Education Archives - Page 4 of 5 - WeGrowMedia

Publishers Needs To Invest in People, Not Platforms

Much of the publishing world seems to be in debate over platforms, business models and technical details of eBooks, ad formats, and mobile content delivery, among other things.

Dollars are flowing towards building these platforms, marketplaces, and channels; towards building SYSTEMS that will hopefully scale, ushering in a new age of publishing and media.

And that’s fine.

But sometimes I feel as though we aren’t focusing enough on one critical factor for the future of publishing: developing the capabilities of the those around us. For example, creating mentorship programs to invest in PEOPLE, not THINGS.

For any company, it’s tempting to focus on systems and not people. Systems scale. Systems can be given catchy names, and used in conversation at corporate expense account lunches. Systems can be mentioned in press releases and magazine articles as symbols of how a company is moving forward. They look good on your resume. But oftentimes, I find that the ceiling for a system’s potential is very low, while the potential for developing an individual has no ceiling at all.

Ideas fail. Trends come and go. Technology becomes obsolete. But people have no limits. Invest in a person, and there is no telling what can be achieved.

So why do companies again and again focus on platforms and systems, and not their employees, partners, and customers? Well, oftentimes, it’s because of ownership and fear. Businesses invest in THINGS, in systems, because that system can’t quit and go to the competition. That system can’t take sides with a different VP in the company, shifting internal political power. A system fits into a spreadsheet, a person doesn’t.

So we justify that it is easier to “hire the best and brightest” and lay them off at the slightest sign of financial insecurity. So the “platform” is the stable entity in many companies, and the workers flow in and out depending on that quarter’s financial numbers.

We can do better than this.

Here’s an example: There is a program that I find fascinating that does invest in people, while also investing in the financial future of their industry. It’s a seed capital organization called TechStars, that invests in startups each year. Yes, they are investing in business ideas, but more than anything, they are investing in PEOPLE. When a group of entrepreneurs enter their program, the idea itself will likely change, but TechStars realizes that smart people are an invaluable asset to fund and be connected to. Smart people scale. I don’t mean 20% year over year growth kind of scale, I mean turning an idea on a napkin into hundreds of millions of dollars kind of scale. Then, doing it again.

TechStars jumpstarts startups – gives them a program, tons of mentors, and helps them focus and develop ideas. They provide connections that are hard to come by, and end up creating a community that feels compelled to give back – a group who will be lifelong resources. They are investing in people, not cutting them to increase profit margins.

(To learn more about TechStars. Watch their incredibly engaging series of videos that follows each “class” as it goes through their program.)

We are told that business economics needs to overlook the touchy-feely nature of caring too much about people; That we need to focus on scaling products and identifying growing markets; That platforms and systems will save publishing; That we aren’t supposed to care about the cycle of layoffs of poor training & development opportunities for employees; That this is just a fact of life in the hard-edged business world.

But I’ll say it again – we can do better than this.

Publishers need to ask themselves: what are we building? A platform or a community? A marketplace full of products, or one filled with amazingly talented people?

-Dan

Knowledge is Useless Without Action

I’ve been slowly prying the lid off an online course I’m developing for writers to build their brand online, and am concerned about one thing:

I want my course to truly help people reach their goals, not just make them feel good about taking the course.

This has me considering how people learn, not just how to get them to buy my course. There is a distinct difference here.

There has been a tidal wave of “information products” on the web, from eBooks to forums to webinars to classes. Some of them are really cool, and some seem to be exercises in “conversion rates” and online sales. Some are “all about the launch,” after which, they begin preparing for releasing their next product.

But what happens after the purchase is what matters most. How effective is this course in shaping people’s lives? This is where knowledge turns to education, and education turns to a true affect on people’s lives, and through them, the world.

Did you go to college pursuing “a degree,” or did you pursue knowledge? Now that you are in the professional world, are you exercising the brand name of the college (eg: “I have an MFA from Brand X University”) or are you exercising the knowledge, turning thought into action; idea into reality?

The knowledge alone is often useless without integrating it with other knowledge, with other skills, with ideas, with other people, with the right time and place.

I want my course to help people, and this requires something more than delivering knowledge. It involves working together towards goals, through stumbling blocks, through the emotional mine field of stretching ourselves beyond our normal limits.

A teacher doesn’t deliver information. A teacher is a partner, someone who is learning as much from the student as the student is learning from them.

That is what I strive for as I build this course, and it’s been an interesting process. Hope you come with me on the journey…

I’ll be sharing more information on the course very soon.

Thank you!

-Dan

Social Media Classes For Writers & Authors

I’ve been working on something for awhile now – building a course on how YOU can leverage social media, online media and online marketing. Today I want to share a few details about it, and talk about how we learn, and how what we know affects what we accomplish.

Most of us learn how to leverage the web by doing. We read one article and blog post at a time, take tentative steps onto services like Twitter, and try to replicate what we see works for others. Pretty soon, we each have our own secret sauce – a mixture of our personal comfort level, and customized online strategy.

But does it lead you to your goals? Is it working as well as you would like? For many people, I find that they are doing interesting things in social media, but are failing to find a workable system that is manageable, enjoyable and leads to the personal and career growth they were hoping.

This is the reason I am creating a class for teaching social media to writers and authors. Here is why I think a structured curriculum is important:

You Need Goals
The one thing missing from most people’s online strategy is goals. They know they want to grow in some way, they have a vague feeling of what success will entail, but they rarely define it with hard numbers and accomplishments. This is the first critical step. If you don’t know where you are going, then it is all the more likely that you will get there.

You Need a Plan
A curriculum is a plan, a committment. It takes you step by step through a process, and always leaves you with two things: accomplishments and a next step. It is a process for growing.

You Need to Get Your Hands Dirty
Its not enough to debate the value of certain aspects of social media, you need to get your hands dirty. For instance, I see far too many people debate the value of paid content or paywalls online, without ever trying themselves. They are debating theory – what-ifs in a universe that needs practical insight and experience.

You Need to Measure
Too often, we pursue a certain tactic or strategy, and validate it by blindly following it forever. That, instead of being honest about if it really works, we are too afraid to feel stupid by discovering that (while it was a good idea), it didn’t have the intended result. Measuring what works and what doesn’t is critical for true success, not just perceived expertise.

You Need to Iterate
You hear phrases such as “fail often,” and what they are referring to is iteration – the need to change, to evolve ideas and move towards finding the results you are looking for. Iteration is a process, something that doesn’t often come naturally. It is essential for learning, for growing, for building, for achieving your goals.

You Need Help
This does not refer just to a teacher-student relationship, but to the comradery and resources that other classmates give you. You can learn so much from others who are a part of the same program, pursuing similar goals, and following the same strategy as you . Likewise, alumni are incredible resources for years to come – those who can continue to help each other as they grow and become successful. Why is a Harvard education so valuable? Part of the reason is the ability to tap into it’s network of successful people.

I learn so much just by reading Tweets everyday. But this learning is disaggregated – found in stolen moments and dozens of Bit.ly links each day. And my concern is that this leads to a great deal of input, without much output. EG: Am I building my future with all of the things I learn?

So that is the background as to why I am building this course. And… here are some details on the course itself:

This is a 6 week long ONLINE class. You don’t have to leave your house!
It starts off with a 1-on-1 chat where I can assess your personal challenges and goals.
It includes weekly live webinars taking you through a structured curriculum. Here I share advice as to how to build, manage, and grow your online presence.
There are hands-on assignments which means you walk away from the course already well on your way to achieving your goals.
Each week, I help you tackle specific issues and questions via email office hours.
You will be able to learn from other writers going through this course with you.

Are you interested? Do you think you may want to apply to be a part of this program? Yay!

I’ll be sharing more information very soon.

Thank you!

-Dan

How to Build Your Online Business – the Laura Roeder Interview

At 26 years old, Laura Roeder is making about $15,000 a month in consulting fees and has launched online coaching classes that bring in tens of thousands in revenue.

Laura Roeder Today I want to profile how she is building a successful online business
through information products and working with clients via the web. I am FASCINATED by how the web has removed barriers for businesses:

That we can learn from others without leaving our homes.
That we can grow businesses without leaving our homes.
That we can grow as individuals without leaving our homes.

So you can see, I have a real fascination with not leaving the house! But seriously – the opportunity that we each have to achieve our business and personal goals is so much closer than we think, and what people like Laura are doing is just incredible. I had a chance to speak with her, and below are key points from our chat.

In 2008 Laura transitioned her career from a web designer to focusing on online social media training and consulting. This change occurred because she kept listening to client’s needs and noticed a pattern, a common need that wasn’t being met:

“When I started my own business, I found I was always giving my clients advice about online marketing, social media, and how their website fits into their overall marketing plan. I thought is what a web designer should do, but I discovered that most web designers don’t do that. My clients told me that other designers never asked them those sorts of questions.”

“I had the realization in late 2008 that people would pay me just for the social media side, which just seemed outrageous to me. I think this is how a lot of people feel about whatever they’re good at – you take it for granted. Now I see what a big need there is.”

At this point Laura made a big decision, the type of decision that is life changing. Instead of slowly evolving, she jumped in with both feet:

“I fired all my web design clients because I knew that if I didn’t totally get rid of that, I would still be in that business model, which is not what I wanted to do. Then I had to make money with social media.”

Since she didn’t know how to break into working with big companies, and loved working with small businesses, she created her business to better cater to them. To get her initial clients, she started with what she had, and built from there:

“I moved to this online training program model that allows me to make money with lower priced programs that are appropriate for a small business. I loved it, but it was a struggle. I didn’t know any business owners. I found all my clients through networking events, which is a great way for any business to start a client base and to grow. A lot of people aren’t willing to do it. When people see you are a normal friendly human, being, they will hire you.”

Soon, Laura found she needed to make another evolution to her business, scaling her services:

“The thing about most service businesses is that you are always starting over. That’s what was so frustrating. I would get a client, and maybe spend a month or two chasing that client, trying to get the final contract signed getting ready to do that work. So you’ve got that long process, then you do the work for them, and then after that contract is over, it’s like you might as well not have done anything. You’re back at square one, and then you have to bring in a new contract. It’s a neverending cycle. I wanted to explore new models for new business, because I feel like I wasn’t getting anywhere.”

Through people such as Eban Pagan, she learned about online training programs as a business model, and made another big leap:

“I just gave it a shot. I see a lot of people who take courses like this and they pick and choose, or they aren’t willing to do it. I just took what I learned and tried it out. Some is exact, some is my own spin on these concepts.”

“I Learned the concepts of how do you craft programs that people really want to buy that have effective marketing baked in, how do you figure out what people want, how do you make the learning effective so people in the program actually take action.”

In March 2009, she created her first program: “Your Backstage Pass to Twitter.” She explains how she came to the decision to launch this product:

“I just gave it a shot. most people, as simple as it sounds, that’s the part that’s missing because they spend so much time analyzing or saying ‘this isn’t going to work for me,’ or ‘I have to get something established before I do that.’ I tell people this with social media all the time: you just have to jump in. The way to start using Twitter is to just create an account and start talking to people. You don’t have to have a perfect website first, you don’t have to have a Facebook fan page first, you don’t have to figure it all out before you create an account, you just have to jump in and give it a try. That is the only way you will make progress. I never really get how to do anything until I experience it for myself. You can read about it all day, but you don’t internally see how it works until you do it yourself.”

I asked her what she would do if no one signed up for her products, since I know that fear prevents many people from launching their own. She explained how even failure gives you great lessons:

“That’s the beauty about info products, nobody knows if no one is on your call! It’s a scalable business and a super low overhead business. That’s an excuse a lot of people use, being scared if no one signs up. But honestly, who cares if nobody signs up, you are going to learn a lot about the process by just doing it, and you’re going to learn a lot about what you can do better next time.”

Luckily, Laura did have people sign up. One of the most interesting points she made had to do with how she found her first customers:

“When I launched my first course, I had a list of people from my web design business, maybe 300 people, maybe even less, and they were all local in Chicago, and had all shown interest in me as a web designer. A lot of people overthink their own stuff, and would say these people were interested in me as a web designer, not social media stuff, and that’s what I thought at first, that I would have to start all over.

“But I realized, this is really not that much of a leap. These are small businesses interested in doing stuff online, and now I am targeting small businesses interested in doing stuff online, so let’s just send this out and see if they are interested. They can always unsubscribe. I also find a lot of people on Twitter, and I have a weekly newsletter that has gone out since the beginning of 2009, which has been a big way for me to grow my community. I always tell people, you have to start with what you’ve got, with where you are. I had a few hundred people, they were all in Chicago, and all sort of interested in a different business, but that’s what I had at the time, so that’s what I started with, and it grew from there.”

And grow it did. She was off to a great start:

“The first launch I made around $3,000, and the program cost $97. I thought that was astronomical. I used to spend so long trying to get one contract for $3,000. When I did websites, I would usually charge between $1,000-$2,500 for a site. And again, after that contract was over, I was back at zero. So to be able to make the money from one contract, and make it online with something I could sell over again, I was just thrilled. And, it worked. Anything that works, you can scale up. So once that happened, I knew I would forget about corporate consulting and make this my business model.”

Having good success so far, she moved forward with an even bigger launch, continually looking to scale her efforts:

“My next step was to keep growing my audience, so for me that was to keep doing my newsletter, to blog, and Twitter is the biggest one for me. 35% of all my traffic comes from Twitter, and that traffic does convert to buyers just as well as all the rest. Twitter has always been a big channel for me. I use Facebook differently, to connect with people who are already in my world.”

“What I did next was launch my next program called “Creating Fame” and that is one that will open again this Fall. It’s my really my big picture overview on how to create fame, which is to use social media to become the number 1 go-to person in your field. That came out of the work I did with a friend of mine who is an actress. Out of my work with her, I saw I could use those same strategies for myself for making myself “famous.” This was my first real launch.”

“Doing a launch is an enormous list builder and attention builder. If you Google my name, there’s so many blog posts that have been written about me from content from launches. A big reason why Creating Fame was so successful was not from my existing audience, but the new list I built just from the launch alone. Creating Fame was a $27,000 launch, which is insane, and way more than I expected. It’s such an intense process – just putting out my very best content and going full force for a month. I’m not going to say it’s as easy as just putting out great content, and you’ll sell stuff. I’ve learned a lot about selling from other people. It’s hard, but it definitely paid off.”

“I had about 40-50 people sign up. It was an 8 week online class with a live webinar each week. I like to do everything live and then record them to sell after the fact. I like the energy of doing things live. A year later, I still talk to a lot of the people who took that class. What’s really cool is that I see a lot of them talking to each other – they formed their own Facebook group and connected on Twitter. It’s a great value-add that people can connect with other like-minded businesses. A lot of people from Creating Fame still talk all the time.”

Over time, Laura has found that each of these launches have added up to a nice little product library:

“Along with Creating Fame, I created two programs that are my most popular: Zero to WordPress Blog and Zero to WordPress Website. I realized if people took the class, but didn’t know how to do there website, it would be useless. So I created these as bonuses that later became standalone courses to sell. Over time it create a good little product library to sell:

Creating Fame

Backstage Pass to Twitter

Zero to WordPress Blog

Zero to WordPress Website

Zero to SEO

For this Fall she is working on relaunching Creating Fame, and a new program partnering with Marie Forleo.

But that’s not all, in the Fall of 2009, Laura re-approached private consulting and coaching:

“The next big step for me was to get serious about doing private coaching and consulting. I now do 6 month contracts, I started with 3 month contracts, and it sold out in 48 hours. I had 15 spots for one-on-one coaching. Evidently, people had really been waiting for that. My consulting is less about social media – that’s only part of it. A lot of my clients are people who have businesses and are just looking to market them better online. I charged around $1,000 a month and they get regular calls with me and unlimited email with me. Honestly, I’m moving less and less towards that being a part of my business model – I really want to have more of my focus be on the online programs. It’s the whole thing about leveraging your time – getting more people in and doing Q&A’s with a larger group.”

Overall, it is fascinating to see how Laura has evolved her business, and how she has found personal value and business revenue by working with what she had, and having the confidence to simply move forward with an idea.

Laura leaves us with one final thought as to how businesses need to think about using social media:

“Just learning Twitter is not useful, you need to know how Twitter fits into your sales strategy and marketing strategy.”

You can connect with Laura on her website or Twitter.

Embrace Your Competition

I learn by embracing people that you could call my ‘competition.’ I treat them as mentors, I learn from their experience, I ask them questions.

I promote them, I try to find ways to collaborate, to build something together that neither could do alone. I try to understand their goals, and find ways to help, even if it’s just a simple ReTweet.

“Competition” is no longer easy to define. We are really only competing with ourselves.

Measuring yourself against others is not always the best way: do you want to be the team that is poorly run, with fuzzy goals and total dysfunction – BUT – you outperformed your even more pathetic competition by 15%. Does that make it okay to focus on “beating the competition?”

To be the best you can be – in your career and in your business – consider redefining where you end and where your competition begins.

Embrace the people who have gone down the same road you are going down. There is so much that brings you together:

They have the same passion as you. That’s rare and powerful – take them out for a coffee and chat about it.
They have failed at things you might be trying to do. Learn from that. Why didn’t it work. What would they do differently?
They succeeded at things you might be trying to do. What part of that strategy was responsible for it’s success? What part was wasted effort. How could that success be extended even further?
There is so much more under the surface. Their existing products only tell you where they were and where they are – not where they hope to go. The real story is often masked – and the real story is often where the lessons are.

Here are some ways you can begin working WITH your competition, instead of against them:

Redefine Who the Competition Is
Be open about who you define as your competition. If you sell widgets for lefties, you don’t have to JUST focus on other companies that do that. Focus on other who serve the same market as you: others who serve different products for lefties; Others who sell widgets to other segments of the market; Companies who serve entirely different markets with different products, but share a similar product, company structure, sales approach, or business philosophy.

I find that people are often trounced by those who they didn’t even consider their competition. They were too busy looking elsewhere, narrowly defining their industry and the options their audience have.

Humanize the Competition
Stop treating the competition as a massive “them.” That competitor is a group of actual people who care passionately about your industry and are probably nice, down to earth folks.

Reach Out on a Personal Level
Don’t just lurk – connect. Take someone out for lunch or breakfast. This is not to pump them for information, but to make a powerful connection and try to find mutual goals. Business is done because of relationships. Create them.

Get Out of Your Bubble
Find ways to collaborate – officially or unofficially. On a professional or more personal level. Too many people drive their careers and businesses into a bubble – where all of their connections existing within a single company and their expertise on a single product. Expand beyond those boundaries. It will serve your career well in the long run, and will open up your business to new avenues.

Connect Everyone
Introduce people to each other across businesses. Put one competitor in touch with another. Put someone else in your company in touch with a competitor. Get partners and industry organizations involved.

Thanks!

-Dan