Are You Ahead Of The Pulse?

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Gary Vaynerchuk Lesson 2: “Getting Ahead of the Pulse”

Last week we talked about the “Hoopla Factor” and how you’ve gotta find that thing that separates you from the rest of the world. That God-given talent that makes YOU who you are.

The 2nd thing that Gary talked about is “Getting Ahead of the Pulse.”

“Reading trends is Death City, USA”

In Internet Business, if you just focus on reading trends, searching for the next best keyword, you’re going to have the same results you currently have. Some of you might get lucky, but the true key to making things happen is to get ahead of the curve & be innovative.

Bill Gates calls it the “First Movers Advantage.” Whoever is first wins. Take a look at him and “Windows.” Take a look at what Steve Jobs did in the Music industry AND in the Cell Phone industry. They were the first to put something out that was extremely innovative and ahead of its time.

Gary was one of the first if not the first Wine retail company to have a website back in 1997. When everyone was enjoying the “fruity” California wine’s, and saw an obvious “segue in pallets” as he calls it, and moved to where wine was more fruiy…Australia & Spain.

He understood these things and was able to get ahead of the pulse because he talked to every customer, he read all the emails that he received every day and was literally in the trenches. If you’re able to get ahead of the pulse in your industry or your niche, you’re able to know what’s coming next. If you know what’s coming next and people see that, it will be only a matter of time before you start to rise up in your community as the leader & authority on the subject.

So what next how do you get ahead of the pluse? Here’s a few places you can start:

1. Twitter: Start connecting with people and becoming aware of what the “conversation” is & you’ll start to see things

2. Facebook: Find out what people are talking about most? Find how who’s on the “Top Friends” section of people’s profile.

3. Forums: Don’t waste too much time here, maybe once a week. Find out what people are selling, what the issues & problems are within your industry

4. Turn the TV On: Watch the Hills…just kidding. What are people talking about in the world today? What are Baby Boomers up to? How’s people handling the current state of America.

Interact with people, be engaging, provide value to them, listen to them, be very aware, and soon you’ll find yourself picking up on things.

I’m working on something that NO ONE is really talking about yet. You got a glimpse of it when I was interviewed by Social Marketing Expert Michelle Macphearson last thursday night when I talked about “Influencing the Social Networking Sites”

Get out there and start touching people, kissing babies, mingling and just have crazy awareness of what’s going on. Good luck!

Gary Vaynerchuk - You Gotta Find Your Hoopla Factor

Lesson #1: You Gotta Find Your Hoopla Factor

“You have to be excited about what you’re doing, if you have the hoopla factor it’s because you love what you do.”

Have you found your “Hoopla Factor?” Are you passionate about what you’re doing? In business, especially an Internet Business, you have gotta find your hoopla factor. It’s that thing in your business that you can get excited about, that thing that sets you apart in your niche and you just simply love doing it.

Whatever that hoopla factor is for you, make sure that you’re staying true to who you are. I see too many marketers & entrepreneurs that are just super fake! They see someone doing something that is getting attention so they try and become that person for some reason. That is so sad to me because it just shows that people are lacking a ton of confidence in themselves so they try and act like someone else.

You have got to realize that there’s something inside of you that is extremely special that sets you apart from everyone else. There’s an old proverb that says, “A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before great man.” I believe that thing inside of you, that DNA, that Passion of yours, is the thing that you need to find, that thing you need to tap into, so that you can be totally authentic, real, and transparent! Folks, when that happens, it’s a lot easier to get excited about things.

People are looking for an “Authentic Story.” What’s YOUR authentic story cause that’s your Hoopla Factor. It’s what sets you apart from everyone else. It’s okay to be different. I DARE you to be different and watch what happens. What’s the worse that can happen? People actually like you?

Gary did things different in a MAJOR way. Here’s a couple things he did different then everyone else in his industy.

1. Launching a Website: In 1997 WineLibrary.com was launched and no one was doing that in the Wine Industry.
2. Gary was a bit of a “Freak Show”: When he was 20 years who knew a lot about Burgandy , people would come to see a kid that looked 13 talking about that.
3. Invested Heavily in a Different Product Mix: When everyone else was talking about California wine’s and Gary was pumping out Spain & Australia and getting people really excited about that.

Gary did things different and is still doing things different? What are you doing different that you can get people excited about. People want to get excited and they’re looking out there for someone to get them excited in YOUR niche. Will it be you? I sure hope so.

Here’s what I would do if I were you because I’ve done this myself.:

1. I would take out a piece of paper and write out the things or that thing that you’re most passionate about. That God given gift, talent that you know that if the world just saw this side of me, it would be over! People want to see THAT side of you. Now there can be many things, but try and keep it close to your business as possible. For some of you, you just might not be passionate about what you’re doing and might think to start doing something else?
2. I would call 2 of your closest friends that TOTALLY know the REAL you! Or it can be business advisors. You gotta make sure they’re the friends that you know deep down have your best interest in mind. I would ask them to answer a few simple questions, “What makes ME me?” For me it was, “What makes Alejandro, Alejandro.” What are the good qualities and gifts that you believe separate me from everyone else? What’s ONE word that describes Alejandro.
3. I would take the piece of paper and what your closest friends told you, and start to iron out who you really are and how you can bring that to the table in your business, to your clients, customers, etc.

I want you to take these simple actions and I DARE you to comment below and let me know what YOUR passion & gifts are and how you plan to implement that in your business. Don’t be afraid, we’re all here to help each other out.

I gotta warn ya, you might have to do some soul searching which to some people it isn’t fun. I HAVE to soul search, I HAVE to be in tune with my Passion cause if not, I get bored easy and there’s no excitement for what I do. But keep in mind, if you want that “Hoopla Factor” in your business, you gotta be willing to take the necessary steps.

I look forward to hearing from ya and tomorrow look out for the post entitled: “Get Ahead Of the Pulse.”

I’ll leave you with a quote from Gary:

“You need to create an air of excitement in your business.”

Going Big Like Gary Vaynerchuk

When I decided that I was going to be profiling Famous Entrepreneurs on Successfool I didn’t know initially who I wanted to profile first. Now keep in mind, these are people I consider famous entrepreneurs either because they’ve been very a successful entrepreneur in the past, are one now, or are an up and coming famous entrepreneur.

The week I was thinking of who I wanted to profile first, I watched an episode of the “Big Idea” with Donny Deutsch and I saw someone that I had been following on Twitter for a long time named Gary Vaynerchuk. What he shared in those 8 - 9 minutes where pretty awesome. The reason I chose Gary to be first is because everything he said on that show that night is relevant to what entrepreneurs need to be very aware of.

Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibrayTV has helped take his family business from $4 Million to $50 Million in just a few short years. He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, GQ, and Time, and has appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Ellen, Nightline, and Mad Money with Jim Cramer.

Over the next few days I’m going to share with you the 5 things that you can start implementing RIGHT now in your business and start seeing some results. Here’s a couple questions in the meantime.

What do YOU love about what Gary’s doing?

What’s the ONE question you would as Gary Vaynerchuk?

Famous Entrepreneurs Contest at Successfool

The Famous Entrepreneurs Contest is all about you guessing WHAT famous entrepreneur you think I’ll profile first. Next week I’ll be profiling the first famous entrepreneur on Successfool as I roll out phase 2 of Successfool.com Learn more about it here: Phase 2 - Famous Entrepreneurs

Make sure to watch this video for details on how to win & check out the PRIZES below!

Prizes:
- Lifetime to Successfool Premiere when it launches in 2 months
- Free Successfool T-Shirt - Coming out in July
- A review of your site next week on Successfool
- Free 30 Minute Social Media Marketing Consultation with me

I’m really excited to share this one with you to get off our famous entrepreneurs.

Comment and you might win!

Stay Hungry - Stay Foolish!

Famous Entrepreneurs: Why You Need To Pay Attention

What’s going on everyone? Hope all is well! So it’s been one whole week since my last post about the most important day of my life. If you haven’t read the post yet, I encourage you to read it as my wife and I just had our first baby on April 23rd.

So now we roll into Phase Two of Successfool.com. Famous Entrepreneurs. Yup that’s right, famous entrepreneurs. As you know in Phase One, we interviewed a lot of Top Entrepreneurs on their “story” of success and how you can learn how to become and entrepreneur.

You can check out the top entrepreneurs interviews here:

Justin Brooke
Paulie Sabol
David Wilkinson
Jason Henderson
Jeff Mills

In Phase Two, I’ll be profiling the Entrepreneurs that have paved the way and are continue to pave the way for our success. This is really exciting for me as I understand the tremendous privilege that we have to learn how to become an entrepreneur from those that have failed, those that have been thought of as foolish, those that have invested millions into becoming successful.

We can learn so much from these famous entrepreneurs and take ideas and principles that they lived by and apply them to our business models. It’s almost like having the best mentor’s possible!

So the way it’s going to work is like this:

I’ll take polls by comments here and use Twitter to figure out who YOU want me to profile. Keep in mind, I’m talking about folks like, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump (one’s that are actually famous). I will then profile famous entrepreneurs about their “story” of success and even talk about their failures. After the profiling article, I’ll write 2-3 follow up lesson’s that we can all learn from these entrepreneurs.

Make sense? Cool!

So tell me, what famous entrepreneur would YOU like to see profiled?

Passion Spoilers: Is Your Environment Spoiling Your Passion?

My wife and I decided to relax at the house on a Friday night, order some Macaroni Grill, and watch a movie.  My sister in-law told us that we “had” to watch the movie “August Rush.”  I was a little hesitant but ended up giving in.

The movie is about a young boy, August Rush, who grows up in an all boys school having never met his parents.  For some apparent reason, he believes that he’ll find them one day by “following the music.”

While in this boy’s school, the other kids think that August is a “freak”and pick on him for believing that he will find his parents one day (as they have no hope themselves).

In the midst of the environment and what the kids around him are doing, August says something very interesting, “Sometimes the world tries to knock it out of you.”

My question for you is, What has the world been trying to knock out of you?  What is that thing inside of you that you’ve been burying because of what the world has said about you?

That thing inside of you is your Passion!  Passion is that thing that you would do regardless if you got paid to do it or not.  The problem is that so many people have allowed their world and their environment  define their passion for them.  I call this, “Passion Spoilers.”  If you don’t define you passion folks, someone else will!

This week I’m going to be doing an interview with the Passion Expert, Gary Zelesky.  Gary released a book earlier this year called the Passion Centered Professional.  He’s an author, speaker, and probably one of the best communicators I’ve ever heard.

Stay tuned this week for this interview with Gary as he sheds light on how to find your Passion.

Aside from your environment, What are some other Passion Spoilers?

Stay Hungry - Stay Foolish

A Successfool’s Mindset

In the next few posts I’m going to touch a little on the 4 areas (Mindset - Methods - Make Money - Life) of Successfool’s.

The first and to me most important of the 4 is “They have the right Mindset.”

Here’s a powerful quote about your mind:

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

Isn’t it amazing how the things that we think about most, actually happen and become our destinies?  I believe that if people realized this, they might start “thinking” twice about what they’re feeding their mind.

There’s only a certain amount of “space” we have in our mind, and if all we’re doing with that space is allowing it to be consumed by things that are not going to get us that much close to our goals and what we really want out of life, then we must evaluate our daily activities and make some major adjustments adjustments.

Having the right mindset is extremely important to becoming a Successfool.  I’ve made sure to line up some of the top entrepreneurs in the world for interviews on the area of Mindset and how it pertains to becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Here’s a few things you can do right now to start working out that brain of yours:

1.  Hang around the right people
- there’s nothing worse than being surrounded by negativity and the wrong environment
2.  Go pick up “Think & Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill
- this will totally help you on having the right mindset
3.  Evaluate frequently
- I triple dare you to take a notepad & a pen.  Every hour on the hour, write down exactly what you’re thinking at that moment.  Be honest and you will be surprised with what you’re thinking about.

I’m going to be talking about the Methods of a Successfool next.

Stay Hungry - Stay Foolish

Alejandro

It’s Here - Successfool Dot Com Launches!

I’m super excited to be writing this today as this is the FIRST official post of Successfool Dot Com! Successfool has been a dream of mine for a long long time! My hope is to be a resource to those that are out there trying to become successful entrepreneurs.

Whether you’re an internet marketer, network marketer, blogger, a small business owner, Successfool was made with you in mind.

Someone once told me, “Find out what you’re most passionate about and figure out a way to get paid to do it.” I was too naive ‘not’ to listen and ended up doing so.

Successfool is my outlet to share my experiences, my successes, and my failures, in hopes that you will learn a thing or two that will take you to your next level in life and in business. Not only that, you’ll also hear interviews from some of the top entrepreneurs and marketers in the world as they share what they did to become successful.

I’ve come to believe that there are 4 main ingredients that Successfool’s share:

1. They have the right Mindset
2. They use the right Methods
3. They choose the right programs to Make Money.
4. They have their Life in order

Stay with me on this journey as I share with you through articles, podcasts, interviews, video’s and tutorials on how to get the right mindset, use the right methods, and to have the right lifestyle to become a Successfool.

Stay Hungry - Stay Foolish

Alejandro Reyes