Tag Archives: Defining Success Podcast

Episode 60: Golf is Social | Kevin Flanagan President of USGLL

Golf is social. Kevin Flanagan is the President of the USGLL which is a golf league for juniors. Kevin talks about the social aspects of golf and how golfing can help bring people together. Learn how Kevin is helping to grow golf by listening to Episode 60 of the Defining Success Podcast.

Kevin Flanagan

USGLL, Inc, is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing national team competition for young golfers. Since 2008, their Team Match Play format offers boys and girls, ages 6 to 18, the opportunity to compete at all levels. Players receive instruction in the etiquette and rules of golf, learn mutual respect and teamwork and develop important social skills. These relationships and sense of integrity are a solid platform that will last them the rest of their lives.

Kevin was in the trade show and transportation industry for over 20 years. Once he retired he decided to get involved in golf and became a teaching professional. He realized that a lot of young golfers were leaving the game. He approached the city and said he wanted to start a golf little league and they worked on a way to figure out how to manage it.

The USGLL opened in April 2008 and now Kevin is running the business and the USGLL is growing rapidly.

The USGLL is trying to get more and keep more kids in the game of golf. We’re targeting the 85 – 95% of the kids who haven’t had the opportunity to expose kids to the game. The matchplay format helps young kids and parents understand the game.

One of Kevin’s mentors, Tom Addis, the president of the Southern California PGA and a former president of the PGA. And he asked “What are you going to do to grow the game?” Kevin really took that to heart and he decided to start this junior program.

The biggest obstacle Kevin faced was missing out on money that was promised to him before the economy tanked in 2008 for the USGLL. He then committed to multiple programs and faced a lot of roadblocks due the economy. Currently, other programs have started up which are similar to Kevin’s, but they’re taking away from the focus of the USGLL.

Kevin is always looking for sponsors to see how they can make golf affordable for some of the parents. Some companies realize if they get a kid interested in golfing when they are young that there is a lot of potential for their businesses.

When Kevin was in business, you could decide on the golf course whether you wanted a guy to go in business with. It’s a sport that all ages and all groups can play together.

The first child that teed off in the USGLL program in 2008. He made multiple All-Star teams and lost his father last year. They mentored him in the program and the child is going to be their first inductee into the USGLL Hall of Fame. Another girl, who’s a freshman is playing in the finals in High School.

The national website is being changed over so it will be a lot easier for golfers to get in. Parents can go to the USGLL.org to work to set up a golfing program for younger golfers.

Kevin Flanagan

Engaging Discussion Questions:

How important do you think being social can help a business?
Do you think golf is social?

Links to Great Stuff:

USGLL – “Our national strategy endeavors to increase our footprint from coast to coast, in all 50 states. Along with the USGA, PGA, LPGA and the NGCOA, we are committed to increasing youth involvement in the game of golf throughout the U.S., its territories, and, eventually, internationally.”

Success Quotes:

“Success is finding something and someone that you love to do and be with all the time.”
“The motto of the USGLL is teamwork, respect and integrity.”
“Girls can now compete with the boys at this level.”
“(The USGLL) started on a paper napkin after a golf lesson.”
Between golf courses and golf players, we’re losing (golfers) left and right.

USGLL

Episode 59: The Best Teachers Listen with Zeb Welborn

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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 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 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

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.”

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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.

The Kingdom Net: Learning to Network Like Jesus

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The Kingdom Net: Learning to Network Like Jesus by Dr. Joseph Castleberry was recently made available and we’re excited to give the listeners of the Defining Success Podcast the opportunity to check it out.

If you’re interested in learning about marketing or becoming a marketing expert, it’s important to learn from the best. Jesus used networking not for his own selfish needs but to be of service to others. Dr. Joseph Castleberry explores the necessities of networking and how you can use it to apply to all aspects of your life in his new book.

The greatest networker in history was Jesus Christ. Beginning with a team of three close friends and a dozen followers, He created an organization that today has over 2 billion members.

Jesus networked for a single purpose: to introduce people to the kingdom of God. No product, service, or personal friendship can meet the needs of people more completely than ushering them into God’s rule. Jesus used networking to deliver to humanity the highest level of service that anyone has ever offered.

Regardless of your line of work, adopting the Jesus style of networking can take your life and career to a new level. By networking His way, you can achieve greater success in your career or professional life. You can enhance your personal life through building more and better friendships. You can find more significance in your life by ratcheting up the level and breadth of service you provide to others. Learning to network like Jesus will help you make the most of your life for God and for others.

The Kingdom Net

Episode 47: Network Like Jesus | Author Dr. Joseph Castleberry

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Dr. Joseph Castleberry shares his experience networking and connecting with new people in a variety of locations over his career. In his new book, The Kingdom Net: Learning to Network Like Jesus, he shares how Jesus was able to network and how you can network like Jesus for your business or career. Learn to network like Jesus in Episode 47 of the Defining Success Podcast!

Dr. Joseph Castleberry

Joseph Castleberry is the president of Northwest University. He enjoys writing, and his second popular book, The Kingdom Net: Learning to Network Like Jesus, launches in August, 2013. A native of Alabama, he came to the Pacific Northwest after a transcultural career that took him and his family to New Jersey, New York City, Texas, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador, and Missouri before his soft landing on the banks of Lake Washington.

Dr. Joseph Castleberry started attending school at a very young age and at five years old, he knew that he had a strong connection with God and religion and he’s always been that way.

When Joseph was 12 years old he attended a camp and one student told everyone that God had called on him to preach and it really got his attention. Joseph then prayed to God and said that was what he wanted to do and from then on he began preaching. A few years later he came to his mother and knew that he wanted to preach to intellectual people.

He also had a strong calling to aid in poverty in Latin America and at 15 he traveled to Honduras and experienced the poverty in the area. Honduras was the poorest country in the hemisphere that year and he saw real human misery up close. He was amazed at the power of faith to help lift people up out of trouble, misery and poverty and he felt strongly attracted to Latin America.

In college, Dr. Castleberry fell in love with scholarship. He took Greek and Hebrew and began studying the Bible from a critical perspective and an academic perspective and felt a strong desire to become a professor.

At 21, a family tragedy struck and he was praying to God and he sensed God’s promise to him that he would some day be a college president. His first full-time job was a chaplain at Princeton University.

He then went to El Salvador as a missionary and taught classes at the University and planted a church in front of the Naitonal University and spent 20 years as a missionary in El Salvador, Ecuador and all over the Latin American region.

He had finished his doctorate from Columbia University during that time and came back as the academic dean in Missouri and five years later he was elected as the president of Northwest University in Washington.

One of my gifts was my ability to make friends and to keep them. And I had an ability to connect people to be able to help others become better.

Joseph had a strong desire to work with intellectuals and make a difference in the lives of poor people. He came from a poverty stricken family and he was the first person in his family to go to college and he had a connection with people who were struggling with poverty.

He spent his career in his academy and the other half of his time he spent building churches. The Latin American professional class is a delightful group of people with a hopeful view of the people. As a pasteur he was always good at getting them involved in helping poor individuals across Latin America.

As a pasteur in Ecuador, he started a church in a gated community, but the truth is that church had so many different ethnic groups and so many different socio-economic backgrounds. It was a really interesting mixture of people.

If you build your church around the culture of poor people, you will only reach poor people. If you build a church for the upper-middle class, you can reach everyone.

Joseph Castleberry came to Northwest University to be the president of the University and he didn’t know a soul when he moved there. He had no network at all and had to start meeting people really fast.

He joined rotary clubs and local organizations and he made friends and started developing more connections in his community.

If you look at Jesus’ own networking methods the very first people who he called upon were fishermen. He called upon them because fishermen were great networkers because they knew how to catch the fish, get them inland and then learned how to sell them. So they had experience at getting a product to market.

People think of networking as if someone is trying to get something from themselves. All of the networking Jesus did was seeing how he could serve other people. When people recognize that you have a heart of service, that’s where business is the most elegant.

There is good business and bad business. The person who does business in order to take advantage of people, they wind up paying the price in other ways because life is more than how much money you have.

Dr. Joseph Castleberry

Engaging Discussion Questions:

What do you think of business people?
What can you do to network like Jesus?
What are you doing to serve people?

Links to Great Stuff:

The Kingdom Net – “Jesus came to proclaim the Kingdom of God; he built the Kingdom Net to keep the word and work of God spreading.”

Success Quotes:

“Success means achieving the purpose for which you’re in the world.”
“The most dignified label a person can wear is employer.”
“Human beings need a purpose and a mission. They need something to accomplish and if they don’t have accomplishments, it’s impossible for them to be happy.”
“Nothing has ever taken anything from poverty to prosperity except by business.”
“If you’re going to be successful, it’s not going to come at the cost of your integrity, conscious and dignity.”
“The person who does business like a snake has to pay the penalty of being the snake.”
“Life is more than how much money you have.”
“Network with people in order to serve them.”
“Jesus was a master at working together with other people.”
“No one can buy into a message unless it’s marketed.”
“Why did Jesus choose fishermen to be their first disciples? They were networkers.”
“The greatest commandment is to love the lord your God with all your heart and then your neighbor as yourself.”
“Every person who has submitted themselves to the rule of God has entered the Kingdom of God.”
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a net that was thrown into the world.”
“You currency does not go farther than your set of relationships. Your influence can not go further than your network.”
“Networking is connecting people who had something to offer with people who need things.”
“Any career is highly dependent on your ability to create connections.”
“No career could have been more in tune with who I am as a person.”
“I believed that God was leading me the whole way and I was always obedient to God’s purposes for me were.”

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

Dr. Joseph Castleberry

Episode 46: Real-Time Marketing | Author David Meerman Scott

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David Meerman Scott is a marketing strategist, advisor to emerging companies, best-selling author of eight books including three national best-sellers, and a professional speaker on topics including marketing, leadership, and social media. In Episode 46 of the Defining Success Podcast, David shares his ideas on real-time marketing and how you can use real-time marketing to help your business grow.

David Meerman Scott

David Meerman Scott wrote the New Rules of Marketing and PR and he’s helping businesses understand how the marketing world has shifted to giving and receiving instant feedback so you can be found online. In Episode 46 of the Defining Success Podcast, David Meerman Scott talks about Real-Time Marketing and its implication for the future.

David’s first job was at a Wall Street Street Bond Trading desk which he hated. He then began selling economic services to traders and he learned that he was really doing more marketing than he was selling. He then got a job in marketing for a company called Knight Ridder and he’s been a marketer ever since.

In 2002, David Meerman Scott worked for the News Edge Corporation was acquired by Thompson-Reuters and he was an officer and was asked to leave because they didn’t need the management team going forward and it gave him an opportunity to see what he wanted to do moving forward. At 39, he realized he could do some consulting on his own and in 2005, his second book was called Cashing in With Content and his most well-known book is the New Rules of Marketing and PR which has sold 300,000 copies.

Since 2007, David has been earning his income on the speaking market. He drifted from one point to another. David wasn’t afraid to do things that others said would be a mistake. And these events all worked out great for him. In 2002 when David decided to start his own thing and many people looked down on people who started their own businesses because it was seen as if you couldn’t find a real job.

Each of the things that paid off the most were risks that Scott took.

The old rules of marketing and PR were that you either had to buy attention for your business or yourself in the form of advertising, you had to convince media outlets to write about you or you had to reach customers individually through direct selling. The new rules of marketing and PR is the idea that on the web there are millions of people who are looking for things online to buy or do and they go to search engines or they ask their friends, colleagues and social networks. The organizations and the people that create the best content will be the ones that show up in search engines and the more likely friends are to share them.

The New Rules of Marketing & PR Fourth Edition

The New Rules of Marketing and PR is about how to create content. World Wide Rave is another book by David Meerman Scott and in the last year, David has made his book completely free, and to get it search for World Wide Rave. David wrote another book called Real-Time Marketing and PR. When people are making purchasing decisions, they are doing it right now and his book is designed to show how to engage people in real-time. Most companies and organizations are focused on campaign marketing and most companies are doing that exclusively.

The idea of marketing is switching it around from doing it when a business is ready to when the customers are ready. News Jacking is the art and science of turning your ideas into a news story. It provides really cool ideas on how you can create something that people will see because you’re piggy-backing off of a breaking news story.

David gives 35 speeches a year all over the world. This month, David is traveling to Cairo and Cutter and he’ll be gone for six days. In November, he’s traveling to Buenos Aires and Istanbul.

The biggest mistake David sees companies make is that they talk about themselves way too much. And that doesn’t work in today’s world.

It’s very important to create content on the web. To have a great website, to have real-time content around that website, whether it’s a blog or YouTube videos and it’s important to put yourself out there on the web and through social networking.

Facebook has only been open since 2007. Twitter has only been around since 2007. It’s important for businesses to understand what this means for them and their future.

David Meerman Scott

Engaging Discussion Questions:

Do you interact with your customers in Real-Time?
Are you creating content on the web? If so, how?

Links to Great Stuff:

David Meerman Scott – “David’s book The New Rules of Marketing & PR opened people’s eyes to the new realities of marketing and public relations on the Web. Six months on the BusinessWeek bestseller list and published in 26 languages from Bulgarian to Vietnamese, New Rules, now in its 4th edition, is a modern business classic. Scott’s popular blog and hundreds of speaking engagements around the world give him a singular perspective on how businesses are implementing new strategies to reach buyers.”

Success Quotes:

“Success is creating a path that allows you to enjoy life.”
“Social media is about engaging people.”
“Social media is about listening.”
“Social media is about sharing the content you create elsewhere.”
“The way that people are solving other people’s problems on the web.”
“No matter what you’re doing you’re gaining incredible knowledge, you’re learning and interacting with people.”
“Everything that I’ve done all pointed me to where I am now so I don’t have any regrets.”
“Create the content that will be valuable to the people you’re trying to reach.”
“You need to be helpful on the web that will be beneficial to people.”
“The New Rules of Marketing and PR is the idea that on the web there are millions of people who are looking for things online to buy.”
“It’s the organizations and the people that create the best content that generate the higher search engine results and promoted in social networks.”
“The New Rules of Marketing and PR is that the better your content is the more attention you drive to yourself and to your business.”
“If you’re blogging, creating videos and active on social networks than you’re more likely to get noticed than someone who isn’t.”
“I enjoy helping people and being able to interact with people and share ideas.”
“I wasn’t scared to do things that people actually told me were a mistake.”

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Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, of by leaving reviews on our iTunes page! Find us anywhere by searching for the Defining Success Podcast!

Bunkers Paradise Charity Golf Tournament at San Dimas Canyon Golf Course

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Bunkers Paradise held their first annual Bunkers Paradise Charity Golf Tournament for the Special Olympics of Southern California at San Dimas Canyon Golf Course on Sunday, October 13.

For a first year tournament, Bunkers Paradise had close to 50 golfers playing for the Special Olympics of Southern California, including two previous guests of the Defining Success Podcast, Ken Lee (Episode 9) and Kate Hughes (Episode 26).

Ken Lee is the Editor-in-Chief of Bunkers Paradise and worked with San Dimas Canyon Golf Course to help put on the event. Welborn Media and 19th Hole Media are currently working with San Dimas Canyon Golf Course on their social media presence. Check out the San Dimas Canyon Facebook page to see how we can help build and grow the online presence of any golf course. Surprisingly enough, with the help of Gary Christman, Kenny Donovan and Mike Quiroz, the Welborn Media and 19th Hole Media ended up shooting a 14-under par to tie for the lead at the tournament and each of us won brand new Cleveland XL Drivers thanks to the folks at Bunkers Paradise.

Kate Hughes was in attendance as a contributor to Bunkers Paradise and an advocate of the Special Olympics and golf. All in all, the tournament was a great success and we were happy to be a part of it! Even happier that we ended up winning the first ever Bunkers Paradise Charity Golf Tournament!

Sushant Misra from TrepTalks.com Interviewed Me!

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I was recently interviewed by Sushant Misra from TrepTalks.com.

Sushant Misra

“Sushant Misra is an entrepreneurship evangelist, accomplished serial entrepreneur, dynamic speaker, published author, syndicated columnist, and philanthropist. Sushant is best known for founding and hosting Trep Talks, a web based video interview show featuring successful digital entrepreneurs. Sushant is also an experienced eCommerce professional. He is the founder of Yogamatstore.com and has helped Canadian retail giant Hudson’s Bay grow their eCommerce business. Sushant is a seasoned Yoga and Energy practitioner and has lived in 4 countries on 3 continents. – See more at: http://treptalks.com/about/#sthash.0lOJivHD.dpuf”

I had a great time being interviewed by Sushant as he asked me how I made the decision to get into business for myself and my progression as a business owner to where I am at today. Sushant has interviewed many successful entrepreneurs, including Tim Ferriss, author of the 4-Hour Work Week.

I’d love for you to check out the interview and leave your feedback for Sushant and share your thoughts on the article with us on the Defining Success Podcast Facebook page!

Check out TrepTalks.com, tell Sushant Zeb sent you and listen to my interview with Sushant titled, How A High School History Teacher Started A Successful Social Media Business? – Zeb Welborn

“Zeb Welborn is the President of Welborn Social Media and The Tutoring Solution. He helps passionate business owners become successful by harnessing the power of the Internet to reach more potential customers and develop stronger relationships with current customers. Zeb is also the founder and host of Defining Success Podcast.

For more information about Zeb Welborn, visit Welborn Social Media, or email him directly – Zeb@WelbornSocialMedia.com“

Episode 43: New Businesses Must Set Goals | Will Mitchell from StartupBros

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Will Mitchell is a serial entrepreneur. Learn from Will why new businesses must set goals in order to become successful. Learn how Will has implemented goal setting in his businesses to build more effective, successful companies.

Will Mitchell, StartupBros, Zeb Welborn, Defining Success Podcast, Businesses Must Set Goals, Entrepreneur

Will Mitchell from StartupBros

Will Mitchell is the owner and co-founder of StartupBros. He has been an internet entrepreneur since he started skipping school to build businesses in the 6th grade. After numerous business engagements at 22. Will launched StartupBros, a community for aspiring entrepreneurs to learn from like-minded people.

Will started skipping school to start businesses when he was way too young. He had a lot of failures and through his failures he has achieved some success. Will became interested in business at 12 or 13 years old and he started skipping school because he became disenchanted with it. He saw a lot of potential in business and he knew that was where he wanted to be.

When he was younger, Will started importing goods from China and became very successful until China banned the exporting of the product he was importing. He then went on to start a business called FashionBidder.com, an eBay for fashion, which didn’t go very well. He the started a clothing company which also didn’t go very well.

The realization that came to him which helped him overcome his business failures was that he realized that he needed to create value for other people which he wasn’t doing with his previous businesses. All the business ideas he had that failed were ideas that he thought were cool, but they weren’t ideas that would help anyone.

StartupBros are trying to help as many new entrepreneurs as possible. They are pulling in people who were successful on their own and they take their knowledge and break it down to see what they would have done if they could start all over again.

Will has some clients that they help one-on-one, a mastermind that will help students, a new book that they’re hoping to sell and they’re offering a new product on how to import services.

The #1 thing Will would tell people is to create value for people first and foremost and then learn to create ways to make money off of the value you’re giving to others.

The biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make online is because they don’t actually know where they go or what they are trying to accomplish as they are working. Knowing where he wants to be in 5 years and 10 years helps him become more consistent. Businesses must set goals in order to be successful.

Will has set goals at different times of his life. He wants to get StartupBros to the point where they can continually teach entrepreneurs how to succeed.

Will works with entrepreneurs in a one-on-one scenario, but he’s hoping to convince more people to connect with the products and services he’s offering through StartupBros.

The biggest mistake Will had was losing his business focus. He considered going into politics and it made him very cynical. Learning to not let the world impact him as much has made him a better person.

Will was involved in a company called influence.org which went public and he was very happy about that. StartupBros is the first business project that is connected with his personality and he’s very proud of what he built.

Will Mitchell

Engaging Discussion Questions:

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?
What do you think it takes to be an entrepreneur?

Links to Great Stuff:

StartupBros – “The only way to achieve success and freedom from corporate machine is to READ OUR BLOG POSTS! Well, maybe that’s a lie… but really, you need to learn how to leverage your knowledge and the knowledge of others and turn it into value and a cash income.”
Affluence.org – “Affluence is a private social network where accomplished individuals connect, share information, and engage in meaningful conversations. Our members also enjoy exclusive, high-quality content and feature advice from industry experts on subjects such as art, technology and travel.”

Success Quotes:

“As entrepreneurs you have to force yourself to live outside of the world around you.”
“That’s a big disconnect is being able to connect the value you create and the money you make.”
“Success is accomplishing a goal.”

Special Requests:

Rate and Review the Defining Success Podcast in iTunes!

StartupBros

Episode 42: Engagement vs. Automation | Rick Mulready from the Inside Social Media Podcast

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In Episode 42 of the Defining Success Podcast, Rick Mulready shares his thoughts and ideas on social media for small and medium-sized businesses. During our conversation we discuss the pros and cons of engagement and automation. We also discuss the power of social media and how building genuine, authentic relationships can help grow any business.

Rick Mulready

Rick Mulready is the host of the Inside Social Media Podcast. His podcast is a place to learn secrets, insights and strategies from heads of social media for some of the most powerful brands in the world.

Rick has been in the Internet marketing world for 12 years. He spent 5 years at AOL in Virginia. He moved to the West Coast after that and spent 2 years at Yahoo as an advertiser. After Yahoo, he went to Vibrant Media and then he went to Funny or Die and went back to Vibrant. While Rick was at Funny or Die, he saw that there was a minimum spend that people had to invest in order to advertise, but it left a lot of small businesses out. At that time Rick saw Facebook starting to grow and he began to see the opportunities that small business could have in Facebook. He jumped into Facebook advertising and taught himself everything he could about it.

During a flight, Rick was listening to a podcast with Gary Vaynerchuk who recommended two publications, Advertising Age, so you can get the big brand perspective and TechMe.com so you can get the perspective of what’s going on in the tech world. Rick then saw that there was an opportunity to reach out to big brand companies and help share what big brands were doing in social media with small businesses.

Rick Mulready

The whole purpose of Rick’s podcast comes from a Tony Robbins quote where he finds someone who’s doing something successful and then copy what they’re doing. Rick has been able to show his listeners what big brands are doing and how they can apply that to their small business.

Rick built up a large safety net, and had a lot of planning. The job that Rick was doing paid really well, but he wasn’t happy, so he saved up a lot of money and made the jump to running the podcast. He is working with clients showing them how they can achieve their business goals through social media.

As an advertiser, Rick didn’t like the way the advertising industry was set up because no matter how hard you worked you always were striving to meet new goals which Rick found very taxing.

Rick loves Twitter because it allows Rick to have quick conversations with people he wants to have conversations with. It also allows Rick to listen to conversations that are going on in the social media world where he can jump in, engage and add value wherever he can. Rick does enjoy Facebook advertising more than he loves Facebook itself.

Too many people don’t understand Facebook advertising and there is a great opportunity to reach out to highly targeted customers if you can understand and grasp how Facebook advertising works.

A common mistake many people make in social media is that they go out there and they start yelling. Another common mistake is that people spread themselves too thin, get overwhelmed and then say social media doesn’t work.

Rick recommends finding one or two platforms that you love using and then stick with those and really dive in and engage deeply. If you can do that you’ll soon see immense benefits in your business.

Rick says that some businesses may not even need social media and it may not be the best platform for them to get their business goals. He recommends that businesses first establish goals and then determining the best course of action to reach their goals. The explanation starts with what is your goal and then work backwards.

There are two trends that are really important. Listening and engaging with you customers and using social media as an opportunity to serve your customers. A lot of brands get it really well and many do not. Rick says that in the future, location based social media marketing will take place, meaning that when you arrive at a destination, deals and discounts will be sent to people’s smart phones in an attempt to drive business. Another trends that Rick sees is these short videos which can be used to tell a story for a business.

Rick says that the people who are automating their message are missing the point of social media. One of the big problems people who jump onto social media face is dealing with automation vs. engagement. The point of social media is to develop genuine relationships designed to lead to sales, and not to continually blast your sales message. People do business with people they know, like and trust. Show them they can know, like and trust you by authentically engaging with them.

When working with a business, Rick starts to figure out their goals and if social media can help them achieve their goals, you have to know what social media platform would be the best for them. Learn your target market, figure out their goal and then learn how to be there.

The podcast has been working very well for Rick Mulready and the podcast was something he never thought he would be doing. He’s always loved interviewing people and he still doesn’t know much about it, but a lot of people pushed him to start it. And Rick understands that the podcast is a great way to connect with people.

The first episodes Rick launched were with the social media managers of Ford, McDonald’s and City. He loves doing interviews and gets pumped up after he has an interview with people.

Rick Mulready

Engaging Discussion Questions:

What is your favorite social media platform?
What do you think of Vine and Instagram videos?
What is the best way to connect with potential customers on social media?

Links to Great Stuff:

Inside Social Media Podcast – “Through this blog and my podcast Inside Social Media, I give you inside access to heads of social media from the most successful brands in the world, as well as the smartest social media influencers around.”

Success Quotes:

“Success is having control of your time and being able to set how you spend that time.”
“If you’re automating your message and not really having that personalized conversation with people, they pick up on that very quickly.”
“Remember that it’s just as easy to unfollow someone in social media as it is to follow them and to remember that.”
“I like Twitter because it allows me to engage with my target audience and my customers the best.”
“Too many people get on social media and just start shouting.”