So here it is…my first real podcast. I probably broke ever rule in podcast etiquette hehe but here goes!
This podcast is actually based on a guest post I wrote, Every One Promotes, a few months ago at Glenn Danker’s blog.
I already know how much I suck at speaking and it juices me to know I can at least improve!:)
Some bloggers are dead set against monetization. They think it taints their content and ruins trust with their readers. I’m no expert but beg to differ:
I’d love to hear your opinion!
Photo Credit: The Wisdom Journal
Outliers is a MUST READ for anyone who studies history, successful people or the hidden side of what people call “genius”. Outliers explains how people who like Bill Gates, the Beatles and Dale Carnegie achieved on a massive massive scale and how it wasn’t caused by luck or genius like most like to believe.
“Outlier” is a scientific term to describe things or phenomena that lie outside normal experience. In the summer, in Paris, we expect most days to be somewhere between warm and very hot. But imagine if you had a day in the middle of August where the temperature fell below freezing. That day would be outlier. And while we have a very good understanding of why summer days in Paris are warm or hot, we know a good deal less about why a summer day in Paris might be freezing cold. In this book I’m interested in people who are outliers-in men and women who, for one reason or another, are so accomplished and so extraordinary and so outside of ordinary experience that they are as puzzling to the rest of us as a cold day in August.
You’ll learn that Bill Gates, the whizkid who had a higher than average IQ, didn’t actually make his business success on smarts, or at least not alone, but rather because of the one in a million life time opportunity to have constant use of a computer(which in those days, most grown ups didn’t have access to a computer, unless they designed or programmed them). Bill Gates spent more time using a computer back then, than more kids now days dp. How many kids Bill’s age had a computer 40 years ago? Not too many. How many more “genius” billionaires would there be now days if more 13 year olds had full time access to a computer 40 years ago? A lot! If you continue to read the book you’ll find out that Bill Gate’s mother had a lot to do with his business success. Having two rich parents who both, had connections and money to buy him computer time, it’s not a surprise Bill Gates had chances no one else had.
Malcom Gladwell says that almost everyone who has succeeded at a large scale, some time in history, all had around 10,000 hours of solid practice under their belt. 10,000 hours is a lot and Gladwell says it’s almost a guarantee that you will do well at your craft, and maybe even become another billionaire(or millionaire). Not everyone is interested in becoming a billionaire, some people are just happy to live a productive life. By any rate, success never comes unless there is a great deal of practice involved. Someone once said, “If you haven’t practiced you don’t deserve to win.” Rarely does anyone do really well just on talent, without commitment and hard work and constant practice. If you want to beat everyone else, just practice for 10,000 hours, most people quit half way through.
This was true for the Beatles, who were given the chance of a lifetime to practice over 10,000 hours before going mainstream and becoming a hit.
Even Mozart needed at least a decade before he was up to standards:
“By the standards of mature composers, Mozart’s early works were not that outstanding. The earliest pieces were all probably written down by his father, and perhaps improved in the process. Many of Wolfgang’s childhood compositions, such as the first seven of his concertos for piano and orchestra are largely arrangements of works by other composers. Of those concertos that only contain music original to Mozart, the earliest that is now regarded as a masterwork (No. 9, K 271) was not composed until he was 21. By that time Mozart had already been composing concertos for ten years.” – Quote found at BeatleTracks Band
“I don’t know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody — somewhere — was practicing more than me.” – Larry Bird
Gladwell says that there are tons of self-help books in bookstores that are more than eager to give you the 7 steps to success, or the 5 traits of successful people. But, he says, there aren’t a whole lot of books about the environments of these successful people, and how that contributed to their successes. It’s important to study the person, and it’s also important to understand the chances they were given in the age they lived in, their heritage, and so on. At first it may seem like Gladwell is saying that success is an accident or caused by luck(growing up in the right place at the right time) but what he’s really saying is that the people who were presented with opportunities took them. We ourselves are all born with opportunities and we have the ability to take them when presented. This theory backs up that most extremely skilled investors and entrepreneurs study the future needs, wants, changes etc and are the ones who can best adapt to them and can take advantage of these changes when they come(while everyone else wakes up one day and wonder why doing the same old thing doesn’t work any more).
Consider this book apart of your education! Read it and share its ideas with people around you.
If there’s one online marketing book you want to read this year, it’s The New Rules of PR and Marketing. The New Rules are all about using social media to market your business. The book starts out explaining how mass marketing is good at advertising when you don’t need it and hides on you when you go looking for it. Social media is about providing the right information to the user at the right time, at right place. This is what makes social media so powerful. I believe you could take this book and use it as a handbook in implementing social media for your business.
David explains the different vehicles you can use in social media and who their for. David does a fantastic job of summarizing the tools available and also explains that you don’t have to use ALL of the tools or just ONE, you can use as many as you want and whatever you have time for, and whatever your focus can handle in order to be most effective. I’m pretty much sold on the idea of using News Releases, which is one of the most powerful tools for attracting journalists and getting better results out of your search engine optimization. Tools like Blogs, Podcasts, Viral Marketing, News Releases, Forums, Videos etc etc can be used to reach to buyers directly. David will also explain to you how to create content specifically to attract and interest your buyers.
The New Rules can be applied to your personal brand as well. I believe this material applies to anyone who “sells” something on the web, whether it be a product, an idea, a political campaign, education, informative content or a community. I highly recommend you read this book cover to cover, if you’re really serious about growing an online presence for your brand or business.
We share life experiences and discuss development of leadership skills, discovering better methods of growth in business, the innovation of modern technology, social media and the web.
