Success

You Probably Don’t Know What Traf-O-Data Or Virgin Vodka Were

May 30, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Traf-O-Data was a business with an objective of reading raw data from roadway traffic counters and create reports for traffic engineers. The company had modest success but quickly fell apart. This is one of the countless examples of a company falling apart, but the rest of the story is about perseverance.

One of the people who founded Traf-O-Data and watched it collapsed was some guy named Bill Gates. Even one of the richest men in the world had a business that fell apart. Bill Gates learned from Traf-O-Data’s collapse and created Microsoft.

That’s one story of an entrepreneur going from one collapsed business to creating something remarkable. There are many entrepreneurs who have gone from collapsed businesses to successful enterprises. One of those people was Richard Branson.

When you think of Richard Branson, you probably think of Virgin Airlines and Virgin Records. Chances are you do not affiliate Richard Branson with Virgin Coke or Virgin Vodka. Virgin Coke and Virgin Vodka are two of Branson’s businesses that quickly failed. After learning from his mistakes, Branson was able to start Virgin Airlines and become a billionaire.

The list goes on and on for entrepreneurs who first failed and then became very successful. Henry Ford’s first two car companies failed and left him broke. Mark Cuban was a carpenter and waiter among other things before becoming a billionaire. When looking at successful figures, we often forget that there was a point when these people were not successful. There was a point when all of the billionaires were struggling to make a living. The reason you didn’t know what Traf-O-Data or Virgin Vodka were is because few people accept the fact that billionaires were once regular people who just wanted to make it in the real world.

Maybe you may be in what seems to be a hopeless situation. Being broke after creating two businesses that failed, selling vodka, floundering amongst low paying jobs, and watching a business that was successful completely fall apart also seem like hopeless situations. Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Henry Ford, and Mark Cuban were in those hopeless situations.

My Interview With Shannon Oleen

April 8, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Shannon Oleen is a motivational speaker who empowers young adults. Shannon has followed her passions for her entire life. One of Shannon’s big passions was sports. Shannon played sports in high school, and after a lot of practice, Shannon became an NFL cheerleader for the Kansas City Chiefs. After putting the poms down for good, Shannon pursued another passion which was to become a motivational speaker. I had Shannon on a Google Hangout which you can watch here (the noise in the background is my computer’s fans. Sorry about that). Here were the main takeaways from the interview.

Success does not go to you; you go to it. If success came to us, there would not be thousands of books in the world about success systems that never fail and similar book titles as well. The road to success is the road less traveled. However, by taking that road, you will end up becoming successful by doing the things that you love to do.
Patience and action lead to success. Shannon thought that when she became a motivational speaker, she would be able to quit her old job in 6 months so she could focus on motivational speaking. It took a lot longer for her to eventually quit her job, but by staying patient, she was able to quit her job and focus on motivational speaking. In addition, Shannon Oleen tried out several times for the cheerleader team, and after trying out many times, the Kansas City Chiefs had Shannon on their cheerleading team.
We need to find out who we really are as individuals. In one of her blog posts, Shannon goes in detail about her 2 week canoe ride where there was rationed food and water. From this 2 week canoe ride, Shannon was able to discover who she as a person is minus all of the technology. Shannon did not use any social networks during the canoe ride, and although that alone is brave enough for a gold medal, there were no forms of technology or every day things we take for granted. It is amazing how much we take brushing our teeth and toilets for granted. This experience allowed Shannon to know who she is as a person, and that is something we all must do–find out who we really are minus the clutter. I’m not telling you to go on a canoe ride, but I am telling you to dig deep, remove the clutter, and figure out who you are as a person.

The entire interview has elements of humor and motivation intertwined into one. If you want to get in touch with Shannon, you can subscribe to her blog and follow her on Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social networks (just search Shannon Oleen, and she’ll show up).

How To Keep The Momentum Going On Your Social Networks

March 26, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

The growth of a social network is a slow process. However, when a social network starts to see a big pick-up in growth, you want that growth to either last as long as possible or for that growth to not stop at all. I remember when I went from gaining 50 followers every day to gaining 300 followers every day, I wanted that growth to last.

I ended up implementing the same tactics that resulted in me gaining 300 followers on a consistent basis. As a result, I was consistently gaining 300 followers every day. My following count rose dramatically.

After you get a momentum, you want to keep that momentum going. In fact, you want to get better results as well. Ever since I decided to tweet every 30 minutes, I have been getting more engagement for my tweets. My retweets, favorites, and Klout score have all gone up ever since I decided to tweet every 30 minutes.

In order to get better results after you master keeping the momentum, you need to dig deep into the facts, statistics, and articles on the web. The method I used to get 300 followers every day was following a highly regarded person’s followers in my niche. This person was also gaining 300 followers a day. However, my results became dependent on that person. When this person gained 150 followers for the day, I usually gained something close to that (this does not apply for famous people who gain thousands of followers every day). This 300 followers a day increase suddenly went down to a 150-200 follower increase every day.

I did some research and found the #1 most influential social media expert. This person gains over 500 followers every day. I decided to follow this person’s followers instead. Now, I am gaining over 500 followers every day as well. Now I have a stronger momentum which will most likely catapult me onto Forbes’ next Top 50 Social Media Power Users List.

How could I keep the momentum going? I could tweet every 15 minutes. Although that would require a colossal amount of time, I am considering pursuing the task. In addition, I am deeply considering buying access to HootSuite Pro to make scheduling tweets much faster. I could send out more tweets at the moment with pictures to get more retweets and favorites. Building strong presences on Vine and Pinterest will allow me to get even more followers on Twitter.

In order to keep the momentum going, you need to have a big goal in mind. For me, that goal is to be gaining 1,000 followers on Twitter every day before 2014 comes to a close.

How To Keep The Momentum Going On Your Blog

March 24, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Everyone is focused on getting more traffic to their blogs. However, few people focus on keeping the momentum going. This results in a big spike, and then traffic continues as if the big spike had never happened. In order to keep the traffic that you gain, you need to keep the momentum going on your blog.

There is no better way to keep the momentum going than by getting more subscribers. By getting people to subscribe to your blog, they will be constantly notified every time you come out with a new blog post. As these people read several blog posts on your blog, some of them will decide to buy your products. In addition, they will visit your blog frequently. Having a subscription box that is easy to see is one of the many ways to get more subscribers on your blog.

Getting people to subscribe to your blog is not enough. Once a subscriber visits your blog for a second time, or when you get a first time visitor, you want those people to stay on your blog for as long as possible. In order to get more people to stay on your blog, you need to reduce your blog’s bounce rate. Reducing your blog’s bounce rate will increase the amount of time a visitors stays on your blog.

In addition, you need to make it easy for people to share your blog posts on their social networks. I have social sharing buttons at the end of all of my blog posts. This allows people to easily share my content across multiple platforms. Do not forget to add pictures to your blog posts so people can share your blog posts on Pinterest.

By keeping the momentum on your blog, you will be able to keep most of the traffic that you gain when you see a spike in traffic. It is possible to have 50 daily visitors and suddenly encounter a spike where you get 200 visitors for the day. By implementing these tactics and having your blog battle-ready, you will be able to keep most of the people from the spike in traffic. Instead of falling back to 50 daily visitors, you may be able to get 75-100 daily visitors after the spike is over.

Why Testimonials Are Important

March 20, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

When first looking at the sales page, no one cares about the product. They only care about what people have said about products. After potential customers see numerous good reviews, then they start to buy in on the idea (and the product).

Testimonials act as proof that your product is elite. You don’t want people to guess about how good your product is. Amazon does not let people guess. All of their products can be reviewed based on a 1 to 5 star scale. The products with more 5 star are the products that get more sales. A lot of 5 star reviews reveals that the product is a must-have.

A description will not be enough to get people to buy your product. It is helpful, but in the end, the description is written by someone who wants you to buy their product. That’s where the testimonials come in. Real customers say what they like about the product, and that encourages potential customers to buy the product.

The products with the most sales are the ones with the most testimonials. Testimonials (also known as reviews on Amazon and many other places) tell people that what you have is extraordinary.