Monthly Archives: November 2013

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

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

Leave a reply

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

Leave a reply

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

Leave a reply

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

Leave a reply

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

Leave a reply

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

Leave a reply

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