Podcasting Secrets

Welcome back to another episode of Monetization Nation with Dave Knox. In the previous episode, we discussed Dave’s entrepreneurial journey and how he turned his passions into a career. 

In today's episode, we’ll discuss three ways to evaluate new business ideas and share a few stories from Dave’s book, Predicting the Turn: The High Stakes Game of Business Between Startups and Blue Chips.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/119-how-to-predict-the-turn-so-we-can-leverage-tectonic-shifts

Dave Knox is a leading consultant, speaker, author, and coach in the areas of innovation, marketing, and digital transformation. As Chief Marketing Officer at Rockfish, Dave helped the company become one of the fastest-growing agencies in the country, going from $8 million in revenue in 2010 to more than $70 million in revenue in 2016. At the same time, Dave co-founded The Brandery, one of the top 10 startup accelerators in the US. 

In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss Dave’s entrepreneurial journey and how he was able to use his experience to give back to his community. 

Dave’s Entrepreneurial Journey

From a young age, Dave had a passion for entrepreneurship. He knew taking a minimum wage job wouldn’t get him to where he wanted to go so, at the age of 15, he decided to become certified as a FIFA referee and took charge of advertising for his high school yearbook. During the first summer, he made $4,500 - $5,000 in commissions from selling the yearbook ads, just enough to buy his first car. 

In 1999, Miami University in Ohio had one of the earliest undergraduate entrepreneurship programs so Dave took the opportunity and went there to study marketing and business. During his entrepreneurship program, he worked for a record label. That summer, Dave worked with brand management and marketing, continually increasing his passion for entrepreneurship. However, his mentor told him that while it was great to have passion, we also need to have capability, credibility, and differentiation. What is going to make us stand out?

Even though Dave had the passion, he didn’t have the experience or expertise. Over the course of the next few years, he pursued jobs that would help him build his credentials. He worked at P&G as an assistant brand manager for Secret deodorant and at 26 and became the marketing leader of $900 million worth of business. He ended up spending most of his twenties doing that and in the process, he’d grown as a marketer, business leader, and entrepreneur.

Dave lived by the mantra, “Your twenties are for learning and your thirties are for doing.” Shortly after he turned 30, he decided it was time to start doing. He took the leap to join Rockfish, a marketing and advertising agency, as marketing lead, and by the time he left, he’d helped the company become one of the fastest-growing agencies in the country, going from $8 million of revenue in 2010 to more than $70 million in 2016. 

At the same time, Dave, along with co-founders, launched The Brandery. During the day he worked for a high growth-company on one side while he moonlighted to help launch a startup accelerator to help other entrepreneurs. 

Turning Our Passion into a Career

Just because we have a passion, doesn’t mean we have the ability to turn it into a career. When Dave first started on his entrepreneurial journey, he had the passion but was lacking other essential skills. His mentor told him that while passion is important, we also need to have the capability, credibility, and something that makes us unique. If we can meet all four of these elements, we have the potential to become successful entrepreneurs and do what we love. 

 

• Increase Capability

 

“Don’t chase after success, chase after capability. If you are capable of anything, then success will be chasing you.” - Unknown  

The first thing we need to do once we have a passion we want to pursue is increasing our capability. We need to learn and build our skills. We need to become qualified.

When Dave discovered his passion for entrepreneurship, he pursued knowledge. The first step he took was enrolling in Miami University’s entrepreneurship program. He had the desire and drive to learn more and become better. Since then, he has been on a continual journey of growth. 

We have to remember that capability does not come easily. Dave’s mantra was, “Your twenties are for learning and your thirties are for doing.” He spent 10 years of his career simply learning and developing his skills. If we can have that same type of commitment and dedication to our passions, our chances of success will increase. Napoleon Hill, an American self-help author, said, “There is a difference between wishing for a thing and being ready to receive it.” We cannot use our passion as a crutch for laziness. We have to put in the time and work it takes to increase our capability. 

 

• Build Credibility

 

“Credibility is a leader’s currency. With it, he or she is solvent; without it he or she is bankrupt.” - John C. Maxwell

Once we have become capable in whatever we are pursuing, we should start building credibility. Credibility has become essential in today’s digital marketplace. With the internet and new technology, so many people have the tools to build a business. Anyone can become a social media influencer, anyone can write a book, and anyone can build a website. What makes us credible if anyone can become anything? How do we build our trust with our customers? 

We can build our credibility by becoming thought leaders and showing the world we are an expert in our industry. We do this by continually producing content and getting our thoughts out there. We can write blogs, attend conferences, write books, host webinars, etc. We can build credibility by networking with the right people and getting our name associated with other experts and big companies. There are a million ways we can build our credibility, but it all comes down to trust. How can we foster trust with our customers? This will take time, but when our customers trust us, we become more credible and more likely to achieve our goals. 

 

• Differentiate Ourselves

 

“If you want to be around in 10 years, you’ve got to do something to differentiate yourself from the pack.” - Chris Evans

Finally, we have to make ourselves unique. Like I mentioned above, the market is saturated with the stuff. There are hundreds of brands selling the same thing, and thousands more selling something better. We need to differentiate ourselves and become unique if we want to stand out. We can start by asking ourselves, “What value do I offer that no one else does? In what ways am I different from the big brands already out there?” 

Part of our personal branding should be tied to what makes us unique. We can take this as a selling point and use it to market ourselves. If we are just like everyone else, no one will notice us. If we are odd and unique, they will stop and stare. 

Leaving a Legacy through Entrepreneurship

Dave took his passion and turned it into a career by learning, increasing his skill sets, building trust, and making himself stand out. Once he did this, he had a chance to really make a difference. 

When I asked Dave to share his greatest home run at The Brandery, he said he defined the entire journey as the home run. Dave explained how The Brandery was sometimes a misunderstood adventure. 

When Dave launched The Brandery with his co-founders, it was one of the first 30 startup accelerators at the time. All accelerators had a similar model: to give some cash and receive maybe 5 - 6% equity. 

However, one of the ways The Brandery was different was that it was a nonprofit. For every company it invested in, for which it got that 6% equity in exchange, none of it went to any of the founders. Instead, it went to a nonprofit called Main Street Ventures. Dave believed that their goal and vision for The Brandery was to support entrepreneurs in pursuing their passions. This way, that 6% equity could have a much greater impact for good. 

What The Brandery succeeded to do was to fund an endowment that would forever support entrepreneurs. Over those years, they had about 100 companies go through The Brandery. Some of them were very successful which was a double benefit. Dave and his co-founders were doing this because they wanted to support businesses and create jobs in Cincinnati. When those businesses become successful, they’d have good financial outcomes that would be recycled back to Main Street Ventures. 

“Today,” Dave said, “Main street Ventures is sitting on an endowment, [so] that we can continue to support entrepreneurs. We're not doing it necessarily through the model of an accelerator any more. And that was intentional because we knew ... models change and evolve. But ... we were able to use those funds, for instance, that when we saw all the restaurants struggling so bad, during COVID-19 ... we were able to be part of a group that gave pretty large grants to restaurants across the Cincinnati area that were funded, started by entrepreneurs, to keep going and to buy gift cards and support, and do different things like that. We're able to do grants to new emerging companies that aren't ready to go raise money, but they've got something and they just need that little help to get them to the next phase.” 

Dave believes the best part of the overall journey of The Brandery was seeing the vision that they had in 2010 come true in 2020 as they had those successes that built upon themselves over the years.

I love how Dave took one of his top passions, entrepreneurship, and created a way that he could give back and help others within that passion as well. 

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Dave for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. We should be passionate about what we do and where we want to go, but we also need capability, credibility, and differentiation.
2. As aspiring and ancient entrepreneurs, we need to increase our capability constantly. We need to learn and build our skills and become qualified.
3. When our customers trust us, we become more credible and more likely to achieve our goals. 
4. Part of our personal branding should be tied to what makes us unique. We can take this as a selling point and use it to market ourselves. If we are just like everyone else, no one will notice us. If we are odd and unique, they will stop and stare. 
5. An important part of entrepreneurship is giving back to our community once we find success. 

 

Connect with Dave

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Dave or connect with him, you can find him on LinkedIn. You can also visit his website at PredictingTheTurn.com or his company’s website, NaturesWillowBalm.com.  

 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

 

Share Your Story 

How have you made your passions part of your career? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

 

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/118-how-to-turn-your-passions-into-a-career/ 

Welcome back to another episode of Monetization Nation with Dave Knox. In the previous episode, we discussed Dave’s entrepreneurial journey and how he turned his passions into a career. 

In today's episode, we’ll discuss three ways to evaluate new business ideas and share a few stories from Dave’s book, Predicting the Turn: The High Stakes Game of Business Between Startups and Blue Chips.

The Story Behind Predicting the Turn  

Dave used to spend his workdays with big companies while he spent his nights and weekends working with startups. While corporations often looked at lean startups admiring their agility and startups looked at big companies admiring their influence and resources, at the end of the day, they were two sides of the same coin.

In Predicting the Turn, Dave talks about the high-stakes game of both disruptive startups and innovative big companies with the goal to teach his readers how to foresee the changing shifts in their industry. 

Dave wants us to realize that no one's going to know with certainty what's going to happen next. But we can start preparing ourselves by mapping out different scenarios of how things can go and comparing the probability of one thing over another. This can help us be prepared and put ourselves in the driver's seat. 

 

• Avoid Having a Kodak Lost Moment

 

During most of the 20th century, Kodak reigned in the photographic film industry. It was so dominant that its "Kodak moment" tagline entered the common lexicon to describe a personal event that deserved to be recorded for future generations (Source: Wikipedia). However, In 2012 and as a result of bankruptcy filing and restructuring, Kodak was forced to sell off a half-billion-dollar portfolio of patents covering digital photography and online photo applications to technology titans like Apple and Google (Source: WSJ).

Dave interprets a “Kodak moment” as being in control of where the industry and our business could go but losing this control because we’re not willing to give up what we have right now. This is what Kodak did with the rise of digital photography. In 1975, Steve Sasson invented the self-contained digital camera while working at Kodak. But when he presented it to the leadership team there, they dismissed it. One of the biggest reasons for that was because Kodak made a lot of money off the paper and printing of photographs. They forgot that they were in the business of sharing moments and not just physical photos. That was the essence of a Kodak moment. It was about capturing moments and sharing them. This is what we've all experienced with digital cameras. There are more photos taken today than there ever were when we were using physical photos. If Kodak had realized that, they would have been in a vastly different position than where they are today. They had that moment, but they just missed it in terms of where they could go and what would come out of it.

 

• Look at New Opportunities Separately 

 

The shift toward e-commerce is fueled in part by people’s need to save time. The overall convenience of e-commerce is probably why the number of global digital buyers is estimated to reach 2.14 billion in 2021 (Source: Oberlo.com). However, Dave believes that e-commerce is the best buying tool that has ever been created only if you know exactly what you're looking for. Then it’s just a matter of finding where it's sold, whether it’s on Amazon, eBay, or some other place. 

Dave believes that where e-commerce has fallen flat is in being a shopping tool. Shopping is an inherent human behavior. We love to explore, see and learn. That's why some people can get lost in a mall or grocery store for multiple hours. It’s to fill this need for discovery, by walking the aisles in the store and finding that thing we didn’t expect to find. 

What NatureBox and other subscription-based e-commerce brands did was that they made it easy for people to buy while fulfilling their need to explore. Buyers would receive their box at home and it would be filled with things they didn't even know they wanted but were curated and brought home to them. This is the same thing BarkBox did for pets and Birchbox did with beauty products. 

Dave believes that this is what the big companies got wrong. When they looked at a new business opportunity, they would ask whether or not it was a good business idea. They were thinking of it purely as a retail play. They would look at BarkBox and ask if BarkBox can beat PetSmart or look at Birchbox and wonder if it can beat Sephora. Dave thinks this was shortsighted because they didn’t realize it was actually part of their brand-building. It would create much more opportunity for them if they had embraced it instead of analyzing whether it was good or bad business. It was the model of subscription boxes that created room for companies like DoorDash. 

So often when big businesses look at a new emerging opportunity, it’s too small that it can't compete with their existing revenue streams. What they should do instead is step back and not compare. They should look at it as a separate business unit that doesn't even have to compete with existing units. It's “how do we seize this new opportunity?” Because if they don't, the emerging business is going to seize them and leapfrog them in many ways. 

 

• Understand That People Come First

 

Dave has lost a lot of money in many of the businesses he invested in. When he thinks about it, he finds one thing in common with all of these ventures. Almost every time it was that he was betting on the idea instead of betting on the person. It was looking at that idea and seeing the potential. And in those cases, Dave overlooked the question of, “Was this the right entrepreneur to be able to do that?” 

On the flip side, the businesses where Dave has been most successful were because of the tenacity of the entrepreneur. He could see that this person had something special. And oftentimes the thing they ended up building wasn't necessarily the thing he invested in. But the person didn't change and they were the ones driving and making it work. At the end of the day, business, even when it’s about dollars and cents, it's ultimately a people’s game. We’re betting on the people, whether they’re the people we hire, the vendors we work with, the partners we have, or the entrepreneurs we invest in. 

Leveraging Existing Technologies  

Dave believes the biggest business tectonic shift today is the rise of entrepreneurship. Historically, entrepreneurship has always had barriers such as the cost of starting a business. What's amazing today is the tools that have emerged that allow us to start a business in a space that we never could have done before. 

Today, we can create a Shopify, Etsy, or eBay store in a matter of hours. Only 10 years ago, to create an e-commerce site that could allow a third party to buy from us, get something shipped, and accept payment, it would take tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars and much more time. 

Now we have all these tools attainable for many people that make it easier to start as entrepreneurs. That’s why, over the last decade, a lot of new consumer brands have emerged because the barrier to entry is getting lower. Things like the ability to work with a contract manager, manufacturer to make a product, and the way to do fulfillment using third-party logistics have gotten much easier and less expensive than what they used to be.

The advice I would give for a new entrepreneur who can’t leverage the existing technologies and has some developer telling them they have to build from scratch, is they need to get a second opinion. If we have to build our business from scratch, we might reconsider our business model and find something where we can leverage existing technologies.

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Dave for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

 

1. In business, we’ll never know with certainty what's going to happen next. But we can start preparing ourselves and map out different ways and scenarios of how things can go. 
2. Big companies should look at emerging business opportunities as separate business units that don't have to compete with existing businesses. 
3. Instead of building from scratch, always try to leverage existing technologies to build our business. It generally saves time and money. 
4. When we’re looking to invest in a new business, it’s important to not just focus on the idea, but also on the people who are going to execute that idea. 

 

Connect with Dave

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Dave or connect with him, you can find him on LinkedIn or visit his website at PredictingTheTurn.com or his company’s website at NaturesWillowBalm.com. You can also find his book on Amazon. 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

Share Your Story 

What’s the biggest turn or tectonic shift you’ve seen in your career? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

 

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/119-how-to-predict-the-turn-so-we-can-leverage-tectonic-shifts/ 

In the last episode, we discussed how Chris was able to ride the waves of tectonic shifts to leverage success. In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss the six characteristics of trust agents Chris wrote about in his Trust Agents book.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/117-6-strategies-to-become-a-trust-agent/

Trust has become so crucial in today’s market. It is heavily tied to credibility. If someone doesn’t trust us, they won’t find us credible, and they often won’t choose our product or services over another, more credible product or service. In Chris Brogan’s book, Trust Agents, he explains that we need to become trust agents within our businesses if we want to find success. 

 

In the last episode, we discussed how Chris was able to ride the waves of tectonic shifts to leverage success. In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss the six characteristics of trust agents Chris wrote about in his Trust Agents book.

 

 

• Make Our Own Game

 

 

We need to pick a category that we are the best at and stick with it. It’s all about positioning ourselves with a specific target audience. 

 

“You can't be the best Gary Vaynerchuk because there already is one,” Chris said. “You shouldn't try to be the next best Gary Vaynerchuk either. So instead, you pick some new category where you are absolutely the best.”

 

Part of building a successful business is finding what makes us unique. We have to find that niche audience we can serve and provide value to. As we build our group, we will build more trust within our target audience. 

 

Studies have shown that we are more likely to trust others who are members of our own social group compared to outsiders. While this may seem obvious, the same applies to groups in general. We are also more likely to trust people in a randomly assigned small group compared to a random person outside of the group (Source: Harvard Business review). 

 

As we choose our own category, build a niche group, and make our own game, our customers will be more likely to trust us. 

 

 

• One of Us

 

 

People are more willing to trust someone they are similar to (Source: Harvard Business Review). 

 

We should always be looking for the connection between ourselves and the customer. We need to pay attention to what makes us similar. 

 

When I asked Chris to share his best monetization strategy, he said the more personalized we can be with our customers, the better. 

 

Other than communicating directly with our customers, we can also use data to become more personalized in the best way possible. Our goal should be to make our customer’s life easier, and we can do this by understanding their wants and needs. 

 

“In a world where everything is so broken apart, he who has the best data that drives to a very personalized approach of what a human does is going to do a lot better than everybody else,” Chris said. 

 

 

• The Archimedes Effect

 

 

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” - Archimedes 

 

It’s all about leverage. “Basically, you figure out where you can make some kind of change, and if I can push on that, I can change the world,” Chris said. “What you’re looking for is, ‘Can I do something once that’s so impactful that I don’t have to do it multitudes of times?’”

 

If we can recognize tectonic shifts as they are happening and leverage them to our favor, we can often leapfrog competitors and drive growth and monetization.

 

 

• Networking 

 

 

Networking is one of the most underrated parts of the business.  

 

Chris explained that the only reason networking is underrated is that it’s done so poorly. People go to an event just to hand out their business cards to anyone they see. We shouldn't try and connect with everyone in the room. We should only be linking with potential customers—those who would find value in our service or products. If we are more selective with who we go out of our way to offer our product to, people will be more likely to trust us, compared to someone who is out there offering their product to everyone they see. They will trust that we have value we can offer them personally. 

 

“If I don't connect [to] you on LinkedIn, it's probably because I don't have anything I think I need to sell you,” Chris said. 

 

 

• Human Artist

 

 

We need to focus on building human relationships. 

 

“A human artist is the art of human interaction. . . How we act with other people matters so much more professionally than we ever give it credit for. There is a monetary difference to what you do or don't do in those situations,” Chris said. 

 

Chris had heard an expression called a moment of truth. A moment of truth is any time a guest comes in contact with any aspect of our world and receives an impression. We need to make sure that in each moment of truth, we are leaving a good impression on our customers. After each interaction with us, they should feel like we value them, even more than their purchase. 

 

As we work with people that have more money and success, it's interesting how money becomes less of a priority to them, and time becomes the primary decision-making factor. We need to make sure our customers know that we value their time, just as much as they do. 

 

“We always treat money as if it's finite, and we treat time as if it's infinite. It’s the other way around,” Chris explained. “If you manage and master time a little bit better if you treat people as if their time is important if you treat people as if they're important, money comes to you so much faster than that other methodology where you think money is the goal.”

 

How we interact with our customers will leave a lasting impression. Many people say their best memories of Chris are that he made them feel good and prioritized. We need to do the same. 

 

 

• Build an Army 

 

 

We can get a lot further along if we can get more people to become a part of the process and give them the tools they need to do their part. We can’t successfully build a business on our own. We need others. 

 

Not only can we benefit from the knowledge, ideas, and skills of others, but people will also trust us more if they see we have loyal friends. As we connect with more and more people, we will gain their trust faster.

 

“People tend to trust who their friends trust, and that extends to brands. Living in an uncertain world with a persistent barrage of conflicting messages, consumers find it necessary to rely on reviews from friends and other connections.” (Source: Consumer Affairs)

 

As we build our army, we will build the trust of our audience. 

 

Key Takeaways

 

Thank you so much Chris for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

 

1. We must become trust agents for our potential customers. 
2. We can build trust by making “our own game”, focusing on a niche where we can be the best in the world. 
3. People are more willing to trust others who are similar to them. We should make our customers feel like we are like them. 
4. We can leverage tectonic shifts to leapfrog competitors. 
5. Networking can be an essential part of successful business growth. We should focus on networking to those to whom we think we can offer value.
6. We need to become “human artists” and focus on building relationships as our masterpieces. 
7. We need to build an army of people to help us be far more successful than we can be on our own. We can’t do it all ourselves.

 

Connect with Chris

 

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Chris, connect with him on his LinkedIn, or his website, chrisbrogan.com. You can also find his books on Amazon and watch his video podcast on YouTube.  

 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

 

Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

 

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

 

Share Your Story 

 

How do you build trust with your customers? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

 

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/117-6-strategies-to-become-a-trust-agent/ 

Today, I am joined by digital marketing icon Chris Brogan. Chris is a New York Times best-selling author of nine books, including Trust Agents. He's also the host of The Backpack Show and CEO of Owner Media Group, which sells online training and skill upgrades in the form of webinars and courses. 

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/116-how-to-ride-the-waves-of-tectonic-shifts/

Today, I am joined by digital marketing icon Chris Brogan. Chris is a New York Times best-selling author of nine books, including Trust Agents. He's also the host of The Backpack Show and CEO of Owner Media Group, which sells online training and skill upgrades in the form of webinars and courses. 

 

Chris has spoken for or consulted with companies such as Disney, Google, GM, Sony, Coke, and Microsoft. He's part of Tony Robbins’ internet Money Master series, and StatSocial ranked Chris as the number three power influencer. Forbes listed Chris as one of the Must Follow Marketing Minds, and his website is one of the 100 best websites for entrepreneurs. 

 

In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss how Chris has leveraged the waves of tectonic shifts to achieve success.

 

Learning to Ride the Wave

 

Chris Brogan wasn't born a successful entrepreneur. He worked at a telecom company and when he saw opportunities, he seized them. He rode the wave of those opportunities to become who he is today.

 

During the time Chris worked at a telecom company, he constantly read about the business world, learning about unique ideas that weren’t really being applied. This created the desire to start his own business so he could implement the great ideas he was reading about. 

 

He eventually launched his own blog, but nobody really cared. It took him years just to get his first 100 readers. A few years later, he started his own podcast, but again, nobody really cared. So, he decided to start an event with a friend. 

 

On the second day of the event, he met Jeff Pulver, a millionaire, who had just run a conference on video on the internet. Jeff offered to take Chris out and suggested they run a conference together. After that, he immediately started working with major brands with Jeff, and jumped into another company about a year later since, at that time, they were just a bit too early for the video trend. 

 

Chris eventually started running part of a consultancy where he worked with things like digital and new social media platforms such as Twitter and rode the wave from there. In time, people started asking questions about how the new media applied to their business, and that’s how Chris started working with big companies such as Google and Microsoft. 

 

“It was all the same kinds of questions like, ‘What do we do with this stuff? Is Twitter worth it?’” Chris said. “I was able to show [them] where there might be a little bit of magic.”

 

In 2009, Chris started the first company that he ran 100% himself. Since then, he has run five or six different iterations of a corporation. 

 

Part of being a successful entrepreneur is about timing and riding those waves of opportunity. When Chris started his own blog and podcast, it wasn’t immediately successful because the timing wasn’t right. The blog and podcast tectonic shifts hadn’t happened yet. Now, blogs and podcasts are extremely important and essential, but it wasn’t the same way 20 years ago. 

 

“I was early on a bunch of those waves,” Chris said. “[But beyond] being early to the pile, what I've been so willing to do over and over and over again is fail, be wrong, look stupid. And I get there faster because of it.”

 

Chris’s blog failed. His podcast failed. He left his work with Jeff on internet video after a year because the wave wasn’t quite there yet. But every time, he didn’t let failure stop him. He got back up and looked for the next opportunity, and jumped back into opportunities when the time was right.

 

“I got to everything faster than a lot of other people just by being willing to fail in front of everybody and be willing to try new ways. I think that's what separates me from all the people who came up in my spaces. They were still trying really hard to preserve their reputation. And I built my reputation around falling right down a hole in front of you, and just showing you what comes next,” Chris explained. 

 

He made his career by riding the waves to shore as tectonic shifts happened. Below are three current tectonic shifts Chris has successfully adapted to. 

 

1. Being Human

 

Being human and more personalized in our businesses is crucial to success. This is especially important now as the pandemic has increased the need for human connection. 

 

“The minute someone feels like you're not there to help them when they're having a rough time, that's a problem. So make your support system a lot more human and connectable. Second off, as you're selling anything, beyond just features and benefits, make it easy to reach a person. Make it easy to be able to ask those questions you might have,” Chris explained. 

 

When I asked Chris about one thing he is passionate about, he said it is helping companies no matter what size. We have to ask ourselves, “How can we be more human even at a distance? How do we bring a bit more humanity into what we do?”

 

Our businesses need to be about connecting with people. Companies have such a great opportunity to reach out and be human, but we blow it so many times because we’re too focused on making a profit. The minute someone feels like we aren’t there to help them, they are going to leave. To be successful, we really need to make our support a lot more human. 

 

1. Influencer Marketing

 

One of the biggest tectonic shifts that the business world is dealing with today is credibility marketing. It used to be 20 years ago that businesses would buy a whole bunch of advertising, and then use that reach to tell the world how awesome they were. And it often worked. To a great extent it worked. But today, if businesses do that, it doesn't work so well. People don't trust what businesses say about themselves anymore. This means businesses have to find much more credible ways to communicate with their potential customers.

 

This is why credibility marketing has become such an important tectonic shift today. Businesses are shifting more and more to credibility marketing in many different ways, such as through influencer marketing, reviews marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, and client testimonial videos. 

 

When implementing influencer marketing, the first thing we need to do is find the right influencer to work with. 

 

As I mentioned earlier, StatSocial ranked Chris as the number three power influencer. But this doesn’t mean he’s the right influencer for everybody. Chris shared a story in which a company asked him to promote a paper shredder. So, he made a video for them. He didn’t have any paper in his house, so he shredded the manual and said, “I don’t know what else I should show you because it just ate the manual.” The humor was good for him, but the company never sent him another paper shredder. And why? Because Chris wasn’t the right, credible person to promote their product. 

 

Just because someone has a massive following, doesn’t mean they’re the right person to talk about our product. We need to find someone whose following is largely our target audience. We also need to find an influencer who likes and uses our product, and who is credible to talk about the product. 

 

“If you're going to look for influencers, it will be so much better if we do it the other way around. Who's talking lovingly about my product?” Chris said. 

 

As we search for the right influencer for us, we can search for people who already use our product. That way they will be much more credible to our audience. 

 

A good example of this is when Chris reached out to Johnsonville Sausage. During the summer, he had started to talk about their sausage in his videos just because he loved it so much. He ended up reaching out to the company and doing a sponsored video for them. This video actually mattered since he was able to influence his audience. 

 

1. The Age of Distraction 

 

We live in an age of distraction. There are thousands of different good things constantly competing for the time and attention of our potential customers. Our phones get notifications throughout the day from so many different people. We get so many text messages, email notifications, app reminders, updates, etc. we could live in our little notification bar on our phones. 

 

“If the notification screen is the battlefield, and if all of a sudden every single website is like, ‘Please can we send you notifications?’ . . . how is a lowly old email going to get into somebody?” Chris said. These are the questions we have to be asking ourselves and trying to answer.

 

We need to pay attention to the market and where our specific audience is going. “In a world where we're not willing to sit still for an ad, you've got to put some really interesting information in front of us, for us to sit still enough to want to consume it,” Chris said. 

 

It is a competition for every second of our consumer’s attention. We need to make sure we are creative and cut directly to the chase. We need to show consumers how we can help them achieve the things that matter most to them. 

 

“Instead of attention and distraction being the big challenge, it's more, “Can I find the person that I hope to serve in some way?’ And that's what we do. That's the goal. If you're going to try to be influential in some way, that's how you're going to learn,” Chris said. 

 

Key Takeaways

 

Thank you so much Chris for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

 

1. We need to ride the “waves” of tectonic shifts.
2. We need to be more human and personalized in our businesses.
3. People don't trust what businesses say about themselves anymore. This means we have to find much more credible sources, such as influencers, to promote our products.
4. Just because someone has a massive following, doesn’t mean they’re the right person to talk about our product. We need to find an influencer whose following is our target audience. 
5. We live in an age of distraction. We have to constantly fight for the time of our customers. In order to capture their attention, we need to show them what value we offer as fast as possible. 

 

Connect with Chris

 

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Chris, connect with him on his LinkedIn, or his website, chrisbrogan.com. You can also find his books on Amazon and watch his video podcast on YouTube.  

 

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Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/116-how-to-ride-the-waves-of-tectonic-shifts/ 

This is Entrepreneurs of Faith, a Sunday episode of Monetization Nation. I’m Nathan Gwilliam, your host. In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss the parable of the talents and four investment lessons we can learn from it. 

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/115-4-investment-secrets-from-the-parable-of-the-talents/

This is Entrepreneurs of Faith, a Sunday episode of Monetization Nation. I’m Nathan Gwilliam, your host. In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss the parable of the talents and four investment lessons we can learn from it. 

 

The Parable of the Talents

 

In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus Christ shared a parable with his disciples. In the story, a man was traveling to a faraway country, so he called his servants before he left and gave them talents, which was a form of money at the time. To the first one, he gave five talents. To the second, he gave two talents, and finally, to the third man, he gave one talent. Then the man went on his way. 

 

The first servant with five talents went and traded his talents so he gained five more, doubling his initial capital. The second servant traded until he gained two talents, also doubling his initial capital. Finally, the third servant went and buried his talent into the earth so he wouldn’t lose it. 

 

After a long time, the servants' master returned. When he did, the first servant brought his five extra talents with him and the second servant brought his two extra talents. The Lord responded to them both by saying, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” (KJV Matthew 25:20)

 

Then, the third servant came and told his master that he was afraid and so he hid his talent in the earth and didn’t do anything good with it. When his master learned this, he said, “Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.” (KJV Matthew 25:26-27) The master then took the servant’s one talent and gave it to his first servant with 10 talents.

 

From this parable, we can learn two lessons: one about money and the other about our talents and gifts from God. We can apply both lessons to our businesses. 

 

A talent in the time of Christ was a unit of money. In the parable, the servants who invested and traded their talents both doubled the amount they had originally. The one who hoarded his money gained nothing. As entrepreneurs, we can learn the principle of investment. God wants us to be smart about our money management and learn how to invest.  

 

We can also interpret the parable as if the master was giving his servants talents in the way we define the word today. God gives each individual unique gifts and talents and he expects us to use them to do good. As entrepreneurs, we can use our skills and abilities to bless the lives of others. As we share our talents, we will be blessed with more. 

 

Investments 

 

In the parable, the servants who invested their money doubled what they had originally been given while the one who hid his money or rather “deposited it into a safe deposit box” gained nothing. As entrepreneurs, we can learn that God rewards those who take what they have to accomplish good things. This even includes gaining more wealth. 

 

In our ventures, one way we can increase our monetary value is by taking a capital risk. In the parable, the master’s investment strategy is similar to many business owners today. 

There are four principles of good investing we can apply from the parable of the talents. 

 

 

• Invest in a Company We Know and Like

 

 

We should only invest in a company we know and like. 

 

The Institute of Faith, Work, and Economics explained that in the parable, the master demonstrates trust in his servants. He must have been familiar with his servants' track records and trusted them accordingly. He selected three servants and weighed them according to their abilities, so he gave 62.5% of his money to the lead manager, 25% to the second, and 12.5% to the third (Source: Institute of Faith, Work, and Economics). We need to make sure we are making smart investments. 

 

Being smart about our investment requires us to do research. We should never invest in a company we know nothing about. Peter Lynch, an American investor and philanthropist said, “An important key to investing is to remember stocks are not lottery tickets.” I think this is a powerful statement. Investing is not about luck. It is not about throwing our money into a company and hoping for the best. Investing requires research. 

 

Benjamin Graham is one of the most famous investors. He is universally recognized as the father of two fundamental investment disciplines—security analysis and value investing. Whenever he invested in a company, he searched for those with strong balance sheets, those with little debt, above-average profit margins, and large cash flow (Source: Investopedia).

 

Just as the master in the parable and Benjamin Graham, we need to become familiar with the track records of the companies we invest in. If we do this, we minimize the risk we need to take to invest. 

 

 

• Diversify Our Investments 

 

 

We should diversify our investments. The master in the parable did not invest all of his money in one servant, he split it up between the three servants. 

 

Successful entrepreneurs should take time and consideration into choosing how to invest their money. And they should invest their money in different places. One example of a great investor is Gary Vaynerchuk, an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and internet personality with a net worth of about $160 million. Vaynerchuk was an early investor in Twitter, Tumblr, Uber, and Snap, and his VaynerRSE investment portfolio currently lists about 80 companies (Source: CNBC). 

 

When CNBC asked him what his secret was, he explained we need to not only know and like the company we invest in, but we also should invest in multiple companies. He said, “You may pick the wrong company, and this is why you want to diversify.” (Source: CNBC)

 

 

• Take Risks

 

 

The parable of the talents also recognizes that making an investment requires some risk. The third servant who buried his one talent because he was afraid of losing it gained nothing. Without any risk, there will be no return.

 

Benjamin Graham said, “Successful investing is about managing risk, not avoiding it.” We have to understand that we can’t be successful investors without the courage to take a leap and trust in a company enough to invest in them. However, with that, there are ways to reduce risk. This includes doing our research, knowing the company, and diversifying our investments as I said above. Risk comes from not knowing what we are doing, but if we do the right research, we can minimize our risk and feel confident in our investment decisions. 

 

 

• Be Patient 

 

 

At the end of the day, good investing comes down to being patient. We won’t make a lot of money short-term. Investing is all about long-term success. 

 

In the parable, it says the master who gave his talents was traveling to a “far country.” It also says he returned “after a long time.” We shouldn’t expect to gain an immediate return on investment (ROI). We need to wait and know that investing requires patience. 

 

However, this doesn’t just mean investing in a company and then leaving it there for years without checking on it. We need to make sure we review our investments after certain periods of time. Just as the master in the parable came back to see how his servants were doing, we should check in on our investments to make sure we are making the most of them. 

 

“Investment is an asset or an item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate in the future.” (Source: Investment Brothers)

 

Use Our Talents

 

The second lesson we can take from the parable of the talents is to take the gifts God has given us and use them for good. God has given each of us our own unique talents we can use to serve others. Once we discover what our gifts are, we can use them to help our customers and team members. 

 

While God may not give everyone equal gifts, He doesn’t compare us to others. He compares us to ourselves. In the parable, the master rewarded both the first and second servants equally. While the first servant made more money or developed more talents than the second servant, they both did the same with what they were given. They each doubled what they had, and both were made rulers over many things and entered into the joy of the Lord.

 

In Matthew 25:15 it says, “And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several abilities. . .” The master gave talents according to each servant’s ability. He never expected the servant with one talent to come back with more than the servant who had been given five. God knows our different abilities. He knows our strengths and weaknesses. We will be rewarded according to what we do with what we have, not according to how we do compare to others. 

 

However, if we hide our talents, and don’t share them with others, God will take them away. In Matthew, it says, “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him, that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.”

 

Milton Hershey is a great example of using our unique talents to serve others. Hershey was an American chocolatier and businessman. He pioneered the manufacture of caramel with fresh milk. He also developed a unique recipe for chocolate with his apprenticeships and started a caramel company that sold for $1 million in 1900 (Source: Business Collective). He then moved on to found the chocolate company Hershey, a company that now has a net worth of about $35 billion (Source: MacroTrends). With each of the abilities God gives us, we can use it to find success in our businesses. As we share our talents with others, we will be blessed. 

 

God expects us to work hard at improving what we have been given. On our entrepreneurial journey, we need to work hard and use our God-given gifts wisely. As we do this and help others to the best of our ability, God will bless us. 

 

Key Takeaways

 

Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

 

1. We learn that we should only invest in a company we know and like. 
2. We should diversify our investments. 
3. Successful investing is about managing risk, not avoiding it.
4. At the end of the day, good investing comes down to being patient and setting our expectations for long-term success. 
5. God has given each of us our own unique talents we can use to serve others. As we use our talents to help others, we will be rewarded with additional gifts. 
6. If we hide our talents away, God will take them away from us.
7. God knows our different abilities. He knows our strengths and weaknesses. We will be rewarded according to what we do with what we have been given, not according to how we compare to others. 

 

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Share Your Story 

How do you determine what investments to make? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

 

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/115-4-investment-secrets-from-the-parable-of-the-talents/ 

Over three years, Jason Barbato introduced, developed, and scaled a growth hacking program that generated more than $40 million of annual recurring revenue. This program became strategic and standard for more than 60 product teams. It's been recognized by the growth industry experts as best in class and enterprise level. 

Today, we're going to focus on how to use growth hacking to monetize a business. 

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/114-how-to-use-growth-hacking-to-monetize-a-business/