Be Consistent

If you are a hard-nosed say it like it is type person, act that way. The worst thing you can do is act differently to different people or situations. This can cause confusion amongst your team and cause them to not know what to expect from you which will not bode well for you in getting everyone to work together and take your assignments to them seriously.

The point is to be consistent, don’t confuse people as it will hinder they way they produce and may even alienate them from you. The last thing you want to do is to drive good people away!

Communicate

Keep an open flow of communication with everyone on your team, people really don’t like to be left in the dark or be the last one to know. Also leave your “door open” as much as you can and be approachable, some great ideas have been brought to my attention that have helped me because I am always open to communicate with my people. Also it will encourage your team to be more open with each other and create a better and more productive working environment!

Be Fun!

This is a fine line topic, but I think it is very important. People will want to work for someone they like to be around. I am not saying to be goofy all the time, especially in situations that require all seriousness. But talk with people about things that interest people on your team, run some fun contests that people really enjoy competing in, and really show that you have a lighter side!

Get Dirty!

If you expect your team to do something, you should be more than willing to do it yourself as well. I have scrubbed toilets, stocked shelves and mopped floors in the name of getting things done. When people realize you have that much pride in your job they will garner more pride in their job and will respect that you do not hold yourself at a higher standard. Get down and dirty if the need arises, not only will you gain respect but you will get some face time with your people and know your business from top to bottom.

Conclusion

When I was first promoted and had a team I didn’t know all of this, and I almost failed miserably. It was until I went to my mentor and asked where I was going wrong, why I was unable to to get people preforming for me. She told me all of the tips I explained above and I implemented them right away, it took some adjustment time but in the end it worked. When I train new managers I always go over these points to help them right from the start. If you think I have missed something please tell me in the comments below, I always love new tips!

Interestingly enough, many project managers are women. Females naturally seem to be more organized, decisive, and understanding when it comes to project management. They have a way with connecting with clients and ensuring markers are met. Whether you have this natural ability as a male or female is irrelevant, what matters is that many entrepreneurs reading this don’t have an extra $40k+ lying around to hire a project manager. What to do? Well, here are some resources that may make up for your lack of management/communication skills

• Management according to About.com
• Management Help Website
• Project Management by Mindtools.com
• The Project Management Podcast
• A look at Management by Scott Berkun
• The Importance of a Central Project List – Lifehack.org
• Project Planning – Lifehack.org
• Basecamp Project Integration – Lifehack.org
• Beginner’s Guide to Project Management – Lifehack.org
• Guerilla Tactics of Project Management – Lifehack.org
• Organize Your Life with Project Management – Lifehack.org
• Outsourcing Project Management – Freelanceswitch
• Outsource Project Management pt.2 – Freelanceswitch
• Freelance Project Management – Freelanceswitch
• Simple Project Management – Freelanceswitch
• Accomplished Project Management – Scott Young
• Zen Habits for Project Management
• Project Triangle – Jason Fried
• Review of Scott Berkuns Project Management
• Paper Based PM

Now, there’s a saying in email marketing (and direct mail marketing for that matter) that goes like this: It’s all in the list. In other words, without a good email list, your marketing efforts will be crippled. Building your own list is the best way to create a highly targeted subscriber base that responds to your message.

Here are some tips to help you build a strong list for email marketing.

• Place signup forms on all pages of your website—Not everyone is going to be arriving at your website through the homepage. Because so many people use search engines, visitors could land on the deeper pages of your website. That’s why it’s so important to have signup forms for your email list on every page of your website. To get the highest response, place your signup box above the fold, and have a simple call to action by it (e.g. Get a FREE copy of my new eBook (Insert Title Here) when you sign up for our email list!). Some studies have shown that placing a simple privacy disclaimer, like, “We value your privacy”, underneath the signup form can also improve your conversion rate.

• Have a signup link in all emails you send–If you’re like me, you’re emailing back and forth with clients, prospects, and colleagues all day long. One simple thing you can do to get a few more subscribers is to include a signup link for your email list in your email signature. Again, offer a straightforward call to action encouraging readers to sign up.

• Offer a freebie for signing up—Sometimes, you need to give people an extra incentive for taking the action you desire. One of the most effective ways to motivate visitors to subscribe to your website is to offer them a freebie in exchange for doing so. This can be something as simple as an eBook or a whitepaper. You could even try to tempt them with a special coupon offering a discount on your products or services.

• Keep the registration process simple—If your registration form has 20 entry fields, you’re doing it wrong. Remember, people are generally a little wary about giving you their information as it is, so forcing them to complete a long, detailed registration form is only going to scare them off. Ask only for the most basic information (name, email address, location) so that they can signup in just seconds. The easier you make it to sign up for your email list, the higher the number of people that will sign up.

• Have a physical signup list at your store and at events you attend—Look offline to build up your email list. If you have a physical storefront, have a signup list in your store, or you can ask customers at checkout if they’d like to subscribe to your newsletter for special deals. Also, if you attend trade shows and conferences, bring a signup list with you for your booth.

Do you use email marketing for your business? Share your experiences in the replies.

Can you tell us the quick history about yourself, and what drives you to succeed?
As a small child (yes I’m 6’5 now, but I was small once) I spent all of my time being creative, attempting to be artistic and always trying to make people laugh. I never saw myself going to college but did it to appease my parents and now know that I wouldn’t be where I am today without that life experience (read: NOT education). I graduated in 2005 with a degree in Graphic Design and was already working part-time for Men’s Professional Tennis (ATP) and did so for 3 ½ years. At the same time I was working there I was continuing to network and flex my creative muscles by starting a web design company of my own with a college friend. Once that business was self-sustaining, I parted ways with what ended up being a great couple years of work/life experience but truly showed me that I was not meant for a 9-5 work environment. After leaving the corporate world and working for myself I began to realize that the more effort I put in, the more results I saw… not just because more effort brings more opportunities, which it does, but because people liked me, trusted me and put value you in my opinion. A year after leaving my 9-5 job, I had helped create ¼ of a million dollar revenue generating company but knew there was more for me and knew social media could open some interesting doors. On one of the many late nights I spend perusing the web in August ’08 the light bulb went off: TONS of companies print t-shirts, want people to wear them and want to gain exposure somehow. That night the domain IWearYourShirt.com was purchased and the idea turned into a business model where a guy wears a t-shirt and gets paid to promote that company through social media for a day. The website was live in October, the first day was sold on November 11, 2008 and I had 5 ½ months of shirt-wearing sold when January 1, 2009 rolled around.

We know you are a younggogetter, but I am sure there is more to you than that. What are some other things you have done prior to you current job or things you are currently working on?
Obviously I’ve put in 27 years of practice in wearing t-shirts, so that’s been pretty rough. But seriously, I’ve always been a social butterfly, always willing to try new things and always telling people that life is too short to do things that suck. As far as work experience goes, I started out as a produce boy at a small grocery store, pumped gas, was a Verizon cell phone salesman and about 20 other random jobs that all made me the person I am today (but sucked). I had aspirations to play basketball professionally but had two unfortunately knee injuries which may or may not have led me to my current situation, so how can I really complain? Right now I am really focused on building my personal brand, leveraging that to make money and most importantly providing value for companies that buy into Jason Sadler.

What has been your biggest asset while building your IWearYourShirt.com?
Nothing… and I mean NOTHING has helped me more than working my ass off, being super dedicated and having a really supportive family, girlfriend and group of friends (and dog). It’s one thing to work 16 hours in a day, but it’s a whole other ball game when your Mom and Grama are in your live video show every single day at 3pm EST. I’ve seen my fair share of copycats and each one of them has made me push that extra bit harder each day. I’m 100% open and transparent with my audience and try to be as accessible as possible. You know from first-hand experience, it took me nearly 2 weeks to get this interview back to you. It’s not that I didn’t want to do it, it’s just that I put so much effort in promoting every day’s t-shirt sponsor and juggle my personal and online life at the same time.

Adversely, what has been your biggest vice?
Being creative every single day for over 300 days straight. I haven’t taken a day off and have only missed my live video show 3 times this year. I really enjoy spreading the word about each new company and interacting with my audience daily. That’s what makes it easy to go to bed at 2am and wake up at 7-9am, depending on when my dog Plaxico wants to go out.

What can we expect next from the talented Jason Sadler in the near future?
I’m really focused on trying to carve out my own niche in advertising. It’s no secret that magazine ads, billboards, banner ads and other mediums are hurting and not returning ROI. You could easily spend $1000+ on getting a company to create a YouTube video, Live Video show, creatively/honestly written blog posts, Tweets, Facebook Profile & Flickr photos and all the other stuff I do in ONE day for a company. But even if you spent all that money, would anyone be there to consume it? No. I’ve only been building my personal brand publicly for about a year and think I have a long way to go before people will pay thousands of dollars to have 50 people wear their company’s t-shirt, but that’s my goal. Imagine the power of 50 people, who are connected to… I don’t know, 5,000 total people each wearing a shirt for a day and talking about via social media. That’s a minimum of 250,000 people being exposed to your brand. I’m scaling IWearYourShirt.com slowly and hoping to reach that goal and keeping a consistent value. Anyone could put an ad on craigslist to get 50 people to wear a t-shirt, but do all of those people have a social media following and understand how to be genuine and fun to watch/listen to?

I’ve also been really excited to start speaking at conferences, doing social media consulting for companies and I have a marketing consultancy that will be launching at some point in 2010!

Everyone starts to feel burn out on a project every now and then. What do you do to keep yourself motivated and focused?
Step out of my comfort zone. I really love my couch in my living room and the town that I live in (Jacksonville, FL), but sometimes just picking up and going somewhere else is a huge creative motivator. I love taking my dog Plaxico to the beach, letting him poop in the sand thinking about how I could possibly monetize that. Not the actual poop, but maybe create that poop-spray from that awful movie “Envy”? That and Chick-Fil-a breakfast always gives me a good kick start!

Can you give us three tools that you use every single day to make your life as a younggogetter more efficient, productive, or fun?
Tweetie, Ustream.tv and the iPhone. Oh, and if I can add a 4th one, it would be the free Macbook Pro that http://SoundVisionLibrary.com bought me!

What is your favourite quote?
It should probably be something said by Einstein, JFK or someone else who is way smarter than me. But I’m bad at remembering quotes unless they are from Will Ferrell movies: “MOM!! The meatloaf…..”

And last but not least, if you could give one piece of advice to fellow Young Go Getters, what would it be?
Don’t try to be someone you’re not and stop working for crappy companies. There are so many other companies out there that need talented people, you are never stuck at a dead-end job and should focus on what you are truly passionate about. A true entrepreneur doesn’t complain about their situation, they figure out how to innovate and move on.

Air Jordans pretty much made Nike the massive success, and is still the #1 shoe in the world! JLO and Martha Stewart are two more great examples of how a brand can make a person a celebrity or a celebrity make a brand. So how do you start and promote your own personal brand? Let’s take a look at some simple keys.

What’s the advantage of a personal brand?

Personal brands, like any brand, attempt to influence people and create recognition. One huge advantage of a personal brand over a business brand is that they are easily movable as well as easier to trust. Yes, easier to trust. It’s all based around psychology, and in a world that’s always telling us what we want in order to make a sale, we have become very untrusting of business. The minute we think we’re being sold to, we tend to block out whatever information is at hand. However, when you see a celebrity or person that you like or can relate to, you’re naturally more trusting of the brand and the products associated with that brand.

How do you build a personal brand?

Personal brands are easy to start but hard to grow. The key to branding is using technology as well as establishing credibility. A good starting point is twitter or a website. Using technology to get ahead is a time consuming difficult market, bit can make you a celebrity in time. Look at some of the famous youtubers, tech shows, and even bottom rung celebrities becoming famous again.

The hardest but probably most successful way to create a personal brand is to build something amazing using your natural talents. This doesn’t mean you have to start out on your own either. Take a look at any popular Disney or Nickelodeon actor for some great examples. Almost every popular tv actor has gone on to start their own movie, singing, clothing, etc. Mylie Cyrus, Hillary Duff, Amanda Bynes are just a few young entrepreneurs in the making. To leverage an institution’s credibility, choose a great one and become part of it. Learn how the business works, and be the best in your workplace. This will automatically lead to success if the company has a strong name and brand.

Build your brand now

You’re probably already using facebook, twitter, linkedin, blogs, and forums so why not gear these technologies to start building your brand now? Start with a logo and a name and stick with it. If you haven’t noticed, popular brands almost never change (take Google for example). Start putting that logo and link to your website or whatever all over the internet. Put it in your signature for emails and forums. Create groups and use social media to communicate with others that have the same interest as you. There are literally hundreds of ways to promote your name with no cost, but it’s a matter of finding what works best for you and remaining committed to always stay involved with those methods.

The sales of eBooks have been rising significantly over the past few years. Today, millions of dollars are generated each month from eBooks. In fact, $14 million in sales of eBooks took place in June of 2009. This was a 136% increase in sales over June 2008. In other words, the market for eBooks is there, and it’s constantly growing.

So, why should you consider writing an eBook? Here are just a few benefits to consider.

• It creates a stream of passive income—Remember earlier when I mentioned putting more money in your pocket? One of the best ways to do this is to create a stream of passive income. Writing and selling an eBook can do just that. Once you put in the initial time of writing your eBook, you can let affiliates market it for you (paying them a commission of course) and just sit back while the sales roll in. Look, your eBook isn’t going to make you rich, but it can certainly fatten up your wallet.

• It positions you as an expert in your field—Writing an eBook instantly creates the perception that you’re an expert in your field. Think about it. Who are you likelier to trust: Someone who claims they know how to repair cars or someone who has written and sold many copies of a book about repairing cars? As an entrepreneur, you’re always fighting to build trust with your target audience. Writing a great eBook can help you earn some of that trust and respect.

• It can be used to grow your email list—Even if you decide not to sell your eBook, it can still be very profitable for you. Many savvy businesses offer free eBooks to website visitors who sign up for their email list. This entices them to provide you with their email address, and it allows you to build relationships with them and to market to them in the future. If you have an effective email marketing strategy in place, this can pay off many times over. In fact, email marketing generates over $45 on average for every $1 spent. It’s the most effective form of direct marketing when done properly.

If you’re interested in writing an eBook, here are a few pieces of advice to get your started.

• Determine which subjects you’re knowledgeable in

• Perform keyword research to find out what your target audience is interested in

• Take your time writing and editing your eBook to make sure it’s as good as it can be

• Make sure your eBook is actually useful, not just an advertisement for your products or services

• Connect with an affiliate program (like ClickBank) to promote your eBook

Have you written an eBook? Was it successful? Share your experiences in the replies.

Credibility over Competition

One of the problems with a highly competitive attitude is the sacrifices that are made to win. To be really competitive against your rivals you have to outdo, outbid, or outlast in some way, and this mentality may hurt your credibility in the long run. To better understand this, let’s take a look at a testimonial from a freelancer in the web industry:

There has been a huge boom in web design and development in the last decade. This demand has created thousand upon thousands of new web design agencies. When I first started my business, I was hungry and determined to outdo the other guys. I started focusing on price to make me competitive and preferable to the market. What I found out was that not only was I still being outbid (mainly by oversea companies), but I was also losing money on the bids I did land, causing me to feel forced into cutting corners to make the project profitable. This went against my core work ethic and moral fiber and I quickly changed, refocusing on quality and service instead of cost or time. This has led me to much greater success as my clients truly valued my work and began to make referrals passing my name from business to businesses.

Can you handle it?

Many of us entrepreneurs and business owners know what it’s like to work a 16 hour day. I’m sure many even do that on a regular basis.. but at what cost? If you’re married, perhaps you’ve noticed that your long hours at work are taking their toll on your marriage causing fights and causing the words “work-a-holic” to ring in your ears. Maybe your friends are complaining that you haven’t gone out for a beer in over a month, or haven’t returned their phone calls. Fill in the blank for your situation. You know if this is an issue in your life or not. Sometimes outdoing the other guys means doing yourself in. Do you want to be someone that’s always climbing the never-ending stack of work?

Why Compete when you can Co-exist?

If your competition isn’t directly hurting you, why compete at all. Take a hint from all the web related industries in the world.. most of which are publicly sharing their knowledge on the web and are in fact even sharing the profits! What kind of a business model is that?! Well confusing as it may be, we are in a generation of FREE where businesses really do give away free stuff, and entrepreneurs grow and share in the wealth together.

Putting it all together

All this is, is a reality check. Wake up. You’re in the 21st Century and new ideas and business models are springing up all around you. Maybe competition isn’t an option for you, and maybe this is of no value. But if you take away one concept, let it be this.. you’re probably not the first and you’re definitely not the last. What’s more important to you to accomplish with your business.. a selfish and reproachful attitude that benefits nobody but you, or a lasting effect and name that others remember and share?

@thederekjohnson – College dropout CEO of @Tatango & @Derek_Media.

@skanwar – Partner at Jet Cooper. Part marketer, part geek. Ruthless go-getter, your friend. Evangelist, listener.

@GenYjobs – Co-Founder & CEO of Koda.us. KODA is Social Recruiting – changing the way new talent connects with companies to find jobs. (@kodaus)

@bbunderground – A Blackberry Evangelist speading the Blackberry word …and The Only Real Blackberry Social Network, for users, and abusers

@wesbos – I’m a Web Designer thats into Wordpress, CSS, & Jquery. I love vintage bikes. I’m an Internet Astronaut.

You can also follow us a @younggogetter, happy tweets! Also please leave a link to your twitter account in the comments below so we can get to know you!

LeBron James. And yes, the last sentence was full of puns.

LeBron “The One” James. The 24 year old basketball wunderkind who has made leaps and bounds from a young age at doing things well. We know he dominates on the basketball court as part of the Cavaliers but did you know that he has been a force to be reckoned with in the personal branding world? LeBron has taken full control of how his image is seen by people around the world. He understands that he has alot of influence through corporate endorsements and decided to create his own path to secure his dream of becoming the first billion dollar sports brand.

Yes, billion dollar.

Check out this video interview from 60 Minutes which gives us some insight into the thinking of the branding smart guy.