The 10 Minute Marketer

All of us have probably been to a trade show or two in our lifetime but a lot of us don’t think about what goes into making you a rock star of that tradeshow. Trade shows are one of the greatest ways to build your business, improve outreach, and acquire customers. Find the Best Show for You For example, if you’re a local business then you don’t need to waste money going to a national show -- find the one that’s going to reach your target audience. There are so many shows out there and you can find a show in any industry on any day of the week. Planning Ahead is Key One of the biggest steps is to plan ahead. You should really plan at least two or three months out and we’re going to cover the reasons why. A lot of people try to do everything overnight and rush it. These people fail to go over some very important details. Some of the things you want to think about are things to do ahead of time include: - Labeling boxes. - How many people you need. - How to decorate the booth. What a lot of people forget to do is pre-arrange appointments. Many individuals think a show is solely a way to obtain new customers but it’s also a great opportunity to get with old customers and prospects. Get with some of your prospects or favorite customers and book times for them to come and talk to you. Distractions in Your Booth David often prefers having no chairs and he will not allow anyone to sit, eat sandwiches, or use their phone on their breaks. He says that because you’re pre-occupied, it seems as if you don’t want to be bothered and therefore you will lose a lot of potential customers or clients. Removing all distractions is your best bet -- a crowded or distracted booth makes it less inviting. Giving the Right Gifts Moving on to ‘gifts’ -- a lot of businesses give out gifts at their booths that have nothing to do with their target audience. For example, a company that may never plan to sell a piece of technology would probably be seen giving away an iPad as a prize. Instead, offer them something of value that also relates to your business, whether it be a product or a service Reaching out After the Trade Show You also can’t let the question of how you’re going to reach out after the show be forgotten. Who’s going to be responsible now that you have these leads? You need to set objectives for this trade show -- how many leads are you hoping to get? What show specials are you going to offer? How many sales do you want to get? Without clear objectives it’s like saying “Let’s go on a road trip!” with no map or a final destination -- you’re pretty much just lost running in circles. Have a path where you’re trying to get to and figure out what you need in that booth to make it happen. Elaborating on Gifts Going back to gifts, if you have nice things to give away then people will remember who you are. You should make this a quality item. It doesn’t have to be expensive but you should have put a lot of thought into it. When you give away a cheap product it gives off a bad impression. Wrapping It Up If you’re going to spend your hard earned money and time going to a trade show in order to get leads, then you should make sure you choose the right show for you, plan ahead, pre-arrange appointments, set objectives, also have ‘swag’ to give away. Something a lot of people often overlook is contacting the show to see if you can be a guest keynote speaker -- it’s a great way to have a captive audience and at the end, you can drive them to your website or even back over to your booth to meet with you one-on-one. This positions you as an expert and gets you all sorts of notoriety, being in the brochures and anything advertising the event.

How you conduct yourself in meetings is a reflection of you. Some entrepreneurs have been in the business world for quite some time now but for many of you out there that haven’t really had a lot of meeting experience, we’re going to share with you a bit of tips you can use when either attending or holding meetings yourself. Today with us we have regular Dr. Joyce Knudsen. Forgotten Rules of Meetings There are a lot of forgotten rules when it comes to meetings. One of the biggest pet peeves for David is being on time. He actually suggests people get there earlier to get settled, but other than that have a timely meeting out of respect for time. Dr. Joyce suggests being there ten minutes early because you never know what sort of unforeseen situations may arise. An image is an impression you make upon others, so if you’re late you are making the image that you are not to be trusted to be on time. Making Introductions You need to know how to make introductions. A lot of people do not know how to make ap roper introduction. A few tips are to name the person of greater rank or authority first -- this is very important and if you don’t do these things it shows that you aren’t polished. Making use of first and last names when introducing people to each other, in addition to any titles like Dr. or Sir. While this may not be of much importance to you, other people do notice it. You should also keep in mind to include any relevant details such as any established relationships or occupations. Business Cards Handing others your business card may be a very casual thing in Western countries, but for many countries in Asian, handing your business card to someone else with both hands is very important and a sign of respect. Dr. Joyce also adds that handing it to them in such a way that they can read it is also equally as important. A bad example would be handing it to them upside down. Handshakes are Important In a lot of cultures much meaning it transferred by the way you offer your hand. You have to know the correct times to do it and on top of that, people actually end up shaking hands the wrong way. Handshakes also shouldn’t last too long -- around three seconds is enough. Cell Phones You should never act as if the time you’re spending with someone else is less important that your cell phone -- especially in today’s society. Agendas and objectives Creating an outline in order to remain on a schedule for a meeting is something you should do as well. You want to have a checklist to make sure all of the information is covered and you want to let participants know what’s being covered in the meeting -- the objective needs to be clearly stated. Even something so simple as posture, sitting, and getting back up are very important when it comes to meeting conduct and creating a great impression. Learn more about Dr. Joyce: http://drjoyceknudsen.com/

In today’s podcast, David and Lisa talk about customer acquisition and then keeping that customer’s attention throughout the months or years. The cost of getting a customer What a lot of businesses don’t think about is that you have a cost of customer acquisition -- whether it be the cost of a going to a trade show or the cost of advertising. When you’re smaller this is inevitable, you’ve gotta do it, but once you’ve grown a bit bigger you can switch your marketing tactic to more of an offense/defense role in other words, acquisition, and retention. So what you want to do is take a look at your business. Is there something customers can come back for? For tangible goods, is there a warranty? Is there a newer version scheduled to come out? What a lot of businesses are lacking in retention David says that a lot of the companies he consults have a hard good that’s a one-time purchase, but lacks a follow up, so there’s so much money spent on getting that customer, they’re hoping they come back and find another item of interest on their website -- and they often don’t. Planned obsolescence is important In your business you can always look at a new version of something, a new size of something, whatever it may be. This is related to “planned obsolescence”.  An example of this is your smart phone, or car. Every year they usually come out with models that have minor changes here and there, but every few years or so a major model comes out -- making the other model “obsolete” usually forcing people to keep up with the newest trends and models. Other methods of retention Another question is, what are you doing to retain your customers? You can set up a bunch of auto-responders, sending information to the client, NOT selling them, but engaging them. Rewards for using your good or service is also extremely effective. If you think about it, a lot of businesses whose services even you use, take advantage of that. Whether it be a restaurant, an airline, your credit card company, or even a pet store. David brings up that for example, if you do skincare, after a certain amount of products is purchased, you could give your customer a free bathrobe -- something you don’t normally sell. Customer outreach A lot of people talk about email and social media, but what many don’t do is actually call your customer. Let them know you’re there. Don’t just call them to sell, but call them from a customer service angle. If you take the time to care for your customer, they’ll build a loyalty to you. The welcome back program Here’s something most businesses don’t think of -- build your database. If you haven’t had a customer that you’ve heard from in 90 days, call them to make sure things are working okay. David calls this a “welcome back program”. Because of this your customer service may potentially turn into a profit center. You’d be shocked to see how many customers you’ve potentially lost. If you can recover 10% or 15% that’s huge.

Stealing a quote from today’s guest -- “Just because it’s on the blog section of your website doesn’t make it content marketing” introduces us to this very useful topic, and while we all want to believe it does, there’s a lot more behind it. Our guest today is Robert McGuire -- Robert has his own agency called the McGuire Editorial Content Marketing Agency. He helps companies create effective, high quality and authoritative content marketing. Deposits in the Karma Bank One of David’s other favorite quotes from Robert is, “Think of content marketing as deposits in the karma bank.” -- and the idea behind this is giving away the goods for free or in other words, give to get. You need to figure out what people need and develop a plan around that. If u give away good info it’ll pay off down the line. However, it can’t be 100% faith based -- you should have a plan. You give on the principle that you’re going to get but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t measure and keep track of exactly how it’s going to pay off. What Content Marketing is NOT When content marketing first started to catch attention it was a reaction to a response against older marketing strategies (interruption marketing) such as robocalls or ads on sides of busses. All these did was show how badly i want to get my message to you. The got “in your face,” so now we do the opposite thing which is actually addressing people's needs. Robert’s test for proper content marketing is this: If you took out your brand identity from the content would it still make perfect sense? If the answer is yes you’ve got content marketing, but if the answer is no then you probably have straight up advertising. Content marketing doesn't mean you can't be salesy because at a certain point you do have to have a call to action. It should be an instinct to postpone advertising urges for as long as possible. What You SHOULD Be Writing About and How Do I Come up with Ideas It’s like traditional marketing and it starts with a clear understanding of your target audience. What information are they looking for? What are they struggling with? Examine this and then develop content around what will help them understand the industry they’re working with. What would be some great tags or call to actions to put in the article? Where should we put them? In a way it’s always going to be at the end. Think of it as a traditional funnel. Treat it like a series of micro conversions along the path to a sale. Take small steps. You don't want them to “get married” right away. Once they’re far enough then you can go for the call to action. Does this same rule apply when publishing on other websites? On other sites you’re probably not going t have a call of action like you would on your site. With guest posts you should be trying to raise awareness instead. Always reserve the biggest ideas and use that to publish on other sites that probably have a lot more traffic than yours. You’re probably not going to sell your service or product on another person’s site. Your message should actually be more subtle than asking the readers to check out more content you wrote on your own site. The rule is, if what they read were THAT valuable then they WILL go through the trouble of finding out who you are. We’re going to cover more topics in another podcast because we’re going to run out of time today. Check out Robert’s agency here.

Direct to consumer expert Ed Hauck is back on today’s show; he will discuss how direct to consumer works and provide answers. How do entrepreneurs make it work? As someone who has been doing direct to consumer for over twenty years, Ed sees direct-to-consumer like a large Math problem because you can go directly to the consumer and get individual buyer behaviors and receive feedback on product – it allows you to test, test and re-test.  So, by the time you go to roll something out and invest money - you have already tested the offer, and you have checked whether someone wants your product. To get started The entrepreneur has to think about some things for their customers, and the most important one is to be able to predict your return on investment.  In direct-to-consumer, there is the RFM (Recent, Frequency, Money.) * Recent -- how recently did the customer buy. * Frequency -- the more frequent a customer buys from you, the more likely it is that they will buy again and * Money -- the more money a customer spends with us, the more likely it is that they will be a long-term customer. Challenges faced in direct mail and digital On the direct mail side – it’s the availability of a list – if you’re going to mail something, then you can use your list, but you also want to grow that list. On the digital side, using pay per click or Amazon product- sponsored ads – that’s where the market becomes competitive, and there might be a price to pay for that. Do I ever need to consider retail? There are many examples out there of direct to consumer businesses that have grown to the point where a retail chain will reach out to the brand and say – did you know your brand is the most searched term on our internal website and we don’t sell your product – we want to sell your product.  There is a natural cross-over point as you build your business to take advantage of certain types of retail to take your business to the next level. Stay in touch If you have missed any episodes with Ed, please go back to past episodes – they are available on iTunes, and they are on our website the10minutemarketer.com/podcasts

Today’ guest is Greg Davis, and he is best known for revolutionizing the construction industry with software that automated manufacturing processes. He has helped grow sales teams over the years and has an Inc. 5000 award – he’s an expert on marketing and building businesses. What does Greg do? Greg has a consultancy business that helps companies grow their sales and value; he also has a show which also helps companies grow their business not to mention it provides entertainment!  The show is called "Challenge Assumptions" – in this very confusing world where there are so many options for marketing is to find things that are working -- things that do challenge the assumptions.  From interactions with entrepreneurs and companies, it is clear that there is no one size fit all and sometimes you have to look at being in a place where everyone else isn’t. Greg’s aha moment When he started in the construction industry he was successful in taking over the sales and marketing of a company in the UK – these guys were great software engineers who had a better product and many good products didn't get off the ground because of sales and marketing.  Greg’s company was able to capture a lot of this company’s value being their sole distributor in the US, Australia, Asia and even parts of Europe. When Greg’s company successfully took over the sales and marketing for this company –he wanted to scale this to a lot of companies and helped other entrepreneurs capture that for themselves.  His podcast idea came about after working with Mike Haining who has a huge following in the marketing world and who had developed and scaled his knowledge into a product; Greg wanted to do something similar to get his name out there. Any challenges, obstacles or smooth sailing? There were and, there still are challenges.  For Greg, this is like an experiment – working with the different companies give him an opportunity to test what works and what doesn’t work, but the biggest obstacle is that he’s still at the stage where he’s trading his time for dollars.  Currently, he’s transitioning from offering services one on one to workshops that can be scaled and provide a lot of value to eventually monetizing information products in the form of franchises or workshops scaled to reach a broad audience. Advice for listeners Have an active belief system that drives the vision, have it aligned with the goal and the direction of your company. Stay in touch Listeners, please go to the website www.salesbuildersystems.com  and go to iTunes to download episodes of Challenge Assumptions.

Today’s guest will share with listeners the truths and myths of selling on Amazon and making a fortune – he is Ed Hauck.  Ed is an expert on direct to consumer and today he will answer the question – “is Amazon the reason so many retail stores are closing their doors?” Why are retailers dying? Amazon is a here to stay – it is a game-changer which is not going anywhere, and blue Ed claims it isn't killing brick and mortar and has essentially become the Google for products.  There is a rule that if the product is not on Amazon, then the product isn't; the statement holds through because most consumers will go to Amazon first – not necessarily to price shop – but to read the reviews, learn about it and if it's available locally they buy it.  According to Ed, for consumers under thirty maybe 90-95% of their spending has moved from brick and mortar to Amazon; there are always those people who are willing to pay a few extra dollars for a product if they can have it tomorrow rather than driving to a brick and mortar store to get it. How do people get their products onto Amazon? There are two ways to sell on Amazon:  one is called Sellers’ Central, and the other one is called Vendor Central.  Most small entrepreneurs start with Sellers’ Central which is a place for you to open up a store – a branded store with your name on it – for that, Amazon takes a percentage of the retail price of everything you sell through them.  Vendor Central is for more established brands, and Amazon will take 40-50% of your retail price -- they purchase it from you, inventory it, and will own that inventory unless they return it to you. How do you get noticed on Amazon? It’s  a difficult situation if you are marketing somebody else’s branded product because it means you are going to be in a price war with someone else.  So the best way to do this on Amazon is if you have a proprietary brand or product and that allows you to create somewhat of a unique store where people can find your product.  To become a player in the category, you have to work on getting your SEO to make sure you’re showing up at the top of search pages.  There are other ways such as pay-per-click, but you have to invest money to get your product up higher in the product category. What’s the next step for an entrepreneur? If you haven’t already built an e-commerce website then the place to start is Amazon; you do need your site though to support the brand and the product.

Today’s discussion is a continuation of one previously had about marketing funnels and ways to gain a larger audience and convert them to customers. Today’s guest had a job but left it to pursue his passion – he sold T-shirts at first, and he had a failing website, then he discovered 'Clickfunnels' which changed everything.  He is Trey Lewellen; Trey is also the originator of the tactical Lumitact flashlight – which became a huge success (with the help of a funnel). The entrepreneur and the Internet    The internet has leveled the playing field for entrepreneurs because like Trey who started with a laptop and two pages of a website – everyone can start. Trey began with a platform that was not sustainable because he did not have a good foundation – a system which captured buyer information but then he switched to a two-page website using Clickfunnel, and that was a huge success. How many pages does a site need to have? Many entrepreneurs often ask, “how many pages should a website have?”  Trey was successful with only two pages. Clickfunnel – how long does it take, how much does it cost? If an entrepreneur wanted to start something today – there is a fourteen-day free trial, and the subscription is about 97 dollars per month.  For Trey, the physical items sold were items from Amazon. What is Clickfunnel? Clickfunnel is a dream come true to practically anyone trying to get online because it’s just dragging and dropping windows, and you’re up and running within a day.  Once you’re familiar with it, a nice looking funnel – order form, thank you page, sales letter, upsell, down sell – things like that can be done in a few hours; so it’s efficient, quick, plus it looks amazing and professional.   In layman’s terms – this can be set up by someone who knows nothing about setting up sites. Mastering funnel-ethics Trey has created a blog around mastering the metrics of Clickfunnel - it’s one thing to put a product up, but it’s also important to understand what makes a funnel work.  The people who are successful online know the mathematics behind the funnel – what are the costs per customer, what are the profit margins, what are the costs of goods and what are the upsells and down sells? Get in touch Visit Trey’s website at treylewellen.com – check out Clickfunnel Get started

If you are an entrepreneur who wants to get their product directly into a consumer’s space, the expertise of today’s guest is unmatched – he is Ed Hauck. Selling directly to the consumer – what are some of the challenges of going to retail? The first challenge is you need to have some velocity behind your product; so as a startup or an entrepreneur who hasn’t sold the product in any other channel – the retail channel is going to be asking about success rate, how many units are projected to sell per week, per store. Then your products will be judged on the velocity, and the retailer will use this to determine whether they are going to carry your product; besides that, there is the cost of getting the product into retail – inventory costs will be higher.  There is also the issue of product placement on the shelf – there is a cost to that. Other channels The big one is direct to consumer – this comes in many different ways such as digital through email marketing, Facebook, Amazon, Google pay per click – where you are either driving people to your website or a third party e-commerce website.  There is also direct mail which is catalog marketing, postcards, and letters and then there are infomercials, and then there is multi-level marketing. Do people still do direct mail? Absolutely, but it’s part of a multi-level strategy, and that wouldn’t be the only level used – direct mail would work directly digital marketing.  As an entrepreneur on a budget, the digital strategy is recommended as this has the lowest costs and then tie that in with some direct mail at a later date. The digital gives you the best ability to test, and you want to be able to do that to make sure you have the right message at the right price and the right product. Stay in touch Join us again as Ed will be back in a later episode to discuss the ins and outs of Amazon; you can directly contact Ed by checking out his LinkedIn page or via Email.

As an entrepreneur, we try and be smart with our business, our finances, and you want your money to outlast you; today’s guest Sheryl Fields found a way to help us.  Sheryl has helped others with their finances and can show people how to pay off their debt in a fraction of the time, and also demonstrate how to invest and make money. Tackling debt is the first thing The first thing to address with people is debt because a lot of the time that’s what keeps them up at nights, and so a way has to been found to get people out of debt in a third of the time with a third of the interest, and it’s life-changing. Is it too late to get assistance from Sheryl?  It definitely isn't, and as an entrepreneur, you will soon realize that if you’re not careful your business will eat every last dollar you create in it. When to get started? It takes time and money to grow your business and so the best time to get started is right away, and the first thing to do is to have a conversation. Sheryl’s company - Lifestyle Wealth Group helps people to pay their bills while saving – she helps people save and invest while maintaining a particular lifestyle and growing their business. For business owners – security is a big thing, and you want to build a business so that whether you’re here or not, your family will be able to do the things that you wanted to do.   Most entrepreneurs are passionate about what they do but they aren’t very good at planning an exit strategy, and so it’s hard for somebody else to come in the pick up the pieces if something happens.  So, the aim is to get out of debt, stay out of debt, having tax free income so you can enjoy living the rest of your life and also to leave a legacy. Resources Sheryl’s got this program which is amazing, and she turned it into a business, and she lives her passion; visit her website – lifestylewealthgroup.com for further information.

In today’s show, David and Lisa will talk about marketing – the marketing funnel and all the buzz words which are around today.  The average entrepreneur is not a marketer, and that’s why there are shows like this – The Ten Minute Marketer – to help along the way. The Marketing Funnel At the top of the funnel you want to build awareness- you want to get people coming in - and as you trickle down, you want them to learn about you and what you have to offer and at the bottom of the funnel is going to be the purchase or sign on with you.  The reality for entrepreneurs is to just learn the basics instead of trying to become experts; David has developed what he calls a focus marketing blueprint. The “focus” Marketing Blueprint The “focus” is spelled out to mean foundation, outreach, connect, unleashed sales, and then supercharged sales.  So, at the top of the funnel would be the foundation and that would be all the things that you do to get people to come to you and reach out to them via networking events, blog posts, an elevator pitch, and visits to your website.  The “focus” should be to identify who is your ideal client and get that individual to a call to action once you’ve handed them a business card; so even if you have multiple things going on – you should have one business card which captures who you are.  Marketing is a few things:  you have to have the right product, you have to connect with an audience, and you need to outreach, build credibility and let people know you’re going to solve their problems. Resources Being an entrepreneur is hard, and you will not be able to get everything done all at once by yourself  - that is why you get assistance from The Ten Minute Marketer; follow the tools and resources link on the website for links to resources such Fiverr.com which can help with designing your business cards.

When you follow your passion, the money will come. Entrepreneurs don’t necessarily do it for the money they do it because it’s something they’re passionate about. Today’s guest Jennifer Noel Taylor will speak about how she went down a path and left a high paying career to start something. Although stumbling along the way, she has managed to figure out how to make it work and has written a book on the subject. What is Jennifer’s passion? Jennifer left a high-paying job in computer science to follow her passion, energy medicine – which wasn’t well known fifteen years ago.  Jennifer’s business wasn’t a huge success right away, though, and so she ended up in significant debt.  For a while Jennifer struggled to listen to her truth because it was her just stabbing randomly in the dark, trying everything she could think of. To begin reaping success Jennifer had to change the way she was doing her business - she started with simplifying her infrastructure, streamlining how the business was done, overhauling the file server, and simplifying the email, saving a lot of money in the process. Listening to your truth Jennifer’s first book is titled “Love Incorporated,” and it was how to find our truth. How do you find unique wisdom so that you don’t have to go through and do a lot of things that don’t make your heart sing? The focus in the book is on rediscovering your connection to your authentic self.  That’s the key - the more authentic you get, the more you’re able to align your finances and create alignment in every other aspect of your life. What is Jennifer Noel Taylor’s business exactly? Her business is hands on healing – it’s energy medicine – it’s called point and touch.  It teaches people how to connect to their energy to facilitate their healing and also how that energy can be used to promote your business.  Many times people have difficulties trying to resolve whatever is going on health wise with energy when medications and everything else is not working. And so energy medicine can be used to simplify things both business wise and personal.  Simplification is like a shortcut, and the same is energy – and it’s just teaching people how to use love in their lives to create healing and financial success. Contact Jennifer Noel Taylor Simplifying life is one thing, learning to follow your passion and just being authentic is another. Jennifer's website is loveincorporatedthebook.com.

Today’s show will focus on podcasting; traditional terrestrial radio is dying, but people still want to hear music and get information.  Today David talks to his podcast co-host Lisa Davis about this. Is podcasting the future? According to Lisa – yes it is.  Podcasts are huge because you can listen at any time; it’s also great fun to do and fun to learn.  For entrepreneurs, a podcast is like having an audio blog, and it’s a great way to reach your audience. Instead of preparing PowerPoints for a presentation, flying to the venue, and making a presentation to reach the audience which is confined to the venue; a podcast allows you a much greater range; not just to an audience in the US but across the globe and your audience can listen when they want.  Getting access to a podcast is as simple as subscribing and listening when you want – on demand. How easy is it to get a podcast on iTunes? According to David – it’s simple but very detailed- the details will be posted to the website.  There was one guest whose company makes plug-ins which make it very simple to get started; podcasting is not a complicated thing.  Statistics show that 3/4ths of podcasts listeners are under twenty-four years old. As an entrepreneur – is podcasting for me? Anyone can start a podcast – you don’t have to reach millions of people and you don’t have to be Howard Stern.  All you have to do is connect with your ideal audience and have a small following – it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon; it is an excellent way to get your message out there.  It also helps to have a co-host since this will make the podcast less annoying and more entertaining to listen to. What about content? What if your business is not cut and dry? What are some of the things that you can talk about?   David suggests you first have to define your audience – you have to start with who is your ideal client, why are you doing the podcast?  Your aim should be to get information out there, engage an audience and monetize it; you want to get people to your site.  Content is easy – just think of what your audience wants, think of the problems they are facing try to address them in each episode. Your challenge If you’re going to do a podcast instead of a blog or plan to do one to compliment your blog - determine who your audience is, what their top of mind problems are and think about how often you would want to do it.

Today’s show will focus on women and how they tend to be cautious – over thinking their next move and because getting ahead requires taking action and overcoming some of this.  Today’s guest joining David and Lisa is Wendy Sachs. After college, Wendy started out on Capitol Hill as a Press Secretary then she moved into news and became an Emmy award winning producer, then went on to Dateline, CNN, and Fox.  She has written a book “Fearless and Free – How smart women pivot and re-launch their careers.” Pivoting and Re-launching The economy and the workplace is different than it was ten years ago – digital and technology have disrupted a lot of industries - and to stay relevant and current one has to be pivoting.  For many women, they take time away from the workforce especially when they have children and then try to re-enter. Re-entry can be tough and a challenge, especially if you haven’t kept up your skill sets, kept up your network or figured out what you’re going to do again.  It’s crucial to stay focused – as Wendy stated she had been fired from jobs, but you have to get back up again. There have been many studies which show that men will apply for jobs when they are 60% whereas women will only apply if they meet 100% of the qualifications. Males are more willing to try things out whereas women want to be perfect – we are afraid to take that risk because we are scared of failing, but when you take the risk, you create the confidence to make a move. Don’t over think – act and be confident Confidence grows from taking the bigger risks – the more you put yourself out there, the more you will have to gain from that experience and the more confident you become, but it all starts with believing in yourself to take some action.  There is another philosophy which is very prevalent with start-ups, and it’s “fake it till you make it” or “fake it till you become it.”  Women in their careers just need to go out there and “fake it until we make it” or “fake it till we become it;” if that doesn’t work – move on.  If it does work, learn from it, make it better and press onward.  It’s a different mentality that women need to learn and grow.  “Fearless and Free – How smart women pivot and re-launch their careers.” Wendy uses inspiring stories such as Lisa’s in her book – Lisa now has four radio shows, but no one offered her a job – she worked hard on her radio show concept, and now nine years later she has four shows.  Stories like that are meant to inspire women to try new things, but you also need to surround yourself with like-minded people who can cheer you on.  Listeners are invited to go check out the book because it’s very inspirational – the greatest lesson coming out of all of this is to try and try and if it doesn’t work out the first or second time – persevere and pivot to get out on the other side of all of it. How to contact Wendy? Check out her website at wendysachs.com

You may think that podcasting and radio are one in the same, but in reality, they are worlds apart. Today we have podcasting expert ‘Sonar’ back with us to give us some information on the ins and outs of podcast sound quality and how GAB Radio Network helps with it! Introducing Sonar (Again) If you haven’t listened to one of our older podcasts, Sonar is the director of engineering over at the GAB Radio Network -- a company that helps make podcasting incredibly simple. All you need to do is deal with the actual content, and they’ll take care of the rest. He’s also a sound, podcast, and radio expert! Importance of Podcast Quality Sonar points out that he could be telling people the winning lottery numbers for the next day, or offer the secret to life and listeners would tune out of the sound quality was horrible. If your sound quality isn’t up-to-par, then you risk sounding ‘sophomoric,’ according to Sonar. It makes it appear as if your content (no matter how much value it has) isn’t credible. Most listeners of this podcast are probably entrepreneurs who may be considering starting one of their own -- and it would be in your best interest to sound professional. Take this show for example -- everyone speaking is in a different state, yet they all sound as if they’re in the same room. Which Equipment Should I Get? What can you ‘get away’ with? What should you consider? When should you be looking to work with someone like Sonar and GAB Radio Network? These three questions are vital to those looking to start their podcast. Fortunately, getting started alone is very easy nowadays (and making it sound good as well.) For starters, your computer should have at least 4 gigabytes of RAM to capture your voice without any latency, and some way for the sound to get ‘into the computer’ -- in other words, a mic. Sonar says there are plenty of USB soundcards (or external soundcards) out there. Regarding microphones, a lot of beginners tend to use cheap Skype headsets or even the ones for their phones, but you should get at least a mid-tier microphone for a little under $60 if you’re serious (http://bswusa.com/ is a great website for a lot of your audio needs.) Audio Software and Production Once the audio is actually on your computer, you’ll probably need to do a lot of post-production, such as cleaning up any bad sound quality, especially from guests with less-than-perfect audio quality. There are a couple of programs you can use for this, and a lot of them are free -- but the one we use is called GoldWave, which has a one-time fee and then it’s yours to use for life on unlimited devices. However, you’ll need to live mix everything (if you have questions you can email sonar@gabradionetwork.) Speaking of that, a lot of work goes into the production and management of a podcast, and for entrepreneurs such as David, you have a business to run -- in other words, you have no time. Production Companies Make Your Life Easier A lot of people have no idea production companies like GAB exists. While there are quite a few production companies out there, GAB does everything from production to distribution. Even if you have an idea for a radio station yourself, they can handle it. As an entrepreneur, all you have to do is worry about the content side of it and let the production company be the man or woman behind the glass that drives everything and monitors quality; this means that when you record your podcast, all you have to do is send it. Coordination of sound, editing, and everything else can be done by a production company. From coordinating guests, editing, and even providing audio cues -- such as when you’re running out of time. That's it for today's show, but fortunately, we’ll have Sonar back another time with tons of other tips to create amazing podcasts.