The Impact Of Social Media
By Cheval John
Many thought that social media was just a fad that would go away.
They did not believe that it would have a tremendous impact on the way we live.
There were different social media sites like MySpace, Friendster, etc.
All of a sudden, Facebook came into play and became a major player in the world of social media.
A couple of years later, Twitter inserted themselves into the social media space and have grown to play an important role in the way we communicate.
They have been other major sites like Pinterest and Instagram that has made the world more visual.
Now it is impossible to keep up because there is a new social media site popping up almost every day.
There is no doubt about the impact of social media.
That is why it has become an official day on June 30th.
Mashable started this tradition five years ago with it first conference in 2010.
Five years later, the event has grown to almost every city around the world with their very “own” conference.
The city of Houston has joined in on the party with their inaugural conference with dynamic speakers who have been recognized for their expertise in social media.
This event has been recognized by high ranking officials in the different cities of the world and in some states as well.
Social media has given many people, businesses and organization the opportunity to showcase their expertise and build their own brand.
One person that has taken her brand and built her business through social media is Melany Berger.
Ms. Berger started her blog a couple of years ago and has grown the blog to the point of where she has won many awards including this year’s Shorty Awards in the blogging category.
Ms. Berger earned the nomination because of her loyal followers on Twitter.
Her combined social media following is over 80,000.
Melany has stayed true to herself and did not deviate from that true personality.
Also, she engages with her audience on a daily basis that has played a major role as well in growing her following.
It has allowed her to work with some of the major brands like American Express.
That is the exact reason why businesses should be working with her because they don’t know how to interact with their customers.
They feel that social media is another mechanism to broadcast their message without listening to their customers.
The truth is if they want to succeed in this digital age, they must engage with their audience and not just sell.
And if they are smart, they should attend conferences that deals with social media in addition to today’s conference.
They will be glad they did.
Don’t Skip Out On Sleep
By Cheval John
If you are a college student, you might get in the habit of studying a lot with little sleep.
You might think that it is the best thing to do because of the amount of work you have to do in order to pass a test.
The same could be applied to someone who is running a business or an employee of a large corporation.
They put in the hours without little sleep while drinking a lot of coffee/caffeine in order to stay awake to get their work done.
They might feel that it is a badge of honor to say that “they got little sleep after putting in a whole lot of hours at their work.”
And the entrepreneur might feel that they can skip sleep because they are wearing many hats in making their business profitable
The truth is that nothing can substitute sleep
According to this article on Health.com, sleep helps to improve your mind and be more creative.
My guess is that the most successful people in the world recognize the importance of sleep and don’t allow the superhero syndrome to take over their life.
I can also guess that Anh Nguyen understands the importance of sleep as well.
So if you feel pressure about working a lot without getting a lot of sleep, stop and think about the benefits of sleep.
Because no paycheck or promotion can replace your health in the long run if you don’t get enough sleep.
The World Is Your Oyster
By Cheval John
When a person travels overseas, they have a chance to explore a different culture.
They can see how people live differently from them and also pick up some new habits that can benefit them and their business.
Many people only get to see the surface of the culture when they are visiting a country due to the “dreaded” vacation.
That vacation time for most lasts only two weeks.
Plus they might only be in the touristy spots of the country if they only speak English.
That makes it more difficult for them to really enjoy the culture.
For those who believe that they can spend time overseas and make it part of their work, I am very happy for them.
They understand that in this day and age, everything is more mobile and internet friendly.
If they have a computer and internet, they can run a business from anywhere in the world.
That is why so many people are going the entrepreneurial path and are taking their business overseas.
They see that it will allow them to explore their culture and also have something great to do while they are not worrying about the cost of running a business.
For example, many expats are living in the cheapest countries in the world while they are growing their business.
They see that the expense is much lower when they are living in the developing countries compared to the Western World according to this article on the Tropical MBA website.
And they don’t have to run an online business to live overseas.
If you are running a fitness training online, you can have the opportunity to live overseas and train the clients who are looking to get themselves back into great health.
Jamie Logie had the opportunity to live and work overseas in the fitness industry.
He now runs a website called Regained Wellness.com, which allows him to show people how to eat healthy and avoid the foods which makes them more sick.
He has a podcast by the same name which reached No.1 on iTunes in the New and Noteworthy section of fitness and nutrition.
And he has written two books that allowed him to attain Amazon Best-Selling Status.
So if you do have the opportunity to live overseas, now is the best time to begin.
If you put it off until the perfect time, that perfect time will probably never arrive.
Plus, you will also be among a small percentage of people who have either studied or lived overseas and in the process gain more opportunities to grow your business if you are an entrepreneur or gain full time work if you want to be an employee.
Consistency Is King
By Cheval John
Photo Courtesy of Stuart Miles
Small business owners are always searching for ways to stand out from the crowd.
Who could blame them.
They are competing against other small business owners and also the large corporations.
They have limited resources to operate with.
The good news is that they have been very innovative in sharing their message with the world and at the same time promoting their products or services.
One of those innovations that some have used is a podcast.
The reason is that they are about 250,000 podcast in the world while they are about 260,000,000 blogs.
That makes it a much smaller barrier for anyone.
It also allows the small business owner to reach out to more potential customers and build a loyal following.
If you are thinking about starting a podcast, congratulations.
Before you get started, you should do your research and be very prepared when launching your podcast.
Also, you should attend Podcast Movement to learn from some of the veterans of the podcasting industry and listen to some great presentations as well.
Joel Boggess will be leading a workshop with his wife, Dr. Pei Kang and Russ Johns on Creating Your Podcast, Launch To No.1, Build Your Brand on the first day of the conference.
Mr. Boggess returned on my podcast, “What’s The Word?” and shared some of the “Seven Common Mistakes Most Podcasters Make.”
And I will be very transparent with you.
I am still learning as I go about being a podcaster even though I have been running the podcast for over two years.
I still make common mistakes with my podcast.
And I will show you the downloads over the last two years, starting with the total amount of downloads.
No. of downloads to today: 90,459
That seems very impressive and it is.
However, I will break it down by year
2013: Over 78,000 downloads
2014: Over 10,000 downloads
First 6 months of 2015: Over 1,000 downloads
Now that you see the breakdown of my downloads, you might be wondering why the decline.
I really believe that the reasons for the decline is that I was not consistent and I was not promoting it enough.
I did not stick to one day and time on when the show was coming out.
I was aiming to have the guest on at the time that they were available because they had taken the time out of their busy schedule to share their story with me.
And I felt that I had owed it to them to respect their time.
I thought that I could have only recorded the show live on the BlogTalkRadio platform that I was using.
What I did not know back then was that I could have recorded the interview on the same platform in private, produced it using Audacity which is free, and then upload it into the digital studio to release the show at the appointed time.
The sad part was that I had figured it out way too late that I had needed to be consistent with the show.
Because of that inconsistency, I lost a lot of listeners.
So in a sense, I “relaunched” the show and having it on Monday nights at 7 p.m. central time so that I can own the time and remain consistent.
And another thing I had learned is that I needed to promote the show as well.
Though it is great that the guest will share about their appearance on the show, I am the main one responsible for promoting the show.
I will be honest, I am hesitant because I do not want to be self-promoting.
At the same time, I understand that if I don’t promote the show, I will lose an opportunity to attract new listeners.
So I am aiming to remain true to sharing other people’s content first before sharing mine using the 80/20 rule.
As I close, I hope that these lessons above will resonate with you and that you will have a successful launch with your podcast.
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Enjoy Your Business Journey To Success
By Cheval John
You have ventured out on a new endeavor.
Whether it is launching a business or starting a podcast, etc., you want your endeavors to be a huge success.
You look at your competition and see that they are doing great.
You might even see that your competition is amassing a quick following within weeks and are profitable in the process.
Your first thought is “Why They Are More Successful Than Me?”
From that thought, you start comparing your endeavors to theirs.
You will be thinking along the way that you are not good enough to succeed.
When you fall for the comparison trap, you have already failed.
You have diluted your vision of what you want your business or podcast to be and are trying to copy your competition.
When that happens, you are only following the competition and not creating your unique voice for your business.
In addition, you are failing to provide value that would benefit the people who need it.
What you should do is not focus too much on the competition because you will end up creating their vision of your business and not yours.
Also, you should check out this awesome blog post, “How To Understand Your Competitors Without Falling Into The Jealousy Trap,” by Maria Ross, founder of Red Slice.
She explain the post in depth on my podcast, “What’s The Word?” last night about how she came up with the idea of the post and also falling for the comparison trap.
It is really valid because many of us always compare ourselves to other people who are seemingly more successful than us.
I have struggled with the comparison trap a lot of times.
Even though I have achieved a whole lot of goals like having my own podcast, running my own online media company, writing two books, spending an extended period of time in Mexico and Chile, or obtaining two college degrees, I still find myself at times comparing myself to others.
We have to remember that they will always be someone better than you in a skill like business, etc.
Also, you have to understand that they had to work extremely hard to earn their way to success.
That is really not a bad thing.
It is really awesome because you can always learn from them and see what they did to achieve their success.
I could right now compare myself to Maria because she is experiencing a whole lot of success as an entrepreneur while I am aiming to be successful as an entrepreneur.
I choose not to because I understand the journey that she has experienced to be where she is at today with her business.
So if you see a someone (example celebrities, etc.) who are seemingly achieving success very quickly in their new business or podcast ventures, just remember that they had to put in years of hard work and dedication to be where they are at and establishing their audience.
That alone should make you appreciate their journey and enjoy your own business or podcasting journey to success.
Like the old saying goes, “Rome Was Not Built In A Day.”
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