numbers, it sure doesn’t seem to hurt.

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9 Ways to Boost Productivity That Will Make You a Great Teammate

2018-09-25T22:46:00.001+01:00

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Want to look good to your boss? Turn yourself into a productivity machine by rewriting your workday with these tips.

September
25, 2018

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Employee performance is a growing concern for business owners, and many of them are taking unique measures to keep their employees happy and productive. One New Zealand firm known as Perpetual Guardian recently shifted its employees to a four-day workweek instead of five, finding that its team members became far less stressed while producing the same amount of work.

Unfortunately, this approach hasn’t exactly caught on as a trend, which means that many employees have to take happiness, engagement and productivity into their own hands. Whether you want a promotion or you’re trying to prevent a layoff by making yourself more valuable, increasing productivity is the path to success.

Looking to make yourself a noticeably more productive member of the team? Here are a few steps to help you get there:

1. Track your time.

Unless you have a direct supervisor standing over your desk and watching your computer screen, there is likely little keeping you from sneaking peeks at your Facebook account or going down a rabbit hole of cute animal pictures. A crucial step toward increasing your productivity is finding a way to make yourself accountable for the time you spend.

Using a time tracker such as Toggl or Nutcache can help you see how much time you’re devoting to a single project, encouraging you to focus on completing each assignment in a timely manner. It’s harder to browse Instagram when you know the clock is ticking.

2. Say yes to “Do Not Disturb” mode.

Nearly all smartphones have this feature, and while it’s designed for distraction-free sleep, it can also do wonders for your workday. Just turn on Do Not Disturb mode any time you need to focus, and you’ll significantly limit outside alerts pinging you out of your groove.

3. Give yourself a break.

While you don’t want your time to drain away through repeated distractions, taking planned breaks from the grind will help keep you sharp. Try methods such as the Pomodoro Technique -- which suggests breaking large tasks into shorter, more manageable chunks -- to build some scheduled relief into your day.

4. Say no to pointless meetings.

According to Elon Musk, “Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time.” You may have only so much control over meetings if you aren’t in a management position, but do what you can to cut out any meetings that don’t have a defined agenda and desired outcome beforehand. You’ll be amazed how much time you gain as a result.

5. Let others help you.

When you’re trying to be super productive, it can be tempting to bite off more than you can chew. But overachieving is a quick route to burnout. You’ll be more effective if you let your team function as it should, with every member participating.

“I’ve learned to trust my team members and their input instead of constantly spending my energy and attention on tiny details,” says Daniel Wesley, president of Quote.com. “It’s a huge time saver. Less distraction, more focus and more learning opportunities for the team all mean more success.”

6. Focus on the necessities.

Sometimes, the tasks themselves can become the distraction. Make sure you’re focusing on the right to-dos by creating a daily list of the most essential tasks you need to complete. Once you’ve finished the most crucial assignments, then you can attend to the secondary work guilt-free.

7. Step away from your desk.

The simple act of vacating your usual workspace can make a world of difference. Whether that means working remotely, which has been shown to increase productivity, or just standing up and going for a walk, getting away from your desk can put you in a better frame of mind when you’re feeling stuck.

8. Force optimism so you don’t get overwhelmed.

You’ve probably heard the saying “Fake it ’til you make it,” and there may actually be some scientific truth to the cliché. Showing optimism about your task load -- even if you aren’t actually feeling it -- can increase your confidence level and make your assignments easier to complete.

9. Capitalize on your critical hours.

Dr. Dona Matthews, a developmental psychologist, observes, “You are more productive when you spend your best hours on your most demanding tasks.” To knock out more work in the same amount of time, plan to do your toughest work during your most productive time of day.

Productivity is all about optimizing every minute of your day to keep your mind sharp and your task list moving along smoothly. While your job may occasionally feel overwhelming, implementing even one or two of these tricks can have a massive impact on the quality and efficiency of your work.

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Great Opportunities Don't Have 'Great Opportunity!' in the Subject Line

2018-09-25T20:37:00.001+01:00

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Don't just jump on the bandwagon of the next big thing.

September
25, 2018

6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The natural tendency to look for evidence that an opportunity is exciting can backfire. Popular signifiers like media coverage and recent success stories are often just a distraction.

I had some professors at Harvard Business School who would jokingly remark that whichever industries students were the most interested in at any given moment was a leading indicator for which industries would be overvalued -- and likely plummet -- five years later. For example, in the 1990s, students obsessed over careers at investment banks and IPO-destined internet companies, and then the bubble popped. In the early 2000s it was hedge funds and private-equity firms, and then the global financial crisis took them down. Popularity creates a herd mentality.

Even the small world of high-tech entrepreneurs, famous for contrarian tendencies, succumbs to popular signals. Great engineers in New York and San Francisco often flock to the companies that have raised the most venture capital or have the highest profile founders. But, they are also forgetting that these high-flying companies have inflated valuations (and often egos, too). As successful as their careers may be in these hot companies, they are likely to make more of an impact elsewhere.

Popular signals are hard to escape. When you tune out popular signals, you start to notice companies, opportunities and even entire industries that are operating under the radar. There is an inherent multiplier in the potential outcome of any opportunity you discover that is out of favor. Sure, there is also more risk, but when you unearth an opportunity yourself and find it before others, you reap the benefits. It’s the reward you get for moving ahead of the herd.

Avoid popularity traps.

To think this way, you must liberate yourself from a number of traps that lure you away from great opportunities. When you think, “The consensus says this is the next big thing" or “Everyone wants this opportunity, so I should take it,” question yourself. Outliers don’t run in herds. If you do take the opportunity everyone wants, you’ll be less indispensable, and the excess supply of willing minds will work against you. When you consider opportunities, focus less on where all the money and attention are going, and focus more on the overlooked aspects that excite you. Don’t chase headlines. Real success comes from starting cold, not joining something hot.

Make something that needs to exist.

With every breakout success story in the worlds of tech, art and business comes a wave of copycats -- new projects that are either slight variants or complete replications with a lower price point. And then there are projects started as whims rather than heartfelt interests and validated needs. They materialize into short-lived novelties rather than necessities. They become clutter for customers and burdens for their creators.

I challenge you to think beyond your own fascinations. If you’re an artist, make sure your work comes from as deep within you as it is inspired by what’s around you. If you’re building a business or solving a problem, start with empathy and validate the need for a solution. If you’re looking for inspiration, look for problems rather than ideas. Add incremental value to this vast system we live in rather than just moving value around.

Ventures are better than replays.

There are two types of projects in the world: ventures and replays.

Replays are adaptions of existing playbooks that help you replicate an outcome with similar goals in a similar environment. As an investor, I meet many teams attempting replays. They usually describe their products as “Uber for X” or the “Warby Parker of Y.” (Full disclosure: I was an early investor in Uber and Warby Parker.) The vast majority of projects are, in fact, replays. They are less risky and easier to identify with. But, by adopting someone else’s playbook, you’re bound by the past. The inherent flaw in being inspired by what's worked before is the gravitational pull towards the mean.

On the contrary, ventures move industries and society forward in ways we never expected. Ventures are deviations from what is known, whether it is something entirely new or transforming something that already exists in a counter-intuitive way. The boldest ventures are led by people who refuse to stand idly by and replay the past.

The world sustains on replays and is moved forward by ventures. Of course, there is no cohesive playbook for a true venture: It’s an adventure into the unknown that must be managed accordingly. In my new book, The Messy Middle, I chronicle the insights and reflections from dozens of leaders that have defied norms and, oftentimes, the conventions of their own industries, to change the world as we know it. One common theme among them is a tolerance of being doubted and a willingness to join an unpopular pursuit for which they have conviction.

It’s tempting to define your goals relative to another successful company or project in your space. We all share the natural tendency to look for patterns and favor the paths that have already been cleared for us. But, a playbook is only transformational the first time it is played. Everything becomes a derivation at worst, and comparable at best.

Whether you’re looking for a new job, client, partner or business opportunity, the best option is unlikely to allure you when you first see it. More often than not, the best opportunities look unattractive on the surface. What makes an opportunity great is its upside, and if that upside was explicitly clear, the opportunity would have already been taken by someone else.

Join a team or take an opportunity not for what it is, but what you believe you can make it become.

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'Shark Tank' Stars Dissect Their Show's Popularity on the Eve of Its 10th Season

2018-09-25T18:29:00.001+01:00

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Kevin O'Leary (a.k.a. 'Mr. Wonderful') said he was induced to join the show when an executive told him, 'We're looking for an asshole.'

September
25, 2018

8 min read

The Sharks were let out of their tank long enough this past weekend to trade barbs and blasts of humor and put their usual business acumen on display. The occasion was a panel at the Tribeca TV Festival, and the five Sharks attending -- Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Barbara Corcoan, Lori Greiner and Kevin O'Leary -- promoted their show's 10th season, premiering Sunday, Oct. 7 (yes, it's been 10 years).

Related: How to Win on 'Shark Tank'

The episode will the the show's 200th. Among its new twists and turns:

A new guest Shark will be taking his seat -- someone who's been in the Tank before, under less comfortable circumstances: He's Jamie Siminoff, who pitched his wi-fi enabled doorbell, Ring, in Season 5 and failed to win a deal (though O'Leary offered him $700,000 in debt/equity, which he declined). Siminoff subsequently sold to Amazon for $1.1 billion.
New guest sharks will be retired NBA star Charles Barkley and Matt Higgins, CEO of incubator RSE Ventures.
Bethenny Frankel, founder of Skinnygirl, and Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, will return as guest Sharks, as will Hollywood "Brandfather" Rohan Oza and baseball great Alex Rodriguez.
Entrepreneurs will include an 18-year-old who says he's watched the show "for 10 years" -- since he was all of 10.
Corcoran has promised this season "more aggressive" Sharks and entrepreneurs "who are going to win your heart."
And John has described a new "High School Sweepstakes" feature inviting teens to write in, via Twitter, about the recent episode's most important lesson. Prizes will be awarded; the grand prizewinner gets a trip to the show.

That show, Corcoran pointed out, when asked about Shark Tank's uniqueness and popularity, is all real, all the time. "What you see is exactly what you see on TV," she said. "Nothing is prompted, scripted. We don't see those entrepreneurs until they walk through the door."

Added John: "It's even more real because the pitches can be an hour long and you only see eight [edited] minutes of it."

Chimed in O'Leary: "And it's our real money -- I like to get it back."

Other data points that may be new: The number of people who have made raw pitches to the show: 40,000; number of people who each season are brought to Los Angeles to pitch to the producers: 170; the percentage of those people who get to pitch to the Sharks: 95 percent; the number of pitches the Sharks see each day of filming: 10 to 11.

"They bring in pitch after pitch after pitch," Cuban pointed out, "and at the end of the day, like every other job, we can be annoyed with each other. But the way we're interacting now, and the laughing and cracking up -- that's how we truly are. I think it's how we care about each other and like each other."

How the Sharks came to be

Asked how they came to be on the show, some Sharks said they'd auditioned; Corcoran was an exception. "They asked for my financial statement. I did it, and they said 'You're in,'" she remembered.

Cuban, meanwhile, was invited to join the show but was ultimately rejected by the network -- for reasons he wouldn't disclose; he was then back, permanently this time, starting with Season 3. John said he'd joined because he liked what Cuban said about the Sharks' opportunity to inspire young entrepreneurs.

Greiner -- a.k.a. "the Queen of QVC" -- said that Mark Burnett (chairman of MGM Worldwide Television Group) told her, "There's nobody else like you; you do everytrhing from soup to nuts."

And O'Leary, ever the bad boy of the group, related how he and Robert Herjavec had already done a Canadian kind of Shark Tank show, and how he, O'Leary, received an invite from Burnett saying (O'Leary's words), "We're looking for an asshole."

Products

The language again turned colorful when the Sharks responded to a question about their favorite moment of filming. "I loved the squirrel zapper," Greiner volunteered. The product she described, the Squirrel Buster, is a bird feeder that deters squirrels from eating the feeder's birdseed with an electric shock. Trouble was that the entrepreneur behind the product had a strange sense of humor and used the remote controls he'd given the Sharks to zap them.

One of O'Leary's favorite products was the Potato Parcel, which mails potatoes with personalized messages and photos. "The thing about Shark Tank is, the ones you think are going to be successful aren't always so," O'Leary said. Of the deals he'd done, he shared, Potato Parcel has so far topped his list of product internal rate of return.

O'Leary predicted that the "home run" pitch for Season 10 will be the Benjilock, which uses a biometric fingerprint.

Then there was everyone's favorite moment this season: a guy who, for a door-stop product, attempted to play up the drama and kick in a door on set. The problem was that he had to attempt this 20 times before succeeding. "One of the best pitches I've ever seen," Cuban declared. The others described struggling to hide the tears of laughter streaming down their faces.

What works -- and doesn't -- for entrepreneurs trying to win a "Shark" Tank deal

An obvious topic for the Sharks was what works in a pitch. "Tell us what the product is, what are you selling," O'Leary counseled. "If you're still rambling five minutes later and we're trying to figure out what the hell they're selling, it's not going to work.

"I'm always about the product," "Mr. Wonderful" continued. "If I own 50 percent of the company and the manager's not working out, I'll take him out behind the barn and shoot him and get somebody else."

Corcoran, on the other hand, described herself as being more drawn to personality. "I make up my mind whom I don't like [if] I just don't like the way you look," she said flatly. She added that the entrepreneurs in her portfolio who'd made her the most money were those about whom "I had a good feeling in my gut." (Cuban endorsed her gut decision-making as "99 percent" effective.)

What all five Sharks agreed on was their disdain for "gold-diggers" -- entrepreneurs who come on the show merely for the exposure and often already possess generous financial resources.

Another sticking point: higher-than-logical evaluations from entrepreneurs offering a mere 3 or 4 percent of equity. Such people, O'Leary said, often don't get the deal they want, then go back out in the world "and get the you-know-what kicked out of them.

"They get tenderized by the meat grinder of life," he added.

They become sensible, he said, "after reality has squeezed their heads like a teenage pimple."

Also agreed on was the Sharks' unanimous positive response to an entrepreneur in obvious need. John described this person as typically someone who "risks their 401(K) and son's college money."

Corcoran added: "We recognize what 'need' looks like because we've all been there. I just feel there's a difference with hunger."

Another poignant note: The Sharks' comments on what they want their show's legacy to be. "Exactly what we have," Corcoran weighed in. "We've inspired loads of people and created the idea that entrepreneur is a pretty sexy thing to do," she added.

And, from John: The show's legacy, he explained, will be about entrepreneurship itself. It "will be words like 'margin' and 'royalty' and 'distribution' and things unusual to the common discussion a family could have," John predicted.

It will be the phenomenon of "talking about financial intelligence at the dinner table," he said. "A family that has kids that want to be Sharks as much as they want to be actors and athletes can have a discussion and have financial intelligence and then [see those kids] go out and follow their dream," John said.

"That's what I love about the show. It's made business a common discussion instead of a fear -- as something to talk about."

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5 Tactics for Transforming Performance Reviews That Range From Ineffectual to Invaluable

2018-09-25T16:20:00.001+01:00

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Employee appraisals that improve performance are essential to reaching company goals.

September
25, 2018

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Many business leaders and experts say that performance reviews are just not that effective. It’s true that there are many ways employers can tank one of these reviews and make it less helpful for workers. Some employees feel unfairly targeted or find it hard to listen at all.

The reality is that performance reviews have evolved into a fairly standard procedure that often fails to motivate employees, and even triggers more complaints than compliments.

However, I don’t think the performance review is a useless tool whose time has come and gone -- at least not completely. Reviews can be helpful for both the employer and the employee, as well as the company itself. All you need is a few strategic tweaks to the process.

1. Make reviews more frequent than once a year.

By their very nature, annual reviews cover a lot of ground. A lot of tasks, projects and accomplishments get missed. The same is true of challenges and areas in need of improvement.

Moreover, focusing on employee assessment and motivation only once a year leads to a perception that the appraisal process is more a formality than a truly important business strategy.

Instead, use a shorter quarterly review to help both you and the employee keep accurate track of their progress towards company and personal goals throughout the year.

2. Always be preparing for performance reviews.

As beneficial as more frequent employee appraisals may be, they’re not always realistic for every company. For example, you may have a large workforce that would render four appraisals a year unworkable, no matter how short you make the appraisal meetings.

If that’s the case, you can still work with the employee to set specific work-related goals at an annual performance review. Just don’t wait until the last minute to make notes for that review.

Throughout the year, touch base with the employee when you can, and talk to their coworkers and direct supervisors. Then you can regularly update a word file or spreadsheet outlining the employee’s progress towards agreed-upon goals.

cHow Employee Performance Review Helps Companies Work Smarter

3. Don’t perform a solo.

While the traditional performance review is generally a solo act, where a manager shares their own opinions, a better approach is to crowdsource your reviews.

Include customers, colleagues and other stakeholders with whom the employee regularly interacts as valuable sources of information in preparing a performance appraisal. This will not only help you form a more complete picture of the worker’s strengths and weaknesses, but will also help you identify new areas for potential additional training or advancement.

Maybe the customer service representative has a talent for sales, or perhaps the marketing team member is ready for a management role. A solid way to find out this kind of information is to ask all the people who regularly interact with that employee.

Of course, you’ll want to apply this policy evenly to all employees, at all levels. And you’ll also want to insist that any feedback or commentary you collect from others should be productive and positively framed, and also stay confidential. It’s not typically another employee’s job to critique a coworker, after all.

4. Make it mutual.

The most productive performance reviews are dialogues, not monologues. Use the opportunity presented by the performance appraisal process for an authentic, in-depth conversation with your employee.

Solicit the employee’s input, and really listen. Take notes, listen thoughtfully, ask clarifying questions and then try to implement any good ideas your employees might share this way, giving the employee credit.

5. Acknowledge and praise.

It’s all too easy to focus on the “correct and motivate” part of the employee performance appraisal, and forget about an equally important aspect of the process: recognition and praise. Don’t simply criticize and correct. Remember that an appraisal requires assessing the entire “big picture” of the employee’s performance. That means the positive as well as the negative.

Acknowledgment encourages deeper employee engagement and commitment to both your company and its mission.

Takeaways

A dedication to helping employees grow and reach career goals must be baked into company culture, especially for startups. Part of that culture revolves around ensuring your employees, as well as your product, stay one step ahead of the competition. The employee appraisal should be geared towards helping improve their work performance so it helps your bottom line.

The ultimate goal of the entire process is to ensure that your company finds a product market fit (and profit), so that it's attractive to investors at some point down the road, be it through an initial public offering, an acquisition or some other investment vehicle. Improving your employee appraisal process so that they’re actually helpful to your employees as well as your company is an essential step in reaching those company goals.

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How to Reconnect to What Really Matters

2018-09-25T16:04:00.001+01:00

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For the past several months, I’ve thought a lot about routines. How do we build a good routine? How do we make it stick?

In my research and reflection, I’ve learned that the best routines are based on our values, things we find meaningful. I’ve also discovered that cues from the physical world can be powerful tools to help us stay on track.

And I’ve worked to act on my own advice. I’ve built a morning routine I love, I try to walk more, I make time for my hobbies, I protect the habits that help me focus.

I’ve also realized there’s another key ingredient to having a good routine.

To have a good routine, sometimes you have to break it.

Why you need both scheduled and unscheduled breaks

If you’ve read anything about productivity lately, you’ll know that breaks are important. Breaks help boost your creativity, your energy, your enthusiasm.

And I’m not arguing; I’m a strong believer in scheduling breaks into your routine. Breaks help us mark boundaries between tasks, recharge, and refocus.

But there’s a difference between scheduled breaks and actually breaking your routine.

A scheduled break fulfills a specific purpose: It helps move you through your day and stick to your routine. Which, ultimately, helps you be more productive.

But an unstructured break isn’t about productivity. By definition, it’s spontaneous and unplanned.

The important thing about this kind of break is that it isn’t part of your routine — it disrupts it.

Disruptions help us rethink our values

Remember when “disruptive” was the hot startup buzzword? Everyone wanted to launch the next “disruptive” technology that rewrote the rules of an entrenched industry.

The craze didn’t last, of course, because you can’t be disruptive all the time. But being disruptive every now and then can actually be helpful.

Once you’ve established a routine, it can be easy to get caught up in its rhythm. We get tunnel vision — always focusing on the next task, the next goal. Sometimes, we get so focused on the path ahead we forget why we chose that path in the first place.

When companies like Uber and Airbnb “disrupted” old industries, they gave us an opportunity to reconsider what we wanted from those industries. By introducing a new technology, they introduced a new perspective.

And it turns out, lots of people don’t care about free continental breakfasts or swanky restaurants. We craved flexibility and unique experiences. We rediscovered what we valued about those industries, which set us down a new path.

Taking a disruptive, spontaneous break from routine allows us to do the same thing for our routines, and our lives.

By stepping outside our routines, we give ourselves the chance to ask: “Am I getting what I want out of life?”

To disrupt your routine, embrace inconvenient impulses

What we do on our scheduled breaks is often what’s convenient. If you’re in an office, you might go to a nearby park or hang out in the break room.

On my regular breaks, I usually walk to the nearby Starbucks, or ride my motorcycle to another coffee shop. These breaks fit into my routine, and give me the space I need to stay productive.

But if I wasn’t restrained by time and convenience, my breaks would look much different.

I’d prefer a hike in Forest Park to walking to a Starbucks, or a ride to Mt. Hood instead of a coffee shop. I’d spend my afternoon writing or reading for myself, not work, or building a new workbench for my garage.

These breaks destroy my productivity for the day, and that’s the point.

They aren’t about productivity — they’re about things that matter to me. Motorcycles, nature, learning, building. Connecting with the world around me.

Convenient, scheduled breaks help you de-stress and refocus. But those breaks are about your work; they’re still part of your routine.

Disruptive, unscheduled breaks give us the chance to step outside this flow and be ourselves. Not machines racing to meet deadlines, not cogs in a bigger system. But humans, individuals.

As I’ve written before, the key to a successful, productive routine is to base it on your values. And if you don’t make time to reflect on those values, the routine you create will, at some point, fall flat.

Routines help us harness our energy and direct it toward our goals. But if you’re not working toward a goal you care about, what’s the point?

Every now and then, take a real break

The next time you have a slow afternoon, or you’re not feeling 100 percent, rearrange your schedule. Take a break — a real break. Step outside your routine and do something you find meaningful.

You probably won’t learn anything life-changing from that first disruption. But over time, taking disruptive breaks to do things you value will help you build the kind of productive life you actually want to live.

As technology philosopher Jaron Lanier writes:

“If you want to see how valuable something is, try living without it for a while.”

Taking a break from routine might seem risky — after all, you worked so hard to build it.

But taking a real, disruptive break from your routine is the ultimate litmus test: If you have a good routine, you’ll miss it.

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3 Apps to Help You Amplify Your Business and Your Life

2018-09-25T14:13:00.001+01:00

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Here are three apps to help the busy entrepreneur.

September
24, 2018

3 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When it comes to the latest tech tools and apps, more isn't always better.

But some apps can help you win back your time, ease your mind and help you better connect with the people who matter most. Here are three apps to help the busy entrepreneur in business and in life.

1. Capsure

If you find yourself losing productivity to the Facebook scroll (most of us do!), then win back your time with Capsure. Capsure is an ad-free app for sharing private moments with friends, family or even colleagues and clients. It works by organizing private boards, where you can share memories, ideas or conversations. Whether you want to ditch Facebook or you're trying to find a new platform for your personal connections, Capsure helps you carve out that space for authentic relationships.

2. Google Keep

This entrepreneur favorite has been on the scene for a few years and was recently updated. If you're still posting your ideas or meeting notes in multiple notebooks and sticky notes, now it's time to make the switch. Google Keep lets you record, edit, share and collaborate on any device, anywhere. You can also set alerts to remind you of important notes, and transcribe audio notes into text. It's one of my easiest hacks for breaking down ideas into actionable lists.

3. Mixmax

I don't want to remember life before I was using Mixmax. There used to be a time that scheduling one meeting with someone required multiple emails back and forth. Mixmax is a simple yet powerful email tool that lets you schedule meetings with a couple of clicks and share templates or calendar availability with team members. One of my favorite features is that it shows you when your recipient has opened your email, taking the guesswork out of when and how to follow-up.

All of the above apps and tools have free versions with an option to upgrade. Before you download new apps or begin trying a new tool, make sure to consider which ones are doing more harm than good and then, delete!

EN is partnered with hundreds of top YouTube channels in the business vertical. Watch video from our network partners on demand on Amazon Fire, Roku, Apple TV and the Entrepreneur App available on iOS and Android devices.

Click here to become a part of this growing video network.

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5 Ways To Come Up With Great Content Ideas Now

2018-09-25T13:25:00.001+01:00

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Do you need new ideas for content creation? How can you setup a stream of constant creative energy to best serve your audience? Is there a recipe for this process?

Although there are no definitive answers to these questions, here at Fizzle we do think we have some helpful directions to get your content conveying belt rolling! It is actually a bit easier than you might think to get that pot steaming and your platforms fizzling with fresh new stuff for you clients.

In this episode, we talk a little about marketing and social media and the different philosophies around these concepts before getting down to the actual nitty gritty ways to jumpstarting your creativity.

We also talk about SEO, bias, viral sharing and all that good stuff you are usually aiming for. We look at the three major avenues that you can use, that are right at your fingertips, so we know you are going to want to get in on this!

For all this and much more, be sure to tune into this must-hear episode!

Key Points From This Episode:

The evolution of content marketing and social media now. [0:03:55.4]

The two schools of thought on what makes content grow. [0:07:19.6]

Matching your content and strategy with your type of business. [0:12:38.4]

The built in bias that can help us along our entrepreneurial path. [0:18:45.7]

Using both schools of thought in conjunction with each other. [0:22:20.9]

Accidental SEO and finding your way as you go. [0:28:02.4]

Writing content for shares or viral possibility. [0:29:53]

Content creation as a means to scratch your own itch. [0:35:25.7]

Taking inspiration from your own life and business for new content. [0:39:05.4]

Ideas from research and surveys in an existing community. [0:45:00.8]

What are your contemporaries creating? Using this question as a starting point. [0:50:22.4]

Grouping these strategies into passive and active. [0:56:49.1]

And much more!

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Start growing your site’s traffic!

The Top 10 Mistakes in Online Business

Every week we talk with entrepreneurs. We talk about what’s working and what isn’t. We talk about successes and failures. We spend time with complete newbies, seasoned veterans, and everything in between.

One topic that comes up over and over again with both groups is mistakes made in starting businesses. Newbies love to learn about mistakes so they can avoid them. Veterans love to talk about what they wish they had known when starting out.

These conversations have been fascinating, so we compiled a list of the 10 mistakes we hear most often into a nifty lil' guide. Get the 10 Most Common Mistakes in Starting an Online Business here »

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