Welcome to my interview series, called Interview-NV.  

The purpose is to offer a short-format interview with known online marketers and entrepreneurs, like today's guest, John Jantsch.  

As a thank you to our guest, I would encourage you to stop by his website and sign up on his email list, and/or consider purchasing his latest book, Duct Tape Selling.   (http://www.ducttapeselling.com) 

NV: How do you expedite your ability to build trust in a business relationship that is initiated online. For example, after connecting with a new contact on LinkedIn? 

JJ:  To me the easiest way is to look for an obvious way to help - answer questions, point to useful resources and look for ways to connect your new connection to other people that might be able to help them. 

NV:  What is one aspect of sales and/or marketing that initially stumped you before you understood how to be successful at it, and what did you do to improve your approach? 

JJ:  That I had to cast my net much more narrowly, that felt uncomfortable at first. Once you discover that, when you understand who you are truly cut out to serve and forsake the rest, you'll attract more business willing to pay you a premium. 

NV:  Your latest book is really a guide for approaching sales and marketing in today’s landscape, what is one main message you want readers to take away from your book? 

JJ:  That buying today is a journey that is increasingly out of our control, and that our best best is to ditch demand creation in favor of guiding people on the journey THEY want to take. 

Over the past few days, my wife and I spent some time in Sturgeon Bay, WI.  It is our 10th wedding anniversary this week so we decided to get away.

Sturgeon Bay is a great little maritime town on a bay that feeds into Lake Michigan.

We found a little shop and I was intrigued by a set of journals I had discovered.

They were 21 day journals (affiliate link).  There is a theory that it takes approximately 21 days to form or break a habit.  

What was intriguing about the journals is that they are simple, elegant do-it-yourself coaching programs rolled up into a journal format.  I love the idea of a self-run coaching program that is part of my journal, meaning it gives instruction, direction and milestones to reach throughout your 21 days as you document your journey.

I do believe there is something magical about physically writing into a journal vs. typing your thoughts and feelings out electronically.  

This is why I think the format of these 21 day journals are great -- the journal provides you a basic roadmap of spending 21 days forming a new habit (i.e. exercising more, starting a new hobby, spending more time marketing your business, etc.), it gives instructions about what to concentrate on each day, and you're documenting it all, which means if you stick with it you're bound to accomplish something positive at the end of 21 days.

Less important to me, but a nice touch, the journal comes with a rubber bracelet as a reminder to hold yourself accountable for the 21 days to form your new habit.

So I ended up picking up the 21 Days to Make or Break a Habit journal...I've included some photos below.  You can also get the journal on Amazon (affiliate link)

Posted by:  Nick Venturella

I was cruising YouTube and came across this video of Tony Robbins' Rapid Planning Method.

What resonated with me was Tony's perspective on 'To Do' lists.

By concentrating on the outcome of the tasks on your list you maintain a better focus toward the results you want.

I've started using daily 'Outcome' lists where I write down the end result of what I want to accomplish each day instead of what activities I think I need to complete. It's a subtle yet distinct difference.

In my daily lists I'm now less worried about how I'll complete the tasks, which frees my thinking to stay focused on the outcome. I know I'll figure the 'how' as needed.

I find that if I concentrate on the results it helps me to focus my aim in a more productive, yet liberating way, and I actually accomplish more in a shorter amount of time.

Posted by:  Nick Venturella

I recently watched a documentary about a young man who built his own tiny house.

Christopher Smith, along with other tiny housers interviewed, offered various reasons for wanting to build and live a tiny lifestyle. (you can view the film trailer below)

The documentary was inspiring.  I'm not fully convinced that I want to reduce everything and live in a 128 square foot house, but it got me thinking...

I'm in pursuit of a tiny career.  As a creative soul with an entrepreneurial spirit I am interested in developing my work/career in a way that can be self-sustaining. 

In other words, I want to have a business with few moving parts, really no employees other than myself; do work I enjoy with people I can help who provide adequate value in return (money) to help me meet my living expenses/needs and essentially be happy and able to continue such work.

In additional to my entrepreneurial endeavors, I currently have a corporate job that I like, and it's teaching me so much.  I view everything I do in my career as a learning experience to provide me the various pieces to the puzzle I need to eventually fit things together in the way that I ideally want.

I'm not quite there yet, but everyday I get closer, I learn new skills, I learn more about myself and how to focus it all back to where I want to go.

Perhaps the journey is the real pinnacle as each victory encourages me to stretch farther, but I do believe it's possible to have it all in the way each of wants.  It won't be without work, struggle or sacrifice, but the accomplishment and satisfaction of paving one's own path is the sweetness I'm after.  Reaching the desired end result is simply the after-glow of fulling savoring the sweetness.

Posted by:  Nick Venturella

LinkedIn is a powerful professional networking platform.  However, if you don't have a connection strategy you could be leaving a lot of potential marketing opportunity on the table. 

The following is an eleven step LinkedIn connection strategy to help you make the most of your professional networking:

1. Post a decent photo of yourself, and completely fill out your LinkedIn profile.
   
2. Flesh out your profile.  Be honest in describing your experiences, skills and accomplishments.  Also identify who you’re targeting with your LinkedIn profile (who you want to attract and connect with) and how you help those who decide to connect with you.
   
3. Genuinely connect with others on LinkedIn who fit your target audience.  You can use LinkedIn searches or the “people you may know” section of LinkedIn to introduce yourself and explain how you can help them (with no expectation of anything in return).
   
4. Follow up with new connections by offering to help them in some way.  You might send them a useful article or introduce them to another potentially useful connection of yours who could help your new connection.
   
5. Once you make a new connection, ask for a short introductory phone call with your new connection. This allows you to put a voice with a name, so to speak.  Trust-building is expedited when you can take online relationships off-line.
   
6. From the off-line introductory phone call, find an additional way to help your new connection and follow through on whatever it is you plan to do to help them.
   
7. Ask your new connection if you can add them to your email list. If they say no, respect that.  If they say yes, build a relationship over time through your email newsletter and/or blog content.
   
8. Share regular useful content with your connections via your email list.  Be sure the content is relevant to your connections (i.e. your target audience) and periodically make sales offers for the products or services you provide, which may be beneficial to those on your email list.
   
9. When your connections make a purchase from you, personally thank them.  Go the extra mile with customer service and offer them some additional helpful articles that are relevant to their purchase, or introduce them to others who have purchased the same product or service from you.
   
10. Following a connection's purchase, check in to ensure things are going well for them, now that they're your customer. Listen to their feedback and offer any further assistance you can.
    
11. Continue your email and blog relationship with your connections/target audience and periodically check in with individual connections to see how you might help them without any agenda other than to be a resource for them.

These are just a few ways to find new people on LinkedIn with whom you can reach out, connect and build meaningful relationships to your mutual benefit. 

posted by: Nick Venturella

Many musicians split their time between a day job for a steady income and the pursuit of their musical endeavors.  

A common challenge that arises from this sort of dual responsibility is that a certain portion of the day is spent at the day job and only so many hours remain each day to work on one's music career.

This doesn't leave as much time as one would like for rehearsals, marketing, performing and recording music.

Having a sense of urgency to accomplish a lot of business-related tasks toward music business success is admirable, but not beneficial when one gets to the point of being overwhelmed.  Such an overwhelmed feeling can cause paralysis limiting future progress.

It's important for any indie musician who is serious about what they do to remember that success, however one defines it, does not usually happen over night.  Success comes from continuous hard work and determination over time.

Though it sounds simple, the secret is to accomplish something everyday toward progressing one's music career.  The 'something' accomplished each day could be something large or small.  It could be as minor as returning an email or as major as executing a gig contract, but always make sure you have done at least something to push your vision forward everyday.

A great way to help yourself get tasks done each day is to write down one very specific task before you go to bed at night (for example:  call that new coffee shop to find out who does the music booking).

The next day make sure you at least get that one task done.  You've then accomplished your one task for the day, and if you are able to think of a few more that you can complete the same day, well that's just a bonus.  Then at the end of the night write one new task to get done the next day, and so on.

Each small victory strung together over time becomes a measure of your progress.  The culmination of many small victories leads to the eventual accomplishment of achieving your  larger victory--meeting your goals.

Posted by:  Nick Venturella

Here’s a great stat I recently read on the Content Marketing Institute’s website:  

According to Sirius Decisions, business buyers now go through 67% of their buying process by consuming content online. 

That means when a prospect of your product or service is in the market to buy the kind of solution you provide, 67% of the process they go through to make a decision to purchase from a particular company is determined by content and research they find on the Internet.

Sixty-seven percent!  That means, the content prospects are finding online is performing the role of what a sales person, or you, might have typically done in a past business model.

You as the vendor no longer control the sales process.  Or, rather, you only control a small portion of the sales process, and buyers are qualifying themselves before you even know who they are.

This phenomenon is both good and bad.

It’s good because ultimately by the time you interact with a prospect they are at a point where they’re ready to convert to a customer.

It’s bad, only compared to the older more traditional sales model many are familiar with, because you often don’t even know who your prospect is until they’re ready to buy.

The solution is to help influence a prospect’s research by posting content online that will resonate with the need they’re looking to fulfill, and that content has to show up in the searches they’re conducting online so you have the opportunity of influencing their buying decision and winning their business.

So how do you deal with this?

Create educational content that is geared to your target audience -- you need to know who your target audience is, what problem they have that you solve and offer them the easiest path to a solution.  

In your content, succinctly identify their challenges and offer advice and best practices regarding how they can go about overcoming those challenges on their own, which is often hard if they’re not an expert in the area in which they have a challenge...and that’s the secret...

That’s where, in your content, you can build the value of having an expert help them solve their problem -- the pros and cons of doing it yourself vs. buying a product or hiring an expert to do it for them.

In this way, you’re offering the prospect options that empower them to make a more informed decision, and when they come to the decision that they need to make a purchase to solve their problem, guess who they’ll engage with to learn more?  

That’s right, who ever gave them the best information to help them come to their own conclusion.  Hopefully that’s you.


Posted by:  Nick Venturella

Welcome to this little interview series, called Interview-NV.  

The purpose is to offer a short-format interview with known online marketers and entrepreneurs, like today's guest, Chris Brogan.  

As a thank you to our guest, I would encourage you to stop by his website and sign up on his email list, and/or consider purchasing his latest book, The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth.   
(http://callingallfreaks.com)

Our Guest's Bio: 
Chris Brogan is an advisor and strategist to professionals and owners. It’s business strategy meets powerful personal development.Through courses, consulting, coaching, and events, he blends clarity of vision with pure action. 

Interview Q & A:

NV:  What is one significant mistake you made early in your business that you would want to help others avoid to expedite their success?

CB:  Many times in my business, I've made the mistake of being clever instead of being helpful. The more you seek to help the community you serve, the better it works for everyone. 


NV:  What's one thing people might be surprised to know about how you get things done in your business?

CB:  People would be stunned to know that I only schedule my days to 40%. We don't run our cars at 100%. We don't run our computers at 100%. Why do we run our schedules at 100% or even more? 


NV:  In your latest book you talk about 'belonging.' Specifically for musicians, artist and writers, how might they apply the idea of 'belonging' to their marketing approach?

CB:  Musicians and artists of all sorts have the opportunity to share what goes on behind the velvet rope. I've been on a rock band's tour bus. I felt thrilled to know what I'd never witnessed before (which ended up not nearly being as crazy as you'd think). We all want to be on the inside. Share ways for people to connect with that which lets them feel like they're your friends. 

The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth 
(http://callingallfreaks.com) is a book about entrepreneurship for the not-so-average entrepreneur. 

Musicians, artists, and writers are just the tip of the iceberg, but this book would appeal to you. 

Did you know you can increase your website conversions by haver fewer fields for visitors to fill out when you ask folks to fill out a form on your website.

In fact, you can expect an average 25% higher conversions when your site visitors only have 3 fields to fill out instead of 5 or 6.

Posted by: Nick Venturella