 Podcasting seems to be the digital gold rush that all creators have been dreaming of! Learn about podcasting from the early stages of launching your first episode to establishing yourself as an industry expert in your field.
This blog post is brought to you by Minnestar, who's known for some of the largest community events in Minnesota where thousands of technologists come together to learn, build, connect and grow. Each month, Minnestar hosts a virtual AMA (or Ask Me Anything) session on a different topic with subject matter experts from our community. Ask questions, and learn from the best of the best - all via an easy Zoom webinar link. This month, we are lucky to be joined by panelists Jackie Biederman of StoryPop Media and Twila Dang of Matriarch Media, hosted by Maria Boland Ploessl of Minnestar, and this post produced by Dick Polipnick of Online Growth Systems.
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You may not have the title of a salesperson, but you’ve been selling your whole life. Parents spend countless hours trying to sell their kids on making their bed, doing their chores, and studying for tests. Entrepreneurs spend significant time trying to convince the right people to believe in their idea, so they can gain traction and advance their business. The bottom line is, all of us, regardless of your job or influence, do some type of sales almost every day. And here’s the catch – “every sale is the same.” At least in the words of Jordan Belfort. And after reading his book "The Way of the Wolf- Straight Line Selling", I believe he’s on to something.  Now, obviously there’s a difference between a million-dollar sale and a one-dollar sale. I would be ecstatic if I landed a seven-figure deal for my business and would be extremely disappointed if someone were to offer me an old, scrunched up dollar for my service. However, what Jordan wants us to learn in his book is that the process of selling, not the end result, is always the same. From the opening to the close, the order which we sell should be the same if we want to take our sales success to a new level. This pertains to everyone, from the 40-year-old Mom of three to the starry-eyed young entrepreneur.
Jordan’s Straight Line Method is easy to learn and easy to use. The system emphasizes goal-oriented communication where the end goal is always the same: raise your prospect’s certainty to a high enough level where they will want to buy from you. Here are the steps you need:  Enjoying my tea after Sergio and I's debate. So this morning I met with a buddy of mine named Sergio. We met this last Tuesday at a Minnesota Chatbot Meet-Up where the group debated the current and future prospects of bots, IoT, and automation. Sergio and I ended up exchanging contact info the good ol' fashion way, and we made tentative plans to meet at a coffee shop or tea bar that coming Friday at 8:00 AM to network further. Fast forward to Friday (2 hours ago as of this writing), with his steaming Sencha Tea in hand, Sergio started off the conversation with, "So I've done a ton of research on you and your company this last week so I knew what questions to ask you and what I could learn from you." Good start! As Sergio recapped everything he learned about me and Online Growth Systems, I sipped my honey infused black tea. He then proceeded with asking his first question: "why?" Wow. Heavy hitter! Not an easy question to answer (sorry Simon Sinek). As the discussion progressed we dove deeper and deeper into rabbit holes and diverged further and further into tangents. My personal favorite kind of conversations- ones that can't stay on the same subject for long... a rather good indication of a fun dialog! :) Success as a definition.What is your definition of success? I think that everyone's definition is different. It's customized to their goals, their viewpoints, and their perspective. This isn't, or shouldn't be, a dictionary defined term. It's like trying to categorize things that fit the word "cool." Isn't that your personal opinion? Sergio's definition: Doing what makes you happy. Passion. My Definition: How many people's lives have you made a difference in? How deep? Impact. Neither is right or wrong, its just how we prioritize what makes us feel successful. I hope that your's is different too. Success as a metric.How do you measure success? If everyone's definition for success is different, that means everyone's metric for measuring that success is different too. If you're running a marathon, you measure distance. If you're in a hot dog eating contest, you measure # of hotdogs eaten. Sergio's measurement: How happy do you feel? Passion. Emotionally driven. Dick's Measurement: How many lives have you impacted? Impact. Numbers driven. Then comes the debate. Doesn't being successful by your own terms mean you'll be happy? Maybe. I don't know. We dove a lot into psychology, philosophy, and even ethics. It depends what your definition of success is. For Sergio, he wants to do what he feels most passionate about. That is what derives him happiness, and that is what makes him feel successful. For myself, I want to impact people. It's a numbers game for me. Yes, my definition also corresponds with my happiness gauge, but that's irrelevant. It's worth mentioning that I think the most successful Mother in the world might impact only her two children in a positive massive way, compared to a mother who impacts 7 children in an average way. Another example might be a meme. Let's say it impacts 1,000,000+ people if it goes viral on Instagram. Compared to an inspirational video of a military vet coming home to see his kids for the first time in over a year, it reaches 50,000 people. Which is more successful? I think it depends on what you're definition is. If your goal was to get views, the meme is more successful. If your goal was to make people support military vets, the meme impact is worthless and veteran video is more successful. How do you measure success? Case Study: Albert EinsteinSergio and I used a mutual hero of our's, Albert Einstein to compare what we deemed as successful. Einstein was the famous mathematician and physicist who came up with the e=mc2 equation and the father of nuclear energy. Einstein is also know as drafting a letter to President FDR which prompted the development of the world's first atomic bomb. He is also know for his love of the pastry bagels. The comparison is almost humorous! :) I wanted to use the atomic bomb for an example of measuring his success. (THESE NUMBERS ARE FOR DEBATE PURPOSE ONLY, NOT HISTORIC ACCURACY. ETHICS ARE ALSO NOT PART OF THIS DEBATE, JUST MATH.) Let's say that when the USA used the nuclear bomb, it killed one million people. Bad impact, right? But let's say your definition of success was lives saved. A number. I want to think that Einstein's biggest success was the number of lives he saved and impacted. Let's say that if Einstein didn't prompt the development of the atomic bomb and it wasn't used to end WW2, another three million lives would have been lost throughout the remainder of the war. Let's do some math... Einstein wrote letter to build bomb: 1 million lives lost Einstein didn't write letter to build bomb: 3 million lives lost. = Einstein saved 2 million lives by writing the letter to build the first atomic bomb. AGAIN, we are just using this for math purposes, not ethical or historic purposes. It's also worth mentioning that after Einstein learned the Germans wouldn't have developed an atom bomb to use on the Allied Forces (the reason he wrote the letter was to warm the President), he regretted ever writing the letter in the first place. In an interview with Newsweek magazine, he said that "had I known that the Germans would not succeed in developing an atomic bomb, I would have done nothing." Since this didn't provide Einstein happiness, by Sergio's definition, this made Einstein unsuccessful. Sergio argued that he would have been more successful being a professional bagel critic, assuming that would have provided Einstein the most happiness out of any other career path. The Debate: Passion VS ImpactI believe that you should try as many things as possible so that you can find what you're good at. What you're the best at. So you can find what industry you can dominate and impact the most people's lives. Or for Sergio, find what makes you happy. What if Picasso never picked up a paint brush? What if he pursued something he found himself enjoying before he learned to paint? Yes, he would have been happy and by Sergio's definition a success, but he surely would have impacted less people and perhaps we would have never known his name.
What if Michael Jordan never dribbled a basket ball? Few people know that he also played professional baseball in addition to basketball. He is arguably known as the best basketball player of all time, but just an average baseball player. Both made him happy- but only one sport left him in history books. Basketball left a greater impact on more people's lives. Let's say that a career in Baseball would have built up more of a passion and love of the sport for Michael- Sergio would say that would have been the more successful route. I disagree. Where do you stand? Passion or Impact? Thanks for reading. Sincerely, Dick Polipnick PS. I read every comment. Please join the conversation below by leaving your opinion of this blog/argument, and perhaps discuss what you think drives success.  You are leaving money on the table if you’re not actively marketing your business online in proper ways. But there is a problem. Online marketing can be seemed very daunting and complex. This can totally deter the most focused entrepreneurs from implementing an internet marketing strategy.
So, the goal of this article is to dissect internet marketing into its most basic strategist ways. And simplify those strategies for the business owner or market. You may have seen lots of blog about the same topic. Can you guess why we are special from other blogs? Do you know what timeless means? It’s a strategy that will work in the future too, so you don’t have to waste your time learning about little hacks that will quickly die off. You will notice there are a couple of overarching strategies, there are various tactics related to that strategy. Let’s begin!  If you are a brand, today there is a high possibility of you being in social media in some kind of way or form.
Many brands own an active social media presence. But exactly how many of them exist? What makes them different from other brands that they get so much attention? This questions must have crossed your mind. Reality is you really can not expect to post some random links and dream to make a huge difference. You need to have strategies and solid plans for your brand to grow in a fast way. Although some of these brands have a huge budget ideas they use to get attention can be replicated and used by businesses of all sizes. If you are struggling to get followers in your social media pages and really don’t have a clue what to do next. Let’s be honest, we all have been there. That’s why we have collected the tips and tricks you need to know to get a good start. Now let’s get started.  *Drums playing loudly and people clapping and cheering*
Because Instagram’s brand new video platform is here! IGTV is a place for long duration videos which is available in the native Instagram app and the standalone IGTV app. Here are 3 things you need to know about IGTV also we are going to answer a lot of questions that pop in people’s mind when they encounter with IGTV.  If you are running a successful store and you’ve figured out inventory. You have good amount of traffic and your customers buying your products too. Have you covered all your bases? Not yet! You could still be experiencing a huge number of lost sales because of shopping cart abandonment. Today we want to zoom in one of the most effective ways to get customers after they abandon their carts: That’s called Email Recovery Campaign.
✍🏽 Transcription: What is abandoned cart recovery and how can it help you build your e-commerce business? In this article, we're going to be diving right into what abandoned cart recovery is? And how it works with different strategies. We might even be providing you a couple of screenshots of real-life examples that we've used for our clients. We're going to talk about all those things in this article.
So, let’s start with abandoned cart recovery and how does it work. In an online store, there is a checkout cart where people add products. Example: In Amazon, you check out hundreds of books and you add five of them into your cart. Suddenly, you need to do something else. And you close the app without buying them. So, what abandoned cart recovery does, it will send you an email that you have a couple of books in your cart, if you want to buy these, you can click from there. It will complete the checkout process. So, on the e-commerce website, there are some software’s which works for abandoned cart recovery. If you're a bookseller, you will know that customer has five books in abandoned cart recovery. So, it sends an email to the customer within 24 hours, if they haven't purchased the books. Example: Hey, John! we noticed that you forgot to check out these five books (and you can actually provide pictures) they're sitting in your cart right now, click here!". The customer doesn't have to do any more browsing. They have to click add to cart. With this, John will have you know way more chance of actually purchasing those books. Because he's being reminded. He's given a link to actually make it happen fast. And you might even have the best-abandoned cart recovery systems. It will actually do multiple hits. So, in 24 hours after they haven't checked out yet, you’ll send a reminder. But John still hasn't purchased those books, in the email, you can say, " John we noticed that you read our email yesterday. but we noticed that you have five books in the check-out cart. Here is a 10% coupon to incentivize you to actually finish your purchase. So, they'll go to the link and buy the ten books or the five books. If you have fifty percent margin on your book, Example: you sell a twenty or ten-dollar book and you give 10% off. So it's two bucks that mean you still have eight dollars’ profit per book. And eight dollars’ profit per book is better than zero sales. So, that's a great way to build sales and conversion rates. Always check out your click rate and it's a great way to keep customers. Because then it will take away the opportunity to form your customers to kind of browse and search your competitors. Sometimes books come with a hardcover in your competition store but if you hit them in 24 hours saying and say, " Hey! your softcover book is in checkout". Then they're more likely to execute instead of going to your competitor. So, that is abandoned cart recovery. And that's how you can integrate with your checkout process and email marketing. You have any questions like that we actually did a video about this topic. We'll put a link in the description below. If you're watching this on YouTube of how your email marketing works and we did another video on how you can build your email list. But this video is strictly about what abandoned cart recovery is and how it can help you build your business. ----- Thank you for reading and I will see you in the next article. - Dick Polipnick & Joyeta Banerjee Check out our last show notes  Do you want people to find you through a google search? If so then search engine optimization also known as SEO should be at the top of your priority list. You won’t be able to lead anyone towards your business if they can’t find you. Do you know that almost 93% of people have their first Internet experience with a search engine?
Have you ever imagined what happens after someone makes a search? How much possibility is there to get your content to get noticed? Let me break it down to you. Only if you can make it to the top of showing results 33% chances are there that people will click to see your content. That means if you can’t make it to the first page of the search results you just missed one-third of a potential traffic. You will be astonished to know that most of the people don’t even bother to see the results showing on the second page. The reason why other people are ranking higher than you is that they are putting in an effort to improve their SEO ranking. But it’s never too late to get started. There are certain tricks you can use to improve your SEO ranking. Let me present you the top 17 ways to make it to the top of Google ranking.  Mobile is one of the smartest inventions of modern science which is quickly spreading its dominance over the whole world. It is not only a device anymore it’s more like a basic thing you need to live in this world. Because a study has shown that nearly 70 percent of digital media time is spent on this device. That means it’s very important to keep an eye on the trends that have been going on mobiles because it can affect any part of this digital world.
Talking about trends, some trends come and go and some become a staple. This article was written keeping the top trends in mind which is being followed in designing mobile in 2018. Let’s review them together!  Search engines like Google don’t allow signals from social media to directly affect ranking, but social media gives marketing professionals many ways to put their businesses in front of search engine result pages.
Consider these three ways to impact SEO, or search engine optimization, using social media, 1. Social Sharing drives traffic Posting links to quality content can gain shares, likes and comments. It encourages users to check official business websites too. The more people click your link the more traffic you will get! 2. Social media profiles to rank If anyone types the name of the business in a search engine, its social media profiles have the potential to appear beneath the business information. Be sure to have your business listed along with all of its social media accounts. 3. Capturing external links is easier with social media The authority of the websites doing linking to achieve higher linking. You can use social media platforms to share and promote content. This increases the likelihood of the other website referring and linking back at it. Use these tips to rank higher in google and other search engines, and don’t forget to watch the video to learn more about SEO.  Anytime a business operates, they need email. Yes, there's Slack; there's Skype; there are many other communication channels, but businesses still revolve around email, and if businesses still use it, you can bet that if you get an email in their inbox and they read it, you can generate sales.
So, email marketing is a thing now. Gmail ads are growing in revenue. The question is now, is email marketing making value? Yes, it is! Because some people still read emails. The problem is your email not getting read by people. So, how can you send out emails that get opened by readers? A good place to start is to not include the four reasons people don’t read or open emails.  A good education is the most important thing in the information age. The current education system may not be providing all the valuable information a child needs. Robert T. Kiyosaki wrote this book to fill in the gaps to help your child giving the same inspiring and practical financial knowledge that his Rich Dad gave him. Rich Dad’s Rich Kid will guide you to awaken your child’s love for learning the same methods that Robert’s smart dad used to give him to help Robert stay in school. Robert had really bad grades and often wanted to drop out.
Rich Dad's Rich Kid will open the door of knowledge that you never knew existed, enabling you to pass down the skills. And also understanding your child will who will use these for the rest of his or her life.  The one question that has come to every person's mind that what exactly is blockchain or for what purposes it is going to be used. The blockchain is an undeniably genius invention of Satoshi Nakamoto. It was invented in 2008 to serve as the public transaction ledger of the cryptocurrency bitcoin. But since that time it has evolved into something greater.
The blockchain is a continuously growing list of records called blocks. It is a distributed ledger that can efficiently take records of transactions happening between two parties in a verifiable way. Once recorded the data in any given block cannot be altered without altering the subsequent blocks which will result in the collision of the whole network. The blockchain is a very secure way for the recording of events, medical reports, and the other records management functions  Being an entrepreneur means you need blaze your own trail. You will get no career guidelines, counselors or maps to guide you from one step to the next. You’ll have to make it up as you go. But if there was a set of guidelines, here are our tips to make your journey easier as an entrepreneur.
1. Keep the big vision in sight. - Stay focused 2. Fuel your vision with perseverance - Be motivated 3. Make a plan, but be flexible - Adapt to survive 4. Embrace your expertise - Know yourself 5. Don’t reinvent the wheel - Start new, don’t start over 6. Don’t burn out - Pace yourself 7. Leverage everything - Find a need 8. Keep your sense of humor - Laugh more, stress less This is a special blog from our Millionaire Mentor series, The Entrepreneur's Mindset (Interview with Dominik Lipinski). Read our highlights from this several hour interview below, or go ahead and find your own golden nuggets by watching the video or listening to the podcast.  👉 Have you ever tried implementing a digital assistant in your office? It may sound unusual, but actually it’s pretty common. It is predicted that almost 36 million people are going to use a voice-activated assistant device at least once in a month which is double the number of users in the previous year.
👨⚖️ Virtual assistants include software’s inside various devices like Apple’s Siri, Google Now, Amazon’s Alexa etc. Voice-enabled speakers also use virtual assistant software, such as Amazon’s Echo AND Google Home. These devices were mainly invented for home use. People ask it various things, and it answers them. Though most digital assistants put restrictions on what developers can do with the system, the systems are always growing. But in the year of 2016, Amazon decided to let third parties develop think programs for Alexa. Most of this content is designed specifically for business purposes. Many of you have already used Amazon Echo or Echo Dot without realizing the fact that you can use it to increase efficiencies in your business. You can go to the main page of Alexa. Amazon.com on your smartphone and click the “skills” button in the left navigation bar, select the skills you want and tap “enable”. Then your digital assistant will be able to help you to run your business smoothly. Once a skill is enabled you just need to give a voice command and Voila! Your work is done. Alexa is mainly an artificial intelligence powered, voice-activated digital assistant. It gives you control over your business via some appealing speakers such as Echo spot, Echo plus etc. But there is no need to buy Amazon products to use Alexa, because most of the smart speakers sold in the U.S in 2017 are Alexa coherent. Checking out the skill finder skill will also help you to know about particular skills and even help you to decide on the skills your company needs for growth.  As of June 11th, The legal protection against content discrimination on the internet is now more. As far as the FCC is concern, Net neutrality is dead.
This policy fate was closed back in December 2017, when FCC chairman Ajit Pai was restoring Internet Freedom Order. The Internet Freedom Order was approved in a 3-2 vote along the party lines. Ajit’s order, which goes into effect today, rolls back the net neutrality protections. It will take a long time to see the practical effects of the new rules. But obviously, this is a big deal. Its slow process will reshape the internet is very ugly ways.  Without a proper strategy on YouTube, your videos are not going to reach the full potential of viewers. Whether you are a small business owner, entrepreneur, YouTuber, content creator or social media marketing strategist, you have been searching for ways to get your targeted views on YouTube. But how can you crack the goal in your competitive sector?
YouTube Marketing is a tool among the most-talked subjects in social media and entrepreneur circles right now. One of the main questions we get most is how to get started on YouTube. But let’s get real!  When was the last time you read a book? If you’re one of those countless people who doesn’t have a habit of reading regularly, you might be missing out a significant number of benefits. There is no reason why a person should read more books. First let’s talk about two advantages that anyone can derive from reading books, 🤯 Sharpens Your Mind:
For some, reading can be a bit boring, but it benefits mental health in the form of understanding and thinking. It stimulates your brain by concentrating on words and story-line. It also develops communication, language and grammatical skills. 😌 Lowers Your Stress: Most people know from experiences that reading can help lower stress level. Reading and focusing on written words can relieve your mind from the pressures of the day. In the meantime, it helps you to get some knowledge and information. Once you start reading a book you will start to focus on the message of the book not on your stress. In that time, it lowers your stress level, makes you feel better mentally and physically.  If you don’t exist on social media do you really have an existence? This question will definitely put some of you in an awe. But, it’s not something to take in a wrong way. People have been using social media platforms to create their own identity and establish their business. Instagram and Snapchat stories are a big part of it. The battle between which platform is better among its users to have been going on for a long time. But none of them are really slacking off. It just depends on personal preferences and which you want to show your audiences. But while doing business through which platform you want to highlight your Ideas and products have to be very precise and well planned. Clients are often in a daze thinking which social media to adapt to their current marketing plan. As experts, we need to think about the fact that whether one of them actually work for our clients. From audience interest to managing the accounts, everything needs to get taken care of. To put it very simply we need to think that which works for them best
 Monitoring analytics and reports can make the difference between the success or failure of your online business presence. Kevan lee said in his one of his blog post that how you will let your brand or boss know all the great stuff you’re up to? He mentioned in his article, “Creating a social media report can be key to explaining your progress on social media”.
In an online business, keeping reports are also important to grow. What are your top performing posts? What time of the day get the most engagements? If you’re not keeping analytics and reports, you’ll probably have a hard time answering these questions.  Brands nowadays trying to find more ways to connect with their audiences using social media platforms. But it’s really unpredictable to say how the social media marketing will change over the year with new trends. Each and everyday user scroll through 300 feet of content and in this small window brands need to grab user attention. So, how a brand starts building social media ideas the make the user a valuable reader or a customer towards the brand. Here are our strategies, online growth system believes these strategies will impact your business via social media.
Entrepreneurs sometimes live in a strange way, and Ray Kroc is one of those people. His revolution in franchising the food automation service and advertising have earned him a place in entrepreneur’s world. He founded McDonald's and opened his franchise when he was 52.
In this Amazing Book, there is the story of this business legend in his own words. You will go through irrepressible enthusiasm in here. This perceptive people-watcher and born storyteller will fascinate and inspire you in this book. This book will make you never forget Ray Kroc for his successful journey of McDonald's.  The world is going to take a new step in Virtual Reality and 3D model era, and place the remarkable technology in the e-commerce platform. This year Shopify United announced their first step to becoming a 3D enabled e-commerce platform. In addition to this, they are adding new partners who will help the merchants to create 3D models of their products. Also, they will find new ways to reach their audiences using augmented reality. This will turn future of AR into reality.
But, how will e-commerce reach their potential goal? How will a person with zero knowledge or a person who is a web designer or an app developer who never done 3D before use such a product? They begin to enable them to create 3D models. E-commerce platform such as Shopify is creating a real opportunity to deliver value to the merchants and their customers. Read on to learn more about how e-commerce business can expand their customer experience to immersive AR, VR, and 3D where shopping will be a reality for everyone.  ✎Why You Really Need Artificial Intelligence in Marketing? This year, we have seen many brands use Artificial intelligence to build an instant connection with customers all over the world. Chatbots are solving their issues with customer interaction.
 It is without doubt that the internet has advanced in recent years, and with it new online systems such as social media have been developed. This has enabled individuals to easily interact, share and access information. Social media has grown to become a key factor in marketing, and firms are using it to enhance their brand popularity, increase sales, enhance communication, share business information and for social support to consumers. In addition, social media interactions by individuals is thought to have a positive impact on trust. This has developed a great interest by researchers to study consumer behaviors and see how it affects customer's intent to buy goods and services online.
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