Marc's Blog

Episode 17: How To Host A Successful Event With Ramon Ray

December 6, 2016 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

On today’s episode, Ramon Ray and I discuss hosting a successful event. As someone who constantly wants to bring people together, Ramon has made a truly interesting career out of hosting events, that is if he isn’t speaking at an event or running Smart Hustle Magazine.

Starting from the ground up, Ramon grew the size of his events depending on what he saw was appropriate, and has made good on his decisions when planning for each event. He takes us through what he considers the “5 broad buckets” of planning to host an event, and what he thinks is a strong marketing plan.

We chat about the ups and downs Ramon has faced, and he explains that he even still goes through this process today, and what it is that he does to stay motivated and creative during those bad times. We are fortunate to hear an interesting and comprehensive insight into the world of events.

Listen in to hear why Ramon compares planning events to having a baby, and the best lessons he learned during his career.

Key Links from the show:

www.ramonray.com – Ramon’s Personal Site

www.smarthustle.com – Ramon’s magazine

Learn:

– Ramon’s advice for breaking through

– Ramon’s tips for putting on an event on a shoestring budget

– How to get good speakers at your event

– Why planning and building in time to market is key

– Ramon’s inspirational quote

5 Social Media Lessons Pool Taught Me

December 2, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

As a college student, I play pool for several hours in any given week. As I continued playing the game and working on my business, I realized that some tips for pool mirror ideal tips for growing and maintaining a social media audience.

It’s funny how any activity can teach you about business if you look at it the right way. You don’t need to be a pool player to understand the concepts within this blog post, but if you are a pool player, I’m sure you will appreciate this one.

#1: Start Strong

In a game of pool, the break typically determines how the rest of the game will go. Ideally, you want to break the triangle of pool balls and scatter the pool balls in different directions while landing some in the pockets (or if you land the 8 ball on the break, you win).

A bad break means the game will last far too long while a good break allows for a more fun game.

Each day, when you start implementing your social media strategy, the way you start determines the rest of the journey. If you start off distracted by the trending topics section, you will remain distracted for most of the day.

The way you start impacts the rest of your journey.

#2: Stay Consistent

A pool player who has a great day on one day and a bad day on another is not reliable. The best pool players are the ones who are consistently good.

In the same way, social media growth requires consistent work to see the results. You can’t grow your Twitter audience on one day, take a day off on the other day, and repeat that pattern while expecting massive results.

Staying consistent is one of the most important parts of thriving on social media. The more consistent effort you put into your social media strategy, the better your results will become.

#3: Get Advice From Others

When I got into college, I had no pool experience. I was terrible. I only became good after I got some guidance from others.

Getting advice from others sounds like common sense, but common sense is rarely common practice. Some people are intimidated to come up to someone or send an email to someone asking for advice.

When I got started on my social media journey, I had tons of questions. I was not afraid to ask people how they grew massive social media audiences. They responded by offering me their advice.

This advice was critical for me growing my social media audience. Don’t be afraid to ask others for advice. You’ll accomplish more in a shorter amount of time just by asking the right people the right questions.

#4: Focus On One Social Network

When the 8 ball is all alone on the table, you must call your shot before sinking the 8 ball into a pocket. It’s impossible to call multiple pockets. You must choose one and focus on only sinking the 8 ball into the chosen pocket.

If you look at other options, you risk hitting the 8 ball wrong and landing it into the wrong pocket. You can do all of the work to get the other seven balls off the table, but if you don’t focus on the best pocket for the 8 ball, you risk landing it in the wrong pocket.

Many social media experts start their social media journeys by focusing on one social network. Once they master their first social network, they then expand into other social networks.

I started by mastering Twitter and then I expanded into the other social networks. Foundr Magazine grew a massive presence on Instagram and then expanded into the other social networks.

Choose one social network and master it. It’s easier to walk with one egg in your hand than walk while juggling 10 eggs. Most people approach social media like the person who juggles the 10 eggs (without being a professional juggler).

#5: Set Yourself Up For The Next Opportunity

When you have an easy shot in a game of pool, you need to do two things simultaneously. You must both make the easy shot in and set yourself up for a next shot. The next shot you want to set yourself on determines how you hit the cue ball and how hard you hit it.

Think about everything you do for your social media strategy. What type of work can you do now that can set you up for more success in another area within the near future? Growing a social media audience sets you up for several opportunities.

If you share your blog posts and landing pages on your social networks, then expanding your social media audience sets you up for more blog traffic and a bigger email list.

Don’t just invest your time (and for some, money) for the sake of building your numbers. Do so with an end goal in mind. What is the purpose of you using social media? Why do you bother to grow an audience?

Always think about how your actions in one area can set you up for the next opportunity. Still focus on the opportunity you are currently pursuing, but have that other opportunity in the back of your mind.

In Conclusion

Any activity presents itself as a learning experience you can use to take your business to the next level. In this case, playing pool taught me new things about social media.

I knew some of these lessons before, but with the new context, I am more conscious of how these lessons apply to a social media strategy.

For instance, I was promoting my blog posts and landing pages on social media long before I started to play pool. However, I never thought of the concept of setting up for the next opportunity.

If growing on social media sets you up for the opportunity of more blog traffic, what opportunity do you set yourself up for once you get visitors? Do you set up for leads? Product sales? Clients? Always anticipate the next opportunity and set yourself up for it.

If you are a business owner, you can make each phase of the customer cycle set up for the next phase of the customer cycle. That’s what the most effective autoresponders do. When a customer buys a low-priced product, they eventually get the pitch for the high-priced product.

Are you a pool player? Which of these lessons landed in the pocket for you? Have any other lessons you’d like to put on the table? Break in the comments section below.

Episode 16: Marketing Like A Pro With Seth Godin

November 30, 2016 by Marc Guberti 1 Comment

Seth Godin has been my role model since the very early stages of my entrepreneurial journey. I am privileged to have had the opportunity to interview him for my podcast.

In case you don’t know him, he’s a 18-time bestselling author (Purple Cow and The Dip being my two favorites…it’s too hard to even think about ranking them though) who founded many great companies like Yoyodyne and Squidoo. I came across Seth’s content during my Squidoo days, and during my time on Squidoo, I learned a lot of what I know now. I attribute my time on Squidoo as a critical phase of my journey.

Seth has been an entrepreneur for 40 years. While he’s an entrepreneurial superstar now, he didn’t have that status early in his career. His books were rejected 800 times, and through this rejection, he learned that enthusiasm over criticism is a must. Seth talks about that, why it’s important to look at what you can offer the world, how you can help solve problems, and much more.

And his inspirational quote is quite fascinating. That will be revealed in the episode.

Key Links from the Show:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/04/first-ten-.html – Seth’s mentioned blog post

http://www.yourturn.link/ – Seth’s recent Book

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ – Seth’s Blog Posts

Learn:

– 3 Tips for marketing yourself and your products better

– Seth’s thoughts on achieving a breakthrough

– Why it’s important to watch people

– To not rush or expect everything at one

– Why “90% of success is showing up”

Performance Report November 2016

November 25, 2016 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

November was a slow month that picked up momentum towards the end. At the end of the month, I came across an important discovery about my productivity and desires. Here’s a review of my Performance Report for November 2016:

Growing The Blog

I mentioned one of my goals was to schedule all of my content past the first month of 2017. I didn’t schedule a single blog post. With that said, I wrote all of the content. It’s just a matter of scheduling everything.

Each month, I’ve posted the goal of getting 1,000 daily blog visitors. As the months have gone by, that goal has become more and more distant. I’m changing that with a new approach.

By the end of the year, my blog will get updated five days per week. Here’s how it will work.

Monday: Guest post
Tuesday: A blog post I write
Wednesday: Podcast episode with transcript
Thursday: Guest post
Friday: A blog post I write

Getting two guest posts per week is currently the biggest challenge. I hired a freelancer to help me find the right guest bloggers. If you believe you are the right guest blogger, I invite you to fill out this form.

I have no problem with writing two blog posts. The challenge is scheduling everything. I find that part of blogging the most annoying of all. Just as I do with any annoying tasks, I outsourced that task to my freelancer.

By getting rid of other tasks, I increase my focus on the tasks that I work on. Here’s the other big part of my plan.

I’m Officially Back To Creating Udemy Courses

I had my first good month in a while on Udemy so I’m motivated to create courses on that platform once again. Mega course and membership site ideas like Total Social Media Domination and Unlock Your Potential will be self-hosted, but I’ll be putting up a few mini courses on Udemy.

The $0.99 Book Experiment

I recently came across Adam Houge’s work. He’s a successful self-published author who has sold over 2 million of his books. Many of his books are $0.99 and about 40 pages long.

Writing these types of books is very easy. At my maximum, undisrupted level of productivity, I could write one of these books in under three hours.

I’ve decided to write one of these books each week and charge $0.99 for it. I will continue until the first quarter of 2017 and then assess my progress. I thoroughly enjoy writing these types of books because it’s virtually impossible to add fluff.

The point of these books is to fill you up with knowledge that you can act upon within 30-60 minutes (the amount of time it will take for you to read one of these books).

With that said, I’m still in the process of getting Unlock Your Potential out to the world. That book will be an exception to the rule.

The Kindle-Udemy Combo

An intermediate tip that finds its way on many blogs is to repurpose your content. I do just that with all of my $0.99 books. Here’s how it works:

#1: I create the outline for my Kindle book.

#2: I write the Kindle book.

#3: I use the Kindle book as an outline for my Udemy course.

#4: I create the Udemy course.

I am repurposing all of my $0.99 Kindle books to Udemy courses that will be advanced, interactive versions of the books. I aspire to write one book and create one Udemy course every week. My freelance army is about to get bigger.

Learning On Udemy

Not only am I creating more Udemy courses, but I am also enrolling into more Udemy courses. With plenty of discounts and several free courses that I never went through, I can use Udemy to take my learning to the next level.

I bought three Udemy courses during one of their sales about the following:

Reading books faster
Singing (yes, that’s something I want to do)
Growing a podcast

I already went through the course on reading books faster, and what I like best about Udemy courses is that you can quickly go through them by not completely going through them.

What I mean is that you can look at the titles of each video and watch only the videos that most interest you. I didn’t watch all of the videos for the course about reading books faster. Rather, I simply watched the videos that I knew would serve me best.

There are plenty of courses I need to get through before I can even consider buying more.

The Different Mediums I Use To Learn

I am learning by reading books, listening to audiobooks, listening to podcast episodes, and watching training courses. I read before going to bed and listen to audiobooks while on the bike.

During the Thanksgiving Break I adopted two more learning methods, so I’ll have to determine how to fit them into each day.

Books I Read

I didn’t read 12 books this month, and that’s part of the reason I invested my time and money into the speed reading course. And the most important lesson I got from the course was to view a book as a tool in which you don’t have to read from cover to cover.

For reading, it’s better to spend 20% of the time to get 80% of the ideas than it is to spend 100% of the time to get 100% of the ideas.

But these are the books that I did manage to read:

Invisible Selling Machine by Ryan Deiss

How To Talk To Anyone by Leil Lowndes

Virtual Freedom by Chris Ducker

The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

This wasn’t my best month of reading, but I probably got the most insights from this book line-up.

Blog Posts I Wrote

How To Create A Content Calendar: Content calendars help you plan out your content production. Here’s how you create one.

5 Secrets For A Successful Blog: Some are secrets while the others are common knowledge that isn’t common practice. #2 is the biggest secret of them all.

10 Dos and Don’ts For Writing Smooth Content: Kate Simpson stopped by to write a guest post providing valuable insights you can use to write better content.

4 Keys To A Successful Blog: If you thought the secrets were cool enough, I’ve now got keys for you. Regardless of what niche you are in, these four keys to a successful blog apply to you.

How To Write Valuable Content When Pressed For Time: Andrew Howe stopped by to write an epic blog post on writing great content even when the clock is against you. This is an important skill because with life and an online business, the clock is almost always against you.

Podcast Episodes I Published

Finding The Next Wave Of Consumer Demand With Mike Michalowicz: Episode 13
How To Achieve Explosive Personal Growth With Aaron Walker: Episode 14
How To Achieve Personal Freedom With Rob Cubbon: Episode 15

December Goals

Normally I have a section in which I look back at the previous month’s performance report, but I feel it is unnecessary for future reports since I look back at the previous month in various parts of each performance report.

With that said, these are my goals for December.

#1: Launch TSMD On December 30th

The membership site I’ve been talking about for months finally has a release date. Since I have been working very hard on this membership site, I am eager to share the final product with everyone.

While the focus of the membership site is to give you enough insight to help you take action, it isn’t one of those libraries of content that seems to stretch on for countless days.

However, you can ask me anything about your social media strategy, and you’ll get access to my expertise.

#2: Create Some FB Ads

While I have attracted hundreds of thousands of organic visitors to my blog from social media, for the first time ever I am attracting visitors to my blog and landing page with the help of paid social traffic.

Since Facebook is the superior social network for social advertising, it only makes sense for me to focus my efforts on Facebook first. I will create Facebook ads for Total Social Media Domination since it would result in recurring revenue that I can use to scale up my business.

#3: Learning Goals

Because I want to learn as much as possible, here are my specific goals to help me acquire more knowledge:

#1: Read 10 Books

#2: Watch 15 Udemy Courses

#3: Listen To 5 Audiobooks

#4: Listen To 20 Podcast Episodes

I’m all in with my learning.

In Conclusion

I place a strong emphasis on learning. Not only do I acquire more knowledge, but the simple act of learning motivates me to put in the work.

A few months ago, I had completely given up on Udemy and self-publishing, but now I’m returning to those two opportunities. When I wrote my first $0.99 book, I realized that I have a strong passion for writing books. Since I had neglected this passion for too long, it made me more susceptible to procrastinating.

And the same thing applies for creating Udemy courses.

So what are your thoughts on this performance report? Do you have any good book recommendations for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

Episode 14: How To Achieve Explosive Personal Development Growth With Aaron Walker

November 23, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

On today’s episode, we are joined by Aaron Walker, a successful entrepreneur focused on personal development. From turning over stores, getting bought out by Fortune 500 Companies, and delving into construction, Aaron has led a career of variety before deciding to give back to others. Listen in to hear why he decided to give back.

Aaron and Marc sit down to discuss the interesting and insightful journey Aaron has taken in his career (and his retirement!). Starting out small, and growing businesses to giant proportions, Aaron quickly moved from a humble starting point to one sought after by the biggest companies, but quickly became bored. Aaron talks us through the moves he made after that to feel like he lives his life with purpose and to do what he didn’t know he could so well: help others. After an unfortunate turn of events, Aaron was left to reconsider life and what it offered him, or more importantly others.

We are lucky to gain insight into the thoughtful, creative mind of Aaron as he strives to pass on his skills and knowledge to those that might need it most. We hear how and why Aaron loves helping others become great, and why he always strives to go over and above, always more than the minimum. As a truly selfless individual, Aaron is a stand-out role model, and we are blessed to be able to understand how he came to be in this position.

As always we are treated to our guest’s favorite quote, along with a free gift left for the listeners.

Key Links from the show:

www.viewfromthetop.com – Aaron’s website

www.veiwfromthetop.com/breakthroughsuccess -Aaron’s free gift he mentioned in the episode

https://twitter.com/VFTCoach – Aaron’s twitter handle

Learn:

– Why delaying personal gratification for the advancement of others is important

– Why building relationships intentionally is key

– Aaron’s advice for trying to breakthrough

– Why it’s important to spend 10% of your income on personal development

– Why meeting peoples’ needs rather than making sales is crucial

How To Write Valuable Content When Pressed For Time

November 21, 2016 by Marc Guberti 5 Comments

write valuable content

This is a guest contribution from Andrew Howe.

Content creation has never been an easy thing to do. In the digital era, it has become even harder to write compelling and valuable content as the digital world is a bottomless sea of content.

Most niche blogs publish new content on a regular basis which means having fewer topics to discuss. It seems there is nothing new under the sun.

While blogging is getting more competitive, there is no way out for content marketers. Writing valuable content is a must. And most of us would agree that writing on the same topic over and over again takes time, effort, and inspiration.

Plus, being a blogger means having more things to do which include analyzing competitors, communicating with clients and readers, growing income, and creating content.

The sum up?

If you’re not inspirited, the writing process would take even more time, and it seems to be a closed circle.

A logical question appears. How can we write valuable content while being pressed for time?

First, you should know where to find time for writing.

Second, it’s important to understand the role of high-quality content for your website growth before we move forward. So, what does valuable content give your site?

Improves SEO ranking
Boosts traffic and, therefore, increases sales
Helps to build brand authority

As we can see, valuable content is beneficial for your site, so you’d better know how to create it.

First things first:

If you know how to manage your time wisely, you’re able to write a lot daily without sacrificing the quality of your content and your personal life. Thus, there is no better way than increase your productivity and start being more efficient.

However, writing daily is not just about having time for it or having enhanced writing speed; it’s also about being full of ideas that rock.

The more great ideas you have, the better. Knowing what to say gives you an opportunity to keep on writing without taking pauses to wait for your muse to come.

Thus, you need to be interested in the topic you’re discovering and have a lot of stats and facts to prove your thoughts. This is another actionable way how to write 2,000 words a day without being about to burn out.

Content marketing plays an important role in your business growth. If you know how to create high-quality content, it’s more likely you know how to attract and hold your audience’s attention.

While everyone says that creating valuable content is a must, it’s important to find out what makes it!

What makes content valuable?

write valuable content

Evergreen, unique and compelling
Satisfies your readers’ needs
Gives an actionable solution
Teaches something new
Boosts SEO ranking

Once you understand what is valuable content, it’s time to check out some methods how to write high-value blog posts.

The simple takeaway? The quality of your content matters. Here are some ways to write valuable content while being pressed for time.

#1: Be An Expert On The Topic

Although the number of writers is growing rapidly, just a few of them put quality over quantity, forgetting that the level of wateriness gives you nothing but a bad reputation.

If you want to grow as a writer whose readers value him, you need to be an expert in your niche. Thus, don’t miss the chance to do in-depth research in order to collect all facts and data, read a lot about the topic of your article and, therefore, find out what you can add.

Obviously, the easiest way to be an expert on the topic is to write about the field of your interest, your passion. The more interested you are, the easier to know all tiny details about the topic.

#2: Create An Outline

Writing a lot is hard, but it can be easier if you follow some guide. There is no better way to keep on the right track than use your outline where you’ve put down your brilliant ideas in a logical way.

A good outline gives you structure and logic, organizing your thoughts flow from A to Z.

If you believe that writing an outline is just wasting of time, give it a try. Once you create it, you can see how much time it helps to save. Although it seems simple, most writers skip this part of the writing process, relying on their practical experience. Your outline is a basis of a good article.

#3: Work On Your Drafts

No matter how good as a writer you are, you might have a big number of drafts that you haven’t use for publishing on the web. For many reasons, most of us pass on the idea to work on these drafts in order to find it a better home. However, it can help you save time and efforts.

It’s hard to predict when the next brilliant idea will strike you, but you can always come back to the ideas that you have already had! Look at your drafts, analyze the reason why it wasn’t a good fit, and work on the gaps. Maybe a new handy article just needs some proofreading.

#4: Focus On One Article

Most bloggers work on different articles at the same time. Although it may seem like a good idea in order to write more, more often than not it gives you nothing but a burnout. Shifting writing several articles is a way to sacrifice the quality of your content and, therefore, get a negative feedback from your clients and readers.

To write more, you need to complete the current assignment, no matter how much time does it need. Be strict with yourself, and never start doing another task until you complete the current one. It’s better to write one good article than produce a lot of mediocre publications on the web.

#5: Use Tools And Apps

Living in the digital era, we have a big number of opportunities to make the most out of it, and using tools and apps is a great way out when it comes to writing. First of all, it helps you save time. For example, you can paste your text and check it for common typos and grammar mistakes and then proofread it more carefully. Plus, there are different tools that help you on every stage of content creation: headline generators, grammar and style guides, editing and proofreading apps, games for improving writing speed, etc.

#6: Find A Team To Join You

There is no better way to save time on writing than find a team of talented people to join you. You need to be focused if you want to write, edit and proofread your text like a boss, and it takes a considerable amount of efforts to do it. However, you can find freelance editors to help you or hire a team. If you’re on a tight budget, there are some forums that offer part-time jobs and you can hire professions from time to time in case of emergency.

#7: Draw Inspiration From Your Readers

A good blogger writers for the audience to provide solutions to the problems the readers might have. If you pay attention to your readers’ feedback, you can find insights what to write next. Many readers leave comments asking for further information, and it can become a new idea for your blog post.

No matter how much free time you have, there is nothing better to boost productivity than being motivated. Thus, you need to draw inspiration from one of the resources to keep on writing valuable pieces.

Inspirational Resources for Bloggers

write valuable content

It’s easy to feel discouraged at certain points within your blogging journey…especially when you are pressed for time. To combat feelings of discouragement, I have compiled a list of inspirational resources you can use to refuel your motivation.

Successful blogs. I bet that every blogger draws inspiration from other blogs that have a big number of visitors and interesting content. Don’t spend much time on reading mediocre blogs; focus on your personal top list of the best blogs.
Writing forums and communities. All bloggers face obstacles, and they need to do their best in order to overcome these problems. Being a member of a writing forum or community gives you an opportunity to find support and actionable ways out once you have some problems in the blogging niche.
Reading. Well, it’s hard to write good content if you don’t read. Reading enriches vocabulary, develops creative thinking and creativity, and gives you insights!
Offline conferences. What can be better than meeting other bloggers in person in order to share experience, knowledge, and tips! Moreover, there might be master-classes to learn something new.
Traveling. What I love the most about blogging is that you don’t have to sit in the office to write content. There are no limits, and you can go whenever you want to write! Traveling can teach you a lot and boost inspiration, so don’t skip writing while going somewhere to explore new edges of the world.

Writing valuable content is an important task for every successful blogger who wants to stand out from the crowd. Your audience doesn’t take care about your time, so it’s you who should know how to keep on writing, no matter where your muse is, or whether you have time for it. Luckily, there are some good ways how to write high-quality content.

Do you have your secrets about writing valuable content if you’re pressed for time?

About the Author

Andrew Howe is a content writer at Edubirdie who loves everything in the digital world. Also, he has crafted AdverbLess tool to help people improve their writing skills.