Why Being An Underdog Is Great
By Cheval John
Being an underdog can be at times frustrating because many people do not believe that you will succeed.
We see it almost every time in sporting events, especially in championship games where a team is heavily favored to win while many write off the other.
Of course, being an underdog happens in real life outside of sports as well.
Like when people label someone as not having a chance to succeed in life if they drop out of school and not obtain a college degree.
The truth of the matter is if you are an underdog, you are in a prime position to prove the doubters wrong.
Here are two examples of those who overcame the odds to be successful:
THE 2014 SAM HOUSTON STATE FOOTBALL TEAM
The Bearkat football team had a huge turnover in personnel leading up to this year’s season.
Most of the players who were apart of the most victorious team in program history had graduated.
The architect of the team who led the squad to two consecutive Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) National Championship appearances, Willie Fritz, accepted the job at Georgia Southern.
With a new head coach in K.C. Keeler and a majority of the squad being new including 17 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) transfers, the Kats were selected to finish third in the Southland Conference (SLC).
It seemed as if the predictions were going to come true as the Bearkats had a 1-3 start, including a loss to the eventual Division II National Champion, Colorado State-Pueblo, which ended a 22-game home winning streak at Bowers Stadium.
Even I gave up on the team for this season.
However, the Bearkats kept a positive mindset, believed in each other and won seven out of the final eight games in the regular season to clinch a share of the SLC title and the automatic bid to the FCS playoffs.
Sam Houston kept their momentum going with three consecutive victories over three-top 10 ranked teams before falling to three-time FCS National Champion, North Dakota State at the FargoDome in Fargo, North Dakota during the semifinals.
The Bearkats are more optimistic about their chances at making it back to the playoffs and even winning a national championship.
DARRIN BENTLEY
Darrin Bentley is someone everyone should pay attention to in 2015.
I had the opportunity to interview him on my show, “What’s The Word?” earlier this month.
Mr. Bentley is the founder and host of Big Wig Nation, a weekly show that showcases highly successful people in different industries.
The podcast has been on the air for five months.
But it already has close to 100,000 downloads.
What is really amazing about Mr. Bentley is that he is very transparent and authentic.
He shared in his bio of the podcast’s website that he is a high school dropout.
Now if a person don’t graduate high school and move on to college, they have a slim chance at having a successful career according to a report by The Atlantic.
However, Mr. Bentley overcame the odds and worked his way up from the mailroom to a 6-figure salary on Wall Street and now as an entrepreneur.
So if you feel that everything is not going your way or feel like no one believes in you, celebrate.
Because once you achieve success, the ones who doubted you before, will all of a sudden applaud you for overcoming the odds to be successful.
Have you ever felt like an underdog? You can share your comments below.
Video courtesy of The Bearkat Sports Network
Photo Courtesy of www.fm-base.co.uk
Twas The Flights Before Christmas
By Cheval John
Twas the flights before Christmas and everyone is trying to get home.
Some to see their family.
Some to see their friends.
Some people are going to distant places to escape the cold winter
While others are going to just recharge their batteries from a productive year.
If a person is flying to a different time zone like China and Japan, they made the decision to leave two days before Christmas.
Now if they decided to leave a day before Christmas, they will have the unique experience to celebrate the majority of the holiday on a flight with wi-fi and first class.
However, if they are flying to Europe to see the different cultures and the way of living.
They will have the luxury of celebrating Christmas with Belgian waffles in hand.
If you are living in one of the greatest cities in the United States like the Houston, Texas area, your Christmas present arrived early with the opportunity to see the arrival of Emirates’ A380.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
To Succeed In Business, Build True Relationships
By Cheval John
Tamara McCleary, Creator of RelationShift
Businesses who want to succeed in 2015 need to understand how to use social media to engage with their customers and clients.
The problem is when they connect on social media, they go straight for the sale instead of building a quality relationship with their customers/clients.
When they go straight for the sale, they are sending the message to the prospective customers that they do not matter and they are just a number.
That approach will lead to a negative hit on their bottom line.
Example: Last night, I had the honored of interviewing Tamara McCleary, who is regarded as the queen of social relationships* on my podcast, “What’s The Word?”
As I allowed for anyone to ask her a question about building authentic relationships on social media, a person, which I will call Kwon, (you will hear his real name in the episode below at the 26:33 minute) called in.
Instead of respecting Mrs. McCleary’s time and asking a question, he went on his soliloquy on relationships and promoted his new book.
He tried to take advantage of the opportunity to share his thoughts and promote himself.
Afterward, he sent me a message via Twitter saying that he wanted to be a guest on the show and share about his philosophy on relationships.
Kwon showed that he was only interested in promoting his book and not sharing valuable information that would enrich other people’s lives.
He also displayed a lack of respect for Mrs. McCleary and in the process, made a bad first impression.
If he had interact with potential customers in the same way as organizations like the Houston Texans, who are constantly interacting with their fan base via the Texans Cheerleaders, then he would have earned the trust of the audience.
In turn, the audience would put their reputation on the line because they believe in his work.
So to recap, if you want to build a loyal following in 2015, be sociable and interact with your audience.
If not, then you will create a bad reputation for your brand and business because of your self interest in just selling and not creating lasting relationships with your audience.
Do you believe that companies are building trust with their potential customers on social media? You can reply below.
*Term was coined by Rachel Miller, Chief Listener of Pipeliner and co-host of the Twitter Chat, #sshour.
8th Lesson In Podcasting: Network With Other Podcasters
By Cheval John
This post is the 8th and final lesson for my second book, “8 Lessons Every Podcaster Needs To Learn.”
I decided to take the challenge of blogging a book as part of Nina Amir’s “National Nonfiction Writing Month” which runs in the months of November and April.
Hope you enjoy this post.
Networking is one of the most tried and true ways to get yourself out there and promote your show.
One way you can network is by commenting on your fellow podcasters shows.
If you do that on a consistent basis, they will take notice and it can lead to them promoting your podcast or even landing a guest appearance on their podcast.
One thing you must remember is that networking is about providing value to the other person and not just asking for something.
If you go to a networking event and only hand out promotional materials about your show, you are sending a message that you are not interested in building a friendship and that your work is more important than theirs.
You must go into any networking event with a giver’s mentality and really be genuine about your fellow podcaster’s work.
Once you establish the friendship, then they will be eager to help you to take your podcast to the next level.
The only question now is where do you meet your fellow podcasters?
The places you can network with your fellow podcasters is at conferences, online groups, etc.
One conference that comes to mind is the World Domination Summit (WDS), an annual conference held in Portland, Oregon.
WDS is the place where you can meet fellow bloggers and podcasters like Jaime Tardy, John Lee Dumas and Chris Drucker.
They have an established audience and always share what worked for them and how their strategies of growing an audience can work for you.
So if you want to grow your audience, network with your fellow podcasters because you will build your credibility as a thought leader and also lift up the people who are doing great things in the world.
Video courtesy of The Verge
Social Media “Rock Stars” To Watch In 2015
By Cheval John
As we are about three days away from welcoming in the New Year, one might have to wonder what the future holds for social media?
We can follow the trends of where social media is going and how businesses needs to adjust their marketing strategy to be successful.
Even though, it is important to look at the evolution of social media, one thing will always remain: SOCIAL MEDIA IS ALL ABOUT BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS.
Companies are slowly realizing that if they want to be successful with social media, they have to engage with their audience, especially with the Millennial population of 80 million.
According to a statistic that was brought up by Rebekah Radice, digital marketing strategist, in a Twitter Chat held by Buffer regarding millennials, “63% say they keep up with companies on social.”
The old way of doing business, “putting ads in front of prospective customers to close a sale quickly” is long gone.
If companies do not engage with their audience, they will end up losing valuable customers, which will affect their bottom line.
One suggestion I would make for businesses who want to get social media right is follow these people who are either rising or established “rock stars” on social media in 2015:
TAMARA MCCLEARY @TamaraMcCleary
Tamara McCleary is one lady I believe is using social media the right way.
Mrs. McCleary, who is a national speaker and the creator of the RelationShift method, grew her Twitter followers to over 36,000 since joining the platform about a year ago.
Tamara understands the importance of building relationships and engaging with your audience.
That is why she is someone everyone should be paying attention to.
BRIAN FANZO @isocialFanz
Brian Fanzo is a person who is probably the king of multi-tasking.
Fanzo, who is the Chief Digital Strategist and Partner at BroadSuite, attends so many twitter chats (some at the same time) that he understands the importance of building a community.
He has written a lot of guest posts for Daniel Newman’s Millennial CEO blog and recently launched and cohost a podcast called “iSocialTalks” with Mr. Newman.
RACHEL MILLER @RachelLouMiller
Rachel Miller is the Chief Listener for Pipeliner CRM, a next generation software that uses distinguished visual tools to help salespeople interact with and improve their sales pipeline.
Ms. Miller is the co-host of the Social Selling Hour #sshour (now #SBizHour), with Mr. Fanzo.
The Twitter Chat showcases the right ways to interact with your audience and also brings in guests from different industries who have been successful with social media.
The unique thing about the chat is that people can also listen in on the conversation because it is hosted on Google Hangouts in addition to Twitter.
That is why it has become so popular since it was launched seven months ago because of the innovation by Ms. Miller and Mr. Fanzo.
LORRIE GUERRIERI @MovyStream
Lorrie Guerrieri is the Community Manager at Joyce Co.
She helps build relationships with industry experts, investors and consumers for the company.
What is really amazing about Lorrie is her authenticity and willingness to share valuable information that will make other people lives better.
One of the ways she has made their lives better is with the product, Movy Stream.
This platform allows anyone to send personalized video messages to friends, family etc.
Also, Movy Stream can help co-workers or entrepreneurs to collaborate on different work presentations.
Lorrie is a person that everyone should keep an eye on in 2015 because she is going to take her career and Movy Stream to the next level.
So hopefully, businesses will follow these people that are listed here in this post to learn about building relationships with their audience.
One thing is for certain, I am learning a whole lot from them and also getting better everyday with social media.
Who will you follow on social media to learn more about building authentic relationships in 2015? You can leave your comment below.
Photo courtesy of www.smrockstar.tumblir.com
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