BlogThis! Podcast: Blogging, Digital Marketing and

Yes, I’m a self proclaimed Twitter ho. I fell in love with social media in 2008 when Facebook morphed from being a game-playing medium (who wants someone “poking” you and do you remember when zombies went around “biting chumps”?) into an actual social network.  My next mistress was Twitter, when a friend of mine went on maternity leave early and threw her social media client at me on her way to the hospital, screaming into her cell phone “Tweeting is easy!  Do it three times every day!”  Silly me, I confused tweeting with tweaking, and conjured images of meth heads with involuntary ticks.  Not to be confused with twerking, obviously, which was my new word last week.  Thanks, Miley. So social media and I have been romancing for some time now.  Yes, personally, I use it for spamming my friends and family with A) pics of the kiddos and B) pics of the butter-infused food I cook.  But for business, you better not be circulating kitty memes.  Social media is one of my best business tools and it can be yours, too, if you know what you’re doing.  I landed my first client via social media last year, and although I totally want to sound like like a champ, it was actually by accident. I have a habit of stalking writers who impress me.  Not creepy Fatal Attraction stalking, but more like being so enthused, influenced and inspired by a writer that I devour everything I can find on said writer, and then sending a fan-mail type connection request, spelling out what about the writing impresses me.  And I’m a snob, so I’m hard to impress.  I’ve actually only done this twice – once to Barry Feldman of Feldman Creative, and once to Jason Frederic Gilbert who isn’t even a writer by trade – he’s an independent film director, but his voice is so fresh and so strong (and freaking hilarious) that I felt compelled to reach out. After I began circulating Barry’s content, since it revved me up so much (less the content and more the way he conveyed it – his voice is powerful) the guy actually reached out to me (via Twitter) for a phone call!  I was shaking, I kid you not – it was like I had a professional crush on the guy, and he wanted to reach out and Skype me. He was in the market for a Virtual Assistant (I couldn’t have known) and since I had been retweeting him and circulating his content so much, he looked me up. (Point number one: make yourself noticed, even if you have no particular aim in mind – one of the best ways to do this is with genuine flattery – let someone who impressed you know it.) We chatted for two hours, and he’s been our client ever since. Total investment: about 4 hours. Score one for social media! Point number two: it’s not a sin to blog for free (who d’ya think’s paying me for THIS?!)  Beyond publishing here, I blog from time to time in The Times of Israel and on my own personal blog, in addition to all the ghost blogging for clients. I circulate everything I publish on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Why?  Two reasons: first, I have a big mouth – I was just born this way.  Second, it’s important for every professional to earn some kind of name/reputation online.  People need to hear and know your voice.  They need to recognize you as a resource.  I recently attempted to land a new ghost blogging client, and the second I sent the client a quick, friendly email (without even so much as a resume) she immediately recognized my name from some of the blogging I’ve done.  I landed an interview within 24 hours and secured the client in 3 days.  Without my “free” blogging, that would not have happened.  Score two for social media. Point number three: You never know who is listening – Jeff learned about this chick who earned a million bucks from Sir Richard Branson from one tweet.  Jeff found out about it from another podcast (he’s a podcast ho like I’m a Twitter ho) given by Meron Bareket – one helluva story and worth a listen. There are a few things to remember, though – since social media is still a relatively new lexicon, a faux pas is easy to commit – I will help you avoid them, thus pissing off an entirely smaller percentage of people.  First, do not send LinkedIn connection requests to someone you don’t know without a personalized message (it takes like 4 minutes, people) explaining who you are and why you want to connect.  People want to know what you want from them.  Don’t be coy – tell them immediately.  Do you have many contacts in common?  A discussion group? An industry? Did you read an article he or she published and wish to comment on it, discuss it further, or were you simply impressed?  People love compliments if they’re genuine.  Make clear why you want to connect.  Egregious error number two: ignore people who retweet you or share your content via any medium.  Hello, RUDE.  If someone shares your content, quip, article, quote, or mentions you in any way, they are recommending you to their audiences.  They have worked hard to build and maintain that audience, so you better say a big fat THANK YOU, and you had better say it fast, or you’re going to be labelled a social media prick. Jeff had asked me “Facebook or Twitter” and like a Utah polygamist, I simply cannot choose.  He said that just like some folks are cat people and some are dog people (am I the dog in this scenario?) some are Facebook-heads and some are Twitter ho’s. Though he was disappointed that I referenced When Harry Met Sally without the deli scene (I refused to recreate it)  I tried to restore faith by introducing LinkedIn into the discussion. (Hey, Utahns can have three sister-wives; why can’t I?)  I have been much slower to court LinkedIn, and shame on me, because it’s an excellent business tool.  People expect to be pitched on LinkedIn.  No cat pics here.  Everyone should have a LinkedIn profile (and most professionals do) because it’s today’s business card.  The first thing I do when I’m about to get on the phone with someone (to interview him or her for a job, to pitch on a sales call, to determine whether or not I can refer business their way) is check out their LinkedIn profile.  Does this person mean business? The LinkedIn profile has to be shiny and picturesque.  Think networking function (LinkedIn is an online networking function that works for you while you sleep – can it get any better than that?) and someone asks you for your card.  You balance your martini in one hand an fish your business card out of your bag/wallet with the other.  That card better not be dog eared or tobacco-stained.  It better be crisp and bleached and look like you mean business.  Same deal with LinkedIn.  Get a professional looking picture up there – no, not your wedding photo, no, you better not look tipsy. Also, use LinkedIn to prequalify everybody you talk to.  Search for commonalities you can pull out on a call – are you from the same town? Region? Do you root for the same team?  If I smell anything like Wisconsin in some one’s profile, I get on my cheesehead before I pick up the phone.  People want to do business with someone they like.  Everybody appreciates being validated.  Don’t confuse likability with smooth-sounding used car salesman type speak.  Just do your homework, and find the genuine places you overlap with this person.  I lived in San Francisco for two years and New York for another two.  That covers relating to a huge percentage of folks. So do you need to be everywhere?  A big fat NO.  You do not.  You need to be where your clients are.  First, you better know WHO your clients are. Then, figure out WHERE they are.  If you sell vacuum cleaners, life coaching services or you’re a personal trainer, you may be targeting women ages 28-45. (No, I’m not sexist, I’m just married.) Those women are on Pinterest, and you’d better be too.  If you’re selling private equity and wealth management services to men aged 55+, and you’re on Pinterest, you’re an idiot.  Find the medium where your potential clients are already hanging out, based on their age, demographic, hobbies, income level – and get there. Speaking of getting there, we – as a podcast, are getting there!  We have an iTunes review – our first!  Yes, it’s from Debi Lewis of Jebraweb – she’s the bloody do-gooder we interviewed her in Episode 4 – but it’s not really cheating – she did actually enjoy us.  Come join the ranks!  All the cool kids are doing it; just ask Debi.  Drop us an iTunes review, even if it’s to tell us that we suck.  We are actually open to feedback, even the “constructive” flavor.  See you for our next episode! The post Social Media For Small Business: What Works, What Doesn’t, And How to Not Piss People Off appeared first on BlogThis! Podcast.

Some species eat their young.  Every August, I wholly understand (and am tempted to embrace) this tendency, yet my children are too large to fit on the Weber grill. The kids are off school, camp has run out, and now we need to be Good Mommies and Daddies while running our businesses (since our clients could not care less whether we have any focus left to dedicate to work after singing Wheels on the Bus 40,000 times in a row.)  How does one go about this?  One (not me, of course, but ONE) works from sunrise until the kids start to kill each other while her husband “watches” them, and then packs a (Healthy! Nutritious!) picnic lunch, abandons the laptop for the pool, and chases after all the kids in the water for the better part of the day.  With any luck, the little one will nap (Quick, write a blog post!) or they’ll play Chutes and Ladders (Schedule social media updates for tomorrow!) and after bath time and throwing the picnic leftovers down one’s throat, one hauls the laptop back out and goes back to work.  Yes, one is exhausted.  And hungry, since picnic leftovers are not known to satisfy. Thus, the thoughts of cannibalism. Jeff and I felt that we (and our listeners) might benefit from an alternate, more altruistic business perspective given that most of us are grumbling through the month.  Enter Debi of Jebraweb.  I totally dig Debi and her process for several reasons.  Yes, she is a bloody do-gooder, but I better surround myself with some of those or I’m headed straight to hell.  She is one of the most genuine, grounded and non-hypocritical people I have ever come across, and those ingredients earn tremendous amounts of respect from me.  I’m not the only one – Debi’s clients adore her.  She is Evanston, IL based and dedicated to her local community. Most of her clients are local, and they have one thing in common apart from their addresses; Jebraweb almost exclusively serves clients which contribute to the greater good in one way or another.  Most of them are nonprofits. She builds custom websites within a content management system (she’s a Joomla-head like Jeff) and is a champion of open source solutions.  Debi runs her company like she runs her life – focused on improving the world and doing it locally. Debi’s blog, Jebrawebbed, outlines her philosophies on more than just technology – her views on her work are consistent with her views on life, parenting, and the environment. Debi balances her business with her kids, working part time out of either her home office or at her “satellite” office, better known as the locally owned and managed Brothers K Coffee Shop while nursing a soy mocha. Believe it or not, this was not a master plan hatched at college graduation (Debi has two – count them, two – degrees in creative writing, which as we all know is super lucrative)  and when life threw lemons and a programming book at Debi, she made homemade lemonade.  Too bad she doesn’t drink much – I could spike that shit and make it awesome. Initially, waaaay back in the 1990’s, Debi was hired into a startup and told to catalog websites for search engines (can you imagine?)  When the startup changed direction five minutes later, she was told to build a website, which of course her creative writing background had completely prepared her for.  See – I just ended a sentence with a preposition – something someone with two degrees in writingwould never do. Although she was already a vegetarian, even beans and rice cost money (as did rent) so she had no choice but to figure it out.  And figure it out she did.  She spent the next ten years going from one startup to another (tech jobs were easy to land back then) learning along the way, and eventually found herself working for the American Library Association.  She suddenly found herself in the company of many bloody do-gooders (how much “gooder” can you get than librarians?) and loved the feeling of working for a reason other than lining some one’s pocket (including her own.)  Then, she was hit with a bit of a shocker.  Debi’s youngest daughter was diagnosed with a condition which made it impossible for her to attend any sort of out-of-home daycare.  Debi needed an in-home job, and fast.  She gave notice at the ALA and began a new chapter of her life. Initially, Debi (as all of us do) took any client she could lay her hands on, but found that working with the the “blood sucking businesses” made her feel unfulfilled.  She felt as though she was not contributing the way she could; she felt she was selling herself and the greater community short, and made a change.  Debi began networking locally, in a casual, collaborative, person-to-person kind of way.  With the local women’s exercise studio owner.  With budding artists. With those whom she wanted to be associated with socially – ultimately aligning her work life with her life ideals.  Harmonizing everything. (Doesn’t that sound reiki-licious?) She offered bits of assistance and advice to these other Evanston-based entrepreneurs and the work (the work she wanted) began to flow!  Crowdsourcing at its best.  Actually, Debi dropped a word in regards to her philosophy that I didn’t recognize: hiveminding.  She set her sights on being part of and contributing to a local community of like-minded thinkers, and she achieved it. My favorite piece of the Debi interview was her diplomatic approach to commenting on a potential client’s currently horrifically sucky website.  “What do you think of what I have now?” could be answered with “Wow, who did this for you? Your nine year old? It looks like an elderly cat threw up on it.” But Debi has other thoughts.  God bless bloody do-gooders. Dudes, whassa girl gotta do ’round here to get an iTunes review? (OK, don’t answer that.)  Come give us a shoutout on iTunes so that we don’t appear to be in complete and utter oblivion.  Yes, I live in the middle of nowhere, and Jeff is in Suburbia Hell (my words, not his) but we would like to be somewhere on the iTunes podcast map!  C’mon…..you know you want to…… The post Interview: Debi Lewis, Doing business with non-profits appeared first on BlogThis! Podcast.

Have you ever listened to yourself on tape?  Yes, I just dated myself since “young-uns” today don’t have a frigging clue what a “tape” is.  Let me rephrase – have you ever listened to your own voice, recorded and played back to you?  This is a new experience for me, and let me tell you, it sucks.  You sound totally different in your own head than you do, apparently, to other people.  After listening to the first two podcasts, though, what struck me most is that I’m doing most of the talking.  (Big shock, loudmouth.) So, Jeff and I decided to let HIM dominate this episode and turn our attention to what we can all learn from his experience. Jeff moved from a 40-hour-a-week-cog-in-corporate-machine existence to flourishing as his own boss, running his own business.  Yes, that means that he now works more like 70 hours/week in order to avoid working 40, but what entrepreneur doesn’t?  In this episode, we’re exploring the IWannaBeAnEntrepreneur decision making process, when to make that decision, how to balance a full time job and founding a business, the ethics surrounding doing both simultaneously, and all the logistics that go along it.  Even when you have an actual life (it’s summer, man – I’m making time for the pool, potty training and podcasting.  If I can do it, you can too.) Although he denies the Grim Reaper title, Jeff has a long history of working for companies which go out of business.  He’d start a new job at a promising hipster startup as their local techie (in any role from programmer to system administrator to tech support) and inadvertently establish himself as one helluva resource.  Everybody leaned on Jeff for tech help in a myriad of areas and specialities.  At each and every new job, he quickly became revered as the local expert.  Strangely, however, that neither seemed to translate into a Director title nor a C level salary, since the companies kept tanking!  Always the expert, never the boss. Jeff spent several years like this, and it eventually occurred to him that people might pay him for his expertise! He was ready to monetize his skill set, and I don’t mean putting a Psychiatric Help 5 Cents can on his desk, charging his co-workers as they filtered in with questions.  Before he started pitching his talents, though, he recognized that a jack of all trades but master of none earns less than a respected authority on one specific niche.  He needed to niche-ify (ok, “specialize” but I like to make up words.)  In order to become a Joomla maven (or a maven of any flavor, let’s be honest) one must self-educate.  How does one go about that with a full time job, a spouse, and a mortgage? Efficiency, baby.  Jeff had always gotten his work completed by noon and then spent the afternoons answering questions and attempting to look busy (he earned employee of the month recognition by becoming a looking-busy maven, but nobody was paying top dollar for that skill. Plus it looked silly listed on a resume.)  He pivoted and dedicated his afternoons to becoming a Joomla specialist.  On the company dime.  Nothing sketchy here – he was still getting all his work done! Achieving his goal in a few short months, he began to put the word out that he was a Joomla developer for hire.  Bam!  Google AdWords did his dirty work for him, and potential clients began to call.  Just to recap, his first two steps were (and your first two steps should be): 1) Become an expert 2) Get the word out that you’re the expert Yes, you complete both of these steps while working full time, just like Jeff did.  Here’s the tricky part – step three.  You are going to have to change your mindset from being the reactive provider to being the proactive businessperson.  No longer being assigned tasks by his superior and checking them off as “completed”, Jeff was now responsible for providing solutions to his clients’ problems.  That’s a proactive responsibility.  Jeff capitalized on his ability to listen beyond what the client was asking for.  Nobody was calling him and asking for a website, even though they thought they were calling him and asking for a website.  They were asking for a product, but what they were really seeking was a solution. Clients wanted any number of solutions from more exposure to ecommerce to streamlined file sharing.  They wanted solutions and Jeff switched his mindset from “Yes, sir” to “Have you thought about….?” Step three: 3) Change your mindset from reactive (complete assigned tasks) to proactive (I’m a business providing solutions) Jeff goes on to discuss one of the Never-Evers he learned early on (and it took me much longer to learn.)  Not every client who approaches you is the right client for you.  I know, I just told you to turn down money (shudder.)  Don’t get me wrong. I like money. So does Jeff.  But when we take on clients who want projects outside our niche, we have the potential to deliver less than the best, which is never good for a new businesses’ reputation. For example, my firm shies away from reception, telemarketing, bookkeeping, and translation.  We get scores of requests for this kind of work, but bottom line – we’re not very good at it.  We don’t want to get involved in anything that we can’t come out of smelling like roses, so we simply turn down those assignments and are happy to refer potential clients to other providers who specialize in those areas.  While it took me four years of running a business to be schooled in this particular knowledge nugget, it only took Jeff about six months.  Why? Because he took a project he shouldn’t have taken, outside his niche, and ended up swallowing his pride and writing that client a big fat refund check. Ouch.  Six months, however, is way less painful than four years.  Jeff wins. Come share our accomplishments, learn about entrepreneurialism, laugh at our idiotic mistakes and our Wisconsin accents (or what’s left of them.) Download, listen, and throw us an iTunes review! The post The Three Most Important Steps To Becoming Your Own Boss appeared first on BlogThis! Podcast.

Band geeks unite! Networking used to suck.  Put on a suit you don’t want to wear.  Go to the Ramada, and mill about in bad lighting, nibbling stale crackers and handing out your business card.  Talk to people you don’t want to talk to about stuff you don’t want to talk about to sell stuff you don’t believe in. Sexy. I had my “come to Jesus” moment recently (which is funny for an atheist living in Israel) and realized that networking isn’t like that anymore! Networking has come to mean wearing whatever you want (I saw flip flops and Crocs at a conference last week, I kid you not) and hanging out with like minded bloggers, techies, digital marketers and entrepreneurs learning about stuff that you are actually interested in. Nobody is selling anything.  You hand out your business card (people ask for it!) so your fellow geeks can read your blog, get to know you, find out how they can help you.  Everybody is tweeting throughout the day – identifying and disseminating soundbites from the best speakers, posting 140 characters worth of muffin reviews from the coffee breaks, relaying how impressed they are by the knowledge they’re gaining.  We were all discovering new people, new technology and a new community.  I raked in 50 new followers in four hours! The feeling of community skyrocketed, and it’s inspiring. The opportunity to attend two vastly different conferences in the span of 48 hours is mind-boggling.  Just as I was recovering from (read: connecting on LinkedIn with everybody from) Conference #1, I suited up for Conference #2.  It was actually at the Ramada, and I was gearing up for a long day of bad lectures, but given my success the previous day, I did retain hope. The best piece of the day (besides the broccoli quiche, don’t even get me started) was the elevator pitch networking session.  We all go to conferences to learn, right? Wrong. We go to see and be seen.  We go to meet others who can teach us, help us, move us along in our careers.  To make our connections and to help others make theirs. I went to recruit new superstars to my team.  It’s easy – attend the networking session and watch who everybody pays attention to.  Who has the best pitch? Who can keep everybody’s attention for 3 solid minutes?  THAT’S the one I want to hire. It was loud in the room – picture 400 religious Jewish women trying to talk over each other. Ok, now breathe again. I facilitated the networking session and, as such, was tasked with introducing the concept of an elevator pitch to 50 budding entrepreneurs. People don’t want to know who you are, they want to know what you can do for them.  What problem are you solving? Get that across, and do it fast, without jargon, in a compelling and direct fashion. I gave some examples, delivered my own pitch, and then sat down to watch the fireworks.  Pitcher #12 started with “It’s too loud in here – you can’t hear me – I’m doing something about that.” She jumped onto a chair, Tom Cruise on Oprah style, and belted out who she was, what she did, and why she was psyched to be at the conference.  I hired her the next day.  Dude, this was a Charedi woman who jumped on a chair.  How could I not? After both conferences, and sleeping most of the weekend, I did the most important thing one can do in New Networking.  I followed up.  And I don’t mean blasting a ConstantContact newsletter to each and every conference attendee saying “We met. Here’s my information. Can I sell you something now?” I’m talking about sending a personalized email to each of the folks with whom I spent time. To the women I lunched with. To my fellow session-skippers hanging out in the hallway. One needed a recommendation for a salesperson; I happen to know one, so I connected them. Another needed Hebrew-based social media assistance, and there was someone in a session with me that morning who specializes in exactly that – I virtually introduced them.  Over said broccoli quiche, someone mentioned that she was looking to have a promotional video done, and I met a guy the day before at the digital marketing conferences who is getting his promotional video business off the ground.  Connection number three.  I was actively contributing to the community before asking anything from it.  I was being genuine and helpful.  I am building my reputation as a resource, and one can be sure that when I need something, my fellow band geeks are going to be happy to point me in the right direction. The post The Power of (New) Networking appeared first on BlogThis! Podcast.

I feel like we’re debutantes in Mississippi circa 1964.  We are “presenting” ourselves to the greater world, unveiling our voices and how we can potentially both relate to and support our fellow entrepreneur community.  Although we have loftier goals than joining the Ladies Who Lunch circuit (no disrespect to Jeff, gentlemen can have lunch too) it is indeed an inauguration of sorts for both of us. Our first session includes a bit of history and introduction, since we’re the new podcasting kids on the block.  The highlights include growing up together in Wisconsin (yes, the land of The Fonz, Harley Davidson, Miller Lite and fried cheese curds) and where our life paths have taken us once we escaped left. Yes, you can (I do) manage a 40 person firm from your couch.  Please note that I specifically said from my couch, not on my couch.  My father got very worried that people will get the wrong impression about the nature of my business.  I will walk you through what kind of ingredients, habits and characteristics it takes to do that effectively, while maintaining some semblance of balance.  I interview a candidate, I put a batch of my famous veggie muffins in the oven.  I fire a client, I unload the dishwasher.  I take my middle son to a birthday party, I write a blog post.  Doesn’t that sound balanced? Jeff will address the difference between the value of a degree (not only a bachelor’s degree, but we’re talking to an MBA here, respect and red carpet please) and what a degree can and cannot do for you.  Jeff is a bootstrappy kind of a guy.  He earned his undergraduate degree online while working full time in tech support and changing diapers. Yes, real men change diapers. Upon graduation, his mentor convinced him that continued education was the way to go, so he buckled down further and added in-person classes, reports, statistics, papers and presentations to the work and midnight feeding regimen.  Exhausted but triumphant, Jeff earned his MBA and sat down to await his invitation from Price Waterhouse Coopers. Or the White House. Neither appeared. He was forced to confront the possibility that while an MBA (or any higher degree, for that matter) can potentially open doors, it is not an automatic membership card to the Old Boys Club, nor a pass go and collect your 6 figure salary permit.  Jeff was forced to reconsider not only his goals but his strategy to achieve them. How does one go from “a guy with a paycheck” to “a man who derives satisfaction from his work”?  Jeff’s path became focused one day when he realized that his boss, his firm, his clients – simply did not have his best interests at heart, nor would they ever.  He walked, and became an entrepreneur.  Jeff has not looked back. Neither should you. Join us for our debut performance and get to know us!  Yes, we’re sarcastic. You’ll get used to it. The post Debut of the BlogThis! Podcast appeared first on BlogThis! Podcast.