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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The Art of Collaboration
By Cheval John
Disclaimer: I am an Amazon Affiliate and I make a commission based on the recommendation of a book
Is it possible to work together without meeting each other in person?
In this day and age, the answer is yes.
Technology has made it easier for anyone to collaborate on projects from anywhere in the world.
They don’t have to fly to one location to work together like they did before the evolution of technology.
That is why most businesses are allowing their employees to work from home because they see the savings in not letting them working in one place.
It doesn’t hurt if they meet in person once or possibly twice a year to deepen the friendship with their colleagues.
Examples of companies or people who are using technology to their advantage to collaborate on projects without first meeting in person are Brian Fanzo and Rachel Miller, Basecamp and Erin Baebler/Lara Galloway.
1. Brian Fanzo and Rachel Miller
Brian Fanzo and Rachel Miller are considered one of the best people who knows how to interact with their community on social media.
Mr. Fanzo is the Chief Digital Strategist and Partner at Broadsuite Media Group while Ms. Miller is the Chief Social Listener for Pipeliner CRM.
They host a Twitter chat called, #sbizhour, previously known as #sshour.
#Sbizhour deals with how businesses can be better at interacting with their customers and building a community.
The chat has been around for a year and has gained a lot of attention in the world of Twitter because it trends on the social media platform most of the time.
What is really cool about the both of them is that they have never met in person yet.
“Rumor” is that they will finally meet in person this year.
2. Basecamp
Basecamp, formerly known as 37 Signals, is one of the most interesting software companies in the world.
They started out as a web design company when it was founded in 1999.
One of the ways they marketed themselves was by starting a blog called “Signal vs Noise” in 2000 and sharing their experience about running a business, their thoughts on the industry, etc.
You can argue that they started their blog at the right time because blogging was in it’s beta stages.
As documented in their book, “ReWork,” they could not find the right software to get their work done.
So they decided to create their own software called Basecamp.
Once they showed Basecamp to their clients, they told them that they needed this for their businesses.
In the world of entrepreneurship, you have to know when to pivot your company because of market changes.
If you stay with the old business model, then you will end up losing out and your company will suffer for it.
Jason Fried, one of the original founders, and David Heinemeier Hannson recognized the change and pivoted Basecamp to solely being a software company in 2004.
As of now, the company has 36 employees.
What sets them apart is that the majority of their employees are located in different parts of the world while the rest of them including the founders are based in Chicago.
They don’t have to worry about communicating with each other on projects because they use their own products.
That is one of the best ways to sell your product to customers because you are using it yourself.
And if you want to learn from them, get their book, ReWork.
I can guarantee that you will love it (I have read the book over 13 times).
3. Lara Galloway and Erin Baebler
Many are recognizing the importance of entrepreneurship.
It is more evident that women are seeing the importance of running their own business.
According to the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), there are more than 9.1 million companies owned by women.
My guess is that 1/3 of them are owned by “mompreneurs,” a women who is an entrepreneur and a mother
They see that running a business is the best path to securing their own destiny.
Mompreneurs might have difficulty in being both a business owner and a mother at the same time because they don’t want to feel like they are neglecting their duties in being a parent and vice-versa.
Lara Galloway and Erin Baebler understands the challenges of being a mompreneur.
As a result from their experience, they co-authored the book, “Moms Mean Business,” which achieved Amazon Best-Seller status.
What is really unique is that the both of them did not meet in person while they co-authored the book.
Ms. Galloway explained how they got the book written on my podcast, “What’s The Word?”
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The only time they met in person was when they launched the book.
So if a person believe that they can’t collaborate on a project with someone they have not met in person, I hope they will follow the examples listed above.
Because the internet have made the world a borderless society.
And it is highly possible to build great friendships and collaborate without first meeting in person.
What Does Five Years Of Work Experience Means?
By Cheval John
Photo Courtesy of Stuart Miles
You have probably seen this in job descriptions when you are looking for work.
The description that the employer post says they are looking for a person who have five years or more of work experience.
And the most frustrating part of this is most of the descriptions are probably for entry-level positions.
You might be thinking, “What Does Five Or More Years of Work Experience Really Means?”
It is “understandable” that employers are very choosy on who they hire.
They are the ones who are spending the money and want to be careful on who the right person for the position will be.
They are also burdened with the coverage of their employees.
And in this day and age, they don’t want to go through months and months of training the new employee on how their systems work which comes with a cost.
So if they can find a person who meets their requirements, it will save them a whole lot of money.
Though it is good news in the short term, it is bad in the long term.
What they don’t realize is that they are hindering their progress of hiring the right person because they are looking for that so-called, “Rock Star.”
They feel that the so-called “Rock Star” will solve their problems and over deliver.
At the same time, they believe that they will not have to pay them the salary they deserve.
When companies have that type of thinking of looking for the “rock star,” they are missing the very people who are very talented in plain sight.
And when they miss the talent, it is actually costing them more money than if they had hired the employee.
They are also causing low moral in their company because they have put pressure on the current employees to deliver great work with less resources.
And then they wonder why they can’t find the right people to fill their company’s position.
And if you are the person who are trying to find your dream job and are hindered when you see the required “five years of experience,” here are a couple of suggestions:
1. Get a Part-Time Job. The reason is because it will allow you to have consistent cash flow while you are waiting to achieve your ideal workplace
2. Start A Side Business. If you trying to get work that fit your skills like writing, public relations, etc., then starting a company or even “freelancing” your service will give you a head start in gaining your dream work. You might eventually love your “freelancing” business to the point that you might forget about seeking employment.
3. Have a Strong Social Media Presence: Everybody is an influencer. If you can showcase how efficient you are on social media, then you have a great chance of wowing your potential employer.
And the chances of building trust with CEOs, Human Resource professionals, etc. on group chats on social media, will put you ahead of everyone else who are only putting out resumes and hoping for someone to see it among equally great resumes.
4. Start A Podcast: Podcasting is the lowest of competitions out there. You could possibly interview the owner of a company and ask them about how they decided to create their business and get your foot in the door. In addition to this article I wrote for Millennial CEO, here is another reason why you should podcast. Yesterday, Spotify, which has 70 million listeners, announced that they are adding video and podcasting to their music streaming service. That is a huge opportunity for podcasters to gain more listeners in addition to iTunes and Stitcher. If that does not convince you, then I don’t know what will.
When you make a concerted effort to create your own opportunities, you might end up attracting the right employer who will see your talent.
That in turn will allow you to show them what they were missing when they were searching for that “rock star” employee.
Hopefully, they will finally see that the “five years of work experience” in their job description is not really relevant anymore.
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.
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