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5 Ideas For Your Next Blab

April 15, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

A new social network. Yes. Another new social network…as if there weren’t a lot of them already. Each social network brings its own set of promises, but if you use them all, you risk spreading your time too thin.

But this new social network is THE social network that you must make time for. It’s called Blab, and it’s changing the way we use social media.

It came out in April 2015. I have always heard good things about it but thought I could use my time doing better things…until I was forced to use Blab.

I was invited to speak at the Authority Super Summit about how I use social media to drive more Kindle book sales. This summit was an online event…entirely hosted on Blab.

We broke a Guinness World Record for the longest live event, but the more important thing is that I finally used Blab.

I finally learned why so many people were talking highly about the new social network. Blab is more than just another live streaming social network. It (along with SnapChat) is changing the way we use social media.

I don’t want to talk too much about my excitement for Blab. I could probably write a book just about my excitement towards Blab. You may be hearing about Blab for the first time, or you have heard about it before, but now you are ready to dive in.

If you are ready to dive in or just want to create more Blabs, here are five ideas for your next Blab.

#1: Valuable Insights

No matter which social network you use, providing a valuable insight is a great Blab idea. You can discuss a tip or a few of them within the same Blab.

The valuable insights you provide should be related to your niche. I know that sounds very obvious, but being reminded of the basics allows you to perform the basics flawlessly without any thought.

#2: Interview An Expert

Here’s where Blab gets really cool. Blab gives you the option to have up to four people on the same call (including yourself). That means you can interview an expert and ask them questions.

However, you can also organize panels and ask each expert within the panel a series of questions. You can get insights from multiple experts within your niche, but using Blab to host panels has other benefits.

You get to know more experts within your niche. When I look at people who have shared my content, I immediately remember the people who interviewed me on their podcasts.

These experts will remember you in the same way, and you’ll also get more traffic from these experts since they’ll promote the Blab to their audiences.

Some of these experts may decide to interview you.

#3: Q&A

You can use Blab to host a Q&A in which your audience gets to ask you questions. This will be a great experience for your audience because when they ask you a question, and you answer that question, the relationship between you and those individuals within your audience gets strengthened.

I don’t buy a lot of online training products. One of the few products I bought was offered during a webinar in which I asked my question and then got a response.

I remember feeling great that my question was being answered since it felt tailored towards my specific question. Of course, I wasn’t the only person who got value from the answer, but you can make certain people in your audience feel great when you answer their specific questions.

And some of those people may end up buying your products in the future.

However, if you intend on hosting a Q&A, make sure you can attract a large enough audience to the Q&A. My recommendation with a Q&A is to tell your audience about it a few times before it actually happens.

A few email blasts specifying the time and date will do the job.

That way, you’ll have a large enough audience which means you’ll get a lot of awesome questions to answer.

The last thing you want on a Q&A is to not receive any questions. If you aren’t sure if your audience will provide you with enough questions, ask some of your friends prior to the Blab to ask their questions.

If some of your friends ask questions, then other listeners may decide to ask their questions later on.

#4: Share Your Goals

What do you want to accomplish this month? Sharing your goals online can be fun, and people get to see the raw version of the work that you provide.

If you state your monthly goals to your audience, there’s no turning back. Accountability at its finest.

However, if you don’t accomplish all of your monthly goals, people get to see the human side of you. I believe that one of the beliefs people have is that certain celebrities or role models are perfect and flawless.

The thinking is that certain people have so much aggregate success, but within that success are many mistakes. I’m sure you can find a typo somewhere on this blog. It’s hard, but they probably exist.

I have found typos on some of the most excellent blogs and media outlets. They are rare, but they do exist.

Sharing your goals lets people see what you are trying to do. Sharing your goals will inspire your audience to share their goals while giving themselves more ambitious goals. While the idea is to accomplish all of the goals that you set for yourself, being honest about the goals that you accomplish and don’t accomplish lets people know that you aren’t perfect.

“But I know I’m not perfect. Why would anyone think I am perfect?”

As you audience grows, you’ll get people from all sides of the spectrum. Some will want nothing to do with you. They’ll make it a point to insult you in front of your face. Other people will think that you are perfect.

In my opinion, showing your imperfections lets your audience know that it isn’t as hard as it seems to accomplish what they want to do. The goals will be more tangible.

But most importantly, people get to see your personal side. They get to know you as the person, not just for your profession.

#5: Make Predictions

Do you think aliens are going to take over the world? Is Blab a fad or a big deal? You can make your predictions via Blab and let people know what you think about your niche, the world, or something else.

Making predictions is fun because you get to put your prediction out there and get engagement. Some people may agree with you while others may disagree with you. Regardless, you are getting engagement from your Blab, and people will be back to hear your other predictions.

With this said, don’t make outlandish predictions just for the sake of attention. Make predictions that you would make if you were only talking with your friends. Which social network will be important this year? Will the Cubbies win a World Series?

If you do enough predictions, your Blab account can turn into quite the time capsule.

In Conclusion

The live streaming capabilities combined with the chat section make Blab a different kind of social network. If you are thinking of your first Blab or want to think of more Blab ideas, then you can use these five ideas to come up with several ideas.

If you feel like you are in the middle of the Blab equivalent of a writer’s block, you can always interview experts within your niche. You can also interview experts in your niche if you want to connect with them and provide your audience with additional value.

What are your thoughts about using Blab? Have any Blab ideas for us? Sound off in the comments section below.

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Myth Busting: Offering Free Content Doesn’t Bring In Money

April 13, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

The blogging journey is a whirlwind of emotions, especially in the beginning. It’s a privilege to put your voice on the web. However, there are the days when newbie bloggers look at their revenue and find zeroes.

When the mentality shifts from fun to profit, some bloggers focus more on offering products than writing content. At this stage, the myth that offering free content won’t make any money arises.

Although the name doesn’t suggest it, free content is essential for making revenue from your online business. In the video, I’ll tell you why that is the case.

If you like this video, then I would love it if you subscribed to my YouTube channel and spread the word.

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Book Review: Power Of Broke

April 12, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

I recently had the privilege of reading Daymond John’s new book Power Of Broke. The book is filled with case studies of some of the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet as well as some of Daymond’s stories. You’ll hear about how FUBU became a super successful brand and some of the negotiations that went on during Shark Tank.

The key to getting a lot out of this book is to think about your business as Daymond describes FUBU and dives into the case studies. Ask yourself how you can improve your business with the knowledge you recently acquired after reading each case study and hearing about each of Daymond’s anecdotes.

In the video, I go deeper and explain some of the book’s key takeaways.

If you like this video, then I would love it if you subscribed to my YouTube channel and spread the word.

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How To Gain Expertise In Anything

April 11, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

The moment you stop learning is the moment when you start falling behind. Learning more about your niche allows you to provide more value to your audience so they are sure to stick with your products and services.

In this video, I discuss how you can gain expertise in any niche. While these methods can be used to gain expertise from a business standpoint, they can be used to gain expertise in anything that you do in your professional life or your personal life.

If you like this video, then I would love it if you subscribed to my YouTube channel and spread the word.

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The Top 5 Distractions And How To Stop Them

April 8, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

The Top 5 Distractions And How To Avoid Them — Distractions are numerous. Here’s how to avoid them.

Tell me if this sounds familiar.

You have a list of goals in front of you. Accomplishing these goals is important to you. However, for some odd reason, those goals don’t get accomplished. Either some of the goals or none of them get accomplished.

What happened? Maybe you tried to bite more than you could chew. But deep down, you know that’s not what happened.

It’s very clear what happened. Most people get distracted, and enough distractions will result in a checklist without the checkmarks.

Once we get distracted for the slightest amount of time, it takes us some time to get back on track. Shifting from a distraction back to your work isn’t just a physical shift. It is also a mental shift.

You have to mentally re-prepare yourself for getting your goals done each time you get distracted.

Getting distracted too many times will result in a lot of lost time based on how long it takes for you to get back to the work from a physical standpoint (i.e. looking at the blog post you are writing) and from a mental standpoint (having the mindset necessary for writing an epic blog post).

Distractions can get bothersome. The worst part is that few people realize the impact of distractions until it’s too late. One distraction doesn’t seem to take much time out of the day.

But a string of distractions stretched over a long period of time can be disastrous for your productivity.

The next thing you know, it’s the end of the day, and you are far behind from accomplishing your goals for the day.

The moment you take steps to eliminate some of the distractions from your life is the moment you will become more productive.

Of course, it’s impossible to eliminate all distractions. We can’t work 24/7, every day of the year. However, it is possible for you to use your time as productively as possible to accomplish your goals and have a lot of extra time for the good ol’ work-life balance.

You use your time more productively by eliminating the distractions around you that can be eliminated. In this blog post, you’ll learn the five distractions that can be dramatically reduced so you can become more productive.

#1: Surfing The Web

The web has granted us many gifts. The web gave us social media, the ability to expand business in a way like never before, hilarious memes, and a whole lot more.

I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t on the web for an entire day. It just has so much to offer. The problem with so many options is that it is easy to get distracted.

Going on Twitter to interact with your audience can suddenly end with you scrolling through the trending topics. You went on YouTube to upload a video, and you log out of your account after watching 10 Jimmy Fallon videos.

The web provides us with so many opportunities, but almost all of those opportunities are also next to a sea of distractions.

Developing willpower is one possible tip, but it doesn’t dive deep enough into this distraction. Here’s the secret to avoiding this distraction.

When you work, you must disconnect from the Wi-Fi.

When I write my blog posts, I make it a point to disconnect from the Wi-Fi, remove my iPhone from the room, and quit my Safari and Mail icons. That way, the only thing I am thinking about is writing the blog post. More specifically, it’s the only work I am doing.

With that said, there is some work that requires Wi-Fi. Content research, watching training course videos, and scheduling blog posts are just some of the tasks that require Wi-Fi.

Some of those tasks can be outsourced to freelancers. Outsourcing some of your workload will allow you to save time that can be repurposed towards bigger opportunities.

However, some of the work just can’t be outsourced. For that type of work, my recommendation is to write down your daily goals on a sticky note. I always keep a sticky note like this right next to my computer.

Any moment you find yourself getting distracted, look at that sticky note. It will remind you that there’s still work to do. Then you won’t find yourself getting distracted for as long.

#2: Social Media

Social media is a special type of web surfing since it’s critical for a lot of businesses. However, social media is a double-edged sword. While it is critical for business, it can also eat up too much of your time.

Writing the sticky note will help you when you fall off track. However, why fall off track in the first place?

When I interact with my social media audiences, I rarely interact with them on the actual social networks. Instead of interacting with people through Twitter, I usually interact with my Twitter audience from HootSuite.

The HootSuite dashboard comes with all of the tweeting capabilities. The HootSuite dashboard doesn’t contain as much information as Twitter’s dashboard.

That’s actually a good thing.

On the HootSuite dashboard, I don’t see any tweets that could distract me. More importantly (for me), I don’t see any of the trending topics.

So instead of going through the trending topics after I interact with my audience, I move onto the next task.

You need to find a way to spend as little time as possible on the actual social network. Use a social media tool instead.

Remember this. All social networks are designed to keep you on their sites for as long as possible. Social media tools are simply designed for you to get the work done.

#3: TV

The average American watches 32 hours of television every week. Imagine all of the cool things you could do with that extra time.

I used to be on that same boat. Every day when I got home from school, I would do my homework. Then, the rest of the day was filled with a combination of TV, internet surfing, and video games.

Productivity wasn’t a natural talent of mine. Natural talents don’t exist. Every “natural talent” is simply a skill that got developed over a long period of time.

But when I started blogging, I fell in love with it. Blogging became my hobby, and when I figured out I could make money from it, blogging became my business. Then it expanded from there.

When I first started blogging, I had to find extra time for myself to write the blog posts. Little did I know it at the time, but this is when I discovered how valuable time is, from a minute by minute standpoint.

A minute you spend doing one activity is a minute that you can’t spend doing any other activity. If I watch TV for one minute, then that is one minute in which my upcoming blog post remains unwritten.

I think of spending time in the same way that I think of spending money. Spend both of them carelessly, and the results won’t be pretty. Spend them effectively and you get the results.

The moment I valued my time to this level, I stopped falling for the traps. I stopped watching the re-runs because I was bored. Now with a blog and a business, I always had something to do. And I enjoyed the work. That’s the important part—a strong source of motivation to get off the couch.

Now I only watch two hours of TV every week. Any new episode of The Big Bang Theory or Super Girl is a can’t miss. I actually schedule podcast interviews accordingly to make sure I don’t miss any of those episodes.

I don’t watch much TV which is why it’s a big deal when I actually watch some of it.

Then there’s 30 minutes of miscellaneous. Sometimes I’ll watch a sports game, but since my Red Sox aren’t on the New York channels, I mostly stay up-to-date via MLB’s website.

But maybe you still want to watch a lot of TV the moment you turn it on. If this is you, then you must enlist the help of a trustworthy family member that you won’t get mad at.

Have that member of the family member hide the TV remote, or better yet, put the TV remote in a location where you cannot access it.

Without a TV remote, there’s no point in turning on the TV. What happens then? The goals get done.

#4: Music

Music and I will never go out of style. While some songs can put you in the right mindset for pursuing certain types of work (i.e. Rocky music for workouts), listening to too much music will distract you when you are working.

Take, for instance, a Taylor Swift song. The moment I hear one of her songs play, I stop what I am doing to listen to it. Sometimes I sing to the song, but often I just stop what I am doing and listen.

Soon enough, I have listened to dozens of songs to find my blog post still unwritten.

I feel great when I listen to my favorite songs, but listening to too many songs results in no work getting done.

Luckily, there is an in-between route otherwise known as the Pomodoro technique. It is a famous productivity tactic that involves you working on ONE thing for 25 minutes and then taking a five minute break. This gets repeated again and again. However, on the fourth Pomodoro, some people recommend taking a 15 minute break instead of a five minute break.

During that five minute break, you can choose to listen to one of your favorite songs. However, only choose one song. We all have that one song that after listening to it, we can produce meaningful work for 25 straight, undistracted minutes.

Don’t go on a music marathon, but also don’t deny yourself of your favorite song.

#5: Your Thoughts

I’m starting off this part by saying we always think. You can’t fully eliminate thoughts from your life.

However, there are certain thoughts in your head that will distract you. The chances of that happening are greatly reduced if you do work that you love doing.

When you love the work that you do, then you are less likely to wander within your mind—thinking about the baseball game you are going to this week or the last concert you attended.

To be truly locked into your work is to be within the moment. Sometimes, our thoughts take us away from that. Bad thoughts sometimes enter our minds, and the negative feelings harm our productivity.

When bad thoughts emerge, you need a quick counter. I think one of the greatest things people deprive themselves of is self-worth. We often look at the target without looking back at the starting point.

We are so focused on what we have to do that we fail to notice what we have already accomplished.

Anytime a bad thought comes up, simply remind yourself of some of the things you have accomplished up to this point. Then you won’t feel as bad, and you’ll be able to continue working without those negative thoughts plaguing your work ethic.

In Conclusion

Distractions are among us. They hurt our ability to accomplish our goals. The way we respond to the distractions around us ultimately determine what type of impact they have on us.

What distractions eat up most of your time? Do you have any tips for conquering distractions? Sound off in the comments section below.

Leverage Your Time Better With A Productivity Pie

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