Our 4th Episode of our new Google Hangouts On Air leading up to the big Las Vegas event on January 4-6, 2014. If you are interested in this Hangout – then you will certainly be one who would love to come on out to Vegas to join in the conference at the beginning of the New Year! It’s still not too late to sign up and all that pertinent NMX 2014 registration info is right here.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtF2Lft1UE0&feature=share[/youtube]
CoachDeb Cole – our wonderful host, as always – initiated a variety of conversation topics ranging from sword swallowing to creating a great bottom 3rd in a Google Hangout. From the moment CoachDeb greats the panel and audience with, “Aloha,” this (as she put it) ‘manly’ crew was genuinely as entertaining as they were informative. Generally focused on blogging and how to monetize your blog (Yes – you can do it!), the guests offered their expert opinions from both a passionate and entrepreneur view.
Antonio Centeno of Real Men Real Style kicked off the Hangout by explaining the differences between a well-dressed and not so well-dressed man. Style, style, style – he mostly broadcasts his overview by creating videos geared towards the masculine contingent.
Roderick Russell – who has been featured on the Discovery Channel, CNN & NPR followed up with a rundown of his upcoming NMX appearance – the focus will be on how to effect people with your amazing brand – and possibly a taste of sword swallowing.
Mitch Wilson started out his blogging career by Googling how to do it! He plans at NMX to influence and build confidence in others that they can do it successfully too. One view of his Sports Chat Place conveys the top tier he has taken with his initial endeavor! His blog got picked up by FOX – and that catapulted his blogging into the end zone. He knows the expectations of his audience and sets the bar high for himself.
Interact with your Blogging Peers and/or Idols
CoachDeb prompted the audience to interact with the speakers now and at NMX – ask questions, brain pick, share ideas and knowledge.
Roderick concurred that some of the best moments at NMX were the enlightened hallway conversations. He also advised the audience about Hangouts and how he figured out creating a great custom overlay to use as his lower 3rd.
In a flurry of ideas similar to a blinding patch of swirling snow, Ian Cleary, founder of Razor Social talked about some cool tools and apps to incorporate in your blogging lifestyle, and Mitch was clear that he likes to stick with the basics for his following. Roderick inspired the audience on how your content can be making money for you even while you sleep! Do your thing that you love to do – and earn your living that way. Mitch shared that he started initially with just $10 – this year his expenses alone was over 200K, and his business was profitable.
Revolution is in the Air!
Deb at one point jumped in to exclaim that video blogging is the future of TV! There is a transition going on – a revolution! And that sparked another round of interaction.
All this activity must have pushed the Google Hangout to max out – because the Hangout video feed got stuck for a few minutes just on Antonio’s face – so we can see his expressions as he thoughtfully listened to the other participants, and interjected his additional thoughts.
You’ve Got See This One for Yourself… On the Video!!!
And then, as a prerequisite to the grand finale, Russell did a trick! It was amazing, incredible and mind boggling – but we are certainly NOT going to tell you here what it was – YOU’LL HAVE TO WATCH THE VIDEO FOR YOURSELF!!!!
Blogging, Content, Website & Marketing Final Tips
CoachDeb tops off what she referred to as the ‘manly man show’ with some soliciting of final panel top level (secret) tips. Roderick said to stop selling and be real! Mitch states #1 to make a website that everyone wants to bookmark – and if you can do that, you’re following will skyrocket. Antonio expressed that you should find your old voice, have a thick skin, and be persistent. Ian stressed the need to consistently produce content of value.
CoachDeb wraps it all up with a big thanks to the participants and all the viewers.
Remember: It’s not too late to attend NMX to see Roderick, Mitch, Antonio, and Ian live in Vegas. NMX 2014 registration info is right here.
Persuasion, Sports & Sword Swallowing Transcript
Deb: Aloha! It’s Coach Deb from the NMX hangout and this is going to be the Hangout to beat. It is going to be epic. There will be some interesting things happening. I won’t tell you what yet you’re going to have to tune in and watch but, we have world-famous experts that will be speaking at NMX live in January. We have Ian Cleary all the way in from Ireland. We have Roderick Russell from Maine otherwise known as a sword swallower, some interesting things may happen. We also heard Antonio Centeno who is a former Marine which I will tell you a little bit about and some other things that he’s doing to help people that were in the military and transitioning to civilian life and then we have Mitch Wilson who’s been on many different shows in sports. He’s got millions of people tuning in and he started with just ten dollars and a blog so it’s going to be pretty exciting. Let’s see who we should start with.. Let’s start with the person who I think traveled the farthest to get to this thing out which would be Ian Cleary. Tell us a little bit about yourself Ian. You’re also a traveler guy. I met you in Dublin just a few months ago for the travel bloggers exchange. Tell us a little bit about yourself and you’re the tool guy so I think this is going to be the manly man show because he got tools, we’ve got marines and style, we have sword swallowing and we have sports so I don’t think you can get more manly than this particular show. Tell us about yourself Ian.
Ian: Absolutely, it is a manly show. I am based in Dublin and will be going to Vegas in a couple weeks. I’m really looking forward to it and, yeah, I’m the tool guy so I spent all my time both on social media tools and technology. I have a geek jumper at home. Should I wear the geek jumper in Vegas?
Deb: Yes, absolutely.
Ian: Okay, I will.
Deb: Will you be bringing a tool box as well?
Ian: Yeah, a helmet, a toolbox all of that. I need to know how to dress properly though. Should I wear a helmet? I am confused now about my dress. I need to get some advice from Antonio.
Deb: Ok yes. Well let’s introduce Antonio. What you do is really pretty cool. I checked it out and I also want to talk a little bit about the company that you founded with John Lee Dumas, The High Speed Low Drag. So tell us a little bit about you Real Men Real Style and the company that you founded
Antonio: I am a former Marine that left in 2003 after the invasion of Iraq and I got into business, went to business school, l got out and realized that these really smart people we’re not dressing well and believe it or not military men we’ve always cared about how we dress and the attitude out there that a well-dressed man is somehow less manly and that couldn’t be farther from the case. You go back to the Roman Legionnaires, you look at gladiators before they would go out in on combat, I mean they would be paying attention to everything that they wore. It was important so I try to bring a bit of modern masculinity make it cool for guys. I focus on science, I focus on military history, and I try to make it so the guys can use style to get what they want out of life. Video has been my main vehicle for doing this the last couple of years and that’s when we’ll be talking about mainly at New Media Expo. And then when Rick found out that John Lee Dumas and I had come together.. John Lee Dumas is a former Army Officer we started talking about how a lot of military guys get out and they just don’t have a clue of how much skill they have and what they can do in this world. We want to blow peoples mind, especially, military guys coming out that they can do anything. Speaking of that I think this might be a great transition over to you being able to do anything possibly Roderick and he’s got remarkably human a guy I met you Media Expo last year and I really love what he’s doing over there.
Deb: So take it away Roderick. This is perfect transition guys. I can just leave, I’m done. It’s funny too, Antonio, that you mention you met him at NMX. I was introduced to him by Rich Brooks and he was so excited because he was in his VIP suite with a bunch of other speakers and podcasters and he was like: Oh my god! This dude actually swallowed a sword right in front of me. It was real! It wasn’t a trick! He was super excited and so, of course, we had to invite him to perform for all the attendees at NMX this year. Super excited to have you Roderick. You are certainly a remarkable human man. Tell us a little bit about what you do other than swallowing swords because there is a little more than that isn’t there?
Roderick: Yes and thank you Antonio for that wonderful transition and introduction. I am in fact a sword swallower and I am also a mind reader. I use applied psychology to get inside people’s heads and creating the allusion that I am reading their minds. I had a great time at NMX last year and what I do is run this site called remarkablyhuman.com and I also perform stage shows where I get inside people’s heads and help them doing amazing things and I create these wonderful moments of amazements that help empower people. At NMX specifically, I am really excited about this, am taking all my experience from the stage which is all about getting inside people heads. I am creating this message on how to infect fans, infect them with your contagious brand and using the experience that I have on the stage and applying it to social media to help get the word out and inspire your brand.
Deb: Very, very cool. Do you think that maybe we could get you to perform some little trick right here on the show?
Roderick: Yeah, I think you can. I am prepared to do a little something. I am actually running to do a show right after this so I do have my things in the office. We can do that now or we can wait until later.
Deb: Yeah, I think we should wait until later. We should have them hanging. We should have a commercial break or something right about now.
Ian: I forgot to bring my sword you know. Normally I have it with me. I just forgot to bring it.
Deb: Ian, it actually looks like you have a bow and arrow behind you so you are cool and you can be on the show. I don’t think you tell people what it really is. You have them guess.
Ian: Here we have bow and arrows. We need them, you know.
Deb: Absolutely, that’s what we believe in America for sure. So Mitch tell us a little bit about the sports chat that you created. It’s kind of big isn’t it?
Mitch: It is certainly getting there. It is an exciting place to be that’s for sure and I got to say that I am thankful didn’t swallow that sword just yet. It is hard enough.. It is a pretty tough act to follow to begin with but really what I have done with Sport Shop.. I was just some guy walking home from work after a bad day and typed into Google: How do I start a blog? People told me I should start one and I had three visitors my first month and shortly thereafter it started to grow. Now it is at two sites and combined is closing in on over two million visitors a month with tens of millions of page views and I deal with some of the largest advertising agencies out there. We have our own app. I have all kind of stuff going on. This thing is, the way that I have done it, is anyone who has a blog and is willing to make the effort to do it.. At NMX I am really excited to share is everybody and anybody that has a blog who wants to turn it into a business and a business.. I don’t like to talk about money but we do really well. I can show you how and I’ll tell you what, if you want to do it you can do it and I will teach you how.
Deb: I think that’s the most exciting thing and I just learned about a story. It was people getting involved in blogging in new media in a very different way and it is getting bigger. So I think that’s what I’m most excited about this year is that it started out as being new media revolution right, then it was the social media revolution, and now it is going to be the media revolution. So you start with just the blog and people and people are still wondering does it really work. There are still people that ask if it really works and you got picked up by Fox. Huge people came and you brought a huge amount of traffic to your site then you learn how to leverage that but all you did was blog. Ten dollars, you then start with the blog and that’s it. You just talk on the blog about the things that you are passionate about. What made you start this particular blog?
Mitch: I used to write an email, like a joke email, to some my friends on college football games. The things that I would say about the games they weren’t even really about the game. They’d be like you know ran into this guy on the street the other day and he said this and by the way take Notre Dame or something like that. They said that I really should start a blog with this thing and I waited around and I didn’t do anything with it for quite some time and then just happen to have a bad day at work I was walking home from the office and I said, you know what, I am going to start that blog thing that everyone has been talking about and that’s really what I did. I think a lot of it had been presented and it was a tremendous opportunity and tremendous partnerships that I have developed over the year. Really I’ve been able to take the money that I have earned from those partnerships and leverage other things to help grow the site and business. A lot of it is sticking with it. Even though I write about sports and I love sports, if you could see that wall over there I have five TVs on my living room wall, and I you know, I watch every game that there is. Yeah, it’s still going to work some days but the beauty is that I love sports, the guys I work with love sports, and it keeps us going sometimes when not you know maybe if I was doing something else I might not have been able to stick with it. I think a lot of
Ian: When did you start Mitch? How long have you been doing it for?
Mitch: I typed into Google how do I start a blog on July 1, 2008.
Roderick: I just love that story Mitch because it is so empowered. You literally just typed in how to start a blog and you didn’t have this huge infrastructure around it and you didn’t have major sponsors at the time. You just went how do I start a blog and you did it. That’s the big key to success: just take action. Most people think about it but don’t ever do it and you didn’t do that. You asked how and then you went after it and it shows success to everyone and everything. Everyone looks at all the moving pieces and arts and there are but if you just start the world of new media is completely wide open. There is nothing stopping you.
Mitch: I think so and I think what we’re going to hear from some other people about how leveraging things and you have to stick with them. Not to say I’m going to put up a video, and I’d like to hear from Antonio about this, it’s like you don’t just put up a video and say well this video is good for the next year. You need to continue with fresh videos and more of them because your audience they want more from you and they expect more from you. When they don’t get more from you, you know what they do? They stop coming back and I think, Antonio, you can tell people a thing or two about this.
Antonio: I completely agree and Deb said something that I really latched onto and that’s a lot of people think it’s too late or ask: does this really work. It’s funny, I was up at the University of Texas and I am a judge on the Venture Lab Investment Competition. It is really prestigious and there are really smart people from Mackensie Consulting and Baine, all these high-end companies. I was sitting next to a judge who is comfortable making three hundred thousand dollars a year consulting and when I told her what I did.. She’s making this money but she told me she hates her job honestly and she just couldn’t believe that you could make.. That I could make just as much money as she does and love what I am doing with unlimited potential. This is a smart woman. I think she went to Yale and University of Texas for her master’s degree and she is asking me: Well, isn’t everything online still kind of sleazy and dirty. Really smart people believe this so if you have the courage to actually go out there and just do it you are going to beat smart people because you have the courage and they are afraid or they don’t have the thick skins to get out there and hammered on.
Deb: Hammered. It’s a different connotation.
Mitch: I am with you there. You can definitely take a beating out there from the public. Not everyone is so nice and what you find and I am sure everyone here has experiences, is that for all those that negative comments, yes their hurt the most and they’re the ones that you know seem to resonate the most, but for all that when you see the millions of visiting your website and I know Antonio has had seven million people visiting his website and looking at his videos it’s easy to ignore those three hateful comments when you’re at the bank cashing those checks every month. He’s walking around in his sandals and everyone else is wearing suits that they probably took his advice to buy or something and Antonio is on his way to the beach.
Antonio: Exactly.
Deb: It looks like there’s a little bit of a Japanese delay here right now. The subtitles, um, I don’t know if I am just seeing it on my end of the broadcast but hopefully that’ll fix itself but there’s something interesting things that Google Hangouts. I have a question first to the audience and then I want to ask Roderick: How do you get that fancy bottom? Everyone’s been doing lower thirds but you came on and it’s your first hangout and you create a very fancy overlay so if you want to share a little bit about how you did that so that people who are watching can learn. Then, I just want to speak to everyone watching now live to go ahead and tweet this out. Create a facebook update so that other people, your friends, can watch this. We’ve got some killer content that we are sharing, awesome speakers, and we have a little bit of a show that we might be able to from Roderick. Maybe we can get him to eat fire for us or something cool. Maybe not a sword but something cool to tell your friends about it and get them to tune in. If you want to interact with the speakers this is what the hangout is all about. There is a Q&A section in the Google hangout so go ahead and put your question in for either all the speakers or if you have a question for one specific speaker. How did they do it? How did they get the courage to go out? What are they doing? Are they blogging? Are they in video? What do you want to ask the speakers? This is why they are here. Very often people go to conferences and all you do is see the talking heads. You never really get to interact. However, at NMX is very much an unconference where the speakers are there not only to present but to interact with one another. What you are participating in right now is what happens in the hallways at NMX in January in Vegas on the Expo floor, on the trade show floor, at different networking parties in the evening. This is what you are experience so this is your chance to ask them any questions that you have about blogging, podcasting, WebTV. What is it that they did? Roderick, why don’t you teach us a little tip for people who want to hold Google Hangouts. How can they get that fancy overlay?
Antonio: Yeah sure but let me actually speak to something you just mention first because you had mention that this is what happens in the hallways of NMX and I cannot second that enough. It’s absolutely true and it is so valuable. I saw some great sessions last year and I am looking forward to a lot of great sessions this year too. Some of the most amazing work, most amazing sharing and thinking happened in the halls. I spent a long time in some of the restaurants with Antonio just having wonderful conversation and I just didn’t want them to end. This is absolutely part of the value of NMX. You can’t go wrong with it. In terms of Google Hangout, this is actually my first official Google Hangout. I think I did a couple just with friends for a mastermind a couple months ago just to see what it was like but this is my first official Google Hangout out. When I logged on I followed a little instructional video on how to create my lower thirds which is what you see down there. This involves adding the hangout toolbox which is pretty simple. You can find an instructional video on that I am sure. When I looked at that banner I thought there’s got to be something better. I am with Antonio, when you are presenting to someone, even if it is casual, you want to put your best face forward. You don’t have to put on your best suit all the time but you want to be well groomed and carry yourself well. I wanted something better so I did some digging around online and, sure enough, there’s a custom overlay app and instead of having a lower third you can add a custom overlay which is which is literally just an image. I opened up Photoshop and I created a blank document that was 640 by 360 pixels, the size that Google recommends. I created a transparent PNG file which is what you see at the bottom here with all my marketing and contact information and I then just clicked the custom button to turned it on right there in Google hangout and wahla there it is.
Deb: Very cool. Very cool. So now I am going to Ian our tool and tech guy. What are some cool tips that you can share with listeners right now that they can use? What do you share with clients? Maybe an app that you can share?
Ian: Yeah, I was going to share a few tools. I came across a few weeks ago a pretty neat tool for great graphics and it’s called Canva. C A N V A. It is just coming out of beta and it’s an Australian company and it’s great for graphics without the need for a graphic artist. I am not that great in graphics and I produce great stuff. You know we need content for our facebook page and it is all drag-and-drop with a whole selection of images. That one I definitely recommend. Another one which I really like is and if you want to monitor what people are saying about you or your company or what your competitors are saying to get some idea for content brand24.net is a really neat app. There’s a whole selection of tools and you’ll have a whole basket of tools to go through.
Roderick: You can also do a job with the NSA actually.
Ian: Pardon?
Roderick: You can also get a job at the NSA if you want to hear what people are saying.
Deb: So Mitch do you have anything, a go to tool or a tip, that you can share with us?
Mitch: We kind of stick with the basics. We just write a lot of content because that is what the readers want. At sports chat we do about 1600 articles a month and at our other site we do about 900. I do two daily podcasts, two daily videos at least and we keep cranking and cranking and cranking and sometimes people listen. I just think that a lot of the time, you know, when we use tools like this we try and reach out to people so that we can make money with because I love sports and I love what everyone talks about with the things I do but this is my job and I do this to make money so I have to concentrate on that first and foremost. I have responsibilities so the guys I work with are, that work with me (I never say they work for me, the work with me) I have to do the best I can do for my audience because they are the ones that are delivering this stuff for me. Sometimes, instead of doing some blog posts and things I want to do I will call one of the ad agencies and just say out of the blue: How can we make more money together? It is amazing once you start getting up to that five or six hundred thousand visitor number because your number doesn’t go to voicemail anymore. We are always interest in how we can make more money and that’s important and that’s come things I am going to teach you guys how to do it. I am really excited to share it.
Deb: So you can actually make money blogging? Is that what you’re saying?
Mitch: You could make a few bucks here and there. So Antonio what about a tip that you can share with us?
Antonio: I’d say after listening to Mitch here is a tip: go to his presentation. I think that’s one of the things I loved about going to NMX. I already bought a ticket, I didn’t know I was going to be a speaker yet, so I got to give it away to a friend who said he could not afford it and I said here’s your ticket you just got to get your butt here and he’s driving. I love all the different views from everyone at New Media Expo. It is more than the money. It is about comradery and we all just want to go out there and in our own unique way and make a dent in the universe. Mitch, I didn’t even know who he was before talking on this but instantly what he’s talking about, he’s talking about a whole different way of monetizing and going over the numbers and I am looking at what he’s doing and thinking that something that I really need to do. So many times we think that we need to do everything ourselves and that we have figured it out. All you need to do is build a network of remarkable peple is you and learn from them and genuinely form friendships and you can really go far. Many people would probably be amazed about Mitch saying he launched his blog in 2008. I am not amazed because actually in internet time.. You know it’s like dog years. It was actually like thirty years ago. I look at what he’s doing and go say wow, anybody can be here. He’s come up before but John Lee Dumas within a year is up to six figures a month and it is very doable.
Deb: We actually just got two questions coming in. Lisa Malcom asks: Are these tools free?
Ian: So Canva, there is a free part to Canva where a lot of the images are free and then there’s a paid version where you pay a dollar per image. If you want an additional image they have a directory of over a million images at a dollar an image and you can use the image once. Most of the time I use the free images. That’s Canva. The other monitoring tool is a paid for tool but it quite low price. It is less than ten dollars starting price. That’s a paid tool.
Deb: We also have some famous people watching our hangout. Marshall Sylver is a famous hypnotist. I’m sure Roderick that you guys know each other. We just got the thumbs up and he is all excited that you guys are starting to make money. That’s something that has been a controversy people have been talking about since the first blog world when New Media Expo was blog world and bloggers would get together. It was all about the purity of the content and not making money. Then, suddenly, people started making money off blogging. Everyone here started out with a blog or started out with a brand that you then got online. You start a blog and somehow it translates some money. If all you guys could talk a little bit about that. Marshall Sylver we are hopefully having as one of our surprise speakers that is yet to be announced so maybe this is a pre announcement on this NMX Hangout but we may be talking about how he sold over 200 million in info products just doing it online. He does shows all over, hundreds and thousands of shows, but he also realized, and Roderick you can probably speak to this, that the only way someone as a performer can make is that they go and they perform and you get money for your time but now with New Media you can leverage that and make money while you’re sleeping and while you’re doing a show tonight. I know you’re about to run to a show right now Roderick but you can be making money online so if you want to talk a little bit about this controversial topic: blogging and making money. Go ahead Roderick and tell us.
Roderick: You are absolutely right. Being on stage is a great way to make to money. I make some very good money doing it but you are trading your time for money to make some very good money. I’ve been very lucky because I have been able to use new media and social media live in my performance. I don’t do any marketing; I don’t pick up the phone and call anyone. I just let everyone come to me. It is completely inbound and it is 100% because of social marketing and new media online. At the end of the end it stills comes down to reason. I am still trading my time because it all comes down to being on that stage. I am taking my entire history on stage and putting it into this new project, The Remarkable Human Project, or remarkablehuman.com. I am using all the tools I use on stage to create this infectious brand online and spread it around so that I can make money while I sleep and so it can run itself. Like Antonio, his videos are online and on YouTube and people are watching and he is making money while he sleeping and it’s pretty simple. It putting something up about you and giving people access to the content. However, you do not sit back but you keep at it like Mitch said and add constant content. It is completely disconnected from your time the things that making money. That’s what I am transition to myself and I am excited to chat with everyone here and at NMX about how to even improve that process.
Deb: So do you think we can get you to do some kind of mini trick or performance?
Roderick: Sure. Do you want to do that now?
Deb: Yeah. I am going to ask Antonio but maybe you can get quened up and prepared. Antonio I want to talk to you because Roderick was talking about transition and you said you do something with the Marines and people in the military in any branch that helps them transition and helps them set up. Tell us a little bit about that because I know there’s going to be a military truck that you’re helping facilitate at NMX Live in January and to those of you who are watching and just tuning in to Google Hangouts this is our casual informal chat with other speakers. You can follow the hashtag #NMXhangout and you will able to converse with other people on the hangout and you go in and ask questions right now. Go to NMXlive.com if you want to come up and participate with the New Media Expo in Vegas and meet the speakers and interact with them in January. So Antonio?
Antonio: Sure. So a few things, Deb, that I really want to quick touch on Deb. I wanted to tie up that money because I think that there is this really bad.. I mean we live in the United States. Well I am sorry Ian I know you are over in Ireland but I think you guys.. The idea of money being a really bad thing.. We look at Wall Street I think that’s people’s idea of money but somehow there’s this scarcity mindset that somehow there is a limited amount and if you too much you are obviously taking from some. There’s a guy named Rabbi Daniel Lapin and he wrote a book called “Though Shall Prosper” and it really affected me because he talks about how.. I mean I look at what I can do now that I have money verses.. I mean I am able to give money to my local library. There’s a local food bank down the road I can give money there and I mean look, I can that that resource and put it where I think it’s going to the best good. That’s what I love about this online business: it gives me the ability to very ethically help people and amass resources and then I can deploy these resources into a new company. It costs money. Right now, High Speed Low Drag has been around for a few months and John and I are both putting time and money into it but I wouldn’t be able to do this if Real Men Real Style was kicking off access funds and was making money. So you know that’s what I love about about this. Now High Speed Low Drag is going to be sponsoring the military track and one thing we’re going to do with the military track is that it’s not only going to be military people. The idea is to get people inspired by the military and to bring relevant content that will be open to everyone. John and I are going to talk about our experience and how things that we’ve learned and what we can teach for you to apply to improve your business and discipline and accountability and things like that.
Deb: I love that you mention that Mitch that it is not just a military track for people in the military. It’s for people to learn what you’re doing and then transfer and it’s about making money. I love the example that you shared because there’s so many things that we can do to leverage our time and get interested in the causes that we want and contribute to them with the money that we’re making online. Mitch I want to ask you what your track is for people to participate because I think yours is definitely a monetization focus. You can share that and then we can jump to Roderick for the trick he looks like he is preparing.
Mitch: I believe it is the last session on the last day and it is about how to take your blog to one hundred thousand visitors a month or week or something and take your income with it. I want to add to what Antonio said though because I feel he hit a few things spot on. The first thing is that I started my blog with ten dollars but my expenses last year were well over 250,000. I am not saying you need 250,000 dollars to run a website. I am not saying any of those things at all. I am just saying that last year those were my expenses last year and I am not even done yet. It changes lives. I have guys that work with me that changed their lives. I have a guy that I run another site with that changed his life and as Antonio said the coolest part is being able to help these people. It’s not like giving 25 bucks to your friend for some walk-a-thon. How cool is it when you can make an anonymous donation to your friends with the walk-a-thon for a grand. All of a sudden they are at their goals and they are excited and are going to raise more money from everyone else because they are motivated. It’s just infectious. It’s an amazing opportunity. It was something I never had before I was a blogger. I wanted to add that but my track is the last session of the last day. If you are hanging out on Monday that is my day so if you are going to NMX, which I hope you are going, don’t be afraid to search me out. I have never met any of these guys before and I am excited to do the hangout with them but I don’t know anyone there. Come over and say hi because I am going to be the guy standing by myself so be sure to say hi. My email is mitch@sportschatplace.com. If you have a blog that is growing and you want to learn how to take that next step to monetization send me an email and lets set up a meeting. Let’s grab some guacamole or something. Lets do it.
Deb: I am glad shared your contact information because Lisa Malcolm was asking what social networks are each of you using. Again, I am going to hold off Russell for another minute and keep people hanging on to their seats and let us learn from traditional media styles. If you guys can quickly say the name of your presentation and what your social network is where people can follow you, tweet you at your preferred social network. Antonio, let’s start with you. You are speaking on the first day aren’t you?
Antonio: I am. Day one in the afternoon I think around 2:30. Basically I am going to be talking about 200 videos on 200 days on a budget of two thousand dollars and I am going to talk about how I first got my YouTube channel launched and I’ll be talking about doing it on a shoestring budget and you want to use YouTube and why I choose to use it. I am really going to be talking about video with monetization a little bit. If anyone wants to learn about me the best place is YouTube but I am also on Twitter and Facebook.
Deb: Okay, awesome. Ian?
Ian: The best place I suppose among all the social channels but Twitter is the best place to get me. @iancleary. I A N C L E A R Y. We are going to be talking about a range of tools to help people keep their head above water. You need a strategy in place, a good strategy. If you don’t have a good strategy the tools aren’t going to help you at all but with the right strategy in place the tools will make you more effective and efficient. I will show that on the day.
Deb: And I don’t think people realize how funny Ian Cleary is. I saw him speak in Dublin and it was standing room only and he filled the hallway, the entire hallway in the room, in the front, around the walls, and then outside the door people were trying to record, with their cameras trying to film. He was funny and he shared like 22 tips, just banging them out as quickly as possible. It was very practical and people were laughing and they had so much fun. You did a phenomenal job at marketing people to your specific event. For a speaker to do that it’s a really important thing to do don’t you think.
Ian: I am Irish so I like talking to people so I will go around talking to everybody as much as possible but I also assume nobody’s going to turn up so I market the event as much as possible. It is better that it is packed rather than empty.
Deb: So Mitch, go ahead.
Mitch: I have a Twitter page that I have, well it’s all relative, a bunch of followers on but the really the best place to always reach me is by email at mitch@sportschat.com. I’m not one of those people that leaves that bulks their emails out at the end of the day. I normally get back to everybody super fast because it is how I like people to get back to me. That is easily the best place to reach me, do it the old-fashioned way. I have a Facebook page and all of that stuff but if you want me to answer you send me an email.
Deb: I actually do a radio show every week and the executive is always busting on me because he can’t always get me any other way except text or Facebook. He sends me a Facebook post and I get back to him very quickly because I think it’s just something that we are all on nonstop and we’re getting the notifications and it is just easy to interact with people. It’s interesting how people are changing our communication styles and it is interestubg to see how each of you have extended your media channels. You are not just blogging anymore. It has now extended into video blogging and it’s really the future of television. I don’t know if you saw the announcement but Ben Still just signed on with Maker Studios. He is going to be on his second series starting this year and it’s a comedy spoof on reality TV and he just signed on. Maker Studio is a YouTube partner and the executives of Maker Studio will actually be talking at NMX so if you guys will want to be in that session. He will be talking about the future of television and we’re really seeing this transition from Netflix and their original series so I want to encourage everyone who is listening and watching this hangout to start now. It is not too late to start your blog or your YouTube channel. It is so super easy to just get a camera and turning it on. What I’ve told people is your first video will be your worst video so get it over with. I am going to turn it over to Roderick. Can you what social networks you guys are on and then, as we wrap up guys, can just share a quick started tip for people to get started now, to encourage them because it is never too late. So, Roderick, you have a trick for us?
Roderick: So sure. So we are doing social media and how to contact us and then you want to see something fun huh?
Deb: Yes.
Roderick: I am on Twitter at @roderickrussell. I am on Facebook, very active on Facebook, pretty easy to find there. Just my name. I am at remarkablyhuman.com and my personal website for my stage shows is roderickrussell.com. What I will be talking about NMX.. The session title is called: Infectious and Surprising Psychology for Spreading Your Brand. It is actually going to be a performance talk so I will be demonstrating historically and now in new media how I captured people’s attention and how people got so hooked into my brand that they spread it themselves so that I don’t have to do any marketing. That’s what I will be talking about but I’ll be performing throughout the entire thing, it will be a performance, and I will be illustrating what I mean the entire time with interactive demonstrations of a mind reading variety. It should be fun and I hope everyone goes. Like Ian said, it is definitely better with more people so come along it promise it will be fun. So you guys wanted to see something so we prepared something before we went live. We weren’t sure how the camera was going to handle this so we tested the white balance and found that we have to turn on a little bit of music because we haven’t quite figured out the Google Hangout thing yet to ….
Deb: There is actually a quick update Roderick. You can still put the music on because I think it’s cool music but Joanna being the brilliant person that she is figured out how to control so that everyone will only see you.
Roderick: Awesome, awesome, awesome.
Deb: All eyes on you.
Roderick: We won’t worry about the music then. I am going to click myself on here too so I can see myself. So what I am going to do is a little demonstration of fire eating. This is something that I use to do historically and I still do it all the time in my shows. I use to do a lot of stunts that got a lot of attention because I thought that was the way to get people to your show and keep people interested. Certainly there is still some value to that but if you don’t have to message to back it up you are just wasting everyone’s time. So this is just the stunt today because we have limited time and space but it’s going to be a lot of fun but definitely come to the talk though because I will give it a lot of great meaning.
Deb: Now before you do it just tilt your camera down a little bit so that we can see more of you.
Roderick: I actually dropped my chair down because I am going to throw my head back.
Deb: Got it! Don’t listen to me. You just do your thing.
Roderick: I have been doing this for something like fifteen years now and it never gets easier.
(trick)
Mitch: Whoa!
Deb: I am going to applaud. Google Hangout applauds. We need to queue up applause music.
Ian: How can we beat that?
Deb: You guys are on the NMX Hangout to beat! I don’t think anyone can beat you guys. It is definitely the manly man show. What were you going to say Roderick?
Roderick: I was going to say you can beat that by providing value because everyone always misses that. The whole Idea of going viral, it is great to get attention but you got to add something that grabs attention and adds value. If you don’t provide that value you will lose your audience. So how you beat them is by adding audience.
Deb: That is awesome advice. So final tips because I know you have to get to a show Roderick and perform. So we will start with you in case you need to jump off and go. And then we will go through the other three men that are on and I think I call up the women because we want some women on the show too.
Roderick: So my final tips is I see so many people being active in new media and online social networks always trying to sell their products, sell themselves, sell their brand and my tip its – Stop selling. Be a person, be a real person because that is how you connect with people and that is how you spread your brand by making people feel by being human just like them. Change your marketing message from being one of business to being one of personal.
Deb: I love it and we will head to Mitch next but if you watching this live and want to see Roderick in person and meet him, see him.. You will not just being eating fire, you will be swallowing a sword?
Roderick: I will be swallowing a sword and reading some minds.
Deb: Reading minds sweet. I will cover my mind. Don’t read mine now. Go ahead and sign up. Go to NMXlive.com and you’ll see the other speakers. We have over 200 speakers and awesome keynotes and sessions. You can see it is not just a conference. There is a lot of activity that we haven’t even announced yet that’s coming soon. Go ahead and register now before prices go up and let’s go to Mitch for your final tip.
Mitch: Number one, first, we are going to throw down the challenge to the women out there at NMX. We want to see the all women hangout to see how good they can do. So they can see how second place really looks. My one tip for everyone is going to be: One of the biggest mistakes I think people make as bloggers is that they are so busy trying to get indexed in the search engines, are so busy trying to get their name out there, trying to be found. Why don’t you make your website one that when people find you they say: Hey, I want to bookmark this and I want to come back every single day. There you have built your audience base and now, automatically, have built in visitors and now you are growing your audience on top of that every single day. You start off as two.. in my case you start off as three and then it became four, five, six, and before you know it became a million. It is not such a bad light and that’s the number one thing I can leave people with today but at NMX I got a lot of stuff for you guys. I hope I can pack it into my forty-five minutes. I know Rick was a little worried I won’t be able to but I am going to do the best I can.
Deb: Well the cool thing about that is they can after interact and engage with you and we will also be doing virtual sessions that attendees will get access to when they get their virtual tickets. Maybe whatever you can’t cover their Mitch will expand on your virtual session.
Mitch: Absolutely, I don’t get to talk about this stuff very often. Most of the time what my audience wants to hear, my advertisers want to hear, and my ad agencies want to hear is me talking about sports and we spend all of our time doing that. We don’t try and be the media experts or anything like this. I am going this because I really want to give back to the community, the blogging community and the media community thanks for the life that I have been given which is a gift.
Deb: and we are going to hold Ian Cleary to the end because you traveled the furthest for our hangout. So Antonio?
Ian: I only traveled from the.. Go on, Antonio?
Deb: No, what was that Ian?
Ian: I only traveled from the sit room next door.
Deb: From the sit room. I love that. You are going to have to give us some colloquiums you shared in Dublin.
Ian: Absolutely.
Antonio: So if I were to give my little bit of advice. It’s okay to be afraid. It is okay to be scared. Just get out there and take massive action. Just do it. If you have value, and I think every person does. If you have value to give find your voice and just get out there and do it. I think I mentioned getting hammered but what I think I meant by that is, you know, you have to have a little bit of thick skin. It’s it not as bad as you think and it’s going to be those hundreds and some day thousands of thank yous that is going to make it all worth it and the dollars don’t hurt either.
Deb: Awesome. Ian?
Ian: Well me, from the blogging side, I find consistency is one of the most important things. You have to be consistently producing content. You can’t switch it on and switch off. Every single week you must be producing and whether you say it’s one post a week or hundreds of posts a week. Whatever it is be consistently producing. It does pay off and your audience grows all the time. Once you are producing value it keeps on growing and growing.
Deb: Love it. Well thank you gentlemen for coming and taking forty minutes of your busy lives to come and hangout with us. Those of you who are joining in you can follow all of them on Twitter. Tweet at their handles and let other people who if you are attending. Again, use #nmxhangout to track everybody talking about this hangout because this will go live on YouTube. A lot of people watch this after the live show as well so you can participate and follow that hashtag. Otherwise, if you are thinking about joining NMX, the largest New Media Expo in the world happening in Vegas, January 4th through January 6th and then the IAWTV Award’s Show that is going to be the Academy of Web Television. That show is going to be happening January 7th so be sure to stay the day after for that evening. So, thanks for hanging out with us and I will see all of you guys on Twitter. Aloha!
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