Joel Comm's Blog, page 17

18 Months After Viral Fame, Chewbacca Mom Pursues a Path of Inspiration

It was the laugh heard ’round the world! Candace Payne was just a Texas mom sitting in her car, live-streaming about her new electronic Chewbacca mask. Then she put the mask on, its sound chip emitting Chewie’s plaintive growl every time she opened her mouth. Hilarity ensued–nay, exploded–as Candace, soon to be “Chewbacca Mom,” unleashed a delightfully hysterical torrent of laughter for two solid minutes. They say laughter’s infectious…   In a matter of days, the video racked up over 140 million views. There were morning show features, an appearance on James Corden’s show with J.J. Abrams, a visit to Facebook. Plus thousands in Star Wars toys, gifts and trips, and a remarkable $400,000 scholarship from a university in Florida, to cover an education for Candace, her husband and their children. All in a few weeks. That was May 2016. Viral sensations tend to have short half-lives, but not Chewbacca Mom. Chewbacca Mom–that is, Candace Payne–was ready. As a friend told her over coffee right after her video went viral, “I always knew the world would find you.” A self-professed “jack-of-many-trades and master of none,” Candace had always been a creative soul, from singing and helping with production at her church to a short-lived foray into amateur stand-up. But she’d never been wholeheartedly committed to anything–except to being a great mom. Then, suddenly, she was Chewbacca Mom, and a new future seemed to crystallize before her eyes. She was ready. These days Candace is out from behind the mask and showing the world some new faces–as a singer (her rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Heal The World” also went viral), vlogger, host on TLC, and ambassador for charitable organization Convoy of Hope, who as part of their mission works to empower young girls in cultures where women are degraded. Candace has also just added author to her repertoire. Her new book, Laugh It Up! (as in “fuzzball,” one assumes) was released by Zondervan on November 7th. While the cover of Laugh It Up! implores readers to “experience defiant joy,” Candace is no joyologist. “I don’t claim expertise in the subject of joy,” she says, “but I can show you an authentic representation of someone who knows what it’s like to pursue joy.” For Candace, it’s less about going out and getting joy than it is about figuring out where moments of joy already exist in our daily lives. “They’re all around us,” she says. Ultimately, it’s that authenticity–being true to herself–that makes Candace tick. “Like me, you’ve put on a mask at some point in life,” she writes in the introduction to Laugh It Up, “denying your true desires, wants, and identity. What would it be like to learn to laugh while wearing your mask….to feel free enough to take that mask off and embrace who you already are?” In producing her Facebook Live show, also called Laugh It Up!, Candace does everything herself, using her iPhone, iPad and multi-cam video app Switcher Studio to create a low-budget but seamless production with multiple camera angles, imported images, video bumpers, etc.–and it’s all 100% authentic Candace Payne, the artist formerly known as Chewbacca Mom. (Disclosure: This writer has an affiliate business relationship with Switcher Studio.) As for the mask that helped start it all, it still makes an appearance here and there. But instead of putting it on, Candace prefers just to hold it up. After all, she has a lot of other aspects to show the world. And if she were ever to create an electronic Candace Payne mask, what would it say? What wisdom might it impart? Something about joy? Authenticity? “You know,” says Candace, “it would probably just laugh.”

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8 Ways to Deliver Killer Content Using Live Video

Watch these to learn the art of going live online. Live video gives content urgency, interaction and a level of engagement that marketers just can’t obtain any other way. To make the most of the new format, it’s worth seeing how some leaders are creating original content and setting a standard for other marketers to meet. Here are eight live video broadcasters you need to follow. Martha Stewart Martha Stewart might be a star of old media but she’s taken to new media like syrup takes to pancakes. Her Facebook page regularly broadcasts cooking demonstrations, some lasting as long as half an hour, and not all including Martha Stewart herself. For big brands, you don’t need to put the same face in front of the camera to produce regular broadcasts. You can spread the responsibility and still build a crowd. Luria Petrucci Luria Petrucci has been using social live video for more than ten years. (Yes, there was live video before Facebook went live.) Together with David Foster, who explains the tech, Luria broadcasts regularly on live video content strategy. It’s a great place to learn. Stem Center USA Founded by Melissa Jawaharlal, an engineer at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, and her sister Lavanya of the Mechanical Engineering program at the University of California, Berkeley, Stem Center USA encourages kids to take up science, technology, engineering and math. Their Facebook page broadcasts live soldering and robotic tutorials, and shows what the kids are up to at their workshops. Liz Cook, Tattoo Artist Whenever someone works with their hands, they can build an audience. Liz Cook, a tattoo artist in Lewisville, Texas has racked up more than a million Facebook followers by using live video to show off her work, bring people into her studio and chat with members of the tattoo community. Science Channel Traditional television is recognizing the challenge posed by online video-;and the advantages promised by live video. The Science Channel broadcasts live on YouTube to reach audiences wherever they might be. This is professional content on a channel used by everyone. Tribeca Film Festival Conferences and other events can only reach the audiences they can squeeze into a hotel meeting room. The 2017 Tribeca Film Festival went further. The festival teamed up with Facebook to stream a dozen live sessions, including a reunion of the cast of The Godfather movies. With live video, panels can reach-;and take questions from-;anyone. Every professional has knowledge and skills that others want to possess. Live video gives them a powerful way to share that knowledge and those skills, and build a personal brand. Photographer Trey Ratcliff uses it to teach people to take better pictures, but any pro can use it for any expertise. Kattarshians One way to grab an audience is to jump on a trend. When Iceland’s animal lovers wanted to encourage people to adopt cats, they used the popularity of the Kardashians. Kattarshians live streams the life of cats in a Kardashian-style luxury doll house. You don’t even need a presenter.

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Why Belive.TV Is Just So Cool

Note: I am a paid Brand Ambassador for Belive.tv. However, I was using the service and fell in love with it before I took the position. The following is my opinion. If you’re using Facebook Live, or thinking about playing around with live video (as you should), you need to know about BeLive.TV. It’s become the ultimate tool for Facebook Live. The platform launched on October 2016, just a few months after Facebook Live became available to everyone. I was one of the first people to use it, and I’ve loved it ever since! BeLive.TV was pretty simple at first. The early version enabled users to go live from their PC via Google Chrome and to put up comments from viewers on the screen. It was very cool. At the time, Facebook itself only let you go live using a mobile device so if you wanted a look that was more professional, you’d need to do a bit of technical wizardry. My first thought was to wonder why Facebook hadn’t thought of that. (My second thought was to slap my forehead and wonder why I hadn’t thought of that. Yeah… my head still hurts.) I also worried that Facebook would copy BeLive’s features and do to the platform what Twitter did to Meerkat. It didn’t happen. BeLive kept growing and kept adding features that Facebook missed. As it grew, Mari Smith, the Queen of Facebook marketing, became a brand ambassador, and so did I. Other bloggers and publishers have also used BeLive  and produced some pretty great results. Geva Telem of Geekstyle wrote a few blog posts about his experiences. He explained how to grow online sales using BeLive and Facebook Live; how to broadcast a Facebook Live interview; and how to broadcast from your computer. They’re all worth checking out. So what makes BeLive.TV so cool? First, it’s very easy to use. You don’t need a degree in filmmaking or ten years’ experience planning shows for Oprah. You can be up and running in minutes. Check out the 14-day trial and you’ll see what I mean. But more importantly, BeLive is also packed with features that Facebook Live still doesn’t have. It’s got no fewer than three broadcasting modes. “Solo” is great for those one-on-many broadcasts, when you want to share some information with an audience or take questions. “Interview” mode is like a public Skype chat that lets viewers see both people on the same screen—and send them questions. But it’s the “Talk Show” mode that’s the coolest.  Viewers get a link that lets them join up to nine other people in the green room. You can then pull them into the discussion and show up to three guests on the screen at the same time. That’s an interview with audience participation. Neat, right? Each of those modes also comes with their own giant bag of cool features. The ability to show your audience’s comments has always been very neat. They’re like the chyrons that run at the bottom of Fox News or CNN. Except that they come from the audience and anyone can send one in. Screen sharing makes broadcasting tutorials a breeze (Facebook noticed that one.) Photo sharing lets you incorporate the images you’ve placed on Facebook into your broadcast, and on-screen updates mean that late viewers can catch up quick. Screen shares at the touch of a button. One of the neatest features though, is the agenda. That really lifts your broadcasts onto a professional level, letting you plan ahead and even schedule your entire broadcast in advance. And, of course, you can add a logo and change the colors to suit your brand. When Geva Telem started using BeLive.TV to soup up his Facebook Live broadcasts, he saw his engagement rocket. Other vloggers and live-streamers have found the same thing. If you get into any trouble, you can watch this tutorial playlist on YouTube, but I doubt you’ll need it—or the full two weeks of the free trial to understand what BeLive can do.  

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The Good, Bad and Ugly of Social Media

I love social media. I love how it has connected people in so many ways. From finding friends long gone to making new friends and from building communities to providing a space for advocacy, Facebook, Twitter and other social sites have done wonders for many of us. It’s truly miraculous that I can connect with a friend on the other side of the world instantly and get an instant reply back. But the dark, ugly side is that social media has illegitimately given permission for people to be rude, mean and vile. I say illegitimate because just having a platform to say what you want to say doesn’t mean it is right or good for you to say it. Something in our humanity has been lost when there are many in our culture who have forgotten what good manners and decency are all about. I’m not going to go deeper into the cause of this, but you know what I am referring to. (Parents, teach your children please. HINT: Lead by example, because society certainly isn’t.) Using social media to share an opinion or idea, and engaging others in discussion is healthy. It’s what adults do. Adults who behave otherwise aren’t behaving like adults. They are behaving like children. Unfortunately, there are too many children masquerading as adults on social media, spewing their low EQ for the world to hear as though anyone really cares what they think. (And yes, I am sharing what I think… and you should only care if you want to. I’m fine with you disregarding my thoughts and moving on.) They say things on social media that the majority would NEVER say to your face if they walked into your front door or met you on the street. The distance and immediacy of social media has created an environment that almost encourages people to troll. So why this post now? I encountered a troll today. Some guy who I don’t know made a negative comment on my Facebook wall. I replied back with an honest answer, but I wasn’t combative at all. His trolling got worse and he took it upon himself to be the moral arbiter of MY character. On my wall. I may not own Facebook, but my feed is my house. You are a guest here, just as I am a guest on yours. In the past, I would further engage such a person and seek to explain myself… to validate why I did what I did in a certain situation. But I realized that this rarely led to a healthier dialogue with such a person. Instead, they saw it as a battle to win. And it’s a battle that couldn’t be won. That’s why I no longer engage with trolls. I block them. No questions asked. No explanations given. Poof! Gone. YOU get to decide what you let into your life. And if you think you are going to win someone rude, mean or vile over by arguing with them and trying to make your case, you have entered the mud-wrestling contest with a pig. You will both end up pretty darned messy. Once I became okay with NOT having to explain myself to others, my emotional state on social media improved. And my feed got more positive. You don’t owe anyone an explanation for what you do (unless you are hurting or harming that person or someone close to them.) Just as you don’t have to let anyone into your house or tolerate a rude guest, you get to decide who and what you will allow on your Facebook feed. You create your own boundaries.

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What You Don’t Understand About the Bitcoin Explosion

By now your newsfeed is absolutely filled with Bitcoin. All of a sudden the “experts” are coming out of the woodwork. A bunch of people are offering courses. And there’s talk about the “bubble.” I’m going to attempt to explain what is happening from a layman’s point-of-view. I don’t know much, but I know the future when I see it. I’ve built my entire career on being first or early to the game. So forgive me if I get it somewhat wrong, but this is what I believe is taking place. The first thing you need to understand is that what’s happening is NOT about the price of Bitcoin. Sure, Bitcoin $10,000 is all over the news. There are scammy-sounding network marketing organizations capitalizing on people’s FOMO and greed. There are pumping and dumping operations and some coin offerings that are pure scams. But this is all noise. Here’s what you really need to understand. The world’s financial systems are broken. The US dollar goes down in value every year. The centralized banking systems put people at the mercy of their high fees and antiquated processes. Trust in the systems of the world, be they political or financial, is at an all-time low. When Satoshi Nakomoto released the now infamous Bitcoin whitepaper in October 2008, he proposed a new form of currency that be decentralized, meaning no one had control over it. It would be peer-to-peer, meaning anyone could send money quickly and easily without incurring ridiculous fees. It would be anonymous, meaning no one could stick their nose into your personal business. And it would be trustworthy, meaning the ledger created by the blockchain technology that Bitcoin was built on would be without error. Without explaining exactly how Bitcoin works, I want to focus on the real key word in the above paragraph. It’s not Bitcoin. It’s not money. It’s not currency. The word is BLOCKCHAIN. And it is the reason that Bitcoin is soaring, and that the cryptocurrency market cap currently exceeds $315 BILLION dollars (more than the value of Disney, Wal-Mart and VISA. In 1993, a web browser was created that changed how we would access information… forever. In 1997, a company dared take on Blockbuster Video by creating an easier way to rent movies, and eventually pivoted to the leading streaming service they are today. In 2007, a smartphone was created that seized the market from Nokia and transformed the way we consume information. And in 2008, an idea was proposed that would forever alter not only how we make purchases, but how we manage contracts of every kind. You see, regardless of what happens to Bitcoin (bubble be damned), Blockchain is a revolutionary technology that is here to stay. And it is getting ready to disrupt just about every industry you can name. Yes, even your industry. Is Bitcoin like the tulip craze? Could there be a more asinine question? Flowers vs. revolutionary technology. Hmmm… can you spot the difference? Has Bitcoin risen ridiculous fast? Yes, there’s no question. Will there be a pullback? There HAS to be. Gravity says so. But here’s what’s different about Bitcoin. There are only 21 million of them… ever. Period. 17 million of them are currently in circulation. The other 4 million will slowly come into circulation over the next 120 years. (Yes, you read that right.) Of the 17 million in circulation, it is estimated that at least 4 million are lost forever. It’s also believed that the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto owns up to a million of them. That means only 12 million Bitcoin are actually in circulation. How much printed money is out there? It’s a seemingly endless supply. It’s not hard to come by. It’s not scarce, and the government prints more whenever they feel like it. Huh. How about that. Even so, it’s NOT about Bitcoin. It’s about Blockchain, the technology which makes Bitcoin possible. I’m not a financial analyst or a financial advisor, but I am a futurist. And I can clearly see that there is a revolution taking place right before our eyes. Blockbuster didn’t see Netflix coming. Nokia didn’t see Apple coming. Sears didn’t see Amazon coming. The world doesn’t see blockchain coming. But it’s here, and it’s not going away. Bitcoin is now all over the news. Thursday night it hits the mainstream as an episode of The Big Bang Theory will introduce the concept to millions more people. (I’m sure the episode will be stupid because it’s a stupid show.) But the fact is we are at the beginning of the technology adoption curve and over the next ten years we are going to see a transformation of tech that is going to make the smartphone revolution look like a hop from writing with pens to using a typewriter. Buy Bitcoin or don’t buy Bitcoin. It doesn’t matter. What DOES matter is Blockchain. Pay attention, whatever your industry may be. If you can’t see how Blockchain WILL disrupt your industry, allow me to introduce you Blockchain, my friends. Blockchain. (Please share this post wherever you like if it would be helpful for your friends and family to read!) ———————————————— The cryptocurrency show I host with Travis Wright is called The Bad Crypto Podcast. We are around #30 in all business shows on iTunes, and also available on Stitcher Radio, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Google Play and other places. I invite you to listen and go down the rabbit hole with us!

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How to Succeed in Social Media in Spite of Having a College Degree

CREDIT: Courtesy Amber Doig-Thorne Having the courage to explore and be yourself pays off. People bring all sorts of backgrounds to social media. For many, it’s a history of business success. For others, it’s coaching, speaking and personal development. For very few though, it’s a degree in the secrets of the universe. That’s what Amber Doig-Thorne brings to her vlogging, Snapchatting and social media posting–not that you’d know it from the content that made her name. Amber graduated from University College London with a bachelor’s degree in Theoretical Physics. But instead of thinking hard about string theory (or more likely, finding a high-paid job at a bank) she launched a Facebook page and a YouTube channel and started building an audience. She filmed pranks and comedy sketches, social experiments and the occasional interview, and soon found her audience growing. Her Facebook page topped a million followers in less than year, while the videos she uploads to YouTube can generate native views that top six figures. The most important strategy for rapid audience growth, she says, is creating relatable and shareable content but forging deals with other publishers is a big help too. “I also share content with similar-sized Facebook pages and grow my shares as my page has grown,” says Amber. “A lot of creators do this and it works well, it’s also a great way to get to know other content creators!” Making those agreements and creating the content takes both time and effort. Not every piece of content will take off. Despite Amber asking those on her Facebook posts to tag their friends in the comments, not every post goes viral. But the benefits make the effort worthwhile. Amber regularly attends premieres and exclusive advance screenings. Recently, Paramount Studios flew her out to Los Angeles to help promote the new Baywatch movie, and 20th Century Fox brought her to South Africa to take part in the new Maze Runner movie. “I’ve had an incredible few months,” she says. Monetizing her social media audience is a bit more of a challenge. “It’s quite difficult,” Amber told the BBC. “My Facebook page isn’t monetized and I don’t make a lot from YouTube so it’s basically brand endorsements. That’s a sponsored Instagram post, snapchat story or the occasional branding video.” Amber’s manager sends her brand deals and interesting gigs, and so far that’s been enough to pay the bills… while traveling around the world, visiting movie sets and most importantly, entertaining audiences. “I love to make people laugh,” she explains. “That drives me to keep making new content. Having the power to completely turn someone’s week around, to cheer them up when they’re feeling down, is one of the most incredible gifts you can have.” Amber’s long-term goal is to use her social media following to break into acting in movies and televisions shows. In the meantime though, she has been turning back to her science background. She’s writing a book about science misconceptions and is planning to launch some new science-based content soon. And if that doesn’t work out, there’s always a career in banking.

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How This Successful Entrepreneur Became Homeless

What three months on the road can do for you. Dreams of success usually come with plenty of home comforts. In fact, they often come with plenty of comfortable homes: one in the Hampton’s, another in the Caribbean, a yacht moored close to the condo in Florida. But when Croix Sather made it big, he didn’t start buying luxury property across the country. He became homeless. For three months, the author, motivational speaker and record-breaking endurance runner, drove across America, staying with friends and sleeping on sofas. “I wanted to see what it felt like to not have a home,” he said. “To be traveling full time, to not have to be anywhere in particular. Apart from a couple of work obligations, I could go anywhere I wanted to.” He drove from Connecticut to Florida, spent a week in the Bahamas and Costa Rica, headed across the country to California then made his way back to New York through Arizona, Denver and Austin. Sather was able to marvel at America’s amazing geography, spending a day admiring the Florida beaches then a night sheltering from an icestorm in a Wyoming mountain pass. His possessions were all in storage, and his biggest bill for those three months was for gas. The journey was easier than he expected. Sather has built a large network of supporters through his talks, his writing and his Kickstarter campaigns, so he knew people everywhere he went. As he approached a city, he could ask if anyone could put him up for a night. Some were friends he knew well but others were just people who had read his book or had heard him speak. They opened their sofas and spare bedrooms. “It’s expanded the way I see the world,” he says. “I need more adventure like this.” A few years earlier Sather had set himself the challenge of running across America. A carpenter who had never run further than the distance between the sofa and the refrigerator, within a year Croix became an elite ultra-runner. For 100 consecutive days, he would give a talk to an audience facing a challenge–people recovering from addiction, veterans recovering from wounds, homeless people in shelters–then he would set off to run a marathon. In a little over three months, he ran 2,621 miles. He then broke the world record for running across Death Valley unaided. In 117-degree heat he pushed a cart with food, water and supplies for 72 hours and 55 minutes, shaving five hours off the previous record. “We all have challenges,” Sather says. “Relationships or time or parenting… or whatever. That’s just life. We try to mask our challenges. The run across America and Death Valley were not about the run. They were about following your dreams and doing what makes you happy regardless of what it is.” Before Sather handed back the keys to his apartment and crammed all his possessions into a storage center, he had felt that he was becoming stale and in need of a change. He didn’t plan to be homeless forever but he did feel that he was falling out of alignment with what he was doing. He needed a new challenge, and to enjoy the freedom that his success had brought him. However much success you’ve achieved, and however much you’re satisfied with the way things are going, a new challenge and a new perspective can help to realign you with your goals. Listen to the entire interview with Croix Sather on The Fun Podcast.  

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A New Model For Consultants And Coaches

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of RESULTS.com for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine. I’ve been digging a little deeper into RESULTS’ business management platform. If you’re a business owner wondering about the best way to track metrics, manage staff, do performance reviews, as well as all of the things that managers are supposed to do, it’s a great system. It’s makes all of that personnel management much easier, giving you more time to think about the fun ideas and the big picture. But it’s also pretty cool for people who consult for businesses. I love doing consulting work. I love being able to walk into a business, spot where improvements can be made, lay out some ideas for marketing and branding, and hope that the business implements them. RESULTS lets me make sure that they do. I can follow up by seeing whether my ideas are being put into practice and troubleshoot any problems before they become too big. And here’s the thing: RESULTS pays for that. As long as the company continues to use RESULTS’ platform, RESULTS pays the consultant a fee. Now, the client won’t use the platform if it doesn’t feel that it’s working for them. But as long as they’re benefitting, the consultant benefits too. That doesn’t just mean that RESULTS has created a model that gives consultants a stake in the success of the businesses they help at no expense to those companies. It also makes life better for everyone. Many of the consultants I know are so focused on helping their clients that when their contract ends, they haven’t had time to set up a new client. Time spent consulting is followed by time spent marketing—and that’s time not earning. Now clients can continue to generate revenue once the job is complete. They can continue to track the performance of the companies they’ve helped. And they won’t have the kind of mad scramble I’ve seen some consultants do when they’re between clients. It’s a whole new world for consultancy. It’s not an easy opportunity to make the most of though. RESULTS wants to be sure that its consultants really do know how to use the platform—and really do know how to help businesses. Their partnership program is only available to people who have owned or managed a consultancy or a coaching business for at least five years. They need to have a client list already in place and be active on email or social media channels. There’s a fee for training and about fifty hours of courses and tests to complete. You also have to keep up to date with all of the improvements that the company keeps rolling out. There are mentoring calls and workshops and webinars to make sure that you’re staying on top of things and are aware of the latest consultancy skills. So RESULTS isn’t for everyone. But if you’re already a consultant or a coach—or know someone who is—then RESULTS’ Partnership Program for consultants looks like a pretty helpful move. It’s worth checking out.

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The Video Marketing Revolution Is Now Open To Everyone

You’ve probably noticed that I talk a lot about video content. Back in 2007, I had a blast making The Next Internet Millionaire. When Kaching came out, we made a professional-looking promotional video that cost less to produce than dinner for two in a good restaurant. And now that live video is a thing, I’m having a ball chatting with people across the Internet in real time. Because video works. One study last April found that video content wins broader reach and more engagement on Facebook than photos and links do, and it performs nearly three times better than simple status updates. So if you’re serious about marketing, you need to be creating videos… and I get that that’s a problem. Writing a quick Facebook post doesn’t demand any more than fingers and a keyboard. Even sharing a picture is simple when you can just snap and upload. But video? That usually requires a better camera than you can find on a phone. And you have to edit it, which takes forever. And if you’re creating a promotional video, you need to find people who can act and add a soundtrack, which means thinking about scripts and rights and backgrounds and rights, and so on. It’s  difficult. But where there’s a problem, some company will eventually rock up with a solution. That’s what’s happening now with the PROMO tool by Slide.ly. The company is doing for video content what stock photography did for advertising. You can pick a video, write your own text, add a soundtrack of your choice… and you’re done! Instead of designing a graphic ad that’s likely to be ignored, you can create a simple video ad that people will actually watch and might even share. It takes just minutes. You’ll spend more time thinking about your ad copy and your call to action than you’ll spend creating the video. And it can be cheap too. There’s a free trial but prices then start at $49 for a single video a month and peak at $359 for fifteen videos every month. I’d have some concern about choosing a video background that a different seller might have used but the company claims to have “millions” of different clips available so in practice that shouldn’t be a problem. Here’s a piece I created in just a couple of minutes to promote my show, The Bad Crypto Podcast. PROMO really does feel like we’re moving into a new age. Digital billboards are now spreading across the country, delivering targeted information to specific audiences, often in video format. The magazines we read on tablets and iPads have embedded video artcles and video ads. And when we scroll on social media, it’s the ads that move stop the thumb-flicking and grab our attention. You might have been putting off creating video ads because it was too difficult, took too much time, and required too much money. But that’s no longer true. Now you can create a video ad in a few seconds… and you can create multiple videos for different audiences, A/B test them and target them to different sectors. When less than a hundred bucks gives you four videos a month that together take less than half an hour to produce, no one needs to be left out of the video marketing revolution any more. NOTE: I am a paid Brand Ambassador for Slide.ly and enjoy sharing this tool with my readers.  Want 20% off any plan? Click here!

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The Real Reason You Didn’t Start Your Business Earlier

Knowing when you are ready to start is essential. You’re going to wish you’d done it sooner. That’s going to be your first thought as soon as you hit success. When your business idea takes off and you find that you’re not just making money but doing it in a way that you love and enjoy, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start years ago. You might even count off all that time you wasted doing something you weren’t crazy about when you could have been doing this great thing instead. The answer is that you wouldn’t have enjoyed it then. Some people are natural entrepreneurs. Other people aren’t. They prefer the security of a regular salary to the risks of running their own business. But the realization that you’re an entrepreneur, and the understanding of the kind of entrepreneur you want to be, can take time to develop. David Hancock has always been an entrepreneur. His first career was in property development. He built and sold residential properties. He then moved into financing those properties, helping buyers to raise the mortgages they needed. It was while he was handling those loan applications, that he started reading non-fiction books to help his company grow faster. He started with “Who Moved My Cheese?” then began working his way through the business book canon. “I tested them by reading something in the morning and putting it to use that afternoon,” he recalled. “It became clear to me that books were going to be a part of my life from that point.” At the same time as running a mortgage business, David created a small publishing firm on the side. Morgan James would be neither a traditional publisher, bringing out a tiny number of books every year, handing out advances and giving only a small share of the sales price to authors, nor would it be a traditional vanity publisher. Instead, it would create a new outlet for influencers and thought leaders to turn their ideas into books. They could enjoy professional editing and distribution that put their books in stores, and still earn the royalties they deserved. The business took off. David enjoyed working with the authors and helping them to create their books. But when Armand Morin invited him to the first Big Seminar to promote his business, David balked. “I just wasn’t ready,” he said. “Whatever the reasons, psychologically, mentally, I just wasn’t there yet. I was still working as a banker and I was playing publisher on the side. I was having a blast and doing well but I just wasn’t ready to step out. Armand called me every ninety minutes between speakers. I just didn’t go.” David Hancock let that opportunity pass by. But he did attend the following year. He met more people who could write the kinds of books he wanted to see published, and his business became the first stop for the entrepreneurial author. Over the last fourteen years, he’s published 2,700 books, each hand-selected to bring to an audience ideas about which he feels passionate. You’re going to have regrets. Everyone does. And when you find something you love, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start doing it earlier. But the answer is simply that you weren’t ready earlier–and you are ready now. To listen to the entire FUN! podcast episode with David Hancock.      

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