Thoughts on the video?  Any similar stories of how social media has helped you out?

Josh is the Co-Founder and CEO of MomFaves.com – I like to call it kinda like a Digg & Facebook combined  for Moms.

Make sure to check out their blog as well here:  WhyMomsMatter.com

This was a very touching story and I hope you listen to it all!

In this interview you’ll learn:

- About the $2 Trillion Moms are spending a year
- How 63% of Moms are using Social Media
- That they spend 85% of the household income
- Ideas for Moms to start making money from the comfort of their home

I GOTTA hear from you on this one?  What are your thoughts from this amazing interview with Josh?

By the way, here’s the Martha Stewart Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe we talked about in the interview   You gotta listen to understand it

Every Wednesday instead of interviewing someone like we do on Mon, Tues, and Thurs, I’ll be doing a solo podcast to share my thoughts on Business, Internet Success, Marketing, Branding, Networking & Connecting, and other things that I’m seeing out there online.

Today I talked about Surrounding Yourself To Success! The podcast runs about 19 minutes.

People mentioned in this podcast & thanks for your input!!:

@jenniferbourn

@chaunna

@justinbrooke

@seotips2go

@amyvenezia

@jamespierini

@garyzelesky

Follow these folks!!

What are YOUR thoughts on surrounding yourself by the right people?  Please leave me a comment below, I’m interested to hear what you thoughts on the subject?

Tweet it, Share it, Digg it, Stumble it, share the word friends!

We talk about our thoughts of his life, his passing, and we even played some good tunes in between.

Tonight we’re hosting a VERY special Successfool @ 6pm Pacific.  I hope to see you there http://Successfool.tv

Here’s the 4 things that I share that I learned from Michael:

- Be Passionate about what you do
- It’s okay to be Foolish and act like kid sometimes
- Do something NO ONE ELSE is doing
- Living a legacy

I want to hear what YOUR thoughts on Michael’s life and how it impacted you!  Let me know below.

Yes it’s true.  Sarah Nicole and I are having our 2nd Baby.  WOWOWOW!!  Social Baby #2!!!

If you’ve been following Successfool.com you’ll remember last year when my first daughter was born, we did a LIVE USTREAM the very next day and showed of my daughter Sadie Loren to the world!  (yes I was using Ustream back before it was “cool”)

That post was called “The Most Important Day Of My Life” and you can also see the live Ustream I entitled “Social Media’s First Baby”

Sarah, Sadie, and I are truly excited to welcome another addition into our crazy but fun family!

I feel like I’m gonna take over the world right now!

Family is EVERYTHING!!

COMMENTS WELCOME!

Jason Ewart is a Sydney-based transformation writer and speaker touring California in June 2009.  

(kudos to Funny Man Dan @funnymandan for the post title)

“Just because you are a character doesn’t mean you have character.”

- Winston Wolfe, Pulp Fiction (1994)

Recently, I had an opportunity to play a part in giving something back to the kids of our local community. This involved wearing a character suit of an oversized boy complete with permanent smile. A sweaty adventure as I attempted to not knock over any toddlers, caused by a limited view through the mouth of the character.

After several hours, I had a new appreciation for volunteers, and especially of life inside the big head!

Character development is an ongoing journey. Working inside the big head showed me that what was going on inside could be incongruent with the external. I made contact with the creator of the character to look for ways to bring life to the external.

One scenario really spoke volumes to me during the stint in the suit. As I stood near the jumping castle, a couple of youth came from behind and attempted to rip the head off the costume.

The head twisted slightly and a buckle or the fan unit scratched across my face, near my eye.

In that moment, on the inside of the big head, my thoughts were not healthy. They had potential of not bringing life to the character. After all, thoughts lead to actions.

Character is shown in circumstances. As I stood motionless, I re-grouped on the inside. It was very evident to me that what was going on inside the big head had the potential to impact the body language and actions of the character.

Thankful for the permanent smile!

As a business owner, entrepreneur or individual, is my character congruent with the message & values of my organisation?

Do I represent well?

“Character does count. For too long we have gotten by in a society that says the only thing right is to get by and the only thing wrong is to get caught. Character is doing what’s right when nobody is looking…”

Oklahoma Congressman J. C. Watts, speech at the Republican National Convention (August 13, 1996)

If character is doing what is right when no one is looking, or when you can “hide” inside the big head, what can we do for character development?

Set aside intentional time for reflection, journalling, meditation

Review values of self/organisation

Build accountability systems

Invest in health (diet, sleep etc)

Deliver on promises or communicate clearly & promptly if unable to do so

What works for you?

Please share them in the comments. My pen is at the ready.

What is the cost for NOT investing in character development?

]]> http://successfool.com/life-inside-the-big-head/feed/ 5 http://successfool.com/social-medias-first-baby-turns-1/ http://successfool.com/social-medias-first-baby-turns-1/#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:38:52 +0000 Alejandro Reyes http://successfool.com/?p=778

1 Year ago today my beautiful baby girl Sadie Loren Reyes came into this world.  That day completely changed my life FOREVER.  I wrote about “The Most Important Day Of My Life”

The day after she was born I did a Live Video Broadcast (go to 26:00 in the video below) for my friends and family and what happened next was pretty crazy.  You gotta understand that before this I had barely just started my blog and was trying to “make it happen” online…

I ended up tweeting that event and a lot of marketers, bloggers, & other folks from twitter ended up coming to watch this ustream.  This wasn’t a marketing ploy or anything, I was just really excited that I was able to utilize Social Media to show off Sadie to my friends and family.

The next day, I got soooooo many emails, tweets, dm’s, phone calls from people saying “Wow that was the coolest thing ever,” “I love your authenticy Alejandro” and my following online grew because of my daughter.  Pretty crazy huh?

Ever since then I knew that the key to making things happen in the Social Media arena is simple:  Be transparent, invite people into your life, and if you can put a smile on their face, you’ve won their hearts.

So I attribute a TON of my online success to my Sadie!

Sadie, I love you so much, you’ve changed mine and your Mother’s life FOREVER.  Happy Birthday Princess!!

Here’s some videos and some pictures of Sadie over the last year

Thanks!

=

The Video that started it all

sadie is dancing on 12seconds.tv

about to feed sadie & watch “From G’s to Gents” on 12seconds.tv

sadie just loves touching my face on 12seconds.tv

Sadie Loren is a Bee for Halloween. She has 3 other costumes on 12seconds.tv

Sadie trying to battle daddy on 12seconds.tv

Sadie dancing part deux on 12seconds.tv

sadie loves chris breezy on 12seconds.tv

sadie & daddy dancing on 12seconds.tv

Ever had one of those days when you notice that the only thing stopping you is you?!

One of the biggest assets for entrepreneurs and business leaders is the ability to silence self doubt and globalising, test assumptions & the like

The biggest win is often between the ears.

As a dominant visually wired guy, I have found my “portfolio of evidence” to be helpful for these moments.

The portfolio documents photos of wins, when I overcame (predominantly mental) obstacles that were a stretch or a fear.

The photos could be compiled in an album, or a slideshow or they may be displayed on a pin board in your strategy room.

The evidence will shut up those doubtful questions with definite proof that you can because you have!

It may be a captured moment of a presentation where you nailed it or when you closed a deal. On a personal level, you may have built or cooked something for the first time.

What story do you need to remind yourself of?

How can you capture it for the future?

Let the memorials spur us on, but may they spur us on to even greater endeavours so we don’t rely on the old stories or trophies like Al

Four touchdowns in one game!

Keep writing stories.

Keep creating portfolio volumes.

Are you one who is carefully selecting the blogs you visit and comment on because they have ‘Do-Follow’ set up? Yes, I know, you get links this way – but are you really contributing to building a solid business and brand? If you are aiming for adding links in order to get better page ranking so that you can feed viewers to your ads, maybe you are gaining a little. But will they ever return? If you don’t make the effort to create value on your site, you will be forever seeking first time viewers because that’s all you will have – is that what you want?

I got started on this topic because of a post on one of the blogs I read pertaining to blogging. Blogger Maki of DoshDosh just put up a post titled, “The Unhealthy Obsession With Do Follow Links” which I suggest you go read right after you are done here. I won’t repeat everything he said here but just say, he poses the question of the validity of restricting yourself to commenting only on blogs with Do Follow set up for the express purpose of getting back links. And with the validity of the short spammy comments that don’t contribute to the conversation.

Now I’m certainly not going to try to put words in Maki’s mouth, you should read his post for yourself, but I can tell you my take on this, which I’m suspecting may not be too far off of his based on what he has said. With this obsession for link building many are fooling themselves into thinking they are actually building something that will last. First, I wonder how long it will take Google to come up with a method that detects and qualifies comments? They have already found ways to lock out other forms of spammy activity – can you say Google Slap!

Secondly, are you aware of how things are shifting within the online marketing world? With all the social networking sites exploding all around us people are showing that people respond to people more than some artificial hype. Is this full circle? We are back to basic word of mouth being the most potent mode of marketing. For years the internet marketing tried to cover over this with all the hype that was developed just to get eyeballs on to a page. However, if you are looking to build a real business with a meaningful brand this kind of focus is short sighted.

I have only been involved online and learning about online marketing for about 3 years but have seen major shifts take place in how it is being done successfully. Even the top ‘gurus’ in the niches most highly susceptible to hype style marketing, ‘Internet Marketing’ and ‘Work From Home’ have shifted to providing tons of quality information for free. It appears that the way forward if you want to build a brand for yourself and your business, is to be real, and provide quality and value.

And certainly one way to bring value to your site or blog and to the readers, is to actually participate in and contribute to discussions that benefit those people. When you put intelligent ideas in your comments readers will be more likely to follow your link to your blog to see what else of value you have to offer. I think, in the end, that a real human following from a comment is of higher value than a Google Bot. It’s real people who ultimately do business with us, are we assisting them with this action or are we hoping to accidentally capture them? Are you involved with what your audience needs and wants? Are you helping them get it? Are you directing them to other useful sources?

Here’s the trick, if you want to get good at something you must immerse yourself in it. And it can be very helpful to align yourself with others who are doing the same. You can actually kind of form a mastermind alliance with others just by who you associate with in your blogging. Follow those who are deeply in tune with and developing that which you are interested in and get involved by making comments on their blogs and making posts on your blog that really contribute to the conversation. And this must be more than, “really cool post man!” . . . ‘Dude’, come on, wake up!

If you are working on building yourself and your sites as your brand, the shallow comments will do you little good, in fact they will more likely knock you down a few points with your readers. You may not have figured this out yet, but if Google can program it’s computers to pinpoint the shams real humans can do it too – and usually quicker. Now if you are operating with a business model that only cares about traffic, any traffic, to get ad clicks, then the shallow, “cool man” comments will get you some mechanical links. Go for it, as long as it lasts.

But realize that at some point more bloggers will set up filters to not allow short comments – it’s only a matter of time. Because what happens on popular blogs is that someone who really cares about the topic and wants to learn more from reading the comments, like the author, must wade through all the trash. Just like the famed ‘Google Smack’ on all the trash site developers, the system, which here on the net is ultimately people, will tire of wading through the trash.

Get a clue from what is going on in the online world of business, people are fast realizing that the best way to build a business and a respectable brand is to be real. Sure we all click on ads and we marketers use ads, I don’t think that will go away, but the trend is towards offering quality and value.

Your blog readers will respect you far more if they see that you are involved with real meaty discussions with others that are adding value to the subject.

If you are afraid that you will loose your blog readers to another blog if you mention it in your posts, you are missing the big picture. You will gain more respect by leading them to other high quality resources, and if you are really contributing – they will have a reason to stay with you, both for your recommendations and your contribution. Short sighted fear will hold you back!

By getting involved in quality interactions with other bloggers you are creating collaboration,and through collaboration everyone wins. You really are tapping into the ‘mastermind’ concept even if not officially set up. When a group of minds get together on a particular subject they are each enhanced by the interaction. Ideas beget ideas and spark more ideas much faster than each individual can alone. And everyone reading this interaction gains more as well.

You can also apply all this too articles as well. Yes it’s great how you can get a nice link from posting an article on an article directory, but what you really want is real live readers that are impressed enough to click on the link at the bottom and go to your page. The article has already pre-qualified them, they are now a better viewer or your page than one that came from a search.

So, I guess the first thing to decide is, what is the business model you want to operate with? Will you continue to chase traffic alone or will you build a brand which becomes viral in it’s own right where people invite people.

John

]]> http://successfool.com/do-follow-blog-links-are-you-fooling-yourself/feed/ 7 http://successfool.com/wired-part-3-of-3/ http://successfool.com/wired-part-3-of-3/#comments Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:19:31 +0000 Jason Ewart http://successfool.com/?p=632 Jason Ewart is a Sydney-based transformation writer and speaker who obliterated obesity & demolished debt. 

Today I would like to throw a third and final way we can approach our uniqueness into the mix.  I’m sure there are many other ideas so please share them with us via the comments or directly.  I hope you continue to see more opportunities for your teams, families and clients.  Thank you for your feedback.

I was recently asked to bring my 2 cents worth to a discussion regarding reward & recognition. An interesting point raised was different values placed on possible rewards, often motivated by demographic or our uniqueness.

For example, a young lady who is a few months out from getting married & moving out of home for the first time stated that she is motivated by shopping mall vouchers so she can set up home.

An older guy with school age kids may be motivated by paid time off so he can have the rare but valued experience of being the school taxi driver or even attending a mid day school event.

I think there is worth for our teams & families to explore this aspect of our wiring ie. incentives & motivations.

I value quality time together.  For my upcoming trip, I am keen on sitting in cafes & restaurants with particular people. Sure, I will see some sights along the way but for me, that’s bonus!

I have a friend who isn’t motivated by lengthy time together but gets “pumped up” by encouraging words.

What can we be intentional about today regarding reward, recognition, motivation & incentive?

Could it be affirmation, time together, or even giving something material/tangible?

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