Lone Star Media Leaders Vol One

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Lone Star Media Leaders Volume I An Introduction to Elite Media Leaders

Russ Johns Marian LaSalle T. Allen Hanes Tonya Hoffman Dr. Joe Vitale Susan Hamilton Alicia White Chris N. West Melinda Cooper Robin Dahms Maylon Hargrove Malisia Garcia Pam Terry Pablo Valle

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Copyright Š 2015 T. Allen Hanes Publishing All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced--mechanically, electronically, or by any other means without the expressed written permission of the authors except as provided by the United States of America copyright law.

Published by T. Allen Hanes Publishing Group, Houston, TX The Publisher has strived to be as accurate and complete as possible in the creation of this book.

This book is not intended for use as a source of legal, business, accounting or financial advice. All readers are advised to seek services of competent professionals in legal, business, accounting, and financial fields.

In practical advice books, like anything else in life, there are no guarantees of income made. Readers are cautioned to rely on their own judgment about their individual circumstances and to act accordingly.

While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication, the Publisher assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein. Any perceived slights of specific persons, peoples, or organizations are unintentional.

First Edition. ISBN #: Manufactured & Printed in the United States of America.

Lone Star Media Leaders VOL I is a trademark of T. Allen Hanes & Associates Editor: James Scholes, Lori Snyder Cover Design: vikiana Cover Photo Credit: Penny Medders, Copyright, 123rf Under License Publisher: T. Allen Hanes Publishing Group

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INTRODUCTION

If you have ever wanted to write a book, create a movie, be a radio star or artist? Then this book is for you!

We live in a time that allows all this to take place. Think about the possibilities…You can create your next great song and distribute it around the world in a matter of minutes. This book provides stories that matter in the world of Future Media. These stories share what the future holds, and how you can be part of this adventure. Media today is evolving at a rapid rate and more available to you than ever before.

Internet technology today, provides the opportunity to create and distribute media. We have the chance to share this with the entire planet.

YOU are the Media. How is this possible? This book outlines a few ideas that share how you can stop waiting for permission and get started.

You are the media today. You no longer need permission, or anyone to tell you that you can do it. You CAN do it!

This book is for the person that has a story; they have a message, and they have a dream to create something important. This collection of talented and creative people share their stories, of how they are making a difference. The authors in this book will provide ideas on the why, the how and the motivations that keep each of us moving forward. Many of us travel through life thinking they need something more, something else or don't have the skills to create. Take the time to read the stories in this book and discover ways that you can make a difference. You have the skill, you have the ability, and you have permission.

Media today includes Words, Images, Audio, and Video. You have the opportunity to choose what type of media fits your personality and how you care to share your message in the media. Many of us may be 2

shy or don't believe we have anything worth sharing. Everyone has something to share. There are over 3 billion people on the internet, and we all have something to share with someone. The surprising thing is that there is a community on the internet waiting for you Right Now! There are people in this world that would love to hear your podcast, watch your video or read your stories. You have the message that your community is waiting for at this moment.

This group of authors shares ways to build a community. This book combined decades of experience on what it takes to take the first step, on how to take the next step and keep going. We share personal challenges, recovery and triumphs after taking bold action. Today is the day to start. As you read the stories in this book, take a moment and imagine how you can make a difference in the lives around you. What message will make a difference in the person next to you in the checkout line at the grocery store? How could you share your challenges and help someone to feel like you know how they feel? We are all searching for someone that cares enough to listen. This book shares stories that matter. You matter, and we care.

The changes in media today have changed our lives, our messages and ways to connect and communicate with the entire planet. Media today is evolving at a rapid rate and available to everyone with a smartphone. With 2 billion smartphones in use today, we are living in a mobile world. If you have any message, there is someone that has an interest in connecting with you.

How will it be possible to connect with you? You will never have the opportunity to connect with your community unless you take BOLD action. Today is the day to start creating and sharing your message.

Everyone thinks of the movie stars and the wealthiest are the only

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ones that get the attention. Not true. There are rock stars in every media circle. There are people on YouTube that most people have never heard of, yet, in their circles, they are famous. Famous starts with one fan at a time. Everyone was an unknown at some point.

You may not want to be famous, or even well known. You may want to teach others how to make a difference in their lives or share your story to help others through a rough time in their life. Whatever your goal is, whatever your message is, you now have the opportunity to create, share and broadcast your message. Go out and write, film or record your message and become a part of the change taking place in the world around us.

In this book, we are going to learn how others have developed the message and the media to share with each community. You know there are more ways than ever before to create media. Create a book to share your story if your preference is writing. Several free and inexpensive tools are available to create beautiful artwork and images.

Podcasting has increased in popularity in the media and easy to produce if you like to talk. Several video platforms are available if you like to create through the lens of a camera. If you like creating music, there are so many options you have to broadcast your songs and build your community.

Media today is more about connecting and developing your community than the technology. Build your community on your personal style to get started, create, grow and improve. There is nothing stopping you from moving forward except your fear.

Today, there are many ways to share your message with people you care about and will find others that love what you do. The authors in this book want you to understand that YOU have the ability to share 4

with a limited audience or the entire planet. You can create a blog, book, video or podcast to share with your closest friends and family, or the whole world. Remember, you now have control of the information you create. You define how you describe your future. I challenge you to stop thinking about creating and start building something you care about in your life. Create something that moves you to improve your life and the lives around you. Smiles are free, and even a smile, or a caring message can make a difference in someone's life.

You never know how or when you will make a difference, but yet, I know it will happen once you start.

Imagine how much this technology, and this kind of media creation has done to change the world. We have seen challenges, and crowd funding campaigns raise a lot of money for so many great causes. We have seen the live footage in the world of politics and unrest for movements. Change is here, and you are part of the movement. You no longer have to wait until the 6 o'clock news to learn what happened.

You can be the reporter sharing what is happening in the world around you. You have the permission, and you have the authority to deliver all the tools you need to share your brilliance.

Be BOLD, take action and Enjoy the day!

Russ Johns

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RUSS JOHNS

Co-founder, Future Media Association Houston, Texas

You Are the Media

Russ caught the entrepreneurial bug at a very early age. He is a musician and started playing when he was very young. And he was always looking for work wherever he could play. He taught drum lessons, and did all he could to build his skills.

Russ has been very lucky to have multiple experiences throughout his life and one that surprises many people when he shares it, is the time he was developing a farm. When he 6

was married, he lived on a 30 acre farm where they raised all kinds of livestock. Horses, Llamas, Pigs, Chickens and many others. They launched a farmers market and invited all of the local farmers to attend and join in. He became Farmer Johns in Sequim WA, the Lavender Capital of the US. They planted lavender, blueberries, an Orchard, heirloom potatoes and so many more. They raised pastured pork and poultry and sold bagels at the market every Saturday. It is a beautiful part of the world and have fond memories of his two boys growing up, hiking, biking and riding horses in the Olympics. A great experience and chapter in the book of his life.

Another chapter in his Entrepreneurial journey was after a long episode of working to get to the top of the corporate ladder, only to have the company sold and finding himself out looking for opportunity and a new adventure. Russ was able to assemble a few programmers and create a web project that launched the beginning of Nextstepnext. Nextstepnext is a concept that brought several ex-employees together to identify what there next step was going to be. What's next? What do they want to be? Where do they want to go next? They started developing projects together and had a great time working with friends.

Russ brought Nextstepnext with him to Houston from Seattle to continue meeting people and creating interesting projects along the way. Russ loves teaching and supporting the entrepreneur and will continue to teach podcasting, technology and email strategies whenever he has the opportunity.

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Conversation with Russ Welcome, Russ! Tell us a little bit about your business and the types of customers you help.

Russ Johns: Well Tracy, the core of my business is helping Business owners leverage the power of technology. A lot of things are changing in technology, and a lot of stuff, like social media, are blowing up. A few years ago, “marketing” was putting an ad in the mail and sending it out to your clients. It’s all a lot more complicated now; we’ve evolved into online with lead magnets and landing pages and email and so on. A lot of energy goes into marketing these days.

I help people harness that power and create a workflow that works for their unique brand of personality. We create a traffic circle. We use social media to drive interest to their website to collect emails. We use the podcast to create the more social activity that drives more traffic to the site and the circle continues. It’s about reaching people with an interest in what they’re doing and resonating with those people. Not everybody is going to be able to be everything to everyone. I help develop a program around their business using tools they’re not utilizing and then to create a workflow. Developing systems allows them to grow their business, audience, and relationships with their community.

There is no “one size fits all” answer, it’s just a matter of building a community around what they’re doing with their business.

It’s about what works best for a specific work style, technical ability and what they need to do in their business to grow revenue.

Once you’ve created the systems and put the automation in place, what happens for your clients?

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Russ Johns: Working with me, business owners receive better conversions on the leads generated. We create the ability to take the leads they generate and cultivate those leads over time to develop relationships. These systems help business owners convert leads into fans, then convert those fans into actual revenue.

The fortune is in the follow-up, and a lot of people get overwhelmed. Like a stack of business cards sitting on their desk for six months. They know they need to do something with them, but they’re not sure what to do or how to do it. A little automation can go a long way.

You mentioned Podcasts a few minutes ago, can you tell us more about what sparked your interest in them and why you include them in your tool kit?

Russ Johns: I started playing music, when I was 11 years old, and so I’ve always had a passion for music and audio and being creative. I love creating. I worked for 15 years in radio back from about 1990 to 2002, so creating with audio is a natural fit for me. We’re in a transitional phase of audio and podcasting. It was a lot more complicated from a technical perspective to create audio three years ago or 5 years ago and get it out on the web. Tools are released every day and platforms that are available, to support your goals. I can help business owners make that an easy process.

My clients are always surprised at how they can launch their podcast. I help develop a platform and coached them along to where they brand a kind of mission around their podcast and what it’s going to be. I teach them the way that the process needs to run and next thing I know, they’re doing their editing; they’re doing their podcast and recording it on 9

a regular basis. I’m in the wings where I can step in if need be, and offer help and not don't have to do it all for them. Podcasting as a tool came together for me a few years ago when I managed couple of local radio stations. They had worked a deal where they were going to broadcast the Sugar Land Skeeters, a local minor league baseball team. They wanted to produce play-by-play and broadcast this over the radio station. They also wished to broadcast the high school varsity basketball and baseball and football games. The owner of the station asked if I could do this, and I said, yes, I can do this. So I developed the solutions that allowed us to go out do play-by-play of the high school games and broadcast live. We broadcast the Sugar Land Skeeters’ games and generated a thousand shows a year. That launched the whole process. “I’m passionate about business owners, so I’m taking technology to the world for creating podcasts”. I got proof of concept in a big way when I attended the Podcast Movement last year and saw how it’s changing the dynamics of what radio used to be.

Podcasts are becoming very popular. Have you found specific obstacles to podcasting that hold people back?

Russ Johns: The biggest obstacle to starting a podcast is fear.

The second obstacle is, “I don’t like my voice”.

If people can get past the fact that they don’t care for their voice, and they’re fearful of the technology, they can do amazing work.

I tell people all the time, “You’re already famous”. The only difference between you and somebody else who’s famous for being famous is they just have more followers. That’s something that can be fixed. The earth is flat again. The networks allow us to communicate with anybody on the planet. For example iTunes 10

just exceeded a billion downloads for podcasting this year. Business owners have the opportunity to build a community around what they’re passionate about. Audio is one of the ways that they can leverage that message and share it with many people without having to be in front of them. It’s intimate; it’s in their ear; they don’t have to be in front of a screen, and they don’t have to read it. They can listen to it on a walk; they can listen to it while they’re working out; they can listen while they’re in traffic. It’s portable.

What about misconceptions? Are there any specific ones you see often?

Russ Johns: There are two misconceptions. One is that it’s easy; you just talk into a mic, and you’re done. The other misconception is that it’s hard. The truth is somewhere between. There are podcasts making hundreds of thousands of dollars on affiliate programs and sponsorships. They have huge numbers. These people work hard at getting their voice heard through the noise. If you’re a business owner, you don’t have to shoot for the stars. You don’t have to be number 1. You need a message that resonates with your audience and use it for introductions to people who move your business forward. If a business owner has a desire to meet somebody, what better way do it than to ask for an interview? It’s a simple ask, “I’m talking about this business. You’re in this business, and I want to learn more about your perspective of this business”. It makes for great introductions and long-term relationships, and it’s one of the benefits of having a podcast.

I think people get stuck in the idea that it’s all about the fame and fortune, and in six months, their numbers aren’t that big, they quit. They have to think about the goal. What is the near11

term goal? What is the long-term goal? The short-term goal is to build an audience around their subject. It doesn’t matter if you only have five people, that’s five more people than you had before you started. Sometimes it only takes one fan to start. A couple of good connections in your business can be what it takes to get it to the next level. Stay engaged in all you do.

Once people have overcome the obstacles you told us about, is there anything else that can create a problem?

Russ Johns: Getting overwhelmed. You know, there’s fear in the process but if people break the process down step-by-step, they see anything can be learned. Think about it like NASA thinks about going to the moon. NASA had a workbook that gave them step-by-step instructions for everything. They tried to cover every contingency and the rest they figured out doing a podcast is no different. It’s a process that you can learn and once you start developing an idea that the message is more important than the process. You start thinking, “I just need to get this out and share it because it’s important”, then people can pick up on it. You come across a transparent and authentic, and that’s attractive to people.

Do you have strategies or tools to help people avoid the obstacles and prevent the problems?

Russ Johns: One of the best ways I have found to help people through video tutorials. I break the process down step-by-step, there are about ten steps. I include bits of information for each step of the way a little more detail so people understand the reason for what they’re doing. If they know what makes an action important, they can create options if they need to. There are 12

many different kinds of podcasts, and I go over those in the videos. There are podcasts that are narration, you talking about a subject. You’re sharing a story and sharing a message. The other kind is an interview style where you’re interviewing somebody that is in your target market and its a little more time. The technology is similar, so there are something’s that you need to learn about that process, so that adds to it. And there are guerrilla podcasts where you can just take your cell phone out and record something impromptu.

Can you share a couple of stories about what you’ve helped your clients achieve?

Russ Johns: Sure! I love sharing success stories, so you may have to stop me or I’ll go on all day.

When I managed the radio stations many of the student-athletes got excellent exposure. They used this exposure to build a relationships with influencers. Those relationships led the recommendations that later helped them get scholarships. When you put yourself out there, you open the door to meeting people who can open doors for you later. Most recently, one of my clients is preparing to launch her book. She’s podcasting to generate interest and support in her launch. Her podcasts are all about her book topic, so it’s giving her a great way to promote her upcoming book without coming across as salesy. She already has a ton of presales just from her listeners, which is generating a lot of excitement around her launch.

Those are great examples! What is the most significant concept for people to take away from reading this? What would you like to tell them?

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Russ Johns: I would say, “You are the media; you have a voice; you have a story; you have a message”.

It’s almost our obligation to gather people’s message, their education, their experiences, and share it with others. Never before in the history of mankind have we had the ability to exchange information as we do right now. There’s a lot of power in sharing knowledge. You don’t know who you’re going to touch. You don’t know who you’re going to impact as a result of this process What would be the first thing that you would tell a reader who is ready to start a podcast?

Russ Johns: Know your “why.” Why do you want to create a podcast and find your audience? Once you know that, you have the thing that will guide your decisions and sustain you when you get discouraged. It takes anywhere from 50-100 episodes turned out on a consistent basis for a podcast to start showing results. I’ve seen people quit after seven episodes because they don't have the sponsors beating down the door. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

The second thing would be, “Shorten your learning curve”. It’s easy to get lost in the sea of information about equipment and buying decisions. I see people get derailed by overwhelm and never get their message out, and that’s a loss to all. There are resources to prevent this. Podcasting is an art that improves as it goes, and there is no right way to produce a show.

It sounds like it would be a good idea to get help with launching a podcast versus going it alone. Could you outline some of those key points again?

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Russ Johns: The biggest reason is what I just mentioned. It's about time and shortening the learning curve. There’s equipment to buy, content to create, and a lot of decisions before a podcast hits the air. So the choices come down to: do it yourself through trial and error or get help from someone who has already done it. Working with a professional eliminates the trial and error. It eliminates the wrong purchases, to get a podcast on the air, producing results, ten times faster than doing it yourself. The second reason is that it gives people an accountability partner and someone to exchange ideas with. A lot of work goes into creating a podcast and there’s a real danger of it being set aside when something else comes up. A professional won’t let their client fall into that trap. Part of his job is to keep the project on course. Having someone to help with ideas is a huge benefit. One of the things my clients tell me all the time is they like my creativity. They like my perspective on the way I approach things. They like having someone to create with, and their podcasts are much more engaging because of it. It’s not just technical; it’s motivational; its helping them dig deep to find their message. Then putting that message into the right words and getting it to the people who need to hear it. Everybody, I believe, has a gift, and my goal is to get this gift out of them and present it in the best light possible and coach them along to get How can the reader find out more about how to do podcasting? Do you have an eBook or a course or something that people can access?

Russ Johns: Well, depending on when this comes out, I’m finishing a course right now. I’m also teaching a workshop at Podcast Movement 2015. I’m showing a step-by-step process of how to launch a podcast and the technology behind that. I also 15

have videos on YouTube. Go to Russ Johns on YouTube. I have videos on podcasting and editing audio in Garage Band, Audacity, and several other platforms. There’s a ton of information out there that I’ve produced that people can use for free.

If someone reading this is ready to get started, how can they connect with you?

Russ Johns: The best way is to just email me russ@russjohns.com and just say hey, I’m ready to get started.

Excellent. Russ, thank you for your time.

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WEBSITE: http://www.futuremediaassociation.com EMAIL: russ@russjohns.com LOCATION: Houston, Texas FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/russell.johns TWITTER: Twitter.com/RussJohnsDotCom LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/nextstepnext

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MARIAN LASALLE

Co-founder, Future Media Association Houston, Texas

Do What you Do Best and Outsource the Rest

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Marian built and ran a Computer Networking Company in 1998 still going today High Standards Technology. She was the Vice President and in charge of all the marketing and growth for the company. Her friend was fired from her IT company job because her mother became very ill and she spent too much time away from work. Her Mother passed away and we soon found out that all of the clients from the old company were begging her to come back. Marian suggested they start their own company so they never had to worry about getting fired again. Marian and her friend started on a shoestring out of their homes and because of the tremendous growth within 6 months they had to move into an office.

Marian sold that business 6 years ago and started a new business developing and monitoring WordPress websites. She soon learned that her clients needed more than a website.

They needed training, marketing and support. Technical and coaching. They created Tools Tips and Technology to offer their clients a package deal so they would get exactly what they need. Marian has 3 coaching programs. A Start Your Business, a Grow Your Business and Group Coaching. She is known as the ‘By Your Side Guide’. She will support you with all the tools and technology you need to get you started, keep you organized and grow as big and as fast as you desire.

Marian has the team in place and the desire to help you spread your gifts to the world.

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Conversation with Marian LaSalle Marian, tell me about your business and the types of customers that you help.

Marian LaSalle: Full Service Technology is about helping small/medium businesses with the tools, technology, and training they need to incorporate all aspects of what we call our Traffic Circle.

The Traffic Circle pulls together aspects of the business Branding, Website Strategy, Social Media Management, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), Email Strategy, and Media Creation Strategy.

Every company should have an internet presence but many small companies do not have the resources or understand how to fully utilize the integration of all of their running systems to create the results they are striving for. We have built a system that brings the technology to these businesses.

Future Media Association, which acts as a subset of Full Service Technology, trains businesses on the importance of Media Creation and use in their business.

What kind of clients do you work with? Describe those clients.

Marian LaSalle: In terms of Future Media Association, our ideal client is a business who needs Media Training. We have a community that provides support to individuals and companies who are here to learn from experts across the globe on the latest and greatest technologies and practices in the Media area. We offer hundreds of lessons, live events, and an online community, coaching and training for Words, Images, Audio and Video.

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Why do your clients want to achieve this outcome that you’re helping them with?

Marian LaSalle: Most people emphasize the social aspect of the word Media. While effective Social Media is important, there are so many other aspects of media that are helpful for a business to employ. I personally believe that video and audio are the future of Content Marketing. Both video and audio production costs have come down and the technology to produce them has become much simpler.

The written word remains a good source for Blogging, White Papers, and E-books. We teach people how to create attractive and "call to action" blog posts and web content. People love pictures - just look at Pinterest and Instagram. Bringing in images to your website posts and pages is a good way to connect with your audience.

So what led you to this field that you’re an expert in?

Marian LaSalle: While with a previous company I co-owned, I wanted a website. I paid a website design company almost $5000 and never received a thing. I didn't get the website and they kept my company name URL in their own name, so I couldn't even claim that. I had to start with a new URL and paid another website company. It started from there; a frustration of not knowing enough about the technology to understand that I was getting ripped off. So I started teaching myself how to build my own website. If I could have known there was someone like me out there that would explain everything without a sales pitch involved, I would have been much better off. I would have saved time and money. So that’s where it all started. I now co-own a website design company as well as Future Media Association.

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Would you say you caught the bug with what you do now when you had that negative experience with the website developer?

Marian LaSalle: Yes, I believe that was one piece that got me into this business in the first place. Another piece is I absolutely love pictures! I love creating a variety of images and graphics and tying them into different forms of Media.

So was there any book or movie or person that has inspired you along the way?

Marian LaSalle: One person who inspired me from the very beginning is Stana Steen from High Standards Technology. She taught me that I can do anything I set my mind to. She taught me to find out what the customers need and give it to them, find a solution to their problem.

What drives you and inspires your passion to help the people that you help?

Marian LaSalle: The people I like to help have a deep passion to get their message out to the world, and that energy, that feeling of satisfaction I get when I’m able to help them take their business and move it forward with a smile on their face is what really drives me.

Okay, good. So what is the most common obstacle preventing your perfect audience from achieving this outcome?

Marian LaSalle: Fear. We have several fears going on here‌.

The biggest one is the fear of technology. Business owners fear 23

that technology is going too fast and they don’t understand how this new technology can help them. They feel they don’t have the time or interest to put into the research and figure it all out, so they ignore it.

They can also have a fear of success. They may feel like they are so busy right now that if they get any busier, they won’t have the time to get it all done and things will start falling through the cracks.

That leads in to the next question - how can the reader or your audience avoid or overcome these fears to successfully achieve a good outcome?

Marian LaSalle: As I talked about earlier, at Future Media Association we bring in experts to help. Help with Words, Images, Audio and Video. We don't expect everyone to become an expert overnight. I know technology can be overwhelming alone, but with a like-minded community, it can become less of a "monster" for people. We love to help people learn and understand the latest things people are using to help grow their business.

We also teach about tools available for keeping their media organized and manageable.

As far as a fear of success... that's a difficult obstacle to overcome. We provide support for our Media community members and act as their cheerleader. People enjoy success - they just need to be reminded that they are allowed to celebrate it.

Excellent. What would be your best piece of advice to your target audience who is considering learning more about how Media can help their business?

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Marian LaSalle: Seek out expert advice and a supportive community for help. People are willing to help - you just have to find the right access to those people and tools that will help you and your business grow. Be willing to learn new things and think of possibilities where you can use these new ideas.

Can you give us an example of that?

Marian LaSalle: Contact us! We welcome everyone who has a desire to create their own Media. Our motto is "You are the Media"; from every phone video captured to the latest podcast, people are bypassing traditional news media and advertising sources and just going for it!

What’s the most important thing that your target audience should think about if they’re looking for someone to help with their Media? What are some of the benefits that they could get from becoming a member of your community?

Marian LaSalle: Technology has changed how we relate to each other and consume information. We can now build relationships with people we may never meet, and access information from a variety of sources. This interconnectedness helps us do more and make better decisions. Our community is very supportive in building relationships around a shared purpose. We learn and share information together and inspire our members to create and work together to solve problems.

We love to engage and help our members build relationships.

Our job is to locate the tools to create the perfect media for their brand and to share their stories in a way that is visually enticing.

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How can your target audience find out more about Future Media Association membership?

Marian LaSalle: We have a website (FutureMediaAssociation.com) with a lot of information, tools, tips, and technology.

Come and check us out. Our membership costs are very reasonable and come with lots of perks. We have a Facebook group and a Tuesday night online Q&A about Media. Connect with us on Social Media, through email, or leave us an audio message through our Speak Pipe on the site.

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WEBSITE: www.futuremediaassociation.com www.toolstipsandtechnology.com EMAIL: marian@toolstipsandtechnology.com LOCATION: Houston, Texas FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/marian.lasalle LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianlasalle

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T. ALLEN HANES

CEO, T. Allen Hanes & Associates Director Public Speakers Association Houston, Texas

Helping YOU Claim Your Authority

Would you like to be seen as the authority, positioned as a person of influence, and become the hunted? T. Allen Hanes helps people become an undisputed authority. He teaches people how to become a best-selling author, he helps them get interviewed by the media, garner celebrity status, and get their phone ringing. He helps authors, speakers, entrepreneurs and coaches who want to get the recognition they 29

deserve. T. Allen Hanes is an International speaker, #1 Best Selling Author, publisher, coach and trainer helping you claim your celebrity status.

Call to action is an inner journey to become something great using the gifts you’ve been given, and T. Allen Hanes realizes each person has the potential to “awaken” their gifts for service to others. He understands you have an inherent set of capabilities that can shine to the world if nurtured the right way. With a passion for growth, he assists entrepreneurs, business owners, authors, speakers and coaches position themselves as a knowledge epicenter and authority in their respective fields. His colleagues titled him with the name “Mr. Incredible” as he and his team developed over 400+ best-selling authors.

T’s productivity demonstrates his zeal and purpose. Currently the CEO of T. Allen Hanes & Associates, he’s been featured on CBS, CNN, NBC, FOX and ABC, USA Today Video and became a 4time International Best-Selling Author. Among other media affiliates, he’s been featured on Forbes, The Miami Herald and Small Business Trend Setters and a contributing author to Mediam.com.

A retired United States Navy Photographer and Video Producer, T Allen has the skills to help you build a professional media profile including podcasts, interviews and testimonials.

Every element of your presence must be accounted for and sharpened, a quintessential professional leader.

He created The Authority Syndicate as a success hub; you enter the syndicate and receive the highest level of coaching and mentoring so you can efficiently reach the best-selling author status. T understands your public persona, opportunities and positioning elevate when you become established as an authority.

You command respect, leadership and take on a role that can

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produce changes in your industry. The network is vast and T. Allen exposes you to the strategies necessary to maintain and increase your position. It’s the little things that count and he will guide you every step of the way.

Clients will quickly experience his coaching style as energetic, fiery and uplifting. He challenges you to look inward for the source of your success. Rigorous sessions make for a ripe selfevaluation that transforms into an action plan you can put to work today.

If you’re seeking a proven, top-grade coach with an extensive skill set, look no further. Contact T. Allen Hanes and begin your new path to claiming your authority now!

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Conversation with T. Allen Hanes Tell me about your business and the types of customers you help. Describe the clients you work with.

T. Allen Hanes: My business is a media and publishing com-

pany. I help entrepreneurs, authors, speakers, and coaches and business owners get the recognition they deserve through publishing and media exposure. I'm currently focusing on military veterans in business who have not had the opportunity to be published or have the effective media exposure that their business needs. Most entrepreneurs are focused on running their business. Marketing sometimes takes a back seat. We help those entrepreneurs, authors, speakers, and coaches use the media and use it effectively so they get third party conversation talking about them versus them talking about themselves and how great they are. We take their information and their news and create a news event and help them get exposure and get the recognition that they deserve.

These business owners, authors and speakers get mass media exposure through feature stories, through press releases by being published through books and being quoted on major networks such as ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox and 27 other sites like Entrepreneur, Huffington Post and Forbes. They are able to, through this media exposure, position themselves as the leader in the marketplace.

What led you to this field and how did you get started in this business?

T. Allen Hanes: Great question. I spent 20 years in service to

our country and retired from the United States Navy in mass 32

communication. During my active duty time, I was a photographer and motion picture cameraman for the United States Navy.

I was able to travel the world and experience worldly events from a military point of view. It was exciting times where I spent time with presidents and celebrities during events held for the military. I was assigned to cover those events and it was great. It was a logical transition from that to what I'm doing now, because it involves publishing, it involves video, and it involves photography.

It was an easy transition for me to move from being in the military and doing it from that aspect to doing it in a civilian world and helping small businesses accomplish the same thing.

I'm a serial entrepreneur as well. I've been a photographer since I was age 13. It had been a great fit for me to help business owners and entrepreneurs get their message out and to be published as well as enable them to create content so they become the leader in the marketplace by simply being a content provider, an educator, and an advocate for their target audience.

One time that sticks out about how I got started dates back to 2010; we were working on a consulting firm in the safety niche. I had a couple of business partners and one of them actually had published a book. When I met him, he immediately handed me that book. I was so impressed by the fact that, one, he was published and two, he's handing me this book when we meet. It was like a business card; however, the book itself was not about business. The book was about deer hunting. I was so set back by the fact that this gentleman had a book because most people don't believe that they can write and book or be published and use that tool to be an effective marketing piece for them.

I became very excited. I loved the fact that he had given me a book when we met. I made a mental note, which was back 33

in 2010, and I made a mental note that I was going to publish a book. I had no idea how to do it but I was going to figure it out.

My other partner stated when I figure it out, he has all these books in his head and he wants to publish a book. My actual first publishing assignment or publishing task was for a colleague of mine back in 2010. I immersed myself on figuring out how to publish a book; so once I published his and gave it to him, he was so elated and excited. I got such an endorphin rush by doing it for him that I was hooked at that point.

I went on to publish several books, not only for him but for myself. Believe me, there was a lot of trial and error and a lot of failure involved with it, but we continued to press on. That was the moment that I was hooked on how to publish books.

Is there a short story about a specific time or event when you caught the bug to do what you do? This might include a book, a movie, or a person that inspired you and talk about what drives you and your passion to do what you do and help people. Simply stated: What led you to this field?

T. Allen Hanes: I have read several books in my lifetime. I encourage the listener, the reader, to read self-improvement books as well. The first book that I really read was Donald Trump, "The Art of the Deal". I read that when I was a senior in high school. At that point, I realized that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. But I can remember way back when I was in 2nd grade looking out the window and thinking that there's got to be more than what they're teaching us here in school.

I was a dreamer. I was actually set back as a daydreamer in 2nd grade. I was on a mission. I kept searching or I wanted to search out the truth and what life was really supposed to be

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about. I read Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal. I started a subscription to Entrepreneur magazine and started reading Entrepreneur magazine and all of its stories. That inspired me.

Also, one of the early self-improvement books that I read was Charles Givens on Super-Self. How to Super-Self Your Life and how to control time and how to effectively manage your time so you can accomplish things that you need to do to become an entrepreneur. That was probably the biggest book that affected me and my mindset about being an entrepreneur. I mastered several of the techniques Givens taught in Super-Self.

I gave up cutting grass or cutting a lawn maybe 10-15 years ago because it was cheaper for me to pay someone to do it for me versus me doing it because of the time/value relationship.

Reading Charles Givens' book on Super-Self, gives you value for your time. You trade time for money and you figure out exactly what you can give up that's costing you money. If you think your self-worth is $100 an hour and you have a task like changing your oil, cutting your grass, washing your cars, if you can get that done for less than $100 an hour, then you should have somebody else do it. I learned that valuable lesson early on.

I effectively started eliminating those tasks from my life and using that time to not only improve myself, but to create products and opportunities and publish.

Talk about what drives you and your passion to do what you do to help the people that you work with.

T. Allen Hanes: I give credit to my mother for the passion and the drive to help people. My mother was a big inspiration to me.

Unfortunately, she had to drop out of school early to help her parents make ends meet. She had to get a job. She used to tell me those stories. When she went to get her first job, she was 35

persistent. She never gave up. She would tell me, she'd walk in there every day and talk to the manager about getting a job.

She was just relentless. She wouldn't give up. He basically gave her the job because she was consistent and she wouldn't give up. I also remember as far back as 5 years old my mother would iron clothes for the wealthy for .10 apiece. She would make enough to buy dinner for us. I inherited that from my mother. I just wonder at times if she had gotten a mentor or someone else that was outside her circle, if she had been mentored early on, then she really, really would have some great things happen to her.

My mother worked in a grocery store. She was cashier.

She always excelled at what she did. She was always a leader.

She was always confident. She was always out there. It goes back to the old saying, "If you're the person with the broom, you're going to be the best broom-pusher. My mother was the best cashier on the team. She got promoted to head cashier and other achievements like that.

That gives me my drive, my internal drive. My father was an athlete. He played sports most of his high school life and in the military. I inherited that from him. That gives me my competitive edge. At an early age, I was able to experience winning; in the 8th grade, my parents made a decision to take me out of public school because, one, I was being distracted, two, I was being bullied.

They put me in a private school where there was a sports program; a private Catholic school. That's where I excelled. Once I'd became involved in organized sports, I got involved with being a part of a team and moving in the direction of winning and a winning mindset. That really was a turning point in my life so I want to honor my parents for making that decision because they

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couldn't afford it but they made it work. I'm very grateful for that.

At an early age, we were winning football championships.

I was also a wrestler. In 8th grade, I was a heavyweight champion. I pinned my opponent in 43 seconds. I had some individual championships and I love the feeling of winning and I love the feeling of being a champion. I went on to high school and excelled in football. I started micro-specializing, which is what I teach as I just focused on one sport and did well at it. I was very excited about the outcome. We won the city championships several years while I was playing football.

I attribute the passion that I have from my parents’ passion to help others and get them to see the things that they are capable of. I talk about awakening in my #1 best-selling book, Bold with less brown and 13 other entrepreneurs. It was awakening to realize that you have this value and you have a message.

You were put on this planet to help people and share your message to the world. That's what gives me the passion and drive.

What is the most common obstacle preventing business owners or entrepreneurs, speakers and coaches from achieving this media and authority positioning?

T. Allen Hanes: Authority marketing goes all the way back to Benjamin Franklin. One reason why he was an authority was because his brother owned the only newspaper printing company in the new colonies. That in itself, being a publisher, is key to being an authority. If you look on my LinkedIn profile, I tell the story about Benjamin Franklin and the famous story about the Kite and the Key. The truth is, is that really didn't happen. Benjamin Franklin was positioned as the authority because he was writing 37

articles in his brother's newspaper under a pen name. Basically, he told the story about that Kite and Key. Everybody assumed that it was him that did it and it was actually a Frenchman that had done it.

Being an authority requires you to be a publisher or be an author. The first part of authority is author. A lot of people get hung up on the fact they have to write things. That's furthest from the truth. You just have to have some idea or some mental concept of the messages you want to put out there. There are people that can help you do that. They can help you create that content for you so you, literally, do not have to write that content.

A lot of people get hung up on that. There is a solution for that. That's what we help people with; getting over that hang up of, "Wow! Do I really have to sit down and write something?"

However, if you can think and have a complete thought on an idea, we help people bring that thought out so they can actually produce written content.

A lot of people get hung up on the fact that writing books is a challenge; that they have to write the entire book and get it published. They just can't seem to get past that. We make it really easy for people to publish. We take one problem, one solution and publish that content, which positions those people as the authority, as the expert because an authority provides solutions to problems. Obviously, if you're not being talked about and you're not published and you're not speaking and not out there, then you can't possibly be looked at as the authority and the leader in your marketplace.

What's the biggest misconception that people might be having to achieve the outcome of being the authority?

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T. Allen Hanes: One of the biggest misconception is you have to know it all. That's furthest from the truth. Most people do not, not even experts, perceived experts, they do not know everything about, say, finances. Look at Dave Ramsey. Dave Ramsey doesn't know or he's not the know all of everything about finance. The reason why he's successful is because he's microspecialized. He's talking to a specific group of people. Those people are Christians that want to get out of debt. Those are the only people he's talking to.

Does he know about investing? Does he know about Wall Street? Does he know about real estate? No. He is talking about how you can get out of debt on a daily basis with your expenses and with your income. He's talking to Christians and Churches and he's the perceived expert in that space. One of the biggest misconceptions is that you have to know it all. That's not the truth.

Another misconception is that you have to be in a space for a certain amount of time. Generally, most people think 10,000 hours of a topic usually makes you an expert. But the truth is, if you know just a little bit more than your target audience, you are, in fact, the expert in that niche.

What would be the biggest pitfall that people might not be aware of when they are positioning themselves as an authority?

T. Allen Hanes: The biggest pitfall in positioning is to make sure that your content is from the position of an educator and an advocate. Versus always saying buy my stuff! Providing content that clearly helps people and has a considerable amount of value is the key. Some people put content out there where they're afraid to give it away. The key now is to give away your

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best content and show them how they can relieve the pain that they're experiencing without them paying you for that content.

Of course, if you're the expert and you know how to accomplish something from A to B, and they can get it done within 3 months versus 3 years, then you're the expert and you're the one that's going to be able to get him or her there and you're going to be able to charge more for that because they have no resistance to getting to what they want. You have to have a mindset of, "I can get you from here to here in this amount of time to relive your pain." That's what they're looking for.

They're looking for you to help them get the solution that they want quickly. Some of the biggest pitfalls are authorities or business owners and entrepreneurs that are afraid to share their valuable content. In fact, it is just the opposite. Get up there and share what you know, then, you'll be able to attract people to you and be the expert. I always tell the story about, that if you are looking for a contractor that's going to remodel your bathroom, you immediately go to your circle of influence and ask for a referral.

You get the name, maybe it's a person from the Church or somebody within your group. Once you give the referral, you say, "Hey, this guy is a great guy. He does great work. He comes highly recommended." What do you do? You go to Dr. Google and you type that name in. By the way, this is a writer downer.

People are going to search for your name. They're not going to search for your company.

When you're in a networking event and they meet you, they're going to immediately search your name. What are they going to find? That's the question.

When they search for that person's name, they might only find a LinkedIn profile that hasn't been updated since 2009.

Maybe they'll find some social media that you're not active on.

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They find very little. Maybe they'll find the Yelp review and its 3 stars or something like that.

Here's the million dollar question. When they search the name, what are they going to find? While they're searching for that name, they come across another local person who has his own television show, who has his own digital magazine, who's providing content and videos basically showing you step-by-step on how to remodel your bathroom. He's the perceived leader.

You're going to pick that person over the other because he's showing you how to relieve your pain and providing you valuable content. That's the difference. That's how you break yourself out; become a thought leader and become a leader in your marketplace.

How can someone avoid or overcome this obstacle to successfully achieve the outcome of the go to person in there market?

T. Allen Hanes: Business owners, entrepreneurs, authors, speakers and coaches have to consistently be in the news. They have to consistently be providing information where 3rd party people are talking about them. That's where I come in. I'm that 3rd party person who's going to talk about you and your successes versus you out there talking about yourself.

Third party conversations or third party promotion goes a long way; much more than self-promotion. That's the obstacle that a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners face because they don't have that going on for them. They're so into their business. They're making payroll. They're making sure they got products or handling customers in the day-to-day operation.

They're working in their business versus working on their business.

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This solution that I provide is definitely a process of working on your business. Because you have 3rd party people talking about your successes and talking about your news events. When a brick and mortar business owner gets published, and then becomes a best-selling author, that's a news event for your customers and your clients to see. Then a news release is released on that and you're telling the world; not only have you become published, but now you're a best-selling author. That's powerful. That's how they can overcome their positioning in the marketplace and separate themselves from the “me too� businesses and then you became the clear leader in the marketplace.

I arranged a feature story on one of my clients; she was an event planner. A client that she was currently working for saw the article on social media. Her client saw the article and basically apologized to her for questioning her fee that she was charging for the event. He basically told her that he didn't realize her standing and he thought that she was a fledgling event planner and in fact, that she wasn't. At once, after he saw her story, he realized that she was very successful and she was being interviewed in a 3rd party article.

That's just one example. We have created over 400 bestselling authors since we started a little over a year and a half ago.

Every one of those authors has experienced more speaking engagements. They'd been able to raise their prices.

One of my clients I commented on before caters to high end real estate agents. Our target was Forbes. Then, once we published the article, he got picked up by Huffington Post at the same time. He got a double whammy on his quote. He was immediately able to raise his prices because of the fact that he was being quoted in major publications.

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What would your best piece of advice be for those who are considering being positioned as the authority or go to expert in the market?

T. Allen Hanes: As I talk about the nine steps to claiming your authority in your marketplace, find someone that will tell your story. Find someone that will get you published either quoted on a major magazine, such as Entrepreneur, Inc., Huffington Post or others. You have to start somewhere. That's the difference. I always tell the story of Barbara Corcoran when she started. She got quoted in the New York Times about how the condominium prices in New York were at an all-time high.

She was able to do a report that she sent to the New York Times editors, and they picked it up. They quoted her in The New York Times. That got the attention of Donald Trump and they went on to do joint ventures and real estate over the 30-year period that she was in the business. She sold that firm for $66 million that she started for $1,000. PR is important. It's very effective once it's done right. The key is that you have to get started.

One of the 9 steps that we teach is being published; getting your book published. We make it real easy for you to do so.

You want to separate yourself immediately in the marketplace with a published a book and then we take you through the 9 steps in a done for you fashion.

What's the first thing that someone should do if they're ready to start claiming their authority?

T. Allen Hanes: Back to my last statement; give us a call and let us help you tell your story. Let's get your interviewed. Talk about your feature story. Publish your feature story. It all starts there. It's a process. We go through the 9 steps. If you connect 43

with me on LinkedIn, I'll send you those 9 steps. You can connect with me at www.tallenhanes.com on LinkedIn and I'll send you the 9 steps on what's required to claim your authority and be a person of influence within your marketplace.

What's the most important thing a business owner or entrepreneur should think about if they're about to start claiming their authority?

T. Allen Hanes: Claiming your authority is about being genuine and being authentic to your target audience and having a connection with them. It is about providing clients with the solution for their problems. You have to come across that way. Don't be afraid to give something away. Give your best content in the form of videos, in the form of white papers, in the form of blog posts. You will automatically draw people to you and they'll want to do business with you.

How can the reader find out more about how to do business with you and get started claiming their authority?

T. Allen Hanes: If you're ready to claim your authority, the best thing you can do is go to immediatecelebrtiystatus.com and look at my webpage. You'll see a questionnaire at the top about applying for your authority breakthrough session. I encourage you to go there. Again, connect with me on LinkedIn as well at tallenhanes.com. I'll send you some information on how to begin claiming your authority.

That's the best way you can reach me. You can also call me at 281-910-8728 to make an immediate connection. Also, I encourage to go the scheduler at www.meetallenhanes.info.

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We'll schedule a 30-minute authority breakthrough session, absolutely free. We can get you started on the journey of claiming your authority.

As a bonus, for reading this, once you connect with me, I'll give a digital copy of my #1 best-selling book, "Bold: Helping You Unleash the Hero Within". I'll send you a digital copy of that.

I'll also send you Step-by-Step instructions on how you can be featured on a major media site this afternoon and I'll send that to you for free as well. Act now and go there and check those out. I look forward to connecting with you and helping YOU claim your authority.

Awesome! Thank You!

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WEBSITE: http://www.immediatecelebritystatus.com EMAIL: tracyahanes@gmail.com LOCATION: Houston, TX FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/tracy.hanes1 LINKEDIN: LinkedIn.com/in/tallenhanes Connect with me and I will give you a FREE guide on how to be on a major media network very quickly as a contributor. Indicate that you found me through this book.

TWITTER: Twitter.com/tallenhanes

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TONYA HOFMANN

CEO, Public Speakers Association Austin, Texas

Changing the World from the Front of the Room

Tonya believes in showing her audiences throughout the world how to develop such areas as unique brands, multiple income streams throughout their business, sales and leveraged connections.

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She gives her audience new ideas and help them transform their bottom line to grow and explode their business immediately following the presentation! “I don’t just talk it, I help you walk it!” is not just a slogan but a code of conduct and ethics. Each presentation is designed to give her audience the maximum exposure to the ideas and formulas that anyone can turn around and implement.

Tonya is the CEO and Founder of the Public Speakers Association! She launched the organization in January of 2013 and now enjoys visiting her chapters across the US and Canada. She is well known and sought after across the globe as a Keynote, Motivational, Emcee, Trainer, Workshop Presenter or whatever it takes to meet someone new and change someone's life! She has two rules for her organization and life... Only Nice People Allowed and Only Imperfect People Please!

She is a multi-book author with her book "A Client A Day the Coffee Shop Way!" and the PSA's Compilation book "Change Your World"! She speaks on this topic which covers finding, receiving, closing and keeping new clients! Tonya found that most people getting into business for the first time or even a great sales position comes across the dreaded "I've gone through all my family and friends: Now what!" time. Tonya gently walks her readers through a step by step process and even gives incredible bonus segments to help with personal development.

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Conversation with Tonya Hofmann Tell me about your business and the type of clients or customers you help.

Tonya Hofmann: Speaking is the ultimate marketing package

for anybody’s business. And that’s really how we help people connect to their ideal client. It is all about “Changing the World from the Front of the Room”™ If you have an amazing product or service and you don’t go out and sign them up, then you are doing a major injustice by not helping that person. You MUST change their life and benefit society by embracing all that is good that you can offer. That is my mission in my business is to create true momentum for people.

Speaking is key for a business owner. What is the outcome or the result that your model helps your ideal client achieve?

Tonya Hofmann: We especially help in marketing because

there’s no way for people to know who you and how you can help them if they’ve never heard of you. We love seeing our members grow their recognition and get their message out to the world.

We also help people find speaking opportunities. So when I find out about an opportunity, I shoot it out to all the members so that they can look at that opportunity and see if it’s a right fit for them. It also gives them an opportunity to see what people are actually booking for.

A lot of it is education and knowledge of what is actually happening in the world. For a lot of what we do, it is a multi-faceted approach. We do a lot of education. We find that people may have had some speaking training in the past but they haven’t figured out how to do the business of speaking, you know, how do 49

you really go out and market yourself in a way that produces sales, produces a database that turns into sales, and produces the celebrity status that you need in order to get booked. We have two membership levels, one for those who want to super charge their speaking and receive a lot of marketing and promotion and the other is for those just starting out who wants to take things a bit slower.

Perfect. What led you to this field of speaking?

Tonya Hofmann: I’ve been an entrepreneur my whole life since I was 25, and in 2005, I launched my next set of businesses and it was going to be an online marketing platform for small businesses.

Well, I found the world of networking. No one told this natural introvert that she had to stand up in front of lovely people and smile and say her name and what she does. I saw the reaction that a speaker would receive when he/she would stand up in front of 20 people for 30 minutes and talk about their business or a concept and would be so excited to hear them speak and it would drive sales to the speaker. I knew at that point that I had to get over my fears no matter how difficult it was going to be because I knew it was going to be a long journey. I set out to overcome every one of my fears and, of course, public speaking was at the very top of that.

The first time I spoke was in front of 5 lovely ladies who all loved me and I was shaking and shivering and couldn’t handle being in front of 5 people smiling at me. I thought, this is ridiculous, I am 38 years old; I have got to get over this. Now its 10 years later and I’m running around the world speaking and I don’t care how many people are in front of me. It all can be done, you’ve just got to start that momentum.

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That’s awesome. What is the most common obstacle preventing someone from achieving this outcome?

Tonya Hofmann: The one thing that keeps people from being extremely successful especially in the speaking world is not sticking to it long enough and really changing themselves. You have to constantly adjust who you are, so you have to personally grow, personally develop yourself and your business. It’s about putting yourself around very fast-moving, very interactive people that can be a challenge to be around because they push you out of your comfort zone.

The reason I find that most people are not successful is because they want to stay comfortable. They want to stay in their comfort zone. And if you stay in your comfort zone, nothing progresses, nothing moves and then pretty soon you quit because nothing’s actually changing. It’s about taking action. Action equals action.

If you want things to really progress for you, you’ve got to not only change who you are, you and your core value proposition, but alter and develop who you want to become. You have to change in order to move forward. If there are fears, you’ve got to get through the fears. If there’s development; such as websites and social media, and there are so many moving parts to it just like in any business, then you have to stick to your guns and sell. If you don’t create sales then it will lead you back to I-needa-job job because I’m not making any money.

Get out of your comfort zone, talk to strangers, and then actually go for the sale, because those are people that are waiting for you to change their lives and there’s no way you can change their lives if they don’t buy your product or your service. Get out there and make a sale today.

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What’s the biggest misconception that someone may have about being a speaker and them being the expert or authority on a topic?

Tonya Hofmann: There are a lot of people that say they are not an extrovert. A lot of times people think they have to be the ultimate expert in their field and that is not true. You need to be about two steps ahead of your audience. If you are talking about Facebook, or whatever the subject is, you just need to know a little bit more than everybody else in the audience and now you are the expert. You don’t have to be an extrovert, especially since most of the big speakers are actually introverted; they’re scared, they’re timid, and it actually helps if you have that vulnerability because you are more relatable. A lot of people think that they have to be a certain type of person in order to make this actually happen, and that is not true. It’s about jumping out there and making it happen for yourself.

What’s the biggest pitfall that someone might not be aware of? Perhaps a common problem facing your perfect prospect.

Tonya Hofmann: I think a major pitfall is the feeling they should be doing certain things. A lot of times people are so busy being busy that they are not moving forward. They have to have the perfect website; they have to have the perfect social media presence and they have to have all the graphics done before they actually launch, before they’ll go out and sell. In reality, that will actually keep you from moving forward. Every business I’ve ever created, I didn’t even have the website finished when I started selling. I never had the full concept lined out before I started selling because there is no reason to go and create something completely if you don’t know it’s going to sell. When people put 52

down hard cash, you know it’s a great idea and it’s a great product or service. Don’t get in your own way by thinking you are doing all these activities so it looks like you are working really hard but the only thing that matters is that it ends up being a sale at the end of the day. If you can’t sell it, you’re not in business.

How can someone avoid or overcome these obstacles to successfully achieve the outcome of speaking in front of audiences?

Tonya Hofmann: Get out of your own way. Stop having a perfectionist mentality; it will keep you from doing everything.

Good is always good enough. Just get moving and you’ve got to put yourself into uncomfortable situations. When you’re looking for perfection, perfection will always drive the opportunity to succeed away from you.

Realistically, nobody really cares. It’s all about what’s in it for them. It’s not ever about what you’re doing. There’s a sense of things having to be a little bit polished, but realistically, if they love what you’re saying, if they love what you’re doing, they don’t care if the ‘there’ is not the ‘their’ they are expecting, They understand what you’re trying to say; just send out the emails, post on social media, and create the websites. Simply get it up there, create the sales forms and then go and sell, go and sell, and go and sell.

What is one of the best ways that you have helped customers with public speaking in the past?

Tonya Hofmann: When I created the Public Speakers Association that was my focus because I didn’t find other groups that were out there that were focused on the business of speaking.

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So there was this huge lack in the business world. People can easily make 6 and 7 figures in the speaking world but it’s not about the speaking. It’s about getting yourself into the marketing platform. You’re utilizing speaking for your marketing purposes. It’s about how you develop a business where speaking is a component, so that it leans you toward finding the right people for you; the amazing target market that is waiting for you.

A lot of times, we think our target market is one thing until we start speaking and we start seeing who naturally gravitates to us. If you’re always trying to get a certain group to like you and to want to do business with you and they just aren’t coming, you need to switch.

You need to find who you actually attract and that’s how you’re in business. That’s how you start developing an amazing presence and you start attracting those places that want you to come and speak and market yourself because they see the value in you because you’re actually talking their language. Sometimes it’s a surprise. Sometimes we’re not expecting who our target market is because we wouldn’t have naturally selected that group. I always find I attract analytical people and I’m far from being analytical but I guess opposites attract.

You’re right. Awesome! Now go into a little bit more about a specific example of somebody facing the obstacle and how they could avoid that obstacle. What was the result that your business helped them achieve even with unpleasant circumstances that you’ve helped them with.

Tonya Hofmann: There is a lady... She’s amazing; she does all kinds of graphic work for print, for websites, and when I met her speakers were a great target market, so she got involved with the Public Speakers Association. I told her she would be a great 54

speaker but she felt like, she was not a speaker. She was so unwavering that she would never stand in front of people. She’s a larger woman and she has a tendency like a lot of people to think that the way they look is going to keep them from being on stage.

Slowly I encouraged her to get out there and just do it and try it and she got the bug like a lot of people do because they realize it’s not about the way you look. It’s not about anything that we think it is inside of our head. It’s not the size of our nose; it’s not whatever it is that you’re thinking of. She got out there and she’s now flying around all over the country speaking. Her business has exploded and she’s really using the Public Speakers Association not as just a platform for her own business, because speakers are a great target market for her, but she’s starting to realize how big the market actually is and how many lives she can actually change by getting out of her own way and getting out of her little small city that she lives in.

What would be your best piece of advice to the reader who is considering being a speaker?

Tonya Hofmann: To all of those amazing people reading this that you are already a speaker; you open your mouth and people listen. There is also nothing better than utilizing other people’s people so it’s all about building a database to create sales. Speakers naturally have a large database or are collecting a large database.

It’s easy to develop great relationships with other speakers, so that you hear about great opportunities, develop the JV partnerships that you need to create, collaborative partnerships, and all of this means that you’re going to help each other. There is nothing more important in any industry that you’re in, than to find people that are actually in your industry, that are successful, 55

that move you forward and you go to the conferences that they are all hanging out at. Obviously, the Public Speakers Conference is a huge one because all the speakers are right there that are willing to help and lend not only an ear but a helping hand and that’s really what you want to look for.

What’s the first thing that the reader should do if they are ready to be a speaker?

Tonya Hofmann: The Public Speakers Association will walk you there step-by-step. We walk you through a process every single day to get it all done. Now you can just go out and it’s all finished and you feel like you’ve really accomplished something.

Then you get the education that you need to move forward, how you’re going to make titles, how you’re going to wow your audience but be relatable, how you’re going to make products for back-of-the-room sales.

PSA actually gives you the education that helps you create and do all of that. It also gives you great connections and practice opportunities. If we have a chapter near you, we would love to have you come in and practice because that’s really what it’s about. It’s getting out there and actually trying things. If you’re already a speaker, great. We would be so excited to get to know you and help market you more, sending you to those speaking opportunities so that you can apply for them. We obviously have a lot of speaking opportunities within the association.

We do a virtual summit every single month so that you get to be a speaker on the summit and give a live presentation and it’s recorded so that people can listen to your message over and over and over again with your information at the end so they’re contacting you for sales or marketability or just to book you to speak some place. We want to help you move yourself in the 56

right direction and go out there and really change lives because that’s what it’s all about. You need to go out and change those people’s businesses, their lives, their relationships, whatever your specialty is.

Awesome! How can the reader find out more about how to join your organization? What’s the best way for them to learn more about your organization? And if the reader thinks they might be ready to, how can they connect?

Tonya Hofmann: Go to PublicSpeakersAssociation.com and we have a game you could play. It helps you decide if this is an association that’s right for you. We have a speaker’s assessment so it helps you decide where you are in the scheme of things and then we have a whole page under our membership info tab that is all about our membership options. We’re not just an organization that you just go and you network and you’re done. We are incredibly proactive so it really is about helping you make those adjustments and transform your life to go out there and to really get booked and become the speaker that you want to be.

We have a contact us page and we want you to contact us. I love talking to people and helping them figure out what they need to do. What the first steps are. It’s just about getting involved and then we immediately send you all the past speaking opportunities; we send you all of the educational modules, all the forms to fill out so that you can get started and marketing yourself.

Awesome! Thank You!

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WEBSITE: http://www.publicspeakersassociation.com EMAIL: tonya@publicspeakearsassociation.com LOCATION: Austin, TX FACEBOOK: Facebook.com/TonyaHoffman LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyahofmann TWITTER: Twitter.com/tonyahofmann

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DR. JOE VITALE

Self-help Singer/Songwriter Best Selling Author Star of the movie The Secret Austin, Texas

Expect Miracles with Self Help Music

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Dr. Joe Vitale is the author of way too many bestselling books to mention here. Some of them include The Attractor Factor, Life's Missing Instruction Manual, The Key, Faith, Attract Money Now and his latest is a sequel to his bestseller, Zero Limits which was officially launched in January 2014, entitled At Zero. Joe has also been in several movies, including the blockbuster The Secret. He's been on the following TV shows: Larry King Live, Donny Deutsch's “The Big Idea,” CNN, CNBC, CBS, ABC, Fox News: Fox & Friends and Extra TV. He's also been featured in The New York Times and Newsweek.

One of his most recent accomplishments includes being the world's first self-help singer-songwriter as seen in 2012's Rolling Stone Magazine®. To date, he has released 6 albums! Several of his songs were recognized and nominated for the Posi Award, regarded as “The Grammys of Positive Music.” According to Succeed Magazine, Dr. Joe Vitale is one of the five top marketing specialists in the world today and is known to his readers, customers, and seminar attendees as the world's first hypnotic writer. Joe is also a certified hypnotherapist, a certified metaphysical practitioner, a certified Chi Kung healer, a certified Reiki Master, and an ordained minister. He also holds a doctorate degree in Metaphysical Science and another doctorate degree in Marketing. Joe is also a proud member of the National Speakers Association.

He created a Miracles Coaching® program and helps people achieve their dreams by understanding the deeper aspects of the law of attraction and the law of right action. This man was once homeless but today is a bestselling author who believes in magic and miracles.

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Conversation with Dr. Joe Vitale Dr. Joe, again thanks for joining us today. We’re going to talk about what you do, as far as your music, and how it helps people who listen to it.

Dr. Joe Vitale: Well, I’m glad that you said music because that

helps narrow down what I do. I do so many things, it’s ridiculous.

They say cats have 9 lives. Well, from a business standpoint, I have at least 9 different variations of me; musician is the latest and greatest. What I’m trying to do is introduce myself as the world’s first self-help singer/songwriter. And the goal is to create music that actually influences people on their mental and physiological level.

I’m creating tunes and lyrics that are almost like musical affirmations. They’re designed to give people a boost, give them an optimistic, positive view of life, give them the adrenaline they need to go and work on their projects, give them something that they can repeat in their head or listen to as many times as they want, just to keep them moving forward, just to keep them growing and stretching and reaching and accomplishing. That’s between my singer/songwriter albums and the more instrumental, relaxing, healing music, I’m coming from both sides doing my best to help people achieve their goals, their dreams, and their desires.

Excellent! What led you to this field or what led you to transition to what you’re doing now?

Dr. Joe Vitale: Well, this is an extension of what I’ve already

been doing in my life. Most people know me as a self-help teacher because I was in the movie The Secret and I’ve written a lot of books, like The Attractor Factor and Zero Limits and The 61

Key. So they see me as a self-help author, a spiritual teacher, through my books. But along the way, I really got interested in music and was confused and even disappointed that so much popular music actually programs people for lack, limitation, and the very opposite of what I teach.

One of my favorite examples is if you ever tell yourself, “I can’t get what I want or I can’t get no satisfaction”, you can thank the Rolling Stones. They’ve been singing that into us since 1960something and we listen to that kind of music and we don’t think about it programming us, but it is. Those wonderful lyrics, those catchy tunes, those melodies are making it easy for our mind to absorb negative messages.

Now obviously, not all music is like that, but when I looked around, I started listening to music, and I thought this isn’t right.

This is another way to change minds and help people achieve more of what they want, to attract more of what they desire. So I just shifted direction, in a way, and I recreated myself in the most dramatic way, and I thought I’m going to use everything that I write about, everything that I speak about, and turn it into music and start to create these 3-minute self-help songs that, I thought if they were good enough and people listened to them, they would change themselves on a very basic level and they’d start to be happier. They’d start to be healthier. They would start to achieve and attract more of what they really wanted. And instead of saying they can’t always get what they want, they’d start thinking to themselves, “I can get whatever I want”, all because of music making a difference in their lives. So I re-created myself as a musician, and to be more specific, I started telling people I’m the world’s first self-help singer/songwriter. There may be other ones out there, but I’m the only one I know of saying it.

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I also attracted a team that was better than me at music, since I’m a newbie at music. I got Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drummer, Joe Vitale, who has the same name as me, to come in and be my drummer. He’s been the drummer for Joe Walsh and a long list of rock and roll legends since the 1970’s. I got Glenn Fukunaga, who is the bass player for the Dixie Chicks and for Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin and many other greats. I got Daniel Barrett, who is the lead singer for Porter Davis, an award-winning band, to engineer, produce and support me in creating this music. So I put a team around me of greats, and together, we’re making this music that is self-help, positive-oriented, and again, it’s simply an extension of what I’ve already been doing, but in a brand new field, music.

Beautiful! Can you remember or can you include a short story about a specific event or time where you were nudged in that direction? Was there a specific time that that happened?

Dr. Joe Vitale: Well, interesting enough, I think watching the movie Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. I was getting older, around the age of 57, I remember thinking I’ve achieved so much in my life. I’ve gone through homelessness, I’ve gone through poverty, I’ve gone into the lifestyle of the rich and famous, I have guitars, I have cars, I have a long list of successes, I have achieved and attracted so much. What’s next for me? What’s on my bucket list?

I thought of that movie and I thought of that wonderful phrase, “bucket list”. I’ve always wanted to play the guitar. I’ve always wanted to be able to write music. But I never did it. I had a couple of guitars, I started collecting guitars, but I couldn’t really play them. I never sang, not even in the shower. I didn’t write

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music at all, never tried to write music, never tried to record anything. I played a little harmonica and that was about the extent of it. So at the age of 57, I looked around and said, well, what else do I want to do? Well, I’ve always wanted to be a musician.

And I took a deep breath and big gulp and thought, “oh my God, I don’t even know how. I don’t know where to begin”, but I decided.

I did the very thing I teach everybody to do. State an intention. And I declared my intention, I am going to write, record, and perform my own music, my original songs. I’m going to write, I’m going to sing, I’m going to record them in the studio, I’m going to come out with an album. And then, of course, I started taking action, which is the next thing you have to do. But I was doing all of this to bring to light something on my bucket list. I think that was really the turning point for me is when I stopped and said what do I want to do, what’s next for me or what would I regret if I got to the end and looked back and said, oh, I never did this. Well, for me, it would’ve been music.

That’s inspiring. Could you just mention a few of those that have inspired you along the way?

Dr. Joe Vitale: There have been so many people who have inspired me and have been kind to me that it’s a long list and it’s a humbling list.

Even when I was a kid, you’re talking about way before the internet, way before I’ve done anything noteworthy, I was interested in magic and I wrote to John Mulholland. He was a famous magician. He knew Houdini and Houdini’s wife and he wrote books on magic. He published a magic magazine. I wrote to him and asked for advice. And he wrote back a 2-page letter that I still have today from 1970. It was very inspiring because it was 64

so honest to a person he never knew, he never met, never was going to meet.

I had the same thing happen over and over. When I wanted to be a boxer, and believe it or not, I wanted to be a prize-fighter at one point, Jack Dempsey, one of the world’s greatest early heavyweight boxing champions, was still alive in the 1970’s. I wrote to him and he wrote back. I still have an autographed photo from Jack Dempsey, who was answering this unknown kid’s questions. He inspired me.

I can go on and on. A lot of the authors that I read. E. B. White, who wrote all these great children’s books and was co-author of the famous Style Manual: The Elements of Writing, THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE, he wrote back to me when I wrote to him. He was 90 years old at that time. 90 years old and he writes me back to answer my questions about what it takes to be an author. So all of these people inspired me, and I’m a little teary-eyed to reflect on it, because I never met them, they never knew me. They were doing it out of the kindness of their heart.

I’ve read all kinds of books. I mean I’m a book nerd. I am a book-a-holic. All those authors, most of whom I never met, like P. T. Barnum. That man inspired me, his marketing genius, his publicity know-how, his entrepreneurial wizardry. They all inspired me.

When I wanted to be a copywriter in Houston I read copywriting books. I was living in Houston at that time, I wrote to copywriters, like Bob Bly. He’s written 50-some books he didn’t know me at all. Again, this is all before the internet. I still have the letters that he wrote back to me, inspiring me and teaching me and guiding me to become a copywriter.

This has happened repeatedly. Some of this, we can applaud me, because I reached out and wrote to these different people hoping they can help. But a large part of this, we want to applaud them with a standing ovation, because many of them reached 65

out to me and responded to me, not knowing me, never knowing me, never getting paid, never getting acknowledgement, never knowing that I would turn into anything and talk about them on a call or interview like this. So there’s a long, long, long, long list of people who have inspired me and I am truly teary-eyed to think about it right now.

Well, that’s awesome and thanks for sharing that with us. Just one thing I’d like to share with you. Everybody I talk to who knows you, says something along the line of, “he’s the kindest man I’ve ever met”.

Dr. Joe Vitale: Oh gee.

What is that passion that fuels you to help people?

Dr. Joe Vitale: I firmly believe that my mission on earth, my life calling, is to inspire people to go forward and achieve their dreams. This is something that evolved in clarity over time because when I was growing up, I don’t think I ever thought about inspiring other people. I, like most people, was wrestling with what do I want to do? What do I want to be? What’s my future holding for me? That’s why I thought of everything from being a magician to being a prize-fighter to being an author to being an actor to being an attorney.

I went through all kinds of things, trying to explore myself. As I grow and mature, as I try things, and get feedback from the world itself on what I’m doing and what’s working, it’s become very clear that my only mission on this planet is to inspire people.

I get to do it through my writing, through my speaking, through my personal interactions with people, and of course, through music. I’m very lucky that I can express that through many different avenues. When we get right down to it and push comes 66

to shove and you ask, “what’s your mission” it’s to inspire people to go forward and achieve their dreams. That’s it.

Nice. What do you believe is the most common obstacle preventing people from achieving their dreams?

Dr. Joe Vitale: Well, I would say the most common thing is not taking action. There are at least a couple different things that happen, so the question is what is the most common. Out of respect and completion, I have to point out that a lot of people don’t decide on what they want. Much like me, when I decided to be a musician, nothing happened until I stated that as an intention.

Most people, to begin with, don’t even decide on what they want. I think that’s what they need to do first. Decide on what you want. Declare your intentions. Dream big. I always end my emails by saying, “Dare something worthy”, which is a Latin phrase I use is “Aude Aliq uid Dignum” AUDE ALIQUID DIGNUM. Its 16th century Latin and it means “dare something worthy”. I tell people to set a goal and intention. Make a decision to go for something that makes you a little nervous but also excites you a lot. And that’s what was happening with me with music. I was definitely coming out of my comfort zone. Any time you come out of your comfort zone, you’re going to have some butterflies.

You’re going to have some nervous moments. That’s all part of the growth experience and you can use that energy to move forward. So that’s the first thing.

The second thing, and I think it’s far more common than people realize, and that’s the idea of taking action. Too many people sit around waiting for the results to show up at their door. They wait for the doorbell to ring, they wait for the phone to ring, they wait for the internet to deliver them the right thing through an email, and they wait for the postal person to bring them their check. They wait and wait and wait. They think deciding alone is enough, or they think visualizing or meditating or any number of 67

the mental activities we have out there as tools is enough, and it isn’t.

We all have to co-create our reality. I do believe in magic and miracles and sometimes the door might have a knock on it, you open up and there’s the love of your life you’ve been waiting for, there’s the client that you’ve been dreaming about. That can happen, I’m not dismissing that at all, but what I’ve learned is that we need to move in the direction of what we want, and as we do, the rest of the world feels our movement and responds to it. So that’s a little metaphysical, that’s a little psychological, but I also think it’s very practical because I’m a take action guy.

The only reason that I’ve written 50 books, that I have 15 music albums out within 4 years, that I have a coaching program, and DVDs, the reason I have a presence that’s pretty tough for anybody to compare to, I have hundreds of websites, I’ve got an active blog and video blog and Facebook accounts and Twitter and this, that and the other. The only reason all of this is getting done is because I take action. I think that’s the number one thing that people don’t do.

So just to refresh, the first thing is they’ve got to decide on what they want, and the second is move towards what they want, even if it’s baby steps, even if they don’t know the complete picture of it, the complete plan or the complete strategy to get there, you don’t need to know, but you do need to start.

The best way for people to achieve their goals and get around these obstacles that I’m talking about is with a support system.

Now that support system can be other people, I’m a great believer in Masterminds. I co-authored a book about Masterminds called Meet and Grow Rich with Bill Hibbler. I’ve been on many Masterminds. A Mastermind is a group of people who support each other who get together and share their dreams. They share their resources, they keep each other accountable and they move towards their dream.

That’s only part of the support. Another part of the support is what they’re feeding their brain, meaning what they are reading.

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Hopefully, they’re reading all the personal development books, the success literature, the transformation material that’s out there. So they’re putting it into their brain. Part of the reason I was able to leave homelessness is that I practically lived in the Dallas Public Library and devoured the whole sections on selfhelp, self-improvement, metaphysics, psychology, sales, all of that. I just ate it up, and slowly, it was reprogramming my mind to think in a different way. It’s also what we’re watching. I tell people turn off the freakin’ mainstream news. It’s called programming for a reason. It is programming you to live in fear. And many of the successful people I know have all said they’ve quit watching the news. I remember seeing a realtor I know during one of our recessions, and I asked her, “How’s your business going?” She said it’s going great. I said, “Well what are you doing that all the other realtors aren’t doing because they’re complaining?” And she said, “well, the thing I did was turn off the news.”

She was able to live in her own positive bubble of reality by not letting the mainstream news deliver all of its lack and limitation and fear-based programming.

Watch what you’re listening to or choose what you’re listening to more carefully. We live in this world of internet radio shows and self-help programs and all these things, most of which are free. We can dial into those and listen to those. And then, of course, my music is designed to help. On one level all my albums are relaxing, meditative. Some have subliminal programming to help you resolve stresses and to clear up problems within you.

And some, like the self-help music, is all designed to re-program you in a more positive way, to get you more upbeat and get you thinking towards your future and what you can do to take action.

So all of this is in the nature of support. Support yourself, your mind, your body, your spirit figure or your spirit. Surround yourself with all these elements that remind you of success, remind you of positivity and remind you of your goals so that you can more easily keep taking action towards them.

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Could you give us an example? I know you have countless testimonials, those fill a book by themselves, but could you just tell the audience one situation where you’ve helped someone?

Dr. Joe Vitale: Sure. One of my favorites is from the broke Blues musician who came to me when he wasn’t making any money and he was about to lose his house and his vehicle and he was red-faced angry and embarrassed. He had heard that you can make money on the internet but he had no idea how. All he knew was making music, and making music, for most musicians, is not a way to make any living. Most of them are struggling, and he was too. He was struggling desperately. We met through mutual friends, and I just saw somebody I could help. I was in the moment, so I told him, “you know, you could use what you already have as your skill base and, from it, create something that uses it, something that includes it that builds on it.” Of course, he didn’t understand what I was meaning, but I told him to read a lot of different books, like the famous Napoleon Hill books, Think and Grow Rich, which he did. He was very obedient about it. It was like he was desperate. So he read Think and Grow Rich and he decided that he would make some audios that had statements from Think and Grow Rich and he would create his own music that would be the bed for them. So now he’s creating audio CDs that have the highlights of Think and Grow Rich on them with his music under them to make it easy to listen to and easy to absorb.

When he’s making the CDs, he’s on his hands and knees in his room printing them one by one and printing labels and sticking them on the CDs. He’s doing everything by hand. This is how we all begin at some point, we’re on our hands and knees. We’re making our product from the kitchen table, from scratch. I was doing a seminar that weekend and I suggested that he come to the seminar and offer his product, and he did. He tasted blood at that point because he made enough money. He paid his house, he paid his rent, and then he saw that he can make more 70

products and he went on and made about 40 more in the next couple of years.

Another example is the woman who came to me, she is a friend of my wife’s. She said, “I heard you can make money on the internet but I have no clue how to do it. Do you make any money on the internet?” And I said I did. I explored her background. She told me what she did, what her hobbies were, and that she played the guitar. I asked how she learned and she said, “oh, I taught myself.” I asked her how she did that and she said, “Well, I created this little method that I call the strip down method, and it’s a simple way to just play songs using 2 strings to begin with. As soon as you grow and know how to make more chords, you can do more elaborate things.” And I looked at her and I said, “That is a brilliant idea! You need to write an eBook called Strip Down Guitar and teach people how to play guitar with your new method. You can even call it How to Play the Guitar in One Weekend with My Unique Method.” Well, she was very skeptical, but a little bit excited too, she went ahead and wrote that little book, turned it into an eBook and offered it to the world. I helped her out by promoting it to our list, which was fairly small at that time. That was 20-some years ago, I think. She, like my other friend, got the bug, because at that point, she started selling it. She even had an offer from a publisher who said, “I will give you $10,000 for the rights to your eBook so that I can resell it.” This was a woman who was broke, confused, uncertain about her future, and skeptical about making any money on the internet, let alone from her own skills or her own path.

I find this over and over again that everybody has a unique gift, most of which they’re oblivious to. It takes somebody on the outside, in this case it was me with these two different people, to listen very attentively to what that gift is and then reflect it back to them. The broke musician didn’t think he could make any money from his music, especially making any sort of products.

The woman who taught herself how to play the guitar didn’t 71

think that was useful at all. All she thought was she can play guitar because of this 2-step little strip down method. So those are a couple of examples that come to mind.

Those are great examples. Thank you for sharing those. What would be the best piece of advice you would give the reader who’s considering, just like you described, stepping out there and utilizing your music and transforming themselves? What would be the best piece of advice you could give them?

Dr. Joe Vitale: Declare the new you today. Declare the new you today. And that means declare it to yourself, but even more powerfully, declare it to others. If you have a Mastermind, march into that Mastermind and say, “here’s what I’m doing. I’m increasing my sales by 50%. I’m writing a book within the next 60 days. I’m going to come out with a DVD in the next 4 months. I’m going to open my more enlarged business in the next 6 months.”

Whatever it happens to be, I would say make up your mind what you want for yourself and your future and declare it.

You declare it for yourself first. You look in the mirror and you say,” this is the new me.” despite what you see in the mirror, whether you like it or not, you are creating, morphing, intending, deciding on this new you in this new reality. And then, by extension, when you do it in front of others, there’s an accountability factor there. Whenever I’ve gotten in fitness programs, I’ve always had better results when I hired a personal coach and when I was involved in a group of people who were doing the same thing, because we applauded each other. We supported each other. We held each other accountable. We cheered each other on. That is one of the other things to do that will assure you making the change.

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Another thing to do, this is one that’s not talked about very much but I found it to be a secret to transformation, is to change your environment. That doesn’t mean move out of your home or move into another home. It could mean that. And if it’s something that’s doable and feels like it’s the right thing to do, then go do it. But what I am saying is put a painting up. Put a quote up. Change your furniture a little bit. Put a rug down on the floor.

Do something that is a symbol of the new you and your new decision. This will help unconsciously remind you of it all the time.

Too many of us go to a workshop or read a book or something, and then we go back into our home and we see all the things that remind us of the old us. Everything, our bed is in the same place and our clothes are in the same place and the refrigerator has the same food in it. Change that up. Change it. It doesn’t have to be dramatic. You don’t have to repaint everything but maybe repaint some of it. Maybe put a new piece of furniture. Exchange a piece of furniture. Do something to anchor and visibly remind you of the new you and your new decision.

Great, great advice. You mentioned getting some support, can you talk to us about how a coaching program can be helpful? Do you have one we can work with?

Dr. Joe Vitale: I created a Miracles Coaching Program and I have trained all the coaches in it. So you can go to miraclescoaching.com and check that out. The big reason to get involved in a coaching program is that until you talk to somebody about your belief system, you’re going to tend to recreate your life. You’ll have the same challenges. You’ll have the same rewards. You’ll have the same problems. You’ll have the same ups and downs because we live in a belief-driven universe. As long as you have the same beliefs, you’re going to have the same universe. You’ll 73

never really realize it. You’ll blame the rest of the world. You’ll blame the president or the economy or your parents and your upbringing, and you won’t realize that it’s the beliefs that you have, and those beliefs are usually deeper than conscious.

They’re in the unconscious and so you don’t even know what they are. They just seem like reality to you. So you need somebody on the outside.

I’ve had my greatest breakthroughs when I worked with a coach, and I still use coaches today for a wide variety of things just to keep me moving forward and to get me out of my own nest of limitations. Beliefs are an invisible field of limitations, and until you talk to somebody that can help expose what those beliefs are, you’ll probably keep living from them. So I think it’s really important that you talk to somebody who is a detached, loving observer who can non-judgmentally reflect back to you what your own beliefs are so you can see them and act on them for yourself.

Perfect. What is the best way to learn more about what you do and get some more information?

Dr. Joe Vitale: Well, all of the music is on the website on allhealingmusic.com. My main website, which is a portal to everything I do, is my name, joevitale.com, or you can go to www.mrfire.com and Miracles Coaching, of course, is at www.miraclescoaching.com.

Perfect! Dr. Joe, that’s the end of our interview and I want to tell you how grateful I am because interviewing you was on my bucket list.

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Dr. Joe Vitale: Awesome! Well, that’s a great interview. Great questions and I love what came out of it.

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WEBSITE: http://www.mrfire.com EMAIL: joe@mrfire.com LOCATION: Austin, TX FACEBOOK: Facebook.com/drjoevitale LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrfire TWITTER: http://twitter.com/mrfire

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SUSAN HAMILTON

The OffBeat Business Show & Magazine Radio Talk Show Host, Editor, Content Therapist Dallas, Texas

Susan grew up in a family owned residential service business.

The whole family worked for her dad's company. Eventually, her older sister went into marketing and taught her the ropes. Susan’s greatest mentor and influence, her background as an editor for Banta Corporation really shaped her dedication to 'getting it right' when it comes to communication. She began providing the content she needed for her clients with her small copywriting business, and within a year they decided they’d be more effective if they opened a full-service marketing agency and operated nationally. Her drive, and rise, stems from understanding that influence as a business owner is highly valuable, 77

and if you’re going to take proactive steps to make a positive difference in this world - instead of being so busy that we don't even see the victimization we're allowing - we have got to master communication on so many levels. If we don't, we're failing our children, parents and veterans. If we don't, we're giving our decision-making power to those who simply don't care if our needs are met or if we're dealt a reasonable hand.

The OffBeat Business Show & Magazine seek to be THE go-to resources for business and lifestyle information that can be easily consumed, digested and acted upon. We're a light-bulb; we want to offer that encouraging perspective that says, "See? Isn't that a great idea? You can do this, too! And when you do, you can reach out and make a difference in your community because you'll make more money and have time to be informed so you can use your influence to get things done."

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Conversation with Susan Hamilton Welcome Susan!

To start us off, can you tell us about your business and the types of customers you help?

Susan Hamilton: Yes. The short answer is, I help American small businesses communicate more effectively by using a content strategy.

Content strategy encompasses so much more, Tracy, than we normally think about because it’s not just about communication with our audience, it’s also internal communication within the company and communication within our community.

Content strategy is very, very important for every business. I tend to work with clients who have been in business 15, 20, sometimes 30 years. Usually, they’re looking to change their direction and start something new or they’re realizing they really haven’t embraced the online atmosphere to get their message out as effectively as they can.

We hear a lot about content and refining our message these days, why is that important to business owners?

Susan Hamilton: There are 2 different types of clients that are going to come to anybody’s business.

The first type is just looking for the lowest price to get a result quickly, “I need it done now, and can you fit into this small parameter of my needs?” If you can, they may or may not do business with you again. Largely, the phones are ringing with this customer most often. They’re the most pervasive type. But if you spend all your years in business catering to them, and not recognizing how you can serve that client without it taking up all your time and money, you’ll never get to the second type of client.

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The second type is the client that can afford you. This client is looking for your experience to draw upon and understands the value you offer.

Working with a professional who can help you discover what your message is and help you create strategies to distribute it, will help you work with the first type of customer more efficiently and bring in a lot more of the second type. A well-thought out strategy will satisfy the most pervasive, lowest paying customer with minimal effort - and in the process, draw your higher paying customers.

You offer a very innovative service, what led you to this field?

Susan Hamilton: That’s a great question. I’m glad you asked because for the longest time I’ve wondered what I love about this, because it is a lot of work to do a really good job for a client.

But it lights me up. It lights me up because I’ve been on the other side of poor content strategy. I have been on the other side of not recognizing what my influence was online.

I co-owned a full service marketing agency at one point, and as our company grew, we had issues that impacted us in a huge way. Issues like healthcare, tax laws, and on my side of the family, criminal justice. What I realized then was this hamster wheel that we’re on in our businesses is causing us to not pay attention to the big issues that affect our lives as business owners.

I want us to recognize, as business owners, our opinions actually do matter when it comes to our children, our seniors, our veterans, and taxation and healthcare and all the issues we’re confronted with today. I’m not talking about finger-pointing, but tastefully discussing and offering solutions in these areas. Have the conversation so that solutions can come out. You probably don’t have all the answers. You probably know that. But guess 80

what, if there’s five of you talking about it, there’s a better chance that a solution will come out of it.

Content is largely understanding that you are not out there as merely the spokesperson for your company. The spotlight isn’t just on you. Tracy, you probably know that when you post online, people don’t really see it. It gets lost in the noise of what everyone else is posting.

There’s only one way that post is going to engage people - if it’s put in front of the type of people who want to share it. The people who agree with you. The people who want to champion your cause. The people you just made ‘rock stars’ because you gave them information that nobody else is sharing. You’re somebody they’re proud to connect with.

That can all be managed through content. And let’s not forget that is largely how our national political elections have been won, through that social atmosphere. We’re not recognizing the power we can harness when we understand how to effectively engage our content strategy with a community agenda, with the circumstances in your life and business that everyone else is experiencing too. If you can ever tap into that, and realize that relating to those experiences makes you stronger, not weaker, I think that’s a huge step in the right direction.

Some people get caught up in thinking they have change their writing style, learn marketing terminology, or spend a lot of time learning to blog. Could you go in a little bit more about that?

Susan Hamilton: It is different, but I want to clear the air once and for all about small business content marketing, specifically blogging. It is not a journal, and I think we really got hung up on that for the longest time. The average business owner looked at 81

it like, “Why would I have a diary online?” because that’s what their perception of blogging was. That isn’t what it is. There are some basic things you can understand that I believe are addressed in other parts of this book, but the important things to note are the title, the topic sentence, the way key words are used and links to other content that supports your point are the keys to success. That’s really how you’re going to manage that engagement.

Having a really great content strategy doesn’t take a lot of marketing language. It just really takes understanding where the appropriate language should be to attract the person you’re wanting to read or listen to the post. Search engines are connecting the language of your website, your geo-location, and the name of your company to what searchers are searching for, so that language has to be put in there strategically and in the right location. Every time you share a piece of content through social media, you’re sharing the first couple sentences, the title, and an image. That’s as heavy as you’ve got to go.

It’s important to know it’s not just written text. Some people are really strong in that and love it. But largely today, with smartphones, audio and video are some of the strongest media you can use It’s incredibly easy to post a short video that you shot or an audio that addresses something your customer’s already asking you, then making sure you’ve got a title that makes sense for that content.

It’s always inspiring to hear how someone came to start their business. When did you know there was a business to be created around helping people with their content strategy?

Susan Hamilton: When I realized that I could build someone a beautiful website and a great brochure and business cards and 82

they’d come back wanting more marketing materials before they had ever use what they had, I didn’t feel effective anymore. They didn’t understand the communication value that needs to be part of those marketing materials.

That’s what made me really get excited about content because it’s a cohesive message in a marketing strategy. Those things take time and preparation, but in the end they create a truly beautiful representation of what a company actually does.

Without a strategy, there’s no evidence of you online at all.

But if you’ll develop a great content library - use a content strategy – you’ll also develop what’s called a social footprint out there in the world. And it doesn’t go away. I like to use the comparison of the oil platforms out in the Gulf, when a hurricane comes through, they’re not going anywhere. Why? Because their foundations are way deep in the sand. When a business has a deep foundation online, it can withstand the storms that develop every time the algorithm changes.

When Google updates an algorithm and changes the way they do things, a lot of things get shaken up. But you know what’s not going to change? 60% of SEO criteria is made up of content and social strategy issues because they want to learn from that data.

They want to know what people are really doing and what they’re responding to. So content matters on so many levels.

Investing in the time and resources to plan your strategy for the year and start realizing how you’re going to approach this thing so that you can master it, is really one of the best things you can ever do in your business. It will improve everything every relationship - from internal behaviors of your company to everyone else that will ever come in contact with your business.

We all have our mentors, or people we look up to and learn from. Can you tell us about people who have inspired you?

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Susan Hamilton: I have a lot of background with Dan Kennedy resources. You should come to my office. You see his books all over. I was a member of his local chapter here for a while. Enjoyed that. I still network with those people today; still a very strong, thriving community.

I also learn a lot from Copy Blogger.

My sister probably inspired me the most. She was an editor at Banta Publishing for a time. When she went into marketing and brought me on to learn marketing copy, man, she held me to some strict standards. She kicked my tail. I thought I’d kill her on many occasions. But I love her dearly and I think it really helped me a lot. So yes, I definitely have my professional resources and I couldn’t imagine venturing into this phase without seeing how people are doing it successfully.

Can you tell us about what drives you and fuels your passion to help people in business?

Susan Hamilton: Well, I don’t want to see businesses fail.

That’s what drives me. I think we can succeed. I think we can gain a stronger influence in our local communities and on a national level as business owners.

Many people volunteer personally, which is great, but your influence as a business should be seen too. We should be able to draw positive attention and solutions to the needs in our communities with the clout we’ve earned during our years in business, and our willingness to work together to accomplish great things.

We’re also paying business taxes. That money should be going towards the things that make commerce better for everyone.

I believe that can happen when we’re working as a team with other people who have developed strong reputations. I think 84

what we’ll see, if we grow our influence, is we can protect ourselves from policies that hurt businesses. The situation now, is people who have no idea what we’re going through in business are making decisions without our best interests in mind. I think that’s a dangerous place for American business owners, and they’re frustrated about it and disgusted with it. Many of us feel like no one is listening. That doesn’t surprise me, we’re not organized or loud enough.

Issues surrounding taxation, veteran care, healthcare, employment and criminal justice matter to us as business owners because most of us are family owned businesses of 9 employees or less. We’ve got a lot of plates spinning in the air at the same time. So what motivates me is knowing that communication will help us get through to decision makers. Effective online communication will develop influence in our community where we can start making a difference. This way when someone has a ridiculous idea and 3 or 4 people say, “We should vote that into law,” the rest of us can say, “That’s not happening.” That would prevent a lot of the messes we have now. As it stands, we’re too busy to even understand the issues that directly affect us.

You say you don’t want to see people fail, but don’t you feel that failure’s part of the journey?

Susan Hamilton: True. Failure is part of the journey and I thank you for mentioning that because I do want to encourage people to continue to get back up. You’re always better the next time you show up because of what you’ve learned from your history. Absolutely.

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Okay. Thanks for clarifying that. What are the most common obstacles preventing people from achieving what they want to accomplish with their content?

Susan Hamilton: There are two that I see all the time. The first is, they have no idea what to say. That’s one of the most compelling arguments for having a content strategy.

The other thing I see often is people who have been creating content for a while, lose focus because they’ve turned it into an advertising platform. It’s crucial to understand what content marketing is. It’s not an advertising platform. It’s an invitation to a dialogue.

What would you say is the biggest misconception about having a content strategy?

Susan Hamilton: That it takes up too much time. Now, it’s going to take some time, but so is anything that you are going to do in business. You’ve got to put your efforts where they’re going to matter the most. Not knowing what to say and how to get it out there tends to take up so much mental space that it becomes the big monster that people don’t want to approach.

Having a content strategy prevents this.

Can you give us some suggestions on how to do that?

Susan Hamilton: Developing a content strategy when you’ve never done it before requires discipline, so make it a priority. It takes time to develop a calendar of what you’re going to talk about this year. Then the content has to be scheduled. I advise

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dividing your year into quarters, and devote each quarter to really drilling deep on one of the main topics that your company addresses.

If you use a system to track the performance of your content, the next year you can say, “Oh, I’ve got that from last year and that worked well. And now I can do this other piece. Now I’ve got 2 pieces of content,” because you can repurpose your content. You can put it back out there again with more current info.

So there are lots of ways to really think through your strategy that make it much easier as you go along.

Let’s use an example of creating content about water heaters.

That’s the topic for the quarter. How are we going to talk about water heaters for three months? Well, there are electric water heaters, there are gas water heaters, there are tankless water heaters, there are tankless water heaters that are electric, and there are tankless water heaters that are gas. There are some with warranties and some water heaters, at different times of the year, are going to have free warranty or additional service packages that are free. Sometimes the city will have a rebate.

Pay attention to your community calendar and to what’s going on with your product providers and use those things to build content.

It’s okay to repeat your information. The more you say it, the more you’re training your audience to see that you have the answers and you have the resources and you can talk about certain things that matter to your client.

Your content strategy should always be what they are already asking you about. What do they want to know? And then share those types of things in various forms. Create audio, video, text, an info-graphic, maybe a branded image, a picture you’ve taken of something with your company name and your website on it.

Maybe even a hashtag that you want to be known for in your 87

area. Stay with your topic for 3 months of your year, and then start the next thing.

That’s just the content you’re putting out on your blog.

The next step is, where does it go from there? Who are you talking to and where is your particular audience? Depending on where you want to be found and what your business is, you may decide that Facebook is your place. You may decide that Twitter is your place. If you’re not anywhere, I urge you to set up in one location first and get to know a little bit better. Start developing your relationships with people. And start developing a routine of showing up because people expect you to show up. And as you do that, I’d say about every couple of months, you can add a new platform and learn it, too. By the end of the year, you could be showing up on all these places. Those branded info-graphics and those branded images can show up in Pinterest and Instagram, as well as Facebook, and that’s all very share-able stuff. When I say ‘branded,’ what I mean is that image or information graphic has your website URL and company name attached to it. You can easily add your images to Google Drawing or Canva to add that text at no cost. Then save them to your computer so you can add them to social channels throughout the year according to your devised strategy sheet. Yes, write it down.

As you look at your content strategy, I would urge you to use a spreadsheet to keep your information organized. I encourage people to use Google Docs, because while you’re developing all of that, you can access it on your smartphone, your PC, wherever you are, and start really thinking about what your message needs to be. It’s not going to take you that long if you break it into 4 main messages throughout the year.

These are my best practices, but you’ve got to decide what works for you. There are some companies that need to change

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their message up every 2 months, and that might be your situation. So whatever you’re doing, pay attention to what works for you as you’re posting your content.

There are ways to automate your posting so you can get ahead of your content, I can think of several but I’ll mention Hootsuite and Buffer App. Get it scheduled so it automatically goes out. Also share your content calendar with your team so whether your receptionist is picking up the phone or your technician is on a service call, they know what’s on your website.

Your website is a cornerstone of everything your company should be doing. Your site should be a resource for all internal and external communication. If you’re not using it like that, you’re missing a valuable engagement tool that helps other people understand how your company supports them. Let your website back you up, refer to it.

What would be the best advice that you could give us about developing a content strategy?

Susan Hamilton: Think it through. Your message does matter and it’s still okay to be wrong. Just think it through, because next year, when you go back to it and reformulate what you’re doing, you’re going to learn more, you’re going to come at it stronger and you’ll be even better at it. Anyone will tell you it’s going to take a couple of years to nail that kind of stuff in your business.

You’ll start to see results, the big stuff comes when you make a calculated move forward to say “I’m looking at my year and these months of the year, I need to be talking about this because this is what matters to my audience. I can also offer specials from the people that I work with.

Think about the year and how you’re going to go about getting that content out. Don’t let it beat yourself up. It should be 89

fun. It should be exciting when you think about how you’re going to be engaging with your community.

And then as you’re embracing this, realize all content doesn’t have to all be written down. Pop out some impromptu audios.

Use SoundCloud. Use Speaker. Those automatically connect to all the other social media locations. So now, you’re posting a little bit of content that is going everywhere, and that’s what really needs to happen for your brand to become familiar. A familiar brand is 60% more favorable in the eyes of their audience than one that is not known. So take those extra steps to have a content strategy that works for you, one which actually brings in some revenue.

What are you trying to accomplish with your strategy? Are you working for greater brand familiarity? Are you just looking for likes? Are you just looking for shares? Or are you looking for that customer who’s going to say, “Well, I’m going to sample your business through social media for a while before I trust you, then I’m probably going to buy from you.” That’s what you’re developing here. And if your content is nicely done, it will stay with your company as part of your company’s media library forever. That’s not going to go away.

It’s pretty clear that working with a professional to develop our message and content strategy will save business owners a huge amount of time and effort and you bring some really unique skills to the table. What do your clients usually mention as the biggest benefits they receive from working with you?

Susan Hamilton: I help people get clear on their message.

That’s not easy to do because of the necessary perspective change. Once I work with them for a period of time, usually the first couple of times we get together, they’ll start to realize, “Oh 90

wow, I see how I’m routinely thinking differently.” We get stuck in these routines of thought and we have to challenge them and question them. Sometimes it really helps to have somebody else there helping them to challenge that belief. I help my clients build brand familiarity, credibility, authority, and their ability to charge higher prices because their content is relevant to the needs of their customers.

Where can readers learn more about you and your services and connect with some resources?

Susan Hamilton: Well, I urge them to reach out to The OffBeat Business Show & Magazine. We’re always looking for contributors who share their expertise with other business owners. I offer content strategy to our sponsors so they can get the most out of our platform. As a business to business resource destination, we cover everything that promotes healthy, stable American business lifestyle through our digital media – a radio talk show, digital magazine, blog articles, ads, videos and social media at OffBeatBusiness.com. Check out our resources and learn what you can do to get stronger in those areas. If you’re an expert in your arena, make sure that you are letting me know about that at info@offbeatbusiness.com. And of course, I’m a content therapist. So, if they want to work directly with me on a coaching or on a consulting level, I’m happy to help and they can reach me using the same email.

That’s awesome. So if somebody feels like they’re ready now, what’s the best way to contact you? Can they contact you by phone?

Susan Hamilton: Oh absolutely. (214) 714-0495. You bet.

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Awesome, Susan. It was great talking with you today, you’ve given us a lot of great information.

Susan Hamilton: Thank you for the opportunity.

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WEBSITE: http://offbeatbusiness.com/ EMAIL: Susan@OffbeatBusiness.com LOCATION: Dallas, TX FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/LeapingWalls LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skhamilton TWITTER: https://twitter.com/offbeatbusiness

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ROBIN DAHMS

CEO, Events of Significance Event Planner Houston, Texas Robin started a company called Restaurant Consulting Group (RCG) in 2000. It was a consulting firm that would come into your restaurant, watch your staff, and review your inventory procedures, training procedures, and financial books. They would make recommendations on how to minimize expenses, minimize employee turnover, maximize profits and increase efficiency, and stay up to date with current health regulations and employee certification requirements. She worked for Pappas Restaurant for 10 years becoming Assistant General Manager of two different locations. When she would go into restaurants, she was disappointed that the training of the servers and bartenders was subpar. They had so much potential to earn higher revenues for the restaurant and themselves, but they were not getting the 95

proper training they needed to empower them to be their best.

Robin knew the market was ripe for higher profits and she knew how to achieve that. Robin started Events of Significance 12/12/12 (yes, 12 is her DIVINE number!) keeping her 'day job'.

She did 4 events the first year working part time. Then she was laid off from NASA in 12/2013 and she thought, "Well, I already have the business set up - legally, bank accounts. Why don't I just do this full time?" 110% in or 110% out is how she operates so she knew if she gave 110% and failed then she gave her all and could live with NO REGRETS.

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Conversation with Robin Dahms Robin, tell me about your business and what types of customers you help and describe those clients that you work with.

Robin Dahms: Events of Significance is an event consultation and planning firm. We specialize in helping busy business owners, speakers, and corporate executives plan and execute their events. Our ideal customer is someone who is too busy to plan his own event, does not have the knowledge and expertise, or just wants to be on his game when speaking rather than working event logistics. Events of Significance is a divine calling for us. We are called to create events for leaders whose message positively impacts the lives of others on a global scale. This message has to be bigger than money. It has more to do with social responsibility and a servant leadership platform.

Right now, 100% of our clients fit the servant leader platform.

A cup of coffee with a friend is great, but a cup of coffee with 150 people in the room creates a game-changing impact. Events of Significance is called empower others to catapult their message in a room filled with an audience. There is power in numbers.

Beautiful! Are your clients, entrepreneurs, business owners, or corporate America or weddings? Could you be more specific?

Robin Dahms: We are looking for business owners, speakers, and corporate executives who want to lead the pack to embrace the positive changes they want to see in their local community and internationally.

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Awesome. What led you to this field and how did you get started in this business, in event planning?

Robin Dahms: My calling really came when I was struggling to find my purpose. I witnessed a little boy at my kid’s elementary school arrive late to school. This boy was probably about 1st grade? He was crying with his head down when he walked into the office to get his tardy slip. I could tell this little boy was used to being late. A child in 1st grade has no control over how and when he arrives at school. This boy was a victim of his circumstances. The scene brought me to tears. The ladies at the front desk were so gracious and loving, welcoming him with open arms. “Oh, we are so glad you are here today! We missed you yesterday! Come around here and give me a hug. Are you ready to go to class now? Let’s go. It is going to be a great day!” It was at that moment that I knew I had to do something to help others feel valued and loved, even if they did not feel valued or loved at home. I knew my purpose was to help other people find their purpose and their mission and to empower them with a platform that embraces positive change. Game changing events create emotions. Emotions create actions. Actions create Global Impact.

You inspire me to create an event just from talking with you right now. So that’s awesome.

Robin Dahms: I can’t say there’s been one person that particularly inspired me to do it, but I can tell you in 2014, the entire year was just a game-changing year for me. God said, ‘The name of your company is Events of Significance. You are called to create Significant Events that change the world.’ I asked Him ‘How? What does this look like?’ He replied, ‘I don’t want you to worry 98

about the how. I’ll show you.’ Ninety days of crickets went by where I heard nothing about “how”. Then one day, He said, ‘I want you to think about all the resources that I have given you in 2014. I want you to go into your phone, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Download those contacts to Excel. (3300 contacts!). I want you to sit down write down the people that I’ve given that you think have a message they need to share with the world.’

My first run took me maybe 45 minutes, that’s how quick it was.

Do you know I went through every one of those names, and I came up with 96 names in 45 minutes? And God said, ‘I told you…I’ve given you the people that need your stage.’ He said, ‘You may only have made $10,000 doing this full time the first year, but you have all the people that need their message shared, and you are already connected with them personally.’

God said, ‘I need their message shared with the world.’

Beautiful!

Robin Dahms: So that is my drive right there. I had 96 people that God said, ‘These are my people that I want you to empower.’

We have speakers, coaches and book authors who are investing in the lives of business owners. We have projects that ship old shoes over to third world countries. We have a company that wants to build a home close to hospitals for burn victim’s families. It is housing that allows the family a ‘home away from home’ while their children are in the hospital burn unit. We have a project that is a re-entry program assisting females entering the community after incarceration. We have organizations that run halfway houses for people who come out of prison and empower them with the resources and education they need to get back on their feet.

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There are so many good platforms that need exposure, funding and a following. All of these organizations give back to our community in a big way. Events of Significance wants to help them find the following and support they need to make a global impact!

What is the most common obstacle preventing a person from having a significant event?

Robin Dahms: Funding and Lack of event planning knowledge. A lot of these companies are non-profit organizations, and they’re barely surviving on their own. I’m not talking about large non-profits where they actually have advisory boards running them and paid executives; I am talking about small, fledging organizations whose owners are simply reinvesting all profits back into the company.

The owners of these organizations were given a calling usually through tragedy, to turn ashes into embers, but they generally don’t write themselves a check. They just sustain their business; they don’t have enough funding and, consequently, they don’t have the visibility they need to make a larger impact on the community.

For our coaches, book authors and speakers, they need to be on their game when they enter the stage. Distractions throw them off course and they miss their mark when delivering their message. Events of Significance sweats the small stuff allowing them to be laser focused on their onstage message!

What would be the biggest misconception in pulling off a large event or an event of significance and achieving a successful outcome?

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Robin Dahms: A big misconception in pulling off a large event and achieving a successful outcome is not understanding how much effort and time it really takes to put on an event. The checklist is huge and the details are many. The budget is the second misconception. Most people think they can’t afford to host an event. A seasoned professional can successfully guide you through and often times can create a powerful event within your budget.

Can you talk to us about some other event obstacles that we could avoid or overcome things we might not be aware of?

Robin Dahms: There are a lot of moving parts to planning an event. Choosing the wrong venue is Failure 101. The venue needs to fit the audience and the theme of your event. For example, if you have a speaker event, you would not want choose a long narrow room for your guests. You would want to choose a theater style setting that will better engage the audience, like an auditorium or theater seating.

Not understanding industry pricing is another failure point.

We recently had a venue that charged $82/gallon for coffee. A typical gallon of coffee will have 20 cups. Let's say we have a mixed audience of 500 people: 500 x 60% who will drink regular coffee = 300 cups = 15 gallons of regular coffee. That is $1,230.00 in coffee expense. We asked the hotel what kind of coffee it was serving. Starbucks. I asked them if they had a house brand and how much was a gallon? The house brand was $62/gallon. We saved the client $300.00 in coffee alone.

Hiring an event consultant that specializes in the industry and your local area is the first place to start when creating a successful event. Our expertise can save you thousands of dollars and lots of headaches. I know a lot of times people will say, ‘Well, I 101

can’t afford to have an event planner’. I tell them, ‘You can’t afford not to have one’. Do you have 180 hours in the next 4 months to put plan an event? Do you have time to interview 4 photographers, 4 videographers, 4 caterers, printing, scripting, marketing, promotions, campaign manager, etc. That it takes to pull your event together? And on the day of, do you want to be worried when the battery goes out on the microphone or do you want to be enjoying your guests? An event planner has strategic partnerships with vendors so you don’t have to vet and source.

We will do all of that legwork for you while you just make the decisions and show up!

Excellent. What would be your best piece of advice to the reader who’s considering starting an event or holding an event?

Robin Dahms: My best advice would be to think about what you want your vision to look like, dream it, know how much you want to afford and hire your event consultant FIRST. I tell my clients when they call…give me your Bentley. What does that look like? What do you want it to be? What are your expectations of the event when we’re done? And then we work in partnership with you to make that happen.

What’s the first thing that someone should do if they’re ready to have an event?

Robin Dahms: If they’re ready to have an event, call us and let’s talk about what that dream looks like. Again, what I just mentioned to you, Tracy, is…what does that event look like, what are your expectations of it, who is your target audience, what do you want them to walk away with, what is your budget, how long do we have to prepare and promote, what resources do you 102

have available, and what can we as your partner bring to your success? Let’s start by dreaming that dream. We need to talk and lay it out on paper. Most people are visual. We need to make sure that you are ready to do an event and your expectations are in alignment with your pocketbook.

The readers are probably wondering what size events you’ve held. Could you give us some examples of some of those events that you’ve held? I know you’ve had global events and local events. Could you go into that a little bit deeper?

Robin Dahms: Events of Significance has experience with local monthly recurring seminars that have as many as 60 business owners. We’ve worked specialty conferences for leadership and corporate executives where we’ve had 25-100 people in the room. We’ve worked international conferences with dignitaries where we’ve had 400 people, local press and international media. We’ve done women’s conferences for nearly 800 people.

We just finished a book launch with 5 keynote speakers and a millionaire audience. We are currently working on a celebrity event for a movie premier bringing in 18 actors and their entourage. We are preparing a celebrity Christian based event with an expected guest count of 3,000 attendees. So we’ve done everything from very small intimate events to large celebrations with armored transport for actors and actresses.

Can you talk to us about some common reasons we could easily benefit from working with you?

Robin Dahms: Events of Significance is not just an event planner. We partner with you to ensure your event is a success. We believe your success is our business. We are very well connected 103

and have followers who support our vision and mission. A complete list of benefits can be obtained by calling our office, but to give you start…We push your event to our private business owner group of 560 members. We push your event at our monthly events of 50-60 business owners. Your event will be featured on Bloomberg Business Radio KTEH 1110AM and KHOU Channel 11, and you will receive a promotional video that can be used to advertise and promote the event on any social media outlet.

That’s awesome. Event planning, as you mentioned, it’s overwhelming for speakers and leaders because they’re focused on delivering their message. And if you take that and try to mix in event planning, you’ve got a challenge. So that’s huge that you’re available and can provide that service to people. How can a reader find out more about how to put on an event, say if they wanted to do it by themselves?

Robin Dahms: If they want to do it by themselves, they can visit us on our website and give us a call to set up a strategy session. It’s a free strategy call for about 30 minutes, and we’ll talk about your event. In that 30 minutes we’ll create some value for you. We’ll give ideas of what some of the options are based on what you’ve said to us and where you can start. And then we have checklists that we can send to you that will help get your thought process started on what it takes to hold an event and at what caliber. We’ll come up with some outside the box ideas on how you can create additional revenue in your room and what that looks like and how it works.

What’s the site they should go to?

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Robin Dahms: It’s www.eventsofsignificance.com. They can find our contact information there. We also have some resources online there, some blogs, as well as a PDF, that talks about the 5 costliest mistakes in planning an event. Each one of those mistakes can cost you anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000, and again, per vendor. So if you want to go to our website and find out a little bit more about the value that we can bring to you and what we can do to help you out, that’s a great place to start.

What kind of lead time do you need to plan an event?

Robin Dahms: That depends how big of an event you need.

If it’s a large event, 1,000 people and over, we need at least 4 months to start that project for you and do it well. Generally, people will call a year in advance, 12 months is a good timing. A lot of it has to do with promotion which is really key to making your event successful. We want to make sure that we’re getting out there and promoting it, working the drip campaign, doing press releases and setting you up for success; you can have the greatest event in the world and if you don’t have people in the room to enjoy it, it doesn’t matter. So promotion is one of the biggest things that we have to start working on.

If budget is more of a priority, we may need to talk about timing. If you’re going to hold an event, let’s say January to April, you’re probably going to get good deals. If you’re going to hold it May to December, you’re going to get premium prices. So we need to talk about what that looks like for you and your event and what your budget looks like. And again, there’s other thought processes that go into it, too. So if you want to hold it on a Friday or a Saturday night, you’re probably looking at $20,000 a day just for the venue. If you want to hold it on a Sunday, you’re probably talking $13,000 for the venue. There’s a lot 105

of thoughts that go into what your timing is, what your budget is, what it looks like, what your resources are, who your target market is and what their availability is to come to your event.

Sunday might not be the best time, so you want to do Friday and Saturday, which means we need to up the budget to accommodate the guest’s optimal availability. There’s a lot of things we have to talk about with that, but we can help you through all of that. It’s not something you have to take on yourself.

That’s awesome. Well, I thank you for the information you’re providing our audience and very valuable, very knowledgeable in what you do, and I’m sure the audience can find value in that. So thank you very much!

Robin Dahms: Thank you, T, this has been great.

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WEBSITE: www.eventsofsignificance.com EMAIL: robin@eventsofsignificance.com LOCATION: Houston, Texas FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/EventsOfSignificance TWITTER https://twitter.com/eventsofs LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/pub/robin-dahms/3a/237/3ab PHONE 281.731.0172

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MAYLON HARGROVE

Founder Social Young Professionals Houston, Texas Maylon is the founder of Social Young Professionals, a community of young-at-heart professionals dedicated to the cultivation of their personal and professional growth. He loves being active and doing a variety of social and professional activities and he has a passion for networking and helping others to connect.

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Conversation with Maylon Hargrove Tell me about the business and the types of customers you help.

Maylon Hargrove: When dealing with customers that are looking to build their network, I'm generally helping people that are new to entrepreneurialism, new to their profession, or maybe even new to the city. They're looking to build their network. Whether it be a social network, personal network, just to make friends. Maybe even get into circles where they're going to meet a girl. The point is that they're trying to get out and expand on the opportunities to meet people.

This could be entrepreneurs, corporate people, or a mix?

Maylon Hargrove: It can. It depends on the type of network that you're trying to develop for yourself. If you're trying to do a social network, you're going to look for groups or you're going to try to develop a group. Encompass yourself around people that are doing social activities. A professional would do the same for other professionals or for maybe a particular professional interest. Say sales, they'll be looking for people that are involved in sales or in sales training or could provide sales training. Networking with other sales experts in the local area. Both of those, social and professional, could be brought down pretty infinitely, depending on how specific of a niche or an interest you have.

Go a little bit deeper in the clients that you work with.

Maylon Hargrove: Generally the type of people that I work with are trying to build their professional network. Again, they're 110

usually entrepreneurs, they're looking to become entrepreneurs, or they're trying to expand in their current profession.

What we do is we try to teach them to be more focused on what they're looking for, to understand what they're looking for, and to understand how to meet people. How to connect with them and how to build relationships that are going to last. What we want them to understand is that they're building a network.

They're not going out there to just make connections. Connections is passing out business cards. That’s never going to lead to anywhere for anyone who’s looking to actually build something.

What led you to this and how did you get started in this type of business?

Maylon Hargrove: Essentially it's not so much that I do this as a business. For lack of a better term, I'm an unofficial networking expert through doing it myself. I know there's a more technical term for that, but I can't think of it offhand. I've built a couple of networks myself on the social and professional aspect.

On the professional aspect it's a combination of building my own professional network through online resources like LinkedIn, my own website, Meetup group, Eventbrite. Professional networks that are in and around the city. On the social aspect I've developed a social community here in the Houston market. It's ever expanding. I built my online social connections again through Facebook and other online resources as well.

Is there a story or specific time or an event when you caught the bug on doing this social networking or this networking that you described?

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Maylon Hargrove: For me, networking started off as what networking is, and that's trying to find opportunities to meet people. In late 2010 / early 2011, I was working as a project manager for a floor care company. I was travelling all over the country, overseeing all of the floor care and stripping at PetSmarts, Verizons, Best Buys, and other big box locations.

When I was home, which was only a few weekends a month, I was just looking for opportunities to meet people. To socialize, to go out and enjoy the time that I was here. That's how my social networking began. What I did is I developed a networking platform through Meetup.com, which is an online platform that allows anybody to build a networking sub platform based upon their particular interest. I developed my group and at the time it was called Social Young Professionals. It was just an opportunity for people in the local market who were looking to do social activities that were more of a singles based activity. Things like go bowling, go to the movies, go hang out, go to happy hour. Just opportunities to get out of the house. In reality it was built for me to get me out of the house and give me the opportunity to meet people in the local market.

Over time it evolved into entrepreneurs and business owners meeting up and networking. To further the topic, was there a book or a movie or a person that inspired you to do this?

Maylon Hargrove: No. Not particularly. Looking back, I can't say that there was anything that really drove me other than just my ambition to want to meet people and to learn more about the city. I had already lived in the Houston market for about a year and a half. I didn't know a lot of people and the few people I did know were in relationships. They were having families. The

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short periods of time I was actually here I just didn't have an opportunity to meet people, and so I found the Meetup.com platform while searching for photography groups. At the time I was really into photography and enhancing my skills. Through that I found a couple photography groups that led me to Meetup, made me aware of this online platform that was available for people to meet up and follow their interests. Through that it just led to me starting my own group. Again, just to have some social activities and build a small social network so that I would not be bored, be able to enjoy the time I had when I was in the city.

Talk about what drives you to do this or your passion to help the people that you help do this.

Maylon Hargrove: This group that I run, as it has continued to grow and evolve, I've seen it change from something that was so simple, just having fun on the weekends and getting a couple of people together, to becoming a community into itself. We're almost four years old now. In those four years, we have gone from a few members to almost thirty-five hundred members.

Thirty-five hundred plus. As the group has developed, I've seen the dynamic of the group change from just a handful of people who were already living here wanting to get out, to attracting people who were new to the city and who were wanting to explore what the city had to offer. From that it's transitioned to attracting the young professional dynamic from all over the city, to the point that about a year ago we officially changed our name to Social Young Professionals to help attract that particular market and to cater to that market.

Now this group that started off as just social activities has developed into so much more, in that we're doing social activities, 113

we're doing professional networking, and we do growth and development events as well, which includes anything from growth workshops, to business to business networking, to authors coming out and talking about their books, giving training on the particular information that they have to offer. Seeing this develop and grow over the last few years has just given me a sense of pride that I can't even start to explore or explain. Over probably the last two years of this growth of this community that I'm building, I've started to have other people who were kind of doing the same thing: following their interests, wanting to build a network and get out there and find ways to make it grow and expand. Find a following for their particular interests and have them start coming to me asking me how I did it. What was involved? What can they do?

Something that kind of transitioned for me out of just looking for people to hang out with four years ago has turned into a side business of helping other people build and develop their own networks.

That's generally how it works, right?

Maylon Hargrove: Right.

If you can't find the solution you create the solution and then everybody else follows. That's awesome. This part of the conversation is what I call the problem question. This question is the core of your chapter in this book. What is the most common obstacle preventing the reader from starting their own meetup group or their own networking group?

Maylon Hargrove: Generally, what holds somebody back from being able to start their own group or building their own 114

professional network is themselves. The fear of actually going out there and doing it. The fear of not knowing what's going to come as they start to get involved. What I do is I work with people to try to work around those fears, anything from trying to help them find the platform that's right for them, whether it's developing their own website or just having some social events.

It could be something where they're having an event and they're just putting out some flyers. Maybe it's just helping them find other groups that are already established, attending those events to get more comfortable with what they're envisioning doing later on. On the other side of that, those that have already put their networks together and are trying to develop them and build them, usually their fear is that it's never going to get to the point where they want it to be.

In my experience, when you start to try to build networks, in the beginning it's slow. In the beginning, you're going to hold events and you're going to have few people attending them. In the beginning, there's the possibility nobody's going to show up to the event you're putting together. The reality is that, in the beginning nobody knows about you and it takes time to build that following. Also, a lot of people want to know that a group is going to continue to be there before they start attending events.

They want to see that you're consistently holding events and that you're going to be there regardless of how many people show up. After you've done that for a little while, they're going to start showing up because they're going to see you're dedicated to what you're doing.

There are so many groups out there now that start, last two events, and nobody shows up to those events. The people that were organizing those events just fall off the face of the earth because they felt that they were unsuccessful. That they weren't getting the crowd in. That they

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weren't going to find anybody that had the same interests, the same desire to learn or get involved in the interests that they were trying to explore.

Maybe some of our readers are introverts or extroverts. Can you talk on that a little bit about setting these up?

Maylon Hargrove: When it comes to introverts and extroverts, the extrovert is always going to have an easier time. Not necessarily putting together events, because extroverts tend to be a little less organized. Introverts tend to be more organized, but extroverts, although they're more outgoing, they may not make sure that everything's in place. They'll go and set up an event, try to get as many as they can to come out to it, and regardless of who shows up they're just going to have a good time.

The introvert's going to be a very organized person. They're going to try to get everything perfect. They're going to get out there and they're going to market it. When it comes time for the event, if nobody shows up they're going to take it personally.

Maybe they're introverted to the point that they're uncomfortable talking to people in the first place. If that's the case then they may want to push themselves to be more outgoing, even if it's just in short spurts. Start by talking to one person, then to two, and then to three, instead of looking at the entire room and thinking that you have to talk to everybody. They can find some extroverts that have the same interests, have the extroverts attend the event and drive the crowd. There're options there too for introverts and extroverts.

What would be one of the biggest misconceptions about starting a meetup group? You touched on some of it, but what are some additional ones?

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Maylon Hargrove: The misconceptions of starting a networking group generally are 1) it's going to cost me a lot of money; 2) it's going to cost me a lot of time; 3) that they're not going to be able to encompass everything, that they believe there are too many moving parts, when the reality is that an event can be as simple or as expensive as you want it to be. You can do something that's as simple as have everybody meet up for a happy hour at a local hot spot. Have everybody pay their own tab and the event itself really doesn't cost you anything other than the few minutes it takes to set up and promote the event. The time involved is really just the amount of time it takes you to set up the event and promote it. That can be something that costs. It can be as simple or extravagant as you want to go.

Promoting the event can be something very simple. You can set it up through a website, through a Facebook calendar, Meetup.com, or an Eventbrite. You just promote it to your social media networks and be done with it. If you're looking for a bigger turnout, maybe you want to go to flyers. Maybe you want to reach out to social media groups. Maybe you want to reach out to your contacts and your alumni associations. You can get a lot more extravagant in how you're marketing your event as well, depending on the type of event, the type of turnout you want to have come out. As far as moving parts go, real moving parts to setting up an event is the venue you're going to have it at, the details of the event itself. In that scenario, it’s "Hey everybody, come out to have happy hour at such and such event. Opportunity for everybody to socialize and have a good time. FYI, everybody pays their own tab." You set that up on your event planner. You promote it out and then everybody shows up. The moving parts are very minimal.

Again, it can become extravagant if you want it to become extravagant. There are definitely the low ends on all three of the 117

misconceptions and a high end on all three of the misconceptions. I think everybody's looking at the high end and wondering.

Looking out at the world and trying to envision how they want to put their events together to start building their network.

How have you helped customers overcome this challenge of starting their meetups?

Maylon Hargrove: I start by showing them what I have done and how I have done it, how that meets what they're trying to do. That gives us a gauge as to where they are, where they want to be, and what needs to be done to get there. If I have somebody who just wants to set up some simple social activities, I can show them that's as simple as what we were discussing before.

Setting it up through maybe a Facebook calendar, uploading it out to their social medial platforms, and showing up to the event. It can also give me the opportunity to talk to the people I'm working with. To show them that if they're trying to build a much larger organization that 1) it takes time, and 2) I can walk them through the steps that it took me to get where I'm at so that they know what worked for me and what didn't. It can troubleshoot their path, utilizing the experience that I can provide through my experiences.

I was just thinking back to how we met at a Meetup event and look where that's taken us. It's just amazing that you just have to show up. It doesn't matter if it's one or a hundred. You just show up and magic can happen.

Maylon Hargrove: Absolutely. Most people don't realize on the other side of any event is the opportunity to build relationships. So far we've discussed what it takes to build an event. Like I said, on the other side of that you have to build relationships.

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I've dealt with people that their entire interest is making connections. They want to start at their own event platform. They'll start building their own network so that they can essentially pass out business cards. Pick up business cards, move onto the next group of people and do the same thing. Generally, when that's somebody's interest, I don't work with them. I'm not here to try to make connections. I'm here to build relationships. The people I work with, I want them to understand that networking in general—whether you're building the network or you're just trying to have some social events or some social activities—you want to build relationships. You want to connect with the people that you're meeting.

It is much more important to take a small meeting or a small event and take the time to get to really know everybody that shows up, than it is to have a large event and not spend any time with anybody. When that occurs you don't even have an opportunity to get a feel for someone.

Exactly! Relationships are the key. What would be the best piece of advice you would give the reader who is considering starting a meetup group or a networking group?

Maylon Hargrove: For somebody who’s seriously interested in trying to start up a networking group, to build their own network from the bottom up is to 1) know what their focus is, and 2) do it and stick with it. What happens is most people do something. Let's say the first thirty days they have a couple of events, nobody shows up. They start thinking that nobody's interested in the kind of events that they're holding, so they change direction completely and try to do something else. If your interest is in the type of events you're holding, continue holding those events. Reality is that most likely there's something in what 119

you're currently doing that's not working, not the type of event or the interests that you're involved in. It may just be the way that you're writing up the bio for the event. It may be the way you're promoting the event. It may just be something very simple. Maybe you're not marketing it to the right crowd.

If you're trying to have a professional networking event, you don't want to market it to a bunch of gamers. If you're trying to have a gaming event, you might not want to market to a bunch of stockbrokers. Find the right niche of people to promote the event to and just stick with it. Give it time and know that it's going to have to evolve as you move forward. As you move forward, you can find what works and tweak it. Make it better so that the next event's that much better.

How can the reader or the audience find out more about how to start their own networking or meetup group?

Maylon Hargrove: The resources are available out there.

Generally, anybody that has an interest in starting a meetup group or their own network should obviously start by doing their research. Research can be just something as simple as taking a look at the other networks that are out there. Compare them to what you're wanting to do. Take a look at other networking organizations. See what they're doing. See what works for them, what doesn't work for them. Utilize that when you're trying to put yours together. See if the current market you're in has those type of events. Are they flooded by that type of event, or is it something that's nonexistent at this point? If you're interested in doing a network through, say, Meetup.com, Meetup.com has a vast resource library in itself that'll give you a lot of tips and education. You can go on their blog, go through forums with

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other current organizers and ask the questions you want to ask.

Discuss the issues.

A lot of cities have what they call an organizers mastermind group, for lack of a better term, that meets once a week, once a month, or once a quarter, to sit and discuss what's working for them, what doesn't work. Why some are groups growing fast and have much stronger attendance while other groups have become stagnant? Opportunities to monetize your groups or monetize your events. There's a lot of information out there.

You spoke that you help people do this. How could they find out more about that?

Maylon Hargrove: As of this moment I don't really have a lot of information available as to how I help others develop their networks. If they're interested in seeing the type of networks that I have put together and what I'm doing with them, let me start by describing what I currently have. What I have currently is three meetup groups. I have one that focuses specifically on young professionals in the energy corridor, where most of the energy companies are located in a consolidated spot. It provides young professionals in that area opportunities to meet at periodic intervals for happy hour, an evening dinner, or to watch a game on the weekends, or just to get together and socialize.

The second group I run is a business-to-business networking group, our meetings generally held in the heart of Houston. It's an opportunity for small business owners to get together and socialize, develop some synergy, find alliance, some partnership opportunities. We'll bring in some speakers so that they can gain some professional knowledge as well. Maybe on sales training or how to develop their authority in their field, maybe advance

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some of their social media skills, or to get an idea about their topics.

The third group I run is the one I was talking about earlier, this culture for young professionals. It is a meetup group that has grown to about thirty-five hundred members. What we do is we focus on social activities, professional networking and personal/professional growth events such as developmental workshops, and author meet-and-greets or author talks, so that they can learn more information on a specific field or a variety of other educational topics.

We're in the process of developing the website now. The website will be www.socialyoungprofessionals.com. The website should have an unofficial launch of about June 1. I would go into beta testing and then we should see an official launch somewhere around September 1.

If somebody's ready to get started now, how will they contact you?

Maylon Hargrove: They can contact me through my personal email, MalenHardgrove@gmail.com.

My phone number is (281) 755-5832.

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WEBSITE: http://www.meetup.com/Social-Young-Professionals/members/14083840/ EMAIL: maylonhargrove@gmail.com LOCATION: Houston, Texas PHONE: 281.755.5832

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MALISIA GARCIA

Empowered Marketing and Consulting President/Senior Business Consultant Houston, Texas

Malisia has over 15 years’ experience in entrepreneurship, consulting and marketing is one of the best kept secrets of the marketing industry. As a self-thought business consultant who has gained a wealth of knowledge through years of work experiences and hands-on training, Malisia has made a name for herself as the go-to-person in and around the Houston market.

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Conversation with Malisia Garcia Tell me about your business and the types of customers you help.

Malisia Garcia: Empowered Marketing and Consulting is a

one stop marketing, business development and consulting firm that empowers business of all sizes from start-up to emerging companies on practical and budget friendly ways to optimize their client base, identify areas of improvement, implement ways to increase profitability, repeat successes and evolve. Empowered Marketing and Consulting work a lot with startup, emerging businesses, and existing businesses that seem to be at a stuck point not knowing how to get from one point to another.

So after evaluating the business we create unique and out of the box solutions for them to get to the point “B”. Pretty much we step in and help them get, started, whether it be marketing, financial, helping with structure, training, and even hire the right staff for their business to be successful.

Empowered Marketing and Consulting do not believe that one size fits all when it comes to our clients, this is why we adapt each of our services to fit our client’s business needs, helping reshape and empower them along the way. Our ideal clients are those clients that want to start a business, but working a 9 to 5 job and do not have the time or resources to begin. Empowered Marketing and Consulting work within our client’s budget to create a unique marketing plan and business plan to get them where they want to be without them having to leave their jobs immediately. As well as not having spent money they do not have. This is why it is important to us to work within our client’s budgets. The client can continue work to make money and we get the business started for them. For those selected clients, 126

they can continue to work until we complete their project, relieving them from the worry and stress of not being able to pay their bills during the process of their business startup.

Well that’s our idea, but unexpectedly it evolved into much more. In the process of wanting to help start up clients, we began rapidly getting approached by emerging and existing small and large companies, like oil and gas companies, pharmaceutical compounding centers, magazines, financial services, merchant service, media (television and radio), Churches, etc. We pray about every project we take on because we stand strongly on our integrity, honesty and deliver services that will empower our clients company beyond measures. We offer our clients reliability and quality information. Our goals are simple: we want them, Increase customer service relations with their clients, establish a brand base that the world recognizes, and propel their company as the leading expert in your industry. As well as, positioning their business for immediate and future success.

That’s pretty awesome for you. Take somebody’s company and get it set up so they can step off without leaving their current 9 to 5. That’s quite a service you have.

Malisia Garcia: Yes, it came to mind when I was working my 9

to 5 and wanted to start my company back up. I started my first company when I was 15. I had to step into the corporate world 4 years; maybe about 5 years back do to a very back break up. I wanted to start my business back up, but all of the hours that I was sitting in my corporate job, it made it pretty much impossible to do that. That’s when the idea came that I would love to help someone who was also in my situation where they didn’t have to just quit and struggle as much as I had to struggle just to get my company back up and running. I said to myself at that 127

time my struggle and sacrifice now will help someone else from having to go through what I had to in my business startup.

That leads into my next question. What led you to this field and how did you get started in doing what you’re doing now?

Malisia Garcia: I was a big nerd growing up. I was pretty bad, but I was very nerdy. And like I said, I started my first company at 15 years old, called Expoza and it was pretty successful.

Expoza was a scouting firm. We scouted models, actors and singers for agencies as well as record labels and modeling agencies that were looking for talent. The agencies would tell me what they’re looking for and I’ll find it for them. Expoza grew so fast that I needed an office space, but I couldn’t find an office space that would allow me to have that money people come in and out each day. So it led me to nightclubs forcing me to doing interviews at night for those that wanted to come out and audition.

Was so surprised to that over 3,000 people coming in that club a night just for my company Expoza at that time. The club basically just gave me all the door and 15% of the bar, which would give me tens of thousands of dollars for one night a week. It just fell in place that way. I didn’t know anything about promotions or anything on the marketing side. At that point I said to myself, “you mean to tell me I can get paid just for coming up with ideas to bring clients in to business?”

One night a week turned into 5 nights a week for 5 different clubs. To others contacting me about their businesses, such as cosmetic line, clothing stores, etc. Throughout that time, I realized that I had a niche for creating unique “out of the Box” ways to help companies reach their goals. Most importantly, I really loved helping come up with different ideas making my clients different from their competitors helping them reach for beyond 128

their goals. Unaware what this business was called, just knew I had a niche that I loved and was so easy for me. After say many saying to me, I had a natural gift for marketing with and out of the box type thinking. I researched marketing and realized that was exactly what I was doing alone with business development and never knew there was a name for what I did. I just like helping people reach their goals in life. I knew with my true helping those in need God would provide for me.

That’s very interesting. Could you share with the reader, an interesting story or short story or specific time where this really took off for you?

Malisia Garcia: That would be what I’ve just explained to you pretty much. It took off to a point where they didn’t even have to pay for advertisement. I got a call from Clear Channel one day they thanked me for Expoza helping the people of the community. Clear Channel personnel explained to me that they had gotten several calls about my company and even sent someone to check my company out. They were surprised about the help I was providing the people of Houston and surround areas getting started with their careers and/ business some without charge just consulting with them. They thanked me and actually gave me free advertisement for Expoza on several different radio stations.

I was blessed so much the City of Houston was offering me their facilities at no cost or very little cost to do concerts and events just to bring traffic through Houston. Making me aware of tourism grants and other grant that was available to me if I would do events in those facilitates. It was that point in my life I knew things had taken off, I simply wanted to help others reach their goals in life and the City Of Houston in return helped me 129

live my dream to continue to help as many people as God allows possible. I live my dream every day I wake up knowing there is gift inside of me that can help others accomplish the goal and make their dreams a reality.

So far so good, I thank God for that gift because I haven’t had to look for clients since I started. I am humbled that all my clients have always sought my company out or been referral based from the beginning. Even as I started Empowered Marketing and Consulting up years after a bad break up that ended Expoza, I have had old clients who sought me out from the beginning to work with them on new projects. Thank God for Favor and helping me provide services my clients can trust.

Very nice. Is there or has there been a book or a movie or person that inspired you up to this point?

Malisia Garcia: Yes. The first book for me is the Holy Bible. It has encouraged me in every aspect of my life, through good times and Bad. But, if you are asking me for books or movies that inspired me other than my biblical beliefs. I come from a very humble beginning, might as well say, so the movie, Pursuit of Happiness was one that influenced me. During the years I was down between the end of Expoza and trying to rebuild before starting Empowered Marketing and Consulting. There was a point in my life where I had to give up on everything, trying to find myself let alone starting over after my break up with three kids. It was at a real low point in my life. My heart was burden, thinking on all the people I had helped and when I needed it most, I felt like no one was there for my children and I. Depressed and confidence to its lowest I could not put the pieces together to even move forward nor did I have the finances to start another business.

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So to provide for my family I worked for someone else corporation for a few years. My mind didn’t know how to transition back into the strong confident woman I use to be. In watching Pursuit of Happiness, it reminded me where I came from. The struggles my mother went through to provide for us as kids, reminded of this man struggle to provide for his son. Looking at this movie I saw my mother reflection in him as he shed tears as his pride was ripped from him. The feeling of disappointment of not being able to provide for the one thing in life he loved most his child, but will to fight tooth and nail to keep his family together. I could not help it; I saw myself as a child and saw my mother’s love for us through him.

My mother worked hours and hours of sometimes more than two jobs at a time. I remember many nights after school my siblings and I sat in the janitors closet while she worked until her shift she was over, and then had to catch a few buses home only to be up in a few hours to get up for school. At several times in our life we were homeless, at a good point in our life mom was able to afford a car that gave us more time to sleep.

When times got bad again we had to sleep in our car because we couldn’t get into any of the shelters. Their reason was that our family was larger than, the norm. They could allow two families in for the amount of people that were in ours. A mother with 3 kids was enough to turn away so they could take in two smaller families. So we slept in the car many of times, then got up in the morning went to a McDonald’s or gas station, brush our teeth and comb my hair, rinse up and then go straight to school.

In seeing that movie, it got me to the point of being able to say, “My mother went through, suffered and sacrificed so much for us. If she had the strength to endure hardships that many could not and still encourage us to be strong. Reminding us that we are someone in God’s eyes, never to allow anyone tell us 131

what we are today, will determine who we will be tomorrow. If my mother taught this to me why would I allow a break up to break me up inside, so I cannot live my dreams? Do I actually want to sit back in the corporate world continue to make this small amount and they can trade me out when they want, or keep paying me the smallest amount? Or do I want to follow my dream step back out and make the money that I was making before and be happy? That is when I decided to get up off my butt and just do it. It did not matter if I fell at that point, just as long as I got back up.

In my mind if God made a way for me before, he would do it again. It was time to put away all my fears and trust in God to provide. It was because of that movie Pursuit of Happiness that encouraged me so much to push through my fears. Which then, the name Empowered Marketing and Consulting came about. I felt it was and is my purpose to Empower and guide those in their pursuit of happiness.

I know you have a lot of passion, but what drives you? What keeps you getting up in the morning and having the passion that you have for what you do?

Malisia Garcia: Being a single mother, from a humble beginning. That I got married at 15, had 3 kids by the age of 21, and divorced by 25. I want to be an example to my kids, my family and to others, that just because if feels like life has dealt you a bad hand in life, your past does not determine your future. Take every bad hand that life has dealt you and learn from it and move forward. Move forward so that those life experiences can help someone else get through it to. Do not let a lack of money or a lack of education keep you from achieving your goals.

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When I started my business I had not been in college nor did I have a high school diploma, but I helped some start their own Adult Learning Center. Then I got my GED and years later I went to College. Do not look at what you do not have in life; look at what you do have to help you reach those goals. Encourage yourself daily and know that God has you covered. Knowing this pushed me to be the best example I could be for my children. To get up and show them that no matter what life gives you or deals to you, good or bad, if it’s a bad situation, you can still make it and turn it into a positive situation. Don’t dwell on all the negative. Find the positive and keep moving forward.

That’s awesome advice. That’s a great story also.

What is the most common obstacle preventing the reader from achieving that outcome that you provide?

Malisia Garcia: Themselves. I believe it’s us, our own fears, our own self looking at our past, where we came from, where we are today that keeps us from advancing in life. Because many are so focus on their past and their current place in life they cannot see the greatness in their future if they just keep moving forward. As they continue to move forward and life throws rocks at you, add it to your collections of rock thrown at you and use them as stepping stone to elevate yourself to the next level in life. I don’t know about you but I had and have a lot of stones life has thrown at me.

It is funny because all the people wished I would fail in life are wondering how I keep growing in my business and personal life.

I just laugh sometimes and say yes every time you try to knock me down, I use it to lift myself up just a little bit higher. Turn the bad into good no matter how much it hurt. Remember what God 133

has for you it is for you and no man can take it away from you.

Just because you can’t see the future, don’t let your past hold you back from reaching those goals.

What would be examples of that, of them holding themselves back?

Malisia Garcia: Some examples would be looking at where they came from, where their parents were, grandparents. If their grandparents or mother didn’t achieve or never reached those goals or never got in college and they see those didn’t do it and conclude they won’t be able to make it in college because no one else went. Another example would be in a relationship with someone that’s not equally yoked mentally with you, and because they can’t see themselves having their own business, they push their feeling off on you or say, no, you just need to keep working because this is how we make a living, but ultimately don’t start a business.

Between family, friends and looking at our past, looking at our current situations that we’re in, we may not have money to do it, and that’s another big problem people look at is the financial side. I don’t have the money to do what is in my heart or what I want to do, but not realizing that a lot of the things that they think that are required to be spent up front, they can start small and build to a point where they can actually reach that goal over time to where not a lot of money is being spent all at once.

That’s the good thing about Empower Marketing and Consulting, is because without having money up front, we can put things in place to get them to a point of being able to make some money to build to a next level to make more money in order to be able to gradually reach those goals.

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So what are the biggest misconceptions around this process for your clients?

Malisia Garcia: The biggest misconception would be is for one to have business, a lot of startup money is needed or they feel they need a business plan right off. You don’t need any of those right off to start your own business, there are many ways to get your business up and running at little or no cost at all. One way you should consider is to barter your service for the services that you need from another company. Then there some things that you can do yourself, that are self-explanatory. Services that wouldn’t cost money or even much time to do.

Just to reiterate a little bit, what would be a common problem facing your perfect prospect, just so that you understand what their problem is? Could you elaborate on that a little bit more?

Malisia Garcia: A common problem with a potential client is their lack of direction. They have an idea. They have experience to do it, but not knowing what the next step is to accomplish their goals. Many times they struggle with the idea that they don’t need the financials right away just to start. A common problem is that they feel like everything needs to be already in place financially before they can even make a step to start their business or to write a book or whatever else.

How could the reader avoid or overcome some of those obstacles that you talked about to achieve success? You mentioned bartering, you mentioned some other things. Could you go into a little bit more detail on how they can overcome that?

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Malisia Garcia: Many times, people don’t know of my company Empowered Marketing and Consulting or any companies that can actually guide them through step by step. So if they don’t know of any companies like Empowered Marketing and Consulting. The best thing for them to do is networking, in this case networking is very important. Finding the right networking events to attend that will give them the right prospects and businesses you can work with to help better your company. It is a must for new businesses to attend networking events and meeting people that have similar interest as yourself. Surrounding yourself around those like- minded with a strong desire to better them self as well as in encourage you in your goals will keep you motivated to reach your goals.

I believe this is a second part, as well that many new owners need to know. They have to know when to stop networking and to start applying information that they receive towards their own business. Many people network and network, yet they still haven’t started or apply what they have learned or utilized the contacts they have received from networking. They seldom move any further because haven’t applied the information that they had and opportunities and connections that they now have to their businesses to continue to grow. That’s when they get stuck in that situation where they’re just not growing and there is more talk about business, no growth and no clients. They’re just staying there. It’s because they’re doing too much. I mean you can still network but not to the point where you’re not work or the job done. I mean ask yourself what you’re trying to do with your business, is anything getting accomplished? If not then there comes a time when you have to stop networking and apply in order to build your net-worth.

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That’s a good point, knowing when to stop networking. I think that’s the first time ever somebody said that. It’s always network, network, network, but you’ve got to get to a point where you’ve networked enough.

Malisia Garcia: Build your net worth. There’s a point where you stop networking and build your own net worth.

That’s perfect. I love it. Could you describe how you help a client overcome these obstacles?

Malisia Garcia: Okay. Right now, I have different titles, depending on what the company needed. One of the magazines I was hired to work with was Katy Christian Magazine. We sat down and talked about some of the things that he struggled with as well as his successes.

In our company evaluation process we were able to look at what his weakness, strengths and desires for the company to reach his goals. He disclosed his desire to to open another magazine; Now called is Fort Bend Magazine. His problem was he had a lot of work on himself as the owner and employee. I knew in order for him to start the second magazine he was going to need some help. So prayed about it then stepped in. Of course, I’m the marketing and business development field; I went in as everything to help him reach his goal. Immediately began hiring in more sales people and trying to attend every networking event possible to build awareness of the magazines.

It was important to me to learn what the salespeople needed to learn. I had to be able to train these people to start a second magazine and more. The owner was a master in sales, could not do it all by himself. The one of the small reasons his company was able to grow to the next level, was because he extended 137

himself as far as he could go. He needed help, someone to help keep thing lined up, sales team, and very minimal changes. He has his second magazine now going into the second year. Katy Christian Magazine and Fort Bend Christian Magazine are taking the magazine by strong spread the word of God like never before.

I learned that most small business is not growing because one person is trying to do it all. Delegate some of the work out and you will not only have less stress, but you will also be able to take on more paying jobs helps with your company’s growth. Oh, by the way what was thought would take a year or so to start Fort Bend Christian Magazine the owner Joe and I working together only in 30 days. Most importantly it did not cost nearly what was originally thought. That was one of the things. One small detail which is very important, have the right people in place to encourage you, help you grow and someone that can see your vision that want you to succeed. Anyways very little needed to be done, restructure and implement some small things that didn’t cost a dime more.

You talk about branding and imaging. What would be the best advice you would give the reader to consider?

Malisia Garcia: Whatever company you’re trying to do, whether it’s marketing, whatever type of company you’re trying to start. Know that is the image you need to portray. So by you being, let’s say, in a Christian magazine, you don’t want to be out in public, a drunk or dressing provocatively or having on your social media pictures of yourself where your cleavage is out or similar. You want to make sure whatever you’re doing in business is reflecting a good, positive influence in your social media life and in your personal life. Because that’s what people see, 138

that’s what they’re going to see you as. You can’t say you’re in a marketing company, own a marketing company and you’re working with a particular thing, but you’re dressing completely different from the way you are to dress. You want to keep that image clean at all times to make sure that when people see you, it reflects the work you do and the work you do reflects the image of you. So it’s both ways at all times.

Consistency.

Malisia Garcia: Yes, consistency.

What is the first thing a reader would do, if they were ready to improve their branding or establish their brand, what would they do?

Malisia Garcia: They need to work on themselves first. The reason why I say work on themselves is because this (your business) needs to be from the inside to outer appearance of you. If you’re talking about working on someone else’s branding and you haven’t even branded yourself yet, you will never get the job or you’ll never be trusted with the job. Your brand, whatever image you’re putting out there, is it complementing or a reflection of what you do for a living or not? Understand that your image is a reflection of you and what you do. If you look one way, act another in one place and then they see act another way some else, it can be confusing to others. They see that you haven’t even branded yourself, so how are you going to brand someone else? You will not be able to get a serious job in branding, if you don’t take your brand serious. Let’s talk about a business-tobusiness; you are the reflection of your company. You are the

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reflection of your business. So everything about you should to speak loudly about what you do for business.

Good point. So why would it be a good idea or beneficial for your client, for your readers to benefit from working with you?

What would be one of the benefits?

Malisia Garcia: One of the benefits of working with me is that we let the whole body, mind and soul determine the type of the business, because of the person they are. Just because someone has a business idea, that doesn’t mean that business idea, we’re talking about startups, is the best for them. This is why I pray about every potential client. I do not take on any one, but will advice or consult with them to help. If that’s what they want to do, we start branding them and placing them in a way of that being part of their life and guiding them every step of the way.

That means the client must be open minded to receive the information being given to help them reach their goals. We will work with them from image all the way staffing their company and beyond if needed. The benefit of working with Empowered Marketing and Consulting is that we work with our clients from A to Z within their budget. So depending on how much is needed.

Of course, if they are really passionate about what they’re doing, we work out a marketing plan and sometimes we even barter for them with my other clients for services that they need in order for them to get their needs meet. All of their needs can be handled in house if the clients prefer so everything is at a low or not rate. We can handle everything from A to Z within their budget.

What would be an example of an entry-level budget versus a large budget? Do you have examples of that?

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Malisia Garcia: Let’s just say I had a client that didn’t have any money. No money whatsoever, but wanted to write a book, and as we know, that costs. But what I did was I explained to them that in writing and I can talk to someone else that could probably barter some services from me for one of my other clients, so that client can handle the other things with them to do the editing of the book for her. So her book gets done at no cost, but in return one day I may call upon her to help someone else that may be in need of help and cannot afford it.

So in many case I have a team of amazing people that because they were blessed through Empowered Marketing and Consulting, they return the blessing to someone else in need. It was more so in her budget to go through Amazon and set it up as an online book, an eBook, originally in order to start building some funds to be able to then publish a hardback that she wanted originally, because she didn’t have any money this was a way for her to build fund to actually do print. That was one of the options given which wouldn’t cost her much of anything to do, simply downloading it that from her computer to that particular website.

How can the reader find out more about how they can start their company, brand or position their company? How can they find out more?

Malisia Garcia: They just need to go to www.empoweredmarketingandconsulting.com. Go there and reach out to me.

They can contact me for free consultation and we can go over what their needs are. We don’t solely work with branding, we also work with media. We’re working with television networks right now. We’re working with phone app companies right now.

So many different types of companies right now. We’re working 141

with a lot of the media type fields. Ministry On Demand is one of the companies I’m working with and partnered up with for now, as well as Contender Magazine. We’re working with quite a bit of people even some that started and are emerging but still need that help. I’m there for them. If they just go on that website and my cell number’s there, the company’s number is there as well.

They can pull whatever information they need or they can contact me immediately for a consultation and I’ll be more than happy to come and guide them along the way to start the process.

Perfect.

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WEBSITE: www.empoweredmarketingandconsulting.com.

EMAIL: emarketingofhouston@gmail.com LOCATION: Houston, TX LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/malisia-garcia/8/11b/8b0

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PABLO F. VALLE, MSc.

CEO, Small Business Connexion Network Strategist Houston, Texas

Pablo is also an entrepreneur at heart. He is the Founder and President of Small Business Connexion, a Professional Business Organization helping businesses Learn, Grow, and Connect.

Pablo also founded a local Houston Professional Business Network (the Latino Professional Business Network) that began with fifteen people and grew to over 4,200 members in less than three years. He has served in numerous leadership roles including; Treasurer and President of the American Society of Civil Engineers - Student Chapter, Board Member of the Chamber of Latino Entrepreneurs, President, Membership Co-Chair, and Secretary/Treasurer of the Texas Institute of Transportation Engineers Houston District. Among his peers, Pablo is known as the “Godfather of Networking�.

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Conversation with Pablo F. Valle Hello Pablo, thanks for being here with us today. Let’s start by telling us about your business and what type of people you help.

Pablo F. Valle: Sure. The business that we have is an organization, a networking organization. The organization is called Small Business Connection. Our primary focus is to help small businesses and entrepreneurs learn, grow and develop their businesses through education and networking. Those are the main 2 resources that we provide.

So why individuals or companies would be interested in that?

What’s the outcome of networking?

Pablo F. Valle: One of the reasons they would be interested in networking is that businesses, especially small businesses, are always looking to grow and take themselves to the next level.

Statistics have proven that 95% of small businesses fail within five years of startup. They fail because of lack of knowledge, lack of personal growth. So a lot of businesses are looking for tools and resources to gather so they can grow and elevate their business and not be part of that 95%.

That statistic has been around for quite some time and it looks like we’ve learned some valuable lessons from that going forward.

Pablo F. Valle: You know it’s interesting you mention that.

I’m an engineer by profession. I’m a civil engineer, but I’m not your typical introvert engineer. I’m more of people person and 146

an entrepreneur at heart. I built my business mostly because of my own need and passion to (1) grow and develop myself and, (2) to network and grow my network. Just to give you a brief history, I originally grew up in another country, and you’re probably familiar with that country. I come from New York.

Right.

Pablo F. Valle: And coming from New York to Houston, one of the things that I was looking is ways to expand my spheres of influence and network and also to expand my entrepreneurship.

I went around looking for different chambers, different networking groups, and none seem to fit the need that I wanted.

Whenever you don’t find something that fits your need, you go out there and you create it yourself. So that’s what I did.

Awesome! Can you think of a short story or specific time or event that helped you catch the bug to do this or inspired you to do it?

Pablo F. Valle: Sure. One of the things is that I was serving on a board of a chamber here in Houston. We began creating afterhours events. They were essentially social events, where people would just give out business cards like crazy; but there was no education I was going out there networking, expanding my own network and handing business cards like crazy, collecting business cards like crazy, but not getting any results. And a lot of people were experiencing the same thing. I knew we had to do something different. So one of the things I did was create an organization, create a networking group that would integrate that

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educational component, where people would come to our networking events but we would add an educational component and teach you all about networking. Final component tied to it.

It was not about getting a business card out there, making a sale or making more business contacts, but truly helping the people understand that networking was all about creating relationships and helping that other person.

Once I understood that people would always do business with people they like, trust and care about, I knew this was a good philosophy for us to include in our networking concept. When we started applying this concept, our own organization began growing. We started a couple of years ago with 15 people in a small restaurant having lunch. And then the organization grew to over 4,250 people strong in less than 2 years.

That’s impressive! Was there a book or a movie or a person that inspired you along the way?

Pablo F. Valle: I’ve been a big student of personal development. My strongest belief is that in order for you to grow in anything that you do, your social life, your relationship or your business, you first have to grow personally. So one of my biggest inspirations was Napoleon Hill. I’ve been a student of Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich, and Earl Nightingale’s The Strangest Secret, that we become who we think about. Napoleon Hill and Earl Nightingale have been my two biggest inspirations and have really changed my way of seeing things.

Those books are at the top of the list of just about every successful entrepreneur. So that’s incredible training in itself.

Can you talk about what drives you and gives you the passion to do what you do to help people in networking?

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Pablo F. Valle: You know my own passion has been understanding this concept that you could change your philosophy, your thoughts, and that could change almost everything and every aspect of your life.

It was a passion, a drive for me to not only get this message out to the masses, because there are a lot of people out that are not growing in their businesses. There are a lot of people just hitting their heads on the wall and keep hitting their heads on the wall. Just to be able to go to them and share this message with them and inspire them and let them know that they can do more and they can become more, pushed me to go out there and create more strategic alliances and continue pushing the envelope. My biggest drive is going out there and unifying all these different networking groups and having them work together because, you know, we’re all out there for a common goal and common passion. Of course, each one is going to have their own unique interest, their unique vision, but we all have a common goal of helping one another.

What’s the most common obstacle preventing people from effectively using networking to build their business?

Pablo F. Valle: One of the biggest problems I would say is not necessarily that the person does not know how to network or does not know how to have access to several tools and resources that we have out there, but one of the biggest problems I see is going back to basics.

Before we go and talk about the tools and resources we have out there to network, we have to talk about having a purpose.

What is the over-arching purpose for networking? One could be for brand recognition. Another one could be to expand their network. Eventually, we’re all going to go to that point where we 149

want additional business, clients, and customers coming to us.

But the biggest problem is not the resource and tools available.

It is really that individual defining their purpose before they even go out there to the networking world.

How could they narrow that down, you know, their purpose.

How could they realize what their purpose is? How could they get that?

Pablo F. Valle: When we talk about networking, it’s very simple. I always tell people, first, identify clearly your market, your niche market, your area.

For example, let’s talk about a real estate agent. I always come across real estate agents who say, “The reason I want to network is because I want to find more buyers for homes.” That is a general purpose. Now we have to define that, so I ask, “Who is your ideal buyer?” and usually hear, “Well, anyone that is willing to buy.” The point that I’m making is the purpose here is clearly identifying your niche market. I help that real estate agent get to the point where he/she says, “Well Pablo, I’m a real estate agent in the northeast part of the Houston area and I’m focusing on this region where the Hispanic community is beginning to grow and I’m looking for an ideal buyer that’s within the age of 35 to 40. They’re just out of college within the last 3, 4 years, they’re in the process of buying a house. They’re in the income range of $50,000 to $100,000 a year, with their buying power being about 3 times their income, which is $150,000 to $300,000.” Now, that’s a clearly defined purpose!

Now, once you have defined that purpose, then we have to say, okay, great. This agent will no longer waste his/her time with random networking events. For example, the individual would

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spend his/her time going to networking events and/or receptions with other real estate professionals, title companies, and home insurance agents in that particular area. The individual may also attend chamber events affiliated with some of real estate professionals and/or entities that work with this particular sector the agent is focused on.

Nice! Let’s cover some of the misconceptions that the reader may have about entering into a networking arena for the first time. What would be the biggest misconception?

Pablo F. Valle: Absolutely. A lot of people tend to measure success by going to an event and gathering hundreds of business cards. Now, what happens to those business cards that you have gathered? Have you built a relationship with those people? How many clients have you obtained from those hundreds of business cards? So the success here is not necessarily how many business cards you have gathered but how many key connections you have made.

That’s one of the things that we’re working to help people understand. It’s okay, once you’ve identified your target market, if you’re gathering all these business cards. We are going to show you ways to be effective and turn these business cards into clients and into paying customers for your business.

Very good.

Can you give us some advice on how we can avoid or overcome some of the obstacles to networking successfully?

Pablo F. Valle: Yes. One of the ways that I would say that they could overcome all these challenges and be successful in 151

networking is a simple 3-step system that we help people understand: Number one is create your foundation Number two is develop a plan Number three is take action The foundation, again, is really defining that purpose as we previously spoke about. You have to have a clear objective of what it is you want to accomplish before you go out to networking events. You could also network online. You could also network through social media, LinkedIn, Facebook, and all these other social media venues or sites, but you have to have first that firm foundation and know what the purpose is.

Number two is develop a plan. You know where you’re at now. Where do you want to be a year from now? And then work yourselves backwards in, I usually tell people go with 30-day increments. Set small goals in 30-day increments and then begin measuring them.

You have to understand the types of networking groups that we have out there. We have several groups that are just social, there are other groups that are social / business, there’s also BNI groups, and those are the exclusive category groups. There are open groups, and understanding all those different groups in your planning stage.

Nothing is ever going to happen until you take action. Now you take action and start going to those networking events, if you have a clear objective, you’re no longer going to be gathering just hundreds and hundreds of business cards because now you know the key people who you’re want to connect with. And the other thing that I tell people is that networking is not about what you’re going to get but what you’re going to give. You have

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to have the mindset that networking is about making key connections, building relationships, and giving something meaningful to the key connections that you develop.

Can you describe of what you do for your clients? Tell us what it’s like to work with you.

Pablo F. Valle: Sure. When I first start working with an individual who wants help networking, we start by going through the steps, helping them identify their purpose, helping them develop that plan and helping them research the different types of groups that are a good fit for them. Then we put together a 60 to 90-day game plan. It’s like a coaching session, if you will, where we provide them the tools and resources.

We give them opportunities within our own platforms, as well. We’ve developed an educational platform for other entrepreneurs and other small businesses to come and network with us. If our organization is a fit for the market that they’re looking for, we help them plug into one of our events. If not, we identify what are some other organizations that we’re affiliated with or other organizations around the area.

What would be your best piece of advice to somebody who’s just considering stepping out there to be involved in these networking events that you described?

Pablo F. Valle: You know the best piece of advice is, before you just run like crazy to all these different events, try to truly understand what it is you want. It always goes back to your objective because until you have a clear objective, you’re going to waste a lot of time.

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And what would be the first thing they should do if they’re ready to start?

Pablo F. Valle: If you’re ready to start and you have identified your purpose, go out there to your chamber of commerce, go out there to your BNIs, and go out there to some of the open groups.

Find groups that meet your purpose, then try the various types. Some people might function well with BNI groups, others may function well with open groups, and others may be comfortable within a chamber. Get an idea and feel for what works best for you.

And what would be the first thing they should do if they’re ready to start?

Pablo F. Valle: Poor networking can be a huge time sink.

Most people who have tried it, have experienced that. I’ve already been in the networking industry for over 15 years, and in those 15 years, I’ve tested and tried every possible strategy.

When someone works with me, they get the benefit of those 15 years of testing without having to make the same mistakes. I could easily put a book together on how not to network. In addition to my experience, we have veteran networkers and leaders with a combined experience of over 100 years, that’s a lot of wisdom gathered in one place and they are all happy to share it.

I completely agree. Networking is a huge part of being in businesses. I know the frustrations I felt early on when I attended networking events and everybody was just pushing business cards at me. There’s really no value there. So how can the reader find out more about how to learn about networking properly?

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Pablo F. Valle: There’s a lot of misinformation out there about networking, so I encourage people to go through the steps I talked about earlier and research what kind of groups are operating in their area.

I’d also like to invite readers to visit our site at www.smallbizconnexion.com. We have resources and tools and information all about networking. There are great articles on the site from some of the most successful networkers out there and we’re always adding more.

Thank you! I know a lot of our readers will benefit from that.

What’s the best way for people to contact you?

Pablo F. Valle: The best way would definitely be email.

Pablo.Valle@smallbizconnexion.com we always try to respond within a couple of hours.

Perfect. Thank you for your time today, Pablo. I know I’ve learned a lot and I’m sure our readers have too.

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WEBSITE: www.smallbizconnexion.com EMAIL: Pablo.Valle@smallbizconnexion.com LOCATION: Spring, Texas FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/pablo.f.valle LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablovalle

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CHRIS N. WEST

President of LR Training Houston, Texas Chris N. West is a professional corporate trainer. Formerly worked at Google where he helped lead efforts in bringing companies to use online business tools. In addition to his tech work, he worked within the oil and gas industry where he managed advertising for 40+ leading oil companies.

An award-winning marketing strategist, Chris has trained hundreds of businesses in the use of social media, search engine optimization, and marketing strategy on the Web. In addition to his work with businesses, Chris has helped well-known corporations use his arsenal of marketing tools to get the most value from their online presence. Chris is a popular and engaging Internet Marketing Speaker who always shares a wealth of actionable ideas that managers can use right away to make a positive difference in their marketing team’s success. From the 157

moment he begins his presentation, employees are captivated by his high-energy delivery style and the richness of his ideas.

Invite Chris Cheetham-West to your organization. He’ll increase your awareness of the many untapped opportunities available to you on the Internet and give you the insights you need to take full advantage.

West is best known for his focus on strategies that help organizations achieve their goals in order to position their companies for long-term success. Overall, West has garnered experience in marketing, business development, and training. As he has often said, “I feel that as a marketer, you actually get to make key decisions that will determine success or failure. The marketing field comes by trial and error, which in turn makes me a better, wellrounded individual.�

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Conversation with Chris N. West Hello Chris, thank you for taking the time to be here today and share some of your experience with us. To start, could you tell us about your business and the types of customers you help?

Chris N. West: Sure! My business is LR Training. The main service is to provide marketing training for organizations. Specifically in online skills: marketing, advertising, and social media.

A typical client would be with marketing and advertising managers, people who have teams within an organization, who are looking for the newest strategies to move the team forward.

A lot of companies right now, both corporations and smallscale companies, are still using traditional marketing and advertising techniques and don’t have a good understanding of what is out there, as far as social media and online.

What exactly are your clients trying to achieve?

Chris N. West: For the most part, they want to create a deeper online presence. They want to be able to be found when people search them on Facebook or Google. They want the credibility of having a great online presence because their customers have made it clear that this is what they expect.

What led you to this field and how did you get started in this business? And you can include a short story about a specific time or an event that you caught the bug to do what you do.

Chris N. West: I was in a marketing outreach position at Google. We did workshops in local markets, and helped companies use Google tools to grow their business. We helped corporations learn about how to advertise on Google. I also 159

spent some time working in oil & gas industry where I managed online advertising for energy companies. After these experiences I decided to create and deliver my own trainings. Now I do trainings in different locations such as California, Alaska, and other places across the country.

Was there a book or a movie or person that inspired you to do what you’re doing today?

Chris N. West: I’ve read a lot of John Maxwell, Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, I learned a lot from a book called, Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, and another one by T. D. Jakes called, Instinct.

What gives you the passion to do what you do to help the people you help?

Chris N. West: Just the fact that I’m making an impact in a team. I like watching them go from the basic level of not knowing to “Wow, I have a good overview and I know how to take action.” That tells me I just made an impact in a team. That’s what drives me, making an impact.

That’s awesome! What would be the most common obstacle preventing people from having a great online presence?

Chris N. West: The biggest obstacle that I see after talking to hundreds of people is the lack of information. People have an idea that Facebook, for example, is for socializing, and don’t understand how to use it for growth. They also tend to get lost in all the social media channels out there and exhaust themselves trying to maintain too many profiles.

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They don’t have to be good at every platform in order to succeed. The first step is to find out which platform their target market uses most. Are they on Facebook? Pinterest? Twitter?

If you’re in a business-to-consumer, or B2C, business, the odds are the majority of your target is going to be on Facebook. If your business is focused on B2B, LinkedIn is going to be the place to reach them.

Are there other misconceptions that they might have about using social media effectively?

Chris N. West: A common misconception I hear often is the time involved in maintaining a good online presence. Many people think it is terribly time consuming, but if it’s set up right, it only takes about 6 hours a week to get really good results.

Okay. What would you say are some of the pitfalls they might not be aware of in social media or using social media effectively?

Chris N. West: There are a couple things that can be really detrimental to a company’s strategy. The first is buying Likes or Followers. There are still places out there selling fake Likes and Followers and they do a booming business with companies who are new to social media and trying to make their profiles look popular. Having a large following is important, I’m not disputing that. Without a following, the business has no one to engage with. The problem with fake followers is that it destroys reach.

Reach is the number of people who see the things we post. Facebook, in particular, has an algorithm that determines how many people to push the post out to. This also divides the number of likes by the number of people engaging on the page to determine how popular the page is. The more popular the page, 161

the more people Facebook pushes the post out to. When a page has fake Likes, it “waters down” the effectiveness because there are a ton of likes but very little engagement. This tells Facebook the page isn’t very popular. Long story short: Don’t buy Likes or Followers.

The next pitfall is not having a social media plan and policy.

We’ve all cringed at some of the things that have been posted in poor taste or by someone who had an axe to grind. Companies need to have a policy about what kind of content is posted and a gatekeeper to approve things before they are broadcast to the world. They also need a social media plan. What image are they building? It’s about establishing the voice of their brand and making sure everything that gets posted stays true to that voice and enhances the brand.

Perfect. Back to what you said earlier about the time it takes to maintain a social media profile, what would you suggest to get the most from that time?

Chris N. West: The first step I would recommend is researching and signing up for the most relevant platforms. I always include Google+, it’ll help you be found when people search Google, your rights will increase and you’ll be connected to your website and everything.

The next is research. Is your target audience on Facebook or are they on Twitter?

I also suggest using one of the dashboards, like Hoot Suite.

Dashboards allow you to schedule your posts to go out at specific times. You can load up a series of posts to go out over the space of a week or a month.

The last suggestion I would make, is to find the right number of posts for your audience. Some businesses need to post ten times per day, others may find 3 times a day is optimum. Use 162

the analytics provided by the platform and see what kind of response you get at different posting frequencies.

Okay. Can you share an example of what that looks like?

Chris N. West: Alright. Let’s say you are marketing manager for a shopping mall and they have 10 plus major retailers in the shopping mall. Instead of them posting general posts, you decide to have it more targeted. Only people in a certain area of California can see it, because those are the only people the post is relevant to. When they have an event coming up, they post the event and they do advertising and they advertise it only to people that are in their local city so it is more effective. They link their posts to their website. When they post a picture of an item they link to a product page so people can purchase.

I know there’s been a bit of a debate about video on Facebook.

What is the best practice; to drop a YouTube video link or upload the video directly to Facebook?

Chris N. West: Most of us go to YouTube and they copy the link and paste the link into Facebook. If you do that, the video image is going to come up as a small thumbnail. If you upload a video directly to Facebook, though, it’s going to take up a quarter of a screen and it’s going to automatically start playing. You will also have more statistics about your video.

Awesome. Okay. Good stuff. What would be your best piece of advice to someone who’s considering ramping up their social presence as a business or an entrepreneur?

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Chris N. West: First thing, think about what goals they have as far as their business. Do they want more website visitors? Do they want people to buy from their site? Do they want people to come to an event? Those are the key things that are going to let you know what platform you want to go to.

The second step, once you find out your business goals and you find out what platforms are the best for those. You want to make sure your profile has the right keywords so people can search for you, as well as having the more details about what you do. So yes, the first step is setting your goals, and then from there, really setting up all these accounts, and then making sure you have your keywords there, your bio set up, and then from there, finding out what you want to focus on.

What would be the most important thing that they should think about before starting?

Chris N. West: Most important thing is what type of resources they have, besides of course the business goals, what types of resource they have. Who’s going to be posting? Is it going to be one person? Is it going to be a team? Do they have a budget? So figure out what type of resource from there. How much time and how much money can they spend on it? If you have a team of 2 or 3 people, of course you’ll probably have more of a strategy on who will be posting what, who’s going to handle what account.

So what would be the best reason for somebody to work with you?

Chris N. West: I can effectively help the other person understand all the jargon instead of making it seem like hard work with 164

all the jargon and technical terms. I pretty much give you everything that you need from the key that matter. That’s the biggest benefit. I know what’s going on, and then I simplify everything and make it an actual plan.

Perfect. So how can the reader find out more about how to set up their social media platforms with you or if they wanted to do it themselves?

Chris N. West: I have my website, chrisnwest.com, with newsletters and free tips. Other than that, Social Media Examiner is a good resource. Each of the platforms have a business resource, if you Google Pinterest for businesses, you’re going to find a business resource page with case studies on how to use it.

Each of these platforms have it.

If somebody wanted to get started with you right away, can they call you or can they email you?

Chris N. West: Oh yes, definitely. Nimi.west@gmail.com and the phone number is (832) 867 4128.

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WEBSITE: http://www.chrisnwest.com EMAIL: Nimi.west@gmail.com LOCATION: Houston, Texas LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisnwest FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/nimi.cheethamwest

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MELINDA COOPER

CEO, Living the Dream Magazine Magazine Publisher Dallas, Texas

Melinda Cooper CEO and Creator of Living The Dream Magazine, Visibility Consultant of le femme Magazine. Melinda lives her dream helping others build their businesses to the next level.

Melinda speaks to various audiences about making the decision to Live Your Dream through business and Leave a job you have had for years to answer a bigger calling from inside.

Melinda worked for 18+ years with a very large government agency in various positions such as Employee/Labor Relation Specialist, Paralegal for the Regional Law Office, and Congressional Liaison. She has a BA from the University of Texas at Dallas in government and politics, a mother of 2 adult children and she 167

is a wife. Melinda started her first business in fashion for children and teens at the age of 16 until she sold it to a national clothing chain owned by Merry-Go-Round Enterprises, Inc. Melinda has been in various businesses while working her career with the government agency until 2008 when she walked away to Live Her Dream. Melinda is owner of Living the Dream a Consulting Business, Founder and Creator of Living the Dream Magazine. Melinda is a firm believer of helping others reach their dreams and work with them to grow their business.

Melinda is also a contributing author of the anthology book 26 Ways to Crazy Profitability; she is completing her next book to be released out in late Oct 2015.

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Conversation with Melinda Cooper Tell me about your business and the types of customers you help.

Melinda Cooper: My business is getting people known or seen or giving them more visibility. I enjoy helping people go to the next level of wherever they are. If they are starting, then we go to the beginner’s steps. If they are already at the middle of the road stage, we walk with them forward in order to get them to be seen. The reality to any business is clear, “If you are not being seen then you are not doing business.”

What would describe as your perfect prospect?

Melinda Cooper: I have done this a couple of times within this last month. I actually have 3, as a digital marketer for the magazine, you have to have 3. You have to have a writer who is well seasoned, who has true business experience, and who is well established and able to answer the tough questions. A great writer is a must for every magazine not matter beginning or top of the list. The writer must also be accessible for others to be able to reach out if they want to work with them. Another person I’m seeking is the person who is ready to take ACTION. The PEOPLE who are hungry for the career or business to take off!

They’re really, truly looking for the information that’ll help push them forward. They are ready to put things onto Action and find the right coaches.

In our topic in this book, we are talking about producing a digital magazine. What would your business or your expertise help customers achieve?

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Melinda Cooper: Help customers, help the customer. A digital magazine should be filled with information that can truly make a difference in helping others. It is either informative through giving actionable information or awareness to compare what they are doing to what could help them to go further. Of course, a digital magazine is what will get them in front of many people and get them noticed. After all, “if you are not being seen, you are not doing business.” Compare to when we get to a street, a turn in the road, when we read a sign it helps us. It either leads us forward into a new direction or it leads us into a totally different direction either way we are now taking some kind of action. From our magazine, they will get that. They’ll be the ones who can look up the right person that will help them with that one answer. We’re problem solvers.

Okay. Now coming from a context of somebody wanting to start a digital magazine, what would be some of the outcomes that they could experience if they had their own digital magazine?

Melinda Cooper: Be ready for everyone who can write a sentence will call themselves writers. I know that sounds bad but I was really surprised when I was looking for people to write in the magazine, so many volunteered and they weren’t quite the ones who knew how to write or what to write. You will need an “editor on your team”. A good editor will help you to weed through and find the ones who can write and deliver a good message.

That, of course, is only the beginning yet a very important beginning.

Awesome. So what led you to this field and how did you get started in this business, doing the magazine?

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Melinda Cooper: I know I have always wanted to help other people reach their goals. While in my coaching experience, helping one person at a time or a small group at a time is definitely fulfilling that goal I believe the digital magazine can and does reach so many more. The magazine gives me the flexibility to reach others while doing what I love. It presents a moment to learn and listen from so many others simply by them being a part of the magazine.

Was there a unique time or event that inspired you to do this?

If you have a short story or you remember a time.

Melinda Cooper: I had been a business development coach for several years and teaching people how to build and grow their business. And as I began following or working with clients I watched their talents simply being given out as peanuts, let’s put it that way. They were giving bit-by-bit, bit-by-bit, bit-by-bit, but they were giving them to clients that really were taking their business as a hobby, rather than a business. I thought what if we give them a platform where they are in front of people who are ready to take their business as a business. And that’s what inspired me. I watched many of my clients giving their great stuff out to people who just wanted to go and network, to people who wanted to just go and make it a hobby. It’s a hang out today, let’s go visit. You know, that type of thing. I realized they can easily go to the next level by giving true meaning to people that are really looking. It gives an opportunity to connect to those they might not have been able to reach otherwise.

Was there a book or a movie or a person that inspired you along the way?

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Melinda Cooper: Well, in earnest, Zig Ziglar has always been one of my favorites, with his emphasis words “"You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want." For me, it has always been about helping others and helping them reach their dreams, because I believe that when people are reaching their dreams, they are truly living. We don’t have to wait for someday, today is that day.

It is about living life fully right now, reaching your dreams in this moment, and enjoying it with those in your life.

Hence, the magazine’s name...

Living the dream.

Melinda Cooper: That’s right.

Living the dream.

Melinda Cooper: For me, success is leaving a legacy. Success is all about helping others to recognize they are touching people every day and that indeed they can live their dreams. It’s joining the efforts of their passion and the feeling of the excitement with them as they succeed. It is almost like watching the sunrise and seeing it shine at the break of a brand new day. To me, that is the passion of it, for people who are truly ready to step up and being able to be in that moment. Yet it’s also responsibility of giving them my very best. People don’t realize that stepping up is a big responsibility because there’s a lot of people out there that are willing to ride other people’s shirttails. They’re ready to be out there and willing to let somebody else stand in the limelight, and then say they could’ve done it this way. Well, if you had known that, you should’ve stepped up and been able to take on the criticisms and everything else that goes with living that

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dream. I think for me that is the biggest part; helping those who are ready to be seen, be seen.

Perfect. What is the most common obstacle preventing the reader from publishing their own digital magazine?

Melinda Cooper: Fear. The biggest obstacle, in my opinion and in my experience; working with people for many years and finding out what is holding them in a spot, is fear. The fear is they do not believe they are good enough or they don’t have enough connections or they don’t have the right information or knowledge, whatever it is that they believe inside themselves, their noise talk, shall we say, it holds them and the fear is what controls them.

What would be the biggest misconception that the reader might have about achieving or publishing their own digital magazine?

Melinda Cooper: The misconception is that it’s easy. People say, oh, that’s easy, she just gets articles from other people. But that’s not it. You deal with people’s ideas, their belief that they should be on the front of the page, front of the magazine. You deal with the editing to make certain the best story is shared while helping others. You realize it becomes more important than to simply through any kind of picture up there with the article you must place the right picture with the article or it becomes distracting. You deal with egos. You deal with attitudes. You deal with misbeliefs. They’re just doing it for whatever reason. It’s a must to remember that each person in the magazine is doing it for a reason and without realizing it you may not fulfill that reason. Rather than talking about it they 173

simply stop writing. Yet when you find the idea person everything works. The idea is that people look at it and think that it’s easy. Experiencing this, I realize it’s not nearly as easy as it looks.

Getting people’s articles is not that easy. Telling people that they missed the mark is not that easy because you’re dealing with people who believe that they hit it, they’re already hitting it.

When you tell them this isn’t quite what we were looking for this month, you didn’t hit it, can you tweak that a little bit or change that a little bit you’re playing with a whole different person when you’re going in that realm.

So how would you handle this?

Melinda Cooper: The stakes have been raised. Now you have to depend on the acceptance of who each person is and hopefully walk through the steps. Help each other learn and grow so the next time it will be better.

So how would you handle some of those situations when those obstacles appear?

Melinda Cooper: You know I’m sure those who know me, those who read Living The Dream, those who have encountered me in my own world, know I take it head-on. I let them know that this is not personal, it’s about business, and it’s always been about business. When you work with people you have to take a moment to understand them. See who they are and where they are going. Then you are able to peacefully discuss any problem with an open mind. Living The Dream comes from understanding that no matter what it is, even non-profits, no matter what it is, we want to achieve, somewhere, somehow, at some given moment, we’re going to need money and that’s okay. But then 174

we have to be professional about it and recognize that it’s a business. It is a business. It’s not some girls hanging out at the bar.

It’s not some guys shooting golf and playing pool. No, it’s a business. When people are willing to accept that whatever their dream is, whatever it is, even if it’s just going to college and getting a college degree, that’s a business. We have to keep it on that level.

Perfect. How could the reader avoid or overcome some of those obstacles to successfully publish a digital magazine?

Melinda Cooper: Always have someone to bounce ideas off of. Someone that you trust that someone must be honest and respect that you want to grow your business. They could be part of the magazine, but they don’t have to be. You get somebody that they trust and somebody that believes in your idea. Knowing they are not going to shy away and know that you’re not going not listen to their words. It’s helping you grow your business. Be sure to always review yourself and make certain “it’s not about me”, it’s about business. So when you’re willing to stand up and be strong enough to accept criticism, suggestions, and ideas and realize that that might be bigger than you and you might absolutely need somebody else to look at it, then you are okay with it.

Could you describe a story or a situation that helped somebody overcome an obstacle in the past?

Melinda Cooper: There are a couple of people who have actually just sent me an email and said I think this article would be great for your magazine. After I read it I realized it was not, writing material, it was a blog. I call them the feel good writer.

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Everybody knows those types. They just talk; they ramble rather than be concise and to the point what we need. When somebody sends me an article and says this is a great article for your magazine, I think that you should just put it in there, and they don’t know you and they don’t know what you are looking for, they never discussed it with you, and they just know that they want to be in the magazine. I usually write back to them and I tell them straight up, I appreciate it, and I do. I want you to understand I do appreciate that they thought of us. Of all of us in the magazine business, they took a moment and said, wow, I think I can be in either one of them, or they are ready to take on the challenge to step up and provide that kind of info. I think that that’s a compliment to each of us who are in the magazine and have something to offer. So I tell them. I am very grateful that you provided and sent your writing, your offering; however, this is what I am looking for when people write for our magazine. I tell them this is what we are looking to keep the standard at. If they are interested I work with them on their article and get it ready for the next shot or help them find a magazine that might be a better fit for them.

It’s about growing and opening doors.

When you are ready to find out that not everyone is your writer and you are not everyone’s magazine each of the people grow.

Can you go into a little bit more in depth about actually putting a digital magazine together, as far as the concept and actually getting it to print or getting it to live on the internet?

Melinda Cooper: One of the first things I recommend to everyone is to find a graphic designer, because I didn’t have it when I first started, I did not know exactly what my steps were going to be. I just knew I wanted to offer this, create it, learn it and build it. So the first thing I highly recommend to anyone is to find 176

a graphic designer that you can work with, that you can communicate with and that you can sit there and say this is my real idea. Once they capture that idea and when they can show you some graphics that they think would work, then you can start on your own idea of what you want and this is how we can tweak that to make it work. Be sure to find a great editor, someone who keeps everything flowing and easily moving. Be sure of what your message is, know why you are doing it. The second is to be sure what you want to have in the magazine. When I say have in it, it means what kind of material. Are you going to want to put in videos? Are you going to want to put in audio? Are you going to want to put just flat panel, or just pictures? Are you going to want to add something new to the magazine that might be changing, because everything is changing? Social media changes constantly, it changes as much as people do. So with that in mind, you have to be willing to say you might change content down the road. Find out if the platform that you’re going to have your magazine on is flexible to change. Change is the greatest sign of growth so know that you will need to change as you consider the possibilities of your magazine.

Perfect. What would be your best piece of advice to the reader who’s considering starting a digital magazine?

Melinda Cooper: Do not get caught up in the concept of what everyone else wants. When people get into the magazine, they begin to say, oh, we could change this. If you don’t stay solid on your idea or your purpose of what you wanted in the magazine, your concept gets watered down. That’s the best way of saying it. It gets watered down.

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And what would be the first thing they should do if they’re ready to create a digital magazine?

Melinda Cooper: Find your sources first. Find all the sources that you think you can have or want. When I say sources, I would say if I want someone that keeps up on technology then I need someone who actually is working in that field, someone who’s ready to go to the next step and they are actually doing it every day.

What would be some common reasons that people would seek you out to benefit from working with you in creating a digital magazine?

Melinda Cooper: One reason is because I took the hard road.

I jumped in full force and I made all the mistakes that everybody could. Somebody should’ve said, Melinda, you’re not ready yet.

I just jumped in. I’m one of those people that says, wow, that is my new idea, it’s going to be fabulous and I can help this many people doing it, and I just jumped in. Now that I’ve jumped in and took the hard road and did the school of hard knocks, shall we say, I can show you those pitfalls and say, you know that? I did that. I have that experience now. Can I give you a little bit more insight on that? Because when you look at the concept, I’m not ready to take anyone’s concept or anyone’s true message away from them. I’m ready to help them polish it. That becomes very difficult because people get caught up in the “I don’t want” attitude. It’s just a simple way of saying that you have a glimmer. Somebody catches your glimmer and runs to the touchdown with it. Now all of a sudden, people took my concept, they took my glimmer, they took my fumble, whatever you want to call it. And when they do that, all of a sudden, 178

you’re skittish of who to trust. On the other hand, if you have someone who’s not interested in your concept, simply willing to help you build your concept, I call it a safe haven. It’s a safe place.

Why would somebody not choose to work with you? Could it be price or time?

Melinda Cooper: No, actually, not everyone is my client and I am not everyone’s coach because on the norm, I’m a take action person. I’m one of these people that will tell you, did you say you wanted to do this? Why aren’t you? I’m one of those people who begin by believing in you and only when you show me I’m incorrect, I will continue to believe in you. So for me, old fashion as it might seem I am ready to stand in belief of your words. You’re the one who said you wanted to do it. I hold you accountable. And if you’re not accustomed to taking action or being held accountable, I am not your coach. I’m really not. I’m a very competitive, very forceful, very strong, and headstrong, let’s go type of successful woman. I believe if you come to me, that’s the kind of woman you want to be or you already are. So you don’t want someone who is not going to take action.

You’ll help men too, right? You’ll hold them accountable?

Melinda Cooper: I’m going to tell you this little secret, and I hope you include this. I was raised with very strong men in my life and the goal was real simple. When I was young, I was taught you have to hold your own either way. But since I was raised with men, the reality is that I hold them to a higher standard. It’s a higher accountable quicker than I do women. Men usually don’t

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say what they are thinking about until they are ready to take ACTION so for them to reach out at that time, they are ready.

Women are willing to share their ideas, they bring in their emotions and their own thought process. Most, obviously not all, women are emotional before their logical and most men, again obviously not all are logical before their emotions. Men, they’re the “I’m-going-forward-with-a-bulldozer” type. So I tell men, you’re the one who said you wanted it, go get it. Either way men or women, both bring their emotions because that is what brings our soul into the mix, it brings our hearts to the table, and it gives us the movement forward when things start to get a little rough.

It is time for all true leaders to step up their game and I’m eager to be there to help them.

How can the reader find out more about how to publish a digital magazine?

Melinda Cooper: I have a course launching shortly on how to do it a great magazine and how to get readers.

Okay. Go into depth. Explain that a little bit more.

Melinda Cooper: I will be doing courses on how to find writers, how to find your audience, how to do formulate your magazines, your personalities for your magazine.

There you go.

Melinda Cooper: Join me, Melinda Cooper, at livingthedreammagazine.com. We’re going to have a lot of great new changes. We’re adding new things, new avenues. I believe that as you come and join us, you will find various ways of help 180

to bring out your shining light. You will find the people who write in the magazine are those who you can connect with and actually reach them to help you develop your business, and how the digital magazine could make a difference in your life.

Perfect. So if the reader wants to take action right now, the best way they can contact you is by phone or by email? How would they do that?

Melinda Cooper: They can reach me at: melinda@livingthedreammagazine.com or join our living the dream magazine group page on Facebook, or I’m on twitter @melindadreaming and please be sure to join in the fun of reading our magazine we’d love to hear your feedback at livingthedreammagazine.com

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WEBSITE: http://www.livingthedreammagazine.com EMAIL: justmelinda2@yahoo.com LOCATION: Dallas, Texas LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/melindacooperltd FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/1MelindaCooper TWITTER http://www.twitter.com/melindadreaming

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PAM TERRY

Speaker Coach & Marketing Strategist Houston, Texas

Pam Terry is a public speaker coach, trainer and marketing strategist in Houston, Texas, with more than 30 years’ experience in marketing, public relations, and public speaking in the corporate and non-profit arenas. Pam has continually been in demand for her writing, marketing, and communications skills. In late 2011, Pam began her own speaker coaching business, creating and providing workshops, corporate training programs, individual coaching, and an online training system where she teaches her clients how to overcome anxiety in any situation, become confident, in-demand speakers, position themselves as an expert, and build business from speaking or build a speaker business.

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Conversation with Pam Terry Welcome, Pam! Thank you for spending some time with us today and sharing some of what you do. Let’s start by talking about your business and the people you help.

Pam Terry: Great! Thank you for having me, Tracy. I am a public speaker coach, marketing strategist, and a public speaker and trainer as well. I primarily help entrepreneurs and executives who either want to build their confidence and speaking skills and/or want help with marketing. My coaching and training services center on teaching 4 things: 1) how to build confidence as a speaker; 2) how to improve and polish your speaking skills; 3) how to get business from speaking; and 4) how to get hired as a speaker. Any leader, whether a business owner or an executive should have excellent speaking skills, but not all of them do. As you know, most people are afraid to speak, so when they “have” to, they are likely to wing it and ramble. Their poor performance reinforces their fear of speaking. I teach people how to bring out their best self, really engage the audience, and enjoy the process. Having good public speaking skills has many rewards.

I also work with companies that want training for their management or their executive team to learn how to present, whether it’s in a board room, in a sales situation, or they're presenting to their employees. You have different challenges with different audiences. I teach various techniques for engaging an audience and how to create value.

What led you to this field and how did you get started helping speakers?

Pam Terry: I've always loved getting in front of a group to perform. In junior high school, I was in drama and won lots of awards in plays and dramatic and humorous readings. I always 184

enjoyed the performing part. I was also involved in community plays. After high school, however, I left performing behind. By the time I was in my thirties and working for an accounting firm as the marketing coordinator, I decided to get back in touch with what I really enjoyed, getting in front of a group, so I joined Toastmasters. To my surprise, I found that I was extremely nervous! Toastmasters has a great exercise called “Table Topics.”

They give you a topic and you have to get up there and speak on it, impromptu. Initially, I was so nervous that I couldn’t think. I thought you could hear my knees knocking! But, overall, “Table Topics” was the best training for building my confidence, thinking on my feet, and improvising. Plus, everyone would vote on the best Table Topics, and, to my delight, I eventually began to win which was a huge motivator for me to continue to hone my speaking skills. I found that had a new found confidence when call on at partner meetings at work and that I was relaxed. It was all because of Table Topics.

At the same time, I got my Accreditation in Public Relations and saw how beneficial it was to be a public speaker. You were seen as an expert and it would lead to new business. When I left the accounting firm, I started my own consulting firm offering marketing services to professional service firms and began speaking on that same topic which, of course, led to more business. Eventually, I went on staff as the President of a local Chamber of Commerce, and, again, I was in front of a lot of groups leading several meetings week after week. It was definitely my element.

When I left the Chamber, I was in the technology field and was putting on CIO forums around the country for TechExecs, a national IT networking group. I was coaching the panelists on how the panel should go. I just understood it. It's sort of like, you know how you just have a talent for something and you're very interested in it, you keep learning about it and it works.

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Right.

Pam Terry: It first dawned on me that maybe I could help executives become better speakers when I noticed that some of these high-level CIOs or CTOs would come and speak and they were absolutely petrified. I remember one executive, holding his paper tightly, eyes down, and just reading it with a heavy dose of nerves. Since then, I kept toying with the idea of starting my own business as a public speaking coach.

I began to question what it was that I really wanted to do.

So, I made a list of everything that I love in life, including movies and making a difference. I looked at my list and thought, “what could I do that would combine all the things that I love?” What I came up with was an idea to produce a humanitarian TV network called NOWW TV that would focus on the things that are working on the world to make the world better. (NOWW stands for Network Of What’s Working). But, I didn’t know how to do that.

So, I was back to the public speaking coaching idea. I thought, “Well, people who are speakers are out to change the world in some way. They have a message.” It’s not TV yet, but it’s stage work. That's what started me on becoming a speaker coach. And, with my talents and experience as a speaker and marketer, I sort of tested the market with some workshops and found that public speaking training was very popular. This was almost four years ago. I felt like I was really helping people especially with overcoming anxiety. I've always been involved in marketing whether it's traditional or internet marketing. I built my first website in 1995 from a book I read called, “How to Build a Webite in a Week,” except I didn’t in a weekend. I don’t think I slept. I love technology, the Internet, and social media. I have been able to combine all of these things to help people become public speakers and to make money from speaking.

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I started by testing the market with my own workshops on public speaking promoting them on Facebook and LinkedIn and blogging and emailing. It worked quite well. That was almost four years ago.

Nice. Along the way did anybody inspire you, or was there a book or a movie that inspired you along the way?

Pam Terry: I’m not sure who came first, Teri Hawkins or Tonya Hoffmann, as my first mentor. I remember Teri spoke at an event and I scheduled a complimentary session with her. From that session, I made the decision to start my public speaking business. It was probably Teri first, because I remember that Tonya let me “look over her shoulder,” if you will, and learn about how to repurpose everything you do. Tonya and I also partnered together on a public training event. Tonya also introduced me to Michelle Scism who trained me on several things including product development, coaching, and making money.

Tonya would speak, and she would be recording it and she would turn it into an eBook or a DVD or a CD, an audio file and being offering all of these things. She really had the marketing down. I was like a sponge, absorbing everything.

Of course, my family really inspired me too because my mother was a teacher and I remember as a young girl I would get all my dolls lined up and I would have a black board and I would be teaching them. That's a very vivid memory in my mind. My mother had a huge following of people who just loved her.

When she passed away, I didn't know all the people that were in the church at her service; it was packed. My dad taught me a lot about business. I worked for his bottling company starting in high school. He taught me a lot about bookkeeping which is important for entrepreneurs. My parents were good role models for me. The role models don’t stop. I keep meeting more and 187

more people along the way like Tracy Hanes who is an inspiration. And, I love being inspired.

Oh, thank you very much.

Pam Terry: I continue to meet people like you who are out there making it happen. They may be doing it in a slightly different way and there are just so many different aspects of public speaking and branding but they all go together. What I love about the public speaking world and community is that there's so much collaboration. There are partnerships that you can create with other speakers that you can learn from. That's another thing that I love about being human is that our capacity to create and improve is really unlimited.

We're all in that same room, that room for improvement. It doesn't mean that we're not good. It just means that we're comparing ourselves to our self. We can continue to get better and better. I love that.

Talk a little bit about what drives you and your passion to help other people. What’s the source of that?

Pam Terry: I guess I’ll have to thank my brothers and sister for this one because when I was a little kid, I felt like I wasn’t important. I was the youngest and I felt like they were always picking on me (they probably were because I would believe anything they said) and making fun of me, ergo, I must not be important or matter. As a kid, we make the dumbest decisions.

I’m not sure, but maybe that’s what drives me to want to make a difference in people’s lives – to feel important in some way, like I matter. Of course, everyone is important and everyone does matter. That’s what I believe.

I guess it doesn’t really matter what drives me – what really matters is that I love making a difference for people. We are so 188

blessed to live in America and really we can have just about anything that we want even if we’re not wealthy. We can have a comfortable home. We can have comforts. There's so many things that we have here in the U.S. We're definitely in the land of plenty. Therefore, it's great to be able to give back and make a difference for someone. I've always had that belief in me. I have been involved in non-profits since I was a young person in school and remember raising money for the less fortunate.

When I listed all the things that I love in life, making a difference is one of the things that I love. I think part of that may be a selfish thing that you want to feel like you matter. When you're doing everything for yourself, it's so different when you're doing something for someone else. When you're doing something for someone else and it makes a difference for them it makes you feel good. Like, "Wow, I did something for somebody. I do matter." That's probably one of the things, wanting to matter, wanting to make a difference, wanting to leave some kind of legacy that you did something that made a difference. Having children and having a child that you are proud of is one thing, it's a legacy. You want that too, but not everybody has that.

That's a good point.

Pam Terry: One other thing about that is, let me just add this other thing. I don't know why people are self-motivated or driven. I love achieving things. I like to plan. I like to have a goal.

I like to achieve it and have other goals. Why do people like that?

It's a good question. I think it builds your confidence, makes you feel good. I think Tracy, people want to feel good. They want to feel validated. They want to feel recognized. They want to feel that they matter. They want to feel all of these great things and making a difference and helping people helps us feel that.

Yes. You hit it on the head. People want to be, feel worthy or feel 189

Pam Terry: Like they belong. Whether they're in a gang, whether they're channeling that in a negative way, we still have that need. To feel valued and wanted and cared about or whether we're channeling it in a good way. It's still there.

What would be one of the most common obstacles preventing someone from being a speaker?

Pam Terry: I think we know the biggest one is being afraid to get up and speak because they're going to look bad. They are scared for whatever reason. Maybe something happened when they were a kid or they’re afraid to be judged or whatever, but they're afraid and that's all about them. What I teach is that speaking is not about the speaker, it's about the audience. I help people shift their focus off of themselves and focus on the value that they're providing. Of course, we want people to like us. Of course, you want your audience to like you. You want to do a good job. That's normal.

When you can really develop what I call, develop this muscle, where when you start to feel nervous you go, "Oh, I'm thinking about me. It's not about me. It's about that audience.

How can I help them?" You just do the best you can and you move on. I've found that when I teach that for most people, they have a breakthrough, “Oh. I hadn't thought about that." Even people who have been speaking for twenty or more years can find this perspective to be a revelation. For some people, who are really apprehensive, there are other ways they can overcome anxiety through acupuncture or hypnosis, or breathing techniques. If they have tried everything, hypnosis or acupuncture can work. Isn't that amazing?

Yes. You talked a little bit about fear but what are some other misconceptions about being a speaker or getting starting to speak in public?

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Pam Terry: Some people have the idea they don’t need to hone their message. They have a message but it may not be captivating. They don't have their objectives when they go out to speak of what they want the audience to get. Maybe they have a story that they want to tell and they think that this story is so powerful that people are going to want to hire them. There's so many pieces of public speaking in order to successfully get out there.

For example, I had a client who worked for a moving company. She was really a passionate speaker for her church. She got an invitation to speak to some high school students on motivating them to go to college. I asked her, "Tell me about the students. Are they at-risk students? Do the students at this school normally go to college? Why are they asking you to speak to this group?" She said, "Well, I don't know." I said, "Why don't you check with them? Find out what you can and let's talk about that." She came back and she said, "We decided I'm not going to speak to the group. We're going to do a program where we're going to counsel them one-on-one because they are at-risk kids and if I just spoke to them as a group it would be much harder because we really need to work with them one-on-one."

A lot of times what speakers do is they get excited about speaking and they don't really look into why they're speaking, who is in the audience, what they want. You can’t just get out there and speak. You may be motivational but you need to pull it all together, connect all the dots. If you want to launch a public speaking career, it's the same thing. Who's your target market?

What type of speaker do you want to be? Do you want to be a trainer? A motivational speaker? Speak for free? It's all those basics. Then, there are the fundamentals of marketing to pull all that together. You know what's interesting? Some people will 191

start and they will just take off and other people will start and they just stumble and fall.

I don't know. Sometimes I think some people are destined to be a speaker and things just work out for them and the other people who are stumbling and falling, they haven't really tuned into what they need to be doing. They need a little help to pull it together.

Yeah. I've found that you basically have to be comfortable in your own skin before you can get up there and present and be comfortable.

Pam Terry: Yes. It takes practice.

Pam Terry: One thing that helps that, that's a good point about being comfortable in your own skin, is when you're going to go speak is to go early and meet the people that you're going to be speaking, the audience. Just networking and meeting them.

You're warming up to them. They're warming up to you. That helps you be more comfortable.

Yes it does. It works well. Can you describe how you've helped someone or helped one of your customers overcome some of these obstacles that you talked about?

Pam Terry: One client comes to mind. She's a very successful speaker primarily in the church community, a paid speaker. She wanted to switch over to the business community. She wanted to do training on retaining employees. What I did with her was to help her with her LinkedIn profile and creating an image where she'd be positioned in front of her new target market. She does a lot of blogging and emailing. We worked on her focus to 192

be more about companies and employees and posting to specific groups on LinkedIn that have to do with HR. It was just realigning her target market and positioning her in front of that market.

She has books that she's published which always helps. She's got video of her speaking which helps too. There are some associations that I recommended that she get in front of. Like where she would have a booth and then she would get to meet the organizers and become a prospect to be a speaker at their event next year. One of the primary HR organizations is the Society of Human Resources Management. I think it’s the largest HR association in the country. They have a huge annual meeting every summer which is a great place to position yourself.

For a lot of speakers who want to get into corporate training, if they have the budget for it, it's a good idea to first get a booth and support that organization and then display the types of things that you can offer them. It's very likely that you can be a speaker at the event the following year because you've got a presence there, you've supported them, and they have gotten your materials. It's all about relationship building with your target market. That's what I was helping her with was to reposition herself with a new target market. But, before you go and get a booth, you need to have all the other things in place like your website, speaker one sheet, sizzle video, testimonials, etc. You need to have your name/brand built somewhat You can also work locally with that same target market to speak for free at meetings to get in front of them. Public speaking is so great because when you're the speaker everybody meets you. It's the ultimate networking tool. You get to be seen as the expert. People get to try you out right there. If they're impressed with you, which hopefully they are, then you have a chance of them asking you to talk with them about how you can help them. Corporate training takes a real understanding of what they want. A lot of times they don't understand what they want.

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They want a certain outcome for their employees and it's really important to understand what they're trying to achieve so that you can deliver that.

What would be the best piece of advice that you would give to someone who's considering being a speaker?

Pam Terry: I would ask them to be really passionate about what they want to speak on, number one. If they're not really passionate about it and they're just doing it for the money, they're going to get tired of it. They'll lose their staying power. If it's something they're really passionate about, their passion will fuel them.

Real passion is about creating value, helping others, making a difference. Speaking can’t be all about them (the speaker).

You see, the more you want to make a difference for people, the more charismatic you are. It's the four P’s that I teach. Passion is number one. Passion not only about your topic, but also passion about your audience, about making a difference.

Second is Power. This is your knowledge, to always be researching your topic and learning more about it. If you're passionate about it, you probably are going to be doing that anyway. Also, always be researching your audience and really understanding them and what they want. There's all kinds of techniques for doing that. Knowledge about your topic and your audience is real power.

Third is Preparation. Really have your content down so you can deliver it on a moment’s notice. Someone contacts you and says, "I need a speaker tomorrow. Can you fill in?" You're ready to go always. You're prepared. Even if you've given the topic over and over again.

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The last P is Practice. You may know your topic frontwards and backward, but you still must practice. Practice does several things – it gets you warmed up, it gets your passion going, and builds your confidence. Those are the things I would recommend to people. The four Ps: passion, power, preparation, and practice.

Awesome. For the readers that are ready to start speaking or enter the speaking world, what would you recommend as the first thing that they do?

Pam Terry: I think first they should do an assessment of themselves. Number one, they should identify their speaking skill. How skilled are they on a scale from one to ten? Do they need to improve in that area? Some people think, "I'm great. Of course I could improve but I've worked on myself. I'm good." If there's any area where they feel like they need improvement then they should be working on that area. Really know themselves and their skill and being able to deliver.

Number two is really know their target market and how are they going to position themselves in front of that target market.

They need a platform. I don't know how you would position yourself without your website and blogging and so forth. The easiest way to do it these days is to have a website and to be blogging and posting on certain groups within your target market. Another thing is to start speaking for free, but never say that you're speaking for free. Say that you're waiving your fee, like waiving your fee for networking groups.

Thirdly, find someone who is successful as a mentor. They may be speaking on something different but you want to have a mentor who can kind of help you get into your market. Maybe they have some contacts they would recommend. They have to be someone that believes in you and wants to help you. My word 195

for this year is “partnership.� You really need to not be doing things alone. You need a community of people that surround you and support you and believe in you more than you believe in yourself.

You want to really understand your skill, understand your target market, and have a mentor. You want to be positioning yourself in front of that target market. Find how you can speak in front of groups where you waive your fee to get out there.

What if they've never spoken before? So, you definitely want to be getting some practice. Another way they can do that, Tracy, is they can do some of their own workshops. Test the market.

Everything you do in marketing is always a test whether you're Coca Cola or you're just starting out. Whatever you do to position yourself, learn what's working and what's not working for you.

Perfect. How could a reader find out more about how to come to become a speaker?

Pam Terry: I have a lot of things on my website at www.pamterry.com that could be helpful. I have an eBook that's free on how to easily develop the presentation. A lot of times people ask me, "How do I keep from rambling?" You need to prepare and that's in the eBook. It's very powerful information and it's very simple. Also, I have a blog that goes over lots of different aspects of public speaking.

If they want to do Toastmasters, that's one way. That's a weekly commitment. It's a big commitment, but for some people that could work. If a weekly commitment is too much, find a speaker coach that really resonates with you and get some help that way. They could also contact me for a complimentary 30 minute speaker strategy session. My email is pam@pamterry.com.

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If they're ready to go now, what's the best way to contact you?

Pam Terry: Call me at 832-276-4153 or they can contact me at pam@pamterry.com.

Perfect. Thank you very much for your time.

Pam Terry: Awesome. Thanks Tracy.

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WEBSITE: http://www.pamterry.com EMAIL: pam@pamterry.com LOCATION: Houston, Texas LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamterry FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/nowwtv

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ALICIA WHITE

Back of the Room Productions™ Branding Consultant and Graphic Design Expert Wylie, Texas Alicia White, Speaker and International Best Selling Author, is a valuable resource for coaches, consultants, trainers and business owners who want to grow their business through public speaking. As a Branding Strategist and Graphic Design Expert, Alicia helps business professionals define and implement their Unique Speaker Identity™ and provides strategies on how to generate leads and revenue every time they speak. Using her fabulous talents and years of experience in graphic design and marketing, Alicia provides clients with powerful tools and products that give their message legs long after they leave the stage.

As founder and creative director of Back of the Room Productions™ and SpeakerSheets.com, Alicia is committed to the speaking industry serving as a Partnering Director of the Public Speakers Association and is a Women Speakers Association 199

Premiere Member. Her clients rave about how she consistently delivers professional branding and action-focused advice, and followers anticipate her helpful bi-weekly Speaking Tips email.

Alicia is the co-author of four books, including the Amazon International Best Seller “Share Your Message with the World” and Best Seller “25 Brilliant Business Mentors.” Alicia was selected as “A Woman You Need to Know” by Women Speakers Association and has been nominated for various business awards such the Public Speakers Association National Collaborator, Today’s Innovative Woman New Leader and Be The Boss Top 50 Connectors. She is also a two-time recipient of the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association awards: one in radio announcing and the other in photography.

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Conversation with Alicia White Hi Alicia, thank you for spending some time with us today. I know we’re all looking forward to hearing more about what you do, so let’s start with that. What is the name of your company and what do you do?

Alicia White: My business is Back of the Room Productions™, and I help speakers, authors, coaches, and business owners with their branding by providing them with a consistent look and feel in their products, marketing materials, and promotional items. There are a whole slew of products and services that I provide to my clients, but my goal is to ensure their branding is consistent, their message is clear, and the information that they're putting in front of their prospects and their clients is concise. One of the things that business people tend to have trouble with is positioning their message clearly.

I help clients by creating marketing materials and tools that effectively position their message and the value they deliver.

Plus I give them professional graphic design and branding.

You came to this business in a rather roundabout way, could you tell us a little more about that?

Alicia White: Years ago when I worked as a nuclear medicine technologist in the hospital, my supervisor asked me to put together a media campaign for new equipment that we were obtaining. I realized then that I really enjoyed making graphics, creating posters, creating brochures, and writing press releases.

Because I was so good at it, these tasks were added to my patient care duties. And the more campaigns I developed to promote the services of the radiology department, the more I realized I needed to make a career shift.

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I went back to college and received another bachelor's degree in mass communication at Texas Women's University. From there I worked with non-profit organizations and in the corporate world where I really honed my craft and skills in graphic design, marketing and branding strategy. I love graphic design; it's a passion for me. I love when someone presents me with an idea and I can into a visual piece for them and they use it to promote themselves, their products, their services, and their company.

So what another person might have seen as “just another job duty�, you leveraged into a whole new career. Was there anyone else who else inspired you?

Alicia White That would definitely be my husband, Rick White. He is an entrepreneur at heart; he has his own business and he inspired me to start my own design firm. I can't look back.

I love what I'm doing and it's because of him and his encouragement that's allowed me to do this.

Great! Can you talk a bit about what drives you? What sustains you?

Alicia White: What drives me is the satisfaction that I get from hearing my clients say, "Oh my gosh, I love this." Or, "You read my mind; this is exactly what I wanted." I do thrive on the feedback that I get, and I feel good knowing that they have a quality product, that they have a product that will help them succeed in their endeavors. And I'm just passionate about graphic design. I know I've already said that, and the reason is, it fills this creative energy that I have and it's also like a puzzle. When someone gives me a piece of a puzzle, I can complete the puzzle using my skills and give them that visually stunning piece.

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Have you found a common obstacle that stops business owners from getting their branding right?

Alicia White: The problem with a small business owner, entrepreneur or new businesses is maintaining consistency in branding. Branding involves having a look and feel that is consistent in everything you do. There are a lot of social media outlets right now, and there are other advertising outlets such as print, newspaper, TV and radio, and all of these require some kind of consistency in your branding and message.

I liken it to a song on the radio: the first time you hear a song play on the radio, you think, “Oh that's a good tune, I really like that.� The next time you hear it you start singing the song. Well, by the fifth or sixth time, you're singing the song at the top of your lungs at a stoplight and the people in the car next to you are looking at you like you're crazy! The reason why you know that song is because it's the same tune, it's the same words each and every time. You want to develop your branding so that it appears the same way every time one of your visitors or prospects visits your Facebook page or website, or sees a commercial on TV or in the newspaper. By maintaining branding consistency, people recall what you do and who you are a lot quicker and easier through that repetition.

A lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners are overwhelmed with having way too much to do. They get excited about the next big thing, what they're going to do next, how they're going to do it. They leap ahead without building that solid foundation for their brand. All it takes is some time, maybe a month, and maybe a little bit of money. You can get help from several different sources, you can hire a graphic designer, you can do it yourself; but once you establish your brand, you can begin promoting your company and start marketing with a consistent and message.

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The challenge again is people get so excited about other things that they forget to build that solid branding foundation and your branding speaks volumes about who you are. It should be congruent with who you are and with what you're providing and it should be a high priority project.

At least get started with the name of your company, phone number, website address and email. To continue with consistency, ensure that your email address is also the name of your website or your company. You don't want to promote Gmail.com, or Yahoo.com. Your email format should be info@mycompany.com, replacing “mycompany” with your company’s name. You want to promote you. Again, that's where that repetition strategy comes into play.

Are there common misconceptions about branding?

Alicia White: Oftentimes, a business owner will think that the more elaborate the look and feel, the better it conveys the message; but that's not true. Yes, spend some time on your branding to ensure it's congruent with who you are and what you do, and really identify the message you want conveyed. This all starts with identifying your target audience and the message you want to convey about your business. And I think that's where people mess up, they haven’t taken the necessary time to do this. I think a lot of people get overwhelmed with the thought of having a logo and knowing what colors and fonts they will be using.

Do your clients usually come to you initially looking for branding or does that evolve?

Alicia White: Many times clients will come to me and request a poster or postcard or an ad for a magazine. Okay, that's great. As I'm developing and designing this product, the first thing I ask is, "Are you happy with your brand?" A lot of times 204

the client will reply with, “What do you mean by that?" So I question further, “Are you happy with the look and feel of your marketing materials? What do you love about the visual image of your business?” Guess what? A lot of people don't have an answer or they want changes. So we work on developing a branding foundation before we even start the project.

When clients come to me wanting a particular advertising piece and they don't have their branding in place or I discover inconsistencies in the visual imagery on their website, business card or social media accounts, I try to hone in on what it is that they're trying to do and then design the product with that in mind. That helps my client because it translates to providing consistency and congruency between their message and their branding.

One of my clients is a business owner who works with Fortune 50 companies, and most of her clients are males. As we were developing her branding and products, she asked me to use an image that is very feminine, a peacock feather. I suggested that this image may not resonate well with her demographic.

She took my advice and we replaced the feather with something that was a little bit more generic, an abstract image that matched her brand colors. This made a huge difference in her obtaining the attention that she was looking for from her clientele. That’s why knowing your target audience is key to building your branding foundation.

What would be your best advice to someone who is considering creating or reworking their brand?

Alicia White: When you're creating your brand, one of the first things to do is identify a clear message about who you are as a business and what is it that you do and do well consistently.

Then define your target audience. Take time to think about who you are serving and ask: What does that person look like?

Are they middle aged, mature, teenaged? Are they financially 205

able to purchase your product? Visualize in your mind a person that you've met that you consider to be an ideal customer for your product or service.

The next step is to clearly and concisely define what product or service you provide. Now put these two things together, your target audience and your products and services, to create a message that clearly states what it is that you do and who you serve.

Build your branding around this message with graphics, colors and fonts that appeal to those you serve – your target audience/ideal client.

You probably see a lot of Do-It-Yourself branding, a lot of people think they can do it on their own. What would be a good reason for them to work with you and your business to help them establish their brand?

Alicia White: I have a funny story. Whenever I'm networking inevitably someone who I meet will hand me their business card and say, "Oh, I got this business card online using a template," and they apologize for it! And I respond, "Don't apologize, you have to start somewhere." And I mean that! However, if you're still using a template from an online print vendor after three months or six months into business, you're doing yourself more harm than good.

One of the reasons why you want to hire someone like myself, an experienced graphic designer, is we design by industry standards which translates to quality products for you. Now, you should know that there is a difference between a graphic designer and a website designer. A graphic designer creates products for all media, digital and print. When we design your marketing materials, we use images that are print ready—a necessity for quality printing and when advertising through large format printing such as billboards or indoor/outdoor banners.

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Website designers typically use images that are not suitable for printing because the digital platform doesn’t require print ready files. Creating printed materials with images from your website will produce a poor quality product and that will hurt your reputation. That's what I love about doing what I do: I can create anything you want with the right files; I can turn your small business card into a 6 foot tall banner.

I have a lot of experience in the printing industry that many designers don’t have. And you want to work with someone who is experienced in not just graphic design, but also in branding.

There is a difference. Sure, anybody can design a postcard or a business card for you but they may not take your branding into consideration and this won’t help you build your business.

For the people who are just starting out and may need to create the first iteration of their brand themselves, what would you recommend?

Alicia White: There are a lot of sites online that allow you to create your own graphics. If you want to create something for digital use, you can use an online graphic editor tool such as Canva or PicMonkey (free and paid versions). If you want to print your project, make sure the editing program has the option to export your completed project as a high resolution Adobe Acrobat PDF file. High resolution means the file has more data information necessary for printing purposes unlike low resolution files that are used for digital purposes, as in Facebook banners or blog graphics. Printing a product that uses low resolution files will result in images that are blurred or jagged. When printing, use high resolution files to avoid poor quality.

You used the term, “print ready” a few minutes ago, can you tell us what that means and why it’s important?

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Alicia White: Sure. There are certain standards in the printing industry that experienced and trained graphic designers maintain in order to provide their clients with a professional product. This involves working with industry standard colors, suitable fonts types, and images with an adequate resolution to ensure consistency and quality when the product is printed.

Having the right software is also key. Adobe Creative Cloud software is recognized globally as industry standard in the print world.

Perfect. How can the reader find out more about how to start branding themselves?

Alicia White: Readers will benefit from my handy Business Branding Checklist that lists marketing materials and tools to consistently brand their business. Readers can access this list by visiting: backoftheroomproductions.com/brandingchecklist.

If someone feels that they're facing these branding challenges and they want your help, what would be the best way to contact you?

Alicia White: If you want help with your branding and need expert brand strategy and professional graphic design, I welcome the opportunity to talk to you. Please call me at 214-5564947, or email alicia@backoftheroomproductions.com. You can also visit backoftheroomproductions.com for more information on my services.

If somebody wanted to do this on their own, what would you recommend to them?

Alicia White: There are a lot of sites online that allow you to create your own graphics. If you want to create something for digital use, you can use an online graphic editor tool such as 208

Canva or PicMonkey (free and paid versions). If you want to print your project, make sure the editing program has the option to export your completed project as a high resolution Adobe Acrobat PDF file. High resolution means the file has more data information necessary for printing purposes unlike low resolution files that are used for digital purposes, as in Facebook banners or blog graphics. Printing a product that uses low resolution files will result in images that are blurred or jagged. When printing, use high resolution files to avoid poor quality.

I love interacting with my clients on social media, just look for @AliciaWhite911 on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitter.

Perfect. Thank you, Alicia! It’s been great talking with you today. I know I learned a lot and I’m sure our readers have, too.

Alicia White: Thank you, Tracy! It was a pleasure sharing with you.

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WEBSITE: www.backoftheroomproductions.com

EMAIL: alicia@backoftheroomproductions.com

LOCATION: Wylie, Texas LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciawhite911

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/AliciaWhite911

TWITTER https://twitter.com/aliciawhite911

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ABOUT THE PUBLISHER ~~~

T. ALLEN HANES www.immediatecelebritystatus.com Call to action is an inner journey to become something great using the gifts you’ve been given, and Tracy Allen Hanes realizes each person has the potential to “awaken” their gifts for service to others. He understands you have an inherent set of capabilities that can shine to the world if nurtured the right way. With a passion for growth, he assists helping entrepreneurs, business owners, authors, speakers and coaches position themselves as a knowledge epicenter and authority in their respective fields. His colleagues titled him with the name “Mr. Incredible” as he and his team developed over 400+ best-selling authors.

T’s productivity demonstrates his zeal and purpose. Currently the CEO of T. Allen Hanes & Associates, he’s been featured on CBS, CNN, NBC, FOX, ABC, USA Today Video, and became a 5-

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time International Best-Selling Author. Among other media affiliates, he’s been featured on Forbes, The Miami Herald and Small Business Trend Setters.

A retired United States Navy Photographer and Video Producer, T has the skills to help you build a professional media profile including podcasts, interviews and testimonials. Every element of your presence must be accounted for and sharpened, a quintessential professional leader.

He created The Authority Syndicate as a success hub; you enter the syndicate and receive the highest level of coaching and mentoring so you can efficiently reach the best-selling author status.

T understands your public persona, opportunities and positioning elevate when you become established as an authority. You command respect, leadership and take on a role that can produce changes in your industry. The network is vast and T exposes you to the strategies necessary to maintain and increase your position. It’s the little things that count and he will guide you every step of the way.

Clients will quickly experience his coaching style as energetic, fiery and uplifting. He challenges you to look inward for the source of your success. Rigorous Authority Breakout sessions make for a ripe self-evaluation that transforms into an action plan you can put to work today.

If you’re seeking a proven, top-grade coach with an extensive skill set, look no further. Contact T Allen and begin your new path to success now. To be considered for the next book contact us at tracyahanes@gmail.com or call 281-910-8728 View Webinar presentation at www.authorityonfire.com.

Requests a 30 Minute Authority Breakthrough Session go www.claimyourauthoritynow.com or www.meetallenhanes.info 212

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