My good friend and local entrepreneurs Josh Unfried provided some amazing inspiration on how he turned grief in his life to something good and special.

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

This is an oldie but goodie!

Last year I had the privilege of connecting and being interviewed by Ryan Lee.  Ryan is someone I highly respect and have been following him for a while because he’s known as a membership site genius!!!  He not only has built a high monthly 6 Figure business (yes I said monthly) by creating niche membership sites, but has helped thousands of others create membership sites.

In this interview I really get Ryan to talk about what his secret is to becoming successful!

This is a 60 minute interview so it’s power packed with a lot of content.

I’m interested to hear your thoughts on this podcast and membership sites.

Blogging has absolutely transformed my business.  I had blogged for SEO purposes over the last couple years but never blogged to build my own brand.  It’s been over a year since I first launched my blog and it’s a long time coming.  You can take a look at my very first video here.  Be warned, I’m pretty stiff

http://successfool.com/video-1/

Since I started blogging to position my brand out there in the marketplace, a lot of people ask me the question, “How do I start blogging,” How important has blogging been to your business.”

Well I’ll answer one of the questions today and then have my partner Justin Brooke answer you tomorrow nigh LIVEt on my Internet TV show SuccessfoolTV.  Justin has been ROCKIN IT lately with his blog.  Quadrupling his traffic for his already successful blog Site Fliiiiiiiiiiing!   (you gotta say it that way with the exclamation mark!!!)

How important has blogging been to your business?

I tell entrepreneurs and small businesses all the time… “blogging is the nervous system…the cornerstone of your online presence.”

Because of the success that I’ve had with my blog, I’ve been given the opportunity to speak at conferences, coach others how to use social media to grow their business, ran my own conference and the list goes on and on and on.

Listen, there’s so much traffic on these social media sites, we’re talking a LOT of traffic.  Twitter is the fastest growing social network on the Internet, Facebook is growing at over 700,000 new users everyday.  If Facebook was a country, it would be the 6th largest in the world.

So the goal for businesses shouldn’t be just to communicate with folks on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, and keep the conversation on those particular sites and try to offer products and services.  The goal should be to start a conversation with these people, add amazing value to people’s lives, then funnel them back to your blog (NOT a lead capture page) where you can add MORE value to their lives.   THEN, if you do a good enough job, you’ll have an opportunity to win over their business.

So has blogging been important to my business success, ABSOLUTELY.

Here’s some of just a few benefits of blogging for your brand or business:

- Brand awareness
- Traffic
- Research
- SEO (search engine optimization)
- Building relationships with your customers, clients or prospects
- Can review products or services in your industry
- Lost cost marketing
- Positioning you or your company as the “thought leader” in your niche
- Reputation management

How important has blogging been for YOU?  Would love to hear what your stories.

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?

]]> http://successfool.com/wired-part-3-of-3/feed/ 0 http://successfool.com/wired-part-2-of-3/ http://successfool.com/wired-part-2-of-3/#comments Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:19:24 +0000 Jason Ewart http://successfool.com/?p=573

Jason Ewart is a Sydney-based transformation writer and speaker who obliterated obesity & demolished debt.  

Previously we took a look at the DISC assessment

This gave us a framework to help us understand how ourselves and others are “wired”, and also to assist us in improving personal & work relationships.

After all, what is the cost for not improving working and personal relationships?

Today, we consider another framework that I have experienced value with, particularly in the arena of facilitating training.

It is known as VAKOG learning styles

It stands for Visual – Auditory – Kinesthetic – Olfactory – Gustatory.

Due to being “wired” differently, people learn in a variety of ways. Sometimes it is a combination of the above.

For example, I am a Visual/Kinesthetic learner.

Whiteboards, powerpoints and video work very well for me.

Notetaking helps me engage as I view a presentation and also get “hands on” by drawing diagrams, capturing quotes and writing questions inspired by the presenter.

Some people are able to learn effectively using a “lecture theatre” model. Others flourish in an “apprenticeship” environment, working alongside the “master”, getting their hands dirty.

I was able to tap into gustatory style during a presentation on meditating for an audience of young people. Equipped with my wife’s amazing cooking, I served up meditation or “chewing over” an idea from this angle. Using other resources, I also attempted to engage other learning styles at the same event.

Clients and team members are unique. Your tribe may be united by a product or service but a presentation of features and benefits or processes and systems may need to be delivered in a variety of ways.

What is the cost to your business for not discovering relevant learning styles?

John Halderman writes about personal growth and online marketing , helping people take command of their income, personal growth and wellness. He is also on Twitter

This phenomenon called social networking has absolutely exploded I the last couple of years and the thing is, I think it’s just getting started. If you look at the growth of social networking just in the last six months, it will floor you. Two or three years ago many people were complaining that all this online activity and attention was just serving to isolate people because it was keeping them away from social activities.

Now look what happened, we humans seem to have automatically solved the problem. Or should I say we evolved into the solution. When this many people move in one direction this quickly, it’s humanity talking! We people need to interact, communicate and collaborate, it’s how we are built. And even thought this Internet thing first appeared to be the grand ’separator’ there had to have been this response to our basic human need growing deep within, just waiting for us to discover it and allow it to blossom. I know, this is pretty ‘big picture’ thinking here, but I believe everything has purpose and just because we can’t see it – it’s there.

Do you realize how much easier it is to locate people that have similar interest to yours? Look, when I was in high school, and many consider me an ‘older guy’ now even though I’m only about halfway ‘there’, many kids were really isolated is they were a little more unique than average. It was a physical, as far as you can walk or maybe drive, area that you had to function in. And even then it would be difficult to find someone just a couple miles away at a different school that shared some of your unique interests.

A persons interests were not listed in the phone book . . . how did you find them? There were many brilliant, creative individuals stuck out there alone with no one to help further develop their thoughts. Not that individuals can’t and don’t do many wondrous things individually, collaborating expands the thinking of all involved much faster.

Do you realize the power in this? Have you ever studied about the ‘mastermind’ concept? Author Napoleon Hill wrote about it in his classic “Think And Grow Rich” detailing how the mental power of a group of minds working in alignment with a specific intention far surpassed the basic mathematical combination of the individual participants minds. Some say the resulting thought capability of a group increases geometrically.

Now why did I bring this mastermind thing up here? Think about it, just a few years ago it was hard to find someone who shared a unique interest, now you can locate thousand of those like minded individuals. Then add in to this how we humans progress, in anything. We build on what we know, and when several people are together, the group knows more about the specific subject. Add to that the mastermind affect and any idea develops faster. People feed off of each others ideas allowing creativity to blossom.

This vast system of interlinking has just opened the flood gate to human progress. The speed at which progress moves forward has just picked up an other comma. And we are here to participate in it and work with it, so we better understand it and learn how as a business we can benefit.

OK, back to my original thought about this article, monetizing the social movement. And this is not so off what I have just been talking about as the exchange of information, tools, resources and materials is all part of our interaction as we feed and support each others unique interests. Yes commerce is involved in the physical functions of our growth and evolution.

Then, the more successful one can become in delivering their own unique resources to others who desire them, the more they can do in all areas of their life, and that’s a good thing. If this would be you, wanting to be very successful at mastering delivery within this social system on hyper drive, I stumbled across a wonderful blog post about monetizing all this socializing we are doing, which you must read. I’m not even going to take any more of your attention to give my highlights and interpretation, just go see what blogger Dosh Dosh has to say on the subject – it’s really quite good.

The amazing thing that happened to me was, stumbling across the Dosh Dosh blog post as I was thinking about that very topic, actually it was presented to me – amazing!

John

Salwa is a digital artist, designer, blogger, and writer from U.K. She authors a blog at www.blogriffic.com. She is also on twitter

With the recent increase in social media programs, internet marketers are beginning to target social media sites for their marketing campaigns. But how exactly do you market your products through social media?

Most advertisements in social media are presented casually. Many ads don’t even have hyperlinks, and the viewers actually have to type in your URL into their internet browser. While you probably won’t get as much traffic as you would with a normal hyperlink advertisement, those who view your site will be HIGHLY targeted, as they have taken the time to visit your site.

Most social media marketing is done through YouTube. Short ads are often added to the beginning or end of videos, or even mixed in to the middle. Be warned that advertisements in videos can be very annoying to viewers, so don’t over do it. One small, tasteful ad in each video will suffice. Do not overwhelm your viewers with tons of long ads.

Many types of social media marketing do not appear to be done by the actual promoter, but rather the general public. Often a “fake grass roots” movement is started intentionally by a marketer. A blog or other webpage will be created, with a “normal guy” talking about a specific product. Statistically, people are more likely to purchase something recommended by a “normal dude” that they can relate to, rather than an advertiser. Viral videos are often used as well in order to promote a specific product or website.

The entire goal of marketing in social media is to be the next big thing. The internet is constantly changing, and new trends seem to spring up every day. If your marketing campaign is part of the latest trend, you can receive millions of visitors. Do not underestimate the power of suggestion. If whatever you produced is considered by the public interesting or funny enough to recommend to a friend, you can expect to see your traffic and sales rising rapidly.

As I said, YouTube videos are the most common medium for social media marketing. But why exactly is this? Because popular videos on YouTube receive massive amounts of views within hours. The top videos of the day usually have from 100,000-500,000 videos within the first 24 hours. As with any form of advertising, not everyone who views your ad will actually click on it. In my personal experience, a normal click through for YouTube videos is about 20-30%. This means that out of those 100,000+ views, you will receive 20,000-30,000 unique visitors to your site, all within 24 hours. Of course the click through rate will change drastically depending on ad placement, video subject, quality, etc, but if a popular video has your product in it, you can expect massive amounts of traffic.

Opinions vary as to whether or not social media is a good medium for internet marketing. Some think that traditional advertising works better, while some prefer social media. However, with social media on the rise, I expect that more people will be marketing through social media sites.

Shark Attacks Predicted To Decline With The Economic Crisis

The newscaster said shark attacks are directly related to the economy, because in order to have a shark attack two conditions apply:

1. People Have To Be In The Water
2. Sharks Have To Be Where People Are

Then he proceeded to explain that as the economy declines less people go to the beach (People In The Water), because they don’t have the money.  He followed that up with a stupid line that basically disproved his theory, “But surfers are not deterred by the economy, and are out in the water everyday, regardless of the economy, so they stand to have a much greater risk for shark attacks!”

Shock Attack!

Stories like the above are ways the television and radio news teams sucker you in to listen to the entire newscast by giving you a teaser headline, “Economists Predict Decline In Shark Attacks In 2009! The complete story after these commercials.”  They just baited you with a shocker.

First, why would an economist be predicting shark attacks?

Second, why are shark attacks declining?

Shocking headlines tend to grab your attention and pull you in.  You are going along on your merry way and you hear something that does not make complete sense to you. You have to know more.  They baited you.  You listen and they tease you until you are fully hooked, you listen all the way through the story until the stupid anticlimactic conclusion and you leave ticked off that you wasted your time.  But they got you.

Tweeting A Big Juicy Worm!

Social media is like that, you can keep people engaged with golden nuggets that pull people in.  You can ask open ended questions that require people to reply to you. Tell funny stories that can only be completed on your blog.

These are ways you can bait people into your sphere of influence.  Using humor, love and good information.  Seducing your audience like a fisherman uses a lure or a worm to tantalize a big bass from under the log in the lake.  He may look at it suspiciously for a few minutes, but if you don’t scare him off, he’ll bite.

Ride It Like You Stole It

As you know Lance Armstrong had a one of a kind bike stolen during one of his races this week.  The guys who make his bikes didn’t waste a second getting another bike to him.  They inscribed a great motivating quote on it that you just have to read:

Lance uses twitter as a way to stay in touch with the thousands of fans he has all over the world, and he receives an insane amount of motivation from those people who follow him!  But he makes sure that he keeps them fed with good content, he will send out videos, blog posts and pictures like the one above that inspire.

I don’t think Lance has a strategy in his use of twitter.  Instead, I believe he is genuinely interested in his fans and he allows them the chance to look into his life 140 characters at a time.  When he needs to communicate more than that, he has his images, blogs and videos.  His communication with twitter acts as a distribution center as it directs people to his more detailed information.

Fishing With Headlines

Your tweets should be the bait for the bigger story.  Like Lance, you should be giving a glimpse into your life without revealing everything in a tweet.  You should be saying to yourself as you write a status update, “take a peek, but if you want more, come to my blog, or my flickr page, etc.”  Each tweet is the headline of the newspaper, and the reader can decide if it is interesting enough to follow to the website.

You can really be sneaky and see if anyone is paying attention.  Start a story, and don’t give anyone a place to go to find out more.  If you have done it right, you will get a lot of @replies asking you questions about what you started.  Mark Joyner calls this the Zeigarnik Effect, where people have to have completeness in their lives.

On television, you see Monk always completing sequences, or putting a book back on the bookshelf to complete a series.  Same as puzzles, they are so addicting, because they are incomplete.  If you only give readers a couple of hints, it will drive them nuts until they get the complete story.

If you don’t want a riot, you really shouldn’t wait to complete your story until your next blog post…

Jason Ewart is a Sydney-based transformation writer and speaker who obliterated obesity & demolished debt.  

It was often said to me that “most of us are like the rest of us” . Even in our similarities, there is a uniqueness that you & I bring to our communities in areas from business to recreation.

What has helped me to extract potential from others & myself is discovering some things about the way that I am “wired”. This has assisted in honing in on strengths & removing hindrances.

My aim today is one of two things

1. You will discover a new lens for understanding how yourself, team mates & clients are “wired”.

2. You already have found benefit in using this and you are willing to share with us all by joining the conversation via the comments section

There is a tool available called DISC Assessment.

Let’s briefly look at the four frames

D = Dominant (Bold)

I = Influencing (Communicator)

S=Stable (Steady)

C = Compliant (Details)

D & C tend to be task driven. I & S are people oriented.

All four frames have strengths & weaknesses. (Read: the importance of teams/collaboration)

I would encourage you to explore the link, google & ponder as there is more to extract.

I will give you an example from my life on how this has added value.

The results of my survey indicated that I was a high D. Meditation of this result was very freeing. It explained a lot. In simple terms, I want things done & I want them done YESTERDAY!

INTERNALLY, impatience & unrealistic expectations were leading to frustration.

This is good to know as myself (along with my wife, team etc) are able to work with this toward eliminating frustrations.

EXTERNALLY, the potential is there to hurt people (ie. family, customers, co-collaborators) and also miss important details. The “C” people are great to have in my world!

I believe there is great benefit for discovering how ourselves, our families, our teams and our clients are “wired”.

Keep in mind, as my friend Dana Byers reminded me recently,

“knowledge of our own and other’s personality types must be used as a means to improve working and personal relationships but should never be used as a means of judging or manipulating others’ behavior.”

On that note, what is the cost for not improving working and personal relationships?

]]> http://successfool.com/wired-part-1-of-3/feed/ 3 http://successfool.com/twitter-followers-where-am-i-taking-them/ http://successfool.com/twitter-followers-where-am-i-taking-them/#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:08:20 +0000 Jason Ewart http://successfool.com/?p=357

Jason Ewart is a Sydney-based transformation writer and speaker who obliterated obesity & demolished debt.  

As I continue to learn about leadership and social media, I am challenged by the following scenario. (Let’s use Twitter as an example.)

It was pretty cool to see numbers of “followers” ticking over in my early days of usage, I must admit. Wow! Someone wants to connect with me?!

I would be prompted to consider my niche, product/service, methods and tools. Topics that I can learn a lot about from my fellow guest bloggers & the Successfool community I’m sure.

Then it dawned on me, just maybe “followers” are expecting leadership? An ancient proverb states that leadership is nothing without a following.

It’s not a witty self-anointed title or a creatively formed position in our business models. As author John Maxwell defines it – “Leadership is influence”

A few days ago, News.com.au published an article discussing Twitter “influence” and ranking social networking users.

It mentioned that established users on Twitter

“frequently compare each other in terms of “influence” – more or less derived from how many other users read and republish their posts.”

Is influence defined by how many readers we have or how many readers are prompted to action or even reproduction? (Retweeting? Mentoring other leaders? Resourcing?)

We all have a certain size & particular sphere of influence, or “tribes” as Seth Godin frames it.

I am challenged repeatedly to use that influence within community for things of worth, to add value to people and be a voice for the voiceless.

After all, even some of the most despised figures in history were great leaders!

Will my influence be used for maintaining a neutral position? (read: atrophy) or to conform to the status quo, possibly not meeting defined needs and assisting people?

This tweet by @MatthewBarnett resonated with me in recent days

“tweet message recap. If we strive to be relevant will only try to catch up to the moment. When we are revolutionary we are setting trends”

That is the type of leadership I aspire to: Influence that is innovative, advancing and even courageous.

Where am I taking “followers”?  Where are you taking them?