Brand Architect

Today me and Kevin Field will be talking about podcasting, a topic we both are passionate about. Kevin helps develop your podcast and get, keep and grow your audience.  He has been doing it for years in radio and now passes on his skills to podcasters. His experience has taken him on incredible journeys from recording at Buckingham Palace to creating content in prisons.

• how to choose the topics that your podcast audience will be interested in
• creating your ideal podcast listener avatar
• the 4 pillars of content (passion, money, health and transformation)
• the importance of audience engagement
• the importance of being yourself
• using the language of the audience you broadcast to

The same but different every episode! You have  to close the circle with the listener - you + (your guest) + your listener

Today I am interviewing Katya Varbanova (Livestream Katya). Katya is livestream strategist and the founder of the Peri 10k. Peri 10k is an exclusive mastermind of livestreamers.

• how did Katya start her community
• how to start livestreaming if you don't feel comfortable about it
• the difference between video and livestreaming
• which livestreaming platform is the best if you want to build your audience from scratch
• personality type vs livestreaming success
• how to use livestreaming as part of the holistic content strategy
• how often do you have to livestream in order to get traction

I will have a half-day live workshop in London on July 30.  I will share everything that worked for me to launch a top New & Noteworthy podcast, grow the audience from scratch to 15k listeners and interview my favorite international influencers.

Today I speak to Brian G. Johnson, I'm a serial entrepreneur, #1 bestselling author, engaging speaker, product developer, poodle wrangler and an all around good guy.

The one quote that stood out for me and that I truly loved was:

Different is superpower!

In this interview we talk about

• what role does one's personality play in branding and the content one creates
• how to stand out from the crowd
• how to make people come back to your content
• why Youtube videos will never become old

I hope that you and your audience are doing well and the week has been productive and positive so far.

Mine is not as productive as I wanted it to be, but on other hand we all deserve a break once in a while, right?

In the previous episode I promised to share with you my thoughts and experiences provoked by the New Media Europe.

For those who don’t know - and probably many of you don’t since it is not in the US - New Media Europe is a conference for people focused on growth.

This is the conference for entrepreneurs, freelancers, business owners, content creators (including podcasters, bloggers, vloggers) and startups in all stages of growth.

And I had the privilege of being one of the speakers at that event. I was a speaker for the first time but hope not the last because I sort of enjoyed being on stage. As one of my speaker friends puts it “it’s like being a rockstar”. And I have been a rock soul since my teenage years… Hoops it seems I drifted away… that is not what I wanted to talk to you about.

During the intense week end I had several thoughts that I wanted to share with you, because they are related to what we do. So let’s start…

1. It is very important to be among like-minded people

We usually spend most of our days working online and that can make us feel a bit lonely. Most probably there are not many people among our relatives and friends who are from the same field. That means that they do not understand what does it feel to be in our shoes - they don’t imagine our struggles, challenges and success stories… When I land a guest post on a big website, when I am invited to speak, when I get a good review for my book or a podcast many don’t really realize that it is a big deal. And self-motivating ourselves non stop is not an easy thing to do.

That is why events where like minded people gather are very important. That is where we realize that we are not the crazy weirdos who have chosen to go against the traditionally accepted career path. So events like this are great place to finally feel like a fish in a water. And you end up meeting new awesome people, which is always an amazing bonus!

2. Be yourself

We talk a lot about personal branding and branding your business. There are various elements and tactics and strategies, which we definitely will be covering in the Brand Architect podcast. We also hear a lot about being authentic and genuine and how important that is. Being authentic has become one of those fancy new expression everyone is using these days.

Well at New Media Europe I vividly saw why being true to yourself in your online branding is very important. The conference lasted two days + we had a gala dinner and award ceremony. This is a pretty long time. This means that if in your online branding you had positioned yourself anything else but who you really are - pretending for 2 whole days + the evening would be very hard. You’d rather spend time having fun and not stressing out about how you are perceived. And that can happen only if that’s how you and your brand is online. This personal meeting should only reinforce the image you had created and not confuse people. You don’t want people realize that you are not at all who they thought you were.

3. Online vs offline

These days we have so many different means to connect with people from all over the world. Few months ago, when I was still living in Armenia I was relying on purely online communication. And I had never met anyone from my network. We have video calls, live streaming platforms and the communication online is as close to the real thing as it could possibly be. It could probably replace the real thing altogether, right? - wrong!

I can’t really explain and put into words what it is exactly, but there is a certain something that you feel and experience only when you meet the person in real life. It is a completely different quality of communication and I don’t believe it can be replaced with anything that online options have to offer at this point.

4. What do you do?

On events like that when many people meet each other for the first time there is one popular question that everyone asks the other. “So what do you do?” is something we hear over and over again. And that’s during a coffee or lunch break, which means you can’t go ahead and tell the long version of your life story.

That is why putting your brand and what you do in one short and crystal clear sentence is very important. You have to be very precise about who you are what you do.

Since the question will be inevitable and you will be getting it all the time, make sure you have the best answer to give.

5. Stay in touch

I truly believe that the biggest value you can get from conferences and events are the people you meet and the connections you create and the relationships that you build. That is why the worst thing you can do is go away from the event and never be in touch with the people you met there. Follow up, stay in touch and continue networking online. Yes it can’t replace a personal meeting, but in case that can’t be done online is still much better than nothing.

Ok, since I am finishing this episode with stay in touch. Hey feel free to connect with me. You can email me by clicking the link here.

And don'r forget to join the Brand Architect Club here.

If you are introvert and don’t feel like connecting then you can still help me grow the podcast by subscribing to it and leaving a review on iTunes.

Today my guest is Laura Roeder.

Laura Roeder is the founder of Edgar, a new social media automation tool designed to prevent updates from going to waste. Since 2009, she's been teaching entrepreneurs how to harness the power of social media marketing and create their own fame at LKR Social Media.

Laura was named one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under 35 in 2011, 2013 and 2014 and spoke at the White Houseabout the value of entrepreneurship.

Laura has spoken at numerous influential industry conferences including, BlogWorld, The South by Southwest Interactive Conference, Real Estate Connect, The Social Communications Summit and Blogher, discussing online marketing, social media, and personal branding. Laura has been seen on Fox News, Forbes.com, CNET, The Los Angeles Times, Fast Company, Mashable, Yahoo Finance and many more influential publications and media channels

In this interview we talk about

• How did Laura started her entrepreneurial journey
• marketing (and the fact that we can't avoid it)
• how to get noticed on social media
• the social media engagement factor
• repurposing content
• automation with keeping the personal touch
• the Meet Edgar!

Hey everyone! How do you like the new podcast name? 

As you see the changes I am making are becoming real now. But there are things that do not change and it’s still me - Ani Alexander :)

Those of you who have missed the news can check out episode 156 where I spoke to you about the evolution of the Write to be Read podcast and why it will be turning into something else - hopefully something as exciting as what we had or even better. If you need more details, please check out episode 156. 

ok so - welcome to the Brand Architect - the podcast that will show you how to stand out, get noticed and be heard. And it will also help you establish your brand and grow your online audience.

What I also realized was that we do need a community where  you will get all the emotional and practical support, knowledge, accountability and relationships that you need … all in one place. The Write to be Read was an amazing experience, but I’d love to engage better with my audience and dedicate more time and attention to our relationship. That is why I am building the Brand Architect Club - the exclusive community for my podcast listeners. Since it is just born I have a limited time offer for lifetime membership for you, so make sure you check it out. We already have more than 30 members there and I’d love to see you there too!

Now that I covered all the updated for you let’s finally get to our today’s interview.

Today I talk to Janet Murray. Janet helps people get press coverage in newspapers, magazines and on radio and TV. She has 15 years’ experience writing and editing for national newspapers and magazines.  You can find her PR blog here. You will find out how to pitch media and get media coverage that will help you grow your audience and business.

Please check out the new online community I created few days ago and join the awesome members and me.

Today my guest is Kim Somers Egelsee. She helps men and women find their passion and purpose, develop and design it, forget the fear and move forward with positive communication, action, confidence and success. She does this through coaching, speaking, mentoring and consulting. Kim is the #1 best selling author of “Getting Your Life to a Ten +”

This episode is gonna be very different from what you’re used to. In fact I have to be honest and say that this particular episode was the hardest to record… well maybe apart from the very first episode of course…

I aired the very first episode of the write to be read podcast on July 1 2014 - almost two years ago. And it has been very exciting, bumpy and rewarding journey since then.

For me launching a podcast was an experiment. Apart from the fact that I really wanted to help writers, I was also driven by the curiosity of whether I could actually do it or not. I had no big plans connected with the podcast and I had not even decided for myself for how long I will be doing it.

If back then one would say that I would end up sticking to it for almost 2 years and that I would have tens of thousands regular listeners I would probably not believe it. But things turned out the way they did and I am extremely happy with where I am now.

I also appreciate every single one of you who’s listening … because you are the ones who made it happen. If you were not listening, if you were not providing feedback, writing podcast reviews and connecting with me I would most probably not have enough motivation and determination to carry on. So thank you!

Since I got into the exciting world of podcasting and my podcast grew apart from the listeners, writers - people from the self-publishing industry started to know me… Then other podcasters got connected too… then I networked with coaches and speakers, other creatives, online entrepreneurs… obviously with over the 120 guests who were interviewed up to now and after our move to the UK I met many new people here too… Some of you also know that I have been  one of the early adopters of the live streaming platform Blab and have recorded some of my podcasts there… so the Blab community became the one I interact often with too…

So it has been a long journey from people thinking “who the hell is this?” to “oh, I think I’ve heard about her somewhere”.

Now, why did I say that recording this podcast episode was the hardest you may think… Well because this one is a bit personal and I am still not very comfortably getting up close and personal publicly and also because it includes a news which I can’t predict your reaction to. So all this is kind of scary… but I’m gonna do it anyway.

As you might have already noticed I love changes and not only embrace them when they come, but also initiate them very often. I have never been from those who resist the change and love things stay the way they are. I am not from those people - I don’t think there has been a hairstyle out there that I have not tried… and those were the smallest scale changes I’ve made.

Since the launch of this podcast things evolved. My audience did not only grew in numbers but it just grew… and that is amazing. What I mean is, the podcast was initially created for newbie writers who were trying to write a book, who were trying to figure out how self-publishing works and who wanted to become authors.

I am super proud that many of the listeners actually did write their first books, some even published them already and few have several books out there already. That means that Write to be Read has accomplished its main mission.

Few weeks ago I sent an e mail to my list and offered an hour Skype call to the first 6 people who replied. From the feedback I’ve got from them I realized that the podcast has already covered most of things newbie writers need to know when they start and much more…

Parallel to that I had been thinking a lot about how things were evolving and noticed a trend. The first thing was - people who approach me are not only writers anymore. They are creative individuals, who do something online - authors, speakers, coaches, online entrepreneurs, podcasters…

Some need emotional support, some come for advise about podcasting and most of them are trying to figure out how to establish their personal brands and grow their audiences online. So although “officially” I’ve been working with writers and all my content was tailored to self-published authors I’ve spent some time behind the scenes working with people who have nothing to do with writing and publishing. I’ve even been actually doing some coaching for them I never spoke about before…

So the change seeking bug started visiting me since months… I periodically had this desire to go ahead and change everything… and if I was my eccentric 20 year old self, that’s exactly what I would have done, with no plan, no fear and no expectations…

But I was 20 ages ago… and I want to do it the right way. So this time I put a lot of thought into this.

So I thought - hey if things are evolving who said the podcast should stay the same? If you are a change addict like me probably you’d welcome some change too, right? We have all the archives of the podcast and there are more than 150 episodes dedicated to becoming authors that can always be gone back and listen to. Why don’t we move forward and get to the next level?

I want this podcast to become a place not only for writers but also for all content creators, personal brands and online entrepreneurs. You may be surprised, but you and them have very similar challenges. So just like Write to be Read was encouraging and inspiring writers become successful authors - this new version of the podcast will help you and all those people establishing their brands and growing their audiences online. Because let’s face it - without an audience you can’t do anything.

So eventually it will be a newer, upgraded version of the podcast we have but with slightly different angle and broader audience. I say broader and not different, because I truly believe that authors too need to grow their audiences and writers and authors too are personal brands. And I am counting on you to join and support me in this new journey. In fact this time, I don’t want to do it all alone, I want us to do it together.

So why was this podcast episode so difficult to record? Because my biggest fear is that I may lose you because of this change that I am initiating and that’s the last thing I want to happen.

I have done things already about this and have the plan in place. I have even started implementing part of it already, but there are still things I have not done yet.

I was thinking about re-naming the podcast but could not come up with a new name as good as the Write to be Read, so I decided that we could have some fun about it… why not?

Who are more creative with words than writers - right? So let’s have a contest. Email me your versions of the new podcast name and slogan to ani(at)anialexander.com. The 5 people who will come up with the most creative and catchy podcast name and slogan proposals will get a free lifetime membership to a community that I’ve set up literally few hours ago. You can get all the details about it here 

I launched this awesome online community (which does not yet have a name cause I plan using the same name as for the podcast), because I think that we need to have a place, which is more interactive and you may need more support and deeper knowledge than what you are getting from the podcast. Since it’s new we will be building it together so I will need founding members. That is why instead of the monthly fee which I will be charging later, my audience gets a limited time offer of one time small payment only. So once again you can check all the details at here  and I would LOVE to see you inside.

So today we are May 11th and you have 1 week to come up with something creative for our podcast name and slogan and send me an e mail to ani(at)anialexander.com. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Since I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while and there has been strong resistance inside… I am glad I finally did it. So I am pushing the publish button and there is no turning back.

Thanks for listening and hope that you will be with me even after the changes. Would love to see you as members of the community. Meanwhile, take care and have a great day!

Today I interview Mark Messick. Mark is 16years-old. He is a bestselling author. He has written and publisheddozens of books, sold tens of thousands of copies, and make $4,000a month from my royalties. You can check out his course the Book Sales Doctorhere.

 Andrew

He writes psychological thrillers – novels and short stories.

When he’s not working on his own words, he’s fiction editor who

In this interview we talk about the importance of the