Episode 59: The Best Teachers Listen with Zeb Welborn

The best teachers listen. Vic Braden is one of the most famous tennis coaches of all-time. When I interviewed Vic, he said the most important element to being a great coach was listening. Learn how to be an amazing teacher.

Zeb Welborn

My first job straight out of college was that of a high school history teacher. As a teacher, I was so concerned with presenting the material that I never actually took the time to listen to my students to help them learn and grow. It was not until I became a tutor did I really harness my listening skills to accommodate the needs of my students. The best teachers are those who listen first and guide students to invest in their own learning.

My first week as a teacher brought about my first test to my students. I was excited. I prepared all the material I had taught them and I was eager to see how they did on the test. They bombed it. At first, my instinct was to blame my students, saying they didn’t try enough and that they should have studied harder, but in retrospect, I did not listen to them and I did not teach at their level so they could perform well on the test. It was a valuable learning experience for me because I began to learn how to listen to my students first, teach second and assess their learning when all was said and done.

As a tutor, I worked with Nick who struggled in school. He perceived himself as lazy, even though he was not and in order to get him to work with me I used my listening skills to help inspire him. I asked him questions about the things he enjoyed and I tried to incorporate those into my lessons as much as possible. Slowly, Nick began performing better and through continual listening and readjustment, Nick began to perform better in school. Listening drastically helped my tutoring ability.

Vic Braden is probably the most famous tennis coach of all-time. He’s met presidents, instructed the worlds best tennis players and is revered by everyone who has any knowledge of the history of the game. In talking with Vic on the Defining Success Podcast, I learned quickly that the skill he thought was the most important to his coaching career was listening. He listened first and came up with action plans second. If the greatest tennis coach of all time thinks listening is important to coaching, don’t you think it should be important to you as well? Sales is something that is outside of my comfort zone, but every time I make a sales presentation, I learn so much just by listening. I’ve also learned that many of the mistakes I’ve made come from not listening well enough. Each time, the potential buyer explains their needs and it was up to me, as a salesman, to listen, pick up on those needs and then use my product as an opportunity to solve their problems. But, sometimes, I focused more on what my product offered and the values it could bring in a general sense . . . rather than solve their specific problem. The listening skills I learned as an educator and a tutor has helped me in uncountable ways throughout my life. I’ve learned to become a better teacher and can sell my services much better once I truly listened to what my potential customers were saying rather than what I thought they wanted from me. The best teachers listen, truly understand and then offer their assistance as a peer. The next time you find yourself wanting to educate someone on a topic of interest, ask them questions, listen to their responses and respond as if you were them.

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Cornell Thomas is a basketball coach, trainer, motivational speaker & author. He just came out with his brand new book “The Power of Positivity.” In Episode 58 of the Defining Success Podcast Cornell shares how he overcame adversity by looking at the brighter side of things. He now motivates others to think, “What Now?” instead of “Why Me?”

His career has been a long and winding road that now has him coaching, training and motivating kids to be the best that they can be and motivating others with his message of power and positivity. The lessons he’s learned through basketball have played a crucial role in helping him through the adversity he’s faced in his life.

Cornell Thomas

Cornell began playing basketball in high school and proclaims that he was absolutely horrible at it, after putting in his 10,000+ hours he improved and earned a full basketball scholarship to Minot State University in North Dakota., subsequently obtaining a contract to play professional basketball in Portugal. Two weeks before setting out for Europe, Cornell suffered a career ending injury.

Cornell describes this incident as a crossroad in his life regarding the options he was to choose next: “Am I going to work my way back?, Am I going to sit around and feel sorry for myself? Or am I going to try and find a different career path?” What he encourages others to do in similar situations where they are to overcome adversity or a set back is to remain positive. His motto is: “Everything happens for a reason.” a firm believer of this popular quote, especially since that is what his Mom, a single mother and strong female role model in his life always reminded him of since childhood.

Cornell admits to encountering difficult times and having negative thoughts at times, including while recovering from the devastating injury that ended his professional basketball career. He says: “It’s not like I’ve never had a negative thought before… I’m not a robot.” He describes these moments as “snowball effects”, if you dwell in negativity it begins to grow, build up and overwhelm. His approach towards avoiding the pitfalls of dwelling in failure is to address the issues immediately. He acknowledges and firmly believes in the power of self-reflection and asks himself a series of questions, for example: “Is this a life or death situation?” “Is this a situation that can’t be fixed?” and usually the answer is no and then he asks himself: “Now that it happened, what are you going to do about it, what is your solution?” and the last and most important: “Is there anybody going through something worse that you?” and the answer almost always is yes. “There is always someone, somewhere going through something a little worse than you.” He states that when he is able to honestly answer those questions to himself, he is better equipped to brainstorm a solution and power through obstacles.

Cornell also encourages those that are experiencing negativity or self-defeating thoughts when they encounter failure to not think: “Why me?” and instead ask themselves: “What now?” The significance of this thought pattern was inspired while Cornell was a basketball coaches event, where he heard a great speech by Assistant Coach for the Clippers: Kevin Eastman, about the new generation of basketball players. Coach Eastman said something that caught Cornell’s interest, he said: “A lot of players, when bad things happen to them, say: Why me? Why am I not getting playing time? Why am I missing all of my shots? etc., instead of saying: “What now?!” It was a light bulb moment, realizing that that this is not only a question applicable to basketball players on the court, but applicable to us all in life. For example he states: “When bad things happen, we immediately curse the heavens, and think why me? instead of saying, “Well what do I have to do now to fix it?” His belief is that life is “10% of what happens to us the other 90% is how we deal with it.” If you apply this mindset, you will be able to overcome adversity and problems better. AboutCornell-300x157

This power of positive thinking equipped him with the tools to make assertive decisions and to reflect instantly, realizing that through the most devastating adversity, he had found his true calling in life. Cornell was resilient enough to rapidly choose Coaching Basketball and obtained a job as Men’s Head Coach at Sussex County Community College. Cornell’s life purpose is to help people. Shortly after accepting the job as Head Coach he started Crossroads Basketball LLC which has developed into the perfect way for him to fulfill his dream of reaching out, motivating and inspiring others. When he started the program he had 1 basketball player and 5 coaches. Through word of mouth the program has grown to over 200 kids involved. Many of the guys and girls he has mentored, trained and coached are coaching for him now. He sincerely enjoys coaching and motivating kids to reach their unlimited potential on and off the basketball court.

Cornell describes his synchronistic journey as an author as beginning with his Facebook page and taking notice that he and most of his friend’s mostly posted to negative complaints about their lives. He made a choice to begin posting daily motivational, inspiring and uplifting quotes and the response and feedback from his friends was positive. Then he got a suggestion to begin blogging, which led to his initiation in to book writing.

Cornell enjoys seeing the growth, accomplishments and success of the kids he coaches, especially as they obtain scholarships and experience success doing what they love to do through the game of basketball and pursue their dreams along their journey. Some of the most memorable things to happen to Cornell since choosing the path to coach and mentor kids is to witness the growth and development as they progress and increase their skills especially when they have difficulty at the beginning and then they end making they’re high school team, playing college basketball or professionally. For example I have two girls right now, one is playing in England and the other in Germany “To see the joy they have and to see them accomplish their goal of playing professionally, I would sacrifice my dream of playing professional to see them play. The main thing is seeing kids live their dreams.”I call it: active dreaming, dreaming with you’re eyes wide open.”

On regrets, Cornell states that he regrets nothing about the path he has chosen or the circumstances he’s encountered, and that every step of the way has provided him with valuable life lessons. When asked if he could go back in time, before the injury and talk to his younger self. What would advise would he give young Cornell? His words of advise: “First, change your haircut!” and the second thing “Just start giving back more to other people and don’t loose your passion to write.”

Cornell defines success as “doing whatever you do everyday and being happy and giving back to others.” …”Success to me, is waking up everyday being happy and doing what I do, be it training kids, speaking, giving back to others, and affecting lives other than my own.”

When asked if he considers himself to be successful, Cornell answers with a resonating YES. He absolutely considers himself to have achieved success and states “There is not a day I don’t wake up excited for life!”…”I may not be in the tax bracket of the upper usher line, but I can say one thing, in terms of the tax bracket of the happiest people on the planet, I would put my happiness against mostly anybody’s, because everyday I wake up excited to tackle life!”

To learn more about Cornell visit the Power of Positivity website and blog at: powerofpositivity.net or follow him on twitter: @cornellthomas his book is available on Amazon: The Power of Positivity: Controlling Where the Ball Bounces.

In todays episode with Cornell you were able to capture that he is a very positive guy and always looks on the bright side of things. One of the things that I wanted to focus on was these questions that people ask when they face adversity. Like I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, Cornell had a career ending injury as a professional basketball player and he could have taken that and simply said “Why me?!” However, he was fortunate enough to have had a mother who always influenced him with positivity and reminded him that “Things happen for a reason.” and that there is a reason why this had happened to him and he understood that it was up to him to find out what that reason was. As you can tell his mission and his message of positivity flows from him and is based on his experiences. Experiences which he has been able to take from and mold towards his new career, to impact his students and everyone else interested in hearing his unique message of not asking themselves “Why me?!”, “Why is this happening to me?”, “What I have done?!” Instead look at the positive and ask “What can I learn from this?”, “How can I grow from this?” and “What do I do now?”

On the Defining Success Podcast we have interviewed a lot of people who have been on the show: Shark Tank, and we’ve also interviewed a lot of people who are involved or with the Shark Tank Show. One of those people has been Ray Ibarra who has recently written his book called “Conversations with Shark Tank Winners.” and he invited me out to the book launch of his new book, it’s a multi media book, it’s not just text, there’s video and there’s audio files as well. So I attend his book launch, it’s in Downtown LA, in a tall skyscraper at a banking institution. It was an very fancy place, everyone at the event was well dressed. The book launch event room was huge and the were people who had been on the show “Shark Tank” and were also promoting the book and there were people that were there wanting to learn about the experiences and had also been involved with the book. It was a great experience and I really want to thank Ray for inviting me to attend his book launch and I really have to say I had a blast!

I wan to thank you all for listening to the Defining Success Podcast it has been a real pleasure, definitely go on our Facebook page, comment, share, Like and communicate with us. We want to hear from you, what your thoughts are about our podcast and how we can make things better. Lastly, I want to leave you with one more thing which is: “Go out there and find your success!!”

Engaging Discussion Questions:

“What is your life purpose?”
“What is specifically your doing to help other people?”
“What is one of the most memorable things that has happened to you?”
“Looking back on the things you’ve done in your life, is there one thing that you regret or a mistake that you would like to share with us?
“If you could go back in time and give a younger version of yourself advise, what would that be?”
“What is your definition of success?”
“Do you consider yourself to be successful?”

Links to Great Stuff:

The Power of Positivity – “The Power of Positivity is not just Cornell’s story of perseverance; it serves as a how to guide that offers a practical approach to dealing with adversity, pushing past “CAN’T”, and focusing on solutions not problems. The ball is in your hands-you control where it bounces!!”
Crossroads Basketball – Crossroads Basketball was started in 2004 by Cornell Thomas. Cornell was two weeks away from playing professional basketball in Portugal when he suffered a career ending injury. Soon after the injury Cornell decided to devote his life to coaching the game of basketball. In 2004 he was hired as the head men’s basketball coach at Sussex County Community College.

Successful Quotes:

“Everything happens for a reason.”
“Don’t ask: Why me?! ask yourself: What now?”
“There is always someone, somewhere going through something a little worse than you.”
“10% of what happens to us the other 90% is how we deal with it.”
“Living your dreams is: active dreaming, dreaming with you’re eyes wide open.”
“Success to me is waking up everyday being happy and doing what I do, be it training kids, speaking, giving back to others, and affecting lives other than my own.”
“I may not be in the tax bracket of the upper usher line, but I can say one thing, in terms of the tax bracket of the happiest people on the planet, I would put my happiness against mostly anybody’s, because everyday I wake up excited to tackle life!”

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Episode 57: Blog Writing to Learn with Zeb Welborn

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I started my tutoring business back in 2009. I was very fortunate because my sister was learning how to build websites at the time and she built a website for The Tutoring Solution. 6 months of blog writing opened up my world. What many people don’t understand about social media is that it’s not just a sales and marketing tool, it’s also a learning tool and a communications tool which can make or break a business. Learn how you can use blog writing to learn.

Blog Writing to Learn by Zeb Welborn from The Tutoring Solution, Welborn Media and the Defining Success Podcast

The Tutoring Solution’s Blog

Erin Klein started her blog Kleinspiration with the intention of keeping her students and parents updated about her classroom. As she began to blog she started learning more and more about her profession because she was looking to create content for her blog. As her blog grew, she had a better understanding of the needs of her students and started to develop a reputation as a forward-thinking educator. Her blog eventually led to her being recognized by her school, then her district and has now been educating others on multiple subjects as it pertains to education. Erin was able to use her passion for blog writing and education to build a strong personal brand for herself.

Several years ago, I implemented the The Tutoring Solution’s Blog-Based Learning Program, designed to educate students by creating daily content for their own blog. While the blog-based learning program wasn’t successful, I still think the implementation of such an approach could have a great impact on those students who are passionate about a subject or a topic. The one student we had who enrolled in the program was thinking about becoming a veterinarian. Through her blog she was able to learn and discover what it took to become a veterinarian and learned some fascinating things as a result.

My recommendation to anyone looking to start a business would be to write a blog or create content (video, podcast) that will give them an opportunity to educate themselves on the topic and share what they’ve learned with others. By working to become an expert in the field and sharing new things you’re learning you can help create buzz for your business and establish and develop meaningful relationships which will help you along your career path.

The blog I started back in 2009 set the foundation for everything I have done since I started my business. My ideas have grown and I have been recognized as a thought leader in the industry. In education I began to be contacted to give presentations on motivation and helping to motivate students who were unmotivated. And I continue to learn through my blog writing through my various websites. For anyone who is looking to change careers or who is looking to do something they love writing a blog is an excellent place to start. If you’re not doing what you love, start creating content that will help you to develop an appreciation and an understanding of your field and learn along the way.

Learn more about how you can use blog writing to learn by listening to Episode 6 of the Defining Success Podcast titled, Blog Writing to Learn with Erin Klein from Kleinspiration.

Episode 56: Unique Selling Proposition | Jeff Krantz from KrantzTraining.com

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Jeff Krantz is helping build better businesses and better sales processes for businesses across the country. In this episode of the Defining Success Podcast, Jeff Krantz shares his expertise on developing a unique selling proposition and how you can use that to differentiate yourself in the marketplace and have your potential customers take notice.

Jeff Krantz lives each day with a deep sense of purpose. He integrates his contagious enthusiasm for sales performance with his experience of consulting Fortune 500 companies to deliver world-class training programs. His unique speaking and training style is not only fun and entertaining but is also saturated with proven strategies that send the participants of his seminars and keynotes away with far more than they expected.

Jeff Krantz

Jeff Krantz wasn’t always sought out and surrounded by executive groups; he comes from a humble background, growing up in his family’s small business, where his first inklings of entrepreneurship were shaped. He eventually left the family business and went on to a successful career as a Financial Advisor.

In the beginning he got in front of groups of people to educate them on investment principles It was during this time where he discovered his deep passion for what he wanted to do in life, which was stand in front of people and share meaningful ideas that were going to help them to succeed in what they did. That planted the early seeds and desire to migrate towards a career path, a professional endeavor that would allow him to do just that on a full-time basis.

He took that leap of faith and now has the privilege to share ideas to help people to be more successful in their sales rolls and also help organizations to deepen client loyalty and deliver a superior customer service experience.

He is a jack of all trades in the executive world doing trainings, coaching, consulting, and speaking as he helps organizations build better businesses, developing better sales processes and focus on customer service excellence. One area he focuses on is that each person or company has something to offer to each potential customer, the selling point is your uniqueness, what makes you, you.

Jeff explains the differences between the many hats he wears and services he offers in working with professionals and how there is a real art and science to delivering a dynamic workshop for adults. With Jeff’s specialty in the HR and sales world his presentations generally are focused on building customized programs or leading projects within the organization to positively impact the corporate culture of the company. Jeff is a trainer at heart, so most of the work he does is live classroom facilitation for sales audiences and customer service representatives.

Sales Rockstar: How Top Producers Perform

Jeff shared the use of rockstar was a metaphor for simply being the best at what you do. One of the things Jeff has seen through his own personal experience and witnessed in the lives of others is the people that are the most successful in life, personally and professionally, truly have discovered what it is they are the best at doing and employ that talent, gift or strengths in their professional endeavors.

Treat ’em Like a Rockstar

Jeff’s second book which the title continues with the same theme and more importantly one of the fun things about this book is it is not an everyday how to guide to deliver customer service. It has heart, it has motivation and some of the internal drivers needed that allow you to evoke employees to want to serve from within rather than just do what has to be done.

Jeff has heart and believes in serving. He is clear that when you serve someone, when you help someone, when you go that extra mile to really make their day and do something that is going to rock their world in a positive way, and do it sincerely, the results benefit us. We go home happier at end of the day if we serve wholeheartedly,

Obstacles are no stranger to Jeff. One that we all face and question ourselves is “Do I really have what it takes?” No matter how successful you’ve been, everybody faces that giant in their life. As did Jeff, when he went from leaving his small family business to being a financial advisor, but with confidence he drew from deep inside himself to rise to the occasion, and using that experience to help him when working with executives today.

Success for Jeff revolves around client relationships, working with the executive leaders of the company, HR leadership, the training managers to develop the solution that can be delivered, implemented and executed within the company that not only equips the employees with good information but positively impacts the culture of the organization,

A highlight in Jeff’s success was learning about a new industry and collaborating with executives to produce a highly tailored program that was a great value to the company that went on to win a publication excellence recognition.

Krantz Training

His advice for entrepreneurs is also his favorite quote from Confucius ‘Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.’ “After all, the most notorious an iconic CEO’s have a common denominator, these successful individuals; they all had a passion for what they did. The other side of that same coin is encouragement, don’t despise the days of humble beginnings.” Jeff continued to encourage with the message to not give up on the journey you have, to find that job you love so you don’t have to work a day in your life. The road to success, is not a clearly marked or easy road. Enjoy the journey and find what makes YOU remarkable – your unique selling proposition.

Engaging Discussion Questions:

How can we service those people we come in contact with every day?
What are we on Earth to do?

Links to Great Stuff:

Successful Quotes:

“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance…. Unless you have a lot of passion about this, you’re not going to survive. You’re going to give it up. So you’ve got to have an idea, or a problem or a wrong that you want to right that you’re passionate about; otherwise, you’re not going to have the perseverance to stick it through.”
“Forget your competitors, just focus on your customers.”

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Episode 55: An Entrepreneurial Mindset by Zeb Welborn

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In Episode 55 of the Defining Success Podcast we revisit the episode we did with Charlotte Clary of Ice Chips Candy and share what it means to have an entrepreneurial mindset.

Entrepreneurs continually take risks and fail but are able to sustain themselves while working to find businesses or products that help make them successful. The best entrepreneurs fail and fail often, but they always learn from their mistakes and work hard to make better business decisions and implement systems that will help them become more successful.

We analyze the difference between being an entrepreneur and an employee in an article titled, Do You Have an Entrepreneurial Mindset or an Employee Mindset on the Welborn Media website.

Listen to Episode 55 of the Defining Success Podcast to learn what it takes to have an entrepreneurial mindset.

Charlotte Clary and Beverly Vines-Haines

Episode 54: The Little Voice Within | Shelly Ehler from ShowNo

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Shelly Ehler is the passionate and inspiring owner of the ShowNo Towel. In her interview Shelly shares the lessons she has learned through her journey as an entrepreneur and how these have impacted her and continue to foster success in other professional and personal aspects of her life. She often refers to this internal guiding compass as the ‘Little Voice Within’.

Shelly Ehler

Shelly’s product the ShowNo Towel has been featured on the Today show and on the hit T.V. show Shark Tank. Shelly created the ShowNo Towel after experiencing a frustrating situation with her children at the community pool. The task of tending to a tantrum, while protecting both of her sons from the elements and maintaining their privacy culminated into a daunting task. It was also this moment that served as a catalyst for a brilliant concept. That night Shelley received an epiphany to create the ShowNo towel.

The ShowNo is a bath and beach towel for children, it’s a perfect cover up which can be worn as a poncho to keep warm and protected from the sun. It also serves a tent to change in and out of clothes under it’s privacy. At firsts Shelly was insecure as to whether her idea was “awesome or stupid”. She began by gifting the ShowNo towel to friends and family, who instantly validated the practicality of the product.

Shelly’s first big break for mass exposure was granted through the Today Show’s segment on “Moms with Good Ideas”. She was then contacted by the ABC network to appear on the reality T.V. show The Shark Tank. After pitching her product, she was the first entrepreneur on the show to be granted a $50,000 dollar check. Shelly discusses the aftermath of events and clarifies that the agreement is subject to renegotiation. In the final outcome, Shelly was not able to redeem the promised money. None the less she values her time on the show and is extremely thankful for the opportunity and proud to have achieved that platform and exposure for her product. Shelley describes her experience as “I know I wasn’t on Shark Tank to sell a towel, I was on there to sell hope and my journey has just started, I have a really awesome future ahead and I’m just getting started.” In the months after the show aired, a licensing opportunity was finalized with the largest towel manufacturer in the country. The Show No towel will begin to be distributed in the large licensed stores such as, Target, Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc. by Spring 2014.

Shelly Ehler

The experience has also propelled Shelly to pursue a career as an Author and Motivational Speaker around the country. Her focus is to spread the message of hope and following the Voice within, to trust it and allow it to guide you to your ultimate purpose. Shelley is a firm believer that the voice within has guided her to where she is now and that every single place and every single person encountered as a result has a special lesson.

On disappointment and overcoming obstacles; Shelly declares that the success she initially expected was not the same as she had pictured in her mind and was momentarily devastated. However she strongly reinforces the belief in one’s self and being prepared for a learning curve with starting a new business. There are a lot of lessons to be gained with experience and is extremely grateful for learning as she goes along. she explains and in retrospect Shelly states that she does not have any regrets and does not frustrate herself with the ‘what if’s’ is she had to do it all over again.

Ellen DeGeneres

Engaging Discussion Questions:

What business ideas have you come up with that you didn’t pursue?
Have you ever felt or heard that little voice within guiding you to greatness?

Links to Great Stuff:

ShowNo – “A ShowNo is a bath towel and beach towel that kids can use to dry off on their own. It’s the perfect coverup that can be worn like a poncho to keep children warm and protected from the sun. It can also be used as a changing towel so that kids can change their clothes underneath in privacy.”
Shark Tank – “The critically-acclaimed business-themed show, Shark Tank, has the Sharks continuing the search to invest in the best businesses and products that America has to offer. The show received a nomination for a Producers Guild Award in 2013. In 2012 “Shark Tank” received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Reality Program and a nomination for a Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Reality Series. The Sharks — tough, self-made, multi-millionaire and billionaire tycoons — will once again give budding entrepreneurs the chance to make their dreams come true and potentially secure business deals that could make them millionaires. They are: billionaire Mark Cuban, owner and chairman of AXS TV and outspoken owner of the 2011 NBA championship Dallas Mavericks; real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran; “Queen of QVC” Lori Greiner; technology innovator Robert Herjavec; fashion and branding expert Daymond John; and venture capitalist Kevin O’Leary.”

Success Quotes:

“The universe gives you what you’re ready to handle.”
“Money without fulfillment is hell.”
“The best thing that you could do for your business is to help another business.”
“I know I wasn’t on Shark Tank to sell a towel. I was on Shark Tank to sell hope. And my journey’s just started.”
“The best thing you can do that will take you the furthest in life is gratitude.”
“Success is when you are living a life where you achieve abundance and where you have found fulfillment.”

Special Requests:

Go out there and find your success!

ShowNo Towel

Episode 53: Personal Branding by Zeb Welborn

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Today, personal branding is extremely important for anyone looking to become successful. Communicating your value and what you can bring to others through your online presence is critical toward building your online reputation and making a difference.

In Episode 53 of the Defining Success Podcast we discuss how you can build your personal brand and how you can use your personal brand to achieve your goals. Our economy has changed and personal branding has become a huge component for people who are looking to make a name for themselves.

Perform a Google search on yourself and see what comes up. Are you happy with the way you’re represented? If you’re not happy then you can do something about it. Create your own content online and determine how people are talking about you and what they are saying about you online.

Personal Branding

Episode 52: Build a Following on Pinterest | Author Jason Miles

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Jason Miles has written six books and has been very active using social media on sites like Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube. Jason shares some insights on those social media platforms and how to set up your website to build a following on Pinterest.

Jason Miles

Jason Miles is a best selling author, VP of advancement at Northwest University, & Co-founder of Liberty Jane Clothing, in this podcast he will share his story of how him and his wife found the little niche everyone is looking for, and how they used social media to market their successful business.

Jason began a small at home business using his wife’s sewing skills creating doll clothes in 2008. In 2010 with the introduction of Pinterest his business “Skyrocketed”, and the word quickly got out. With this new demand in his product Jason Miles found another business opportunity in helping seamstresses that used his wife’s design patterns to sell their products on websites such as Pinterest, and Etsy.

Liberty Jane Clothing Logo

After starting the blog that helped his readers market and sell their products online, Jason was contacted by a author from New York that was interested in working with Jason, an expert on Pinterest, to write 3 books called Pinterest Power, Instagram Power, & Youtube Marketing Power. After his initial book contract with McGraw Hill, he launched a series of three self-publishing books 2 of which are #1 Best Sellers on the Kindle Market.

Pinterest Power & Instagram Power

“Instagram is a phenomenal tool for social media marketing, its like Twitter without words.” – Jason

Can you do direct marketing on Instagram? Will it result in traffic and sales? YES! Instagram has recently been utilized by businesses to promote a strong visual marketing campaign. By effectively combining two or three pictures into one, you can quickly grab the viewers attention and then present them with an offer. According to Jason another tactic is to use Instagram for free giveaways, this will not only grow your number of followers but also allow you to see the effectiveness of how Instagram affects your business.

Jason’s visual launch strategy includes using Instagram and Pinterest to create hype and buzz about new product launches. He releases sneak peaks of the new product he is creating, and once his followers can’t wait anymore he unleashes the products to them, creating lots of sales and revenue. A normal eBay auction has roughly a 100 visitors to the auction site, Jason’s eBay auctions have between 2500-3000 visitors to his auction, which tremendously drives up the sale price.

Some final words of advice from Jason Miles on Pinterest and Instagram

1. Pinterest – Don’t start on Pinterest, audit your own site, then utilize the PinIt tool to make sure the images that are used are effectively little ads, and have Pinterest do the rest.

2. Instagram – Have an editorial mission, take eye-catching images of your products in order to cater to your target audience, if done properly the images will work for themselves.

Jason Miles is currently a Senior Vice President of Advancement at Northwest he will be retiring in the next few months in order to focus all of his attention on his business. After having a 16 year career with a NPO charity and being a part of Northwest University for the past 4 years, Jason has finally achieved his long time dream of becoming a successful Entrepreneur. Social media has played a big part in his success by utilizing it as a strong marketing tool for his business.

As with any business its important to have a strong marketing campaign, social media will allow you to create one, just as it allowed Jason Miles to develop a small doll clothing business into a large brand. So use social media to go out there and find your success!

Engaging Discussion Questions:

How do you use Pinterest?
How do you use Instagram?
How do you use YouTube?

Links to Great Stuff:

Marketing on Pinterest – “We’ve built a thriving business based on my wife’s design talent. We’re working hard to dominate our categories, build long-term brand power and get insanely good at delivering our unique products.”
Liberty Jane Clothing – “Jason Miles is the co-founder and marketer at Liberty Jane Clothing. He has a graduate degree in Business Administration, and undergraduate degrees in both Organizational Management and Biblical Studies. By day he’s the Vice President for Advancement at Northwest University, which leaves the evenings and weekends available for all things Liberty Jane!”

Success Quotes:

“Instagram is a phenomenal tool for social media marketing, its like Twitter without words.”

Special Requests:

Interact with us on the Defining Success Podcast Facebook page

Episode 51: Explore Your Options by Zeb Welborn

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Explore your options! Business decisions can be the difference between failure and success. It is critical to the success of any business to make informed decisions. Taking action as an entrepreneur is great, but making informed decisions is even greater.

Many people have hired us for web design, because they did not know anyone else who did it. However, in some of those cases we were not the best option for them, because we were either too expensive for what they wanted, or we did not cater to the type of website design they were looking for.

Small businesses do not have time or funds to hire people. They do not spend the time interviewing multiple people; they will often hire the first person that comes through their door. But it is vital to have options and to make informed decisions.

At the beginning phases of my business I did not make many informed decisions. I chose the first option that came to me. However, I was lucky with the first person I hired because he worked out great. Nonetheless, I wasn’t able to pay him very well, so he did not stick around. I continued following that same hiring process, but I ended up with a bunch of losers, which cost valuable time, energy, and effort. Had I taken the time to do the interview process fully and completely, I would have saved myself a lot of time in the long run and I would have been much happier.

White Chocolate Mint Cake by Daisy Cakes.

In Episode 2 of the Defining Success Podcast, I spoke with Kim Nelson of Daisy Cakes. When Kim began her Daisy Cakes business, she was shipping her cakes across the country for more than double what she currently pays. Because she decided to explore her options, Kim went from paying $45 per shipment to $20 per shipment just by switching shipping companies.

That one business decision allowed her to lower her price point so she could reach more customers and increased her profit margin so she could make more money on the cakes she was selling.

An added bonus of exploring your options and talking to other people is that you become a more informed decision maker, you get a better understanding of what you are looking for, what you are not looking for, what fits best for your business, you get ideas on ways to improve and enhance your business, and you get to see what your competition is doing.

Another added bonus are negotiating points, not only will it help you a better understanding but it will also give you very valuable negotiating techniques with the companies you are doing business with, because you will understand what it costs, what it takes, so it will help your bottom line as a business.

It is important to explore your options. With major business decisions it is always important to give yourself an opportunity to analyze the effectiveness each option will bring you. In the long run, making effective business decisions from the options available to you could save you thousands of dollars and even save your business. Never overlook the importance of making informed business decisions.

If you explore your options when making important business decisions you can have your cake . . . and eat it too!

Zeb Welborn Eating a Daisy Cake

Speaker Zeb Welborn at Shark Boot Camp

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As you may recall, I was recently invited to speak at the Shark Boot Camp event held at the Balboa Bay Club on November 9.

The event was full of great guest speakers, including entrepreneurs who had appeared on the hit ABC TV Show Shark Tank, like Shelly Ehler from ShowNo Towels, Michelle Kapustka from SendaBall, Mike Robinson from Cuddletunes, Mona Weiss from Eco Nuts, Nick Romero from The Ave., Brandon Marz from Marz Sprays.

They also had numerous other speakers on business including Mike Cordes from Viral Booth, Peter Mehit author of Killer Business Plan, Aggie Kobrin from Funder Way, Rey Ybarra, author of Conversations with Shark Tank Winners and former Defining Success Podcast guest, Rey Ybarra, TJ Hale, host of the Shark Tank Podcast and former Defining Success Podcast guest, K.J. from Smartphone Trainers, and Dan Fowler from Red River Productions.

The speaking engagement provided me a great opportunity to interact with other fans of the show and share my expertise when it came to interacting and communicating with the guests who had been on the show itself. Plus, it’s always great to reconnect with others who have appeared on the Defining Success Podcast like Rey Ybarra and TJ Hale.

Another great benefit of the event was the new connections I was able to establish with the people who attended the event. One of our future episodes will include an interview with Shelly Ehler, the owner of ShowNo and several others who may make their way into the Defining Success Podcast.

I’d especially like to thank Aggie Kobrin for inviting me to the event and hope to be involved in future opportunities.

: Zeb Welborn at Shark Boot Camp

: Zeb Welborn and Rey Ybarra at Shark Boot Camp

: Rey Ybarra, TJ Hale and Zeb Welborn at Shark Boot Camp

: Rey Ybarra Author of Conversations with Shark Tank Winners

: Rey Ybarra and Zeb Welborn

: Zeb Welborn

: Zeb Welborn

: Being Introduced?

: Zeb Welborn

: Zeb Welborn Speaking

: Zeb Welborn

: Zeb Welborn Speaker

: Zeb Welborn

: Zeb Welborn

: Zeb Welborn

Episode 50: Bring Yourself Into Your Career | 4th Grade Teacher Karen Krupnick

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As a 4th Grade Teacher Karen Krupnick was an excellent teacher who always brought something of herself into the classroom. Her passion for teaching transferred itself to her students and, as a former student myself, know she changed the lives of her students. Learn how you can bring yourself into your career in Episode 50 of the Defining Success Podcast!

Karen Krupnick

Karen Krupnick was my 4^th grade elementary teacher. Karen Krupnick has been a teacher for 40 years and has taught over 1,200 students, including myself. She fostered the creativity of her students by teaching lessons that were outside of the box.

Karen had no idea she was going to be an educator. She graduated college as a French teacher and it took a while before she made a decision to become a teacher. A friend of Karen’s began teaching preschool and Karen decided to give it a try.

Teaching has changed completely from 40 years ago. When she first started, there was a lot of experimentation in the classroom. It was a time when you tried new things and when she left teaching it became a test-oriented environment.

State standards have changed the classroom many times over. The new common core is looking to change the way teaching is done. The one thing Karen enjoyed about teaching was that she was able to bring something of herself into the classroom (bring yourself into your career) and could teach her classroom in creative ways and now that is definitely not encouraged.

When Karen went into teaching most teachers said they went into education because they could share their passion with their students.

One of the most valuable things Karen learned about teaching was the never-ending progression of students. Because of their different gifts, Karen came to appreciate people in a whole different way. She found the uniqueness of the human being to be very interesting.

Karen loved teaching math and she learned many things she could bring to her students and she loved doing integrated units and bringing all subjects into these units.

The Great Race to Nome

The Iditarod is a sled-dog race in Alaska where somewhere around 100 dog-sledders make this long trip along Alaska and it was immediately fascinating to Karen that human beings do this. At the time Karen was first introduced to the race, there wasn’t a lot of stuff out there. Students could calculate averages, do mathematical equations, read on the subject, and communicate with participants in the Iditarod. As a result, Karen created curriculum and wrote a book on the subject which 1,000’s of teachers were using in their classrooms. Recently; however, the state standards have forced administrators to say that this was not important and were discouraging teachers from using it in the classroom.

As technology evolved, students could do live chats with the mushers. And students could also chat with classrooms that were located at checkpoints along the Iditarod trail.

Karen wishes people outside of education understood that the teacher’s job never stops at 3pm. And that they’ll never understand how much time teachers put into their job over the summers. It’s painful as a teacher that so many other professionals diminish the efforts of teachers and it would be nice if they only knew how much time, effort and commitment most teachers put into their job.

Being a member of the team to educate your child is extremely important. Making sure they’re doing their homework and understanding what goes on in your child’s day is very important. Good, quality parenting is always part of the education process.

One of the things Karen missed was picking up her kids at her line in the morning. She loved seeing their energy and feeling their energy and loved questions.

Karen Krupnick

Engaging Discussion Questions:

Should teachers bring a piece of themselves into the classroom?
What do you think is the best way to educate children?

Links to Great Stuff:

Iditarod.com – “It takes so much more than a field of willing mushers and anxious sled dogs to run the Iditarod Trail Race. With an annual budgetof almost two million dollars, the Iditarod Trail Committee depends on a hard working force of volunteers and supporters to raise the necessary money all year around. An annual sweepstakes isheld. Various items are sold at fairs and benefits. Banquets are planned in both Anchorage and Nome. This volunteer force and the loyal supporters from both the private and business sector make the race possible each year.”

Success Quotes:

“Success is being able to get up every morning and be glad that you’re going to your job.”
“If you love where you’re going and what you’re doing than you’re a success.”
“Be yourself and study the things that you love. Don’t choose what you study because of what anybody else tells you.”
“Be yourself. Bring something of yourself into your classroom.”
“A career goes home with you. A job, you leave behind at the office.”
“Good, quality parenting is always part of the education process.”

Special Requests:

Rate and Review the Defining Success Podcast in iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-success-podcast/id619459909

Board of Advisors for EZeeGolf

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As listeners of the Defining Success Podcast, you may remember Steve Fluke (Episode 45: Listen to Your Market). Steve was the owner of EZeeGolf. EZeeGolf is a golf club that can propel the ball without a traditional golf swing. The club acts more like a gun where you press a button and can hit your ball between 50 and 225 yards down the fairway.

The main goal of EZeeGolf is to help golfers who can no longer enjoy the game because of their physical limitations enjoy the great game of golf. By using this tool golfers who can no longer swing because of shoulder problems, disabilities, or old age can now still get out on the golf course and enjoy a round with their friends and family.

After our interview on the Defining Success Podcast, Steve and I have gotten to know each other much better, so much so that Steve invited me to be on the Board of Advisors for EZeeGolf. In my current position, I’ll be working with Steve to help increase and enhance the online and social media presence of EZeeGolf in a consulting role. If you haven’t checked out EZeeGolf, please do. You can visit their the EZeeGolf website, Facebook page, and/or YouTube page.

EZeeGolf

I’m really looking forward to working with Steve and EZeeGolf to help those individuals who enjoy the game continue to get out on the golf course and enjoy the experience with their families and friends.

If you have any ideas about how we can market and promote EZeeGolf, please let us know on the Defining Success Podcast Facebook page. We’d love to hear your thoughts about this new golf club!

Episode 49: Just Show Up! | Photographer Chris Carlson from the Associated Press

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Chris Carlson has done photography in more than 40 different countries covering some of the world’s greatest sporting and political events. He’s been involved in the business a long time but attributes his consistency and reliability to be one of the keys to his success. Learn how to just show up in Episode 49 of the Defining Success Podcast.

Chris Carlson has been a staff photographer at the AP in Southern California for the past 6 years, Prior to that, he has been on the staff of the Orange County Register where he shared a Pulitzer Prize for coverage. During his career, he has been on assignment in over 40 countries.

Chris’s family was in the newspaper business. Early on he realized his spelling was so bad that the only way he could stay in the newspaper business was by becoming a photographer. Like any field you get into, you have to hone your craft. Chris was very lucky to work with people who were very skilled. Many people took Chris under his wing and helped develop him into a world class photographer.

When Chris started in photography, there was a huge delay between the time he took a picture and the time he had it developed. In some cases it was several hours. Now, photographers know very quickly whether or not they have shot something great or not and they have the ability to take more if they are not happy with what they’ve shot. Twenty years ago photographers were not as lucky because if they took bad shots, they would not be able to recognize this until hours later and in some cases this meant the opportunity was gone for good.

In photojournalism, they have deadlines and now the deadlines have sped up excessively.

One thing that Chris thinks many people in photography may not realize is the way that professional photographers are able to effectively use lighting to create a better picture. The average person would be able to look at a picture and say it’s beautiful, but the professional photographer would be able to understand why the picture looks beautiful. A good photographer can take any situation and make it look like it was shot with photo studio lighting.

Some people get into journalism because they want to get into the world. Chris got into journalism because he wanted to see the world. Being a photographer has given Chris the opportunity to see how the world has unfolded before him.

One of the best assignments Chris ever had was the 2007 U.S. Open where Tiger Woods won in a 19 hole playoff and watching him make a put on the 18th hole to force a playoff was probably the most exciting thing he had ever seen. Watching the crowd react and watching Tiger’s reaction and seeing how competitive that day was was amazing. And he felt very fortunate that photography was the vehicle that gave him the opportunity to witness the experience in person.

A lot of pressure comes from being a photographer. Chris works hard to capture special moments, but sometimes many factors can contribute to the missing of a moment which can be lost and gone forever if he doesn’t capture it as it’s happening. The stress of capturing these events can be a burden. Over time the stress of having to capture that one moment can weigh on you a bit.

Chris attributes his success to luck, good decisions, hard work and sometimes, no matter how hard you try, something happens that you couldn’t plan for and in his case he feels very lucky. Somebody once told Chris that a key to success is just showing up. If you show up and do work you’re already ahead of your competition. He looks at his colleagues that are very successful, he sees that it’s because they have a very strong work ethic.

One of the biggest mistake Chris has made was that he didn’t know if he enjoyed it enough in his time. He wonders if when he retires if he’s going to say that he enjoyed it enough while he was doing it.

Working at the Associated Press, Chris feels fortunate that they cover big stories and the one event Chris wants to go to that he hasn’t yet is the Masters Golf Tournament. Every year Chris covers the Kraft-Nabisco women’s golf tournament events which conflicts with the Masters, but he hopes he can make it to the Masters.

Chris has done countless brush fires, earthquakes, civil unrest. He was on the presidential campaign with President Obama and he’s done the Iowa Caucus and recommends that if anyone has an interest in politics that they should visit Iowa during that time because they are all very knowledgeable about politics.

If you’re interested in becoming a photographer you need to decide what kind of photography you’d like to do and then position yourself to be able to do that. Sometimes it means starting at the high school level and hone your skills to build up to the big time. Photography is incredibly competitive and in order to be successful you must love photography and if you have a good work-ethic, you’ll have a chance to be a good photographer.

When they started introducing digital cameras, your competition grew and the ability to make a living in photography is a lot tougher than it used to be.

Engaging Discussion Questions:

What does it take to make a great picture?
How important do you think being reliable is to business?
Would people say you just show up?

Links to Great Stuff:

AP Images – “AP Images gives you access to the world’s largest collections of historical and contemporary photographs, so you have all the imagery you need, right when you need it. AP’s timely, powerful and informative images cover topics ranging from breaking news and sports to business, entertainment, weather, fashion, travel, royalty-free, rights-managed, microstock and more. You can purchase the images you need immediately on our site or set up a subscription service with your sales representative. And with our new API delivery method, you get images in a more flexible, fast and reliable way, within your own interface. AP’s Assignment & Publicity Services is also ready to assist you with start-to-finish planning, execution and distribution for all your promotional needs.”

The International Center of Photography – “The International Center of Photography (ICP) is the world’s leading institution dedicated to the practice and understanding of photography and the reproduced image in all its forms. Through our exhibitions, educational programs, and community outreach, we offer an open forum for dialogue about the role images play in our culture. Since our founding, we have presented more than 500 exhibitions and offered thousands of classes, providing instruction at every level. ICP is a center where photographers and artists, students and scholars can create and interpret the world of the image within our comprehensive educational facilities and archive.”

MSNBC – Pictures of the Week – “NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and visually engaging stories on your platform of choice. NBC News Digital features world-class brands including NBCNews.com, tv.msnbc.com, TODAY.com, theGrio.com, NBCLatino.com, NBCPolitics.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Rock Center, Dateline, Newsvine, Breaking News, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties. We provide something for every news consumer with our comprehensive offerings that deliver the best in breaking news, segments from your favorite NBC News shows, live video coverage, original journalism, lifestyle features, commentary and local updates. NBC News Digital reaches an audience of more than 58 million unique visitors who generate more than 1.2 billion page views and 140 million online video streams each month.”

New York Times – Lens Blog – “Photography, Visual and Video Journalism.”

Success Quotes:

“Success is balancing my career, my family life, my social life and my future.”
“I got into journalism because I wanted to see the world.”
“The one thing that separates amateur photographers from professional photographers is the way they handle light.”
“Photography is about capturing the moment.”

Special Requests:

Engage with us on Facebook, Twitter and leave reviews on the Defining Success Podcast in iTunes.

Zeb Welborn to Speak at Shark Boot Camp

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Honored to have been chosen to be a speaker at the Shark Boot Camp Event being held this Saturday, November 9 in Newport Beach. Because I have interviewed several of the entrepreneurs who have appeared on the Shark Tank I’ll be on a panel where we’ll discuss how entrepreneurs can utilize bloggers, podcasters and bloggers to help promote their business.

Because I’ll be presenting, I have the opportunity to offer discounted pricing for this Shark Boot Camp Event. If you’re interested in attending for half-price please visit Zeb Welborn’s Shark Boot Camp Half-Priced Tickets.

Shark Boot Camp

The hit TV show has created overnight success and new ventures along with provided REAL LIFE learning for business owners.

Shark Tank, one of the most popular and successful reality television shows over the past four years, has been a launch pad for almost 250 new or expanding businesses. Season five recently started with some new combinations of Sharks on the panel joining the feeding frenzy.

On Saturday, November 9, from 9:00am till 5:00pm the largest gathering of alumni will share their experiences of being on the show and becoming an “overnight success.” This will be the second reunion held in Orange County and a sell out crowd is expected.

The TV panel of Sharks, all with a net worth in excess of $100 million, team with small to medium sized businesses that are seeking capital or strategic partnerships. This local all-day Boot Camp will provide panel discussion with alumni from the show along with individual presentations on what “worked”, what didn’t work, ideas of how to get on the show and getting picked (a Special Report of those tips is available at www.sharkbootcamp.com), plus presentations on guerilla marketing, social media and working with blogs. A real-world pitch session will be presented to real-world investors and the audience will be able to critique and learn from the contestants.

Local celebrity contestants including Shelly Ehler with ShowNo towels (www.showno.com), who will speak about the lessons learned both in businesses as well as life. Shelly’s “pitch” has been aired five times, and has been one of their most popular segments.

The all day admission fee is $97 and VIP packages are available for $147 which include personal one on one conversations and coaching from the alumni as well as a MasterMind lunch session. A portion of all registration fees will be shared with the Special Olympics in Orange County. The location will be at the Balboa Bay Club on Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach.

For more information about me and the speaking engagement, please visit the Speakers Page for the Shark Boot Camp Event and for half-priced tickets, please visit Zeb Welborn’s Shark Boot Camp Half-Priced Tickets.

Zeb Welborn

Episode 48: Tap Into an Existing Audience | Shark Tank Podcast Host – TJ Hale

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In Episode 48 of the Defining Success Podcast, TJ Hale, host of the Shark Tank Podcast shares how he got the idea for starting his podcast and why he decided to name his show the Shark Tank Podcast. Learn how you can tap into an existing audience to build a larger audience faster in this episode.

TJ Hale

TJ Hale is host of the Shark Tank Podcast. The Shark Tank Podcast is a place where you can come and listen to entrepreneurs tell the whole scoop. Details regarding their business, what really happened on the show, failures, setbacks, big wins, and in some cases what its like partnering with a multi-millionaire/billionaire investor.

TJ Hale was a commercial real estate broker and did some really big deals in the real estate business and when the economy changed he changed he knew he needed to change directions. He then moved into the tech arena and as he was working in the tech business, a good friend of his was experimenting with some online marketing. His friend continued to come up with ideas, but they never lasted very long and TJ kept making fun of him for his many failed ventures and his friend challenged him, asking him to give it a try. They then decided to hold each other accountable.

TJ began by doing research and learned that he thought he was best suited for podcasting. He then Googled how to do a podcast and decided to start the Shark Tank Podcast with its built-in audience and became very successful early on. By learning how to tap into an existing audience, TJ set himself up for success.

The Shark Tank Podcast was chosen by TJ because he knew that any online venture would take time before he could be seen as an expert . . . unless he could tap into an existing audience. He knew that by tapping into the audience of the Shark Tank he could be successful from the beginning.

TJ has learned a lot since he started his podcast. One of the things he’s been most amazed by is the willingness of people to provide information and to be helpful. One story he recalls comes from Cliff Ravenscraft who discusses about a podcast he started around the T.V. Show Lost. The first season he invited some friends over to watch the show and the next season he had to rent out a hotel ballroom in order to meet the demand for a viewing party. TJ likes talking to people and there is something about podcasting that he had a large enough impact that people were willing to buy a plane ticket to fly out to attend his viewing parties.

One thing TJ would change about his progress so far would be getting involved in Facebook. Early on he was very anti-Facebook, but he quickly learned that it was a great tool to connect with his listeners. TJ didn’t start on Facebook until a month ago and he’s glad he did because it changed his whole universe.

If you’re a beginning business person you need to talk to experts. Social media makes it so easy to connect with people.

TJ came from a family that was very skeptical and many people who are using social media are using it in a very sales promotional way which is not how social media should be used, but it turns many people off. When done the right way, social media can have tremendous benefits to any business.

The Shark Tank Podcast started it during Season 4 and this is the first season that he’s been able to interview people as soon as they’ve come off their show. He’s able to ask a lot of great questions to entrepreneurs about their experiences on the show.

The podcast features Shark Tank entrepreneurs and many people who are successful in the Shark Tank of life. The key to success is to continue striving right at the time of success. We focus on many of the negatives and the whole goal is to make us people of significance and not of success.

One of the coolest things that has come about because of the Shark Tank Podcast is that there are now numerous projects starting up to help small business owners. They are now trying to do community level Shark Tank events called the Guppy Tank and they’re doing all sorts of similar shows with many local people involved in the show. The compounding effect on small business is incredible.

There is a lot of great info to help people start a podcast because there are a lot of unknowns. If you plan on starting a podcast, you need a good microphone, but the rest you can do very inexpensively.

TJ Hale

Engaging Discussion Questions:

What existing audiences are available that you could tap into for your business?
What Facebook pages do you think are done extremely well?
What’s the best power connection you’ve made through social media?

Links to Great Stuff:

The Shark Tank Podcast – TJ Hale is the host of the Shark Tank Podcast. Shark Tank is the best reality show on T.V. & a great way for entrepreneurs to get valuable insight from extremely successful sharks. TJ helps take the Shark Tank experience to take the next level on the Shark Tank Podcast.
Cliff Ravenscraft – My goal is to help you create valuable and engaging podcasts that are so compelling that people will want to engage with you and your brand. Allow me to help you save hours, weeks, months or even years of research. Having the correct equipment and using it in the right way determines not only the quality of your podcasts, but how well your podcast converts listeners into subscribers and creates an engaged community.

Success Quotes:

“Success is that I’m the one who determines my own level of control in my life and I don’t surrender that to anyone else.”
“The nice thing about a podcast is that people do trust you.”
“If you’re thinking about doing something, just go out and do it. The worst that can happen is you screw up. Big deal.”
“If you want to be someone who is not just successful but also significant you’re going to put the time in offering value before you get anything in return.”
“You’re best thinking got you to where you are today.”
“People have great ideas all day long. It’s the one they choose to execute and how they choose to execute them that determines their success.”
“So many people are using social media the wrong way it gave me a bad taste in my mouth. It’s been incredibly valuable using it the right way.”
“I didn’t start on Facebook until a month ago . . . it’s changed my whole universe.”
“You’re offering it for free . . . you’re not selling it. You become someone they trust and like to associate with.”
“You’re someone they’re willing to put in their ears while they’re blasting their pecs at the gym.”
“If you’re going to start an online venture, it’s going to take you a while to become established as an expert if you don’t already have that customer base built-in.”
“In the Google Age you can teach yourself to do just about anything.”

Shark Tank Podcast